Cat Dodt-Ellis: Bead Swap

Our 3rd entry for the bead swap is from my friend Cat Dodt-Ellis in Idaho. I must say as these beads come in I am more and more impressed with them! Beautiful, creative, imaginative . . . and so far, all beautifully packaged for this swap. Individually labelled as requested! Thank you all! With 21 of us participating, I am sure you will love your swap returns. A reminder: Due in my hands March 24. Now on to Cat's beads and packaging . . . Cat sent me this picture in advance . . . before she packaged them up!

Below, how she lovingly packaged them.

A close-up 

out of the package -

Beautiful!!

I was spoiled by Cat . . .  with mail art . . .

. . . and a necklace she made for me:

Under the glass is the image Cat used on a skinny page for me

Since she knew I loved this image

she sent the charm/necklace along with her beads.

Thank you ever so much.

Your beads are fantastic, so glad you are in this swap!

There are more detailed photos of Cat's bead on her flickr account.

enjoy!

#37.Cat Dodt-Ellis - Little Book Swap!

From Cat Dodt-Ellis in Idaho, we have 3 yummy little books - each in their own handmade envelope. Let me show you!

book 1

book 2

book 3

Cat is an online friend of mine who I have known for quite some time.

She also enclosed a special gift for me . . . 

She wrapped up a gift with one of her quilt squares, a piece of muslin, 

2 vintage linen handkerchiefs, a flower & some seam binding.

 These things were a gift in themselves, but inside was a book Cat picked out especially for me, objects of my affection, by sarah Lugg. This is a beautiful book filled with sarah's collages and paintings paired with poetry. Sarah is a British mixed media artist who became quite famous, received many commissions, licensed her work and is known especially for her beautiful Tag Art, much of which is in this book.

And you wondered if I would like it, Cat?! 

I love the gift you sent and spent time looking through it yesterday 

(our anniversary!). Thank you ever so much!!

xo lenna 

Cat Dodt-Ellis: Vintage note card swap!

From Idaho, beautiful cards and stamped envelopes by Cat Dodt-Ellis:

I love this card & envelope. Thank you so much Cat,
for making an extra card for me!!! xo

so soft and sweet! 

beautiful composition on this . . .

lovely, lovely vintage note cards! 

They are protected inside handmade wax paper envelopes!

Perfect! Cat put her email on the envelopes above. 

Cat's blog is called Catworx! If you click on that link it will take you right to her post with more info on these beautiful cards she made. She also wrote some very sweet things about my art swaps - thanks so much. Cat has been involved in art swaps of mine for many years -even the ones I ran before starting this blog dedicated to them. I will have to check my files sometime and see actually how many swaps I have run . . .  a lot I think! I obviously enjoy it.

I will try my best to keep up promptly with the remaining -maybe a dozen?- swaps I expect to receive by Feb 26th -final final day for receiving. I will make a note in the sidebar under 'Participants' when your packages arrive and upload them as as soon as I'm able. There are a number of things going on that are keeping me very busy now . . . number one is Artful pages - 4 artists 4 ways! This online class taught by 4 of us (me included) opens on Sunday, February 20th -in just a few days! If you've been thinking about it, I hope you can join us when the class opens. If not, please know you can join in later at anytime.

All my best, lenna

Cat Dodt-Ellis: Alpha Stamps garden variety swap!

Cat who lives in Idaho, sent in 4 gorgeous fabric postcards for our garden variety swap and 2 ATCs; 1 to trade and an extra one for me as a gift. So sweet! Click on any scan for more detail.

Thank you Cat! I love what you did for this swap. Find many of the items Cat used at Alpha Stamps -- she kindly emailed me and said, "Here are the details for my Garden Variety swap pieces. I created the postcards & ATC's using pieces of a vintage postage stamp quilt as the background (I thought that would be appropriate!). I used the following items from Alpha Stamps: Pink Roses, My Lady's Garden, Quite Contrary #2, & English Rose fabric sheets; German Scrap #7234; Nature Borders; Roses #1 & #2 sticker sheets; green velvet rickrack; & coral fairytale roses, baby pink fairytale roses, & mandarin cameo roses by Prima. I also used bits of lace, beads, gold fritters, & colored ground mica."

I love the fabric collage sheets Alpha Stamps carries. Cat made great use of them, don't you think?

Row House Swap: Cat Dodt-Ellis ~ Utah

From dear Cat in Utah, we have received 2 sets of 5 very charming "sweet confections" of houses! Cat writes:

"I created them using chipboard houses from Alpha Stamps, ArtChix transparencies, Art Institute glitter, Tim Holtz crackle paints, & assorted other bits & bobs!"

Thanks for making an extra house as a hostess gift and for continuing to participate in so many of my swaps, Cat! Click on any photo for a close up!

Fabric Bag Swap - Cat Dodt-Ellis, ID

Cat Dodt-Ellis from Idaho has sent in a beautiful felted bag that she knitted herself and then felted. Oh my goodness! When I got the idea to host a fabric bag swap it was a small pebble of an idea that I thought sounded good and had potential. All of the participants have really knoocked my socks off with the variety and artistic vision and ideas that everyone has shared. You have all risen to the challenge & made my pebble of an idea turn into a bunch of shiny, beautiful faceted stones!!

I hope you understand what I am trying to say . . . thank you all!

I thought it might be a little hard to see the nice big shape of Cat's felted bag, so I enlisted the help of my 2 five month old kittens, farfel & star. They thought Cat's bag was rather cozy and did not want to get out!!

Circle Book Swap - Cat Dodt-Ellis, ID

Here are Cat Dodt-Ellis' "grunge flower" color pages, as she calls them : ) Cat wrote to me: "They were such fun to make...what a great swap idea!!!"

Cat sent in 5 of each color you see - Thanks for participating and adding some grungy color to our swap! Very cool. I love how our books are turning out!

Garden ATC Swap - Cat Dodt Ellis, Idaho

Lots of fragrant poppies from Cat Dodt-Ellis in Idaho! I love how Cat did the backs of her ATCs . . . . .