Frieda Oxenham: Alpha Stamps garden variety swap!

We are all very lucky my good friend who lives in Scotland, Frieda Oxenham, is participating in this swap! I just received her package today and everything is simply top-notch!! Frieda created 4 postcards and 2 ATCs (1 a hostess gift) that are a combination of paper (card stock) and fabric-paper, one of my favorite things that she creates. You can read more about these postcards and all about Frieda’s fabric paper collages here . . . .  and if you are interested, you can read about my fabric paper collages here – I learned how to make them from Frieda : ^ ) Here is what she made for the garden variety swap, so yummy!


thank you, frieda!!

Ammi Rostin: Alpha Stamps garden variety swap!

Ammi Rostin from California is the very first, out of 45 participants (yikes!!) to send in her swap pieces. Ammi sent in 4 postcards and 1 ATC for our "garden variety" theme. She used the Alpha Stamps Seed Catalog ATC collage sheet (paper) and a lovely selection of paper flowers, which can all be found on this page.

Thank you, Ammi!! Your envelope is the first of many wonderful envelopes I look forward to receiving. Details of the swap can be found here! 

700 post give-away winner(s)!

Today was the day to choose a winner for my 700 post milestone celebration on creative swaps!

I took everyone's names -some were entered twice for "following" my blog, so there were a lot of names, over 40. I folded the entries up and placed them in my husband's favorite hat. I reached in, mixed them up and . . . 

pulled one out while he took a photo!

 the winner of the drawing is . . . . .

"Ecobatt" - Carmen Maria Hirkala! 

 Carmen Marie's was the last comment I received this morning before doing the drawing. I really did mix them all up, so I thought it was rather interesting that she won! When she entered Carmen wrote to me, "Hi Lenna, I'm new to the stamping/art journaling world, but I'm so excited to try a swap out and really learn from seeing other people's work! I would very much like to win a creative swap registration with you-it's a great way to celebrate your 700th post I think :)" Well now you get to try a swap, Carmen Marie -how cool is that? Congratulations! It was so much fun to choose someone for this prize, guess what? I decided to choose a runner up who would win the same prize -giving 2 free swap registrations away.

I picked Jan Korzenaskie!

Congratulations also to Jan Korazenaskie!

Both of you now have free registration to any current creative swap or one announced within the next 3 months (through September). Just email me and tell me what you'd like to join, that you won the 700 post giveaway, and I will send you all the details. ; ^ ) happy day!

Tag Books assembled

I have swapped all the tags and assembled the books! click photo for detail.

There were 24 total tag books -everyone completed the swap!

I really like how they came out, I hope you do too.

MY tag book was the biggest one of all! I participated and swapped
8 or 9 tags plus many of the participants made an extra tag for me.
Not required, but so lovely, thank  you!!!

I will work on packaging these up (another job entirely!) and plan to send them out to participants on Monday, after my family has left. In the meantime, don't forget your chance to win a FREE swap registration! Go the the 700 posts give-away post on this blog & leave a comment! : ) have a great weekend . . . .

700 posts? Yes! A give-away!

I just realized my last post here marked 700 posts for me on the creative swaps blog - WOW! I'd like to do something to celebrate, so anyone who comments on this post and includes some way for me to contact you will have the chance to win free registration to one of my creative swaps during the next 3 months : ^ )

Edit June 25th: This drawing has closed! Congratulations to Carmen Marie Hirkala and Jan Korzenaskie!
Here is what to do: #1. Make a comment saying you'd like to win this prize - and why, if you like. #2. Please make sure that a). You know I already have your email or b). you give me your email in the comment (typing it out like: lenna at creativelenna dot com is fine) or c). I can contact you through your blog -your email is on your profile page. If there is no way to contact you I am sorry I cannot include you in the draw! #3. If you "follow" the creative swaps blog with Google Friend Connect (see the sidebar) please tell me within your comment and as a bonus, you will have 2 chances to win. How does that sound?
I'll make the draw Friday morning June 25th 10am EST. (Done!) Remember comments are moderated so you won't find your comment published until I approve it. Good Luck, I hope you enjoy this contest and thanks for being here through all those posts!
p.s. Our offer on the house was accepted! But, there is still paperwork to look at and a title search to do . . . but it looks good! There were 4 multiple offers and ours stood out above the rest, phew!

Tag Book progress!

Just a note to let those of you in the Tag Book swap know . . . I have mapped out the actual swapping part on paper and it looks like it will work out just fine, phew! If you receive someone's tag in your book, they most likely have one of yours; I like to try to "trade" swap pieces based on my sense of what you both might like. It is a highly scientific process -not! 
I simply need to concentrate a bit while doing the figuring out so I can remember and note on paper when I have swapped a piece so we end up with the right numbers. I am kind of used to this process now after 8 or 9 years of hosting, but it's always a challenge. For me, once I have the swaps mapped out on paper, it is not so overwhelming to physically swap them out! I put together the first Tag Book late last night as I was excited to see what it looked like. I will tease you with a photo of it on top of my swapping out lists:

This will give you an idea of what your tag book will look like . . . because I do not believe any of the tag books have the same tags in them! They will all be different. The top tag is the cover tag I made myself for all of the books and they are all a little different too. The little round tag is an extra I made for all the books, just for fun, reminding you to never forget to PLAY!

As I think I have mentioned, my oldest son Decklin, his girlfriend Tina, my sister Kathy and my nephew Dale are all flying in today from Connecticut and Massachusetts. So I will be busy with them, but during down time I will be wanting to get back into my studio and put your Tag Books together. This is more fun than I even imagined, seeing them take shape! My goal is to get the books made and packaged up to send by the end of the week, but I will keep you posted . . . . Steven and I also find out later today we hope, if the offer we made to purchase a home very near my parents, is accepted or not!! We are renting a house right now some 15 minutes from them, which is not bad, but I have been scouring the housing market down here in my free time for something better : ) Both Steven and I do love this house, so fingers crossed they accept our offer. I will be back by the end of the week and in the meantime, check out the Garden Variety Postcard (and 1 ATC!) swap. This new swap is sponsored by Alpha Stamps and already very popular with 28 participants as of this morning . . . so sign up soon if you are interested!

Tag Book Swap: Lenna Andrews, Florida

in my flurry of getting the last swaps uploaded, I forgot to show you more of my own tags I made for this swap - as I am participating in this swap too!

I definitely want my own tag book with lots of gorgeous tags, so I made sure I created enough to swap. I had made a few at the beginning of the swap as samples, but there were not quite enough until now!

Tag Book swap . . . .

All of the tags from the 24 participants are in my hands, hooray!!
I am working on finishing the covers for everyone's books before I swap the tags. Here is the inside cover of the tag book, so far:

Hmmm, a little messy fun I had there -- but good for a "colorful words" tag book don't you think? I am going to do my best to work on swapping these out SOoN, as my son Decklin, his girlfriend Tina, my sister Kathy and my nephew Dale are all coming to visit for a few days this week! We pick them up at the airport on Wednesday and they are here until Sunday evening. So, I will see if I can make the best of the next couple of days as far as swapping the tags and creating the books. I will keep you posted!

Do not forget there is a new creative swap just announced that is quite popular already - the Alpha Stamps garden variety Postcard swap. Just click on that link to read the details and use the "Buy Now" button in the side bar of the creative swaps blog to register. I will limit it to around 40 participants-it is already 1/2 full. 7/4/10: This swap is FULL with 50 participants. The link for the items at Alpha Stamps that go with the swap is active now and oh so inspiring! You must use an Alpha Stamps collage sheet or rubber stamp image for the swap and everyone receives a gift. Hope to see you sign up! I will be back later with an update on the tag books... EVERYONE who signed up completed their swaps, awesome!! 

 :  ) lenna

Tag Book Swap: Cynthia Zdanzukas, Connecticut

From my old home state of Connecticut, here are Cynthia's beautiful tags. Cynthia used to take classes with me!

absolutely gorgeous!

Tag Book Swap: Vicky Martindale, Michigan

Gosh, I am running out of good descriptive words for all these wonderful tags! Here are Vicky Martindale's beauties:

Tag Book Swap: Yvette Snowden, Maryland

Such lovely tags and such variety! This is Yvette's first creative swap, although she has already signed up for the garden variety postcard swap : ) Welcome, Yvette! It is so nice to have you join us. Beautiful tags!

Tag Book Swap: Vickie Trancho, New York

Vickie Trancho was one of the instigators of this swap . . . I think it was Sharon Walworth who gave me the idea of a Tag Swap and Vickie who was hoping it would be paired with words! Vickie's tags are hand drawn, inspired by a favorite poem and include many of the verses.

Thank you, Vickie, I love the look of your tags!