Trish Busby - prayer flag swap!

From Trish in MO we have 4 prayer flags that were delivered inside mail art! Thank you so much for the extra flag you enclosed for me.

Trish has written about making her flags HERE and also here! Thanks for joining in again Trish. I love your "Toadily Handmade" stamp and thanks a lot for the mail art too. This is Trish's 3rd creative swap! 

Siri Opdal -prayer flag swap!

Siri's flags come all the way from Norway. She has hand stitched and beaded each and every one! Below is the back of one of Siri's flags along with a fabric swatch she made for me . . .

And here are the fronts of her 3 flags -- plus one back!

Thank you, Siri! Such beautiful stitching and fabric -what a colorful addition to any string of prayer flags ; 0 ) This is Siri's 8th creative swap with me!! To see all of her wonderful fabric art, follow this link!

Joanne Balaz -prayer flag swap!

From Joanne Balaz in New York we have 3 creative prayer flags made with love and healing wishes. She enclosed a card with each flag sharing how it was made, which I will include here.

Joanne also enclosed a sweet package of ephemera, thank you! 

I am so glad you could join us! 

Vicki Page - prayer flag swap!

These prayer flags are from Vicki Page in Wisconsin who has done a dozen Creative Swaps with me -so talented! So glad to have you participating again Vickie. I would say no worries -You are definitely getting back into your creative groove!

Below shows how Vicki did the back with a plain lining -very beautiful! 

Vickie made an extra Prayer Flag for me which is so very lovely. It will be a hard choice! 

Vickie traced the images onto fabric and then colored and heat set. 

The beads and bells are fantastic! 

Thank  you so much, Vickie. 

I will be back tomorrow with more luscious prayer flags . . . 

Nancy Roberts flags can be found in the next post! 

Nancy Roberts -Prayer Flag Swap!

Wow! We are back from our trip to Canada/wolfe island and there are 7 swap packages that
arrived while we were away. If you are wondering if your package has arrived, please check the list here. I use it to mark off the received packages as they come in.

First up, we have 3 really wonderful prayer flags from Nancy Roberts in Florida. Nancy is a fabulous quilter who has participated in many creative swaps with me. Here is what I received from her:

I love the one below made with sheer fabric and ribbons . . .

Below, I love how Nancy used paper beads, perhaps from our previous swap? I used some paper beads on one of my flags too! Click on any photo for greater detail.

Then Nancy was so kind and enclosed a bag of goodies for me! I love little inspiring bits like this from someone else's stash, perhaps leftovers of what they have been working on . . . thank you! I scanned the goodie bag on top of an interesting magazine picture she enclosed . . . Nancy said it made her think of the studio photos I've shared of my work desk. So great! It is sure to be put to good use.

Nancy has written about making prayer flags in 2 separate posts, here: More prayer flags: Somebody stop me! and also here: Prayer Flag Practice. Give her a visit! Thanks again, Nancy ; 0)

Jan Smith - prayer flag swap!

All the way from Essex, UK I have received Jan Smith's prayer flags for the swap early, yay! Jan is so kind. She created 3 for the swap and included an extra prayer flag just for me as a hostess gift. This is not necessary, but I appreciate her gesture very much. Jan has written about her prayer flags on her blog -check it out! Since we are leaving tomorrow on holiday, I have copied Jan's individual photos from her blog because my time for blogging is limited. Thanks, Jan! Here they are . . . I will have trouble choosing one for me!

If you are participating it is fine to send your flags while I am gone, the mail will be picked up! It will be safe until I return. All flags are due in my hands September 15th. 

This swap is closed to registration with 40 participants!!!!!!

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf. 

  ~ Rabindranath Tagore.

update: prayer flag swap

There are 40 participants signed up for the prayer flag swap and Registration has CLOSED. I'm traveling during the month of August and we'll have limited internet access so I have decided to close the registration and wrap up the paper work before I go. Thanks so much for your response. Forty participants is really fantastic - I am so pleased!!

I'm very happy with our participant list too - go check out who I will be receiving from! I've already received 3 different and wonderful sets of 3 prayer flags. See them listed below this post or on the blog if you are receiving this as a feed. All swaps are due September 15th and all prayer flags will be showcased here on the blog. For more information about the prayer flag swap, click HERE!

prayer flags by Marnie, Leslie S and Frieda

Frieda Oxenham -prayer flag swap

From my good friend Frieda in Scotland, we have 4 flags. She made three for the swap and an extra one for me! Thank you again. She wrote a post about them HERE. There are 2 more posts below this one so scroll down or visit this link on the blog to see all the flags!

 I'm going to choose this one below as my gift from Frieda, so generous!!

 and the backs look like this . .. . they will be blowing in the wind  : )

Thank you Frieda, love your artistry!

Leslie Sowden -prayer flag swap

From Leslie Sowden in California we have 3 prayer flags that are old-fashioned looking and so very pretty!  Leslie used things from the Thrift store and things from around her house. Get the full details here on her blogpost! 

 the backs . . . 

Love your beading Leslie, thanks so much for the leaf beads you sent. You know my tastes very well, I love them! I also really like the sprayed inks you used on your flags.

Go to Leslie's blog for more.

Marnie Blum -prayer flag swap

How exciting! We have three (sets of 3) prayer flags for our swap due Sept. 15th that are here! Let me start with Marnie Blum from North Carolina. She has made some gorgeous flags in a very creative way, by copying her art journal pages onto canvas. You can read more about her process on her blog. Here are her lovely flags . . . .

 I like how she packaged them, very nice! 

The dangles are so nice, I can imagine them in the wind . . . 

The backs . . . 

thanks so much, Marnie! 

Prayer Flag Swap

We have a fantastic group of - 40 - creative participants registered for the prayer flag swap, as of July 25th, 2012. Wow! It's so fantastic to have such great creative energy collected for this fun project due September 15th. Since I will only take up to 40 participants for this swap, registration has now closed. Scroll down for more info if are reading this on the blog, or follow this link for more details on the swap.

thanks so much! lenna 

New Swap - Prayer Flags!

Announcing Creative Swaps Prayer Flag Swap!

• Create THREE Prayer Flags in exchange for the same amount in return.
• All swap packages must be delivered to me no later than September 15, 2012.
• Late entries will be returned.

Prayer Flags . . . They sound quite religious don’t they? Well, they can be religious in nature. Historically they are rooted in Buddhism. Read more about the history of prayer flags and view some current wonderful samples from The Prayer Flag project, here.

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

I have found through my reading that you can make prayer flags yourself, embodying a looser interpretation of the word prayer, if you wish. Many artists are making prayer flags with this in mind these days, although often with many of the same original intentions. For this swap, I would expect each flag to have a word, a prayer, a wish or a hope associated with it.

My first prayer flag

For inspiration, view a lovely blog post, inspiring blog banner and a beautiful prayer flag by Kim Tedrow, here. I also love this prayer flag by Jane LaFazio - a thing with feathers!

What Size for the swap? We will be making three 5" x 8" prayer Flags for this swap. Lots of ideas and instructions are included in the 10 page document you will automatically receive via an email and a download link when registering for this swap. The $10 fee to register for this swap also includes return postage for your Prayer Flags to you anywhere, including international postage. All Flags will be posted on this blog, with credit to you, as they arrive in my mailbox. See our previous swaps for examples of this.

REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED 7/25/12. How to register: Go to the Registration page: http://creativeswaps.blogspot.com/p/registration.html - you will see the swap listed there. Click on the "Add to Cart" button, which will take you to a PayPal page. Note: You do not need a PayPal account to use this service. PayPal accepts all major credit and debit cards, eChecks and bank transfers. If you are unfamilar with PayPal and want to find out more about it, visit this page.

Registration is handled by e-junkie. You will receive your swap information as soon as your payment has cleared, at any time of the day, in any time-zone - no matter if I am at my computer or not! After registering you will receive an email from e-junkie to your pay pal associated address titled, "Prayer Flag Swap Purchase". This email will include a link for you to download my 10 page pdf file for this swap. Follow the instructions to download this file and then save the file on your computer (somewhere you will remember) or simply print the file out!! It will include the swap rules, where to send your prayer flags, any information, pertaining links and my lesson to get you started.

There will also be a second part to this swap! After all the prayer flags have been swapped and sent home, I will encourage the participants to snap a photo of their prayer flags hung up, so we can all enjoy seeing how they look. This string of flags will include the flags receieved in the swap along with any others the participant has made. Participants will take a photo, upload it to their own blog, website or photo site -someplace on the web with a link to that photo. I'll set up a Link Tool so participants can go to the creative swaps blog and leave the link. Then we can click on it and view your beautiful prayer flags, hanging in the breeze spreading their prayers and wishes!

Re-cap: Prayer Flag Swap
Make three 5x8 fabric mixed media prayer Flags for three in return.
* Delivered to me by September 15, 2012 *
$10 to register for the swap includes a lesson and return postage.
Registration is done via PayPal/Credit Card on the registration page of this blog. Note: Registration has closed. Hope to see you in the next swap! 
I reserve the right to close registration at anytime. If the participation grows too large, I may close the swap to new registration.
* Don't forget to come back here to enjoy each participant's prayer flags *

Thank you so much for your interest in creative swaps - 
Let's get creative and have some fun! 

This image below is from http://janelafazio.com/prayer-flag-project/.  Aren't Jane's flags so very beautiful and creative? It makes me want to go make some!!

by Jane LaFazio - http://janelafazio.com/prayer-flag-project/

Any questions, please email me here.