Oh, Hello Dear! A Whimsical Crafted Shrine

One of the things I'm very thankful for on Craftster.org is the Swap Angel system. I've been involved in 25 organized craft swaps since joining, and on occasion have had to receive an "angel package". For those sad times when someone just doesn't pull through and send you a crafted gift in return for the one you have sent, a volunteer will step in to create a package just for you. Depending on the angel's situation, there are different perks or rewards for fulfilling this task - reversing negative feedback or receiving a type of premium membership that gets you access to other areas of the forum.

One of the recent swaps I was involved with was the "Whimsical Shrine Swap". I had great fun turning a solar pathway light into a little fairy/nature shrine to send off to Lora of Cackle and Hoot. In return I received the loveliest shrine to birds, specifically native varieties that I have been looking for while bird-watching in my backyard.

Unfortunately, another member of the swap was flaked on. This was such a fun swap, and the crafter did such a nice job on the shrine she sent, so I volunteered to be her angel. I'm so excited about the resulting paper-crafted result! This shrine taught me some new crafting skills that will definitely be reappearing in the future. I sneaked in a few of my favorite things into the shrine also (cardinals, foxes, mushrooms).

 

 

 

A Well-Flowered Celebration

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I was involved in organizing a local group of crafters to make crafted flowers, garland, bouquets, and other decorations for one of my very dear friends wedding. We had less than a month and cranked out over a hundred flowers made with various materials and styles. It all came together beautifully, and I was so proud of what our little clique could do when we put our minds to it. I did the felt ones, other gals did ones from melted fabric, tulle, crocheted yarn, origami, and coffee filters. There were also some white ones that were originally from my wedding dress, but I had them taken off since the clashed with the lace, so they were more of a craft supply than something sentimental. It was still nice to contribute that though. I also provided the vintage suitcase and sign for the card box. The bouquet handle was made with a vintage wooden bobbin that someone wrapped in coordinating yarn.

 

 

 

We never got pictures of the finished bouquet before the night of the wedding, so the colors are weird from the church stage lights in these:

 The couple had am English Tea themed cake reception. I provided scones, too! The groom is a Brit, so I thought it was all quite appropriate and fun.