One of the things I like about Blog swaps is really really trying to think about what to get for someone, particularly when it inspires you to craft. I have always tried to make something for most swaps I do, though the pre-Christmas ones didn't really give me much time for this.
I do like to a proper thorough job on trying to find something for that person by reading the blog archives (that makes me sound scaaaary, but I'm trying to show the dilligence!) of the blogger in question. By that, I mean, really going through their archive to find what they really like. I did this with Janet, reading every wishlist she'd posted ever, looking at particular themes that arose.
In this case: books, words, lettering, maps, mustard, Peterpan collars, vintage fun, dresses were main themes that I noticed.
The first item I decided to make was a Scrabble Brooch. I'd seen a brooch on one of her wishlists, seen she'd recently starting wearing a brooch and I had been intending to make Scrabble brooches for a while with my Nan's Scrabble set. Having purchases some tiny brooch-backs a while ago, I just needed to use some strong all-purpose glue as I have not plucked up the courage to try my glue-gun yet (I am scared of them!). It wasn't particularly neatly done but from the front it was fine.
I had a small white box from a pair of earrings I'd bought so I decided to customise it. I know Janet likes book text crafted into other things, so I found these love heart confetti pieces I had picked up from my table at a friend's wedding last year (yes, I know that's a bit cheeky but like they were going to go round and rescue every bit of confetti after their wedding, they'd have just ended up in the bin) and stuck them to the lid with an edging sticker from my craft stash.
Pre-making this card, I'd picked up a 25p book in a charity-shop to use for craft purpose, making sure it wasn't something I'd love but you know what, I could not bring myself to rip out pages of the actual story, it just seemed sacrilege so luckily, it had a preview of the next book in the series at the back and so I ripped those out to use, thus meaning I didn't feel guilty.
Janet declared her love of peter-pan collars, so decided to use a circle punch, dress-shaped punch and edging punch to make this card. I'd love a dress like this. I wrote a rather long and rambly message inside explaining why I'd chosen the gifts. Was rather pleased with it.
Having seen Janet's liked to make craft items out of old music, I decided to use some music which had been destined for the dump at Music camp (the book I used for my Ivy Heart collage in the summer) and an envelope template to make her 5 envelopes out of them, added some gold ink to the edges and tied them up.
Since Janet showed that she liked map-items in various wishlists, I used an old 2002 atlas I'd saved when we were clearing out Grandad's house to make some larger sized map envelopes.
The next item was a bit of an afterthought. I spied a small decoupaged music heart (you can see it below in the 7th picture) I'd made in the summer and decided to try and make a coaster using decoupage technique for Janet, double-sided with book paper and maps. You can see the process below, which included trying to varnish it with PVA glue.
It looked ok though I wish I'd have avoided the yellow borders!
The other side, still from the preview chapter. I did varnish it with PVA. Not sure how durable or waterproof it is though, but we'll see...
The final hand-crafted item I made was a bookmark. I used the remainder of the turquoise card from the card and cut out yellow letters and shapes with some punches. Janet had featured a Hello Sunshine postcard on her mantelpiece and a bag in her wishlist so I figured she might like it for a bookmark since she is an ardent book reader. Luckily, I had some laminating of Music Vocabulary to do at school and the word cards are slightly smaller than A4 so I squeezed the bookmark in with them.
So that's almost the end of crafted items which I was quite pleased about though nervous of Janet's reaction because she is a neat crafter and I a scruffy one.
What about the other items?
I know Janet likes Crocheted Peter pan collars and I had picked up one or two when I visited Bruges, a place famed for its lace, (indeed, I sent one to my Blogger friend Lauren of Someonelikeyou) and had had it in my storebox for a long time, intending to give it to someone who'd loved such collars and would appreciate it so I was delighted to think of it for Janet.
Janet declared a love of mustard clothes recently and when I saw this bangle, it reminded me of the cable knit jumper she'd worn in a blog post.
Finally, Janet loves books. I stalked many blog book reviews in order to see if she'd come across Carola Dunn (whose books I love), and took a chance that she enjoyed Agatha Christie so might like this gentle Whodunnit!
The last task remained to wrap up the items. I decided to design some wrapping paper especially for Janet. I opened an A3 sized Publisher document found the opening quote from our mutual favourite book, I capture the castle and collaged this all over the page. I then cropped an image of Janet's own logo and superimposed it over the top at equal intervals and then, after printing, had some unique wrapping paper.
You can see the items wrapped up in their box (recycled Glitterati box so had a nice sparkly bow on it) ready to go. I accidently left out a roll of vintage ribbon I'd intended to send also,but never mind!
It was great fun trying to think of things that Janet would like, she really did make me get my act together and do some crafting, which I haven't done much of for ages,so I love it when a swap partner is the type of person to spark my creativity! Thank you Janet, and I'm so glad you liked your presents!
Linking up to:
Creative Mondays with Claire Justine
Brilliant Blog posts with Honest Mum
You're gonna love it Tuesday with Kathe with an e
