Christmas Craft Challenge - Day 13 & Christmas Challenge Swap

This posting is a bit of a "Two birds with one stone" deal. Firstly let me explain the Christmas Challenge Swap...

There are a group of us here in Auckland who are close Scrapbooking friends and who go to Scrap Camp three times a year and workshops and just hang out together. Earlier this year the topic came up about who got Scrapbooking items for presents, and all of us complained that we bitterly missed out because no one ever gave us any. And so the challenge came about...

The deal was each month we buy a small scrapbooking related present for the others based on an agreed list of item "topics" and if we wanted we could also buy something for ourselves. Although the gifts didn't have to be exactly alike similar items with different colour variations, for instance, was a great idea.

There was originally six of us - Carrie, Wendy, Glenna, Lisa, Tania & I but Lisa unfortunately had to pull out when they moved to Australia. And so there was five...

The list of items was:

• $5 item - free choice
  
• $2 Shop purchase
• $4 Hardware store purchase
• Handmade Item
• $5 bling
• Christmas Themed Item
• Stamp
• Stationery Item
• Storage Item

These were to be purchased one each month from March to November and then they were being swapped at the December workshop.


Needless to say we didn't all stick to the list and we didn't all purchase exactly by month, but it was a great guideline for the purchases. And it gave a lot of ideas to think about.


Yesterday we did the swap. Can I just say, that I felt like a kid again on Christmas Day? It was so much fun seeing what we got. Everyone opened a different present first so there were oohs and aahs circling the room like whirlpool. Everyone had bought different things, so there was just so much too look at and try to take in at once.


I for one am DEFINITELY keen to do this again next year. You don't need to spend a lot, only $5 MAX per month per person ($25 for us with 5 people if you bought for yourself as well), and spread throughout the year so you could pick up bargains as they were found.


Anyway here are the gift packs...
Carrie:

Wendy:

Glenna:

 

Tania:

Paula:

I made each person a tag for their box with the appropriate letter of their first name and as the handmade gift each lady received a charm bracelet - all of which were different. Mine included one of each of the charms from the other four bracelets as well as some others to complete it. These are also doubling up as my Christmas Craft Challenge for today as the individual letters could easily be tied onto a Christmas Tree as ornaments.

They are two layers or felt with a piece of cardstock sandwiched between them. They have been hand stitched with embroidery thread around the edges and then seed beads have been hand stitched on to embellish them.