Birdsong Two Swaps

So, everyone knows that when you attend an event, the one thing you don't want to miss out on is the swaps.  As a rookie event attender, I missed out because 1.  I didn't know what to expect and 2. I didn't feel like my creations would be good enough when compared to the others.  Let me tell you this - if you miss out once, you will *not* let that happen to you again!

So, last year when I attended Birdsong, I signed up for the Frilly Paper Bird swap. Click on the link if you want to check it out.  At first, I had creative block but once I made a decision on how I wanted my birds to look, I was thrilled with how they came out.  However, in the interest of time, I didn't participate in Beth's Journal Page swap nor the Matchbox swap and when I saw those amazing creations going around, I almost couldn't believe my eyes.  I vowed that this year, I wasn't about to miss those swaps!

For the matchbox swap, I created a sweet lace covered box with a little, handmade bluebird on the top. We drew numbers to determine which box we would go home with.  Each and every matchbox was absolutely beautiful but I was lucky to receive this adorable box from Rhonda - another Oklahoman - who attended Birdsong last year too!

 When I opened this little treasure, it was packed full of amazing goodies.  Wanna see?

 Can you believe all this was neatly packed inside?  If you click on the picture, you can see a larger image.  Stamps, tiny colored pencils, ribbon, charms, buttons, bird related images, lace, a key, a jar of beads, and a few little handmade pieces too.  I hit the jackpot! Thank you Rhonda!!

 Next, I signed up for Beth's journal.  I created a page for Karla's journal last year but I didn't participate in the overall swap.  Since I didn't have a journal from last year, Beth was sweet enough to create a cover for me.  Cute, isn't it!?!

 I don't know who this first page was created by but I love the colors and the key charm the bird is holding in its beak.

 Below is a precious page from Tami of Vintage Connections.  The pinks and blues are so eye catching and that precious nest that has an egg!

 Marj Sell was a first time attendee to Birdsong Two but she didn't let that stop her from joining in on the fun.  Marj is a scrapbooker so I bet making a page was a breeze for her.  I love the simplicity of her page.

 Grace was one of the girls that came from Iowa this year. You probably can't tell from this picture but that numbered diagram of the bird is on vellum which is layered on top of a piece of nature inspired paper.  The fern is real and along with the burlap, this page has great texture.

 The next page is from my sweet friend Nora.  That beautiful piece of lace is so her!

 On the left is the back of the first page and on the right is a second page that I swapped with her.  I probably broke the rules but I got back one of my own pages in my journal and she wanted it so we just swapped again.  I ended up with two of her pages which I love!  I can always make myself a page, right?

 Sweet Laurie from Indulge Your Shelf hosted a "SING" banner.  Do you recognize my "i"?  The
"S" was made by Barbara from Iowa. She also hosted the Matchbox swap.  The "N" was created by Nora - recognize her style? The "G" was created by Rhonda from Oklahoma! It's funny how these things work out.  I can't wait to get my banner strung and hung (hahaha!)

 Laurie made these precious bags for us to use to swap. It was a great idea to keep things organized.  We each had a bag with our name on it and on the back of our tag was the names of our swap partners. Then we had a safe place to store our letters after the swap.

 The final swap was a charm swap that was hosted by Gail Sell.  We had to make 16 charms and send them to Gail to put on a necklace.  As usually happens with a swap, some charms were late, some didn't get mailed to her previously, and to top it all off, it's a LOT of work to attach all those charms to a chain! She attached the ones she could and gave us the others to attach for ourselves.  My charm is the little glass bottle. You really need to click on that picture and look at all the artistry and love put into creating all those charms.

So now you see why I didn't want to miss out! I totally overextended myself and drove myself a little insane by signing up for all four swaps, but in the end, I'm so thrilled that I did.
Next post I'll share all the wonderful gifts from the Birdsong peeps as well as the sponsors.  Were we ever spoiled!