Vintage and Retro #dicraftswap

The theme of last months #dicraftswap was vintage/retro, a theme I thought would be super easy - turns out it wasn't, as there were just too many possibilities. I was sending to Jenny from the blog Pretty Column, who it turns out is actually not far away from me up north. She listed as her vintage interests the campaign of knitting for soldiers during the wars as well as war posters and propaganda (which made me happy because I'm a bit of a fan too!). I decided to embellish a wooden photo frame with buttons for Jenny to put her own 'retro' memories in, although I did include a 'make do and mend' postcard from the Imperial War Museum.

...Which is what gave me the idea for my bought gift. I sent a copy of the 1943 make do and mend guide produced by the government to advise people how to patch things up and reuse scraps. As Jenny is a knitter too I thought some of it was particularly appropriate...

I put in a few extra treats as well. The post office man laughed at my doily-decorated envelope!

Jenny wrote a post about what she sent to her own recipient here. Her crocheted bunch of flowers are just fantastic!

My parcel arrived from Jess at Dear Wildflower. I had said I loved the 1920's era, and so Jess sent me this beautiful notebook that made me instantly think of The Great Gatsby...

...so when I opened up the rest of the beautifully packaged items I wasn't surprised too see Jess had included a little page cut out from the book itself! She had also included an array of vintage floral patterned and polka dot craft papers and some lovely card blanks and envelopes, as well as a little hedgehog cross stitch kit. I think I'll incorporate the Great Gatsby passage into a card design using some of the flowers from the craft paper sometime. 

 Thank you so much Jess, and thank you as always to Hannah at Dainty and Ivory for organising the swaps. The next theme is Christmas, but is a little more general to allow people to incorporate other ideas too. If you want to sign up get in touch with Hannah by the 15th of November - I promise it's great fun! 

My #DIcraftswap Kawaii experience

Last month, I took part in my first craft swap, hosted by Hannah over at Dainty and Ivory. Although the craft swaps have been taking place for a while, I've been reluctant to join in as firstly I didn't really have the time to commit to it, and secondly I'm not that great at making things (at least, to send to other people... When you're creating things yourself at home you don't mind the flaws and imperfections, but others might!)

I thought I'd give it a go this month, as the theme lent itself to perhaps easier craft ideas. The theme was KAWAII.

I was sending to the lovely Rhiannon from The Sparkly Panda. Here's what I sent...

For the 'made' item I got hold of these cute happy cloud buttons and added magnets to the back, for memos or to brighten the fridge. One of Rhiannon's 'likes' in the craft swap form was weather with faces - quite specific, but perfectly fitted these! 

For my bought item I took a bit of inspiration from Rhiannon's blog, where she had mentioned her love of Totoro. I found this cute ring from a handmade seller...

 I added in a couple of other goodies, stickers, tea and chocolate. Can't go wrong there I think!

The partner sending to me was Hannah from Cupcake Mumma, a blog I only discovered through the craft swap. Its actually proven really great for getting to know different blogs and other bloggers! Here's what I received.

This eye mask has proven very useful to get my forty winks as I just moved house and we don't have dark curtains up yet. Its also super cute! 

A cat notebook I'm using for list making (she obviously knew I was a fan of all things cat!)

A whole bundle of cute other little goodies, more than I photographed. I was spoiled! 

 And finally, Hannah made me the most awesome cookie necklace. I really love this, its just the sort of thing I'd choose myself. Thank you so much Hannah!

So my first craft swap experience was actually really fun, thinking up ideas and getting excited when a parcel arrives in the post. I'd definitely recommend it - I've already signed up for this months, with the theme of retro and vintage. If you want to find out more or join in, head over to Dainty and Ivory for happy mail and happy crafting!