Burford Designs

May Basket Swap - Received

I was happy to arrive home from work yesterday and find my May Day Basket swap package on the living room table.  My swap partner had been swamped with just about everything imaginable so I knew that my package was running a little late and therefore didn’t know when it was going to arrive.

I opened it up to find the sweetest little basket filled with various goodies like homemade mint (from her own garden last summer) apple jelly, two vintage embroidered doilies – one with a sunbonnet lady and the other with a cute basket of flowers, a vintage pair of screw on earrings, some lace and small pearls for craft projects, a journal with a calla lily on the front cover, an adorable stamp with a little girl picking up seashells, and a little card with tulips on the front.

Here is the picture of all the goodies spread out for you to see.

And displayed in the basket.  As you can see, I attached the earrings to the pretty butterfly ribbon that was tied to the basket handle.

This is my last swap for a little while.  I’ve been swapping like crazy for just over a year now and need a break (that and I’m super busy getting things ready for summer shows) so I decided this would be nice one to finish up this swapping season.  We’ll see if something perks my interest again or if I’ll just move on to something different.  Thanks to all the wonderful hostesses and swapping partners out there that made each swap so great.

Happy Tuesday!

May Basket Swap - Sent

This is the other swap Artsy Mama is hosting for the Year of Color blog and it’s for a May Basket.  I was familiar with May Day Baskets and always thought they were a lovely idea, but have never really participated in the day.  When I told a friend at work about this swap she squealed with excitement and shared her fond memories of various May Days of years past that her family participated in while she was growing up.  She spoke about how her mother loved flowers and the thought of leaving something special at a neighbor’s door and actively celebrated the day every year.  She remembered how her father would sneak out one door and creep around to the front to leave a basket of flowers, then knock and scurry back into the house to try and keep it a surprise.  She also spoke of how as adults, her and or her siblings, still try to keep up the tradition, especially by secretly stopping by her mom’s house and leaving some flowers or other goodies and trying not to let her mom know who did it.

 

So with that Kari, who is also a big fan of the May basket tradition decided to host this swap…again, she originally hosted one a couple of years ago and boy were those baskets fabulous.

 

The guidelines for this swap were pretty much left up to the swap partners.  Our basket and goodies could be store bought or handmade and include anything that we wanted to include.

 

Once I received my partner’s information I quickly checked out her blogs (yes, plural – blogs) and sent off an email.  She seems really full of life and very eclectic so I knew that I could put together a pretty wild basket.

 

I filled the basket with goodies like a package of banana nut bread tea light candles, because Deana wrote that she loved candles, a couple of green glass tea light candle holders shaped like flowers (May flowers), a package of orange edible Easter grass (because it’s fun), Luzianne dark roast coffee, Sweet Ginger Peach tea, some dinner mints, a Japanese mini journal, a Mary Englebright stationary portfolio set, a rose sucker, a pair of earrings and a mini album I made for ATC’s.

 

This is everything spread out

 

And a close up of the mini album

 

I hope my swap partner is able to enjoy it all.

 

Happy almost May Day!

Vintage Circus Swap - Received

This is my late post on what I received from my Vintage Circus Swap partner Tammy.

 

My items were very cute and so perfectly vintage looking.  I received an

ice cream cone pencil with great smelling eraser top, two blown glass clowns on circular mirror bases, a clown that is juggling beads (and has bead legs too), two big top tent figurines…one with lions and the other with an elephant, ceramic train set with animal cars…one hippo, one elephant, and one lion, a bag of salted peanuts and an adorable doll that Tammy made. 

This is the large group shot

 

And here are some individual pictures to show off the cuteness of everything

 

And look at how adorable the doll’s hand painted face is.  So cute! And Mommy wants to steal her from me.

 

I love the Dollar Store and am amazed at what they have and what’s different depending on where in the country the store is located.  The figurines were from there and I’m so happy to have them (one of the things I wrote Tammy about was that I love circus trains and animals and these figures fit the bill perfectly).

 

Thanks for being my swap partner Tammy; I really enjoyed getting to know you these past few weeks.

Vintage Circus Swap

This space reserved for my vintage circus package I received in the mail today.  I haven’t opened it yet, the crux of me being at work and the package being at home…but I can hardly wait to open it and take pictures once I get home.

 

I also know that I received another package…well and envelope really but I’m not 100% sure what it is yet, have to wait to see on it too.

 

Until then…

Vintage Circus Swap

Here is the bundle of goodies I sent my swap partner Tammy for the Vintage Circus Swap hosted by CasaBellaChic.   I wanted it to be very bright and colorful and choose items accordingly. 

 

There were lots of items, old and new alike, that seemed to fit so well together.  As for sugary treats I sent Tammy some marshmallow Circus Peanuts, some blue edible Easter grass (loved the different colors of everything), a large green lollipop, a sweet ring pop, two packages of clown DecACake cake decorations, some multi-colored cotton candy in a monkey container and a few other little sweet treats that were tucked away in the animal eggs (like plastic Easter eggs but animals instead).  Of course no circus swap would be complete without some Barnum’s Animal Crackers in the little train car box.

 

Now the litany of other items in the package…I found some paper cutouts of circus people and included them in the package along with a stuffed elephant, two vintage porcelain clown figurines, some colorful streamers, a variety of mini stamps including a really cute clown and a vintage sock doll clown.

 

I made up a wall hanging out of a round plaque that I painted pink with orange giraffe spots.  Then I added a vintage circus image and painted a silhouette of a circus tent and added some red entrance tickets.  To finish it off I added an orange striped hanger and bottom tie.

 

After I had it all packaged up to go I make this quick little card to send along with everything. 

I’m glad it all got there safe and that my swap partner liked it.  Now I’m just waiting to see what she sent me…she wrote that it was on its way, hopefully I’ll get it Monday and they let you all see what I got.

One String Banner Swap – Received

I was finally able to take some pictures of the banner I received from my swap partner Bonnie for the Year of Color One String Banner Swap I previously wrote about here.  They aren’t the best quality so I hope to take some more, maybe with the sunshine that we’re supposed to get this weekend I can hang it in the living room and snap some pictures.  Until then these will have to be sufficient.

 

Here’s a long shot of the banner (on my bed since that was the only place large enough and clean enough to place it for pictures until I’m able to hang it somewhere).

 

It’s so pretty made out of paper, chipboard, glitter and various bits and baubles (jewels, pom-pom fringe, lace, paper flowers, stamped images, etc).  I made this mosaic of each individual lettered triangle to show you a little closer view.

 

And here is a close up of some of the details like the jewels and stamped saying of “spread your wings”, the little paper bird and the beautiful paper flower with the jeweled brad.

 

Thanks so much Bonnie, it’s so pretty and springy that totally fits the bill of beautify the world, at least my world, one string (or ribbon) at a time.

 

Happy Friday!!

One String Banner Swap

I am a part of Kari the Artsy Mama’s Year of Color Blog.  One of the benefits of this blog is being able to participate in various swaps she’ll have throughout the year.  I wasn’t able to participate in the last one (and right now I can’t even remember what it was…I think it was something around Valentine’s Day, but it doesn’t matter).  Anyhow, I did sign up for the next two that she’s hosting; the first one being the “One String Banner Swap”.  Kari wrote that she was motivated by Jeska’s garlands and her declaration “to beautify the world one string at a time”.

 

All participants were to make a garland or a bunting for their partner.  The only specification was that it needed to be at least four feet long (from end to end).  Other than that it could be made out of any materials we wanted…fabric, canvas, paper.  I contacted my partner and we both gave options for colors and left the materials up to the maker.

 

I received mine, but that will be in another post (probably in the next few days – I still have to take pictures), however here’s the one I made for her. 

 

My partner told me that she was re-doing her craft room and thought pinks and greens would be nice.  As you can see, I chose fabric and ribbon for the banner – a nice heavy weight white fabric with pink flowers and some batting to give it dimension.  I decided to sew the banner and do some free style quilting to add a little pizzazz to the garland.

 

Here are a couple of close-ups so you can see what I mean.

 

Like I wrote earlier, I’ll post what I received (it’s fantastic) soon once I take pictures (because it’s HUGE and I need to hang it on a wall for you all to get the full effect.   

 

On another note, Mommy’s back tonight, I only spoke with her once while she was gone (although she spoke to Daddy everyday) so there will be lots to talk about I’m sure.

 

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

Easter Basket Swap

Hello, is somebody there?

 

Look into my pink eyes.  No, don’t look at the pink bunny look into my pink eyes.  Okay, now that I have your attention please continue.

 

I received my package for the other Easter basket swap I participated in yesterday (that was the other package I was referring to in yesterday’s post that made me so very happy).   I was a little concerned about this swap because information had been given out late, I had no idea who my partner was and I hadn’t received a package yet.  But I finally let it all go and thought that if all else fails I’d just write the hostess this week and see what was happening.

 

Sunday morning all was answered when my swap partner Angela emailed me asking if I liked everything.  I replied that I hadn’t received anything, but when I did I’d let her know as soon as I could.  Of course I went to bed believing that I would have something fantastic coming to me soon…and boy did I ever.

I know that I’ve listed my likes before here on my blog and I’ve shown pictures of things I like, have made, etc but I was still a shocked (in a great way) when I opened the package.  The colors were perfect!  Everything was as if she had walked into my house and saw what I liked and the colors I used and just went from there.

 

There were so many layers to my package and I kept opening tissue paper and boxes and eggs and finding more bits and pieces.  This is the plethora of goodness that Angela sent.

 

A pretty lavender basket with some Peeps, a bunny pick and a vintage inspired Easter Greetings plaque.  Two different types of votive candles (three in that lovely green that matches my bedding perfectly in Pearberry scent) and the white one called White Tulips (one of my favorite flowers). The plastic lavender egg contained the bunny confetti and the blue egg is decoration (completely glittered and decorated with a cute pink bow and ribbon hanger).  Sitting in front of the lavender basket is a mini basket made from a nut cup, chenille pipe cleaner, flowers, and crepe paper all of it covered/filled with flowers, Easter grass and a bunny cut-out (I love the lace cut-out bottom of the mini basket).

Then there was the gorgeous pink fabric flower sitting on top of some smoky purple ribbon and the grand pink glittered egg where I found the large chick, two baby chicks in a nest, three beautiful robin’s eggs and some totally cute cupcake toppers (the two vintage looking ones and a few made from the bunny confetti). 

 

In these close-ups you can see the topper to a large pink glittered papier mache box.  It has the larger standing bunny along with a nest with more robin’s eggs, the pretty pink rose and another fuzzy chick (they are very soft).  The box is decorated with flowers, tissue and crepe papers and is so amazing (I love the gathered trim around the edge with the sequins and the tissue nests, so clever). 

 

There’s also the large egg shaped box with the vintage bunny image and lace and a smaller papier mache box, this one painted and glittered with a pretty blue paint and decorated with a little pink glittered bunny another fuzzy chick some flowers and some mini eggs.

 

Here are a few more close-ups.  The top one is just a closer view of what was inside the giant pink egg.  Then there was a great kit for making a garland that reads SPRING and some Easter eggs stickers.  Finally there is a picture of a pick, that wasn’t too visible in any of the photos above, which looks like a decorated sugar cookie. 

 

I had so much fun opening this package, and taking pictures, and figuring out where I’m going to put everything for an Easter display.  Thanks again Angela for everything!!

 

Happy Tuesday!

The Easter Bunny Stopped By A Little Early

I received my lovely very vintage Easter basket from the darling Carolyne.  She was nice enough to warn me that she had used glue dots to hold everything up, so it was easier for me to remove everything once I opened it.  The first thing I saw was the gorgeous pearlized purple basket.  I ripped off the plastic and there were so many little goodies inside for me to unwrap.

 

There were treats for my tummy like the Reese’s Pieces carrot, a package of yellow Peeps, a chocolate cross, some mini Malted Robin’s Eggs in a bunny tin and several bags of cinnamon stick tea.  Then there were treats for my creativity such as flower seeds, as Carolyne wrote “And always……a few seeds for sowing to watch the flowers growing!” and a beaded bunny basket to make.  There was also a cd, a vintage Ideals Easter magazine and a sweet book.

 

And last but certainly not least there were some bath petals in Romantic Sweet Pea and a violet scented travel candle (they both smell so wonderful) as well as the super sweet ceramic basket (that the tea was tucked away in) and five gorgeous eggs covered in sheet music and shimmer.

 

Thanks so much Carolyne for being a wonderful swap partner and for keeping in touch so well.

 

Hope everyone’s week is going well.

Vintage Spring Goodness Has Sprung

I received my package from my marvelous partner Bev and all I can say is WOW!  Bev completely spoiled me and I couldn’t be happier and more grateful.  Bev and I have gotten to know one another these past few weeks through emails, Facebook and our blogs and I must say that she really got me.

 

There were so many goodies in this lovely package that I hope I do it justice with the pictures and descriptions.  First the package was wrapped in brown paper and had butterflies on it

 

and then all of these little packages tied up with ribbons in my favorite colors (lavender, green and icy blue).

 

Then I opened it up to this cute purple apron (with hidden surprises) and handmade card

 

Bev gave me lots of crafty supplies: scrapbooking ribbons, felt buttons, ephemera, a vintage postcard, watermelon candle, wrapped hanging eggs, and candy (including a couple of chocolate pieces from her local chocolate maker (Sarris).

 

Here’s a grouping of some of the goodies including the vintage postcard, cute little bunny cookie cutter, a couple of old wooden spools, bingo markers and call numbers, some old buttons (love the bunny logo on the card), a pair of bunny candle holders (that go perfectly with the few Easter items I already have), an old song book, bingo cards, and a MacDonald Plaid Stamp book filled with plaid stamps (Mommy used to have an entire drawer of her desk filled with old Blue Chip stamps).

 

And the final piece (that was concealed by the apron) this fantastic hanging sign that simply reads “SPRING”…check out the vintage earrings!!

 

So, with it snowing outside (apparently we have beat the record for snowfall in a single season, even though last year (when it was only the third most snowfall on record) felt a lot worse) this does bring some spring and sunshine to my days.

 

Thanks for being such a great partner Bev!

 

Happy Tuesday!!!