May the Swap be with You

Three words.  Star Wars Swap.  Uh-huh, that's what I said.
Now in case you didn't know, or notice, I am a geek of a certain generation.  I was 7 when the first SW movie came out, and I remember playing light sabers on the street where the defining question was whether you liked Luke or Han Solo more.  Solo, definitely.
So then there's a swap.  Crafts and SW, a brilliant combo.
I am eagerly waiting my swap package in transit, but here's a look at what I made.

First an Ewok bag (felt pieces)

Then two journals, covered with the Jedi Code and the Sith Code, that I photoshopped up.  I didn't know the codes, so this was fun and educational :)

Droid hairclips and two pendants.  I used small pictures from the back of my Star Wars Craft Book that I got at xmas, and jewelry bases that had a nice worn metal look.

And finally, Tshirt there is.

Now I can't wait for my package to arrive!

I heart cats

One of the best swaps I've done so far on Craftster has to be the I heart cats and/or dogs swap.  The gallery has been full of the most adorable items.

I had lots of fun crafting up items for my partner and best of alls he was really appreciative and liked them.

She mentioned her love of the lion and the lamb.  While I'm not religious, the cause of peace is powerful for me and so I wanted to try and do a hoop on this theme for her. 

I found the design as a silhouette online, and adapted it to make a blackwork cross stitch.  I like how it turned out, and my partner was thrilled.

Next I needlefelted a black cat with white face in a simple stout shape.  She was cute, but somehow needed more.  I tried adding the tail, which didn't help much.  I thought she might be a good pin cushion and then wondered about a more stable base.  Which led me to think of putting her in a mini cardboard box, because cats love boxes.  The box, with paisley tape and "cats <3 boxes" totally made it!

Looking for materials to make some coffee cup cuffs I came across some children's placemats in a kind of foamy rubber at the dollar store.  Turns out super easy to cut and paint, makes a great medium I will use for many things to come.  I carved a little kitty stamp and made these.

Finally, I tried a couple little kitty cross stitch pendants.  They would be better with smaller aida fabric but my hands and eyes don't work for finer mesh lol.

And a couple little cat artist trading cards for fun extras!

Robot treasures

I've been so busy indulging in my new addiction to craft swaps that I haven't posted many of the goodies I sent or received.

In my first swap I got an adorable purple monster cross stitch (see a few posts below), and then my second promised hoop never appeared.  My partner flaked.  But never fear the organizer, TroubleT, stepped in as an 'angel' in swap parlance, and made me a replacement hoop.  Best of all, she made a robot hoop!

I absolutely adore the starry background and felt robot.

Then in my second swap, the 'anything goes embroidery' swap, I once again struck gold and got another robot hoop!  This hoop is so adorable, the robot is riding an elephant (which it apparently helped escape from the zoo) against a city skyline.  'The Raging Sloth' did a fantastic job and this hoop even got posted on one of my favourite blogs, Mr. X Stitch.