Day 12 ~ Under wraps

And finally, what goodies does Cindy have in store for us on Day 12? We will have to wait until Christmas Eve to find out.

And tomorrow! December 13th, we will get to open our Day 1 offering. Please check this blog then for the unveiling of Arlene's gift. Can you stand the suspense?

Day 11 ~ Stuffed with Goodness

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care ...

Just look at the beautiful stockings that Jennifer created to wrap her gifts in.

If the outside is this pretty, just imagine what's inside ~ December 23rd we'll finally get to peek!

Day 10 ~ Waiting, waiting, waiting

Something pretty is hiding in Nicolette's trimmed white bag, but what? Isn't this fun ~ and torturous, waiting, waiting, waiting?

Day 9 ~ It's in the bag!

Looks like Kim went all out creating pretty little paper bags

and complimentary Joy tags for Day 9. We can only imagine

what sweet treasure she's created for us to open on the 21st of December!

Day 8 ~ Vintage Delight!

A collaged vintage bookmark/tag adorns Heather's offering, and it is also the largest of all the gifties we have to look forward to opening (on Day 8 of the swap).

What goodness is in this package?

Day 7 ~ Nostalgic Christmas

Served up on a silver platter, these gifts wrapped in old pattern tissue from Dawn are all different sizes and promise to make everyone feel nostalgic on Day 7.

Day 6 ~ Pretty Pretty

Sabina wrapped her gifties in beautiful silky bags ~

making it two gifts in one for us on the 6th day.

Day 3, 4 and 5 ~ Triple Goodness!

I was away for a couple day, with no time for Internet access, so I am including 3, count em, 3 days in one little post!

Day 3: Wrapped in golden paper, Mar's packages seems to have two parts.

A sweet cherub holds the secret...

Day 4:

Good things come in little packages,

and just look at these little and very

cheery gifties that Kathryn popped

into these little bags.

We can hardly wait to see what

she made for for us to enjoy

on Day 4!

Day 5: Create Joy is what the back of Martha's simple brown paper package reads.

It is sure to bring us all joy when we open it on December 17th.

Day 2 ~ Simplicity!

On the 2nd Day of Christmas Brittni sent to me ... well I don't really know yet, but it comes in a simple plain envelope with my written on it. We will all get to open this one on December 14th!

Day 1 ~ we're dreaming of a White Christmas

December 1st is finally here!

Time to start looking at our wrapped gifts in anticipation of discovering

just what goodies each Chickie has created for our Christmas Exchange 2010.

Day One of the Canadian Chickie Christmas Exchange arrives courtesy of Arlene.

The gift is wrapped in a beautifully embroidered cloth (white on white)

tied with a simple red string.

But what's inside?

We will have to wait until December 13th

when our opening frenzie begins. Huzzah!

Chickie Christmas Exchange

Well you likely have ideas running around in your heads about the upcoming exchange. This year, we've made sure everyone has plenty of time to come up with the best idea possible to create your finest work for some of the sweetest people out there.

Rumour has it that a couple of our participants have started creating their gifts already! (Please watch for your day number assignment to be announced soon)

November 19th is the mail out date. You have until then to create your 12 beautiful little pieces of art for everyone, then wrap em up all pretty and mail out to their destinations. We will count down to the first day by showing each wrapped gift and then each day, we will show the treasures as we open them.

Remember to do your very best work by creating something that you would be thrilled to receive! This promises to be a very sweet swap. Now go get creative, Chickies!

Join the New Chickie Swap!

Canadian Chickies, listen up! We have a new swap coming up and we welcome YOU to join in the fun!

Now I can hear some of you already starting to form excuses in your heads why you shouldn't join in this swap, but please fiirst let me say that even though this is called Mother's Day Door Hanger Swap, you do NOT have to be a mother to join this swap. The only qualification that you need for this swap, is that you have had a mother sometime during your lifetime! I can also assure you that it won't take THAT much effort to be a part of this swap. Canadian Chickies, we like to keep our swaps simple. Minimal work, minimal commitment and maximum loveliness! Please read on and join us this time round.

Mother's Day Door Hanger Swap
To sign up, go to our Yahoo site, in the Database under Mother's Day Door Hanger 2010. Once we have all the sign ups, you will be assigned a partner for the swap. Everyone will be asked to create a Door Hanger for their partner ~ simple as that. Make a pretty little something that your partner can hang on a door in her home that she can sit and enjoy. If you're wondering what your partner likes, check out the Things I Like in the Database to help you create the perfect door hanger just for her.

Sign up by March 25th
Mail out by April 25th
(so that the hangers will reach
their destinations by May 9th)

Look what I got!

On what can be the LONGEST day of the year, especially if you have little ones (because it's not quite Christmas Eve yet, it's getting very, very difficult to WAIT); today's the day we open our Artist Trading Cards for the Canadian Chickies ATC Christmas swap.

Here is a photo of the endearly, lovely hand-crafted ATC Martha created for Dawn. It has already found it's home on Dawn's tree, and looks very much at home.

Please remember to upload a photo or two on the Yahoo site for everyone to enjoy the ATCs you received from your swap partner.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

No peeking!

It won't be long now folks ...
just over a week until we get to open
our Christmas ATCs and
hang them on our trees.
December 23rd is the day
we get to finally see our treasures!

No peeking!

Photo: ATCs created
and wrapped by Martha Brown

3 ATCs to grace our Christmas trees

Our Canadian Chickies 2009 Christmas swap will be a simple but sweet exchange. We will create 3 ATCs with our partner in mind, something that he/she can hang on their Christmas tree. Here is the Partner List for our Christmas ATC swap:

Arlene and Jennifer
Brittni and Sabina
Josh and Mar
Martha and Dawn
Nicolette and Kim

We will need to mail out our 3 ATCs by December 1st. Once the ATCs arrive in the mail we must be very patient, because we will wait until December 23rd to open our gifts from our each other together. The anticipation will drive us crazy, but that's half the fun, isn't it?

More Journal photos!

This jazzy number is the cover of the journal Mar created for Kathryn.

So colourful ... so much texture.












Oh! And look at the whimsical journal Kathryn made for Marcy in return. Is that an outhouse? Someone understands Mar's goofy sense of humour.

Chickie Journals start arriving!

Look at the beautiful journal Kim created for Arlene ...



Who wouldn't love this book?



Love and friendship on every page.



Beautiful!

Journals almost done ...?

It has been quite some time since we touched base, Canadian Chickies (and token Rooster).

How is the ART Journal prepping coming along for your partner? Are you done? Have you started? Are you excited? Are you panicking?

September 30th is the deadline to send off your journal to the person you're exchanging with.

Please remember to take photos (at least of the front cover of the journal) so we can post them here and on the Yahoo group too!

It's going to be so much fun to see what everyone has created to inspire their swap partner with, won't it?

Chickie Journals!

So far we have 6 people signed up to join our Chickie Journal Swap. Eeeek! Can you stand the excitement of creating a ART journal with wonderful prompts with your trading partner in mind?!

Deadline for sign ups is June 30th. Then we'll pair everyone off and you will have all the way until the end of September to make your journal for your partner and mail it off to her, if necessary.

Photo: Shabby Doodles Journal created by Arlene for Canadian Chickies' Christmas Swap 2008. (It's even more gorgeous in person!

Retro apron , simply lovely

Jennifer really outdid herself in creating an apron with vintage-y flair for Dawn. One can only appreciate wearing this beauty when one has a hot pink feather duster, a cookbook in hand and high heals, bright red lipstick on!



This has been an amazing swap, wouldn't you agree? Each and every apron is so personal and sweet. Thank you Canadian Chickies for making this swap a enormous success!

Sabina showers Martha with a beautiful gift

Martha was thrilled to receive this re-purposed shower curtain turned apron.
How ingenious!

When Sabina's supervisor gave Sabina a floor display fabric shower curtain, she had no doubt knew that Sabina would find a creative use for it. The sash was craft from a scarf. What an elegant apron ~ we all look forward to seeing a photo of Martha wearing this beauty.

Arrival of this apron went swimmingly

Forget Canada Post and their ridiculously high rates and delays at the Canada-US border; Kim has received her apron from Arlene!

When Arlene began formulating ideas in her head of the apron she would make for Kim, she knew one thing, that it would include an ocean and mermaid theme.

Look at the mermaid apron she created. It's perfect from its many little enclosed pockets containing buttons, sea glass, pearls and more right down to the bottom ruffly, wispy waves.

Blooming beauty!

Kim created this apron of textures and words for Arlene.

Hopefully Arlene will take some photos of the completed project (hint, hint!) as Kim did not ~ but at least you get a sense of what it looks like.

These aprons are so unique and obviously each and every one, a labour of love.

Apron with flower flourish

Look at the beauty Martha created for Sabina.
No wonder Sabina could hardly contain herself when she receive her apron in the mail!

Vanessa's created re-purposed beauty!

Look at the sweet apron Vanessa crafted out of an old pillow case! What amazing precision she wielded when she embroidered Pat's inititials on the pocket? Won't her Gram-in-law love this?

1st Mother-of-all-aprons Swap first arrival

Very exciting news! Our first Mother-of-all-Aprons apron has arrived in Jennifer's hands. A hand painted portrait dons her apron with some of the things that Jen holds near and dear. Luckily, Jennifer had a photo on her blog and Dawn copied her likeness on the apron.