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.

I've gone and done it Chickies!

Good morning Chickies ... I have just this minute sent this photo along with a submission pitch to Somerset Studios publications this morning!

I'm not overly confident that anything will happen because I'm not able to pay for shipping and insurance costs for the Faux Gogh chairs to be sent to California! Who knows though. If they like the idea perhaps they'll either let us take the photos or maybe even hire a professional Edmonton based photographer to take photos of the chairs.

Arlene and I have been throwing the idea around for quite a while about submitting this idea to a publication of some sort, and so this morning felt like the appropriate time to walk out on a limb and give it a try. All they can say is "no", right?

New name ~ new look!

Are you confused yet? Keeping the Canadian Valentine blog going seemed like a good idea, but it also made sense to change the name, header and background for a more year round place to play. The name came to me in a dream one night after the Valentine swap was over, so naturally I decided that it was destiny that we use this name for any swapping stuff we do. Thus the name Canadian Chickies!

On this post, I'll share some of the headers I created before I settled on the one that I finally chose. Do you think I chose the right one? Hope so.

The-Mother-of-All-Apron-Swap's title is thanks to Kim ~ amazing title! We're still open to having people join this swap for a few more days. All you have to do is either sew a cool apron or gussy up an existing one. But you only have to make one! We will exchange aprons in time for Mother's Day. Whether you're a mother or not ~ doesn't matter, you can join. So let's say March 1st is the deadline for sign ups. Leave a comment here or email me to let me know you want to be a part of this cool swap.

Don't you think we have a very nice core group of artists here? We've established some great friendships which is awesome. Let's keep in touch, people.
Oh! and I've changed the Yahoo group too, to Canadian Art Swaps. Thinking out loud here ... maybe I should change that name to Canadian Chickies too. Let me know what you think. Is our tranformation almost complete?
I hope so!

A lavish touch for Day 10

On Day 10, the group was presented with a beautiful hand-bound fabric book made by Arlene. She stitched pages together and then crafted covers with scrumptious, tactile fabrics to suit each person's likes.

She calls these lavish lovelies Shabby Doodles and wishes everyone to place them in their purses to use whenever a creative thought pops into their heads or a doodle needs to be doodled. What a perfect ending to this beautiful Valentine ART swap!

Many of the participants have never done an ART swap before, so this has been a wonderful learning experience for everyone.
Thank you for sharing your love.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Desire's the theme for Day Nine

A sense of romance was created by Nicolette with her hanging ATC, complete with a "Desire quote" on the reverse side. With the wonderful glittering danglies, this little piece of art will be beautiful almost anywhere in the home.

The story of Day 8

One upon a time
in a land far, far away,
the lovely Kimberly, Queen of Arts wrapped up a parcel with care

When her gifts arrived in the Kingdom of Edmonton, they looked more like this because of the work of the infamous dastardly villain named Canada Post

A bit of a mix up to be sure, but soon they looked more like this again

And then one day, something miraculous happened!
Everything that the wicked mail system tried to prevent actually happened. A beautiful necklace appeared from the tangled mess!

Day 7 features the Key to Love

Dawn created some Shabby Chic-ish altered keys for everyone on Day 7. She chose different sayings and gussied up the keys to suit each individual.

Then she added a couple other goodies: a pair of Valentine socks and Timmy Horton's Doughnut Seeds. It seems that Vanessa's not the only one who was thinking about planting seeds.

Finally, tucked into the package was some relaxing Rose Petal Green Tea for everyone to enjoy after the day's gift opening frenzy.

Day 6 is all about pretty, indeed!

Up until Day 6, we weren't exactly sure why Laura's (aka All About Pretty) gift smelled so wonderful. The mystery was solved when we opened her gift: an Aromatherapy Heart! What a hand stitched gem.
She also included a luscious Loonie sized Vintage magnet.

Day 5 blossoms with hope

Like many of us,
Vanessa is obviously tiring of winter and
looking forward to warmer, sunnier, "plantable" days ahead.

She has carefully gathered seeds from her flower patch and created 3 seed packages including Maiden Pinks, Columbine and Onion Chives. Then she painted individual delicate watercolour illustrations of the blooms that we can expect to grow in our gardens this summer once we've planted them.
To read more about the process of harvesting the seeds, check out Vanessa's blog here.

Sweet touches for Day 4

Valentine's Day wouldn't be complete without cinnamon hearts. Lisa made sure that she added the yummy treats to her gift on Day 4, which just happened to be a lacy bookmark complete with a love-filled quote and beautiful frou-frou fibres.

Day 3 is stitched with love

On Day 3, Martha's cleverly stamped pink tissue bound gift was waiting for us to discover. Inside the wrapping, we discovered a little Valentine hanging perfect for a doorknob or some other location.

Day 2 brings out the bling!

WOW, Holly's work is amazing! If you hop around to some of our blogs today, you'll see an awe-inspiring variety of styles and stones.

Earrings on the left are Arlene's and on the right are Dawn's. These are wonderful treasures, are they not?

Day 1 goes by the book

... a bookmark that is. Straight out of the gate, Mar was ready to create some beautiful bookmarks for everyone to open on the very first day of our swap. She looked at what people enjoyed and created an individualistic bookmark for each person. Oh! and if you noticed the cute little hearts on the wrapping with your name on it ... that's handwritten by the super talented Mar.

Pictured here is the loverly bookmark she created for Arlene.

Bonus Day

Thanks to Sabina Parsons of Edmonton, we will all have something special to unwrap on the day when our gift is being opened by everyone else. Sabina was kind enough to plunge headfirst into this swap at the very last second.

So whatever day your gift is opened, you will be able to tear away (I mean openly carefully .. slowly) at this beautiful gift courtesy of Sabina.

Tomorrow, we start opening our gifts ~ can you stand the suspense?!

Day 10

Wrapped in traditional Valentine red
and tied up with string,
Arlene Travnik of Leduc, Alberta surely has created something simply wonderful for all of us for Day 10. (Not day 4!)

Stay tuned tomorrow when we look at our "Bonus Day" gift. We're getting closer ...!

Day 9

A sweet surprise could be in store on Day 9 thanks to Nicolette Anderson of Edmonton. Her gifts are inside pink envelopes, and tied with elegant cloth ribbons and silk flowers.

There may even be some fairy dust inside because Tinker Bell makes an appearance on every gift!

Day 8

Our displaced-Canadian friend,
the lovely, the talented, Kim Mailhot who is currently living

in the US, is responsible for these intriguing gifts.

Inside the heart shaped paper basket is a tiny treasure which we will open up on Day 8. Love the stamp on your cards, don't you? Wonder if Kim carved it herself.

Day 7

The "fun" with the postal service continues
on Day 7 with
Dawn Supina of Edmonton.

She had to take one item out of the "mail out" gifties.

Being the frugal gal that she is, she saved $9 per parcel by taking a part of the gift out


before sending them through good old Canada Post. Not to worry though, the handmade portion of her gift will be received by everyone in the swap. The mail outs are pictured on the lower left and the Edmonton gifts are on the upper right.

Day 6

Laura Youngren of Coaldale, Alberta has been busy, busy, after meeting the Canada Post Boogieman! It's such a pain to be restricted by the size and weight of an art piece, but Laura graciously started back at the very beginning and has created a new gift for us to open on Day 6.

Swaps are always fun ~ especially participating in one's very first swap. It's a scary/fun experience., but hang in there Laura, it'll all make sense eventually.

Day 5

Wintery white packages await us to open on Day 5 thanks to Vanessa Travnik of Wetaskiwin, Alberta.

She has carefully tucked surprises inside these packages and written different quotes on the outside.

Day 4

It's a pretty peek-a-boo gift from Lisa Eriksson of Edmonton for Day 4.

Is the suspense gettin' to you yet?

Day 3

Martha Brown (aka Em) delivers up some pretty-in-pink gifts.

Almost too pretty to open, but don't worry, I'm sure they'll be eagerly attacked on Day 3!

Day 2

Holly Gullion (aka Arlene's little seester)
is our Day 2 gift giver.

As they say: Good things come in little packages ~ and this pretty-in-pink box is sure to hold a special treasure in it.

Wonder what she has created for us...?