Junk Drawer Advent Calendar Tag Marathon

My friends and I are long-time admirers of the 7 Gypsies Junk Drawer Advent Calendar - well, at least since 2009 when it debuted.  This year we decided we had to do this project, and it's a big one! 

Photo from One Lucky Day

We gathered at my house yesterday morning at 10:00 and after a bit of conversing, playing with the dogs, etc., we dug in.  Kerry and Chris brought lunch and homemade Whoopie Pies (all yummy!) along with bags, boxes -  and in Kerry's case, a huge suitcase - full of goodies to use in making tags.  I had a big basket full of things I'd been gathering from my craft room, some tags prepped with backgrounds, rosettes made from tea-dyed cheesecloth, old millinary flowers, beads, and other things.  Chris had fabulous trims found at Canton that Kerry and I couldn't bring ourselves to cut (they are really amazing - beaded and jeweled and perfect for making bracelets) and her Sizzix plus other trims and doo dads, and Kerry had dies, grunge board, lots of little metal embellishments, and much more.

Eight hours later - yes, eight - we each had six tags completed.  That may not sound like much, but we felt we'd accomplished a lot.  There was a lot of digging through things to find just the items we wanted to use on each tag, and while we stayed fairly true to the original versions because they're so lovely, there were little bits and pieces used to make each tag our own.

I forgot to charge my camera battery beforehand so all photos are from my iPhone and taken in poor lighting - and with tired eyes - but here are the tags we completed, in all their glory:

At the end of the day we were exhausted but happy.  I'm not sure if any of us will finish all our tags in time for this Christmas, but I know mine will be displayed no matter the number completed.

Thanks, ladies, for a lovely day!

Kerry and Chris at the end of the day, amid all our "supplies" and the obligatory Sonic cup.