Birdsong III Overview and My Swap Creations

My first - and I certainly hope not my last - Birdsong has come and gone. It was such an enjoyable weekend. Karla Nathan put on an exceptional event and had obviously worked very hard, along with her family, to pull everything together.  Her studio is a wonderland of little vingnettes - journals, tags, an entire buffet filled with flowered vintage hats, and more.  I'll have lots of photos over the next few posts, but here's a group photo provided by Karla.

What wonderful people to share a weekend of creating!  I am in there - you can barely see my head peeking up with a post in front of my face. Being short, everyone always wants me in front in group photos but I hate being in front so I go to the back. Usually only my head or even the top of my head shows, but I know I'm there.

For today I'm going to share the swap items I made.  First up is the tag swap. I used a pretty image from The Graphics Fairy, and used pop dots to layer the bird and basket.  I added some Stickles, pleated satin and velvet trim, millinery flowers and ribbon. The back was covered in a neutral rose print with a row of small organdy roses to cover the bottom edge.

Each person in the swap made seven tags and we received a book of seven.  I'll show the tags I received in a future post. I love them all!

For the matchbox swap, I found a small plastic "birdcage" at a garage sale that I wanted to incorporate.  I added a tiny feathered and sequined bird, placed it inside a silver-plated coaster, and surrounded it with flowers and lace. The box was covered in a taupe polka dot paper and trimmed with pleated trim from a vintage lampshade. I perched the whole thing on top of an ornate metal stand, also found at a garage sale. 

The matchbox was filled with lots of lacy and sparkly things for my swap partner, Grace. She doesn't have a blog, but if she did I know you'd enjoy it!



The last swap was a rosette that incorporated a vintage bird brooch. This sounds easier than it actually was. I scoured antique malls, estate sales and my own collection with no luck. I finally turned to eBay and found a couple that I liked - one that was a bit steampunk and the other in silver with rhinestones. I made the rosette with layers of vintage lace, then decided the steampunk pin looked the best. One of the swap requirements was to package the rosette prettily, so I made a burlap-look linen bag trimmed with lace. Partners weren't assigned in advance. I'll share more details on this swap in a later post. I promise that you're going to want to see all the beautiful rosettes and pins.



The things I received in return are all lovely.  I'll share those in a few days, along with photos of our class projects and Karla's amazing home and studio.

Thanks for stopping by!