Cupcake swap package arrived

I received my swap package for The Cupcake Swap I recently participated in. This was a really good swap experience the gallery looks great. I love the package that my partner Kellilee sent me. She put together some quality crafts for me.

She made me a lovely tote bag decorated with this cross stitched cupcake done in linen floss. It has a pretty muted tone to it. I love knitted wash cloths see the cupcake knitted into this one. And you can't really see the cupcake in the bottle cap necklace but it is really cute. And she made me a cute felt cupcake magnet.

My partner sent me lots of extras too. I never expected to receive a bottle of Chardonnay in a cupcake swap but I did. It is from Cupcake Vineyards how cool is that. She included a postcard from her town which I thought was a great idea. Unfortunately I have never seen a postcard from the tiny town I live in. But maybe I could use a postcard from a nearby attraction.

I also got some candy jewelry and other candy. A cupcake cookbook, some herbal soap, some cupcake scented body lotion, a tiny candle in a tin and all the makings for Funfetti Cupcakes were included in my box. Oh and the other fun thing I got were three fat quarters of cupcake fabrics. I love them all and surprisingly I don't have any of these in my stash already.

Since I sent my package out early because of the work I was doing to prepare for VBS I had almost forgot about this swap. So it was extra special to get my package. It was kind of like a treat because it arrived the last day of vacation bible school.

More VBS

I got some better pictures of my Vacation Bible School decorations today. Our theme was Egypt Joseph's Journey From Prison To Palace. My daughter and I made a lot of the decorations and costumes too. We made two life size sarcophagus out of a piano box. I carved several pieces of Styrofoam that was padding in the piano box into hieroglyphics. I painted them with acrylic craft paint. We made the cat statues with empty 2 liter soda bottles and a Styrofoam ball head. We covered it all with masking tape and spray painted it all black. Then we painted the details with white paint.

This lower picture is of Joseph room in the palace. I mostly used things I already had to get this look. The columns I saved from last years VBS. They are corrugated vinyl roofing rolled into a tube and taped together with clear packing tape. The bigger grain bags are real bags of grain that a man in my church brought over from his mill. One of the activities at Joseph's place was for the kids to pretend to be donkeys and get loaded up with grain sacks on their backs. I didn't want to crush any of the kids by putting 50 lbs of grain on their backs. So I made some lighter ones with pillows from my couch and some fabric from my stash.

Even though VBS was a lot of work we had a lot of fun too. It went well for the most part and I had many helpers for which I am very grateful. I am also glad it is over. I just need to take everything down now. I hope to do most of the taking down tomorrow.

Egypt VBS

Tonight is our last night of Egypt Vacation Bible School. We are having a great time and I have been very busy getting everything together for each night. I thought my few readers may enjoy seeing some pictures of the decorations. I will have to get

some better pictures from my daughters camera. I realized I didn't take any clear pictures of the decorations. Most of mine are of the people.

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Egypt VBS

I have been working on items for my churches upcoming Vacation Bible School. This year we are doing Egypt Joseph's Journey From Prison To Palace. One of the things I made for the toy shop is this Senet Board Game. This was actually one of the crafts the program recommended for the kids to make. It was a tiny cardboard game the kids were to punch out and do a bit of coloring on. I thought it was to pricey for something the kids would take home and throw away. But I did think they would enjoy playing the game at VBS. So I created two larger wooden versions that kids can play during their time in the marketplace. I used a piece of balsa wood for the game board and some Popsicle sticks for the space counters. And a package of wooden disk for the markers. This was pretty easy to make I just hope it is not to hard to learn to play. The rules look easy to me.

Some other things I have been working on are costumes pieces and some decorating items. I will be sharing some of these with you with hopefully a tutorial for one or two things. I have been taking pictures of my progress.

A Cupcake Water Bottle Sling

I wanted to share one more thing I made for The Cupcake Swap I recently participated in. I sewed two of these water bottle slings. I sent one to my swap partner and kept one for myself. This is definitely a quick project from my new book Sewing Bits and Pieces. I made one for my partner from the Frugal Living Swap. I really intended to make only one sling to send to my partner. However I managed to cut two of the same side so I had to cut two more of the opposite side. I thought the sling would be handy to have so I really didn't mind making myself one too. This project can be finished in less than an hour.

More Cupcake Swap

My partner got to open the package I sent her this morning. She posted her pictures in the gallery. For some reason the pictures that I took of the towels I sent her didn't show up on my camera. I thought the towels turned out so cute that I wanted some for myself. These are the towels I made for Kelli. I got the idea from one of my hew books Sewing Bits and Pieces. I used the cupcake pattern and the basic idea but I added the hankerchief. My partner liked to collect vintage hankies. These are not vintage hankies but they do have a vintage look to them. For the towels I used 100% cotton Home Dec fabric. It had a nice heavy weave to it. When I spotted the fabric on the clearance table at JoAnn Fabrics I knew it would be perfect for hand towels. And at only $3.00 a yard even better. I washed it first to remove all the sizing and make the fabric softer and more absorbent for towels. I decided to fringe the top and bottom edges.


I was glad I had enough fabric left to make myself some cupcake tea towels. I actually have enough to make two more towels. And I am keeping my eye out for more fabric. This lower picture are the towels I made for myself. They are pretty much the same as the ones I made for Kelli. I just used some different hankies. I love these kind of cute towels but I do have trouble using them. I need to get over that and just use them if they get all messed up or worn I can just make some more. I do enjoy making these things.