The Premise 2007

Picture if you will, a group of friends exchanging lovely handmade gifts through the mail. Each person carefully saves the gifts they've received until February 1st. Can you then imagine how delightful and exciting that would be to open 15 heart themed gifts, one each day for 14 days?!? We could-especially after all the fun we had with the 12 Days of Xmas exchange, which is why we decided to do it!

Welcome to the Be My Valentine blog! Be sure to visit us often as gifts are wrapped and sent out to each of our artist friends. We will be sharing our exchange from beginning to end, so come watch and share in the fun!

All Together Now!

Here is a picture of all the gifts together. THANK YOU to all the ladies for making this such a successful and creative exchange. And a special thank you to Jennifer Rowland for her help in posting pics on the days when my mail was late. I couldn't have done it without you!

And Finally...

And last, but not least, there is my (Lelainia Lloyd's) gift, which was #16. (This was the one each person opened on the day everyone else opened theirs, so there was a gift each day for everyone.) I made a silver bracelet and created this charm from paper and fabric on a metal tag base. It's my way of saying I send my love to each of you!

Tomorrow I will post a final picture of all the gifts together. THANK YOU to each of the ladies for such amazing and creative gifts. I know we all loved each and every piece and will treasure them!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Two Gifts for Valentine's Day!

Yes, we opened TWO gifts today, just to make the day extra special! This soft and pretty embellished fabric heart ornie was gift #15 from Melissa David. It was a beautiful way to wrap up our swap!

A Piece of Home From Her Heart

Gift #14 was this playful dream house heart ornament, collaged by Kristen Robinson. It's wonderfully folky!

For the Love of Red

Lucky #13 belongs to Penelope Harris. She came up with this fabulous little tag book, celebrating the colour red. It has a poem and each one was personalized for the recipiant. COOL!

LOVEly Ornies!

Liz Smith made us these beautiful double sided collaged heart ornaments for our studios for day #12. Mine said "Wonder" and "Dream" and has handstitching like a crazy quilt on it. Can't wait to hang it up!

We Love Lace!

Day #11 brings the wonderful romantic siver necklace made from a fragment of vintage lace, the work of Jennifer Rowland. What's Valentine's without a little romance? Lovely!

We are up to day #10 and the opening of today's gift revealed this beautifully collaged frame, the work of Linda Koch. It's perfect for housing a little piece of art of a picture of your sweetie! What a great idea!

Special Delivery!

For day #9, Fiona Mortimore sent a beautiful fabric embellished fabric postcard. The base is made of a beautiful pink and red batik fabric, bordered with pink binding sewn on with variegated pink thread. There are lots of lovely embellishments quilted on to the fabric base. Lace, rickrack, organza, ribbons, sequins, and many beads which have all been sewn on by hand. The main heart is a beautiful iridescent fabric heart which has been sewn on and embellished with a big red button. It's just a beautiful!

*Due to a technical glitch, this reveal brought to you by Jennifer Rowland. Thanks Jennifer!

Have Art, Will Travel!

For Day #8, Dawn Supina created this fun vintage heart danglie to hang in our cars. Dawn personalized each one for us on the reverse side with our names! It's perfect for the artist on the go!

We Love Love!

Day #7! We are half way through our exchange and today's gift is a beautiful romantic lacquered domino charm, perfect for wearing on a necklace. This goodie was created by the talented Amy Huff.

Be Still My Beating Heart

Look at this! It's an original collaged watercolour painting created by Caren McNee for day #6! Aren't the colours earthy and rich? You can definately see Caren's South African/New Zealand roots in her work. Beautiful!

From the Heart

Arlene Travnik's playful soldered charm, "She Alters Her Heart" came nestled in a quilted fabric heart. What fun for day #5!

Catch Me, Hold Me

Ruth O'Connor created this darling little tag book for everyone day #4. It has some cool art inside and it really is a small wonder! Beautiful and creative!

Key To My Heart

Pretty and sparkly are two words to describe this amazing work of solder and glass created by Kathy Strittmater for all us lucky girls for day #3. Oh we are destined to be such a spoiled bunch of princesses with all the finery coming out of this exchange! *wink*

Sealed By Your Love/The Long Arm of My Love

Today is day 2 and we opened a very funky, 3-dimensional, beeswax vellum heart from Crystal Neubauer. The heart has a cool little pearl white button in he shape of a flower and is dangling from a big 'ole cool Inventory tag. What fun! It's entitled "Sealed by your love".

On the back of the tag there is a note that says: "Place me like a seal over you heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame." Song of Solomon 8:6 **

*Edit: There were actually 2 versions of Crystal's gift. Some of us received this tag with a beautiful wired heart with a bisque doll arm on it. Both versions were lovely!

**Due to a technical glitch, this reveal brought to you by Jennifer Rowland. Thanks Jen!

Feeling the Love on Day 1!

Day #1 starts off with an incredible etched copper and brass Valentine heart necklace. There are two etched hearts which hang independently, one copper and the other brass on a fabulous copper bar chain necklace. The clasp of the necklace is also 'hand-forged' by Cece Grimes. It's absolutely AMAZING! We are starting off our Valentine swap in Style!

*Due to a technical glitch, today's photo and description come courtesy of Jennifer Rowland. Thanks Jennifer!