Holiday Ornament Exchange Reveal 2018

Merry Christmas Y'all,

It's time for the Holiday Ornament Exchange hosted by Karen Williams.  My exchange partner is Carrie Johnson a fellow off loom bead weaver. Sadly for reasons beyond our control my package from Carrie will not be delivered to me until Monday December 17th, so I will update with what Carrie sent to me later this week. I am very excited to receive my package, but I will not be able to open it until Wednesday evening, because I am going out of town to help train a new Police Communications Officer in Tuscaloosa, AL and will not be home until Wednesday afternoon. Oh well such as life.  I did take photos of some of the items I sent to Carrie. 

I was excited to do something for Carrie in a beading form that she does not do, bead embroidery.  We exchanged emails telling each other a little about ourselves, likes, dislikes, hobbies, things we collect, favorite colors, and so on. I was intrigued and intimidated at the same time as I read Carries email, she has lived a very full and exciting life, she has even taught beading classes at the Bead and Button show. So as soon as I was done reading her email I knew exactly what I was going to do for her. Since she lives in Hawaii I knew the traditional ornament would not do and I have a feeling Carrie is not the traditional type. So I got to work gathering the materials and colors I was going to use in her ornament.  Carrie's favorite colors are teal, orange, and lime green I found everything I needed in my stash. Then I went to Pinterest to do some research on lizards, yes that's right lizards! Carrie is fond of lizards and the house lizard is very common where she lives in Hawaii.

So without further ado here is Carrie's ornament.

I happened to find a lizard outline so I traced the outline onto the bead backing and got to sewing. I used a piece of wire for the tongue that is also the hanger for the tree. The colors are brighter than it shows here the sun was just a little to bright when I took the photo. 

I also painted a box and a paper mache star ornament.

for the lid I did the fluid paint technique and the bottom I painted the outside teal and the inside lime green.

I did the same fluid paint technique on the star although the colors are more bright and not as muddy as the lid of the box. 

I put a few more items in the box. Carrie had told me that she was not going to open her box until I got mine and we would open them up sort of together, but since I am not getting mine until after the reveal, I wrote to her and told her to go ahead and open her box, so I hope that she opened her box and likes what is inside.

Thank you Karen for inviting me to participate in the Holiday Ornament Exchange. I had a lot of fun getting to know Carrie and creating her ornament.  I have put up my tree and the ornament you made for me the year we were partners in Sally Russick 2014 Holiday Ornament Swap/Hop is positioned where I can see it from where I sit and bead.

Thank you to all that have stopped by please leave a comment and then go on to see all the other participants in this Holiday Ornament Exchange.

Margo Lynn and Karen Williams

Carrie Johnson and Therese Frank

Jasvanti Patel and Becky Clay

Jane Knaub and Mandi Bugatti

Sherry Eagle and Amy Severino

Judy J Jacobs and Judy Deshaies

Adrienne Hendricks and Francie Broadie

Cyndi Nason and Karen Williams

 Be sure to come back later this week to see what Carrie sent to me.  Happy Holidays to all of you and may 2019 be better than 2018!

Happy beading Y'all

Therese Frank