Handmade gift exchange

As I was in Facebook the other day, I found a link for a Handmade gift exchange – Winter. I was immediately intrigued and went to check out the site. The Handmade Gift Exchange is an initiative by Craftaholics Anonymous ,in which crafters pair up and gift each other something during the holiday season. There are two different categories – USA and international, where Linda, tries her best to pair you up with a crafter closest to you, so that you save on shipping charges. My love for gifts being legendary (hmmmm!!) I signed up and was assigned a partner from Australia, Megan.She is a stay at home mom of a 7 year old boy and she loves travel. Even in her intro mail, she told me that she was just about to take a cruise to New Zealand with her family. Lovely!

As we exchanged mails (writing to each other like pen pals) I felt that I had to make something special for her. No points for guessing what I made for her…..Jewelry.
She told me that she likes simple and classy things and loves Diamonds…
As I cannot afford diamonds, yet wanted something simple yet blingy (that sounds like an oxymoron doesnt it?) I went with something crystals. I made a simple necklace with multicolour glass crystal, clear acrylic crystal, some jump rings and a ball chain. Then when I made it, it felt incomplete. So I added a little black gauze bow for some cuteness

Okay now as the suspense is over…here is the necklace…actually I featured it in my post on roof top photography…

 I made it with the thought that maybe Megan could wear it during her Cruise. I then packed it in a little red paper box (handmade) and attached a happy holidays bookmark in traditional red- green and gold colors. Megan had told me that she likes dabbling in paper crafts. I made it using an invitation card, gift wrapping paper, some ribbon and a big kundan stone and finally wrapped up everything in a handmade bubble envelope….

So much for my recyling craze 🙂

I finally heard from Megan after a long time that my gift reached her and that she really likes it. She told me that the moment she looked at it, She realised why I had chosen such a simple yet classic design for her.  She said that she also recollected the exact words she told me that promoted me to make this pieces. WOW!! She’s got the point bang on!

I am sooo happy that she is planning to wear it along with a nice black top during here cruise….Yay!! She also loves the book mark and is hiding it from her son for her own use.

And before I forget here are the lovely gifts I got from her

She had made me a lovely soap kit. It contains a hand knitted bamboo yarn soap pouch with a cute soap bar and a wash cloth to wipe off makeup. The colours are natural – gray-white with hints of blue and yellow. Its soft, fluffy and I haven’t really received such a lovingly made (hand crafted) Thoughtful gift in recent times.  

To be frank, I have never before seen a knitted soap pouch. Even when there is a net pouch I usually take the soap out out of it to use it for the fear of ruining the pouch. But Megan says that bamboo yarn is really strong and will not get affected in water. It is so beautiful and pretty and I am unable to let myself use it, though maybe due to Megan’s insistent pressure to try it will use it someday 🙂

She also wrote me a special  card letter that I’ll always cherish….!! Thanks a million Megan 🙂

Finally my Special thanks to Linda for organizing this wonderful event. Thanks for bringing together not just gifted inspiring people but also catalyzing friendships that are born across continents based on mutual respect and love for one another….

Cant wait for the next Handmade Exchange 🙂 !!

Check out this link to find out what all gifts were made and exchanged in the Handmade exchange Winter 2011

Cheers