A Wonderful Mail Week!

    Several packages arrived  recently which took me by complete surprise and besides having me going thru them with utter delight it so reminded me of the gratitude I have for the generosity of the many talented people I have met thru art.

 Without further ado- my first thanks goes to my friend Patty! She and I had emailed about our love of using napkins in our art and talked about doing a napkin exchange but I certainly didn't expect this (although I shouldn't really have been surprised :) :

  This was the beautiful package in the envie. Wrapped in that map tissue paper I love, along with a beautiful handmade monoprint tag and her gorgeous hand dyed ribbon!

  Once I opened the package I found this amazing collection of little napkins:

  and along with those came these cocktail napkins:

 I don't have them all in the picture but what a beautiful and varied collection!! What amazed me the most tho is that I didn't have any one of these in my collection or from other napkin swaps!!
 My envie of napkins for Patty is about ready for the P.O. I'll be curious as to whether or not she will have any of those I'm sending.

 Couldn't wait to play with some napkins so I made two quick and easy projects with napkins from Patty . First up is a Halloween canvas ATC:

  I peeled away the napkin layers then adhered the print to the canvas using Collage Pauge. A bit of recycled dryer sheet was added at the bottom. Halloween image and words are from collage sheets by ARTchix Studio. It was simply embellished with a glittery spider sticker and two gold rhinestones for the skull's eyes.

  Once I saw this napkin below I knew immediately what to do with it! I'm participating in a new challenge Fall Fearless and Fly hosted by Jessica Sporn and Carolyn Dube. There are three prompts and the quote prompt given came right in time for my napkin art!

  This is a 5 x 7 " canvas. I just had to do it although I'll be posting another piece of art for the challenge soon, and will give more details about the challenge then. You can also click on the badge in the sidebar for more information. I'd love to see you there!

 Thank you so much Patty!!!

  The second package/box came from my friend Lenna. She's a wonderful artist, instructor and swap hostess. She and I have been friends for quite sometime now. Lenna is moving so she sent me an email asking if there was anything I might want or need. I asked her for some fabric and this is what she sent me:

  Not just fabric but punches and ephemera!! I actually don't have those punches. Love that large punchinella (if that's what it is), her handmade paper and especially the old envies with letters inside-I couldn't wait to open them and read them!

 Lenna didn't just send me fabric-along with that she sent two fabric ink pads and reinkers-in two vibrant colors-YUM!!

 Lastly Lenna sent me the tags she had been making for me using her hand carved stamps made from the lessons in Julie Balzer's Stamp Carving 101 Online Class (see the sidebar at the top right for the link):

  Lenna and I decided to make a tag for each of us so that upon completion we'd each have a nice fat tag book representing the class we were taking together. Lenna has been SO busy with her swaps, art, NIA training, and now packing and moving that she decided to send me hers not knowing when she'll be able to finish the lessons. I've been dragging my feet on my final lesson but I WILL finish it. I'm going to send my tags to Lenna once I'm finished and she's moved into her new home. Thank you so much Lenna for doing this project with me, and thank you for the fabulous box of goodies!!

 My last surprise pkg. came from my friend Theresa whom I met in the early 2000's . She frequented the stamp store I worked in and took many of my classes. Although that store no longer exists we have remained friends. Theresa knows how much I love all things French so this is what came in the envie:

  A Parisian themed notepad and pen set! What  a thoughtful and lovely surprise. Thank you Theresa-you know I love ya!!

 Yes, I'm a pretty lucky girl to have had such beautiful souls come into my life. The kindness and generosity abounds. Is there someone you can thank today?

   "We are so caught up in our destination that we forget to appreciate the journey, especially the goodness of the people we meet on the way. Appreciation is a wonderful feeling, don't overlook it."
                                                                                                             Anonymous