Santa's Workshop and the etsyRAIN Holiday Show

I've switched gears from preparing for my STITCHED video workshop to frantically getting ready for my first craft show of the season.  I will be at the etsyRAIN Handmade Holiday Show this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, November 26 & 27 at the Intiman Theater at Seattle Center.  I always love this show.  There is so much beautiful work and everybody has so much young energy (I am finding that my definition of young isn't what it used to be).  The show runs from 11-5 each day and the first 50 people each day receive a free swag bag filled with goodies.  I didn't get a chance to send my swag in, but if you stop by my booth I would be happy to give you a free little something.

The last couple of days I have been busy making fabric paper and quilting and painting fabric.  I now have a whole rainbow of colors including lots of Christmas red and green. I have the strips cut, ready to sew together.  I'm making inches for gift tags, always a popular item.  They are such a fun way to add a special touch to a package that really says how special the recipient is. They also can be used for ornaments, place cards or a little bookmark.

These are some of my favorite nontraditional Christmas colors.  I love purple, magenta, turquoise and blue.  They are the colors of the vintage glass ornaments my grandma gave me from her collection when we were first married.  I haven't used them much since having kids--several were broken and I didn't want to risk loosing any more.  For now, I really like using fabric because nothing gets broken.  I make sure to use enough metallic and pearlescent paint that I still have plenty of sparkle.  After zigzagging around the edges of these, I just need to mount them on painted tags, add a ribbon and they are ready to go.  Then of course I have so many ideas for cards that I want to make.  We'll see how much I can get done in the next three and a half days.