Spoiler Alert: Christmas Swap

I signed up to be in a 12 Days of Christmas Swap twice. For each sign up, I am to make 12 similar gifts. These can be something I have made from scratch or an altered item, which I'll wrap in holiday style. I send these to the hostess and I'll receive 12 separate handmade items, giving me 12 (24 for the double sign up) gifts to open during the Christmas season. It will be a unique and creative advent count down. I love Christmas time!
For my first sign up, I decided to alter collector albums. These albums hold 40 ATCs.
In my excitement to find these albums on line, I didn't realize they were plastic covered. I tried covering the album with gesso, but it flaked off along the edges.





After consulting with my Art-Ventures group for suggestions, I covered the albums with gel medium and tissue paper. I wrinkled the tissue paper to give the covers some extra texture.






When this dried, I painted the tissue paper with black acrylic paint,






then covered it with crackle medium and brown acrylic paint.







to soften the look, I then sponged on gold acrylic paint.







Then I added papers and a painted key to finish the albums.
PART TWO - Spoiler Alert Continued (updated Oct.8, 2007)
For my second sign up in the 12 Days of Christmas Swap I made these necklaces. I bought the bamboo tiles from Art Neko. I painted the ends with black alcohol ink. To give the tiles a light golden sheen, I rubbed Luniere's metallic gold paint over the surface. I stamped on the floral image with black Stazon ink. Added thin black ribbon and a bead to finish the necklace.