christmas card book and giveaway wins

Earlier in the year, the lovely Jillayne from A Fine Seam made a very generous offer to her readers.  In exchange for 6 Christmas cards, she would make us a Christmas art journal.  How could I pass up being the recipient of a handmade gift from someone so talented?  

I made my cards from strips of fabric sewn with the world's most irritating metallic thread.  They took me hours due to that damn silver machine thread!  I added some sparkly stickers and holographic card.

Last week I collected the parcel from my PO Box (my parents' house).  I was so excited I had to open it there and then, so no photos of how beautifully it was wrapped, but it was wrapped in an old pattern with raffia and a hand-stamped tag.  Want to see how beautiful it is?

The outside is fabric wrapped and closed with a lovely satin ribbon bow.

The spine features button clusters, look at those buttons!

Inside the pages are cards from the other participants.  This one is all stitched and so was loose in the book, it was made by Susan from Suze Tats.

The leaves (not sure if that's the correct term) are made up of a mixture of patterned and textured pages and all different sizes to allow me to add onto the book sideways so as not to add bulk.

This card is from Karen of Todolwen (sorry, no blog address, if anyone happens to know it, I'll add a link.

This gorgeous French card was made by Freda of Sew What's New.

This beauty is from Diane Kelsey of Diane Hobbit (sorry, again no link).

And last but not least is a card from Marj Talbot who does not have a blog.

Ladies who sent in the cards, thank you for your participation.  Jillayne, thank you for a wonderful gift which will be treasured.

Last week was a lucky week (besides the whole house falling down thing), I also won a giveaway held by Lucy at Charm About You.  I've won a dress pattern!  I'll show you when it arrives.  Thanks Lucy.

I then found out I'd won another giveaway, this time at Clover and Violet, it's a Subscription to Hop, Skip & Jump Block of the Month from Sew Lux Fabric & Gifts.  Thanks ladies!

Now if I could just get some house-shaped luck...