Sending Christmas cards!

This year I started writing my Christmas cards early.

 I have lots and lots of cards (as I used to write lots and lots of letters years ago) and always bought cards to send.

So I decided to send out all those cards and finish them and from now on only make handmade cards or recycle old, used ones, by adding all kinds of embellishments and sea glass on them.

This year I decided to send cards to all the people I usually send. Relatives, friends who live in other towns or countries, pen pals, as well as to all the people I met in the States this summer.

Along with the three craft exchanges I took part in plus all the little gifts I made and wanted to post, my trips to the post office were frequent and cost me quite a bit.

I managed though to keep costs down as much as I could by making some of my own cards and gifts but postage is expensive in Greece anyway!

Still just because I love snail mail and receiving cards, letters and gifts as well as sending (although I am not a frequent regular long letter pen friend as my pen pals might want me to be) I am trying to keep to this custom (or habit if you wish) as I have been doing it ever since I was 12.

And correspondence has really brought me to know the world, to travel around the world and to meet my pen pals. And as the Internet has somehow ostracized snail mail I have, also through blogland, craft groups and the sea glass sites, come to know lots of people, make friends and meet them too! It's the modern type of "correspondence"!

(Handmade cards made by me using cardboard, embellishments cut from other cards, stamps and felt pre-cut embellishments by crafts+paper-bought them at Xeirotexnika. The heart card is an IKEA card and I added sea glass.Unfortunately I forgot to photograph all cards I made.)

A Christmas exchange-share what you don't need

Anna of In my closet (my Secret Santa, remember?) organised a fantastic Christmas gift exchange in which I took part.

 The exchange was organised in perfect detail!
120 crafters took part in it and Anna really went out of her way to match all of them with each other for perfect exchanges!

We had to make a parcel that would contain a handmade gift but also something sweet and five materials we don't need and would like to send to someone else who might use them.

We had to take pictures and show our parcels in our group on facebook.
We were even given info on how to post the parcels.
It was great looking into your stash to find what you would like to share with others.
It was fun trying to figure out which one of the parcels shown might be yours.
It was exciting to anticipate the parcel sent to you! Or to see the reaction of the person who received yours!
One again I was very lucky! I received a lovely parcel from Crete island from dear Erina Katerina of rozkardies (=pink hearts) blog.

Erina loves scrapbooking so she made some lovely paper crafts for me.
A card,

 a bookmark,

a door knob sign

 and a gift tag.

Here's the whole handmade collection!

She added lots (and I mean lots) of buttons, ribbons, paints, a stamp,

charms, embelishments, stickers,papers, felt,

and little paper and fabric flowers she made herself for me to use in my crafts.
(Doesn't that picture have an Attic24 colour combination in it?)

Here's the lot of the "5" materials!That's 105!!!!!!

And there was bitter chocolate too! My favourite! Ooops, there was more, but till I find the right light conditions to take the pictures it was gone!

Thank you so much Erina for all the lovely things you sent me!
I hope the recepient of my parcel likes it too!
And thank you Anna for organising this whole thing! It was such a brilliant idea to reuse things in such a way!
Now I have one more thing to do. Make something with at least three of the things I received! Mmmm, let me think!

A great day at Xeirotexnika

Xeirotexnika is an art and craft exhibition with workshops that takes place every year in Athens. This year it was also organised in Thessaloniki.It was this weekend 11th and 12th of October.

Xeirotexnika is organized by two very talented ladies Elina and Valia who were pioneers in this country in the craft world. They started some years ago with a blog about crafting called ftiaxto which evolved into a site with an e-shop. They taught us through tutorials how to make things and I really learnt a lot from them.So I was really very happy to meet them in person at the exhibition and take a photo with them.

I went early on the first day.

This funny little car decorated with crafts was outside the exhibition.

This beautiful huge cross stitch board was in the entrance.

 I went early in order to manage to get enrolled in the needle weaving workshop and I am glad I was one of the ten people who managed to get in! For only 5 euros you had a two hour workshop to learn how to make a mini needle weaved piece of jewelry and it was great!

Our teacher Natassa Fokianidou aka Faraona was great in teaching us all one by one and I hope to finish my piece soon and show you.

Here are a couple of photos of what we did.

 You will soon see the finished piece.

After the workshop it was high time to visit the exhibition. My photos are not very good though.

First I saw this quilting exhibition. Quilting is not very popular in Greece yet but that group here is trying and they have made some really beautiful things.

 They made this fantastic group quilt with the theme of Greece.

 And here are quilts made by people who have fallen victims of Human Trafficking.

 Lots of sellers from around the country were selling their supplies.
I was so eagerly looking around to get ideas and find products that might interest me, that I didn't take too many photos.
There was lots of wool!

There was silk!

There were exhibits to give you ideas.Like this from 2objectrepair who take old furniture and turn them into something new.

And beautiful little nooks.

There was lots to see and to choose from!

 I really loved the idea of making your own book by this couple.(photo from their site)

But didn't take photos of every seller of course.

I did a little bit of shopping too but as I am on a tight budget I only bought a couple of things from two shops fiaxto.gr and crafts and paper.

I bought ModPodge from the former and the felting needles too. And I bought those lovely felt pre cut patterns for my crafting from the latter.

All in all it was a great crafting day!

Xeirotexnika in Thessaloniki

This year the world of crafters in Thessaloniki is happy to welcome the greatest handicraft exhibition in Greece (and maybe the only one) #xeirotexnika.It will be inside the grounds of the International Trade Fair #thessaloniki on 11th and 12th October.

Of course I will visit it both days. There are special workshops on the first day too organized by my friends Anna Dragatsika of inmycloset and Eleanna Barba of Aouts-pins.

You will find all kinds of presentations, exhibitions and supplies for crafts that we, in our city, had been expecting for a long time.

Also there will be yarnbombing too for a good cause so you can take part too. Find all the info about it here.

Also a little woolen smart car will be going around Thessaloniki from today till the exhibition so if you see it just go and take a picture of it and youself and post it on facebook, Instagram or Twitter with hastags #xeirotexnika and #thessaloniki and @xeirotexnika.
You can find the whole programme here. And the workshop programmes here.
There is also a competition with great gifts you can take part here.

You can find all the info you need here.

https://www.facebook.com/xeirotexnika

www.instagram.com/xeirotexnika

www.twitter.com/xeirotexnika

http://www.xeirotexnika.gr/

#xeirotxnika
#thessaloniki
@xeirotexnika