It must be Christmas...

... because I keep getting lovely things arrive in the mail.

The ornament exchange on Creating and Sharing Mixed Media Art over on Google+ brought me an extraordinary package from Gerda Frankes, all the way from Holland.

Inside was a veritable cornucopia of goodies in keeping with the Bling theme for December.

The texture on the envelope alone had me drooling.

The metal embellishments and bling inside was even more delightful.  Look at those wonderful leaves cut from pop cans according to the tag attached.

There were two delicious tags incorporating dried vegetation and some fabulous metallic paints. Since I'm a huge fan of nature and dried anything, they're right up my alley.

And have you ever seen a cuter pair of shoes - these are definitely going on the tree this year!

I fell in love with the gorgeous papers included in the package, along with these miniature slabs of wood.  You know they will end up in a painting soon!

Look at the glow on this one.

This one is so rich and deep, and those copper accents make it sing.

I love how the gold grid shows through on the unpainted areas on this leaf print!

Gerda, you sure know the direct route to my creativity heart - so very inspiring.  Many thanks, and Merry Christmas to you from Canada!

Happy mail...

...is so much fun, and this week I received a glam package from a Google+ friend, Gerda Frankes, a partner in a tag exchange arranged on Creating and Sharing Mixed Media Art. And what a package it was - even the front of it was juicy.  All the posties from the Netherlands to Canada would have been grinning at this!

The back of the envelope was sealed with this cool washi tape -

and inside?  Wow.  There were metal embellishments to drool over (you know I'm addicted, right?),

 along with a sparkly sheet of red-gold paper,

and a couple of sheets of burlap paper accompanied by two embossed tags (I love collaborative artworks, and you may be getting these back sometime Gerda!).

The tag itself is a stunner, shimmery (in keeping with the month's theme of Shine) and lush.

A closeup reveals the use of the burlap paper, surrounded by teeny tiny beads wired together...delicious.

Even the back of the tag was treated to Gerda's creativity.

I've been grinning from ear to ear since I received this, and can only recommend you artists join this community and jump on the tag exchange bandwagon.  It's an unbelievable treat to share with artists from around the world.