Silver Bells at Silver Bella

As you're reading this, I'm at the final day of Silver Bella.  I wrote this post ahead of time, and thought I'd go ahead and show you the bells I created for the swap I hostessed: the Silver Bells Swap.  The swap was to be for vintage or vintage-look Christmas bells that could hang as an ornament on a tree, or be a tabletop decoration.  Colors were to be silver and white/vintage neutrals.  You could use a found bell or create one yourself, from any medium.

I started out with some silver bells I found at an antique store -- two matching ones, which was lucky, as I was swapping with two different gals!

On the left is one of the bells after I embellished it; for that one, I used silver seam binding, lace, a rose I'd sprayed with silver glimmer mist, some vintage millinery flowers, and some vintage bling.

I rested those on vintage sheet music that I'd folded, and underneath it, some wonderful vintage crocheted trim -- a string of white bells!  I added beads and pearls to the bottom of each little crocheted bell.

The final touch was replacing the bell's clapper with antique chandelier crystals.

One of the gals I was swapping with wanted aqua/Tiffany blue in her bell, so I changed that one up a bit to for her.

For each of the eight gals in my swap, I embellished a bag for them to carry away their bells; I used kraft bags, vintage and antique crochet lace, and silver seam binding.  I sprayed white bells with glitter, and attached tiny charms to them, which I then tied onto the bags.  I added some silver and white berry clusters, and I found an image of cherubs with bells that I used to decorate the front; and then put a tag with each swappers name on it.

If all went well, we held our swap Thursday night after dinner, a workshop, and all the group swaps (details of which I can't wait to share with you!) -- the Silver Bells Swap was held at 11:30 pm!  I'm not a night owl, so I might come back and tell you I was swapping in my sleep!  (Wink!)