Halloween treats

As promised here are some Halloween goodies that I have been working on. Tim Holtz in his 'tricks & treats' blog post gave some great ideas for creating wonderful arty pieces and Ten Two Studios has some instructions on using matchboxes in the 'project' section of the web site. So I took my lead from those ideas and here they are. Some have been swapped out for group or one to one swaps but all of them were fun to do.

A few pictures of some greetings cards and inchies I made. At the top of the page, however, is a collection of pages from a manifest journal swap. The idea is to take a large piece of paper and write what you wish to manifest in your life on the paper in large, bold letters. Then you add some masking tape over the writing in places and coat it in gesso. Once the gesso is dry you remove the masking tape, tear the page into equal pieces and paint it, collage it, do whatever to make it look pretty. Each participant then gets a page from each person's sheet. It was another new project for me but great fun - even moreso when you realise that each page is a very personal piece of the other swappers.

The next post should be some of my Halloween treasures that I have been making and swapping.

Recipes for a sweet life

OK! I know! Until recently it has been a whole month since I posted. It has been busy here with everything from a new shower being installed (huge mess!) to me having a horrible cold. Now that things are quieting down - don't speak too soon, Gillian - I will hopefully have more time to create and post.

Over recent months I have been taking part in swaps for some things I have never tried before. The first of them was recipe cards. I like simple cooking - not for me standing, over a hot stove for hours on end. Just think Mediterranean cookery - mmmm, simple and tasty. So swapping recipe cards was new and fun. Of course, the first swap was for sweets and treats so the diet was put on hold while I tried some of them.

The other cards here revolved around other kinds of recipes - there is a facial scrub and some lemon balm tea. So even if you're not the world's best cook there is a recipe out there to suit - it just needn't be for something edible.

The bottom photo is for my ongoing tip in swap - it just had to be a Halloween theme for October.

I have more pictures to post but I'll be adding them throughout the week.

Heavenly rosary

Back in July I posted about a commission I received for 120 paper beads. Well, those beads have now been made into the most amazing one of a kind Rock'n'roll rosaries by the very talented Syd from Heavenly Rosaries. One was given as a gift to a friend of Syd's. Judging by what she has told me, her friend really loves the rosary and has received many compliments about it. And rightly so. They are truly stunning pieces and completely original which makes them great as gifts - no one else will have one quite like it as each bead and link is original. The second rosary is now for sale in Syd's Etsy store but she has kindly allowed me to post some pictures here. Enjoy!