*a bit of serendipity*

Halloween Shoes, Marie Style

The Marie Mail Art Group I'm a member of hosted a Marie/Halloween Fancy Paper Shoe Swap.  I've never made a paper shoe before, so I thought I would give it a try ~ so fun!  A special thank you to Kris for hosting this swap.

These are the three shoes I made and shipped off today.  (Of course today is the very last day shoes had to be shipped.)  One day I just might get something shipped off before the absolute deadline :)

I'm going to get three different shoes in return ~ I'll post pictures when they arrive!

And also a special thank you to Terri for a fantastic tutorial.  If you haven't made anything like this...Terri's tutorial is wonderful!

Practical Magic Blog Party

The party is finally here...

Justina from La Boheme Magique and Anna from Frosted Petunias came up with such a fun idea for a blog party ~ everyone who loves the movie Practical Magic was invited to do a blog post today ~ anything about the movie and/or what they love about it.

I couldn't make up my mind, as usual, about what I wanted to do, but I ended up deciding to make a Book of Shadows.  I've been wanting to make one for a while now, just for a fun decoration to have out around Halloween, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity.  I really loved making these pages.  I probably will make more and keep adding to it.

Here's a few pages I've made so far.

Be sure to check out all of the different parties today.  All of the links can be found at Practical Magic Blog Party!

A huge thanks to Justina and Anna for hosting such a fun party!

Have fun!

Edited:  I've had a few people ask me how I made these pages, so I thought I would add it here in case anyone else is curious as well.  So here goes...

I started off with thick blank watercolor paper.  I used a mixture of coffee and walnut ink to stain the pages.  I soaked the sheets for about 15 minutes in hot water with the coffee and walnut ink.  I never really measure, but guessing ~ maybe I used about two tablespoons of walnut ink and maybe a cup of instant coffee grounds.  I then laid all of the pages outside on the grass and sprayed the front side with Glimmer Mist.  (I mix my Glimmer Mist colors, so I can't say exactly what color I used, but it was a mixture of browns).  I left the pages in the sun to dry.  After they dried, I cut them down to 8.5 x 11 and ran them through the printer to print out the spells.  I then cut them down to the size of the book I was going to be adding them to (I used an old hardcover book).  Then the fun part...I just used all kinds of different stamps to decorate the pages...there are a few rub-ons as well, but mostly stamps.  After I finished stamping, I sanded all of the edges of the pages to look worn, and then inked the edges with ColorBox Charcoal Cat's Eye Chalk Ink.  And that's it!  If you have any other questions, just let me know!