Let's get "grungey" ...... a NEW Swap

After seeing some of Tim Holtz's demos on the QVC craft day yesterday, and knowing that others love his "grunge" style just as much as I do, I've decided it would be wonderful to create a chunky book inspired by Tim and his techniques.  I need about 8-10 players, max, to join in this swap and the idea would be to create pages following particular themes, using Tim's techniques, "grungey" style and (where possible) products (stamps, inks, paints, Stickles, embellishments, etc).  I intend to give a long deadline (eg six months) for this book so that no-one need feel pressured to have to produce all the pages very quickly.  

If you're interested in taking part in this swap, please drop me an email to sign up - once I have enough sign ups, the swap will close and I'll send out full details of what's required for this swap.  If you've got any other questions about it, then please ask - I hope this appeals to several of you and I'd encourage anyone who's unsure, to just have a go - getting messy and playing with all these inks, glues and paints is really good fun!  And at the end of it, you'll have a beautiful chunky book to keep and treasure.

I enjoyed what I saw on the QVC craft day - well done, Lindsay, for your appearance with your new stamps, they proved very popular! ..... and I couldn't resist buying Tim's new book (A Compendium of Curiosities) as it came with extras, so seemed like a good deal - can't wait for it to arrive now, it looks like it'll be a great reference book for all his techniques. 

These are pics of some Tim Holtz inspired tags I made for a recent swap hosted by Ali in one of the groups I belong to - Ali is going to bind all the tags together with nuts and bolts to form tag books so I'm really looking forward to receiving mine in the next week or so.

Monday, Mia went to the vets to be spayed and microchipped.  It was of course a bit of an anxious time until we knew she was safely through the op and we could pick her up from the vets.  She was wearing one of those cones round her neck to prevent her picking at her stitches (in her tummy rather than her side, because apparently her fur, being a Siamese, would grow back much darker and spoil her markings) and feeling very sorry for herself, she hated it and kept trying to walk backwards to get out of it or was bumping into furniture with it.  It was so big I'm sure she'd have found it difficult to eat any food at all out of her bowl. 

Poor Mia! - we left the cone on for the first night whilst she was still a little subdued from the op and I stayed up with her all night, watching bits of QVC and the Winter Olympics and dozing for a few hours on the settee with Mia on my lap - but the next morning Graham removed the cone and, what a transformation, she was straight back to her cheeky, mischievous self, tucking into her food and wanting to play again.  You'd never know she'd had any surgery at all.  We're just keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't pull at her stitches, but she's being pretty good really so we won't be putting the cone back on her again.

And finally, I've also decided to put up an ATC swap on the first of each month ..... I'll be posting the first of these swaps on 1st March, so check back then if you fancy joining in.