Second on the 2nd: Halloween tea

If you are looking for T Stands For Tuesday, it is the post before this one.  It went live on Monday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. my time.

If your T Tuesday post and your Second on the 2nd post are the same, please share your post at BOTH links.

If you are only sharing a Second on the 2nd post and/or it is different from your T Tuesday post, please only link here. 

I went back all the way to October, 2011 for this post that I call

Halloween brings out the tea in me

I'm starting this Halloween tea post with Assam tea at my library table. As you can see, I have gathered a few embellishments to add to my Halloween altered book.

As the tea steeps, I begin reminiscing over this book that I started in 2004 with a few tip-ins from a swap.

This tip-in above is especially important, because it came from my dear departed friend Gina Wise. It and one other are the only tip-ins made for a swap that I will show, other than a few I made myself, and one made especially for me. This was sent as a gift from Gina because whatever the swap was, I was not a part of the original players. 

I sewed this plastic together and turned it into a pocket page.
 
For this page I stamped a pumpkin using a foam stamp. I also added a slide holder that I covered with handmade paper and stuck some Halloween confetti behind a bit of organza.

 Here I used several UNICEF boxes left over after collecting for UNICEF. Actually, I think this is from two different years, because I was quite involved with UNICEF back in the early 2000's.  Note the left side of this spread is started with a Halloween napkin, while the right side has my handmade paper.

I realize this is not much, but I wasn't much of an altered artist back in 2004. You can see I had very few supplies and tried to make due with what I had on hand  (ED: I still try to use what is on hand and buy very few products and tools when I create my altered books and journal pages).

To compliment the tip-ins I received, I decorated pages near the tip-ins. This is one I actually liked. Once again, I used my handmade paper, something I had an ample supply of when I was first getting started making altered art.

Tissue paper and a decorated brown paper bag on the right compliment the stamped paint chip on the left. The tag pocket (also on the left) is highlighted with words about the "the day after Halloween."

A little filler I called "In the pumpkin patch."  Die cut pumpkins gifted me by my shopaholic friend Kathy.
 

This is one of the houses I got in my Haunted Houses Halloween swap a few weeks ago. This one was created for me as the swap host by Dianne of Art Beneath the Cottonwoods. Several of these tip-ins were placed back to back, so you will see more than one tip-in in the picture. But, the one from Dianne, hand drawn and hand colored, is front and center.

All of the houses have now been added to this Halloween altered book, and I've started adding a few pages to complement the pages between the houses.

I have a few more pages to alter before it is finished, and the cover to decorate, then I can call this book finished after seven years.

Now to finish my tea and continue decorating my still sparsely decorated Halloween home (not that my house is sparsely decorated, quite the opposite, it just doesn't have a lot of Halloween decorations).
 
_________________________________________________________

Now it's time to share your own Second on the 2nd.  The rules are quite simple and everyone is welcome to join the fun look back.  All you have to do is bring back a post that you are especially proud of, or perhaps one you shared before anyone knew your blog existed.  Any post, any genre, any artistic endeavor is acceptable.  Then link below (direct links only, please) and Bleubeard and I, along with other Second on the 2nd friends, will be by to visit.  Please be aware this link is only open for five days, so linking on the 2nd is preferred.  Remember to link here for Second on the 2nd only OR if your T Tuesday post is the same.