Cath's pages for me in the first month's color swap

I wanted to show you the lovely things I got from Cath in Cyprus for my first color swap. I continued with rust, but included white in the mix for this round, since this swap is all about color.


Look at the beautiful package Cath sent me. She remembered that I sent a package to her that was filled with postage stamps at Christmas.


I am in love with those bunnies. I was so impressed with the envelope, it took me a day just to open the package.


But open it I finally DID. Now you know why I always insist upon a new envelope when people send in their swap items. I can't seem to ever open the packages correctly. But you can see all the wonderful goodies that are inside the bubble wrapping that is still on the package back. Fortunately, I didn't try to unwrap it from the front where all the stamps were.


Inside were some wonderful goodies, including a book on Ottoman/Turks, playing cards, and tea blossoms.


In case you missed the tea last Tea Tuesday, here is a closeup of the instructions, which also suggest you place the blossom in a wine glass to watch it open. But the other lovely treat and surprise was how nicely Cath decorated the packages she sent the gifts in.


My pages are A4 size, or about 8.5 X 11 if you live in the States. The first page was tucked nicely in this beauty, which is decorated with gold and brown paints and mulberry paper.


Inside was this gorgeous girl, whose skirt I lifted slightly to inspect the entire piece. The background was more of that incredible mulberry paper over the results/remains of a rusty wire Cath used for coloring the background. A rusty lace bodice over a rusty cotton skirt made up the ensemble. Rusty looking hair, wild and perfect for the doll, was the ideal topper. White gems grace her hands and neck, too!


This page was made using the same rusty wire Cath used on the previous page. She cut letters for the words that signified the colors of my pages and attached them. It is very, very clever!


The second page was tucked into this beauty. It included the same material as before.


Inside was the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers you will EVER see. Cath started with white pearl spray ink through a flower stencil (you might have to enlarge the photo to see the true details). The flowers are a combination of rolled rusted zippers and white seed beads over rusty lace, all on white pipe cleaner stems. All of the stems are captured in a "container" Cath sewed to the page. The dragonfly's body is made from the pull part of a zipper, decorator pins, and, according to Cath, "silk worm cocoons."


More rusty fabric graces the back of this page Cath sewed into three pockets. The gorgeous tags inside contain the definition of "rust" and "white," along with Cath's sign in tag.

Talk about impressed! I am overjoyed! And PLEASE check out Cath's blog post for a better explanation of these two incredible pages.