A gift for Annette

Voodoo Vixen, aka Annette, has now received both her journal, which was the grand prize in my OWOH event, as well as her puzzle, which I altered for her. You might remember that she sent a puzzle for me to alter for her,

and here it is. Now I've altered puzzle pieces before, but never an entire puzzle. It was quite a challenge and took me several weeks to complete.


In fact, I started it on the trip to California, when I marked where each puzzle piece would go, then added paper to each of the puzzle pieces. After I got home, I was too sick to start the actual decorating, so it sat for several weeks until I was able to get out of bed long enough to start working on the decorations. Luckily, I had saved a couple of containers of goodies to work on it when everything else went to storage.


Actually Annette's photo of the entire puzzle is SO much better than mine, I "borrowed" this photo from her blog with huge thanks to her photography skills. I see the two cup holders that will be one of the projects to be altered by us in the background of her photo, too. Annette wanted something that made the statement "if you don't use it, it will rust." She requested some of the pieces be rusty, too, something I certainly was able to oblige.


I did much better on the close-ups than the overall.


I used a great deal of E-6000.


Some of the pieces were such different colors, it was hard to see what went on what puzzle piece.


One of the themes I used was lady silhouettes. I used a few old things that were missing parts,


and a few new things that I tried to rust using paint or ink.


Of course, there was some rust, too, as well as a bag that limes had come in.


Unfortunately, I forgot to remove the excess E-6000 before I took these photos and send it.


The need to get this out the door may have been the guiding factor.


The copper strip on the right in the photo came off one of my printer ink cartridges.


The little car came from a Monopoly game.


I was going for vintage as well as rust, as this piece shows.


I tried to use several moon and star related items. As you can see, there is E-6000 showing under one of the washers.


I learned Annette has a host of these old watches that a neighbor recently gave her. This is the only one I had, so I took it apart and used both the back and front. The small "e" is for my name.


It appears, from seeing Annette's photo, that the top portion of this silhouette came off the top of a former pin. I was afraid that might happen, since the pin back was attached most of the way through the piece. I hope Annette can find the lady and reattach her.


This piece was definitely all about the rust.


These two pieces were left over after I made Dianne's


Mexican Folk Art pages, as was this heart. They were perfect, since I started scrounging for decorations toward the end.

I'm just thrilled that Annette isn't too disappointed that I left some glue showing, and I promise to not do that with the next thing I make her. Of course, the next project is a baby doll dress, so I probably won't need E-6000, anyway. And of course, I won't feel the need to get the package in the mail quite as quickly next time. Hopefully, I'll have a few things in place in my studio and my house before I send another package her way. Thanks again, Annette, for the photo of the completed puzzle.