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 is the only tip-in 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.


Here 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.


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.


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 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 called "In the pumpkin patch."


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 go 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).

Please join Kimmie and the rest of my tea friends today as I start a full week of daily tea drinking. It should be quite an adventure since I am a coffee gal from morning to night. Now I don't plan to give up coffee, but I do plan to drink tea every day. I have so much tea, I need to make a dent in my stash before I turn into one of those hoarders you see on TV. Wish me luck (and head on over to Kimmie's for more tea-ventures).