Altered Sardine Tin

I think this is the strangest swap I have taken part in to date!  Those taking part had to buy a fish tin, eat or otherwise dispose of the contents in some way (I believe cats may have been used for this purpose!), and alter the tin to your swappee's theme.

My swappee was very kind in that she gave a pretty good description of what she wanted, which involved an old fashioned circus side show peopled with characters like bearded ladies and fortune tellers.  I had a set of little wooden wheels fron a toy kit, and knew at once that I wanted to make the wagon that the sideshow travelled in.  There is indeed a bearded lady, and a fortune teller, but there are also other characters lurking behind as well as a pair of Siamese Twins  and a mermaid girl. 

I really enjoyed making the little wagon, and was sorry to see it trundle off to perform it's magic for Rebecca in France.

Jigsaw swap pieces

As part of a collaboration on the Secret Swappers, I have decorated 12 jigsaw pieces themed on the month of May.  The idea is that everyone taking part has the same piece from 12 different jigsaws to decorate on their chosen month, and once they are all swapped back we will each have a 12 piece jigsaw where each month is decorated by a different person.

I chose May because it was still available, it is my birthday month and it happens to be my favourite!  I planned to buy stamps or images based around May Day/ Maypole dancing/the May Queen.  Unfortunately I couldn't find what I wanted so had to make do with what I had, so one flower stamp was used as Hawthorn/mayblossom, and a flapper girl stamp became the May Queen and was crowned with another stamp.  Oh, and the bee represents the fertility aspect of the May Day festival!  So, lots of ink spraying, stamping and painting with twinkling H2Os.