In an Altered State!

Last year in The Sisterhood, we had a secret Santa goodies swap, which, in addition to the papers, embellies, and such, had to include at least one altered item. "Oh, great!" I thought, because other than a recipe, the last *thing* I altered was one of Mum's shoeboxes for a Valentine's Day receptacle back in 5th grade. But then I remembered my sister, Mary, had recently used Modge Podge to make a beautiful lamp shade and thought, Well, if *she* can do that, certainly I could alter something!

So off I went to the craft store, and I ended up altering a small wooden desktop caddy and a big paper mache "L" for my secret sis, Lindalee, using ink, DP, ribbon, and flowers. I think they turned out nice, but most important, Lindalee liked them!

Unfortunately, I have no pictures to post because, well, I'm a loser and didn't take any before I shipped them. But I do have a few recent altereds to share with you.

First up are the paper mache boxes I altered for the sweet and sassy Karen, my secret sis for The Sisterhood's secret summer swap. (NOTE: *Never* underestimate how long customs will hold a box that contains nothing more than papercraft supplies.)

I fell in love with this Wild Raspberry paper collection by K&Co. and thought the colors were something Karen would like, too. After sponging on some Very Vanilla craft ink, I simply MP'd the paper panels then added some pink primas with yellow button centers to finish the tops. After the boxes were finished, I tucked some of the embellies I chose for her inside.

I was nervous about how they would hold up during shipping to Toronto in the summer heat: I had visions of the packing tissue and various other things sticking to them, causing them to look like a 5-year old made them, but Karen assured me they arrived safe and sound. Yay!

Next up are the altered wooden tray and recipe box I made for Lady Catherine for our Craft Room Organizing Smack-Down.


I chose these beautiful papers from My Mind's Eye that featured Cat's favorite colors of greens and blues and earth tones. I painted the tray & sponged the box with cream craft paint, then sponged several coordinating colors on the tray for a worn, distressed look.

To dress up the box a bit, I found matching flat-back pearls and added a dimensional flower that I cut from the DP. Insided I added a piece of DP to the lid.

It was so great meeting Catherine to exchange our goodies! You'll find the sweet goodies that Cat made for me here! After breakfast, we spent *hours* browsing and shopping at Archivers, all the while laughing and talking and being total shopping enablers to each other!


Now that I've made these fun projects, I look at many things and wonder, Hmmm, could I Modge Podge that? As a result, I have a tote full of stuff waiting to be transformed into something new. So, if you haven't played with Modge Podge in a while, grab a bottle and have a go at it. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to create fun, funky items for yourself or gifts for others.

tick, tick, tick...Christmas is just around the corner, you know!

Happy Creating!
Susan