Had my hair permed this week but I'm still not sure if I'm really happy with it - its dropping out really quickly and I have to mousse it to within an inch of its life to get the curls to stay in - not really what I wanted... but I'll see how it goes for a bit longer before I decide what to do about it. Isn't it funny how we girlies are often not happy about our hair - if it's straight we want it curly, if it's curly we want it straight... no wonder there are so many hairdressers in town...

Finished my "inchies" for the online swap - the first one is stamped with Memories black ink for the bird, then overstamped with white Stazon with the word 'beauty' (a bit hard to see in the pic!) and a jewel stuck onto the background (which was coloured using Distress Inks). 

The second one is also stamped with black Memories onto a Distress Ink background, the leaves were coloured with a green glitter pen and the whole thing covered with Crackle Glaze - and thats where my problems started... I'd not used this product before and might have been a bit heavy-handed with it, and all my inchies started to curl up at the edges as the glaze dried... I've had to stick them onto another piece of cardstock using permanent Herma and weight them down to try and get the curl out, hopefully I've succeeded...

The third one is a strip from a Hambly acetate overlay which I've layered over a Distress Inked background and then dipped the edges in liquid UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder) using my Melt Pot, sort of a faux metal-soldered effect. I'd not used my Melt Pot in years (and boy the smell sure told me that!) but I had great fun reminding myself just what I could do with it. 

Now I've got these finished and sent off to the host, I can really start planning my next project... I've joined in with a swap called the Arty Farty Jigsaw Swap - we're working in teams of 9 using a 12x12" chipboard (cardboard) jigsaw base. Each member of the team has their own theme and we make a piece for each of our team members, then send them off to the co-ordinator who puts everyones jigsaws together and sends them back, so you get a completed jigsaw on your theme made by you and 8 other very talented people. We've got until the 29th May to finish all 9 pieces which on the face of it sounds AGES but in reality is 9-10 weeks away - thats a bit over a piece a week.

My theme is music in purple - I've sent each of my teamies a piece of the same purple ribbon we all wore to Pete's funeral and I've asked that they incorporate it into their jigsaw piece somehow. My own piece is (at the moment) going to have some pictures of Pete sandwiched into slide mounts making a little book of pics of him, and the cover will have the ribbon wrapped around the slide mount... this might all change when I actually get the blank jigsaw in front of me and I actually make a start...

Wish me luck - I think I'm going to need it!