Happy Mail- my first ever

For those of you who don't know what happy mail is, it's fun mail of loveliness that someone sends you and that you didn't purchase or swap for. I have received this kind of mail before from my family, but never from a fellow blogger or from overseas. 

I received this happy mail from Singapore from Cathy Ward. She had a blog giveaway from the Where Bloggers Create Blog Hop and I happened to be one of the recipients of her lovely gifts from her travels around the world. Check out her blogs for some lovely travel adventures and crafty goodness. 

www.donaldandcathy.typepad.com/ma_vie_trouvee

www.theXtraSuitcase.com

She sent me a beautiful and fun selections from both Asia and France to play with. Can't wait to play with the goodies, thank you Cathy! 

Confession:

Ok so all the lovely comments I received from the Where Bloggers Create post are making me feel a bit like a fraud. Ok I confess I did clean up my room for my photos. While I am "organized" I tend to create with everything on my desk and only a small space left to actually work. It doesn't matter how large of a table I work at its always the same thing. 

So I'm learning to embrace this messy part and just go with it. I also start several projects before finishing any of them and I don't clean up after each one either. Everything sits on my desk in a bin where I can periodically rummage through it. You never know if that itty bitty scrap of lace would be perfect on the next card...

The other balsa boxes

Here are the other 4 boxes. I hope you like them. I didn't go too over the top on my first try with them. But I can see that I will clear out the next batch that lands at Michael's!

Altered balsa box

I've been altering five of the cute $1.50 balsa boxes that Michael's periodically carries. I painted them all first with gesso, then acrylic paint in an antique white. Then I decoupaged the paper with matte gel and crackle painted the sides of the boxes. 

Then the fun part of embellishing each box. Here is the first box: