[pressie for my niece]

It's my niece's 7th birthday so what little girl wouldn't love a handmade bracelet in it's own special box? 

I think making the bracelet was the most difficult, not because of the complexity of the beading, that part was easy, but because my almost 8-yr-old son was reluctant and wriggling around when being the model for measuring the wrist size! My first measure attempt led to chasing a dozen or more beads bouncing around on the floor! Boys!!?!

Anyways, to jazz up the presentation I made an origami box and lid to put the bracelet in, and decorated it with a pretty pink quilled flower. Noice!

[celebratory quilling for some of the divas]

There have been a few milestone celebrations this past month, all of them for my wonderful dancing friends (aka the dancing divas). The celebrations kicked off the first weekend of March with a Rocky Horror 30th birthday. Anything for a dress up I say! I got my Magenta on (with many other Magentas), including the birthday girl, but the star performers were the birthday girl's hubby as Rocky and her brother as Frank'n'Furter. I also created a quilled birthday card for her in a monochromatic mid to very dark metallic blue colour scheme, with silver highlights.

The second event was an engagement, and it was lovely to see the sun out for a very pleasant afternoon in the park. Sitting under the boughs of sprawling trees while a light breeze gently buoying paper lanterns strung up in the foliage was just perfect. I'm sure the special couple were very thankful after having weeks of rain in the weeks leading up to that weekend. A little passport-sized photo accompanied the invitation so that was my inspiration for the quilled card I created, with the colour scheme picked from the background of the photograph.

The final diva celebration was last weekend for a 40th birthday get-together. The card I made was a actually a combination of a card and a picture frame, with a special slip-in card at the back where everyone could sign their name. I knew I'd picked the perfect colour scheme when we walked into her house as the feature colour in the living area was red! Using some scrap booking and collage techniques, the final piece was a delicious feast of reds, oranges and a little dark green as a highlight. The entire piece was contained within a paper frame, which I found a pattern for at this incredibly talented quiller's blog.

Quilled butterfly detail.

Quilling numbers and letters is rather tricky, you have to assemble the vertical paper strip in mirror reverse by delicately holding it by pins, pinned into a polystyrene board. Sometimes there are some very tricky moments when the paper strip comes adrift and you have to place it back on the pins with tweezers. You then have to carefully put glue on the uppermost edge of the paper strip and then place your paper down on top of it, wait a moment for the glue to start to stick, and then carefully peel it away from the pins. 

I've previously blogged a step-by-step guide on a 50th Birthday Project - I learnt the hard way on that project that you need to do the lettering in mirror reverse from the beginning!

[new craft corner]

I've always been a furniture rearranger - ever since I was a pre-teen I'd switch my room around and make it feel like brand new. Nothing much has changed, as I did the same with my home office in January. What I didn't have was somewhere I could do my quilling and card making that didn't involve pulling things out of a cupboard and setting up on the dining table. (Which then had to be put all back away before the next meal!)

Over the weekend I finally managed to rearrange the inside of the cupboards and make one side of my really long Ikea desk as the 'craft corner' and the other the 'work' side. And the great roll front cupboards (yes, Ikea again) are fabulous as they can be rolled down once you've put everything back and you're left with a clean uncluttered space. Ikea may not be the best quality so far as materials (the foil desk tops chip and scratch so easily) but the storage solutions and neat hideaway things (like the cord cable organizer I have screwed to the underside of my desk) are just awesome. Plus I've found a few cheap desk mats from Officeworks protect the desk as well as making a nice writing surface.

I've replaced one of these desk mats with a cutting mat on the 'craft' side of my desk which means I can cut intricate patterns out of paper with a scalpel on my desk whenever I want! No dragging out the cut mat from under the cupboard every time I need to do some paper surgery! I also have all my papers, embellishments, punches and tools in easy reach. Likewise, on my 'work' side of the desk I have easy access to stationery and paperwork trays.

Now the hardest part is fighting the crafting bug when I really should be working!

[Courtney’s special hat]

Our dancing instructor is moving to Alice Springs, and we joked at our last class for the year she’d need a hat with corks for the flies. But not any ordinary hat ... hers would need bling! Well, I thought I'd make one!!

[teacher’s pet part 2]

My eldest had his Year 7 Graduation tonight, marking the end of his primary school years.

Here's the card we made for his teacher:

He's really going to miss her...

[teacher’s pet]

It’s the last week of school for my kids this coming week, and I only get a gift for the teacher if my boys say they want to ... so here’s the first creation for my littlest man's teacher, who just loves owls!

The gift box is handmade and it's decorated with a Christmas decoration that's intertwined around the box’s ribbon. I love what my Grade 2er wrote on the inside of the card for his teacher. Nawwww, so cute.

[quilled Chrissy decorations]

It's such a busy, busy time of the year ... with end of year celebrations happening and yet to happen! 

Tonight I'm heading out to dinner with my girlfriends and we've reached a little milestone ... we all met when our kids were in preschool and this year marks when those little preschoolers finish primary school! Where did the time go?? Over the last 7 years we've lost a few of the 'originals' who've moved away, but essentially it's still the same group of friends, which I think is rather cool.

Anyways, I managed to whip up some cute little quilled decorations for everyone last night - momentarily escaping the work and other chores to find a little Christmas spirit. :)

'Tis the season... :)

[Christmas papier mache bowls]

I was again wondering why I proposed such long-winded projects for my Year 2 art gig on Wednesday arvos ... especially as this one took four weeks for all the kids to glue two layers of newspaper into the plastic bowl mould. Thankfully this week I could finally undercoat/seal them at home and then the kids got to decorate them yesterday. 

I will have to take photos of the designs the kids have done and show you, but for now, you'll have to be satisfied with my prototype design I did as an example...

BTW (this bowl won't be gracing my Christmas table - the teacher really wanted one, so it's hers now!)

Bowls, bowls, everywhere... took a couple of days to do two coats of undercoat/primer so no newsprint showed through!

[patchwork owl proposal]

I've put together a proposal to create a group art project with my son's Grade 2 class – some wall art to go up at school! The kids will decorate the 'feathers' of the owl with their own design and will be made of laser cut MDF. The eyes, 'horns', beak and wings will be made of 3D recycled objects, such as hubcaps for eyes, showerheads for the centre of the eye, and plate aluminium (or faux metal decorated MDF). The kid's pieces and the 'found objects' will be assembled by myself and another artist friend. 

As this year's Grade 2s won $1000 for the school to put towards an art project with their self portrait collaborative artwork, we're hoping to get the 'feathers' done before school finishes this year – before they're split up into different Grade 3 classes next year. Afterall, they won the prize!

Let's hope the Principal likes it and approves it soon!

[winners are grinners]

Well the art prize tradition is alive and well in our family. My youngest son came away with 2nd prize for his sculpture at the Youth Art Awards tonight, and his classmate got 1st prize. Such happy boys, and finally they are stepping out of the shadow of both their older brothers who often did the 1st-2nd prize thing a few years back in the same awards. Just following a good tradition I say!

The other exciting news is that the group entry by their Grade 2 class also won 1st prize! How awesome is that?
The school now has $1000 to spend on art, so we'll be busy, busy, busy trying to see what wonderful art activity we can organise for the class before the end of the school year - which only has 8 weeks left!

[first cariacture]

I got asked by a friend to do a cariacture, and replied to this request with, ‘It's not my strongest skill, but I'll give it a go’. It's a bit scary trying to capture someone’s likeness, portraits are a tricky business, and usually something I'm not game to have a go at for someone other than my own family. I’ve also had to keep reminding myself that a drawing of this nature is not meant to be an exact photographic replica of the subject, but capture an essence of the person. I don't think I ‘nailed it’, but am pretty happy with the results, and my good mate Mikey thinks it’s great, so that’s all that matters isn’t it? And he's promised me a nice drop of Chardonnay for my efforts. Happy days. :)

[kid's self portraits]

Very exciting! Last term, my son's Grade 2 class painted self portraits which are now all mounted onto a board ready to be delivered tomorrow as their group entry for the local Youth Art Awards. I think they did a fantastic job!

  

The children were asked to draw a self portrait expressing an emotion, either:

Happy, Sad, Surprised, Angry, Shy, Excited or Scared.

Artwork Description:

As a class, the children have found that everyone is a little bit different, but they have learned to fit in together and work as one. This piece shows this in a visual way. They also explored some new art techniques in applying salt to watercolours to create interesting patterns as the salt absorbed the water in the paint.

Awards night is on 19 October.

[cool 'Ness]

My youngest son has done a sculpture for the local Youth Art Awards next week. He made a foil structure in the basic shape (you can see his mini-prototype in the background of the photo above), and then put papier maché over the top. Once it was dry, he painted a layer of undercoat and then did the final paint job. 

It's called ‘Trashy the Seamonster’, not ‘Nessie’, which would be kinda cool.

[arty blog catchup]

Been very slack in the blogging world the past month ... too busy to stop and share all the amazing projects I've been working on ... not to mention packing for and going on a week's holiday on our little speedboat in Southern Moreton Bay. The weather was just perfect and I so wish I was still sitting bobbing in the ocean. But alas, reality has returned with a resounding ‘Thump!’

Just a quick photo catchup on what arty activities I've been up to these past few weeks...

Stage Prop for my son's Year 7 classes ‘Salvagé’ Recycled Fashion Parade performance: 

(I made the prop, but the kids did the painting under my supervision. Turned out so much better than I was expecting, and the smoke machine on stage looked fab.)

A 40th Birthday Card/Frame (with quilling embellishments): 

A Quilled 50th Birthday Card/Frame: 

...and opening night of my first group exhibition ‘Dare to Do Square’ at the Pine Rivers Regional Art Gallery at Strathpine in Brisbane: 

Above: My piece ‘The Meeting Place’. The exhibition is on display until 3 November 2012.

[happy father's day ... for yesterday]

It's been a little while since posts, as I've been so busy with deadlines, but thought I'd share this father's day project we've done with the Grade 2s these past two weeks.

This 'World's Greatest Dad' Trophy was filled with chocky's for Dad. I was inspired by this site for the concept, but I made a few modifications (to save drying time for paint) by making a pre-fabricated flat pack that the kids could cut out and assemble. (The experience of a graphic designer's packaging skills come in handy some time!)

I found an image of marble and then made a mock brass trophy plate for the front.

I love this box design, no pesky glue required! 

Printed on light (200gsm) card, it's strong enough to fold and join really well.

 

Cut out and folded like this... assembled like that with the 'flaps' tucked in...

and then sticky-taped closed.

 

A couple of foam cups were glued together, and then 'sponged' with gold paint (we used paper towel for this process ... less cleaning up this way as we could just throw the dirty paper towel away!) 

Then we glued the pipe cleaner 'handles' on. They were approximately 10cm long, so we could get three pieces per pipe cleaner. Don't forget to sponge some gold into the 'top' of the trophy to finish the edge, so you don't see any white when you've got it filled with goodies.

How did you spend your father's day? 

 My boys and I took a little trip on the City Cat ferry from Hamilton to Southbank, and then a ride on 'The Wheel of Brisbane' for Dad's day. Was a gorgeous spring day to be out and about!