More Trees

Spring, with a few earrings on it. The flowers are quilled

I really like my paper tree jewllery stand, so I’ve been making a few more this year. Here are a couple that are finished. The one currently underway is a gold leafed tree to complete the seasons. Of course, I doubt I'll stop there. 

Winter

A smaller green leafed one will probably be next, so they will really be a set - my first tree is a bit larger than the others.

Original 'Summer' tree in use at market

Quilled Snowflakes

Even though we’re only just into October, I spent last month immersed in Christmas. This Saturday is the Craft Central Artisan Market, to which you should all go, as it’ll a fantastic market and really fun day. Among the other awesome things, it’ll be the debut market for my new snowflake Christmas decorations.

I’ve made snowflakes before; I’ve even blogged about them. These snowflakes, however, are a new and superior kind. They’re a design I actually worked out around Christmas last year, but I only made enough to decorate my parents’ living room. They’ve been hanging up all year, and still look great, so I’ve gone into mass production mode. Almost forty snowflakes later, I still like the design.

Puzzles Take Two

I said months ago I’d do a post of my larger puzzle magnets – then I realised I’d completely forgotten to photograph then, and many are now out in the world decorating other people’s fridges. I have since made more, and some I’ve even managed to get photos of. All the puzzle pieces are wood, backed with magnet tape and decorated with my marbling and quilling. I cover them in varnish so they're somewhat protected from the hazards of fridge living.

I've made a lot of flower magnets

I think of these as pohutakawa

Cherries are great decoration for a fridge

 My favourite design is the penguins, but even though I’ve made a bunch of them I have hardly any good photos. I’ve yet to hang on to one for more than a week at a time, except this particular one. I suspect he’ll head off to another penguin lovers fridge soon enough, as he’s one of my favourites.

Chaffinch

I’ve been working on these chirpy Chaffinches for a while now. I started making them thinking they would be cards, but I find they suit framed pictures better. They’re done in a combination of paper cut out and graphic quilling style, with the graphic quilling mainly outlining the cut paper. The papers used are a mixture of my own marbled paper, various scraps I have lying round and papers Miss Millicent Crow was kind enough to send me.

I have a whole stack of the chirpy birds already cut out and waiting for quilling, so I’ll probably have another flock of them flying around soon.

Puzzle flowers

 Once upon a time (very recently) this rather nice puzzle was absentmindedly left half done in the sun. The predictable fading left its picture rather unsatisfactory, but the pieces themselves are still well made. I have rolls of magnetic tape stashed away and thought ‘fridge magnets’! 

I always have bits of my marbled paper floating about, and enjoy finding new uses for my quilled daisies. Put all that together, coat in polymer and get a little piece of art to brighten a fridge/magnetised wall. Or anything you use magnets for, I guess. I’ve made quite a few of them.

I've also got my hands on a currently unsatisfactory wooden puzzle, which is turning into some even cooler fridge magnets. They still need finishing, so no photos yet. They will all be viewable (and for sale) at the Eastbourne Market in Days Bay's Williams Park this Sunday. Come along, it should be a great day.