Paper Art Class

This term I got do a paper art class for a bunch of seriously fantastic children. I’m proud of what they made and very impressed by their creativity and talent, so I’m posting a few pictures. I actually forgot to get photos of their finished products, which were bookmarks and notebooks. They got to take them home the day they made them and I never remember to take photos at a class! 

Here is a look at my living room, covered in some of the 50 sheets of homemade recycled paper they produced.

A collage of their marbling – the textured paper is their own homemade paper.

Next term’s class is portraiture, and I’m already planning some very fun lessons in different art styles. Check out Days Bay Play’s blog for sign up details.

Art that Isn’t Paper

Aquarelles are my favourite sort of coloured pencil

The last couple months I’ve been teaching general art lessons as well as paper art classes. It’s been great fun heading back to ‘traditional’ art. I forget how much I enjoy drawing and painting when mostly I just do thumbnail designs for paper art concepts. 

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.

Market Time

After a great Eastbourne Market in Days Bay a last month, I’m very excited to tell you all that I’m off to the market again this weekend. 

This Saturday I’ll be at Paekākāriki’s wonderful market for the first time. It runs from 10-2 in St Peter's Village Hall. I hope to see you there.

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.

Daisies Galore

It has been days of daisies round here -  three days, to be precise. Every six months or so I notice my stock of quilled daisies getting low, and devote all of my craft time for a few days to mass daisy production. Here is what one hundred new made daisies looks like.

Next post I’ll show you some of the things I use them for.

Milly-Molly-Mandy Cake

Once again it is the time of year I get to get to play with icing. This year niece-the-elder got to choose the cake, and asked for a Milly-Molly-Mandy themed one. She was having a book party and dressing as her favourite character – you can guess who. She asked for stripes, a book, and a layer cake. I’m pleased I managed to incorporate all those elements.

The stripes I made using a baking paper technique I learnt from the handy internet. Thanks very much Natalie of Sweetness and Bite for such a clear tutorial, I was wondering just how on earth to do Milly-Molly-Mandy stripes and stumbling over her really clear and easy instructions was fantastic. Also getting to tell the kids making their cake required a protractor and compass made my day.

The cakes themselves are fruit. The base one is a gluten and egg free almond and lemon cake, the middle and top are raspberry, in part because I wanted the pink and white stripe effect to be inside as well as out. 

The next week was niece-the-younger’s birthday. I was a little tired of baking, so cheated – the cup cakes are store bought, but iced by me.