It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas Tree

Advent Calendar

Nativity Scene

Christmas Market

... I really think it is the most wonderful time of the year!

... it's that time of year ...

Although it's not December yet (when Christmas 'officially' starts in our house!) it's certainly "that time of the year".

It's that time of the year when my colleagues and I are busily marking student work and writing reports as well as thinking of fun Christmassy things to do while trying to stay 'on top of it all'.
It's that time of year when the heat arrives and brings thunderstorms in the evening (yay for rain!)
It's also time for me to start thinking about Christmas gifts and looking forward to and planning the festive season.

And the thing that's exciting me the most is the BrisStyle Indie Designers Christmas Market, because, not only does it coincide with the end of school for me, but I can't wait to set up my little stall, soak up the friendly market atmosphere and do some super crafty Christmas shopping!

I have been making a few new things for BiDM, some more 'little cuties' (like the one I made in this post) and my 'eco-envelopes' (see this post). Most recently though I've made some little gift tags.


These have been made using up-cycled cereal boxes (I have been amassing quite a collection - we eat a lot of weet bix!!) and some fabulous vintage images from old childrens books. I think they would make cute gift tags for gifts for kids, but think they would work as bookmarks too!


Making these is very addictive and fun - I absolutely LOVE trawling through damaged old books looking for the perfect images!

I'm selling these in my jellygnite etsy shop as well as at BiDM. I'm really looking forward to BiDM now! ... but there's a little bit of preparation work ahead of me yet!

If you are keen to check out who of the BrisStylettes will be at the next BiDM, check out the BrisStyle website (created by a very clever local Brisbane web-developer ... aka, my husband!!)

BrisStyle Limited Edition Eco Tote Bag

... Help Pick the Design and WIN!

This is rather exciting! We are printing a limited edition run of BrisStyle totes for the BrisStyle Indie Designers Christmas Market. Some of our very talented BrisStylettes have come up with some fun designs.

Head on over to the BrisStyle Blog to pick your favourite ... if you can - I'm having trouble deciding which one I like the best! You'll go in the running to win a tote of your very own!

Sharlzndollz' design entry

Newness for the Festive Season

I’ve been absent of late … lots of different things going on that meant the blog posts didn’t happen … but here’s another one now!

I’m getting quite excited about the beginning of December … so many good things happening; school’s out, Christmas is coming … but before all that the BrisStyle Indie Designers Market is being held!!

I’m very much looking forward to the BiDM market – the BrisStylettes are such a lovely community of crafty gals that the markets always have such a friendly and fun vibe.

I have a nice load of stock waiting to make their appearance at the Christmas BiDM – Little Jellies, Little Loxies, my softies patterns, note books + brooches. However, I have recently been busy making some new things for *jellygnite* at BiDM.

I have quite a love of letters and mail and mail art; I really love the book “Urgent 2^nd Class” by Nick Bantock (love his illustrations!) and have just ordered this yummy mail art book called “Good Mail Day”. So, in keeping with my love of mail I’ve made some ‘Eco-Envelopes’ (they are a lot of fun!).

I’ve made them using all re-purposed materials – both fabric and paper. My fabric ones are mostly vintage fabrics and lovely old buttons. My paper ones are old maps and book pages as well as 1940s wallpaper. You can have a peek at them in my jellygnite Etsy shop.

I love that these envelopes can be used for a whole heap of uses! I posted one in the mail to the lovely Ruby Red (which arrived to her intact, happy to say!) using a little address sticker on the front. I also think they’d make good pouches for gift cards and small gifts or for using as a little purse. I can’t wait for the gift-giving of Christmas (or the BrisStyle shopping on my 'to-do' l

Bring on the Christmas Cheer and the fabulous BrisStyle Indie Designers Christmas Market!

Peg Dolls

Busy little hands at my place have been crafting their way through the holidays! Joy!

I love peg dolls and have been wanting to make some for a while. I love that they can be beautifully simple with just a scrap or fabric tied around them, or beautifully intricate with gorgeous little detailed clothes.

I made up some templates for our dollies clothes; a skirt, shirt and pants and then let the kids choose their fabric scraps. We drew little faces and shoes on them and then dressed them in their nice clothes. Then we knotted and glued their hair on and gave them sweet little necklaces and a neck tie.

Such fun! This was a good project for my boy to handle, but my little one needed my help. They are so quick and fun to make that they were being played with in no time!

Softies for Mirabel

Meet Marron. He is a new little cutie that came into being last night. He is very quiet and sweet; my girl gave him lots of cuddles this morning.

Marron, along with one of my Little Jellies, is making his way down to Melbourne today to be part of the Softies for Mirabel project. Head on over to the Meet Me At Mikes blog for more info on Softies for Mirabel.

I enjoyed making Marron so much, I can imagine making a whole family of them!

More Holiday Crafting

So much time to do crafty things on holidays! I love it :)
We've made these little bowls before (see this post), but I was inspired to try them again by Amanda Blake Soule's book 'Handmade Home'. (this book is such a treasure to look through - so nourishing in the best crafty way!)

(they look like the Three Bears' bowls!)

As it had been over a year since making these bowls, it was nice to try them again with my bigger kids. A year on means better dexterity, (slightly) longer attention spans and a little less mess!!

This time we made them using old 'window' envelopes that I'd saved - I really love the patterning on the inside of them, don't you?! We used a diluted PVA mix for the glue, but a proper cellulose papier mache glue, like 'celmix' would be much better (and much safer!).

We used little glass mixing bowls as the molds and put on about 2 or 3 layers of paper. My boy went for the largest bowl - which obviously takes longer to do - and so his only has one layer and is sweetly delicate. The little bowl was for my girl - she attached scrunched paper balls to the outside of hers for a bit of texture.


I'd considered painting them, but the lovely patterning is quite perfect, so they're staying as is. Now they're ready for some special treasures to go inside!

School Holiday crafting

Over the past recent years I have been accumulating gleefully a stack of wonderful crafting books - both new and old. I decided that right now is the perfect opportunity with both kids at home and me on holidays to try out some of my favourite projects!

The little activity we did today was to make some lovely paper flowers from the "Phoney Flowers" project in the 'Meet Me At Mikes' book. We used old book pages and twigs from the footpath for ours. The kids painted the paper with ink beforehand. (nb. the old book pages are so lovely - yellowed and crinkly ... but beware! they can be quite brittle!!)


I was pleasantly surprised how this went with my 5 1/2- and nearly-3- year olds - they really enjoyed the project, and while I helped quite a bit, they had fun creating.

We are very pleased with our new blooms! (and are looking forward to our next fun project!)


Today has been such a strange weather day. We have been enveloped in a big cloud of dust - there is an eerie light around and a layer of dust on every surface of the house. And now it's chilly. These images were taken from the back deck - looking out from the second picture you normally can see the hill behind our house - it is totally lost in dust.

books are good

The Art Show at school went off without a hitch (phew!). It was such a lovely, low-key evening celebrating the Art and Music that little kids make. And now, I'm on holidays!!

Aside from busy Art Show prep, it's been a book-y week here. We love books in our house.

My gorgeous, clever boy is learning to read; he is taking such delight in discovering the 'secrets' hidden in the words of books. His favourite at the moment is 'Ten Apples Up On Top"; he has it on his bedside table with a bookmark (his favourite bookmark from Bec) in it. You see, it is rather a long book and he gets tired halfway through reading it - hence the need for a book mark! ;)


The BESTbooks book swap happened again - number 8. This time, we had a theme of making flag books; it's always fun making to a theme. Rhonda from My Handmade Books collates them all each time, see her blog post about it.

The book I made used pages from a 1960s Auckland panorama book. I cut the photo up in skinny strips which became the 'flags' of the book. When the book is held open at a certain angle, you can see the entire panorama.



The book I received was this gorgeous one from Meredith from notuboc. Simply beautiful with it's blues and organic shapes. Lovely! thanks Meredith!

Also this week, I found out that my book tutorial is listed on the Meet Me At Mikes list of '25 ways to make a book by hand' - cool! (mine's #16). This list is a great compilation of some lovely little tutorials for making gorgeous books. (great ideas for doing some crafting these holidays with the kidlets).

I'm off to keep preparing for the Racecourse Rd Street Party - what fun, can't wait!

Racecourse Rd Street Festival

Hello there!
I've been a little absent lately enjoying a bloggy break and also being very busy at work. Tomorrow is the Art Show at school so I have been crazy busy (and anxious!) getting it all together! Fingers' crossed for tomorrow.

Also taking up my time has been preparing for my next market. This Sunday I'll be at the Racecourse Rd Street Party sharing a stall with bella Bel from EmBelISH so have been having fun getting ready for this. A whole bunch of BrisStylettes will have stalls out the front of St Augustine's (where our last BiDM was). I can't wait - it's going to be huge! (drop by and say 'hi'!)

Here is a pile of my new recycled books that I've been making from cereal boxes and paper ephemera - the 'Mills and Boon' covers have been used too. They just need their threads snipped and they're ready to go!

Somewhere hidden in my 'to do' pile (well, one of them anyway!) is a bunch of Little Jellies waiting patiently for completion ...

I can't see me getting these babies finished in time for Sun (such a shame!). Some of them seem to be quite worried about this, but I told them that it's ok - they can come to the BrisStyle Christmas Market!

spring-time

There are so many things I love about Spring-time. At the moment, at the top of the list is saying goodbye (fingers' crossed!) to nasty winter 'flu ... so sick of being sick!!

The weather has warmed up so much here .. kinda feels like Spring has been skipped and we're moving straight on to summer! (and, technically, it's still winter!). My jasmine is blooming, the air smells sweet and we've kicked off our slippers! Love living here!

Some lovely things have been made recently that also make me happy for Spring-time.


One of the most lovely things is the opening of a brand new cosy and crafty 'Nook' in West End. This little shop, made by Michelle in the front room of her house is overflowing with delicious crafty goodness - so many beautiful things! My LittleJellygnite babies are so happy and humbled to be in such lovely company, including lovely things from some other BrisStylettes too. Go to the 'Nook' blog for more info.


I grew up with these good old chairs which were looking decidedly shabby around the edges after we had adopted them.. So, despite the fact that the kidlets are still small (messy!) they got a re-covering - the woollen covers always itched my legs anyway! I found a lovely strong cotton fabric (such a great colour too!) to replace the grubby, scruffy 80's covers. Lovely! just like new! (the kids chairs have specially-made slipcovers on them to protect the new fabric)

Another newly-made thing in our little house is a cubby. Hooray! somewhere for the kids (and their junk!) to hide! We are lucky enough to now be the owners of a big new t.v, which is pretty cool ... but I'm not sure which is better; the big shiny t.v or the excellent cubby-making box!?


My boy and I decorated the box yesterday with little paper squares in red, orange and gold. It also has flowy curtains, a letterbox and a very grand front door! They are having lots of fun in their Morrocan-esque cubby already. I love it! All the decorations we used came from my (rather large!) stash; what an eco-cubby! :)


As well as all this, some Little Jellies and Loxies are patiently waiting completion along with some moleskine-like notebooks on my work table.

Happy Spring-time everyone!

The BrisStyle Etsy Ekka Extravaganza Sale!!

(whoa! what a mouthful!!)

'Creepy Clowns' from Hey Harriet

The Ekka is on again! Which means, along with strawberry ice-creams, the show bag pavilion, baby animals and a good dose of the 'flu, that BrisStyle's EEE sale is on again!

At both my jellygnite and LittleJellygnite stores, I am offering:

Free postage within Australia plus free set of gift cards with purchases over $25 (excl. postage)

image from TwinkleStarArt - thanks Amanda! ;)

The sale runs from today until Saturday 15th August
Visit the BrisStyle blog for a list of the BrisStylettes and their deals!

Happy Shopping! :D

happy things

My 'Suave 70's mini notebook' made it into the Etsy Gift guides this week!!


Thank you to everyone who voted him in - must have been his charming good looks ;) He is actually in quite lovely company; there are some really clever little books there.

More happy news is that I won Jess from Epheriell's blog comp for July - thanks Jess!! I get to spend $40 in her shop now :D Jess is currently on the count-down for her big wedding day; have fun with your preparations Jess and all the best!


The end of this week sees the start of the Agricultural Show in Brisbane - the 'Ekka'. Stay tuned for an enormous BrisStyle Etsy Sale to celebrate!

Shadow Shot Sunday #33

After a week of wintery 'flu and sick children, we had a nice day today; it was sunny, we were at the beach and are all now on the mend.

This shadow was taken after our sweet little neighbour dropped in some leftover balloons from his aunty's party. The two smallest members of our household have discovered that helium-filled balloons are very cool - and not just because of the pretty shadows they make!


For more lovely shadow shooters, head on over to the award-winning Hey Harriet! ;)

Happy Sunday everyone!

I love brooches

The lovely LittleChrissy popped these lovelies into my letterbox today (well, actually the postie did, but, you know..)

I had been admiring this 'Commodities' brooch with the barcode on it for a while. I got round to purchasing it on Monday and the lovely Chris gave me an extra little special brooch as well! I really quite like it; it is soft felt with a little paper word on in - 'warmth'. Lovely.


Oh! and a sew sweet little card too!! How spoilt am I?! Thanks lovely Chris :)

As I have quite a love for brooches, here are some other yummies I've been coveting recently!

Gorgeous little cheekyRabbit Badge from pocketcarnival

fabric covered badge by STARASHAN

Gorgeous colour burst: Handfelted little nest brooch by SMboutique

They are on my shopping / wish / Christmas list!

Vote for Gregor!

Suave Mr Gregor has made it to Etsy's Back to School Supplies voting room!

Suave 70's Mini Notebook

Drop in and show him some lovin'!
http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=61

Shadow Shot Sunday #32

Happy Sunday everyone!

Here are some shots that I captured on a recent trip to the Mt Coot-tha botanical gardens. I visited with the kids, my Mum and my Aunty and her granddaughter who were visiting from NSW. We had a lovely picnic lunch, playing, rolling down the grassy slopes (the kids - not me!) and strolling through the gardens

These were taken at the Japanese Garden - which is so serenely beautiful, even with loud, excited children in tow!

The walled garden is beautifully laid out with lush green plants, a little pond, bridges and picnic spots. I spied many shadows in the Japanese Garden as well as the rest of the Botanic gardens (it was such a beautiful sunny day!) but these were my favourites. The soft shadows of the tree on the wall as we were leaving the Japanese garden caught my eye.


Have a happy Sunday everyone, and thanks again to lovely Hey Harriet for her Shadow Shot Sunday!

These are fun!

I've got into making a few things lately. As well as some more cute Little Loxies I've got on the go, I thought it was time for something new too (I get bored so easily - such a short attention span!).

We keep cardboard boxes of all shapes and sizes at our place. When the pile gets too big, the boxes make their way to school with my boy and go into the big tubs full of exciting 'making things' materials. However, recently I have been keeping some of these boxes for my own 'making things'.


I have made four little moleskine-style notebooks using the cardboard from cereal boxes. They are fun to make because I then go through my stash of wonderful ephemera (and it is quite a sizable stash so it's nice to make use of it!) to find a suitable image to glue onto the card. So, the boring, printed side of the cereal box gets covered up with retro loveliness and you can still see the cardboard on the inside.


Two of these cover pictures are from illustrations in 1960s women's magazines - I love the daggy style of these so much !


The other two are from pages of a glossy (and large) Tasmania 1960s tourist book - flipping through the book is like a step back in time!


I've uploaded these for sale on my jellygnite etsy shop and today I found some 'Mills & Boon' books with wonderful old covers on them so I'm looking forward to using these to make some more!