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!