It's in the mail...

With the advent of the electronic age, it's very rare we find something special arriving in the normal surface mail. We never seem to have that feeling of knowing something special is on it's way...unless you are an especially regular online shopper. The feeling of waiting for the parcel to arrive, wondering what's in there! Unless, of course if you bought it, then you'd know...

This month, I decided to take part in the 'Sunshine in the Mail Swap' over here at 'Seaweed and Raine'...

Having missed out on a mail swap earlier in the year with the Creative Collective, this was a great opportunity for me to use some of those ideas floating around in my head, AND for a recipient to have a parcel arrive in the mail (and not just those window faced envelopes!)

Sheree from Seaweed and Raine put the call out about a month ago. I'm not sure how many people signed on for the activity, but we all now have the name and address of the person we are preparing our little surprises for!

We each have been allocated a different person to receive the Mail Swap, so our special gifts are for someone other than the person who is making one for us/me! What a great idea!

With the rain that's been hanging around (we've just had a down pour), it's been the right type of weekend to drag out the cutters, the glue, the printer, the sewing machine. Oh...how I long to be able to spend my days just doing this!!

Now that I have a grandson on the way, he'll be here sometime in October, all of my skills and passion for creativity are champing at the bit. I can't wait to see what Mum and Dad-to-be have chosen for the baby's room!

Pinterest is getting a workout! and my blog projects are up there too...Some of the things I've been doing this weekend are for potential new ideas for my Made it store as well.

How about a bit of a look at what I've been making?

The lady I am sending my gifts to, is Greta from 'On top of a Lilypad' across the ditch in New Zealand. How cool that it's 'overseas', well, over one sea anyway! NZ is so close they could be part of us anyway, or maybe they think AUS should be a part of NZ. (The rivalry continues...)

For the swap, we were asked to do a few things or all of the 5 activities, if we wanted to..

Sheree asked us:

... to choose 3 things (more if you feel like totally spoiling your partner!). It's preferred if you could hand make some of it (or purchase from someone who does).

1. Stationery OR  note cards with envelopes.

2. 1 Handmade postcard.

3. Something you have made.

4. Something that makes you think of Spring.

5. A surprise for your partner

My package will include the following:

A HANDMANDE NOTE CARD WITH ENVELOPE

A HANDMADE POSTCARD

This is from a selection of postcards I made earlier in the year for another project by the 

Creative Collective and I've sort of kept it as a bit of a 'signature' for some of my 

'designed to a T' poster/stationary items.

{Photo isn't great sorry, this was during the downpour and I had no light basically}

SOMETHING I HAVE MADE

A few tags using stickers, bakers twine and Washi tape - This tape is one of my favs 

at the moment, it has the days of the week on it - in 3 different colours!

 and

A SURPRISE FOR YOUR MAIL SWAP PARTNER

This is an A4 poster with the quote I used from last week's 'Weekend Thoughts' 

'Don't wish to be anything except what you are!'

Here's the actual graphic for it...I'm going to send it with the clipboard too. This is a great way to showcase art work, especially if you have children. You can change the item regularly and even have some hooks on the wall for a row of 3 or 4 pictures. They look fantastic and are really a cheap way to display. I bought these from Officeworks for a few dollars each...bargain!

I couldn't think of anything to do that reminded me of Spring, but I still have time. The parcels are scheduled to arrive by the start of Spring, September 1. I have some floral fabric in my stash...I'll think of something...

Stay tuned for some more of what I've been making this weekend...

Creative Collective July Project in My Creative Space

 

Just made it in time...the last day of the July Project is here!

This months objective was to finish something you'd started and put aside. Perfect timing, as I had a little project that had been sitting on my study floor for a few months that I really needed to do something about.

I started it without realizing what I was going to do with it! That happens sometimes, doesn't it.

The project started from this...

A set of bookend drawers, that seemed a decent size at the start, but then...when I put them together, I wasn't sure what I could use them for, as they were quite small!

A little brainstorming...result...they have become my ribbon drawers.

I took some craft paper (scrap booking paper is best as it is a heavier GSM), my PVA glue, trusty craft knife, metal ruler, cutting mat...and I ended up with this.

A little embellishment on the side...

There was about a half a dozen or so pieces of ribbon I bought by the metre, and they were a bit messy just rolled up. Took up a lot of space in the drawers too.

I had some thick cardboard in my stash...it always amazes me what I have lying around.

Voila!...ribbon cards similar to embroidery thread cards. They worked a treat!

All the draws are full now. Hmmm...don't know what I'm going to do when I buy more ribbons.

To see another set of draws similar to this, check out the IKEA drawers on my DIY page HERE. The link will take you straight to the tutorial.

This post is also part of 'Our Creative Spaces' over at Kootoyoo every Thursday. (I'm usually late because I'm never really in my creative space on a Thursday)

More for Creative Collective Easter project...

I've been playing with patterns in Illustrator and have made this 'Bunnies' paper as a trial and error project.

The bunny shape is made from the ellipse tool in different sizes and 'shapes'. I just elongated the ellipse for the ears and feet.

I think he's cute, with all his 'clones'. You know what they say...breeding like rabbits!

Not sure about the colours...

I thought it would look good as wrapping paper, maybe...?

Creative Collective March Project - Green or Green

Well I'd love to say I've been very environmentally friendly with this project, and recycled something for the challenge.

To be honest, I recycle all my household rubbish, but haven't done much in the way of actually recycling materials OR up cycling them for projects. This is a challenge for me. Storage is minimal at home and so is work area, hence a lot of my small project magic happens on the computer and printer, or my sewing machine, and on occasions when I'm at the family holiday house I get stuck into the BIG projects (like my ottoman, which I am yet to complete the instructional post for!!)

Where am I heading with this...whilst I would love to be able to scout more op shops, vintage shops etc etc, I have to focus on where I am going with this blog and 'the business'. There will be time for all the other stuff when I get past thinking I have to do ALL the projects rattling around in my head. Not all of them fit in with where I'm heading...

So to get at least ONE of these projects out of my head, I decided it fitted fairly well into the criteria for this month over at The Creative Collective.

Behold my new Sling bags, in my own fabric design.

My level of satisfaction went through the roof when I finished them, I'm so happy with the fabric design. I'd have to say my favourite one is the one on the left, the one with the circle fabric on top and the complimentary stripe on the bottom.

My fabric designs have been uploaded to Spoonflower, and they print them on natural fibres with eco-friendly inks.

That's one part of the 'green' criteria for this project!

The other is...the design has an olive green background colour.

The fabric is part of the 'Circle Circle' collection, with a complimentary stripe. There are about 25 of my designs up on Spoonflower at the moment, some of them are the same but in another colour way. I still have about another 10 coming, again the same or similar designs in different colourways, or as part of a collection.

I took my favourite one to work on Friday as we were having a team day, and a couple of the girls mentioned they wouldn't mind one, then one of them thought they'd be great for Christmas presents. 

Next step, try a couple of different colourways, and make a few more bags. I have a quick job to do first, some bunting as a gift for a new baby girl. This will be in another of my collections 'Pink Diamonds'...some samples are over here on 'jane on jane st', my other blog.

I'm off now to start the bunting and to post about a little trip I took today to Berrima and Mittagong. I have some goodies to show you from the trip and I'll post about the bunting when it's done too!


Have a good week everyone!

Creative Collective - Random Acts of Kindness

February project - Random Acts of Kindness.

I had the added advantage this time round of having my photographer son with me when I was placing my ROAK cards for the February project with The Creative Collective. I was in Brisbane all last week for work, so over the weekend we went out into their area to place some cards in a few random spots.

The area Brendon lives in was affected by the floods, but not as bad as some areas, however there was still a lot of community spirit where they are. I'd like to thank the lady across the road from where he lives, as she offered everyone cups of tea and lots of support. So one of my cards goes to her, although I have mailed it to her. I don't know her name, but I've put a little note with it to thank her.

Here it is:

I've left the cards in some other fairly obvious and open places, so here they are:

You'll find this one 'where children play at the bend in the river'.

Around the same area - 'designed to a T hopes you have a great game'.

This is around the bend and up the river a bit, enjoy your ride.

To those of you who find these cards, I hope they lift your spirits, because no matter who you are or what you do, 'You stand out in a crowd'!

Creative Collective - February Challenge

This is my postcard for the Creative Collective 'ROAK' (Random Acts of Kindness) February craft challenge.

 {Card Front}

{Card Back}

I've been working on the design for a little while, but changed it a bit to fit in with the challenge. But you know what...I really like it. Very happy with the way it's come out.

The postcards are all printed ready to go. I had an early-ish finish at work today, so I headed home in a flash, to spend a couple of hours working on the idea as a series of this design. 

I'll leave the postcards I've printed tonight in some unexpected places and take some photos. The idea is to leave them where someone you don't know can find them, and have them log in to the Creative Collective blog and tell us where they found their card.

The original idea for this series is 'Bird on a Wire', another is, 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. The idea is to think of an animal that I can incorporate a 'curly' bit, and also that connects to a movie name. So I'm still in the process of researching and creating the animals in Illustrator. I haven't decided what they should be, maybe a notepad or some sort of stationery item.

New Year=New Craft Challenge

I mentioned a little while ago that I was commencing the New Year=New Craft Challenge with the Creative Collective and Calico & Co.

Amanda from Calico & Co is one of a group of fabulous bloggers who set up the Collective and there are some great handmade crafts showcased over on their Flickr Group.

I'd been trying to think of a way to jazz up my magazine collection, when I remembered a post over at Kootoyoo early in December, for 'No sew decorations'.

Kirsty has used her decorations for the Christmas tree, but I found another way to use them.

My collection of paper, stamps, twine, and hole punch came out and here it is. A set of alphabet tags for my magazine holders.

I've only done the first few as letters, but I'm thinking I'll also do some for the titles - 'Inside Out', 'Vogue Living', 'Real Living' and so on. I think I have about 6 subscriptions now, some have been gifts from my sons.

Stay tuned and I'll show you the 'Title' Tags when I've finished them.

Creative Collective...'New Year=New Craft'

Paper projects seem to be the go with me at the moment, and when challenged with trying to have an appropriate and minimal time consuming project, for the Flood Relief Appeal, I came up with the 3D Paper Flower artwork.

The tutorial for the paper flowers was on 'How about Orange' ages ago. I made mine a little bit differently, in that I glued each layer and used a button as an embellishment instead of the paper stem in the tutorial.

All in all I was very happy with the concept and will probably do a few more for family gifts.

Apart from doing this for the Flood Relief Appeal, I thought it a good option as a 'new craft' for the Creative Collective 'New Year = New Craft' challenge.