Free January Calendar Download

As part of the Great Planner Plan of 2013 I decided to create a little calendar for you all to download and use. It’s all hand-stamped (yes with my stamps!), hand-drawn and hand-lettered so it’s a little lo-fi, a little cottage and I hope you like it.

All of these are A4 paper size but I believe that it will work for letter just as well!

Here’s a link to the PDF – Jan_calendar.pdf

And a JPG Version –

(click the thumbnail)

 

 

And here are some decals you can print onto sticker backed paper (or just use glue) and use with your calendar!

(click thumbnail for full image)

 

 

 

My 2013 planner is well underway, January is all stamped and in use, I have carved days of the week in French and English. And have 31 date stamps! I’ll share an update on the planner in the next post!

Read Full Post »

Envelope Journal Flick Through.

embedded?

Read Full Post »

a multitude of things

Well it’s been a hectic few weeks, working on prints for exchanges, making christmas presents, doing pottery and tai chi, christmas parties and oh yeah, working!

The ever talented R. has built me a press based on Charles Morgan’s design I have to say based on because R. is an engineer and as such, engineering has happened.

Click the photos in this post for bigger images because I think there might be a few!

So far I have printed a lino cut and a drypoint with it. There is fine tuning in the printing process to be done but they are certainly getting there! In the image of the drypoint you can see the inked plate and the print (the print being the lighter one).I think my paper was a bit too damp still.

For christmas presenst this year I made a gingko screen print and made a journal and bags for R’s sisters. I was thinking the journals might work on etsy any thoughts?

Anyway iIm going to dash off, I’ll be back with some art goals later!

Read Full Post »

Crunchy or smooth? (loooong post)

Police spokesman Senior Constable Leigh Wadeson told ABC radio he did not know whether the peanut butter was crunchy or smooth.

Ok it’s old I know, but I saved it to a draft weeks ago!

Yes it’s been a month since my last post, it’s been an interesting month, A kind of productive month, a very busy month. I think it’s best to sum it up in pictures.

Two atc’s for a swap!

A disaster of a mini-quilt for whip-up

What the mini-quilt became.

the three amigos, Mic (microsoft-he’s the big one), Mac (Macintosh – the pretty white one) and Google (he has googly eyes)

Read Full Post »

Aren’t I lucky!

Meet the fishes.

They don’t have names yet but this photo is the best I have so far of the three of them.

And below is the one who is hiding in the back of the first photo. Now if only they’ll stop hiding from me, I suppose that will happen after they realise I’m the one who feeds them.

Now while i’m of course lucky because i have three new companions I’m also lucky because in the last few weeks I’ve won hundred post give-aways from Justine at 62 cherry and megan at scent of water!

Now I’m not really a huge fan of meme’s but I do love my music collection and Justine’s meme just happened to hit the right note!

List 5 songs that are guaranteed to make you “speed in your car, dance in your seat, and sing out loud!”.

1. Whippin’ Piccadilly – Gomez. I love Gomez, i know they’ve been debated around the music scene as embarrasing college rock but I have more than a soft spot for these crazy gents.

2. Back in Black – AC DC. Some would say my outback Queensland roots are showing but it’s actually a more embarrassing connection. Yes, it’s true, I’d sell my soul to sleep with a Winchester.

3. Dakota – The Stereophonics. Now i love old Stereophonics but this song is definitely a driving song, and since i don’t drive it even works on my bike!

4. Hotel Yorba – The White Stripes. Foot stampin’ hand clappin, hollerin good song. Just ask R. he’s often seen shaking his head as I rock out to this song.

5. Whorehoppin (Shit, Goddamn) – Queens of the stone age. Just a supercool song that makes me very happy.

I’ve had a little success at the o-shops lately, mainly of the pretty pillowcase variety but here’s a picture of a bowl and plate I picked up. they are basically a made in china copy of some Bison stuff from a few years ago. But since the kitchen is decorated with pink I thought the pink fruit/salad bowl and blue plate were a fun addition. the tablecloth is another op-shop find and it seems to be someone’s hand cross stitch!

In the background you can see another reason why I’m lucky; Beautiful Dahlia’s that R. brought for me.

I had a terrible failure while turning one of R’s excellent photos into a book cover today, it just turned out bleh! The photo looked great but the execution of the book was awful and definitley not up to my usual standards.

I’d like to try to get some things out for tie one on, whip up and the pincushion challenge but inspiration seems to desert me in the evenings, I just don’t like the sun going down so early I think!

Have a great end to your week!

Read Full Post »

More than not much going on around here!

I was going to start this post with not much craft going on around here but actually there kind of has been a fair bit going on! Not all crafty but craft related!

Progress on R’s toe warmer is going along at a nice rate now it’s getting chilly, it’s just over a foot wide, and R quite happily used it as a belly blanket last night while watching the new Doctor Who.

I decided that the kitchen was boring and drab, and since R and I are eating in there now I thought it needed a bit of a spruce up.

So I hung two of my tim biskup’s on the walls, cleaned the crappy magnetic poetry off the fridge, and made a placemat for on top of the microwave and a pretty pink cover for my oddments shelf. (they match the pink gingham bag bag I made the other day!)

I’ve got a bit of a pink theme going in the kitchen, which is funny because I always thought it’d be red! I saw some pink and cream tins today that I may have to splurge on for flour etc!

The photo shows just the shelf cover and two lovely bunches of flowers I got from R’s Sisters and family for my birthday!

Speaking of birthday’s I have been greatly remiss and not shown you the gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, elegant necklace R. got me for my birthday last week!

He really is a wonderful man with a wonderful family, exceptionally good taste and a beautiful heart and he does put up with more than a few hang-ups, tears and insecurities on my behalf.

Now here are a few things I’m loving;

1. The little birds at http://littlebirds.typepad.com oh. my. goodness! the log sets are completely adorable!
2. Being busy at work, while it is impacting my crafty endeavours, I had nothing to do in the last few months of my old job and I was going insane! now while i may have more than a few internal moments of Oh god it’s all too much for me, I really am loving the challenge.
3. Having four opp shops within lunchtime walking distance of my new work, much cheaper than book shops and fabric shops even if I’m not game to venture into the clothes yet.
4. Inspired by the very clever people at Wardrobe Refashion I joined the melbourne chapter and am very much looking forward to meeting up with other like minded crafty girls!
5. I Autumn-cleaned on the weekend and in honour of this momentous achievement here is an animated gif of my work!

Read Full Post »

Happy Easter!

What a week! the hits to the site have been amazing by virtue of the fact that it’s been linked to from all over the place. People like free stuff.

I’ve spent the afternoon making Easter pressies, which in my head last night were like this (via karin) but with an appliqué chick or bunny on them. After a failed attempt at shaping the curved top I ended up going for a more paper bag style. I sketched out the chick and bunny until I had them the way I wante, took them to photoshop, cleaned them up, reduced them down and sat down to cut out ten little animals! 

Then disaster.

Every pair of little pointy scissors in the house are blunt.

So I hemmed and hawed wondering what to do, considering hand painting them on, freezer paper stencils and even embroidering (in half a day!!).   Deciding no more inspiration was to be had without food, I made lunch.

I decided to look at the screen printing materials I had which have been kind of neglected for a long time but trying desperately to get into my head for a resurgence.

Forunatley I had screen filler and a little space on an old screen. So I sat down and carefully made the screens, of course the first test made me remember more not less is the rule with screen filler, but after a touch up I hit the ground running.

Much printing was done, much mess was made and much splashing happened when cleaning up but the results definitely made me smile.

There are nine of these little guys with a bunny on the back and a chick on the front, they cover a cadbury egg and a ceramic egg cup.  They are printed onto linen with heidleberg screen inks and lined with the star fabric they are sitting on.

I had a great time making these and I really can’t wait tobuy more screens and print some new things!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Easter!

Read Full Post »

He’s free!

Since easter is only a week away I thought I’d give something back to blogland and give away the pattern for my fat rabbit for free!

Now a few years back I was selling this pattern, but I’m working on a whole new menagerie of patterns and I’d like to give this one to you. Fat rabbit pattern click here to download Now if you do take it I’d love you to leave a comment so I can stop buy and see what you come up with!

The new job is going well, to celebrate I made myself a document pouch and cover for my diary. now I really had more creative plans for this but I wanted to test out the theory first then maybe I’ll branch out into more intricate lines.

R’s Toe warmer is not going well, I’ve hardly touched it all week! I’ve had some very lazy evenings just reading trash novels to empty my brain of the days information.

5 quick things I love

1.  The fact R. is taking me to The press club for my birthday on Monday.
2. Getting Thank You emails form my bosses instead of abuse.
3. Inside a black apple part of me has to have the black apple action figure.
4. This little pendant
5. The fact that my office is secretly sneakily trying to organise drinks tomorrow to welcome me without me realising.

That’s all folks. Hope you like the pattern and have a great weekend!

Read Full Post »

too darn hot!~

It’s nearly 37 degrees outside~!

Inspiration? like I need more things to make!

Craftzine has offered up some real gems this week.

• howaboutorange has a tutorial for covered thumbtacks – far too cute although my past thumbtack experiments have left a lot to be desired.
• cutoutandkeep has a clever matchbook style needlebook to make
• And not via craftzine but lovely just the same Heather has made some wool flower garlands I can so see these wrapped around gifts!
• Have you checked out keriSmiths blog? not crafty but inspiring.! these are just adorable, and there’s penguins!

Things to do today…

• Mount about a half a dozen hooks in the wall
• Install an inspiration wire a la port2port and swiss miss
• Sew up the bright blue poly pop into curtains for the studio Done!
• finish the moo that is too the left, yes that pen on felt, I’m drafting out facial expressions, and yes it has pins in it, I haven’t sewn it up yet!
• Buy some ‘L’ hooks and finish my tool board.
• Hang my tim biskup prints
• Mop the kitchen floor (ugh!)

It’s been a hell of a week.

In terms of non-craft/art endeavours I quit my job and got a new one, the old boss is well, quite possibly a soiopath, the new work place are wonderful happy clouds of love. And there is a dog named jack.

Read Full Post »

TGIF but what a weekend!

Thank god it’s friday my friends – I quit my job at a company with a boss who is the worst kind of bully two days ago and it’s a bit of a relief to be able to get put of the office at the end of today.
I start at a new company monday week and I’m here until next Wednesday, then Thursday/Friday are ‘me’ days.

What am I going to do with my weekend and those ‘me’ days? Well R. (my dear boyfriend) pointed out that the only things I’ve made in the past few weeks have been gifts. So it’s time for some me craft!

First things first, a bit of studio re-arrangement, then a quick nip up to check out a garage sale tomorrow and visit R’s family. Then I have a list of things as long as my arm I want to tackle!

• Bella Dia’s Vintage Vertica Crochet Blanket
• These lovely scrap using placemats from Whipup
• Speaking of Whipup I think I’ll try to produce something for the March edition of Whiplash it’s a tutorial challenge
• That little bunny up above actually has an e-pattern and tutorial already written I think I’ll update and re-issue it this weekend in time for easter!
• I’d like to do another little e-pattern and I have some wonderful furry material I may make some more bunnies in the hope of getting a bit of a store up – any Etsy sellers have tips?

That’s enough,really, of course I haven’t mentioned fabric beads, pincushions, softies, eyemasks, aprons, etc etc etc…

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Read Full Post »