Thursday 28 March 2013

Bunny-nose masks : Easter craft for kids

It's the first day of school holidays and the start of the Easter long weekend.
A perfect time to make Bunny-nose Masks :)














 
 

You will need:
Empty cardboard egg tray
3 Pipe cleaners (per mask)
A pompom or cotton wool ball (per mask)
Some white card for the 'teeth' (I used some card from our recycling box so it has printing on the back)
Glue (I used Wood Glue and fast drying Bostik Clear Glue)
A pair of scissors
A tool that can be used to make holes
Hat elastic
A cute kid or 3...

Cut out two egg cups to make the 'cheeks', leaving them joined in the middle.
 
Paint a coat of Wood Glue onto the inside of the egg cups to strengthen the cardboard.
Make four holes on each side:
3 in a row for the pipe cleaners to be threaded through,
and one above for attaching the Hat Elastic at the end.
 
 
Cut some 'teeth' out of white card.
 
Thread the Pipe Cleaners through the holes on either side.
 

Use the fast drying Bostick Clear Glue to glue on the nose.
You can use a pompom or a cotton wool ball for the nose.
 
Use the fast drying Bostick Clear Glue to glue on the teeth.
 
(I used some card from our recycling box so it has printing on the back)
 
Allow to dry. Attach the Hat Elastic... and
 
TA DA!!
 
 
 
Cute, aren't they? ;)
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Thursday 14 March 2013

A warren of rabbits

 
I fell in love with this warren of rabbits at Montabello Design Centre recently.
 
 
At R450-R500 each, I wasn't able to take them home with me, so I decided to make my own.
Out of paper. :)
 
 
My son has already ordered one but wants me to please add a fluffy tail.
 
...
 
 
I made some more rabbits in lovely colours and patterns for Easter:
 
 
 
To see more Origami goodies that I make and sell, please go to my Facebook page by clicking HERE. :)

Thursday 7 March 2013

Hand Illustrated T-Shirt

You can design and make your own t-shirt using a permanent waterproof marker. It is such fun and quite easy to do. Practice on a scrap of t-shirt material first, until you get the hang of it.
 
I wanted to give my husband a gift for our 'Cotton' wedding anniversary a couple of years ago. I didn't think he would appreciate new cotton bed linen (as much as I would) so I chose to make him a personalised t-shirt instead.
I bought a plain, good quality, cotton t-shirt in a colour I thought he'd like.
(I must admit that I chose a dark colour so that mistakes in my drawing wouldn't be too obvious ;)
He is a photographer and loves cameras so I found a photo on the Internet of a Nikon FM2. I started by drawing a picture of the camera onto the t-shirt using a white fabric marking pencil. I then did the final illustration using black permanent Artline markers, one with a superfine point and one slightly fatter one.
 
 
I was pleased with the result.
My husband loved it and immediately placed an 'order' for another one...
For our son.... his little 'assistant'.
 
 
 

Don’t go outside your house to see flowers.

This is so beautiful...


Don’t go outside your house to see flowers.
My friend, don’t bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens.


Kabir



Thanks Juliette for sharing :)

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Flower


This work is called 'Flower' and was done in one of my process art classes.
The class was about Symbols. The works were created by printing with dyes, printing inks and wet clay using any object that was flat enough to print or stamp a mark onto the paper.
There was a vast selection of objects and shapes to choose from. I was drawn to using my hands, dried leaves, feathers and a beautiful old wooden printing block with a flower design.
I started off by covering my hands in wet clay and making brown 'clay prints' onto the paper.
I was feeling a bit 'paniced' and out of my depth having no direction or plan in mind. (Process art is a creative journey or process, rather than the end product of art and craft, which takes some getting used to.) Getting my hands 'dirty' and making a bold start really helped me to get into the session.
I experimented with some dried fine leaves, feathers and the flower stamp and made prints using red and orange dyes that are quite translucent and black and red printing inks that leave a bold, opaque print. At times the test prints that i did on separate paper turned out so well that i cut or tore them out and collaged them into my final artwork. I used a wet Rooibos tea bag to stain the paper and finished off with some hand prints in (sticky) black printing ink.
 
 
Detail of "Flower":   An example of one of my test prints of a feather
done on brown paper, cut out and collaged into the final artwork.  
 
 
SYMBOLS and their meaning:
 
Hand print - Symbol of a human's life, achievements and legacy, the creative spirit, channelled energy.
 
Feather - Sacred universal symbol of flight within the spirit world and serving as messenger to Great Spirit.
 
Flowers - Symbolise a relationship to the sun.
 
Leaf - Wealth.
 
A list of other symbols and their meaning can be found here.