Beautiful and special Christmas presents

I received this beautiful canvas with painted poppies as my Christmas present from my friends Ala and Lloyd and their children Martyna, Karolina and our God son Max. The canvas was painted by Martyna who is nearly 15 years old. It is absolutely stunning in every aspect - the colours, composition and attention to details.

This little Christmas stocking was hand stitched for us by our God son Max who is 5 years old. A very special gift indeed.

Thank you very much to Martyna and Max and their family.

Crafty Christmas presents

It's the time of gift giving and what's better than hand made paper gifts. The below cards are part of two packs made to give away:

This is a sewing journal I fully made for Wendy from my Monday night patchwork group. I have been neglecting my patchwork/ quilt making but my friends don't mind getting paper gifts. The journal was made with coptic binding and I decorated and stamped the inside pages. The journal is tied with a ribbon and there are some stitched tabs inside. Here it is:

Christmas card for Margaret

Every year Paper Princesses draw a person to make a Christmas card for. This year I made a card for Margaret which is below:

Sewn envelope (front):

Back of the envelope:

Picture for my sister

I made this picture for my sister, she received it yesterday so now I can publish it here. It was done with the same technique as the picture I featured a couple posts before.

Nie ma bloga mojego kolegi Kuby

Niestety dowiedzialam sie dzisiaj, ze blog Kuby, o ktorym pisalam ponizej, zostal usuniety przez administratora po tym jak ktos anonimowy doniosl, ze Kuba ma tylko 9 lat i nie moze miec bloga. Niestety, reguly mowia, ze bloga mozna miec dopiero od 13 lat ale nie wiem jak dorosle osoby moga byc tak wredne i zawistne, zeby donosic na 9-cio letnie dziecko, ktore dzieli sie swoim talentem i kreatywnoscia z innymi blogowiczami. Szczegolnie, ze blog powstawal pod okiem i nadzorem Jego Mamy, ktora trzymala reke na pulsie. Kuba mial niesamowita rzesze wielbicieli i teraz na pewno bedzie tez im bardzo przykro, tak jak mnie. Mam nadzieje, za Mama Kuby zalozy bloga i bedzie cytowala zapiski Kuby o tym co on tworzy. Ja osobiscie chce ogladac wiecej prac artystycznych Kuby i czytac te wspaniale napisane przez niego relacje artystyczne i troche osobiste.

PS zwyciezyl rozsadek i blog Kuby zostal przywrocony, hurrrraa.

Exchange with Kuba from Poland

Through blogging I recently got to know Kuba, an amazing 9 year old Polish boy whose creativity is astonishing. Here is a link to his blog so you can check it out for yourself.

Kuba is on a good way to follow in the footsteps of Tim Holtz, who said the following about Kuba when I wrote to Tim about him: "thanks for sharing this link kasha - i know about cuba and have sent him an email in the past. a very creative little guy. thanks. tim"

Kuba has agreed to do an exchange with me and I posted the package to him today. It is a surprise what we prepared for this exchange so now we have to wait. Kuba - the package (below) it's on its way.

Polish translation:

Wymiana z Kuba z Polski.

Kube poznalam przez Jego bloga. Jest on niesamowitym 9-cio letnim chlopcem, ktorego kreatywnosc jest zaskakujaca. Tu jest linka do jego bloga, zebyscie mogli przekonac sie sami.

Kuba jest na dobrej drodze, zeby zostac Timem Holtzem, ktory po tym jak do niego napisalam powiedzial o Kubie: "Dziekuje Kasia za podzielenie sie ta linka, znam Kube i wyslalem mu maila w przeszlosci. Jest on bardzo kreatywnym chlopcem. Dziekuje. Tim"

Kuba zgodzil sie na wymiane ze mna i dzisiaj wyslalam mu pakiet. Jest to niespodzianka co przygotowalismy na wymiane wiec teraz pozostaje nam tylko czekanie. Kuba - pakiet (powyzej) jest juz w drodze.

Carved stamps

Finally I had a go at stamp carving, I wanted to do this for ages but never got around to it. Below are my efforts; I searched for inspiration on the net and some ideas were from my friend Margaret (sadly she doesn't have a blog). I also used some art books for ideas. This is soooo much fun, the only reason I stopped was that I ran out of rubber but more is on its way, lol.

It is fun using every little piece of rubber to create small pieces which can be joined as a border, squares and little houses, the possibilities are endless.

Some pencils:

Painted picture

This is a picture I did recently, a friend who took an online class shared this technique with me. It took a lot of steps to achieve the final result.

This is how it started:

After some painting:

More painting and stenciling:

Some stamping added:

Covered with medium:

Final result after applying matt varnish:

Journal for Gaye

I made this small journal recently for my friend Gaye. I experimented with the inside pages and used dies to cut out images or words for more interest. Here are the results:

Projekt Zeszyt - Journal Project

Recently I took part in my first Polish exchange organised by Michelle, it was called "Projekt Zeszyt" which loosely translated means "Journal Project". It had 50 participants who all send 50 journal pages (undecorated) to Michelle and she bound it into a journal ready for your journaling.

This is how it was wrapped:

Journal with some inside pages:

It was fun, thank you Michelle and all participants.

Birthday pages for Princess Judy and Princess Marilena

The Paper Princesses celebrated Princess Judy and Princess Marilena's birthdays recently. For an art present I decided to alter a desk calendar so that they can have a rotating piece of art to display. I made two pages for each Princess.

These are my two pages for Marilena:

And these are the two pages for Judy:

Two quick cards

These two cards were made from various left overs. I also used a self sticking paper I bought in my favourite shop - "Reverse Garbage" for the bird cages and the hearts.

Two books for friends

I recently made two books for two friends. The following one is a doodling book with images and words inside to provoke some doodling/ journaling. I covered a commercially made book:

These are some pages inside:

This is book is a watercolour journal, I hand stitched it using coptic binding technique:

A hanging house for my sister

I made this hanging house for my sister's nameday which she celebrated on 6 September.

New cards

I have decided to start using 50 million paper napkins I collected over time but never used that much, the two next cards are made with napkins:

These cards were made with Tim Holtz embossing folders:

I looove my my Memory Box tree dies, these cards were used using them:

Hanging house swap

Debbi Baker is hosting a hanging house swap on the Australian Art Sisters group. Here are my houses (front and backs) and envelopes to package them. I had fun creating them and can't wait to receive the 10 houses created by other participants. Thank you Debbi for hosting, what a great idea.

Teaching at a stamp camp

I have been invited to teach at a stamp camp which was a great honour. I had my class yesterday and it was loads of fun.

This is the picture I created for the class. The background is made using National Geographic pages and Citra Solv type solvent. Citra Solve is a US brand and as far I know, not available in Australia, however I was finally able to find an Australian substitute. All ladies were very creative and most put different spins on the design which you can below.

These are some of the creations by the participants:

This is a fantastic creation in a different colour scheme by Theresa, it was wonderful to see a different and such creative spin on my design:

Another finish:

This is the back of the picture by Amanda Cordingly:

Another back by Eve Poole:

Another back by Jay:

And this is a wonderful present I received in appreciation, a small chest of draws: