Mini book and Mad for Colours Swap.

As you will all know by now I've been particiapting in LaWendula's monthly paper swaps. This month I was lucky enough to be paired up to swap with our host! Here's what I've sent to her...

The stenciled words say...

Life

evolution

breathe in

feel

embrace the miricle

live

(Oh no! I spelt miracle wrong and  I've just noticed now...what a bummer)

The theme was mad for colours so I put together so hand coloured papers togther with nature themed magazine pages. The binding down one side means my partner can cut the page away to use it.

Below are some other colourful paper's I put in with her book...

I particiapted in last months mini book swap and this is the fabulous book I got from my partner Amelia Critchlow. I love the handmade recyled-ness!

Book cover above and inside front cover and first page below:

Below are a few of my favorite pages..

The card in the pocket says the stamped word 'Love.'

What a great book!

A little while ago I also won a blog draw...here's what I won!

This fabulous postcard from Mary over at Joyfulploys. Thanks Mary, I love it!

Coming soon: Looking up trees- It's Autumn!

Dots and Circles- thanks to those who've shared there links or have said they will soon, I will be posting some of them here soon.

International Collage Exchange- My collages will be here soon! Wahoo!

Final posting for Alicia's book "The museum of forgotten things."

Handmade Mini Book

This months paper swap theme is 'mini books' and I was partnered up with Amelia Critchlow of 101 Bird Tales. Thanks LaWendula (of Woven Letters) for all that you do to organise these monthly swaps! My linky thing isn't working right now so I will have to come back with the links!

Here's the book I made...

The cover is made from recycled papers glued together with a watery mix of PVA, stained with some coffee and then sealed with a sheet or 2 of sewing pattern paper. I'd forgotten how much I love pattern paper! The colour, the markings, the texture, the quick drying time and the fact that it's recycled!

There are 20 pages in this book which are made up from old book pages like the ones shown and blank pages which my partner can use if she wants too.

The page above is made from a paper big and features a tradtional Maori Tiki and the Kiwi. I knew I'd saved this bag for a good reason! I also added a small board book to my parcel for my partner to alter and it's all on it's way to the UK today.

Using some more of my 'layer' paper I made these 16 inchies for a yahoo group swap. I'm pretty happy with the results and I love the layer paper which was inspired by Debrina's fabric paper. I wanted to make fabric paper but didn't have any muslin so I came up with a different version to suit the same purpose!

That's all from me folks! Hope your all well and enjoying the new season! 

The Erosion Bundle Project. Part 1.

The Erosion Bundle Project is an off-shoot of Seth Apter's  Dis-Co project being organised by Kris Henderson. I really enoyed being part of Dis-Co so it made sense to join in here too! I learnt a few things from the Dis-Co project which I was able to apply here,  the most important thing being that things didn't disintergrate anywhere as much as I thought they would! I wrapped my Dis-Co bundle pretty tight which would have helped preserve the bundle so this time I did the opposite. I also included a coffee soaked (dried) serviette which I think is quite likely to leak it colour over the other items and produce some change in the bundle. NZ has such a friendly climate!

My selection of papers coffee dyed serviette and paper, scraps from a paper flour blag, note paper, scrap paper from childrens books. I wanted to make sure that what ever was in my bundle would be earth friendly if it was to come loose and fly free. (No surprise coming from someone who composted the recycled paper plates we used at Christmas!)

I put it together in a loosely bound book..

...gave it a paper flour bag cover and added some scrap fabric (dyed with tea)

I wasn't too worried about perfect edges as I am hoping they will be a bit tattered by the end of the project anyway!

I made a small bag for it to hang in, added a few bits of left over crocheted doily and hung it out for Mother Nature to play with. My part of this was pretty easy, especially compared to all of the forces that have to come together to make the natural elements that will do the rest!

Hung  on the line Dec 30th 2009.

Weather hot but gusty winds, no rain in sight!

Another project that I have been working on is one of art goals for the year- bead making.

I have made some fairly simple beads from paper wound around a tooth pick, I like the ones without words best. I would like to try intentionally leaving specific words showing so that they could be word beads so that may be next on my list! The brown beads are made from hand-painted paper and the black beads are made from plastic. I found a cool technique on the internet using recycled drink bottle plastic, permenant pens and heat. I had mixed results but I think this idea is worth playing around with! Check out this site and this site showing the technique and some finished beads if your interested. I found another site that suggested using boiling water instead of a heat gun and that method appealed to me because of the lack of plastic fumes!

Paper Swap.

Badge designed by Egmont van Dyck.

Lawendula of Woven Letters organised a paper swap on her blog. Thanks Lawendula!

Here's 2 of the 4 envelope pages I did in a book for my swap partner Deb of Dryadart's Weblog.

I made the pages from old book pages. The thread is entirely decorative and I left the 'bad' side of the stitching exposed because I liked the rawness of the mark making. Each pocket of the book has something papery inside and I also tucked in a few things between each page. You can see pics of the contents below! The idea was to send 7-10 things in a regular sized letter envelope so that we didn't have to spend a small fortune on the swap. As it turned out I made mine too fat (by 3mm I kid you not!) and it became a small parcel instead of an envelope and that made it $5.30 more expensive to post and required a customs declaration form. Needless to say I came home and repacked it with the same stuff, just flatter!

The contents....French to English dictionary pages, colour plates from old encyclopedias, embossed leaf on handmade paper, bird image, nest print, gold serviette, NZ ephemera.

The ephemera includes some postal things, a Tiki playing card and a found shopping list.

Below: The book closed as my partner will first see it. The string reminds me of the parcels wrapped in brown paper and string that my Nana used to send. It took me a while to realise where the string binding 'thing' was coming from (you may remember my Disco postcards) and then one day it occurred to me! It was a connection with my Nana and my childhood. I am sure I won't be the only one to remember those parcels though!