Autumn in April

The little sign on the postcard below says “Guess who’s sending this to you”. Well, guess who is actually writing a blog post? Yip – I am!

I have The Graphics Fairy permanently on my internet homepage and this rather funny postcard popped up for April 1st. Isn’t that fish funny? It’s like a carrier fish I guess (as in carrier pigeon?).

My birthday also happens to be April 1st (I know- funny ha! ha!) My kids even managed to prank me yesterday on my birthday! Shocking!

One reason I haven’t blogged in a while is that my internet has been so erratic lately! It simply goes off-line at whim. I discovered the problem has to do with my noisy crackling landline which then naturally interferes with the ADSL signal. {sigh!} It got fixed a week ago, and 2 days after, it went all crackly on me again. So here I am crossing fingers and thumbs that the signal holds out (and that dear old Telkom fixes the problem again soon!).

I must tell you what else has kept me very busy…

I have been doing an online drawing course. (Well- trying to do it in between internet signals!)

The course I started is called “I (heart) drawing” by Jane Davenport.  About a 1/4 of the way in, I discovered I should have done her “Supplies Me” course first – so I stopped the first one and started with “Supplies Me”.

“Supplies Me” is, well, all about getting the most from your art supplies & finding which media you enjoy best. Jane’s classes are fabulous – funny and filled to the brim with valuable information with loads of tips. She takes you through different media like pencils, watercolour, acrylics etc. and then with each week of the 8 week course, you learn to draw faces and figures – Jane’s way. Now let me tell you, Jane’s method of creating figures & faces out your head – be it whimsical or more realistic drawings- is so easy to follow and made such a change to the way I approach my art.

The best part is that even if you are not natural at drawing, perhaps you are simply just ‘creative’ rather than ‘artistic’, Jane will be able to teach you how to draw! The bottom line is practise.

After finishing ‘Supplies Me’, I will go back and complete “I heart drawing”. This is more of a detailed look at drawing figures – especially stylised fashion figures as well as faces.

Jane will also be doing a new course from 30 April which is all about drawing fairies and other mythical creatures. In the course you also create your own fairy tale. I am itching to start that one!!

Here are a couple of the drawings I’ve done in my journals in mixed media:

in pencil on plain paper:

and more mixed media…

If you are interested in Jane’s courses, take a peek at her blog:

http://www.janedavenport.com/

Printable Bookmarks

Links have been repaired! Sorry for the mix-up!!

Today I have some printable bookmarks to share with you.

They are so easy to make. It’s a case of print, cut, a dab of glue, an optional embellishment and voilà, ready to use.

There are four bookmarks to choose from -

1. Alice in Wonderland

2. Book Quote

 

 

 

 

3. Vintage Bird

4. & 3D Vintage Bird background  & here is the bird. (same as Vintage bird, but the bird is printed separately from the background).

Here’s how to make them...

1. Cut out
2. Fold back the two sides (A & B) so they fold back onto each other.
3. Trim these sides a little if necessary so you don’t see the back sticking out from the front.
4. Dab glue onto side B. Glue the two backs together by flapping side A over side B.
5. For 3D : Add the vintage bird using foam squares to pop it.
6. Add an embellishment – optional.
7. Your book page slips into the little pocket opening of the bookmark.

All graphics courtesy of the Graphics Fairy.

Linking up here:

Have a great week!

Wineglass lampshades (& free printables!)

Hi everyone,

I know I’ve been MIA for a while, but been busy busy! I’ve completed quite a few crafts, been oil painting like crazy and even got stuck into tidying up my (very messy) studio.

I recently discovered gorgeous wineglass lampshades in a local magazine. They are super easy to make and so cute when made up. They really add something so cute to a dinner table!

 

Cute huh? You like them? Well I have a little gift for you…

Three Printable wineglass lampshades!

Click on each of the images below to be redirected to a downloadable PDF document.

 

 

Instructions :

1. Print out onto light-weight cardstock
2. Cut out
3. Glue the sides together to make the lampshade shape – make adjustments as you need to fit your wineglass.
4. Now grab that glue gun and some trim (from a haberdashery store) and add a trim on the top and the bottom. Alternatively you can cut the edges with deckle (shaped) scissors just to zhoosh it up a bit. Personally, I find the trim just makes them look that little bit more professional.
5. Now place a tea light candle into the wineglass and pop your shade on top!

Remember- you can add flowers (silk ones, crochet ones etc), beads, felt shapes, well just let your imagination run wild!!

Now off you go – make some of your own!

Before I go – the graphics are courtesy of Karen of The Graphics Fairy. Thanks Karen!

Oh, and do leave a comment! I would LOVE to hear from you and in return visit your blog!

I love hearing from you! Please leave a comment!

 

Oops- so sorry, there was a problem with the links, but they should work now! Just click on the printable images.

Cupcake Facecloth & some decor inspiration…

Hi everyone, I have been in such a crafty mood of late! My family thinks I’ve lost it totally as each day I present them with one or other craft – be it a new crocheted square for a blanket I’m making or a bag full of wool for a tea cosy or these cute cupcakes.

On my recommendation my mom visited a new store in a mall near our home called “Succulent décor and café”.  She came back gushing about it.

Now this store is what I would call fabulous! Two of my friends told me that when they saw it they thought it’s just my kind of shop. I would say it has a unique flea market style. They love to take old furniture and revamp it by painting it and/or re-upholstering it with some funky fabric in amazing colours.

They have the most amazing funky light fitting hanging at the entrance – it’s an enormous drum shade covered in pink fabric – it must be almost 1.5 metres in diameter! Then hanging from underneath it is, well, – stuff. All kinds of things – even a little kids tricycle, a teddy bear, large cups, a painted egg... quite strange, but so cute!

Have a look at their Facebook photos here – I find it totally inspiring, I just wanna go and do some serious crafting! (Though this is not unusual for me LOL!).

Anyway, I digress…. My mom saw some gorgeous cupcakes made from facecloths there and commented on what a cute little gift it would be if you added a soap with it. I had seen them too. So I decided I wanted to know how to fold the facecloth.

Out came my old friend “Google”…

And it lead me to this blog – Paola’s My {Creative} Place. (a fellow South African no less!). Paola has some great tutorials on all kinds of things – just check out the labels on the left column. Fun to browse around.

I watched her video on how to make these cute cupcake facecloths and they are really so easy and quick to do. Try it!

I made up a couple for two of my daughter’s friends having birthdays this weekend. I love giving teen girls a gift bag filled with girlie goodies for their birthdays. Lip gloss, a soap, some kind of jewellery, perhaps some hair clips, basically whatever I find. So these cupcakes are perfect!

My daughter chose the facecloth colours as she knew what her friends would like.

I rolled up the facecloths and popped them into a cute cupcake wrapper I had bought. And as my ‘cherry on top’, I found some red foil-covered chocolate balls – perfect – now they even get a chocolate to nibble on while they bath LOL!

I packaged them in clear cellophane tied with an organza ribbon and popped one into each gift bag along with a handmade soap, a charm bracelet and some lip gloss.

Thanks Paola for a great tutorial – so much easier than trying to figure this one out on my own!

Have a great week!

Veronica xx

I am linking up here: