Saturday 1 November 2008

My Peg Pads

This is such an easy idea!!

I recently acquired some packs of wooden clothes pegs.

Using some pretty fabrics and double sided tape, I covered the pegs.


Prettied them up with some floral and butterfly embellishments and ribbons.


Then I set about finding some colourful papers.

Pegged them together...


Add more papers whenever you like!
Makes a nice 'n easy, colourful gift!

Thursday 30 October 2008

Birthday boxes / Memory boxes

Whenever there's a birthday amongst the children whom I teach, I normally 'alter' a box, personalise it, fill it with crafty bits and put it with a scrapbook and hey presto ,the gift is always well accepted because it is OOAK!!


Altered art is not a recent thing .I can remember when I was very young, my mum doing a similar thing for my friends' birthday presents. She would take a round or hexagonal box (in those days things such as underwear came in lovely boxes such as these) and she would decorate it beautifully with fabric and lace, partly attach the lid and then fill the box with hankies. Word got around and all my friends wanted these hankie boxes!! They were beautiful.

Monday 27 October 2008

Simple Art


What is your definition of artistic? I'd really love to know.
Do you consider yourself to be artistic?
I have spent years wishing that I was artistic and feeling quite a failure in that department.
I can't draw.
Give me watercolours and a paintbrush and I can't paint either.
On my first day at my Grammar School, we had to create a picture of something that we had done in the summer holidays.
(If only I could have written about it!! )
Anyway, I remember this art lesson very well, as I was sitting beside a very talented girl, who at 11 was a most gifted artist. She drew horses, amongst other things and her creation was nothing short of a masterpiece.
Mine? Well, my parents had taken me to Blackpool that summer and one evening we went to see...The Dave Clark Five!
And that's what I chose to draw. It was a disaster and I certainly was not 'Glad All Over' and neither was the art mistress!
(If you are a lot younger than me, 'Glad All Over' was a huge hit for this group,at the time)
But, in spite of what I think is my lack of artistic ability, I have always loved art, appreciated art, enjoyed teaching different techniques and most of all, displaying children's art in my classroom.
I find it easy to work 'simple' because for me, simple is effective.
And this is what I did yesterday, in the midst of trying to finish off a few things ( plus watching two football matches, cooking a roast meal etc etc !)

Simple creations with paper and buttons!

Hope you have a creative week, whatever you might be doing!

And before I forget, the winner of the railway poster competition is Emma, of Jellybelly* Jellybrain. (Your comment cracked me up!)