babies, cards and family stuff....

i went to my very first baby shower the other night which was rather a lot of fun.

I made this nappy/diaper cake [you can find any instructions for anything on youtube!]. It turned out quite big [and ott!] and we turned it into a game to guess the no of nappies. [69 of the smallest size if anyones making one!]
sorry the pics so dark, it was late in the day when i finished it. as we didnt know the sex of the baby,it was really hard to find a unisex ribbon for it and this wouldnt have been my first pick.



on the home front, we took charlie for an interview with the other exchange students down at melb uni. we found out this week that she has passed this round and has to go on a weekend camp next month. She will then find out which country she is going too. she will leave in jan next year and have up to 4 different families that she stays with. shell attend the same school and also go on a euro trip with the other exchange students for 3 weeks. what a great opportunity and experience for her. dont know if we will cope as well! :(

today we all went to see the Archibald prize at the local gallery. for those who you who dont know what this is its an art competiton where painters paint a portrait of a well known austalian. so lucky to have it here as it just stays in sydney and nsw.
my fave was the dame elisabeth murdoch one,you could just see the kindness, compassion and also tiredness in those eyes. and like most things they look heaps better in real life.
I also liked the peoples choice award too.[Patty, it was the little boy Brandon from the Australia Movie]
The gallery was just packed out with all ages, which was marvellous to see but also good for the town.

another thing i noticed is that paint dribbles are IN!!!

no knit scarves....

I love doing these , but, be warned you have to have a sewing machine thats cooperative for working with water soluble plastic and suprisingly my pfaff [the most touchy of machines] actally handled it pretty well with just the ordinary straight stitch foot. got these gorgeous fibres in one hank from spotlight and the antique colored one was just crying out for some lacy bits to be added to it.

heres how you do it. [did the red one at craft on di's lovely long kitchen bench]

youll need water soluble plastic/paper [the length of your scarf less your fringing]
spray adhesive or quilt basting spray, pins, wool/fabric.

lay out you wsp and cut lengths of wool longer than your plastic to allow for fringe.
make it slightly wider than you want and spray plastic before you start laying wool on one side.







lightly spray with adhesive, fold over plastic and pin all over.




now wildy stitch all over [i stitched bug loopy circles on the bottom of the red one to finish it off]

sorry,neglected to take pics :(

just make sure you catch everything and dont worry about being neat, itll be fine once the plastic is off.

soak your scarf according the manufacturers instructions and trim up the fringe.






these scarves are a great way to use lots of different yarns and even fabrics and lace. ive now cut up all my crocheted doilys and merry gave some of her 'vintage' lace from her bridesmaid dresses to finish off the top one which ive just glued on!!

there are quite a few different types of wsp around and it seems to me that the dearer the plastic the better it sews. one year at craft to keep costs down we even used the water soluble laundry bags that the hospitals use, so if you could get your hands on those.............

some atc's to share...

from the recent alpha swap, which we are nearly at the end. Ive been doing an Australiana theme for mine but think i might be stuck for Z, so if anybody has any ideas????

this sweet image came from here. Always very generous with her freebie images....

I added the jingle to the back of the card and you should have heard all the girls at craft singing it while i arranged the words, was too funny :)


I painted this Wattle card very roughly with watercolors and then filled in with stitching.

and these from an Eiffle Tower swap, lots of dribbly paint and Dots gorgeous braid was a perfect match



I have to say how much i love my epson printer, i can splodge paint all over the images and never get smudgy prints.

I decided before i left for Sydney that i would make a luggage tag from some fused plastic i had lying around. I had made a heap ages ago and because it was so looked boring i didn't do any more with it!

But it paints really well!!!! so i splattered on paint, lots of drips and splashes[ inspire by Ruby] and then wildly stitched in black cotton. It was actually supposed to be daisy stitch but it gripped a bit on the gel medium and came out very random. Thought id stuffed it but on closer inspection , i really liked it and thought it looked like birds tracks! so i did more ;)
i stitched it to another layer of fp and wrote my details on the back in permanent marker.
some sparlky fibre, a few beads and i love it! being plastic its really durable too.

now i am inspired by Alisa Burke and Threadbanger [a really cool indie site that i spend too much time on...] to make some more and join it togteher, although a little make up purse would be cute.

the work trip was just that ....work.... learnt lots and came back in two minds..... i can do it and freaked out!
i didnt see anything of sydney except traffic and a bit of greenery!

some atc's i have been fiddling about with , thanks too this very generous artist
I found some canvas printer paper going out cheap and had fun splashing some paint around. I am really into dribbles at the moment![not the old lady kind!]
Lucy drew the mermaid tail for me, she"s really good at that kind of stuff and i like the way it goes backward. i cut up an atc with some lace on it to give her a 'scaly' tail.



Im a bit over wings but coudnt resist these sparkly silver ones....


The silver 'things' on the geisha are from some earings and i changed the color by rubbing some alcholol ink on .... it kinda looks like a lantern!