Tulgey Wood Cards

There's a part of the Alice in Wonderland movie which had a huge impact on me when I was a kid; when Alice is lost in Tulgey Wood. The red pathway is brushed away by a dog creature with a broom for a head, and she realises she does not know where to go. She cries and cries and is so alone. As a child it was my worst thought, to be lost in the woods all by myself. Little Red Riding Hood, Babes in the Wood, Hansel and Gretel, they all played a part in this fear. But because Alice's trauma was captured on celluloid, it had the biggest impact of them all. Still, the images are appealing in an artistic way and I needed some blokey colours for my set of Wonderland cards.

Besides, owls are too cute!

My intention is to produce a set of 10 cards, each representing a different part of Alice in Wonderland, that can be used as greeting cards, birthday cards, Valentine's Day cards, Halloween cards, wedding cards, 21st cards, anything that suits, really. I'd love to start an Etsy shop, and I already have a name for it: Whimsical Works. I've had this name in mind for about 15 years, from when I wrote a children's book at uni.

I intend to make other card ranges too, all related to fairytales or magical tales. (I've already started planning some ideas for my next set: The Wizard of Oz). Who will be interested? Who knows? All I know is that I watch one of the Etsy shops each day (A Black Apple), and a month ago she had sold 21100 items from her shop and now she has sold 21700! It is a full time job for both her and her partner. She sells magical, and often odd, paintings, prints, postcards and dolls, and does a roaring trade. So, you never know....

Nursery rhymes and Easter

The Pre-Primary kids have been drawing and painting castles at school. I'm loving how they look with glitter!

The children made crowns and I took a photo of each child dressed as Old King Cole.

The Kindies collaged Easter Bunnies and painted Easter eggs.

Here is a glimpse of some of the Easter cards the children have made. Using these papers helps me get in touch with my inner scrapbooker! The backing and eggs on these cards were all made from one little papers book from the $2 shop. Pretty thrifty!

Now for some close-ups:

All this art and craft - one of my main reasons for working with little kids!

Here are the final three drawings!

Finally, the last three characters from Alice in Wonderland; the March Hare, the Dodo and the Dormouse. There are now 12. Yay!! We can start making a quilt! Check your mailbox next week, Auntie Anne!

52 Questions

I thought I'd let you in on some of the answers and scrapping I've done for Emily Falconbridge's 52 Q scrapbooking/journalling project for 2009. We're meant to scrap a small page or tag (in whatever way we wish!), for each question Emily asks. Emily is already up to question 12, but I can't move as fast as that! I've only completed four!! I'll try to catch up in the school holidays.

No.1 Front

Back

No.2 Front

Back

No.3 Front

Back

No.4 Front

Back

It cracks me up that Emily asks all these deep and meaningful questions, and then throws in one like, "Do you believe in fairies?" Love it! I've really enjoyed making these. If someone had said to me when I was in primary school " you're going to have an obsession with stationery when you grow up," I never would have believed them! But, hey... I have. You should check out Emily's 52Q project yourself - maybe get a notebook and write down the answers, you don't have to scrap them. The questions really make you think, and I've tried to be very honest to myself in answering them.

More Wonderland Characters

Here are some more of the little Wonderland fellows.

Kristie's Birthday Party!!!!!

We went to Jetty's Restaurant at Hillary's Boat Harbour on Saturday night. The food was delish, and I got to indulge in my seafood favourites like chilli mussels, squid rings, sushi, crab meat and prawns. (By the way they have a huge buffet there, if it sounds like I was ordering lots of dishes for myself!) There were adorable little desserts too, like mini custard tarts and date slices which were DIVINE! We almost didn't need to have any birthday cake after that, but cake we had, and it was a beauty!! With all those candles on it, it looked like there was a bonfire on our table! (And Kristie's not even that old!) The hilarious moment of the night was trying to get a photo of that cake all aglow, and one of Kristie blowing out the candles. It was all just a blur! We laughed and laughed at the photos on our cameras and mobiles until the mascara was streaming down our faces!

Hysterical! Happy Birthday Kris!

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

I spent last night making some more Alice in Wonderland cards - this time the theme is the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Love this part of the movie! Although the Mad Hatter and March Hare are infuriating, at least they're not scary, and it's such a pretty scene with all the dancing teapots and cups, and the fireworks and lanterns. Also, I have a huge love for cake! I loved the Very Merry Unbirthday song when I was a kid, and we even had the 7" record, which we played over and over. We'll be celebrating my sister's birthday tonight, but really it's her unbirthday because she was born on March 16th. Hehe!

Flying things

Today, Jack and I made some planes from a set he got for Christmas.

I actually made some paper planes! There were some rockets too. We went to the park to fly them. It was cool fun!