Gyotaku fish rubbing

I loved this project but it did take a lot of prep work. The art of fish rubbing is called,  Gyotaku. Here is a video I found showing you how to do the fish rubbing. Charl caught the Spotted Grunter while we were on holiday at The Mudlark Riverfront Lodge. The eye has to be painted after the print is made. Try it - this is great fun.

Blue Bird Xmas

Christmas table decorations all inspired from Pinterest and Geninne. I while back I found a box of old music sheets at a charity shop and decided to hang onto them for a project. So this year everything is Music and blue Birds. The crackers, I punched the edges to make them "fancy" and copied a templete, the birds were printed out and stuck on. The place mats, I painted a word on each place-mat and then covered them with glue and then tissue paper (give it some texture) the birds were stuck on last with little speech bubble. The Christmas balls took a while, pasting all the music paper on the balls..... shew! then painted each persons name and varnished and then sprinkled some glitter. The table runner was same idea as the place-mats. I had some wood blocks I painted these with cute family messages to run along the center of the table.

Surf party

Jack decided for his 8th birthday he would have a surf party, I was very excited to get to make a "WAVE" cake. I rolled the fondant out, draped it over a champagne bottle and let it dry for 4 days. The sponge was 3 shades of blue. The picture of jack surfing I printed both sides & stuck onto card. Blue shades of butter icing and for the foam I mixed icing with water till it was sticky & pipped it onto the wave. Party pack = blue energy juice, big wave surfboard biscuits, certificate and a surf thong necklace. Unfortunately the weather was wild & stormy so we had cancel the surf lesson for another day and go to Dunes Restaurant.

 

Velt flowers

At the begging of the year I put my name down to do the foyer flowers for Jacks school - what I did not realize was that the week I choose was a long weekend so we were away. Not wanting to rush back from the Breede river (www.mudlark.co.za) we needed a plan. So we went for walk in the fields and collected flowers, Kids had so much fun and the flowers were spectacular!

Spring Hat day for Max's school

Max had to come to school with a hat decorated with the Spring Theme - so Jack Max and I spent a fanatstic afternoon cutting and decorating his hat with flowers & bugs. He was so proud of it he is still wearing it.

Dusty slides revived

This was a project that had been on my TO-DO-LIST for a very long time. What brought it to the top of the list was when I found these 2 beautiful slide holder trays at the charity shop, I came home immediately and dusted off the slides that had been in a box tucked in the cupboard. I then had the scanned and copied to CD. Great fun to look through all the old pictures and play with effects in Photoshop. 

Lino Cut Mouse Bird

This is a lino cut I have made, I am thinking about using it to stamp a pattern on my moms staff aprons at her guest house. The Mouse birds can be seen eating fruit on their deck every day and the really are very cute to watch. Have a look at their gallery pics on the Mudlark Riverfront lodge for loads of stunning pictures of bird.

Homemade Hula Hoop

Boys got excited about Hula Hooping after playing with some at a concert so I searched the web for a cheaper option. They ended up costing only R15 to make, garden irrigation pipe, connector and some electrical tape...... so easy. Visit this site for more details www.jasonunbound.com/hoops.html   

River rocks & blue birds

Ok - I think I have a problem.....I have become hooked on painting rocks! - Finding it very therapeutic. Hopefully I will be able to sell them at the school Christmas market otherwise allot of friends and family will be receiving rocks for Christmas. Painted with Acrylic ink and spray varnished with clear lacquer.

Little Artists

When i grow up one day...... my answer was always ' art teacher ' - ( I ended up being a graphic designer) So I offered to help out at my 5 year old pre-school with a little art lesson.

I took photos of all 25 kids and asked them to pretend to hold something, then printed out in Black & white. All the kids were told to draw something in their hands that makes the happy, so we had allot of lolly pops and flowers. I asked them to make it as bright as they could and fill as much white space as possible. I also gave them stickers and let them add glue and glitter. They created masterpieces!!!! 

SPRING Kids Market

Market time again.....my boys & I have been making mini Aloe & Succulent gardens - collecting jars & old tea cups from Church sales and Nazareth House Charity Shop. We noticed that last time everyone wanted the pretty blue pots so this time we painted them all blue, and we sold out!!!  To join Sam's next kiddie market day, see KidsDecor website, Have a look at the pics while you are there.

Rock painting

Rock painting

I love Geninne stamps and style (she has just brought out a beautiful book) so these "rocks" were inspired by her. Our winter holiday - (4 moms and 9 kids) was spent collecting rocks off the Breede River beach and then spending the cold afternoons indoors with a fire painting our treasures. We used Acrylic Ink and sprayed them with clear varnish.  Thanks for the holiday The Mudlark Riverfront Lodge

Princess Rainbow cake

I have always wanted to make a kitsch Barbie cake, but I have 2 boys. So when I heard Holly wanted one for her birthday - I was in! Being a mad Pint-rest fan I have seen all the rainbow cakes and have wanted to try that too. So I combined the 2. The  glitter pattern was painted on with a wet paintbrush and the sprinkled the glitter over it and blew away the excess glitter. Now tonight I am making a skateboard cake as Holly is sharing her party with her little brother (my godchild) - couldn't leave him out.

Easter Cake

School cake sales... was dreading this chore but Max (5)  got involved and we had a ball decorating the cake, it was his idea to put bunnies all around, kept saying "we need more" and he was right.

Cookies

My boys love decorating cookies, we even got Steve (dad) decorating. In my mind I always see these perfectly iced cookies - but the reality of it is once the boys see the cookies they have to get involved and I like the "rustic" look that a 5 and 7 year can create without trying. A great Sugar Cookie Recipe & tips.

Easter entrance hall

WOW Blogging is allot harder than I thought it would be, firstly I forget to take pictures of the projects I finish and then never find the time to download the pictures. This is the Easter entrance hall for Max's school. Made the wreath out of items from the charity shop - old soft toys and bits and bobs. The hearts are from old music books. Painted the frame. In total cost about R100 to decorate.

Nguni Cows @ Breede River

We spent our Summer Holiday on the banks of the Breede river. Mum has been asking for paintings to hang in the rooms in their Lodge (The Mudlark) We decided to give the rooms themes, so room 3 will now be called the "Nguni Cow" room.

Treasures

These are a couple of my favorite items. I LOVE church sales, charity shops & looking for treasures. The Blue vases was from a Church sale for R20! Crazy! no cracks perfect. I painted the Proteas once they had dyed out with white PVA paint. The retro chair I found in a junk shop for R80 and  covered it with a vinyl table cloth from Shine-Shine fabrics. She was selling all her stock at half price. The painting is by a friend Richard Midegly.

Aloe again!

Sally added to her "Father Xmas wish list" an Aloe sketch.

Time to get Ho hoho!

Jack was very disappointed with the size of our Christmas tree, I explained that he has grown so that is why it looks small - fact is ... it is small! Kids insisted on putting ever ornament that we have on the "little" tree, but it was still looking a little dull and needed a bit or razzmatazz..... pink feather boa.