Party Party Party

A round of parties this week ... Yesterday, it was the Gumnutters' Christmas party. ( The Gumnutters are a doll makers' group here in Newcastle. We meet once a month and swap creative ideas and teach each other new skills) The Gumnutters have been wonderful this year supporting the Mando project in Papua New Guinea - thanks very much, you are a special group of creative women. Besides eating lots of yummy food yesterday, we had a Christmas stocking swap and we were all delighted to receive such beautiful stockings. We also made beaded Christmas wreaths - everyone getting into the spirit of Christmas. These little wreaths are very simply made with a few green and red crystals and wire. For this project, acrylic beads look sparkly, too and make a lovely embellishment for a parcel or for the tree. The instructions for this little project are in the Australian magazine , "Beads Etc" issue 8, 2006.

Last night, Jim and I travelled to Sydney to a 120th birthday - our friends Bill and Maureen (whose birthdays are 12 and 13 December respectively) have a combined age of 120! Their sons and daughter organised a fantastic surprise birthday for them . It was a great night, with their friends and family coming from all over Australia for the celebration - and they had no idea until they came in the door to rousing applause and singing.

Today is a very special day - our grandson's third birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN

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The Sea - for Tag Tuesday

For the current challenge "The Sea" at Tag Tuesday, I made a couple of painted/ hand drawn tags . These were created from a piece of watercolour paper which had been sprayed with acrylic paint - blue, yellow and quinacridone gold. I then sketched over the top , trying to follow some pattern created by the splatter and then add some felt tip pen lines watercolour pencil to highlight the shapes. The tags represent the fantasies of the hidden city of Atlantis and a mermaid. With this theme in mind, I also add a free motion stitched tag I made earlier this year for 29 Faces -

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Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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