Skip to main content

Christmas Countdown #25 Envelopes : Summer Christmas and Tree of Joy

 


Welcome December 2020 - I love to mark Advent with my own sort of calendar, counting down to Christmas. In the past, I have celebrated marvellous trees, Christmas firsts, an Advent alphabet and even much maligned fruit cake. In 2019, I completed #the100dayproject by creating collages on used envelopes. For this series, #25envelopes, I am revisiting that idea with of course, a Christmas theme. 

"Summer Christmas": 1/#25envelopes

1 December: 'Summer Christmas" ... Officially this is the first day of Summer here in Australia and thoughts of the beach and sunshine came to mind, especially when I found this 1977 Christmas stamp of Santa Claus riding a surfboard. The day here is Newcastle was an intense Summer day - very hot and humid and then a wild storm at night.... Christmas weather! The paper collage on this envelope tries to capture the colours of the beach with a threatening cloud forming, warning of a summer afternoon storm. 


"Tree of Joy ":  2/ #25envelopes  - Wilma Simmons 

 2 December : Tree of Joy ... For 47 years, the Rotary Club of Wallsend-Maryland has conducted its annual community service Christmas  project, " Tree of Joy ' and during that time, it has grown from distributing a few gifts to a  major community fundraising with food hampers, children's and adults' gifts being distributed to those in need. Last year, over 1,000 families were supported at Christmas , with the total value of donations estimated at approximately $50,000 . This envelope was created using a "Rotary Down Under" used envelope, with gel plate printed paper and a very appropriate  Christmas stamp, entitles "Joy" 



Both of these envelopes, for the first two days , were fun to create, and I have the materials, so I hope I will be able to continue and complete this series -  #25envelopes . Watch this space daily for updates. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

12 Days .... festive or not?

Days 5 & 7 - the Gold Rush Era Stamp Series   It seems so long ago now since we were celebrating Christmas and New Year.... hope you enjoyed a great festive season. I took some time out, not doing much at all but I did set myself a little challenge of doing some tidying up which meant spending a little time each day using scraps of fabric and paper  to create something a little playful or as the mood took, useful!  Unlike the long projects I usually undertake, this was a 12 day project ( 12 days of Christmas ) - completely random, but finishing half done projects or recycling.  For example the first photo shows some collages  I did on days 5 and 7 to use a postage stamp release, the Gold Rush Era series, first issued in Australia 1981 ... yes I probably have had it in my stash since then!   Completing some other little projects was very satisfying .... On Day 1, I assembled a folded  paper folk cube from a kit my daughter gifted to me las...

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Too Precious to Waste

 Stitched tea bags/ old doily "tea lights" - Wilma Simmons  More than a year ago, a decision was made.  The annual exhibition of NCEATA ( Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists) 2015-2016 will have the theme "Mottainai". Mottainai in Japanese refers to more than just physical waste (resources). It is even used to refer to thought patterns that give rise to wasteful action. Grammatically, it can be used in Japanese as an exclamation ("mottainai!") or as an adjective phrase ("it feels mottainai"). There is no plural form. The collection of mottainai things could be called mottainai koto ( もったいない事 ? ). As an exclamation ("mottainai!") it means roughly "what a waste!" or "Don't waste." [2]  A simple English equivalent is the saying "waste not, want not." A more elaborate meaning conveys a sense of value and worthiness and may be translated as "do not destroy (or lay waste to) that ...