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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 last year for my birthday.  The next day, I  sorted and ironed many pieces of eco dyed fabric which has been languishing crumpled in a plastic bag since a dyeing session early last month.  On Day 8, I was putting away things in my workroom and rediscovered a little kit, a friend gave me, so I made it up - not sure this little owl was designed to look as though it's wearing a skull cap, but I was happy to finish it. 

Day 1


Day 2

Day 8

Recycling was definitely one of the aims of this projects .... I stencilled newspaper, brown paper and kitchen paper to create some great gift wrapping , and used strips of fabric scraps to make some very strong twine. You can see that I used this twine , Day 9 , as ties for fabric scrappy bags to be used in a gallery for purchases from the gallery shop, instead of commercial packaging. Day 10 was a big day - I made 4 cushions, one for each of my gran\d children. One was made from fabric from a jacket I wore when I acted as the Secretary General at Model United Nations Assemblies; the second , for a grandson who is planning a trip to Japan in May, features a strip of fabric showing a street map of Tokyo; the third uses an embroidery made by my late mother, and the last is a painted cloth from Thailand - a travel memento.


Day 3 



Day 4


Day 9


Day 10 

Other days' projects were merely on the agenda... like gathering and treating sticks for an upcoming workshop I am presenting next month, and on the twelfth day, I packed up all the Christmas decorations and started a little cross stitch project to do while streaming some 'summer' movies.

Day 11 



Day 12 

I also played with some photo manipulation which I hope to explore more later .... overall, it was a good start to the year . 
Day 6 




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