Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

  Who's feeling lucky this week? Perhaps it's time for a game of bingo. Bingo is the current theme for Tag Tuesday, nominated by design team member, Michele. I made a couple of tags. One explores the theme of  taking chances and luck - with a background of an instant lottery ticket, an image of a vintage bingo card and a miniature playing card  with a few scattered stickers and a "sticky" tape transferred quote. The others is simple a pen and watercolour drawing of a bingo player all ready to win!  I also found out some interesting information about Bingo, as I was curious about  the word itself  Bingo is the American version of a game that originated as an Italian Lottery called “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia” that was all the rage dating back as far as the mid-1500s. When the game reached North America in 1929 it was known as “beano” but later renamed bingo after a caller yelled out "BINGO" instead of beano .  90-ball bingo (also known as...

Today begins the Lunar Year of the Dog... I started well  last week preparing my greeting cards  incorporating 'red' in my art works in time for giving and posting. Why are these so red?  Most of you can answer that as it is commonly known that the colour red for Chinese symbolises  good fortune and happiness. It is certainly the Chinese celebratory colour - unavoidable during Chinese New Year and other traditional and official holidays. Being the year of the dog, so many cute images of dogs appear in both traditional and contemporary New Year designs. I used Christmas Island stamps on my cards. The stylised  patterned image of a little dog is adapted from the Chinese character -very modern and festive.  Although I think the little red dog looks pensive, it is certainly a lovable and a reassuring  image. This thoughtful dog image certainly fits with what  Chinese astrologer Linda Lau predicts for this year.. .. (from  https://www....

Christmas Countdown ...7... Pudding Coins  We all love Christmas pudding, but have you ever wondered where the practice of putting coins in the pudding came from? Getting a silver coin with your serving of pudding is said to bring good luck. This came possibly from the 1300s in Britain when a “Twelfth Night Cake” was eaten during the festivities on the twelfth night of Christmas. A dried bean or pea was baked inside the cake and whoever got it was “king” or “queen” for the night. The bean was sometimes a silver ring. Then it turned into a farthing or a penny and then after World War 1, a silver threepence or sixpence.  There was also a practice of using tokens in a pudding, which held predictions for the finder – a bachelor or spinster for the following year, or the prospect of marriage. These days, silver coins are no longer currency, but many (like me) have kept a few silver coins just to put in the pudding on Christmas Day.