Souvenirs and more

This little box will become a souvenir for sale I think, though if I make some more they will be less elaborate. I had fun doing this with techniques fform the Ratty tatty papers course with Dale. It is tissuetex painted with acrylic paint, then with a shiva stick rubbing before fusing it to pelmet vilene. I do love that stuff, it is so smooth and firm. Next I painted some more colours on som tissuetex and stamped out flowers which I fused onto the base before adding some stitching.

I lined the box with ordinary tissu paper adhered with gel medium - I like the smell of that better than PVA. then I painted over it with the wonderful opulence paint, which is another favourite. I gave the outside a coat of acrylic wax for protection and now it is finished.

These next pictures have come up in the wrong order - my fault, I couldn't remember which way I had labelled them. This is the inside of the padfolio, which I had to show Dale as the stamps were made when I did module 1 of Playways about 7 years ago! I think I am not quite the slowest student in finishing but I must be the second slowest.

These two pictures are of the outside of the padfolio - a photocopy of a lovely swamp bloodwood from the Botanic Gardens on tissuetex fused to pelmet vilene and then with stitching added.

The black velcro dot is no longer there - for two reasons - it fell off and I didn't like it at all. It was only there in the first place because once again I was going too fast and forgot to add the velcro tab before I sewed the pocket on. I will make a cord to hold it together, will look much better. I love the idea of these photocopies and have lots more flowers in mind to try. I have another sheet of tissuetex with this same photo on, so will make that up into bookmarks.

We have been talking about only selling souvenirs which are relevant to the Gardens so that has made me think a bit more, but these will definitely qualify. I am a complete squib when it comes to trying anything a bit different and seeing the printers are part of Bill's business, that makes me even more wary of suggesting anything. However I think I will start soaking some fabric in inkjetset and try that soon too - Bill will have a fit till he sees it work, then he will be egging me on. Perhaps I may wait a few weeks till my sister is visiting, then there will be two of us to gang up................................hmm...

We are having an old fashioned wet season here and feel we should be growing web feet. There have only been 6 days since Christmas when we haven't had rain, but we have been lucky enough to be north south and east of the flooding. I think we have had over 850 mm rain since Christmas, but then a year ago we had nearly 700 mm rain in just one night!!!