Bring Back Creativity.

What has happened to us?? Birthday presents have turned into vouchers, money inside cards, and electronic gadgetry! I vote to turn the tide and go back to the good old days of presents with a bit of heart!
My niece turned 13 recently and although I know she would have been thrilled to get a voucher to use at the shopping center, I decided I would give her a different voucher... A "learn to crochet with Aunty Debbi" voucher. This idea quickly became a bit more than just the printing up of a voucher to pop inside the card.
I crocheted a granny square, sewed it onto some nice paper and backing - making a little tag pocket for my voucher. Then I got a plain calico bag and personalised it with her initial appliquéd on to some fabric which I embellished with some crocheted flowers and buttons.
I filled the bag up with colored wools and a selection of crochet hooks.



She was delighted! And we will be starting our first lesson this weekend.
My grandma would be so proud of me! There should be a world wide movement to get kids off the couch, away from gadgets, out of malls, and back to creativity and sports!!

I'm all for that concept.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Christening with a Difference

I've never been asked to work at a Christening before... but there's always a first, and this was it.

A very classy event, with a stylist, a beautiful venue, a band, catering and me!

I had a young crowd to please so we did some wet/dry pastel painting on canvas, beading, colouring in (on a custom designed personalised placemat by me especially for the event), photo frame and treasure box making. The brief was to keep things as 'clean' as possible, and I'm happy to say that the white starched table cloths had more stains from the tomato sauce and chips than they did from the art making!

It was a challenge doing the art at the lunch table, and I also had to set up a display on the lunch table to fit in with the room decor, but the event went beautifully and we managed to keep the kids happy and busy between 11am and 4pm! So the client was thrilled and so were the kids.

89 Kids on a Rainy Day

I was booked to facilitate and design some activities at a large party at Nielsen Park Kiosk recently, with many families invited. The kids had lunch and then had the option of coming to my 'art studio' which I'd set up in a gorgeous hall or going to the beach for a swim. Problem was, the rain started. So all the kids came in to the studio at once! My well thought out plan went into meltdown and it was all hands on deck for the first 15 minutes of chaos! After that, it settled down and the event went really well. Luckily, there was a microphone, so I was able to be heard above the mayhem, and explain to the kids how the afternoon would pan out! There were 89 kids from ages 4-17. I had 3 activities organised including tie dying singlets - for all of them, painting and decorating a shadow box for the 4-6 yr olds, and making a "family boat" canvas for the 6+ kids. The brief was to create things with an earthy Hamptons Design feel... so I used lots of neutral colours, driftwood, metals, twine, and natural elements including shells, and starfish. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is that the kids have a ball - and they did.

This is the Family Boat Canvas - the kids painted a background, and a wooden word, then made a boat using tin, driftwood, wire, metal mesh, and various tools. You can't see so well in the picture, but the family name was embossed onto the tin sail using metal punches. It looked really good I must say!.






















My studio display corner!

Aloha Hawaii

I had a wonderful party with 25 lovely little ladies and we made hawaiian hair accessories! Using shells, flowers, beads, wire, the girls had an afternoon of creative fun.







We also made a surprise gift for the birthday girl - a shadowbox from Kaisercraft which I had prepared prior to the party - just needed the photos to be added in at the last minute. All the girls chose a word to describe their friend, and decorated a butterfly, which I stuck into the shadowbox. A couple of shells and flowers finished of this cute memento.

Party Time

I had a VERY lively group of girls at this birthday party! All 20+ made gorgeous decorative name tags using papers, fabrics, ribbons, flowers, beads, cords, and metal embellishments. Working through the project step by step together with the girls meant that their finished items looked really well made and well put together. The children get to choose all the colours and bits and pieces, and I enjoy watching them working out their individual style as they work through the project with me. As you can see, they all finished up looking very pleased with themselves!

Customized Album

Just did another album at a large event.... this time the client wanted a red/black/cream theme.

I handmade and customized most of the embellishments. The client wanted something that would look classy and stand the test of time as well as representing her personality.

There was a lot of stitching (all the tags), stamping, and layering of different papers, and the overall album had quite a vintage feel.


The guests use the premade guest cards (all stitched, sized, precut, layered, and co-ordinated), and then add their own individual touch using all the prepared embellishments and message cards.

At the end of the party, the client was thrilled to get her beautiful album with photos and messages from all the (50+) guests.