What a week, but these paper mache hearts are taking shape ...

I suppose I have always been one to have a 'schedule'. My part time work requires me to follow a timetable and even at home, I have certain times and certain days for different activities. Everything fits neatly in its box and everything has its allocated time. It gives me guidance and I know what is going to happen next. I like it when things are predictable ...

However, life is not so easy to contain into schedules or timetables and last week was a perfect example. It was like a 'perfect storm' - all male members of the household just happened to fall ill at the same time. There were pick ups from school, attempts to enforce rest, doctors appointments and medication administered. In all of this was the difficulty in watching precious people in pain as they battled their sickness. Pre-planned schedules and timetables went out the window while nursing duties were undertaken. That is life and that is motherhood and despite the difficulties and the weariness, particularly in these moments, it is indeed a precious gift. I am happy to say that all are well on the mend and are feeling considerably better.

It also meant that my creative time was very limited last week, however, I did get these hearts started. The base layers have been administered and are busy drying. They will have a white top coat applied, some sparkle and some encouraging words added. They will then become part of the surprise packages for my next 'Snail Mail Surprise Challenge'. More details will be released soon about this.

In the meantime, I hope that you stay well. I have been enjoying some beautiful, sunny days and a breath of warmer weather which is so uplifting (and will hopefully get rid of all the sicky germs!)

Thanks for viewing!

~ Jen.

P.S - If you have enjoyed reading about the story behind Tupsy Turvy Designs' products, why not become a 'Golden Ticket Member'? It is FREE and membership entitles you to regular updates, exclusive sales, discounts and opportunities. Simply click here and enter your email address. Easy! I look forward to sharing more ideas with you soon ...

A story and a balloon

The other night I read one of my son's library books to him. It was a fascinating recount of a historical story of a teenage, American inventor that was caught up in the hysteria about 'flying machines'. He had a dream of building a 'sky cycle' - a cross between a bicycle and a hydrogen balloon and ended up creating one that won awards in flying machine competitions.

This story and an urge to get back into paper mache has led to my newest project - a paper mache hot air balloon. This balloon has been carefully created out of paper mache which has then been painted red with splatterings of turquoise, in a mixed media style. I am now applying sealer and varnish and then I will add a knotted net over the top. Of course, it will have a basket for travellers underneath.

I am still working out whether this balloon will become one of my products. They do take quite a lot of time to create (and I LOVE the creation process), but that will also effect the product cost (added labour). The time spent on my paper mache also takes time away from my canvas and jewellery creation, therefore I either need to find a balance with time or work out whether time spent on these bigger projects are worth it. I will also need to test the balloon out myself or have a volunteer trial it to ensure that this creation is sturdy.

I would love to know your initial thoughts. I tend to generate a lot of ideas - but I do need to be realistic as well. Feel free to leave a comment or email me your thoughts (see email address in the 'Contact' tab).

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Jen.

P.S - If you have enjoyed reading about the story behind Tupsy Turvy Designs' products, why not become a 'Golden Ticket Member'? It is FREE and membership entitles you to regular updates, exclusive sales, discounts and opportunities. Simply click here and enter your email address. Easy! I look forward to sharing more ideas with you soon ...

Paper mache - Little Babushka Dolls

Lately, I have had a fascination with paper mache, as I wanted a way that I can move my mixed media art from being two dimensional to three dimensional. I have been so inspired to give it a go that studied up on it. This is despite my knowledge that it could all get a little messy, be time consuming and could all be a waste of time in the end. However, I came up with a Babushka doll design - complete with the addition of fabric to highlight her headscarf. 

With this particular group of dolls I painted faces on, however I am unsure about this as I like my faceless ladies that I create on my canvases. I thought, to link to the two, this may be needed on my three dimensional art. In the next sense, I do like their cute little faces that makes each doll more individual. Do I necessarily need to link the two? I think I will also add some more of the black lines, squiggles,etc that I use in my mixed media art on my three dimensional art to add some more detail and spark to my dolls.

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Overall, I am very happy with the result. I have a little group of rustic, simple, unique ornaments.Yes, they were a little messy to make, but they were fun to create and were not all that time consuming. I am just hoping that I have dried them enough so that they don't fall in a heap. I am giving them a little test to see how they go. If all is good, they will become a new line in store.

Of course, I can't stop at one! I also have more ideas in the pipeline for this type of art, including boats for boys and apples for teachers.

I would love to know what you think.

~ Jen.

My new colour combination - Lemon and Blue

(source: http://design-seeds.com/home/entry/lemony-hues)

After spending a glorious time creating items using a red and grey colour combination, I felt it was time to move to another. Looking through pictures of the items that I have created, I realised that I didn't have a lot of yellow based items, hence I have a bit of a hankering for 'yellow'.I spotted this colour combination - lemon yellow and blue/grey hues... warmth and coolness colliding. 

I must admit, I have already started creating a tiny canvas using these colours...

Now to add my feature motif...
 What do these colours remind you of?
I have started a list of items that I link with particular colours. As my feature colour is yellow (with a cool colour background), my ideas for a motif include:

• a duck (for a child's canvas)
• flower
• beach items
• butterfly
• bird

 Now to make a decision...
 I am also looking forward to creating larger canvases and jewellery items with this colour combination.

~Jen.

Friday thoughts - A growing idea!

Growth is amazing! It is amazing how a seed, in the right conditions, can turn into a plant, which in turn provides flowers and fruit/vegetables. The family of Tupsy Turvy enjoy home grown fruits and vegetables. It is very rewarding when after time and effort spent in the garden, a crop of delicious, organic, healthy, freshly picked produce occurs. Of course, it doesn't happen overnight, but rather, plant growth is slow and purposeful, taking weeks or months.

The children that I have been working with this week have enjoyed how plant growth occurs. They looked at the difference between dried beans and soaked beans. They opened up these soaked bean seeds to find out what is inside. They thought about how a pea seed turns into a plant and then planted some seeds to find out what happens, in clear cups so that they can clearly see. They also placed seeds in different places, in different conditions to see which seeds grow the best. A helper came into the class to make 'seed heads', which the children thoroughly enjoyed. So much planting and growth!

Children are fascinated by seeds and how they turn into plants. Cress, alfalfa and mustard sprout seeds grow very quickly and can be placed on a plastic plate on cotton wool, sprayed with water, to germinate.

 'Seed heads' are also a fun, growing activity:
In a 'toe' of a stocking, sprinkle lawn seeds. Add some potting mix and tie a knot. Cut the stocking below the knot, leaving around 10cms of stocking. Stand the 'head' in a cup, knot side down. Eyes, nose and mouth can be glued on the 'head'. Spray regularly with water and after a few days, grassy 'hair' should appear.

Have a lovely weekend and happy sprouting!

Weekend Wonders - Inspirational and crafty

What a contrast in weather! Last weekend it was sweltering hot and this weekend has been much cooler with some showers of rain. I know that there are areas of Australia that are in flood, whereas where we are, it would be nice to have a heavy shower of rain to top up our water tanks.

I was able to spend some time today to sit down and do some craft. I made a Jellybean Buddy set (I will show photos tomorrow) and I have worked out the final details of cushion #1 of my train series. I can't wait to start to cut out the felt and make some progress on that project! That will be this week's project.

It is funny what inspires designs. Mr T had the 'V8 Supercar Clipsal 500' race on the TV over the weekend. I don't usually spend a lot of time watching TV these days, but it was on when we sat down briefly for a bite to eat. As I watched, another design for a cushion popped into my head...another one for the boys! I will draw a quick sketch, but I think it might need to be put away for a little while, at least until I have finished my train cushion series.

Whatever you were up to this weekend, I hope that it was restful and enjoyable!

Wonderful Wednesday - Where it all starts

Sometimes it is hard to choose what to do next...

Friday thoughts - Colour - choice, balance and association

When you see a colour, does it remind you of anything in particular? Do you naturally decorate anything for a girl with pink and anything for a boy in blue? It is funny how this association with colour and gender has occurred.

Then there are cool and warm colours. Warm (yellow, orange, red) colours are generally more bold and dazzling, whereas cool colours (blue, green, purple) are more calm and settling. I must say, I do prefer the cooler colours. I seem to choose them over the warmer colours concerning clothes, furnishings and even in craft/fabric patterns. Whereas, there are other people that I know that warmer colours look awesome on.

You could even argue that there is even a pecking order with the brightness of hues. When decorating or making items for children, I tend to use bright and bold colours, rather than pastel colours. To me, bright and bold colours remind me of the energy and bounce that children have. In my latest project, I am using bold and bright colours for the main picture/decoration which is placed upon a pastel blue background. The aim of this item will be a decoration for a girl's (yes...I am using pink) bedroom/nursery.

What colours work well? I often look for great colour combinations in fabric patterns, but only choose three colours! If the fabric that inspires me has a lot of different colours or hues I only pick three, any more and it can look too 'busy'. I often choose one main colour, and the other two colours are used to add some contrast or highlight. This adds more balance.

 An example of this is with 'Rosie'. I chose the flowery patterned fabric. I then used pink from the fabric as the main colour and used purple and green (in the same hues as the fabric) to add some highlights to the ears, face, tummy and paws.This principle can be used in a lot of ways - in making craft items, card making/scrapbooking and even in decorating rooms.

Have a colourful weekend! I hope to finish the 'project' soon to show you all.

Weekend Wonders - Ideas vs Products

Holidays are wonderful!

Not only are they the perfect opportunity to unwind physically but they are also a great opportunity to unwind mentally.

I have enjoyed my summer break and as mentioned before, I have now entered back into the 'real' world and started another year of work. I love creating anytime of the year, however, I find that I have my creative thoughts and ideas during holiday time. Maybe this is because my mind isn't flooded by other things that need to be completed, allowing creativity to rise to the surface.

The only problem with that, is that now I have lots of lovely, creative thoughts but what do I do with them? Sure, I could make them all (and that would be fine) but is there a need to extend an existing line and add variety to it? For example, I have created a bunny, cat and teddy design, but at the moment there is only one colour to choose from. Maybe there is a need to make more of the same design but in different colours. Also, I recently asked about what other bag buddies customers would like to see and was given some wonderful ideas on Tupsy Turvy Designs facebook page. I would love to get into making these designs, but do I add variety to the designs that I have developed at the moment. I would be interested to know your thoughts...do you make 'one of a kinds' or do you make multiples of the same design, but in various colours or with some variations?

Don't worry though... I have recorded down these ideas, ready to launch at a later time. I hope that you have had a lovely weekend!

Friday Thoughts - I've found it!

No, I didn't lose anything.

I was crafting a boy racer bag buddy last night (yes... a new design) when a thought struck me - this is what I enjoy doing. Yes it was sewing, creating and all the things that I enjoy doing.. rather it was what I was doing.

I figured out that I enjoy creating 'critters' most of all - teddies/soft toys, cutie bug clips, bag buddies... anything that becomes a 'form' - a little 'toy life' as such. It's not that I don't like creating other items such as cards, etc, but it does give me a thrill when I finish a little critter and it looks back at me with its quirky smile and toy eyes.

Have you found your niche? What do you enjoy crafting?

Enjoy your weekend!

Friday Thoughts - Oh boy!

Hmmm...what to do.

As a designer and crafter I find it quite easy to get into a 'girlie' mode. I love designing and creating hairclips, headbands, toys and often they are 'girl' oriented. I got to a stage a couple of months ago that I craved creating something in pink and purple (hence my new lot of fabric). To make my point, I have just finished (and placed in my shop) my next batch of 'cutie bugs'.

I have already started doing a bit of Christmas shopping on MadeIt, finding a few items for the female members of my family. But what about the men? Yes, they are more difficult. Craft can be 'cutesy' or feminine (at least the crafts that I make). Even, browsing the net for 'handmade gift ideas for men' leaves limited options.

So I feel a bit of a challenge coming on. I am attempting to design and craft something that any man would love to receive. I have an idea about a notepad and pen holder that could be placed on an office desk. I am currently stitching up the prototype. I will let you know my thoughts about it...whether I am happy with it or not.

Do you have as much trouble as I do coming up with ideas and crafting for men?