FlowerPress postcards

I've recently had some photos printed up as postcards to sell in my Etsy shop, though I must admit I've been using some of them already as gift cards - I love sending cards for birthdays, personal messages, thank you cards, with wedding, engagements and baby presents. I'm planning on producing some greeting cards as well.
To this end I've been getting card and printing samples from local printers, trying to source the best quality paper and printing.
Tracking down the right materials is a time consuming part of the production process - I'm always driving around to different shops buying different pieces of card (and a million different pens!). It's really rewarding though when you find great stock.
I had a good trip to Amazing Paper in Enmore, Sydney, the other day, choosing a few card stocks to experiment with, they have a good range of different colours and styles, I'm especially interested in sourcing recycled card and paper and I got some good samples here.
For people out of Sydney, they have an internet site and do mail order and have good pictures of their papers online. I buy my cellophane bags here and even the kraft card that I reinforce my larger prints with. A great one stop shop.

candlelight

For Earth Hour.

Earth Hour goes global

Last year on March 31 many of us in Sydney joined in the inaugural Earth Hour, turning our lights off for an hour and contemplating how we could reduce our power usage and our impact on the earth. This year the date is March 29, tonight, and Earth Hour is going global and lots of other cities and people are joining us! It is going to be exciting to see how much power and fuel we can save together and how this gesture will help us all to think of ways to save energy in the future. I know I turn things off more since last year and try not to have everything on standby!
Go to the website now and join us! It's very simple to do and actually quite fun!!

I'm in Storque!

A while ago I contacted Etsy in the Press to tell them about a mention in my local paper The Sydney Morning Herald. I always get excited when I see Etsy mentioned because it is only just becoming well known here in Australia.
This morning I was listing something and went to see it scroll through the front page, a fleeting moment of fame :-) when what should I see scroll past in a Storque article but my Ruby Slippers!!
I'm not sure how long this honour lasts but I could easily get used to it :-)

dream gate

I love this photo. I love the gate, I love the colours, I love the plants, I love the garden.
This image comes from English mail order company www.coxandcox.co.uk
The gate isn't for sale unfortunately, just the lights!
They have some beautiful objects in garden, home and creative categories to name a few.
I'm almost scared to see if they ship to Australia. I would have to have these stamps. Actually I couldn't find anything on the whole site that I didn't covet.
Birds and Nests Stamps

the bush

We spent the Easter break in Bathurst, a beautiful country town west of Sydney over the Blue Mountains. These photos are from the night we camped, under a full moon in bushland near a deep clear creek. Hard land but still full of small jewels and treasures.

stamps

I recently bought some soft cut eraser material and I've been carving away, inspired by the beautiful work I've seen in Etsy and blogland.
My other great discovery has been the Versa Color stamp pads which come in an amazing and inspiring range of beautiful colours and have a great painty finish. If you are stamping and don't have these rush out and get one now!
I bought four colours that you can see here, peony (for the peonies), imperial blue for the little wren who lives in my garden singing his heart out, baby blue to experiment with a lighter colour stamp and fresh green for all the leaf repeat patterns I've been playing around with - more fabric dreams :-)
I finally got round to having my logo stamp made too, in violet! This has been on my to do list for ages, I've been wanting it for stamping on the back of cards, for labels and a million other things. I love that hand stamped effect and it think it suits my handmade cards. (Not sure why this pic is so small, I have trouble with portrait pics, anyone know why?)

Happy Easter to all. I am going away for the long weekend, to visit family and to camp here one night:

More close ups on my flickr

Theo Jansen

I couldn't resist sharing these beautiful machines made by Dutch artist Theo Jansen which I happened across. They are really quite amazing and beautiful and very close to living. I particularly like the last one which looks like the love child of an elephant and a cardboard box.

Australian natives & international visitors

Auracaria bidwillii Bunya Pine cone close up.

I was looking through the stats for this blog the other day and just marvelling at the amazing range of countries my visitors come from.
I wrote a list: UK, US, Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, France, Italy, Brazil, Austria, Spain, Argentina, Netherlands, Columbia, Portugal, Germany, Singapore, Phillipines, Israel, Cyprus, Ukraine, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Japan and Iceland.
I just love it (though I'm a bit worried about my lack of popularity in Asia and Eastern Europe!).
Anyway, here are some amazing Australian natives for all my international visitors. It is lovely to have you here :-) (And leave me a comment if I missed anywhere!)

Above a close up of a Bunya 'nut', these huge cones are cooked and eaten as bush food. Such fantastic geometry in the design and I love the brown whiskers.

Stenocarpus sinuatus Firewheel tree

Another native, the Firewheel trees are flowering now, just gorgeous, one of my very favourites and something I'm working on for a textile design. This arrangement is an homage to Denise at Freshly Found's Spathodea Damask.

plectranthus

Two different looking plants in the same family - Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' with its green leaves undercoated in purple and Plectranthus argentatus with its lovely felty sage green leaves. Both flowering now in their tones of purple and white. Both really tough fast growing plants from cuttings

green fruit and vegetable bags

I was so pleased when I found these bags on Etsy at Re-Market. It has always grated, taking all your green bags shopping only to end up filling them with plastic bags of fruit and vegies. These bags are lightweight, see-through and can be machine washed. A really clever solution.
I've ordered a set of three and an extra heavy duty bag (top).
Now I just have to remember to take them with me!

illustration friday - garden

I subscribed to Illustration Friday a few weeks ago and when 'garden' came up as a topic I figured I had no excuse!

south pacific

Going back soon to one of favourite places. Fibro shack near a white sand beach in the national park. Dug out these old photos and uploaded them to Flickr.

fennel fireworks

We are having the most perfect days here at the moment, bright, clear blue skies and warm sun with a light cool breeze. We've had enough rain for the first time in ages and the plants are going mad. Here the fennel seedheads against the bluest sky. Makes me think of Angie Lewin's gorgeous woodcut prints below.

Angie Lewin - Spey Path I

letterpress

I've been cruising Ebay for a while now, eyeing off the wooden letterpress type and watching it sell for huge prices. I know I'm not alone in finding these objects beautiful and wanting some for my own!
This is the first of three lots I bought (the smallest!) I spent too much but it was lots of fun.
Can't wait for them to arrive now. I think I might even have a try at printing some cards with them. I just love printing in all its forms and block printing with these and feeling some of the history in them and appreciating the letter forms for the art and design they are, fantastic.

PG-11 Gocco registration tutorial

I always love tutorials which explain techniques and tools, so with that in mind I thought I'd post this tute, for all those new Gocco converts out there trying to work out how to use the registration features of the PG-11, and for the people trying to work out which machine to buy.
These photos are from my first try at two colour printing. I'd only exposed one screen before this!

In this first photo I have printed the first colour, ruby red for the body of the shoes, and I've exposed and inked up the second colour screen (of a black outline). Clicking in the registration plate I then print an image of my screen on it. (Rumour has it you can remove the blue protective film but I haven't been brave enough yet!)

Once I have the second colour image printed on the registration plate I can slide a printed card beneath the clear plate and try and align it with the second colour. (I'm using misprints so that any mistakes aren't a problem.)

You can see the locking mechanism (the two black knobs below the printing plate) are in the unlocked, down position and I can then move the printing plate (the cushioned platform the prints sit on) around to align the second colour over the first. It is the first colour printed card that moves around to align, not the second colour.
Once I'm happy with the registration I lock these knobs by putting them in the up postion, remove the blue plastic registration plate and start printing.
The photo below shows the final result from my second printing, once I got the hang of it this was such a quick and easy job. These Ruby Slippers cards have been really popular but I have a few left in my Etsy Shop. If anyone has questions, suggestions or corrections just leave a comment below and I'll respond.