Kids Art & Craft Magazines, Australia

There’s something in the water… and it’s not just the shark and box jelly fish! Some beautiful Australian published kids creative magazines are at hand.

There’s ‘Lotta,’ and it’s jam packed with a lotta stuff parents and kids can make together. With a crew of photogenic nieces, nephews and friends kids, Leonie, a  graphic designer from Queensland solo publishes Lotta to coincide with school holidays. Very convenient. Not too long ago we bought the ‘Space’ issue, and it inspired a school holiday long duration of space crafts, from home-made retro space wrapping paper to a new dress up outfit… robot girl!

Recently we discovered ‘Big Kids Magazine,’ which features the work of children and artists side by side. The senior editor Luca (age 10) oversees the hard work done by two professional artists; Perth based Jo Pollitt and Sydney based Lilly Blue.

My daughter loved the recent ‘seed to sky’ issue. Here’s a look at page 15.

RHS is the artists interpretation of seed to sky. As you probably guessed, this is indeed a dream making machine, complete with a pink elephant generator and a giant glazed pink donut maker.

LHS, my daughters interpretation. From the top down; purple lollypops, teeth, balloons, mountains, a fish and fire inside water! The teeth have crosses in them to ward off the fire burning inside the water (ofcourse).

Don’t you just love the chutzpah of these women who put together such beautiful arts & crafts magazines for the rest of us to enjoy, well done ladies!

http://www.lottamagazine.com

http://www.bigkidsmagazine.com

Leather Flowers

It took 300 days, 300 nights and numerous stitches before the leathery masterpiece could be revealed.

Much like pregnancy and childbirth, a whole lotta work for a beautiful end result…

15 needlesmiths, 1000 pieces of leather and a man with a vision.

 Floral Skull Leather Sculpture by Jacky Tsai, on display at Harvey Nichols in London.

 Thought I’d give it a go on a much smaller and far less exotic scale. Handmade flowers using leather, felt and craft pearls.

This is how I’ll be using them over the festive season!

DIY Leather & Felt Flowers

Mermaids

Mermaids, unicorns, knights and dragons, pewter plates, smelly people and a world that’s flat…welcome to the Dark Ages! Mermaid legends were rampant then, sight sworn by more than the odd sailor, believed to be beautiful and dangerous, much like the high seas.

A Mermaid Feeding Her Young 1520-40, Workshop of Romano, Royal Collection, London.

In 1493, during his first voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus noted in his journal a mermaid sighting:

‘The day before, when the Admiral was going to the Rio del Oro, he said he saw three mermaids who came quite high out of the water but were not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men.’

Not exactly the hair brushing, mirror toting dames of Disney!

Shakespeare wrote of mermaids in ‘Midsummer Nights Dream.’

‘Thou rememberest

Since once I sat upon a promontory,

And heard a mermaid on a Dolphin’s back

Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,

That the rude sea grew civil at her song;

And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,

To hear the sea-maid’s music.’

It’s believed he was having a go at Mary Queen of Scots!

Here are my Sirens of the Sea, bewitching sailors to their underwater world.

Mermaid wrapping paper made with acrylic paints, bubble wrap and thumb prints. Anchor made with apple core.

Hello Sailor gift wrapped …

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Mary Mary quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

A sweet nursery rhyme dating back to Olde England. A simple straightforward tale about a gardening green thumb?

Apparently not. Like many nursery rhymes that sound sweet enough, this one too has sinister roots. It tells of Mary Queen of Scots.

How does her garden grow? Fertilized by the bodies of many, many protestants. How pretty is her garden filled with silver bells and cockleshells. No again. These were slang terms for torture devices. As for the pretty maids….  guillotines.

Mary Quite Contrary Wrapping Paper for my mum Mary (who is fortunately nothing like the Queen of Scots) using Acrylic paints, thumb prints and black marker pen.

Birthday card made by daughter

How to make Floral Wrapping Paper with Thumb prints

Gift wrapped with Mary Quite Contrary Wrapping Paper

 

Trick or Treat?

This is Mr.Pumpkin.We lit him up pre – Halloween (a test run). 

This is how he looked the morning after!

Poor Mr.Pumpkin caved before his time, he was soft and gooey and smelled rank. Trick-or-treat? Definitely Trick. Fortunately the other Halloween decorations were a treat. This is what they looked like…

The race for Candy…

How was your Halloween? Did you trick or treat then gorge on sweets!