(Round 2 of the 25 Motif Challenge) Motif No. 3 - Fireworks on Paper Clip, More Paper Cuttings, Game and Drawings

I don't tat with wire often, but I'm trying to get the effect of fireworks, and so here's the result of combining wire with sequins. This fireworks paper clip is on Georgia Seitz's Online Tatting Class, you can get the pattern by clicking the link here.

These ATCs featured my Chinese-style paper cuttings, which I did with both penknife and scissors and acid-free 80 gm paper. They are relatively simple ones if you have seen those that I bought (in my last post).

This is the end of the school holidays, and the children are going back to school tomorrow. My DH bought a new TV for my parent's place, it was delivered a few days last week. When I went home that night the TV was delivered, the box housing the TV set had already transformed to this:

The Pinball Game, the brainchild of my boy, Ivan, with the help of his 2 sisters.

The marbles would roll down different paths and into the tunnel at the bottom to be collected with a tray! Do you call this recycling of scrap materials !?!

The children were drawing too in the holidays. I'm so amused by Ivan's ones.

This was done with marker pens, while the next one was done with pencil.

Joey did this for her school project with her classmate-cum-best friend, in mixed medium (poster colours and crayons).

This was done by Joey and Kristine together with marker pens.

And this last one by Kristine in marker pens. A bit messy, but very cute. I'm no expert in drawing but I think, she filled up the whole paper quite well, and good mix of colours too.

Iris Folding and Paper Cutting

I haven't been actively trading my ATCs, so this is only the third ATC which I traded but first one received - "A Peek Inside the Fairy Garden" by Carlin from USA. I love flower fairies, especially Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies. I believed Carlin used rubber stamping and applied the stones and ladybird sticker on the background picture, which was cut from some box. It is a nice composition.

And look what I have here....

Well, these are not done by me, but how I wish they are! These colourful pictures are actually Chinese paper cuttings which I bought and lightly mounted on acid-free cards. The paper cuttings are very, very delicate. It is so amazing how they were cut with such thin papers and how they were coloured. I would think they were hand-cut (unless someone knows there are machine-cut Chinese paper cuttings!)

These are my fist attempts at paper cutting. These three paper cuttings in black paper are Western style, very unlike that of Chinese style in my opinion. And the ATC on the top left is an Iris folded pot with tatted flowers.

Iris folding is not a new technique, but it is certainly new to me. It was an accidental discovery for me when I was browsing the books in the library with my children. If you don't know what is it and want to find out more, Iris Folding is a paper folding technique that resembles the iris, or lens, of a camera. The patterns are typically circular and focus around a central point. Here's a pretty good website on Iris Folding:

http://www.irisfolding.circleofcrafters.com/

I think children should be able to handle this technique well enough to create complicated-looking cards that look more difficult than it really is.

Thumb Print Art ATCs and Paper Cutting

My children just discovered a new art - thumb print art. Faber-Castell recently launched a kit with the book and ink pads, and with that, Joey and Kristine created the following ATCs.

These are done by Joey (10-yr old).

And these by Kristine (7-yr old).

I didn't get much done myself. I hope to finish the animal motif for Becky soon, and move on to try something else. I'm quite pleased with these 2 ATCs. The heart is Martha Ess's pattern tatted with metallic thread and mounted onto an acid-free paper cutting which I cut myself. Yes, this is one of the things I want to try.

Heather's HDTs, Felicia's Heart and ATCs

Heather at The Tarnished Tatter celebrated her blog-a-versary earlier with a giveaway and I won her HDTs (hand-dyed threads). Actually, I quite hate to make choices on colours as I just can't make up my mind which I want. That's why several times I had stood in front of all the colourful crocs shoes for half an hour trying them out and I still ended up not buying it. That's why I will try to get all the colours if possible when the purse allows! Yes, it was difficult deciding, but finally, I chose Rainbow Cotton Candy, Many Colors and Golden Cranberry Avocado. Cranberry, avocado, cotton candy are some of my favourite food and what better colours than many colours and rainbow colours!

The threads came yesterday, and they look as great as their names, so sweet! Thank you, Heather!

Have been spending more time with the children doing last-minute revision for their exams, and now after exams, their school hoildays. No time to relax still, they have tons of homework and projects (their projects will become "our" projects, if you know what I mean). And attending all the talks and open houses for the Direct School Admission - Secondary Exercise (DSA-Sec), and preparing copies of certificates and submitting applications, things sure are getting complicated nowaday as compared to my time in the 1980s!

In-between, we have Felicia from Indonesia came a visiting. She tats pretty well already, so it was more of showing her a few more advanced techniques. Here's a sweet heart she gifted me!

Here are a few more ATCs in the "Thank You" series I did using different embossed backgrounds: