Paula Mills Art

Christmas at my house in full colour - decorations from Poppies for Grace Poppies for Grace were exhibiting along with us at the Big Design Market last weekend. They did the most impressive stall with a beautiful tissue paper backdrop in rainbow colours - and I thought what a brilliant idea for our Christmas decorations this year! Here are the results, what do you think?

A dear friend of mine has recently started her own creative business called The Naturalist. She asked me to design the logo, which was an easy job for me, as I love her vision and could capture what she wanted very easily. The Naturalist is all about beautiful flowers, vintage finds and quirky little cabinet of curiosity gifts. You can have a look at the blog here , facebook page here  , brand new etsy shop here and pinterest boards here . The Naturalist is holding it's debut market on Sunday the 1st of September at the Greville Village market in Prahran, Melbourne. Be sure to pop along, Greville Street is always a great day out!

We are busy, busy, busy, making new things all the time, leading up to a few markets coming up soon. Some of the items we can load up onto our etsy shop , or if your are in Australia our made it shop. So have a look and enjoy and let us know what you think. Esty is running some fantastic sales this weekend and we are participating too. If you run a search using the word YART (yard sale + art = YART) you will find all the lovely products on sale. We are offering free shipping on a number of items. The sale ends on the 14th.

I felt like printing today, so I though I would show you what I got up to. First I took papers from an old book. Then sewed them together to make a little bag On some old frame glass I spread the ink - tacky is the consistency you want - it makes a lovely velcro sound as you roll back and forth. Rolled onto the lino (a good tip is to roll in one direction only, so as to get an even spread) The best part is the print and reveal - a good even pressure will give nice results. I don't have a fancy press - just use my hand or an iron. Make the most of the wet paint and print onto lots of lovely things.

I used to love playing with shrink plastic when I was a kid. I remember a glow -in-the-dark pack that had monsters and ghosts printed on it - and the buzz we got as we watched it curl and shrink in the oven. Playing with it again has been a lot of fun and my girls got a kick out of it too.

Found this little gem hiding in my paper drawer on the weekend - completly forgot I had it. Must have been a thrift shop find. decided there is no point letting it be a wallflower - it deserves to be shown to the world. I've uploaded the pattern onto flickr so you can find it there - so if you want to make the little bird - have a go - I have a special plan for it myself .... will reveal when all is done.

I recently felt like a real traveling salesman when I took some pieces to a shop we supply. I had placed the wood blocks in an old suitcase I had found on a recent thrifty scrounge. I loved the colour and the stitching detail and it looked like it could have previously belonged to a glamorous, updo lady. However, it was a bit lacking in personality so I decided to give it a little face lift. Around my guillotine there is always a little growing pile of paper off cuts, but instead of sweeping them up I used them to cover the front of the case.

We love using old papers for handmade envelopes. We have a major paper fetish and there is something quite satisfying about making your own envelopes. The fun part is that you never know how it will turn out in the folds - its random and that has its own appeal . We were really pleased with this one - the fold was totally unplanned (its true) - but look at the result - how cool is that text! I love the fact that the fold on the top of the envelope says "miss Sophia Smart" - and the " ws Rockstro " is classic! Anyway, its such fun I thought I would share the scanned paper with you and you can fold your own envelope from it. If you want to you can find the template here .

For ages and ages we have been imagining our prints block mounted. However, the quotes and the prices we got interfered with our respiration for a few seconds ! We looked at other mounted art and schemed and planned. Now we have it - our own handmade block mounted prints - and we are very proud! Felt is one of my absolutely favorite mediums - the matted, compressed nature of it is so friendly. A nice delivery from the post lady revealed this rainbow specially ordered from lupin a fantastic felt artist I really admire.

We are mad paper collectors, we love making these very special paper packs and we love receiving feed back from happy customers who have enjoyed them too. We have just loaded a few new paper packs in our " made it" and "felt" shop s . Have a look.

Finding our prints on an Etsy treasury is such a special moment. We feel really touched that somebody has taken the time and energy to compose these amazing mood boards and to have felt we deserved a spot! Its a great feeling i tell you! Thank you to botodesigns for taking the time and compiling a stunning treasury called Muted Journey. The other bonus is you get to see new artists - our heart list is growing! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=38397

Sweet William is busy busy busy - we are making all our own Christmas gifts this year and it feels so liberating! We are determined NOT to go out and spend money on plastic junk for kids, friends and family that inevitably end up in the bin. We have thought about being more responsible in our gift giving this year. Why fill the pockets of the large conglomerate companies and land fill sites, when we can give hand made gifts, made with love and care? All the products we make are 100% handmade, using materials from thrift shops, second hand, pre loved, except for maybe the occasional new zip and paper for the printer. Let's also think about gifts that last a while - enough disposable living. The liberating part of it is knowing we wont be fighting for parking at the mall, fighting our way around the shops and fighting for the last object of desire on the shelf. No more fighting just home made peace! Make Lovely Not Waste! Gosh I think a need to go and find a flower after that speech!...

We had our first melbourne market, a small school market. We had awful weather - but it didn't rain...amazingly! Great fun was had by all and there are plans for many more markets in Melbourne, just a matter of finding the right one.

Well we had a little dance around the living room for a couple of minutes when we discovered a "sweet william" item on the etsy front page. it was a sweeeeet moment - for sure - sadly it was an all to brief moment as the front page changes every hour and we must have caught the last five minutes! Anyway, still a proud moment - it was Paula's gorgeous spring blossom print that was featured.

This little gem have been added to the etsy shop... she's based on the lovely illustration Paula did. I'v also joined a New Zealand ornament swap being hosted by Twenty cent mixture which im pretty excited about - a little parcel in the post is the best thing!

I wish I could bottle up and sell the great feeling I get when I have a good week - its so great you want to keep it for those times when the week is not so hot. However, I've had a sizzling week, starting with a lazy "labour day" BBQ - ones of those sit around, mellow out, sun on your back, listen to the bees kind of BBQ's. That was just the beginning. Tuesday, I went to a prayer meeting with the lovely King's Church woman (trust me, there ain't nothing boring about that!) Wednesday was super dooper cos Helen came back from Melbourne telling tales to make me green, and bearing a lovely, special, decorated cigar box bursting with all the things i love - buttons, trim, ribbon, paper bits, iron on transfers, an old shell road map - it was like Christmas - thank you Helen xxooxxoo In between all this - I want to show off our Mommy's sitting pretty in the window of Juniper gallery in Newtown- (a really gorgeous little design and floral shop) - cos I can now t...

Wellington has a fantastic craft market: Craft 2.0 and i love gearing up for it. The house could fall down around me while im in the zone but its all good because I get a real buzz out the whole thing. I'm going with Carmen from Ring around the moon - she makes great hand bound books. if any of you are considering doing a market - no 1. tip - go with a friend - it makes it a lot of fun, less intimidating and you can have a coffee break! This time round my eight year old is coming with as she wants to see what mommy is up too at these things and she is going to be a great little help! If you are in Wellington on Sat. come down to the New Dowse and check it all out. Some bits for the stall:

Here is the first of a series of purses and pouches based on Paula's illustration design. For all those tea lovers / cup collectors out there. What's your leaf of choice? Mine is a lovely cup of Rooibos - redbush is the translation - a South African herbal tea full of all the good things but without the caffein. I also love a good chai and I have a great recipe for homemade chai: In a saucepan, cover four tea bags with 800 ml boiling water. Allow to draw for five minutes, then remove the tea bags and discard. Add two 1cm pieces of peeled fresh ginger, two cinamon sticks broken in half, four bruised cardamon pods, four black peppercorns, four whole cloves, 1ml fennel seeds and 1ml allspice to the tea. Simmer over gentle heat on the stove for 10min. Strain and serve balck or with milk, or - the best condensed milk. For a stronger flavour, remove from heat and allow to stand for 30 min. before straining. yum!

I have been so keen to try a bit of screen-printing - but its one of those processes that seem quite intimidating and not that easy to master. Plus, you just happen to need a screen or two lying around and an image lasered on it! However, I picked up somewhere on the net (as one does) that a simple little embroidery hoop will do for small, unsophisticated prints. So being the stitchy girl that I am, of course I had a hoop or two. With a touch of " Modge Podge " to block out the image and some textile paint - the process was almost a cinch ! I used the back of a ruler as a squeegee . The print is a bit rough and I actually kind of like it that way (old school).

I have been having some fun with collage and have enjoyed making cards with the endless collection of paper scraps that i have, collected over years - old and new bits from all over. I would be interested to know what people think of them.