The first of the RACKS

A couple of weeks ago, I sent off the first of my Random Acts of Craft Kindness. I was a bit nervous about these, as they were maps drawn on dried elm tree leaves, but the leaves are rather delicate and I wasn't sure hoe well they'd survive the gentle care of the Royal Mail. So I used thick card to protect them, wrapped each up carefully, and crossed my fingers.  Luckily, they seem to have arrived completely intact!
The first of my RACKS were a success :D

Both leaves, wrapped up in thick card for protection before posting

Leaf RACK 1

Leaf RACK 2

Now....onwards, to more makings, and more RACKS. I got far more volunteers than the 12 people I was originally expecting, so the RACKS may be a wee bit more frequent than I had initially planned :)

Random Act of (Crafty) Kindness

This year, I've decided to be a bit more organised about how and when I'm sending out random craft surprises. I tend to send out between 20-30 gifts that I've made in a year anyway, but I wanted to widen the range of people I send to, so I asked people on Twitter to Direct Message me if they'd like to receive a craft gift at some point this year: it'll be a Random Act of Craft Kindness. I've had quite a few responses already, but I'm going to retweet my offer a few more times, to make sure everyone who's interested has a chance to be added to the recipient list.

I've already sent out a couple of gifts to people today, beyond this RACK list, so I may exceed my target of 12 surprises rather quickly!

Keep your eyes open: if you volunteered me your address, it could be you next.... :)

Here be (paper) dragons!

I recently sold a quilled dragon on a mini canvas from my Etsy shop, and as it's one of the items I make to order, I needed to put it together. I always keep an original of anything I make, especially quilling, as it's so much easier to replicate it later when it can be compared to the original. 

 That's the original at the top, and the new one in progress below.

I like how they're the same, but they're always subtly different, especially with things with faces: the "expression" is never the same on both version :)

The path to insanity

I was watching a programme on the TV recently, and it showed the Standing Stones of Stenness, and the Ring of Brodgar, both in Orkney, and I thought they'd be fun to have a shot at doing. I liked the sky swirling effect that I'd used on the Starry Doodle Night drawing, so thought I'd make use of it again here. I also thought I'd fill in the rock surfaces with dots for texture. Which, in theory, is a good idea, but with a 0.05 nib pen, it's a bit of an epic process. So I started doing the sky, and the stone texture dots...

Doing the dots became veeeeery boring, very quickly! I much preferred doing the sky texture...

It took SO LONG to do the dots! Hours, and hours, and hours.

And hours....I was going absolutely up the wall while doing the dots, but eventually, I completed it, yay!

The Standing Stones of Stenness, completed.

I really quite like it, so I think it's one worth getting prints made of for my Etsy shop....whenever I get a chance to get to the printshop!

To add to my madness, I've started the year as I mean to go on - with more crafting! So here's a sneak preview of the next drawing, of the Ring of Brodgar.