More RACKs

It appears that I'm slightly overachieving on my Craft RAK target of 1 item a month, as this post shows. Oh well, it probably just means that when I run out of recipients I'll open a call for volunteers again!

So, what did I send in February?

1: A decorated dried elm leaf - I drew a circle and dash pattern on the surface first.

                                 

Then I decided it needed a bit more bling, so I added some glitter to every second dot, and it turned a bit more disco :)

                                 

2: A needle felted mouse inside a walnut shell - I think I may have pushed the bounds of how small I can do needle felting (I'm no expert at it, I've only made half a dozen things, and I've been learning by experimenting) I struggled to felt the wool tightly enough to mean the ears could be attached while still staying distinct as ears!

I put the mouse inside, carefully glued the halves together with PVA glue (it holds the shell together but can be broken apart when wanted without damaging the shell or contents), and tied it up in a pretty ribbon.

3: A decorated pebble - This one is actually something I did previously, but I decided it was time it went on to a new owner, as I'd had the benefit of it for a while. I drew the random pattern with a fine pigment ink pen.

4: An ink-blown and filigree tree. I had a bit of a flashback to my youth, and played with some liquid drawing ink and a straw to create a tree shape. 

                                                 

I waited for it to dry.

Then I filled in the gaps between the "branches" of the tree with some filigree patterns.

5: Finally - A mini treasure map. This actually was quite personal - I had a few compliment slips left from my workplace of many years, that went spectacularly bust last year. The engrossment paper used for those slips is a good weight/texture for ageing, so I put one to good use by making a mini treasure map from it, and ageing it with walnut ink and crumpling.

Then I packaged everything up,  tried to match up the makings with the randomly-drawn names of recipients, and what I thought they might like, and posted them off.

There: all my February RACKs - hopefully the recipients all liked what they got!

Starting again

So, I tried hand drawing the UK map. After 5 hours of sketching. erasing, redrawing, erasing, and drawing again...I decided my retaining some level of mental health was more important than trying to draw a map by hand!
So, I downloaded the clearest outline of the UK that I could find, and spend another 3 hours tracing over it, first roughly in pencil....then more accurately in pencil....

...then drawing over those lines even more accurately, in ink. Beginning with Scotland:

Then, adding England and Wales:

Next...Irelandshire! Then, the fun part - filling the interior with filigree and hidden animals :D

Filling the UK

 So, following from my previous post, I asked people on Etsy what animals worked as representations of British wildlife.

Here (in contrasting colours for ease of seeing the main shape), are some of the suggestions, they're all about an inch across, or less.

Badger

Hare

Squirrel

Hedgehog

Robin

Fox

Snail

Deer

Highland cow

New Zealand, on tour

So, I finally managed to get myself organised, and now I have prints of my New Zealand map for sale in my Etsy shop, yay!

Here's one in its natural habitat....my living room.

I'm working on a UK map at the moment too - what should be hidden in that? So far, I'm thinking, hedgehogs and snails, as they can be quite stylised, while still being recognisable. Any other suggestions?

Filigree stone

A lazy afternoon, some time spent doodling, and I've decorated a little stone.

They can be quite tricky: making smooth curves is difficult, as the pen nib hits the granules of stone on the surface and get deflected.You end up going where the stone directs you, rather than where you planned to go with a shape! Here's a closeup with the doodles and the surface texture.