Plastic Fantasic

Summer days mean swimming and relaxing, but they also means extra litter on our beautiful beaches. Today I am celebrating some more eco-conscious designers that have given salvaged beach plastic a new life as interesting and colourful jewellery. from top left 1.Rainbow Warrior Lei by Rebecca Ward

2. Aquamarine bracelet by It's a Man Made World
3.Save our Oceans armband by Illicitly Beautiful
4. Beach Plastic Necklaces by Judith Selby LangDisc Necklace cut from plastic bottles from the beaches of Cornwall by Spacefruit Chunky necklace from Salvaged plastic found on Kehoe Beach by Beach Plastic jewellery.

Ball and Circle Neckpiece from plastic salvaged from the Bahamas by It's a Man Made World
Save our Oceans Charm bracelet from salvaged plastic collected on the Atlantic coast by Rauschmittel

And a quick look at the Recovered Beach Plastic pieces I made for Markit .Plastic collected from an assortment of Victorian beaches.

Hanging by a Thread!

I featured this gorgeous Robin tree Decoration by London based paper cut & collage illustrater Kate Slater on Lino Forest, but I just had to show you all the others in Kate's etsy shop.
They are handcrafted from prints of Kate's original illustrations, mounted onto thick card and varnished. Kate loves paper and hoards magazines, envelopes and paper scraps. She says "I am usually covered in bits of paper. Sometimes I even rustle."
The original birds were part of this amazing window display at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, in the English summer of 2010.
The designs also come as beautiful brooches!

These are only a tiny part of the beautiful work by Kate. Check out her website and blog for loads more colourful paper cut and collage illustrations , prints and cards.

Kate has also written and illustrated a book called Magpie's TreasureSo totally affordable from The Book Depository I'm thinking I may just be getting a copy for me (if a book features a button factory. I'm sold!)
Kate's 3D artwork is amazing too! Bear and Birds

BUMPER Christmas Giveaway Winners!

Congratulations to the winners of the Find, Make, Do BUMPER Christmas Giveaway!

Miss Milla's Glass Pendant Kit- Bron66

Shara Lambeth Fawn brooch- Coco Jackson

Focus on Art Kitchen Owl- Little Cooties
Cocos Closet Bunting -Rebecca McClymont
Leigh Wagner Kookaburra brooch- Michelle- Button Tree lane
Betty Jo Designs Rainbow Orb brooch-Robyn Stewardson.

Mixtape Zine- Miss Milla, Robyn -Crafty Box, Leonie- Dr. Bones knits,
Jo- Joe bloggs, Black Eyed Susie.

Please email me with your addresses so we can get your goodies to you !
Thanks to everyone who entered and to all the readers of Find, Make, Do.
Warmest holiday wishes to you and yours.xxxx

Christmas Memo

Just a reminder, the cool and crafty BUMPER Christmas Giveaway is running till the 17th Dec. Here are the goodies on offer so just leave a comment here and maybe you'll win yourself a little Christmas cheer!

Handmade Living: Little Miss Doily

There is a fantastic new book being launched on the 4th of December bursting with crafty goodness.
Handmade Living has been lovingly created by a dedicated team of Canberra women who believe strongly in promoting handmade, small business and local designers.According to one of the books creators, Tania McCarthy ,"Handmade Living is not about elaborate, complicated or exclusive design. It's essence is centered in whimsy, simplicity and style, and its greatest gift will be in the inspiration to create"
Find, Make, Do has hitched a ride on the Handmade Living blog tour and I am happy to introduce you to one of the many designers featured in the book: Caleena Edkins. Caleena got in touch with me earlier in the year after my post about Recycled Doily Craft, and I discovered the sweet and ethereal dresses she creates from vintage doilies.

And you can make one yourself ! Handmade Living is chock full of crafty tutorials and there are clear instuctions and "how to" pictures to help you make your own divine doily dress .

Being a doily re-purposer myself, I was drawn to her beautiful creations and am only thankful that we don't live in the same city and scour the same second hand shops!

I asked Caleena where she sources her doilies "Most of my doilies initially were from second hand shops and garage sales but as the word spreads alot of people actually give me their family heirlooms and I usually make their child a dress as a contra deal.I also have got some great ones on ebay,the secret is to try to buy in bulk as people ask alot for individual doilies. From there, if they are stained, I dye them beautiful colours!"

It's not hard to tell that Caleena is totally in love with vintage doilies "I love the fact that someone took hours embroidering or crocheting that special piece and that is was probably made with lots of love.I want to honor that by giving it a new life in the form of a beautiful dress.I am inspired by the sheer beauty of them and sometimes I wait for a few doily's that match to appear and then magic happens and they seem to merge together beautifully for a dress.

You can read about Caleena's creative life as a maker and busy Mum on her blog Little Miss Doily. And visit her "bursting at the seams" online stores :Little People Clothing Made It Shop and Little Miss Doily on Blue Caravan.

"Handmade Living" would be an excellent Chrissy gift for the crafty people in your world. It is available to buy here!

The Find, Make, Do BUMPER Christmas Giveaway is still running here.
Enter for a chance to win some cool and crafty goodies!

BUMPER Christmas Giveaway!

Since starting Find, Make, Do in March, I have found dozens of amazing, creative, local and international artists and designers.
So here's a big thank you to all the readers and followers who have joined in ..... you deserve some presents.
As it's been such a busy, productive, Findin', Makin' and Doin' year, some kind and crafty folks and I have offered up a selection of cool handmade and locally produced goodies for the Find, Make, Do BUMPER Christmas Giveaway!
So ring the bells, pull the crackers and stuff the turkey...... it's getting to be alot like CHRISTMAS !

First up is a Betty Jo Designs Rainbow Orb brooch. There's a green and red one pictured in the Xmas collage, but you get to choose your own colour!

These colourful rainbow hued brooches are crafted from recycled Linoleum and laminex discs and a mixture of pre-loved buttons.

Robyn Stewardson from Focus on Art makes adorable owls from salvaged household bric-a-brac ( I should know, I am the proud ownwer of a Kitchen Owl called "Big Night Out"). You might remember Robyn"s individually named and numbered handmade owls from an earlier post on Find, Make, Do. We are lucky enough to have this cute little fellow called "Hoyt's" to giveaway. He would be perfect hanging in your garden or kitchen to keep an eye on things. Make him sleepy or awake!Thanks Robyn. If you would like to find out about all the cool products from Focus on Art check out the blog.

Crafty lady Shara Lambeth makes the sweetest lasercut wooden brooches and you could win this cutie.The sweet little Fawn will love to sit upon your shirt and keep you company all day long :-)
This brooch is laser cut from sustainable Rimu wood and has a silver tone brooch pin at the back. See Sharas other gorgeous creations on etsy and check out her blog.


The extra generous Justine from Mixtape Zine has provided us with some copies of the latest issue (and the 2nd last ever) to give away.
Issue 14 has double cover action, Christina Gordon & Amy Karol !
Mixtape is a craft maga(ZINE) about making time for the small things! A collision of craft, eco-cool and pop culture kitsch. If you already have yours, this would be perfect to give to an uninitiated friend!

Leigh Wagner is a Brisbane based Visual Art & Design teacher who, in recent years, has turned her attention to jewellery making. Leigh uses recycled kitchen laminate in her jewellery, and we are lucky enought to have this very snappy Kookaburra brooch as a giveaway.The brooch has been cut from two sturdy layers of laminate and has a sprung pin attached at the back. He’s been cut from a decorative charcoal and blue patterned laminate in keeping with his natural Kingfisher coloring. Go and visit Leighs etsy shop for more broochy goodness!
Kristie from Rouke and Henry and Coco's Closet has given us this cute "Live Your Life Bunting".Consisting of three cool hand drawn images and inspirational words, laminated and sewn onto ribbon, this is totally one of a kind! Kristie uses old books to draw on, giving them new life and creating a great decorating item for a kids (or a kid at heart's) room!
The lovely Kirsten from the brilliant crafty online store Miss Milla's has donated a wonderful square glass pendant kit for crafty readers that like to DIY!You can make these gorgeous glass tile pendants yourself! This Glass Pendant Kit has everything you need including a professionally prepared tutorial with photos and tips to make 6 pretty pendants like this. Wow!Go and check out Miss Milla's for lots of crafty goodies.

To enter the Find, Make, Do BUMPER Christmas Giveaway just leave a comment.
I will choose a winner for each prize in three weeks! So spread the word!

Beach Combing

I'm a bit in love with these cute beach plastic collages by Athens designer Psarokokalo (meaning fishbone in greek). It's great to find a beach combing kindred spirit across the sea.

They can be found on flickr in the set "heady and me" and made up as cards in the yourdoll esty shop,BUT WAIT....Psarokokalo also creates fantasic jewellery made from beach plastic "gathered from a deserted beach in Rhodes island the summer of 2008, the edges are beautifully smoothed by the sea." These can be found in la.trap. A sweet crafty gallery/shop in Athens.

Loving the "cool" fridge display .