Tea Staining paper

Recently I have been experimenting with tea staining paper for various art projects, namely my junk journals and mixed media projects. Joseph has also been intrigued by the process and has made a treasure map with some of the paper I made!

If you are interested in trying this out at home for yourself or for a cheap and easy kids project over the summer holidays check out this quick step by step guide!

1. Choose your papers. I chose various sheets, lined and unlined from old notebooks, envelopes, scrap paper and colouring sheet paper. You can dye pretty much any paper, but be careful of paper that has been printed on with an ink jet printer as the colour will run.
2. Brew your tea. I brewed my tea in a teapot using about 6 tea bags as I wanted a strong colour. You can also use coffee instead.
3. Set out some trays- I just used baking trays but you could use any large container with sides.
4. Place your paper in the trays and pour over the brewed tea. I put several sheets in each tray but ensured that each individual piece was totally covered and submerged on both sides.
5. Leave to dye for at least 5 minutes.
6. Take your papers out of the tea and leave to dry or dry with a hairdryer which is what i did with mine. Whilst the paper is wet you can do things like tear the edges which is what I did for Joseph’s treasure map.
7. Once the paper is dry you can use it for whatever arts project you choose!
8. I also save the teabags from the dying process, I leave them to dry, then empty the contents and use the tea bags for embellishments in mixed media projects, you can even paint miniature painting on them!
9. To further the ageing process on Joseph’s treasure map I burned holes in his paper with matches- be careful when doing this and make sure a grown up is available to help. Joseph then drew his designs on the “aged” paper making a very realistic Pirate treasure map! And I will be using my aged paper in the creation of junk journals and mixed media projects such as this one that I made for a special friend.Let me know if you give it a try and what ideas you come up with!

What’s going on at RRandJ Designs? #art #createlongridge #extraordianrywomen

There has been a lot going on over here at RRandJ Designs, but just as a quick reminder don’t forget my nieces and nephews, AKA the FAB FIVE have been getting ready for there awesome adventure climbing Snowden to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust – please support there efforts HERE!

Sarah, Mum to the Fab Five!

In other news, I have been hard at work preparing for various events! As you may have seen my RRandJ Designs Etsy Shop is on holiday until August. This is because my art work and cards are on display and for sale at Longridge Library in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire throughout July. If you are in the area please feel free to go and have a look!

Framed paintings, mono prints and original canvas art works are for sale as well as bookmarks and greeting cards all handmade and painted by me.

Also in July I am taking part in Create Longridge a wonderful event in Longridge where artists set up in a three mile radius of Longridge town centre and paint in public for the chance to win a £2000 prize and sell there art work at Longridge art gallery.

Me and my friend Tracey are taking part this year and you can find us painting at Longridge Library on the 14th July! It’s sure to be a fantastic and inspirational day out in Longridge for participants and visitors with many fringe events going on alongside the create Longridge competition!

I will be spending the last few days before the event practising and thinking of ideas!

In addition to this I have been working hard on creating three paintings for an open exhibition at Clitheroe Castle Steward’s Gallery  with the theme “extraordinary women”

Here are the three paintings I have entered, I will find out if any of my paintings have been accepted to be exhibited in the coming weeks.

“flawless”

“ice cream”

“Donuts”

Here is my artists statement for the series:

I am interested in how human bodies, particularly women’s bodies, fat bodies, trans bodies, people of colour, postpartum bodies and disabled bodies are viewed by Western Society and culture. These paintings reference Virgie Tovar an author, activist and leading expert on fat discrimination and body image. The portraits show a fat woman of colour celebrating her body, taking up space, enjoying food and expressing her sexuality- all things which are rarely seen or are openly discouraged in Western society. In a culture where thin, white, able bodies are presented as the ideal and the norm I have attempted to create works that question what and who is seen as worthy and valuable in contemporary Western society. I use bright colours, sequins, glitter and mixed media to create counter cultural art works to showcase bodies that are not usually celebrated and highlight the beauty in people that society has otherwise deemed flawed.

You can read some of Virgie Tovar’s writing HERE.

I have also been continuing to create work for my Redbubble account which you can find HERE.

At Redbubble you can buy my art work on a range of goods such as T-shirts, clocks, cushions, cups, phone cases and more- great gift ideas for you and your loved ones!

 

You can also check out what I have been up to with my art on my RRandJ Designs instagram page at  http://www.instagram.com/rrandjdesigns

 

And DON’T FORGET to Donate, support and share the FAB FIVE’s Snowden challenge for the CF Trust CLICK HERE!!!! 

Autumn fun!

Autumn begins on the 22nd September officially, but at our house, despite soaring temperatures, the first of September was when the Autumn fun began. Autumn is my favourite season, I love the colours, the food, the clothes, all of it.

We have been doing lots of Autumnal activities as a family and I have been partaking in some Autumn crafts (which are ongoing), come and have a look and see whats been inspiring us in the run up to Autumn!

We have been going on welly boot walks around the local area picking lots of tasty blackberries! Everywhere we have been we take a carrier bag with us in case we see some tasty ripe fruit for the picking! 

With our lovely foraged fruit we have made a tasty apple and blackberry crumble! Here’s a tip for washing freshly foraged blackberries- soak them in a bowl of cold water for around an hour, make sure you fill the bowl with water first then gently tip the blackberries in, this prevents the blackberries getting squashed and damaged by the running water from the tap. Gently swirl the blackberries in the water with your finger tips, this will dislodge an creepy crawlies. Carefully drain the berries and repeat the process if necessary. 

We’ve not just been foraging for blackberries! We’ve been foraging for all sorts of Autumnal goodies like conkers, acorns, pine cones and rosehips! We’ve used our foraged goods for all sorts of crafts and activities! Joe has even taken some of his foraged items into nursery for there Autumn sensory table!

We’ve been out and about to all sorts of places collecting goodies, looking at nature and experiencing Autumn hands on!

One of the activities we did at home was some Autumn sensory play! We used the leaves, conkers and Acorns we collected to make prints and paintings!

We also collected Rosehips and I have been attempting to make some Rosehip flavoured gin, its an ongoing process so I will let you know how we’ve got on with the finished products! 

To top it all off I have been working on some projects to cosy up our house for Autumn including upcycling our old fire place guard.

We have some other projects in the pipe line (see picture below for a sneak peek!) and will hopefully give you some “how to’s” in the upcoming weeks!

Happy Autumn everyone!

DIY Birdfeeder craft activity and sensory play

Today is the first of September! And although it may not be officially Autumn until the 22nd September, it’s Autumn term, so that’s enough excuse for me to start celebrating my favourite season!

Today was mine and Joe’s first day back to “normality” as Robin has gone back to work after the long summer holidays, so we have had lots of fun going to the park with Joe riding his bike,

doing some gardening

and making some DIY Birdfeeders (which also doubles up as sensory play!)

Here’s how to make your own DIY Birdfeeders at home:

You will need-

• empty toilet roll/ kitchen roll tubes
• peanut butter
• a knife or spatula
• string (or wool)
• scissors
• birdseed
• large tray or baking tin
• somewhere to hang your bird feeder!

To start you need to cover your toilet roll tube in peanut butter to make it nice and sticky.

Then you need to roll the toilet paper tube in the bird seed until it is covered all over in tasty bird seed. This is a good way to introduce sensory play. You have the soft sticky peanut butter, and the hard bitty seeds which is an interesting mix of textures. We got our hands stuck into the seeds and poured them over the bird feeder like rain and had lots of fun making finger patterns in the tray of seeds.

When the rolls are covered thread through some string and tie the two ends in a knot. Now you are ready to hang your bird feeder in the garden!

We made four so we hung two in the back garden and two in the front garden.

Hopefully the birds will like eating them as much as we liked making them!

Sensory play: dinosaur land

Here is my first attempt at a sensory bin play box for Joe! It’s a dinosaur land complete with foamy swap, beach, rocky terrain, cave and snowy mountain!

Dinosaur sensory play

The beach is made of lentils, the snow is flour, the rocky terrain is pebbles from the garden which I sterilised and the spooky swamp is just washing up liquid and water whisked with a touch of baking powder.

The sensory box started as just a large deep roasting tin and a few plastic boxes from the recycling pile, the cave is an empty tub that had baking powder in (not pictured.)

I used some fake flowers for greenery and then mini toy dinosaurs for the role play. Pretty easy but quite effective!

Now, sensory play can get quite messy, so if playing outdoors is not an option make sure you play on wipe clean floors or put matting down, I put down large plastic bags and towels to protect the floor.

Joe appears to have some sensory problems, he doesn’t like getting dirty, he has problems with eating certain textures and only eats a very limited variety of foods, he doesn’t like touching things like foam or gloopy/slimy textures and he struggles with messy play wanting his hands to be wiped all the time. As a baby he never really went through the oral phase and was not one to put things in his mouth. He is also not keen on sand, dried rice and the feel of grass on his bare feet.

These sensory bins are an attempt to get him used to different textures and to overcome his fear of getting dirty. This is turn may help him with some of the textural aversion problems he has with food. 

Initially he said he didn’t want to play with it, but after a bit of coaxing and watching me play and touch the different items he got braver. The swamp was a no go and as soon as the bubbles touched his skin he got very agitated and wanted to wash his hands, but he got his hands stuck in to the flour. He was much more receptive when I got a bowl of clean water for the dinosaurs to wash themselves in!

Overall it was a positive experience, these things take a long time but I will definitely try and do some more sensory boxes in the future!

Afterwards- things did get messy! 

What we’re reading

As a family of librarians and ex-librarians we are book lovers and we always have a book or two on the go both fiction and non-fiction, as well as magazines, newspapers and online articles we are always reading something.

We obviously want to pass our love of books on to Joe so he has lots of books to chose from in his playroom, he has two bedtime stories at nap time and two more at bedtime as well as stories throughout the day if he wants them. We also take him to the library every few weeks to get a new selection of bedtime stories to try so I thought I’d share with you a bit about what we are reading at the moment!

Joe’s reading list

maisy goes on a sleep over by lucy cousins

Joe loves the Lucy Cousins stories because they are so bright and colourful. When he was born his Uncle David and family brought him a big pack of Lucy Cousins stories- some of his favourites are “I’m the best!” and “hooray for fish!”. He loves reading about Maisy’s adventures with her animal friends and is a big fan of people jumping on the bed so this book delivers on all counts!

Bing: Paint Day by Ted Dewan

Joe loves the Cbeebies show Bing! which is about a rabbit who always gets into some trouble or another but it always works out in the end. This book is great for learning about colours and contains bright colours and repetition which is good for small children and toddlers. I have also discovered that Joe loves the colour turquoise while discussing the story with him.

Meeow and the pots and pans by Sebastien Braun

This board book is about Meeow and his friends exploring everyday items and using their imagination to make something new and fun! It’s good for learning about animals sounds, colours and counting!

Do dare duck by Joyce Dunbar and Jane Massey

This book is all about Duck and his friends- what does duck do? This book is all about exploring language with the theme of the letter D- the whole story is based on different animals and their actions which all begin with the letter D.

Rachel’s reading list

I, as usual, have a million books on the go at once but here’s the most prolific selection!

“Finders keepers” by Stephen King

This is the second volume in the trilogy by Stephen King, a crime/detective series that focuses around the detective Bill Hodges. The book is about a murder of a writer, his stolen notebooks and the release of his murderer after a long stint in prison. So far a very gripping read- managed to read 60 pages in one sitting last night.

Women in clothes by Heti, Julavits and Shapton

This is a non-fiction book that I saw reviewed in psychologies magazine a few months back that I thought would be a good gift for a fashion conscious friend of mine. I didn’t end up buying it for her but did see it on my local libraries shelf a few months later and picked it up out of curiosity. It’s actually quite fascinating- a fashion book like no other it explores the clothing, style and presentation choices of hundreds of women from all over the world. It uses interviews, illustrations, photographs and conversations to delve into the lives of women from all sorts of backgrounds and takes an often funny, sometimes sad and always interesting look at why we wear what we do and what it says about us. One of my favourite sections is based on old photographs of people’s mothers before they had kids, the daughters would describe what they saw in the photographs and what it made them think about their mothers.  Very touching, and now as a mother myself it makes me question how my own style and the way I present myself  to the world has changed since having Joe.

The world beyond your head “How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction” by Matthew Crawford

This another non-fiction book, Rob heard the author being interviewed on the radio and suggested it might be something I’d be interested in reading. I since ordered it from the library. It is basically  about attention- how our attention is so fractured and demanded upon by modern life such as social media, advertisements, T.V etc and discusses how we can try and combat this to choose what things in life are worth focusing this scarce resource on.

He suggests that in order to master your own mind you need to build connections with the world and people around us and with the moment we live in.

Robin’s reading list 

Indian Kitchen by Maunika Goardhan

Robin has a very large collection of cookbooks and he never fails to pick up a new one when he visits the library. He is currently reading this, full of tasty Indian dishes and wonderful food photography. His love of cook books is quite strange as he very rarely cooks from a recipe, but he often gathers inspiration from them  for his own versions, which are all usually very tasty.

Sharpe’s Gold by Bernard Cornwell

Yes, Rob always has a Sharpe novel on the go even though he’s read them all hundreds of times. The series is a ll about Richard Sharpe’s adventures as a captain in the British Army. There is also the T.v series featuring Sean Bean which I have noticed Rob watching when I’ve been busy with other things. Which again he has watched probably a hundred times. But I suppose that is the joy of a good story- it never gets old.

 

Planting herbs and vegetables

We use a lot of fresh herbs in our cooking and we always rely on buying little bags of herbs from the supermarket.

Although convenient I always find that we end up with leftover herbs going rotten and to waste, plus they are quite expensive for what is essentially a few limp leaves in a plastic bag.

So I have started attempting to preserve the shop brought herbs by freezing them- I used this guide on how to freeze herbs in a muffin tray from the blog entitled “thanks for the food”- you can visit the blog for more detailed instructions here.

We are novice gardeners and all our previous attempts at gardening have gone awry but now we have a nice manageable little garden space, and a toddler who might be interested in growing and nature I thought it would be good to try our hand at a little bit of basic gardening again- and what better way to test out your green fingers than growing your own herbs!

Rosemary and mint pots

We have gone for a few hardy herbs to begin with that we use regularly- Rosemary and mint, plus we also have lemon thyme already growing in the garden border. We brought the plants from the local garden centre as we are not yet confident growing things from seed!

Rocket and mixed salad leaves

But we have also started attempting to grow salad on the window sill from seed- rocket which we use every week, and mixed salad leaves. Plus we have tomatoes in the out house that we are growing from cuttings that a friend gave us from her garden, and they are doing really well!

Hopefully despite the initial outgoing cost if the plants survive our not so green fingers we will be able to reduce waste and save a bit of money through joining the “growing our own” revolution! We will keep you informed!

Tomato flower!

Thanks Erin

Happy International Women’s day everyone!

Just want to say a big thank you to my wonderful and very talented niece Erin who has been working hard to raise money for the CF Trust by selling things she’s made and by donating money she achieved through singing on stage in a talent contest. What a brilliant example of kindness, talent and charity from someone so young- On this international woman’s day I can’t think of a better young woman to sing the praises of!

Thank you Erin!

Erin (left) with her sister Sofia

 

World Book Day

Happy World book day everyone!

Robin, dressed and ready for work.

As Robin works in a school library he had to dress up as a character from literature to work today. With 20 minutes notice and few resources this morning we managed to cobble together a fairly decent Lion outfit so that Robin could go to work as Aslan from the lion the witch and the wardrobe.

The lion the Witch and the wardrobe by C.S.Lewis

See the resemblance?

I found the free printable lion mask on pinterest- here’s the link  for all your future lion mask needs!

Free printable lion mask

And I made the tail with a strip of yellow fabric, with wool tied to the end. Robin also noted that his outfit could also double up as a fancy dress costume for colman’s mustard, minus the tail and mask of course!

Future fancy dress idea?

So what have you all being doing to celebrate world book day?

Me and Joe had a book reading marathon this morning and we read:

 These are obviously a bit old for Joe but he actually really loves the illustrations by Quentin Blake- he’s big into monsters at the moment and particularly loved crocky wock the crocodile and the three little pigs.

This one is great because it is so bright and colourful and is interactive with its hide and seek pages.

 

Joe loves cowboys, this cute adventure has lots of cowboy dialect which adds extra interest to the story when you are reading it out loud!

Plus we read lots of board books for very small children about getting dressed and things around the home.

I am also back into reading at the moment, I’m currently reading:

 

 

This book is all about looking at the reasons for and against having an only child. It’s a very interesting read, but also heart wrenching and thought provoking.

I’m finally getting round to reading this award winning novel, my friend has lent me a copy and it has been recommended to me countless numbers of times. I’m glad to report that so far it is failing to disappoint.

Hope you all have a fantastic World book Day- why not beg, borrow or buy a book today, who knows where it could lead!?

 

Joes Playroom

We moved house a few weeks ago to a lovely 3 bedroomed place near to Robins family. Unfortunately we had grown to really dislike our old house because of the noisy neighbours- we were getting very little sleep and on edge all the time. When they got a puppy to add to the noise we decided it was best if we cut our losses and left (which is luckily possible to do when you are renting).

Over the next few weeks thought I might share with you some pics of our new place! We have been very very lucky with the generosity of family to be able to live here, in such a lovely place- I want us to really enjoy living here and take pride in our home- as well as remembering how lucky we are to be here at all!

So Im going to start with the most important room in the house! Joe’s playroom!

It’s actually the dining room as well, but as you can probably see from the pictures its mainly Joe’s room- he’s the main focus of the decoration! Hope you like it!

Joe’s room

The Bunting is handmade by me, I made it for Joe’s first birthday party which had a cowboy theme. The Knight picture is embroidered, an antique now,  by one of Robins relatives. The Noggin the Nog Picture is painted by me in water colours. Rob loved Noggin as a child and hopes to pass this love on to Joe- Joe calls it “The pirate ship”. The giant car mat was a bargain from Home sense- we brought it to cover the wooden floor in Joe’s previous bedroom.

Joe’s Epic train set

The train track and table is from the Early Learning Centre and was Joe’s Christmas present. Thomas was a Christmas gift too from Joe’s great Uncle.

Joe playing with his farm

The farm mat and wooden toys were from Joe’s granny and grandpa, there is a wooden farm building to go with this but it’s still boxed up at the mo, so he is using a farm shape sorter from nanny instead. The plastic farm animals are from ELC.

Perusing the book case for truck books

Books, rockets and Peppa Pig- what could be better?! The wooden rocket is from wilkinsons.

Rocket to the moon!!

Joe loves rockets and some of his first words were “rocket to the moon!” This cool rocket was a gift from nanny and comes with two space men, an alien and a space buggy. Joe loves it. It is often crash landing at various places in the house.

Pat driving through Greendale

Postman Pats van was also a gift from nanny. Joe says “Pats a happy man”. So wise.

Books and toys galore

Joe being a mechanic

This tractor was a gift from nanny and comes from mothercare: Joe loves it and has had it for some time now, hence the need for a mechanic.

Hope you have enjoyed looking around Joe’s playroom and have gathered some inspiration for play spaces of your own!

Here are some other fantastic play areas and kids rooms I’ve found on the web just to give you a bit more inspiration! (and me!)

Found on rhbabyandchild.com

Found on thebooandtheboy.com

Found on thedesignfiles.net

source unknown (off pinterest)

from buzzfeed.net