Buttons for Christmas

Don't ask me where it came from, but this year I was inspired to make Christmas cards with buttons! As you can see below, my family will be getting green Christmas trees decorated with coloured wooden buttons on their cards this year. :-)

The pink and lime green one is especially for my brother and his new wife, Jess. She told me that she decorates her tree in a different combination of colours each year and that 2013 was lime green and pink, so I've done a card as close a possible for her to match. I hope they like it! (click on image to enlarge)

My Crafty Christmas

Christmas cards: an angel cut-out from Christmas music (click to enlarge)

Here are two crafty gifts I've made for my family this Christmas,

along with my 2013 Calendar of Haiku & Photography.

Reindeer Christmas tree ornaments for the kids

Celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas haiku-style on 

Gillena Cox's blog Lunch Break from  

Tuesday, December 25 to Saturday, January 5

where she invites you to collaborate for the fifth year running.

I'm hoping to share in Gillena's Christmas story for the first time.

It would be great if you joined me! :)

Long Winter Nights...

...are perfect for getting crafty! But before I show you what I've been up to this week, below is the June page of my calendar. The haiku was written a year ago today and appeared in The Heron's Nest. The photo was also taken a year ago at the new Te Puke Cemetery, as the last of the sun was going down.

June 2012 - Kirsten's Calendar of Haiku & Photography

Now that winter has hit us here again in the Southern Hemisphere, I've been spending some time each evening sticking stuff to other stuff, and coming out with these cards:

I love using bits and pieces I find in old books, and adding a bit of origami is always fun. I look at these cards as mini canvases. I just see an image in my head, then try to collage it out into the real world. I'm not making these with any person or any occasion in mind. I'm just enjoying getting stuck into my crafting again, and enjoying having my own creating room for the first time, to do it in! :)

August Round-Up - It Was All In The Cards

August saw me getting crafty making birthday cards for family members: see my mum's one here and the ones for my niece and nephew in Canada here. I also began on a card project of a different kind: thinking about a collage I could make with all the cards I received while in hospital. You can read my post about that here, and I will keep you updated on my (very slow) progress.

I had a haiku appear in Melissa Allen's Red Dragonfly blog post about dragonflies: see my contribution here and the full post in all it's glory here. A recommended read, for sure! And speaking of reading: I'm doing a daily one from Martin Lucas' Stepping Stones: a way into haiku. The haiku are top drawer and I'm learning new things all the time. You can get your copy here.

Here's how I'm doing on my 2011 goal of submitting poetry to a publication or competition every week:

• week thirty-one - submitted five haiku, seven tanka and one haibun to Presence, one tanka accepted!
• week thirty-two - submitted ten haiku/senryu to Chrysanthemum (first time submitting here), one haiku accepted!
• week thirty-three - submitted ten tanka to Ribbons (first time submitting here), awaiting outcome
• week thirty-four - submitted five haiku to the Katikati Mural Festival collaborative arts project

August was a very low energy month for me so lots of resting was done.
This is a sight I saw often: the shadow of the trees and a bird ornament
with a crystal casting many shapes and rainbows on the drawn curtains.

September is already in full swing: the September issue of Kokako has come out with my paper cranes image on the cover, the new edition of The Heron's Nest has been released containing one of my haiku, and my first column as editor of the haikai section of a fine line (the Magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society) is in NZPS members' in-boxes and mailboxes. Happy haikuing to you!

Crafty Cards for the Kids

My mum is heading to Canada at the end of this month to visit the newest addition to our family: my sister's baby girl, Sadie. I always give the kids books as presents so have loaded mum up with Christmas and birthday books for both my niece and nephew. Here are the cards I've made for their birthdays: Sadie will be one year old in April and Toby will be two this November.

They may not fully appreciate these but the fun was in the making :)

Riding My Creativity Waves

The poetry is slow in coming at the moment, which seems to happen after I do any month-long poetry challenge. But I've found what I do write during these times of recuperation is quality. I'm learning to ride my own creativity waves and no longer get concerned during these down times. Instead I focus my creative energy on other more hands-on crafts.

Monday night saw me finally finish the collage haiga that had been sadly sitting on my art table for over two months. It's a great feeling to have this one complete and looking so good now standing proudly on my easel (where all new artworks stand for a spell). Then last night, I made a card for my Mum's upcoming birthday, which features the colours she likes and an origami crane.

The card I made for my Mum's birthday 2011

I've done some more work on my haiga calendar as I decided I wasn't happy with two of the photographs and two of the haiku in my first printing. Now it is closer to fabulous. And I also did some baking over the weekend, which counts as creativity in my book! Black Doris Plum Crumble and a Date and Walnut Loaf - both wheat and dairy free, and super yummy! :)

Enjoy riding your creativity wave today, wherever it may take you.