Cardboard cats & painted papers

 

It's been one of those restless kind of days, beginning awkwardly when the clock radio besides my bed wouldn't tune into the radio station I wanted it to.  The radio's not broken.  It just flatly refused to do anything other than make crackling, hissing noises at me, like a thing possessed.  Very disconcerting.  Then I somehow broke a glass that'd been on my bedside table.  One of my nice Harvey Nicks tumblers too.  No idea why it shattered, but it did.  A malevolent poltergeist?  Nah, more like a still-sleepy me being clumsy.  Anyway, the restlessness has continued all day, and resulted in a lot of tea drinking and snacking.  Far too much snacking!  You know when you buy a multi-pack of chocolate bars and think I'll be sensible and ration them out, eating one a day ... yeah, well it wasn't a one-a-day kind of day.  I've eaten 'em all! 

On the crafting front, I managed to get myself together enough to make some painted papers, stenciling and stamping on sheets of tracing paper, ready to be included in a handmade book.  Plus, I made a couple of thread keepers based on these by Jude Hill.  Hers were made of heavy duty paper, but I used cardboard for mine, making use of packaging from an online order. 

I tried out a couple of shapes, trying to make them look weathered and worn, sponging on metallic gold and white paint, then drawing in the faces.  I couldn't decide whether to make notches in them for holding the ends of thread in place, so tried using a small hole punch instead, thinking that might do the job.  

Well, they're not exactly sophisticated - and not as characterful as Jude Hill's design - but they could be an idea to experiment with, and at least they're a greener alternative than buying yet more plastic spools to wind thread around.