naomi loves: making

making

Creative project: Grandad stories

I have some exciting news to share. I have been invited to illustrate a children’s book! I’m collaborating with the incredibly talented Wendy Milner, a professional writer who has just completed her first piece of children’s fiction. It is a beautiful (and true!) story called “Grandad and the Baby Dolphin.” The Grandad of the story,…

Boo! Recently I made these little slide-up cards, after watching one of those “how-to” tutorials on YouTube that make simple things so much more confusing than they should be and assume you are the proud owner of an entire cupboard full of obscure craft supplies, when you could actually make do with a piece of…

Sometimes kindness is a cup of tea, shared between friends. Sometimes kindness is the vessel that holds the tea. Things have been a little less than peachy around here of late. A few weeks ago I was unwell – for three weeks – during which time I also suffered a rather devastating loss of a…

These lovely, botanical postcards seriously take less than five minutes to make. Here’s how to create your own: ∧∧ Take a stroll around the garden and choose some leaves in shapes you like Pro-tip: For best results, choose leaves that are soft (like geranium), not hard (like eucalyptus), and beware leaves or stems that are…

Is there anyone who doesn’t like playing with clay? I mean, you may or may not fantasise about THAT scene in Ghost, and anyway that’s none of my business, but I bet if I handed you a lump of clay right now, you’d start manipulating it. Rolling, flattening, squeezing, shaping, smoothing… There is something so…

Here are some of the little party ideas we’ve been working on during the past several months, to create fun surprises for my Dad and his guests at his 70th birthday party. Save-the-date cards ΔΔ I had some simple postcards printed up. On the front was a picture of Dad when he was about two,…

Every time we learn something new, we gain more than skills and knowledge. Often we gain confidence, or a sense of purpose, or a sense of achievement, or creative inspiration to do more, try more, experience more, learn more. Learning brings SO MUCH GOOD, even learning things we don’t necessarily want to learn, or think…

I’ve made a new thing. Do you remember the zine I made recently on snail-mail? I’ve been drawing and pasting again but this time, the zine is about kindness. Specifically about random acts of kindness, but also intentional acts of kindness. I agree it’s important to cultivate an attitude to life that leaves us open to…

There is a lot of talk around the Internet (and coffee shops and gyms and office kitchens) at the moment about the failure of the media to query anything, even the most basic of details, about wellness entrepreneur Belle Gibson’s claims of surviving countless “terminal” illnesses through diet. As Belle’s business and reputation and apparent…

I’ve been painting triangles. Scenes, events, glimpsed through thick-paned, antique windows. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll make of them, yet. Perhaps I’ll create prints: a set of postcards, maybe? Or some note cards? ΔΔ Wet autumn watercolour, gouache and pen-and-ink on paper ΔΔ Passing parade watercolour, gouache and pen-and-ink on paper ΔΔ School fete watercolour, gouache and…

I feel a bit sheepish admitting this in public, but Mr B is a huge country and western music fan. I know! Right?! Anyway he is, and I might not love his music but I do love Mr B. So I decided to write some tongue-in-cheek snippets of lyrics from three of his favourites (Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Elvis…

Under the cover of almost-darkness, the dog and I went for a walk down one of Melbourne’s many laneways last night and left behind some little inspirational love-notes for strangers. Because maybe just maybe, the RIGHT words will be seen by the RIGHT person, just when they need them the most. The neighbour’s cat was…