Punch Art Fun 1 - Look in the Book - Page 22

Hello there!

Thought I'd share a Look in the Book today.

Page 22, in fact.

Got your book open?

If not that's okay, I've managed to find a few things from the page.

Bees and bears - lots of them.

Big and small, like, hello, bees in all sizes, just to prove it can be done. I like making lots of options for things, but sometimes I go a little too far. Three versions of bees - that's fine. Fourteen? Too many, but I'd do it if I could!

Anyway, onto the bees.

Small bees.

These are made with 3/16" Circles for the heads and small Music Notes for the bodies. You could use a tiny balloon if you have one too.

I love these little bees and use them all the time. So cute. Fiddly, but cute.

Note the wings are drawn on. It's always good to make your bee, put it on the card where you want it to go in the end and then draw the wings etc in that spot. Then you can stick the bee on with confidence. Done. The idea is that you cover the beginning of the lines you drew with the bee itself, so it looks neater.

PS. The black lines on the bee bodies are drawn on too. Could you imagine doing the technique below on the bees above. Can I hear a resounding no??

Bigger bees this time.

They have 1/2" Circle heads and medium-sized balloons (Sullivans green size) for the bodies.

The technique for the stripes is to punch a black balloon and cut it into strips for the black stripes. My strips are rounded, but you can do straight ones if they're easier. They just get stuck on. I've noticed one bee has two stripes, while the other has three. I'd do three on each, but the world won't come crashing down if you don't.

And again, could you imagine doing this technique on the tiny, tiny bees above? Ummm....no.

The bees above have balloons for the wings too. They look quite huge actually. I think smaller balloons would be the go in the future (Sullivans orange size).

Okay, HUGE bee this time. All you need is circles and ovals (and/or balloons) and you've got yourself a bee.

Above, the body is an oval. Looks just as good as the balloon. Once again, black oval cut into strips for the stripes. Say that a couple of times fast!

If you've got your book open you'll notice the big bee on the top right has half hearts for the wings. Anything goes, except squares, but that's obvious.

Okay, onto the bears now.

Before that just want to mention the bee wings. See them? They're ovals cut in half. The blue card needed a little bit of white, so I made the wings as opposed to drawing them.

I taught a class where I got the ladies to make wings like this and I remember them moaning and groaning because it was so fiddily (is it fiddly, or fiddily?). It was hard! "Oh Debra, what are you doing to us?" I remember one lady saying that as clear as day.

Sometimes I make stuff for classes at my desk and then when I get to class to teach it, it becomes more of a challenge than I (and the ladies) expected. We always thwart the issues and everyone goes home smiling in the end - at least they do when they leave the room. What they do when they're out of my sight is a mystery!

No, seriously, it's all in good fun, but I know I worked those ladies with the bee wings and we were laughing about it in the end. And to tell the truth, I'm not sure if I've made tiny wings like that since. Not that I wouldn't, I just haven't. Oh yeah, and we all know it's hard to keep up in class sometimes and something like a little bit of paper that won't do what it's supposed to can be a source of frustration sometimes, can't it?

I always say, It's Punch Art FUN, not Punch Art Stress or Punch Art Science or anything like that.

Fun, fun, fun (but I do crack the whip in class, don't I girls? Oh, how fun would it be if my brother actually came in and cracked his real whip? And without telling you? No, I'd never do that to you, but I wish I could! But I'd tell you first!)

Okay, so what was I saying? Can't remember, hold on...scrolling up....bees, wings and whips. What a ramble I'm on today.

Onto the bears...there are bears up there. And that's all I have to say. That, and they could be cuter.

To make them cuter:

• Glue the pink inner ears in the middle of the outer ears.


• Glue the ears down further behind the heads.


• Don't mount the circles on their faces with mounting tape.


• Draw more vertical lines for eyes - those are too round and not good.


• Make the arms and legs bigger - ie. use bigger hearts. That little bear's arms are tiny!


• Put gold commas on their noses.


• Don't write "big bear" or "small bear" on your card. That's dumb, but I did it for a reason when I made it.

Ah, much cuter.

Not all the things above have been applied, but a few have...thus, much cuter. And a baby bear in a nappy, well, the cute factor skyrockets with that.

(To make the overalls I punched the neckline with a circle and cut the arm holes out with a knife)

So, bees and bears. Fun, huh?

Have a grrrreat day! ha ha

:o)

Inspiration station - Striped plate

Hey there,

I mentioned the other day that staying inspired with crafting is necessary in order to want to craft.

Being inspired is good.

Not being inspired is good too. It means you need to take a break and do something else for a while to re-charge, that's normal.

These inspire me...

(not the greatest photo, they're better in real life, but still, they inspire me)

Some are old, some are new.

Some were gifts, some I bought.

They've formed quite the little collection, which I love.

This is what I've realised (and I mentioned this before) - if you like something in decor, you'll probably like it in papercraft too.

I like these colours. I have them in paper too.

I like flowers. I have those too (in paper form, as punches, as embellishments).

I like seeing all colours together. I have papers with lots of colours on them. And lots of papers with single colours on them that I can combine to make colourful projects.

I like the fancy edges. I have punches that can do that. And scissors.

Get my drift?

Does your home decor match your papercrafting style? I reckon it does.

Remember I said I used plates to give me a jump start on a card idea?

(I didn't want to reproduce the plate exactly, just use it as inspiration).

This is what I ended up with.

It's a big card - A5, in fact.

I found the paper in my stash - I've always liked it. It's quite old, I think. I usually like cream bases, but because my patterned paper was white-based, I went with a white card base to match.

The Martha doily punch is along the bottom - it doesn't relate to the plate, but that's not the point. It doesn't have to. I used it because I wanted to.

I did two red and one yellow flower with leaves like on the plate.

(The inspiration piece can give a jump start, but it also can make some decisions for you if you want it to. I did this time because I didn't want to think up every little detail. So, I did the same colour flowers and added red middles. I always add red middles.)

I also misted the whole card - unusual for me, but I did it.

You can see a little of the mist here. And the neighbour's shed!

Got a fun item around your house that you can use to inspire you?

Take it to your craft area and let it be the jump start for your next project. I had plates piled on my desk for weeks!

I've had a jug for ages that I love and one day I'm going to use it as my starting point for a card. I know I have paper in my stash that'll work too. Love that.

:o)

Inspiration station thoughts

Hey there and hello to you!

Just a thought I had the other day - in order to actually want to craft, you have to stay inspired, yes?

How do you do that?

What makes you want to sit down and make something?

For me, it's product.

Sometimes it's other things, but mostly it's product.

I took this photo probably 18 mths ago. These things still inspire me today, which is lucky because I've still got some of that paper.

I love bright colours, fun prints and punches, of course. I keep all those things around me to keep me inspired and wanting to sit at my desk.

Something else I've been doing lately (ie. in the last year maybe?) is using fun items from around my house as starters for projects.

I mean things like fun plates, jugs with pretty patterns - things like that. I already love them because they're in my house, and one day I saw them and thought they'd make a good starting place for a card.

I started with my fun plates - was interesting to see how the cards turned out.

I'll share them soon!

:o)

Mum's tag...

This post will tell you why I like the Martha Stewart Embroidered Floral border punch...just so you know.

And just because I told you I'd tell ya.

And just because I don't like forgetting things like that.

Firstly though, this is the tag I gave to my mum for Mother's Day.

I give her a tag three times a year - birthday, Mother's Day and Christmas. She collects them on a ring, just for fun. I always use favourite products on them and we always chat about them on at the hand over.

This year she remarked about everything on the tag (of course she would, she's my mother and she's crafty, she has to!) and was impressed to find out that she could cut chipboard with her big Sizzix dies. The eyebrows went up and I could see her mind spinning...funny.

I just created a label on the right - Mother's Day cards 2009 - that'll take you to the card and tag I made for her last year if you'd like to see.

Things I used on this year's tag:

~ Stampin Up! Top Note die.

~ Tulle from Spotlight.

~ Martha's bakers twine. I know, she rocks.

~ Tim Holtz's Vintage Market alpha letters. You get all numbers and letters on the one die, it's great value. Got it at PC.

~ October Afternoon Thrift Shop paper.

~ An October Afternoon wild card. I'm not sure of the collection it was from. Maybe their school one? I cut around the edges with mini deco scallop scissors.

~ A little heart punch. Mine came from a border punch that was near me on my desk.

~ Crepe paper in cream. Stuck behind with tape and pleated. Thank you, Johanna. I've done this with paper before, and ribbon, but not crepe paper.

(Check out vblog 96 for a fun Mother's Day card. I had the same Oct Arvo wild card as her, although I didn't discover it until much later...vblog 92 shows the crepe paper idea. The link takes you to Leah Fung's blog)

~ Martha's Embroidered Floral punch - see why it's a good one? You can hide the top bit and have a tiny scallop border...so lovely. I only discovered this because the tag needed a bit of red at the bottom and the 7 other borders I tried first didn't work.

Okay, that's it for the Mother's Day offerings this year. Actually, not true. I put some on the table at PC, but forgot to photograph them before I took them over. Will do that when they come back home...

Okay, bye now.

:o)

Mother's Day cards...

Hey, how's it going?

Today I thought you might like to see the rest of the Mother's Day cards. What fun these were to make. Totally cool and I had some of the desk time that I love (and need).

I seem to be making a lot of big cards lately and these are big too. They're A5 and I made my own envelopes to match (in yellow).

This first one's for my mum.

Incidentally, I made these together. You know, chose the papers for both, then chose the bits for each of them at the same time. Punched out the borders, punched out the labels.

Much easier than making a full one then going back and make another whole card, even if it's the same type. Yes?

As I said earlier in the week, the papers are from October Afternoon - their Thift Shop line.

It's old-worldy and vintage and perfect for those lady embellishments from GCD Studios. They're the chipboard shapes from their Homespun Chic Collection by Melody Ross.

(You can see the pack of shapes here)

Here's the sneaky peek one of the cards.

Nope, my mum doesn't wear those shoes while cooking.

The two border punches I used are both new EK Success Slim Edger punches - the top is a paper ribbon one called Zig Zig Chain and the other is called Open Scallop.

These rock.

Seriously.

I'd like a smaller ric rac one and a smaller donut chain one now. They don't exist, but I wish they did.

Ah, this is EK too.

It's called Journal Plate and Bracket (it comes with two brackets).

I drew the gold edging on it, just to outline it a bit.

The tiny type stickers are from My Little Shoebox. Tiny type stickers are a favourite too. So many uses and a lot of companies are doing them now.

The bakers twine is Martha Stewart. Not surprised? Exactly - she rocks it.

Speaking of Martha - this edger punch is hers too. It's called Embroidered Floral and I love it.

Now, mind you, it wasn't love at first sight, but it grew on me and now I love it. There's a second reason why - I'll tell you about that another time soon.

It has a corner punch to match it as an option too. Would make nice doilies, don't you think? I really must try the whole punch-around-the-page thing one day.

Honestly, doilies used to be so out, but now they're so in. Anything that reminds me of my grandmothers is a winner for me, so doilies are always in, regardless of their trend status.

Don't you love the trends? In, out, in, out. I use whatever I want, when I want - what about you? Hey, love the trendy stuff, but it doesn't have to be trendy for me to use it. Plus, who can keep up with it all, everything changes so fast...know what I mean?

Oh, hello border punches.

You used to be so out too. Lol. But someone made some nice ones and all of a sudden, ka-bam, border punch explosion!

A final word - it took me ages to figure out what to put on the signs.

Happy Mother's Day? Too obvious.

For you? I do that all the time.

Love you? Too mushy (we wrote that inside!)

Finally (in amongst doing other things and then coming back to it) I thought, "What are they saying? Well, ta-da!" So, I put that.

Both mums liked 'em.

Good!

Punch Art Fun - Look in the Book - page 21 (part 2)

Hi there blogging friends!

Funny, when I typed that I made a mistake and typed blooging. Hello there, blooging friends, hope you're having a great week so far. It's turned pretty chilly actually. Feel the breeze, feel the breeze.

I went looking for a few of the characters from page 21 yesterday, but came up empty (except for the card below), so I just took a photo of the animals in the book instead. They're my images, so I can do that. Lucky for me, hey?

Firstly, the little chicks.

Reminds me of a story my mother tells us about my brother, Pete. She and he were at shops when he was about two or so, and she couldn't find him anywhere. Gosh, imagine the panic. She eventually found him on top of their car in the carpark, and he had crossed a road to get to the car! Oh, my goodness...

Anyway, onto the chicks and their house.

Glad our chook shed doesn't look like that.

Pretty precarious...

Good old corro card. Makes for a good chook shed. Can you still buy plain corro card like this? I'm not sure.

Look at those skinny legs.

They're cut with a ruler and a knife - the only way to get precision cuts.

This white one was the first one I made. Golly, I loved her. I made the rooster next and then the brown hens above.

At least I think that's what happened. I just remember loving them and I've not stopped making them since. I tend to make them a bit bigger now though, using a 3/4" Circle for the head and a 1" Circle for the body.

(The ones above have 1/2" Circle heads and medium balloons for their bodies. Smaller and fiddlier, but worth it)

And now the big animals.

Horse.

Hello, Horse.

Pig.

Hello, Pig.

Hello, Pig's friend, Chick.

And Cow.

Hello, Cow.

Don't tell the others, but aside from the chicks, you're my favourite.

Sometimes I like you better than the chicks actually, depends on what mooood (ha ha) I'm in and if my micro motor skills are working or not. You're a lot more work than the bigger chicks, thus the No. 2 position you get put in sometimes.

Summary: You're gorgeous.

Here's Cow and Bear.

They're friends.

Not sure when a cow and a bear would ever get their photo taken together in real life, but on my desk they do. That's because on my desk, we aren't tethered to reality, are we fellas?

Ummm, no.

No, no reality here.

What's reality is that you're looking a little chunky there, Cow.

You might want to lay off the feed, darlin'...I'm just sayin'.

Summary: You're still gorgeous.

Punch Art Fun - Look in the Book - page 21

Hey there,

Just one card to share for the Look in the Book today.

One card with one little chick on it.

He is very little, isn't he?

I remember making these chicks for the first time - I loved them so much. So cute.

If you look on page 21 you'll see the hens and other chicks on there too.

Okay, I've decided this isn't enough for this page - I'm going to see if I can find some other stuff!

Bye now!

Mother's shoes...

Here's a quick sneaky look at my mum's Mother's Day card for this year.

Points to note about the things you see:

~ My mother doesn't wear shoes like that anymore (who does?)

~ Bakers twine rocks.

~ I used two border punches. Can you guess which ones?

~ And the paper? The paper is from October Afternoon.

~ The embellishment isn't, but I tell you about that later.

:o)

What's in the trunk? (part 2)

A few more "treasures" to show you today.

Got any of your own stashed away that you could pull out and have a look at?

It's pretty fun, I gotta tell ya.

Here's my rock collection.

Only shiny rocks interested me. Don't know where I got them, but I've always loved them.

And that's a cowrie shell on the left. They were the coveted shell to find on the beach growing up. It was a good day if you found one. A very good day.

Oooh, I'm not a sewer, but I tried! lol.

The pig is a knitted pot holder. Wow.

I used a lot of felt as a kid - loved making stuff with it. Cute bear.

Kinda looks like this one.

Kinda.

Mum tried to teach me to sew, it just didn't work.

Oh, well. She tried. I tried.

I tried her!

Oh, lots of drawings.

This is another scrapbook of mine. It's not a photo scrapbook scrapbook. It's a scrapbook of scraps - the old scrapbook way!

I used to copy cartoons, draw my own etc. Once thing I loved about drawing was that I could do it anywhere - at my desk, in front of the telly, at Grandma's when I was on holidays. I took my paper, pens and book and I was set. Of course the grandparents were good with the compliments too, which I always loved.

The "Debbie" (my name growing up) with the bears was the sign I made for my bedroom door, just in case anyone forgot who dwelt there.

My one and only attempt at long stitch.

I obviously didn't like it enough to try it again.

And I've never, ever crossed a stitch in my life either. That's my sister's job. She's done some amazing ones over the years.

I used to draw a lot of ice creams, sundaes and hamburgers too, actually. I think it was because I could actually draw them.

People? No.

Animals? No.

Food? Yes, let's do it.

I don't draw a lot of icecreams anymore...

...I make these instead.

Just as I used to enjoy drawing food, I now like making paper food. Ice creams and cupcakes are just fun-ness on a card.

Okay, just wanted to say thanks for coming down memory lane with me and sharing a few of my treasures.

Who knew I'd still own that pink toilet rubber after all these years?

What's in the trunk?

Hey there blogging friends!

How are things in your neck of the woods? Getting ready for a fun weekend? Happy Sunday to all the mothers out there too. Hope you have a great day!

I thought I'd show you a few things I found in the trunk today. When I went to photograph it I had to have a quick look inside to see all my treasures. It was kinda funny, so I took a few shots.

Memories - embarrassing or not, they're memories, yes? :o)

(The word 'treasures' here is the descriptive word, not so much the valuative word :o) I don't even know if valuative's a word...)

Firstly, yes, that's wallpaper.

I realise that Emma Jane didn't have wallpaper in the trunk when she brought it out on the ship all those years ago, but Pappa decided wallpaper was the best way to go for restoring it, probably to stop ye olde splinters from piercing my delicate fingers.

I like it, it works.

No splinters either.

There's two levels in the trunk. The top one for smalls and the big section for bigs.

Was this Emma's only clothing trunk? Surely not. Probably?

Treasures discovered in my trunk so far:

~ Birthday cards

~ Journals

~ Notes

~ Funny things

~ Certificates

~ Sugar flowers from our wedding cake (in bottle)

~ Wallace and Gromit video tape. My brother gave me that years ago, can't throw it out. Have the shirt too. Still wear it. Have the shows on DVD - still can't through the VHS out. Won't.

~ White/creamy book in top section (it's hidden under some cards) - that's a memory book from our wedding. It went around for people to write stuff in. Mum covered it and made it floofy.

~ Travel memories - maps, travel journals and whatnot.

It was at this stage I started to pull things out a lot more to look at them.

It's a little embarrassing...

A scrapbook of all our wedding cards and engagement cards.

This is ye olde scrapbooking, alright. Never heard of archival stuff then. Glad I hadn't actually. There's no pressure associated with sticking things in a book when you just buy a book and stick things in.

See that red swirl thing on the green background? It's a decoration. Nice touch.

Ah, this is slightly embarrassing, but we were all into junk when we were young, were we not?

Look, a toilet rubber!

Yes, I collected rubbers and I had a pink toilet one. I've no idea where I got it from. I think I was just fascinated that a toilet rubber existed. Of course I never used it. The biscuit and the spanner were my other favourites because they were both life-like.

More treasures.

The green one is my Autograph book. LOL. Did you have one of those? Oh my goodness, so funny. I've just looked through it and I think it's my second one because I'm sure I had another when I was younger. Really, all of this reminds me of just all the silly stuff I was into as a kid.

Remember the competition to come up with the best autograph book rhyme, or the coolest verse?

The one I liked trumped the "hook or by crook one". Someone wrote - "By hook or by crook, I'll be the first to write in this book". And then some unknown person wrote, "Beat you brother, I'm on the cover".

Here's a couple of others:

~ Remember little M, Remember little E, Put them both together and remember little ME.

~ Hey, diddle diddle, I'm right in the middle!

~ And this from my sister:

"To my darling sister named Dibbles,

Roses are red

Voilets are blue

Sugar is sweet

And so are you

Roses are dead

Violets are withered

Sugar bowl's empty

And so's your head.

Love from your groovy sister, Suzi"

Well, thanks for that poetic gem, Suzanne. Lol.

Autograph books - kinda embarrassing, but funny anyway.

And they're a form of scrapbooking too, if you think about it. Memory-keeping-in-a-it's-embarrassing-but-it's-life-kinda-way.

Oh yes, and see the book with Verses on it? That's where I kept my collection of funny and witty comments for autograph book writing...again, embarrassing, but hey, watcha gonna do?

I've more treasures from the trunk that I'll share soon (I can just see you hanging out for that! ha ha). Probably more embarrassing stuff. I kinda see this blog as a form of memory keeping, so memory keeping it is.

Thanks for sticking it out with me. I appreciate your visits each day and love reading your comments too.

Bye for now!

Debra :o)

Right now...craft wise, and not

Suddenly had an urge to do a right now post....scrapbookers do this. They list all the things they are doing right now and make a page about it. Thought I'd do it here on the blog.

Right now...in real life:

~ Cody is outside playing with his ball. He's funny.

~ I can hear the washing machine going. Last load for today. Maybe. Will I do the dog stuff? No room on the line. Tomorrow then.

~ I haven't had breakfast. This happens to me all the time because I think, I'll just put this load on first. I'll just clean this first. Oh, well. I'll move straight onto lunch soon.

~ The chooks next door are clucking away. Can't hear ours from here.

~ The sky is so blue I have to go and stand under it for a while.

~ It's a bit chilly. I'm in shorts and a t-shirt, but anything else would be too hot.

~ A plane's going over.

~ Cody's still playing...and chewing.

Right now...craft-wise:

~ I've got a project on my desk that's 99% finished. I think I'm adding a bit of glitter and I'm done. It's a piece using the new Tim Holtz die called Ornamental. Kinda looks like the Stampin Up Top Note. I think I'm going to make a lot of bits and pieces and put them on a canvas. That's the plan, but you know how these things don't always work out. Hope this one does!

~ I got some photos done yesterday and I'm ready to put them in an album.

~ I've got bits and pieces to put away - punches etc.

~ I saw some of the new Tim Holtz embossing folders yesterday. Very manly ones. The industry needs stuff like this. We all like to make man cards and they're the hardest sometimes. I just make fun cards for everyone - sorted!

~ The few things I bought from etsy have arrived (actually, one's still coming). Ever been on etsy? www.etsy.com Everything is handmade (or is used to make handmade stuff) and the postage can be quite cheap, even from the US. Type what you're looking for in the search engine and all the shops that have it will come up. Things I bought - bakers twine, music paper, tags. Fun.

~ I'm about to make a Mothers Day card - actually two. Have kind of a plan, will see how they work out.

~ I'm also about to read the Blue Bazaar newsletter.

~ Isn't that the most simple card you've ever seen in your life? Scraps, punch circles and stick on. And I don't even think the circles are mounted. Oooh, keeping it real simple...is that allowed? Of course!

Washing's done.

Have a great day!

Whip cracking

Hey there,

Thought you might like to see this.

Pete's in the front (brother) going for it.

Dad's in the back trying to keep up. He can thwack it too, but Pete's got him beat for stamina with this song.

Neil (bagpiper) is as Australian as the rest of us. Bagpipes and whip cracking - so funny, what a combo. They had a great time out there playing a few songs and cracking along.

Pete's also a musician and I love how he timed the last note with a big thwack. So cool.

And yes, sorry, that's me cackling...I just love fun stuff like this and don't hold back!

Enjoy!

PS. Hey Pete, I know, how embarrassing, but they're really nice ladies on my blog. They'll love you, for sure, don't worry.

PPS. The move Pete's doing is called the 'snake killer'. He also has a 'bird killer' move, and plays tennis and golf with his whip too. So cool.

PPPS. (He doesn't kill things, of course, just leaves)

PPPPS. To see the video larger (on You Tube), click here.

Pappa

This is my pappa. Or is it papa? It's been spelt both ways.

This is Pappa, my dad's dad. What a special man.

He was an aircraft machanic and then a car mechanic. He was almost everything else too, a very resourceful man, he was.

You know, he even had gumball machines in shops and my dad and his brother used to go around and collect the money from them. And I found that out after Andrew and I bought one at the markets, painted it red and put it in our living room. You mean Pappa had gumball machines? Really?

And I thought it was pretty ingenious that he nailed the jam lids to the roof of his workshop and then screwed the bottles in with lots of nails and bits in them. There were jars on the roof! I used to think that was amazing as a kid...

He was a stockman and was pretty handy with a whip in his day. What's amazing is my brother now makes whips and cracks 'em too (of course).

Dad told me the story recently of how the neighbourhood dogs wouldn't stop barking (this is when Dad was a kid) and everyone was getting fed up. Pappa said, "I'll fix those dogs." He coiled his whip and strode over near the offenders.

Dad said he dropped the coil, flicked his wrist and th-wack! Mate, no more dog problems. Gave them such a fright...wish I could've seen it. Wish I could've heard it. I love whip cracking.

Just for the record - Pappa was quite the poet too. I remember reading some of his work one day and being quite amazed at how he thought of just the right words for just the right spot. You know how poetry is, it's hard. He wrote about Australia and his bush life. It was wonderful.

He had the most amazing handwriting too. It was gorgeous, flourishy cursive writing. I'm going to see if I can find some and take a photo of it to show you.

I mentioned above that he was resourceful. He was. He used to paint, fix things, do up cars, build stuff, mend things - all that hands-on work. When you're a tools man like Pappa, you have not only a workshop, but a big shed.

I never went into the shed much, but one day he and I were poking around in there and I saw two old trunks looking pretty old and dusty. "They'd look nice done up." I said to him and then thought nothing of it.

That Christmas Pappa (and Gran) gave me this.

Isn't it gorgeous?

It was Emma Jane's in fact - she was Pappa's grandmother. This was the trunk she bought with her when she came from England.

The poor thing had seen better days, but Pappa restored it to it's former glory and gifted it to me. He did up the other one too and gave it to my sister.

I wonder how old this trunk is really?

Was it new when Emma got it?

Ever watch Who Do You Think You Are? on telly? Amazing stories. It's one of my favourite shows. It started with the UK version, we've had an Australian version and now Channel 9 is showing a US version. Fab.

They could pick any person and tell their story and it'd be amazing. I love the commonality that all the Australian stories have - someone in the last 200 years came over here by boat. They had to. They did. To those people, we of the colonies thank you.

So many memories.

Memories of who owned the trunk and how far they travelled together.

Memories of my grandfather and his special gift to me in doing it up as a keepsake for me to enjoy.

Memories that are kept in the trunk. It holds all my bits and pieces.

He was a pretty special man, my pappa. I miss him. And oh my goodness, he'd love to see all the whip cracking that goes on in the family now. Pete, Dad, Andrew and even the kids (nephews and niece) Luke (14), Sarah (11) and Jack (8) are all really good.

Even Casey (at two) likes to give it a go. So cute. Case has yet to thwack the thing because he's only two and the whip is 7 times his length, but he'll get it, he'll get it. And mate, his father can thwack it like nobody's business, but that's another story and you know I'm gonna tell it!

It's so fun to make connections and identify with our parents and grandparents. To see how we're the same and different and to see common things between us all. It's all about family and memories and roots. It's good.