December 2025 - Shoshiplatypus

2025 – End of Year Review

2025 - END OF YEAR REVIEW It's been a relatively quiet year, all told. Not a great deal to report on our normal activities. Most of my activity this year has been art-related. Studio changes I got some great new shelving units for the studio and reorganised things to make life a lot…

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31st December 2025

Embellishments / Mixed Media Art / Recycling and Upcycling

Oval Window Pocket with Pull-Out Tag

OVAL WINDOW POCKET WITH PULL-OUT TAG This is the album element I made this afternoon from some Easter egg packaging. This interesting piece has been in my stash for ages and I wanted to do something which would feature both windows - the oval one and the small round one. Folding and trimming…

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30th December 2025

Embellishments / Mixed Media Art / Recycling and Upcycling

Album Elements from Christmas Trash

ALBUM ELEMENTS FROM CHRISTMAS TRASH I'm slipping. I'm definitely slipping. I actually threw something in the bin before I looked at it to see if I could make art out of it! It was the cardboard wrapper which had been round the Christmas pudding I'd bought. On examination I decided it definitely had…

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26th December 2025

Books and Albums / Embellishments / Mixed Media Art / Recycling and Upcycling

A Pocket of Pockets

A POCKET OF POCKETS Continuing to build my stash of album elements and embellishments. This morning I watched a YouTube video where different ideas for junk journals were being explored, and among them was a floating pocket with subsidiary pockets front and back. It was quite attractive, and was folded from a single…

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22nd December 2025

Books and Albums / Embellishments / Mixed Media Art / Recycling and Upcycling

Pockets and Paperclips

POCKETS AND PAPERCLIPS Continuing my plan to mass-make various elements for future album projects. Rescuing materials from the recycle bin I have a large box of all kinds of intriguing rubbish - cardboard packaging, greetings cards (often with detachable or interactive elements), window envelopes and so on. Having just made a load of…

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21st December 2025

Digital Art / Mixed Media Art / Paper Dyeing

Digitising my Mixed Media Papers

DIGITISING MY MIXED MEDIA PAPERS To get more use out of my recently created papers, I decided to scan them and digitise them. I really liked the detail shots I took of the papers, and decided to digitise these too. For a different and somewhat cleaner look, I made the rather rash decision…

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21st December 2025

Embellishments / Mixed Media Art / Paper Dyeing / Recycling and Upcycling

Tea, Ink, Rust and Paint

TEA, INK, RUST AND PAINT After tea-dyeing some fabric, I had a lot of the tea left over, so I decided to dye some more paper. I've got a box full of old printer paper pieces which I originally intended to shred, as they are old bank statements and other sensitive information. Then…

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20th December 2025

Fibre and Textile Art / Mixed Media Art / Recycling and Upcycling

Tea-Dyeing Fabric

TEA-DYEING FABRIC After our recent shopping trip to Newton Abbot, when I raided the charity shops and haberdashery shop for fabrics and trims etc. for my art work, I have now done a bit of tea dyeing. I wasn't sure how well some of the fabrics would take the tea stain, especially the…

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20th December 2025

Embellishments / Mixed Media Art / Recycling and Upcycling

Gift Wrap Tags

GIFT WRAP TAGS I wrapped a couple of gifts today, using some gift wrap paper from W.H. Smith's which has gold accents - I originally bought the roll of paper simply for art purposes but since these were gifts for special people I thought I'd use some of it on them! I spent…

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17th December 2025

Fibre and Textile Art / Mixed Media Art / Recycling and Upcycling

Fabric Haul from Shopping Trip

FABRIC HAUL FROM SHOPPING TRIP Last week we had a shopping trip in Newton Abbot and my hubby persuaded me to go to the haberdashery shop. I have resisted in the past because I knew what would happen! The shop is stacked to the ceiling with shelves with rolls of fabric and trimmings,…

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17th December 2025

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