Creative Block

I’m finally out of it!!! Oh, how I hate when my muse goes away, leaving me uninspired and sad. It’s unbearable! To have ideas, lots of them, and to not be able to do anything, to create one single thing, that is terrible! Thank you my dear muse for coming back! I will make you a cake! 🙂

Or maybe I should thank Deb. She organizes an ATC challenge every month, and this month the theme is “Fish”, which immediately made my fingers itch. 🙂 So thank you Deb! Here are the cards I made:

Not bad. ? You have no idea how thankful I was when I finished these ATCs. Funny how glue, paint and paper make me happy.

The holidays are to be blamed. They somehow push me out of my normal rhythm, and instead of having more time to make art, I end up being stuck. Strange. (OK, enough about that!)

Anyway, I have to tell you that almost all of my scarves and a poncho have been sold (yay!), along with a wonderful brown crocheted bag which I forgot to photograph! Come on! What is wrong with me?! But I do have another one to show you. Happy, colorful summer bag.

It was finished a while ago, but I was uninspired to even take photos of it. Poor bag. It didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.

Another thing I must thank Deb for is an inchie fever! Deb committed to making inchies and twinchies every day in 2014, and she already has an amazing collection! You should visit her blog (http://bluetwigstudio.wordpress.com/)and see how lovely they are! It’s been a while since I made inchies, but last night I thought that it could be a great way for me to start making something. They are small so they don’t require too much work (well, you could make them as complex and detailed as you like, but you don’t have to, there are no rules), so it was a perfect thing for me to do! This first batch is a bit simple, but I’m just happy that I played and had fun. And who knows, maybe the fever will continue and I’ll have an inchie for every day of the year! Wouldn’t that be great!

Thank you Deb once again! 🙂

Have a wonderful day everyone!

So many gifts!

It is absolute joy to open my mailbox lately! I received so many gifts from dear friends around the world! Wonderful ATCs, gorgeous inchies, so much goodies to add to my projects, oh, it’s pure delight!

I participated in a “Stash Swap” at Milliande’s and my Swap partner was Rita from Latvia who sent me an envelope filled with goodies I can’t wait to use in my projects!

Beads, papers, fibers, fabric, and more gorgeous things! Thank you Rita!

Then another wonderful surprise came from England! Mary sent me a Flinchie – which is a combination of a Prayer Flag and Inchies, another swap at Milliande’s that was hosted by Kalona and was great fun! I just love what Mary created for me, it’s made with velvet and ribbons, amethyst, machine stitched inchies, flowers, and it has words “Believe” and “Dream” on it. Thank you Mary!

The photo I took is really bad, I’m sorry it’s not showing well how beautiful it is.

Mary also added a few extra things in the package, some tags, lovely cutouts (I hope that’s how they are called) and a beautiful tag! I love Mary’s art!

But then, another package from Mary arrived today! She was so generous to send me a Sizzix die! How great is that! I was blown away! And it’s not just any die, it’s the one I wanted to buy while I was in the US but the store didn’t have it! Sooo cool! Me happy! 🙂

I am going to have such a great time using all these loveliness! Thank you my dear friends! It’s like Christmas came early this year! 🙂

Beautiful things

I wanted to share with you some gorgeous things I received in the last couple of days. And  I wanted to explain how grateful I am for Milliande, and for the new friends, for the swaps and all that lovely art, but tonight is a bit hard to find the right words. It would be easier in Serbian, but then most of you wouldn’t understand me. 🙂  So no more trying for me. I’ll just say THANK YOU!

Patty’s gorgeous twinchie box:

“Windows ATC Swap” – Dawna’s and Christine’s lovely cards:

“Halloween in Wonderland ATC Swap” – Marie Austen, Laurie Damer, Mel-made and T.Koorey:

Another great swap is the “Prayer Fl-Inchie swap” hosted by Kalona. I’m waiting for Mary‘s Flinchie to arrive and I know it’s going to be wonderful!! I finished my Flinchie which is going to be mailed tomorrow to Letizia. I hope she will like it. I don’t want to show the whole thing until she receives it, but here is a part of it:

It was made with tea bags, plastic mesh, chains, stamps, liquid pearls, markers, charms, beads, bling, etc.

I also had wonderful time this weekend with my family, it was my mother’s birthday.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day / evening! 🙂

New inchies

I’m supposed to be packing for my trip to US. I will be leaving on Friday, and haven’t started packing at all! Instead, I’m making inchies! How crazy is that! But the inchies I’ve made almost a month ago for “Inchie Fall/Halloween Quilt Swap” at Milliande’s that Lois is hosting, still haven’t reach their destination. So I decided to make new ones, just in case…And to be honest, I am not extremely satisfied with them, but I just can’t concentrate well enough, I’m torn between my need to create and the excitement about this trip. It has been a dream for me to go to America, and now I have a chance to do that! A dear friend of mine asked me to come and visit her for a month, so I couldn’t refuse! 🙂 Yet, this swap is so interesting and fun, I didn’t want to miss it so I had to make more inchies. Anyway, here they are:

I don’t think any of them really  has anything to do with Halloween, but except the white one which I made as a gift for Lois, others are at least done in Autumn colors, right? 🙂 The two middle ones were made with handwoven fabric and in that way are very much “Me”. And there are flowers and dragonflies and butterflies in Autumn, right? 🙂

Don’t throw away your plastic bags

Hi friends! I have been asked so many times about the things I make with plastic bags, and finally I managed to photograph the process and show it to you. But be aware, this post is photo heavy!!! 🙂

First thing you’ll need are plastic bags (well, of course), which you will cut like this:

You don’t need the handles and the bottom.

Next, lay your bags flat ( I used three here, but if you want a thicker final product, use more) :

Now we can iron them. Take two pieces of baking (parchment) paper and put your bags in between so that you don’t destroy the iron with melted plastic! 🙂

Keep your iron moving non-stop!

The temperature of your iron must be low. I use the “silk/wool” mark, but I still have to check the whole time to see if it’s ok. If the temp is too high, you’ll end up with shrinkage and “too much” texture, like this:

Although, it might be exactly what you want. I do like it for certain projects. But if your iron is not too warm, then you’ll get smoother texture like this:

Check on your bags while you iron, but be careful, it’s very hot! An also, every few moments you should turn your bags (with the paper) upside down so that you iron both sides.

And when everything is nicely melted and fused, you are done! Then it’s up to you what you’ll do with it. You could leave your plastic as is, especially if you had some nice and colorful bags.

Or you could paint them, which is what I like to do.

Paint gives them different “feel”, like it’s a different material, and it gives so many possibilities for use in all kinds of projects.

Isn’t this texture great?

You could draw on it:

But remember, always apply a protective coat of some kind, to prevent damaging the paint. It is plastic you are painting after all, and it doesn’t soak up the paint. 🙂

And there you have it! So nice and textural, durable, and cheap! You can have fun and help saving the planet at the same time. 🙂 I used it for making bookmarks:

ATCs:

One-inch boxes:

You could make journal pages, or just embellish your journal with it:

You could even use it in your sewing:

The possibilities are endless!

I hope this was helpful and inspiring. Have fun! 🙂

Inchies again and a winner!

Yep! One inch boxes! It is for another swap at Milliande’s! The rules were to make one-inch or two-inch box, make it flat for an easy shipping, but with a way to assemble it once it reaches it’s destination. It was a bit of a challenge to come up with the solution for a closure, and to make something at least a bit different than what other girls were making just to add to the fun. There are already so many great ideas, I must admit I did have to think hard…But I found the way, and we all have something unique to add to the group so that’s what’s important.

I made them with paper, plastic bags, acrylic paint, buttons, threads and a pebble. I just had to use plastic bags, they give an awesome texture! Here, take a closer look:

Here are my two little creations:

I couldn’t stop at one, it would be so lonely! 🙂

We ( I mean Meda, hubby and me) also had some fun last night picking the winner as promised, and here are the photos to show you how it was executed. First I wrote everyone’s name on a piece of paper.

For the six month old blog, I guess this is a crowd! LOL Thank you so much girls for participating, it means so much to read your comments and to have you here! I really appreciate it!

Next step – Meda comes to the stage to pick a winner! 🙂

In the next photo, if you look very very carefully, you will see a tiny piece of paper coming out of his mouth. That’s why he has that crazy look on his face:

And the winner is….DEB!

Congratulations Deb! And once again, thank you all for participating, this was my first giveaway and it was so much fun, I’m gonna have to do that again! 🙂 Deb please email me your address and I’ll send the bag to you by the end of this week.

Have a great day everyone! 🙂

Miniature boxes

These boxes are so tiny! Only one inch! They contained microscope glass, but I had no use of that, so I decided to alter them. First I painted them with black acrylic paint, then added crackle medium, and then some off-white paint. After that I embellished them with puff paint, a heart, a flower, and a butterfly. And some bling, of course. I also painted them with shimmery finish, but my camera is not that good to show that.

Every box is different on the inside also. Here is the one with the butterfly on top:

And here is the inside:

A tiny scroll has a secret message inside. 🙂

And here is the one with the flower on it:

You can’t see it very well, but the heart is red, a little bit distressed with brown ink. On the inside of the lid there is a piece of vintage paper, blank, perfect for a love note.

The last one is a “Quote box”:

It says: “The highest form of art is the art that inspires the heart.”

I hope you like them. Have a great day! 🙂

http://www.skiptomylou.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/MadeByYouMonday.jpg

Inchies!

I’m having so much fun at Milliande’s ,I even signed up for another swap, and this time it’s Inchies! The theme is “Fall/Halloween Quilt Swap”, and this is my first time making these. To be honest, I haven’t heard for them until I joined “The Needle Queens” group. And of course I had to give it a try. At first I wasn’t sure I would be able to make them, because they are so small! But as I started, it turned out to be fairly easy. And they are so much fun! So here are my first creations:

Only one inch! Can you believe that? Ok, you probably can, but I am still excited about them. I think I might make some more! Maybe a few for Christmas. Small ornaments! Or a brooch! Or even some to give to my friends! Sooo cute! Ok, ok I’ll calm down. 🙂

Here is another thing I’m working on. It’s a journal/album cover (we’ll see what it will be), and it’s made with recycled cardboard (of course). There is still some work to be done on the cover before I start making pages, but this is how it looks at the moment. I love how sturdy this cardboard is. Great to play with!

So, enough playing, it’s time to do some work! My loom is waiting! 🙂