And the Winner Is…

Hello friends!

First I would like to thank you all for your lovely comments about my work, both here and on my FB profile. You guys are the best!

But I don’t want to keep you waiting, so to announce the winner of my giveaway:

all of the names went into this lovely little bowl that I made and I will explain that to you also (later) 🙂

then my husband randomly chose one

and it was

Congratulations Julka! 🙂 Please email me your address and I will send the journal to you. Yay!

So, about the bowl. You know how I love to recycle. Actually, with the years passing, more and more of my work is inspired (at least partially) by recycling. Our planet is suffering. We are polluting it and destroying it and I feel horrible knowing that I am part of that. Well, some things are almost impossible to avoid, like using AC or buying products that contribute to pollution because there is no product in the grocery store that in some way does not contribute to pollution. But I try to do as much as I can to minimize that. And one of the ways is to recycle as much as possible.

We all get junk mail, receipts of all kinds, bills etc. And I have already shown you my handmade papers (which I love). 🙂 So as with making paper from newspapers and junk mail, you start with tearing them into small bits and soaking them in water for at least several hours but preferably over night.

After that, you put them in the food processor and blend them.

Then take a sieve or colander and if the holes are a bit big, add some thin fabric or a cloth or what ever you have on hand, and strain the mixture.

You don’t want it to be too dry but also it shouldn’t be too wet. I know it sounds like crap when I say it like that, but there is no way for me to explain it better. The thing is, you will know if it’s dry enough because if it is too wet than you won’t be able to stick it to the bowl. And if it’s too dry, you will have hard time shaping it over your mold.

Here is mine nicely stuck to the bowl, which serves as a mold for my paper bowl.

As you can probably see, I covered the bowl with plastic wrap before putting my paper over it.  Oh! I almost forgot to mention! You should add a little bit of glue to the paper paste after draining the water. For example, I would add about a tea spoon of glue to every cup of paper paste. But you could add more or less, I don’t have a recipe for that. In fact, it would probably be good to check out on Youtube how people do that, more professionally, but I was just playing and having fun.

Anyway, that’s how I did it, and I pressed it pretty well that paste.

After it is a bit dry, but not completely, which you will also be able to see because if it’s not dry enough it won’t be able to come off that bowl in one piece, you can take it off and put it somewhere to dry completely.

Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of my bowls right now, but I will photograph them and show them to you in the next post. Hopefully this was enough explanation on how to make them, or at least to try and just have fun making a mess. 🙂 But you can make some really beautiful bowls this way, and after adding paint and varnish to them, they make lovely decorative pieces and also great gifts. Especially if you fill them with sweets! 🙂

Have a great day / night everyone!

I’m Still Here

Hello lovely people! It’s been a long time since I wrote my last post, but I am here now, with something new to show you. 🙂

I’ve been knitting socks (but didn’t photograph them unfortunately), playing with paper and paint, making beads etc. All kinds of stuff. But mostly making journals.

These are all recycled papers and packaging material, painted, stamped and stenciled, and prepared for the journal making. Even though you can see only blue pages in these photos, I’ve made all kinds of colorful pages. I decided to go a bit “wild” and use colors I don’t usually use, just for fun. And this journal came to be – “The Circus”. 🙂

It’s made entirely out of recycled/reused materials and I love it!

But this one is not going to be mine. I have too many journals already. 🙂

This journal, as you can see, has all kinds of papers inside, and with so much texture and pages that are different sizes, with lots of pockets and tags, it will be fun fun fun to write in!

So instead of making a Christmas themed journal, I decided to make a Spring/Summer one. Well, we all need a bit of color and warmth every now and then, right? 🙂 Next time I’ll show you another journal, and maybe more of the stuff I’ve made (if I remember to take photos, lol!)

Have a great day!

 

This and That

I have two new books to show you! I made them for a swap themed “Mini book of proverbs”. I have been obsessed with texture lately, as you can see here. 🙂

I actually filled them with quotes and poems. 🙂

I added pressed leaves and flowers to this one. The combination of flowers and the colors I used (homemade alcohol inks and acrylic paint) reminds me of fairies and enchanted forests.

Another thing I have to share with you is my new recycling project. Actually, two projects! The first one is the scrappy yarn I’ve been slowly making for quite some time now.

Every now and then I take my bag of yarn scraps and while watching listening to TV, I tie them into a new ball of yarn. It’s a slow process, but kind of meditating. I even separated cotton from viscose, black from white, and all those chunky woolly bits were tied together to make that crazy big ball of “everything else”. 🙂

So I decided to use some of that lovely crazy yarn (the off white cotton to be precise) , and on top of that I recycled and old bed sheet to weave this rug!

Look at all those knots coming through and giving a nice texture to the rug! That’s what I wanted to achieve!

They are a bit shy now but they will come out even more after I wash it.

I am happy with my new rug! 🙂 Imagine the possibilities with that scrappy yarn, not only in weaving but also in knitting and crocheting! Oohhh, so many ideas are coming to my mind!

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Paper Fun

Hello lovely people! Today I want to share with you my journal pages, and also a fun recycling project.

First, the pages from my art journal.

Inchies found a new home in my “Handmade paper journal”. 🙂

This journal is almost finished, just two or three pages left. I like how this spread turned out, with most of my inchies in one place.

I also stapled some old doodles in this journal. There were too many loose pages lying around and now they are all nice and tidy in one journal.

A quote collage page:

This next page is about the floods, and the word means “Hope”:

And now my recycling project! How do you like these earrings? 🙂

They were made out of magazines. You could use newspapers or any kind of paper – old books for example. Just take a magazine and without ripping out the pages, start gluing the pages together. Add glue (white school glue) with a brush to the whole page, then put another page on top of it, press it down and try to smooth it out as much as you can, then repeat the process until you have enough pages, about two or three millimeters thick.

This next photo is not very good but you can see that the paper looks pretty flat.

It is easy to cut it while it’s still a bit wet, although it will also be easy to cut when it’s dry but then you won’t be able to manipulate it much. So, cut your template out of any kind of paper and trace it down on your glued magazine, cut your shape, then bend it if you wish.

Let it dry. It’s best to leave it over night. After that, you will need a fine sanding paper to smooth out the edges, and acrylic paint of your choice. Here’s what I’ve done:

As you can see, in some of the earrings paper has some wrinkles, and I actually like that! They have a nice texture which you can enhance with paint if you wish.

To finish them, add a coat or two of varnish or any kind of glossy finish, maybe even a bit of sparkle, and you can have something like this:

You could make all kinds of things with this technique – pendants, beads if you use thicker paper, bracelets, even small plates. So many possibilities! And even though it takes a bit of time, it’s very easy and very inexpensive. So if you have time to play, or you need to take your mind of some problem (as it was the case with me), try this. 🙂

Have a great day!

 

More Sewing

It’s a flu season and I have been very sick for almost ten days! But now that I’m feeling better, I can show you what I have done before and after the flu. 🙂 It all started with yet another cleaning adventure, this time it was the bedroom in which I “found” bed sheets and clothes that were no longer in use. But I don’t throw away things easily, as you know by now. If something can be recycled or reused, it’s going into the studio to be dealt with! 🙂 That means my studio is always a mess, but we are all here used to that. Even the guests don’t pay attention to that anymore.

Anyway, Meda has a new quilt!

It’s a jelly roll kind of quilt made with old linens and clothes.

And I have new bags! Denim skirt and plaid pants turned into this:

This one is made with my handwoven fabric and a scrappy heart I made a long time ago. Even the tiniest pieces of fabric can be used to make beautiful things.

 That’s a pocket on the front. 🙂

There is a pocket on the back too! The handles are from an old leather bag.

And a summer bag made with old tees and a beautiful belt that my aunt gave me. She wore that belt when she was a young girl. And now I can wear it too, although not around my waist,lol!

I have so many more ideas! And more clothes to play with!

Have a great time everyone!

 

Paper Love

Or should I title this post “Recycling”? 🙂 Because that is what I was doing lately. Recycling junk into gorgeous handmade paper:

Oohhh I just love handmade paper! It is so textural, so lovely with those uneven edges, and when I think about how much “trash” went into it, saved from the bin, I feel very good. Sometimes I have to throw away junk mail and old newspaper, because there is not enough room in my studio for all the things I could use in paper making, and that always makes me feel bad. I guess it’s becoming an obsession,LOL!

I colored some of the papers with acrylic paint, but most of them are colored with tea, onion peel and coffee.

I also played with some blank papers. I made a strong tea with onion peel, poured that over the paper in a deep baking tray, putting onion peel and tea bags between the paper. I left that soaking for a few hours, than drained the water, left the papers over night pressed with another baking tray, and got this:

Beautiful! Just imagine these in a handmade book! I will have to try cooking other plants for a different result and also add more plant material in between the papers. That should give me more “print” and be more interesting.

Then I made art tiles out of recycled cardboard. Ornament boxes, perfume boxes, anything that is sturdy but not too thick will do. Cut them into one inch squares, paint, stamp, decoupage, do what ever you like. It’s so fun!

Since there is no Glossy Accents to be found here in my town, I used transparent shimmery finish to add a bit of sparkle to these beauties.

So cute! More handmade scrapbooking supplies! And they cost almost nothing! Yay!

Have a wonderful day everyone! 🙂

Twinchie for a Swap

Another little book, 2×1,5 inches, made for a swap at Milliande’s . I am actually hosting this swap, the theme was “Recycling”, and I thought it would be nice to see what kind of these small books we could all make with recycling in mind.

I used tea dyed linen, old maps, tea bags, handmade paper, and found objects. The cover is hand stitched, and the inside pages distressed and stamped a bit.

I hope my swap partner Kalona will like it. 🙂 Check out her work. She is so talented!

Have a wonderful day!

This and That and I’m going to Rome!

When you get the chance to travel to one of your dream destinations, what else could be interesting? That’s probably the reason why I took only three photos of my shawls, even though I have a lot finished. I’ve been weaving like crazy, and my back is very painful, but hey, I should be in Rome in a couple of days, so I’ll have a much needed break. 🙂

I’m sorry about the poor photos, but hubby went to Rome a week ago and took the good camera with him.

These shawls look much better than the photos show, they are very soft and warm, and the colors are much more vibrant.

So, the thing is that my husband is currently in Rome on business, and will be there till November 10th. And I got the chance to join him for ten days! I wish I could stay longer, but I have too much work to do. But ten days is great! I am thankful for the opportunity to see Rome. So, I made my self a journal (of course), although a bit in a hurry, but I like how it turned out.

I used different papers for the inside, envelopes, cereal boxes and scrap paper. So there is lots of room for writing, drawing, and pockets for all kinds of things.

I also wanted to show you an ATC I made for the swap at Blue Twig Studio. The theme was “Pink” in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Have a wonderful day! 🙂

Recycling

Hello bloggers!

As I promised in my last post, I made something with junk mail! I seem to work “seriously” over the week, and mostly play on the weekends. Didn’t think of that before, but now I see the pattern. 🙂 And that’s ok, because that’s what weekends are for, right?

Anyway, I wanted to make something with all those envelopes I have been collecting, and a ton of papers from all kinds of sources – junk mail, catalogs etc. But the most important thing was that I had some photos from about ten years ago, photos that are not very good but still they are a memory of that particular moment, and even though some of them are blurry or maybe boring, I couldn’t throw them away. And finally I found a place for them!

A simple album that cost me no money at all, and was fast to make. It needs a few more embellishments, but I will do that later, because I will be adding more photos to it. It was so fun, and I’m glad I helped our Earth at least a tiny bit. 🙂

From this:

to this:

Not bad, eh? 🙂

Nothing special

I don’t know what is going on with this weather, but it seems like we had Spring and then Autumn. Maybe in a month or two we might get some snow? 🙂

It’s absolutely not very inspiring for me to look at the gray skies and rain all day. I need sunshine to keep me moving, sometimes literally. Lately, all I want to do is to sleep.

And with some not very fun things that needed to be dealt with in the last week or so, I haven’t done much of anything artistic. An ugly page in my art journal, a lot of baking and cooking, a lot of eating and slowly gaining weight, a delivery of my little books to a store and some of them being sold almost instantly (which was the only good thing lately), I can tell you I just feel kinda “deflated”. Not that I don’t have ideas or inspiration, because I do. I just feel tired. Mentally tired.

But I don’t want to sound like I’m whining or something, it’s not that bad! After all, I did manage to clean up my studio a bit, and even make some T-shirt yarn.

It’s not a continuous yarn, because the T shirts were full of seams, but it has a nice length for a weaving project I have in mind. I want to make a doggie bed spread, because I haven’t made any in a couple of years and I think Meda deserves a new one. 🙂 The first one I made for him was a quilt made with recycled jeans, then the second was a quilt made with recycled summer dresses, which is a bit girly, but Meda doesn’t seem to mind,LOL! So this one will be another recycling project, and I can’t wait to start! But first I have to finish a scarf that waited for too long to be worked on.

My mother once noticed that my dog sleeps on a very valuable bed, as it’s handmade and unique.  LOL!  But he is my baby and I love making things for him.  I just baked two pans of cookies for him, because I want him to eat healthy treats. But then I made another batch for me and my hubby, and that was something we really didn’t need late in the evening. 🙂 Oh well, now it’s too late to be sorry.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Do I smell cookies? I have to go! 🙂