heart cards

A while ago I was given a present - a bottle of One Step Crackle. I went ahead and experimented with some hearts - and here are the results, just in time for Valentine's Day!

celebrating a new home

I'm working on a number of items for the craftshow this weekend (yikes, the day after tomorrow!) Yesterday I took a break from purses, boxes and tags to make two cards to celebrate a new home, as requested by a friend.

Got to use two brand new stamps - the house was still in its plastic wrapping, and the nest had been waiting for months, if not years, for the first use... the time has finally come.

And now - back to the purses :)

Blizzard paper - another sample of WIP

A girlfriend at work (thank you, Anita!) has given me a few sheets of marble paper - kind of whitish-grey. My first thought was: this is a blizzard, perfect for something snowy, possibly an exploding box!

So - I got out pinturas acrilicas and started with stamping large snowflakes, in white pearlescent paint mixed with glitter paint. Nice! Then I stamped smaller, more detailed snowflakes in silvery ink and put silver glitter dots in the centers.

Here is the sheet...

...and here is a close-up to show the details of this experiment:

I'm planning another layer - either white or translucent heat-embossed snowflakes, but I have to wait till the existing treatments dry; otherwise, the embossing powder will stick to everything.

It turned out that I had a surplus of the paint mixture, so I used it up on the brown bags which also go to the craft show as packaging for my paper goodies:

On a different front - the exploding boxes are getting the more detailed decorations. I think this is my favorite part of the process:

How's that made? Boxes WIP*

In preparation for the next event in two weeks, I'm working on a few exploding boxes, since they stirred considerable interest last week. I had a little adventure yesterday, carrying papers to the car, so that I could cut them on the industrial cutter at work (way faster, than my trimmer at home) - long story short, it is much easier to clip the folder shut, than to run around collecting sheets on nearby shrubbery and reach under parked cars to dig out other mischievous pieces!

Anyway, work is progressing well - last night I watched the reports from NYC, worrying about some friends in the hurricane's pathway... and spent a few hours creating these three:

They still need more decorating, especially the 3d paint and glitter dots, and  I need to add the quotes. All three boxes will be garden-themed, and then I have squares chopped for two more - books/reading and music.

And I really, really want to make one about SNOW! Next in line, right behind the first five :) After that I should move on to the little post-it-note purses.

*WIP - Work In Progress

Carol Stream craftshow

A big thank you to everybody who stopped by my table today, and especially to the Ladies that have purchased the goodies! It was a great show, so many nice conversations and smiles - people are slowly getting into the celebratory mood of the season.

It looks like I will be making more post-it note purses and, of course, the exploding boxes. I have several themes in mind - garden/flowers, travel, books/reading, tea, coffee, snow, friendship... Can't wait to drive my trimmer into those pretty papers again!

Here are a few pictures of the craftshow arrangement:

snowy, shimmery baubles

Working on Christmas cards a lot... among a few other items for the Saturday craft show in Carol Stream. Let's start the presentation with one of my favorite holiday motif - baubles! Of course, Poland has a long tradition of hand made/hand painted glass baubles, mine are just paper... And then there are snowflakes, another favorite.

I used the French Door fold in this series - it looks like people find it interesting. And I love the symmetry.

I had to try to make an almost-white card ONCE AGAIN - I try every year and somehow my attachment to vibrant colors steers me away :)

So then the blue series appeared...

and the standard colors, red and green:

fiat lux - let there be light!

Earlier this month, I made a kitchen tealight holder. It all started in a nearby Second Chance Store, where I purchased the components. The initial idea was to cover the structure with some crazy bright, Mexican colors, but somehow the copper paint made its way onto the craft table and I ended up faking a semi-precious metal. You know, sometimes you just can't control the will of the materials...

Here are the parts, all wooden: a spatula,  two egg cups and an incomplete pepper mill, after they have been sanded and gessoed.

And here are some details - very simple, shapes from paper punches glued onto the surface (note to self: next time, attach the cutouts BEFORE gessoing :)

So there you have it - a little bit of light for the long, dreary evenings!