Year round - baby beads

Hi! Today Homyachok challenge blog has a new general challenge: ALL SEASONS!

Make anything introducing all seasons in one project (or series of projects, e.g. ATCs and such). My project is a set of 12 "beads" for my baby:

One bead for each month of the year, and each has its own feature to make playing with them fun and develop baby's fingers and brain =)

It's January: soft pompom, made of bamboo and silk threads. It's a kind of snowball =) Winter, snow, I hope it's understandable.

February: a heart shape (St. Valentine's and my birthday =))) ) with glass beads (kind of icicles - February is the right month for that here) and March: white crochet bead with tiny yellow pompoms, mimosa being a symbol of March for me.

April: crochet green bead filled with buckwheat so it's interesting to touch and squeeze it, it symbolizes fresh green grass. May: small felt bead with embroidered lilac flowers. Lilac will always be a sign of May for me =) (pssst! within a month i'll show you another lilac project - that's a secret ;) )

June: a flower wreath - wired chinelle and buttons; it's also fun to squeeze it and change the shape and try to tear the buttons off =) July: a butterfly, my try of kanzashi. Velvet + satin and rubber antennae to be pulled.

August: felted watermelon and a cut slice, shape different from round and pretty colorful attracts baby's attention. September: a simple felted bead in all colors of autumn - green, yellow, orange and red.

 October: felt maple leaf with a little embroidery and crunchy cellophane inside. So it crinkles like a real dry leaf, so far it's my baby's fave =))) (no surprise, she was born in October =) ) November: a shell from the chocolate egg, blue and transparent filled with seed beads as a rattle. It symbolizes darkness and night as these two things strongly assosiate with November for me. Both parts are glued together and sewn through with a fluffy thread so that baby won't open it accidently.

And finally:

December: a Christmas tree made of green satin ribbon. Cute folds are nice to touch and little silver beads (attached with 3 independent threads) develop fingers.

That's it. Thanks for looking!

And come join us for the all-seasons-challenge!

Quilled raccoon and mums - mini

Hi there! That's me, White Racoon =)

That's a tiny quilled toy raccoon I made as a designer for new Homyachok quilling challenge (Third dimension - make anything 3d; no cards and murals, only 3d objects!

Once upon a time I made a pompom white raccoon (tiger & raccon, and pompom tutorial):

This coon is like 10-12 cm (4-5") high and I wanted to make a little paper copy, my quilled raccoon is about 2 cm (little less than 1") high. And has the same purple flower in his paws =))) Some other close ups:

Check out the paws =) with all the fingers. By the way, his arms are fixed with a piece of wire, so they are flexible. And the next picture to check out the tail and pay attention to the ears! Pink from the front, and white on the backside with the smaaaalest fringe on the sides:

And finally a pic to understand the size (the coin is about 1" in size):

Together with a little vase. Also quilled. With 9 white and off white chrysanthemums. These are another details for my future shadow box, devoted to my baby =) By the way, I'm telling you a secret - these flowers are inspiration for the next challenge on "Little fun" blog! Make a miniature (any technique) with flowers.

These flowers imitate the first bunch of flowers my daughter has received =) on the day we got home from the maternity hospital. And on my palm:

So come on, join us for the 3d quilling challenge or for the mini flowers challenge!

Thanks for looking!

Newspaper car sign

New challenge at Homyachok challenge blog: newspaper day!

Make a project including a piece of newspaper of a sheet from the magazine.

I made a car sign - the one you can leave on the dashboard when you leave the car unattended, saying "If my car is in your way, please, call:...."

The basement of the sign is a piece of grey cardstock; covered with magazine text painted with white acrylics. The black thingies above are a kind of tea-bag folding embellishment, also cut from the magazine (there was a page with black ad). All letters are torn from the magazine headlines. I also added some magazine paper quilling and weaving (three braids on the right side); the phone number is cut with the help of my CraftRobo and is adhered with foam tape. (the number is unreal, as you can understand ;))) )
And a little car charm in the right top corner.
Thanks for looking!
Have a good day! And join us with your printed media creations =)

Baby boy card

There's one lady I've been acquainted with for a while. We used to walk in a park together: me - with a baby carriage and she had a laaarge belly. Finally her little baby boy has arrived! She named him Nikita and I made a little card for them.

The card isabout 10 cm by 10 cm (4"). Blue cardstock, quilling strips (blue collection №23, but 15 mm wide) were used for the iris-folding frame. Some manual stitching, a little doodling, some quilling and a few seed beads. The main element - a bib; name "Nikita" is emboidered with silk threads and has silk handwoven lace. The size of the bib can be seen on the next photo:

The sentiment reads "Be happy!". That's it. Thanks for looking!

Hedgehogs - miniature, quilling

Homyachok challenge blog has a new quilling challenge:Fluffies!
Create any project using at least 3 "fringed flowers" elements. They don't have to be flowers, but there has to be fringe. I'm not a fan of quilled flowers, as you may know; they are beautiful, but it' so easy to think of a flower - no challenge; so I prefer everything-but-flowers. For this challenge I came up with an idea of... hedgehogs!
Miniature - as I'm nuts about mini sizes lately.

There they are: a family of hedgehogs among dandelions. =) On my palm so that you can feel the size.
"The basement" is made of corrugated strip, about 30 bunches of grass are stuck in there too. For the flowers I used a 3 mm thick strip. For the hedgehogs: 7 mm dark grey strip and 1,5 mm beige strip.
And some more closeups:

And the hedgehog in my fingers:

He has everything: 4 paws, ears, nose, eyes and even a tail!

Thanks for looking! Join us!

P.S.: does any of you have any fine idea of what to do with these guys?.. otherwise they will get lost in a dusty box for my other mini-creations...

Mini horoscope: scorpio & rabbit

Homyachok challenge blog has a new general challenge: horoscope! Create any project featuring your sign in Zodiac or Chinese year calendar. I made both, though not mine, but my daughter's:

And I, being a miniature freak, couldn't think of anything better than making two tiny cratures:

white rabbit (sign of the year 2011) and golden scorpio (my daughter was born on the first day of scorpio period), there they are with a coin (almost quarter in size, 1"). Each creature is about 1,5 cm big (5/8")

And each of them on my palm:

a scorpio is made of clay and wire and covered with golden acrylic paint. Brr, looks scary!

the rabbit is needle felted. White wool, pink watercolor and two microbeads. Remember my "tiny felted bear"? If he still was in my collection, he's have a friend =)

Join us for the horoscope challenge

Box for crackers

I'm a guest designer for Творим вместе blog's new challenge:
Altered art for the tea party. Make any kind of altered object (layouts and cards are not accepted) that have any connection to TEA.
When I learnt the task, the idea came quickly. I'm a breast feeding mom, so my "tea parties" are pretty humble. I must follow a diet, so all candies, chocolates, sweets, cakes and (*gulps*) all kind of that tasty stuff that goes so well with tea are forbidden so far. And not all kinds of tea are allowed (due to coffeine). So I drink green tea and have a couple of simple oatmeal cookies or plain crackers. The latter - and I always buy the same brand - have a pretty boring package which always comes apart when I try to open it. So I thought that a cracker dispenser would be great for me!

My kitchen has greenish walls, lime furniture and a lot of lemon&lime themed features, so the box design had to correspond. Some green&yrllow patterened paper on a clear acetate box, a little citrus quilling..

a little weaving on the back (quilling strips are great for that! =) )
And a little secret:

it's always not so easy to get the last cracker in a stack, so I made a double bottom, when you pull a tiny orange up, one of the bottoms gets up and lifts the last crackers, so you can easily pick them =)
That's how I made my boring tea time slightly brighter =)
Thanks for looking!
Я приглашенный дизайнер в блоге "Творим вместе", задание - все о чае.
Т.к. я кормящая мама, то чайная церемония у меня очень незатейливая: напиток да простые галеты. Покупаю одни и те же, но упаковка у них неудобная, вот и сделала коробочку, куда их можно сложить и откуда приятно и удобно их брать. Вся кухня у меня зеленая и с лимончиками-лаймами, так что коробка выполнена в том же стиле на прозрачной основе. А внизу маленькая хитрость: нижние крекеры всегда большая проблема достать, но у коробки двойное дно, которое поднимается, если потянуть вверх маленький апельсин, и те печеньки, что на самом дне, приподнимаются - и их легко вынуть, не поломав.
Спасибо за внимание!

Mini quilled roses pedant

Homyachok challenge blog has a new quilling challenge announced: Million of red roses Create anything with 7 or more quilled red roses.
I've created a pedant. It's 27 mm in diameter (a little more than 1"):

That's how it looks on my neck:

And another close-up:

Used 1 red metalic strip 1,5 mm thick, 1/2 of pink strip, a few white seed beads, a few micro beads (red and white), and 1/3 of green corrugated strip. I'm nuts about miniatures! =)))
Join us at Homyachok challenge blog for the roses challenge!

Tiny calender - ganutell orchids

Homyachok challenge blog has a new general challenge announced: Lucky number! Create any kind of project featuring your favourite or lucky number. Frankly speaking, I don't really have any "special" number. Once upon a time it was 22, but then I stopped tracking the "luckiness" of numbers =) So I thought that number 24 would be a great choice. It's my daughter's birthday. And mine too! ;) So I came up with a miniature called "pull-off calender".

The miniature has a calendar and a spray of orchids. Why orchids? When my daughter arrived we had a total improvement in our bedroom, we have lavender walls and one of the walls is covered with orchid pattern wallpaper:
 
That's why I thought about lavender orchids. Now check out the size! =)  
With 2 rubles coin (23 mm in diameter, slightly smaller than 2 Euro coin or US quarter)for comparison =) I love the size =) It's like 45 mm by 35 mm. The orchids are done in ganutell technique. It's the first time I tried it. A close-up of one flower:
 
And another close-up:
 
I took 0.3 mm thick wire (for bead work) and spooled it around a pin to make a spring. The wire spring is then stretched and netted with a fancy thread. The work is very tiny and needs a lot of attention and precision, but I really DO love the result! And I think that these flowers DO look like orchids =)
And check out the sideview of the calender itself:
 
A pile of 12 x 19 mm sheets, two sheets have numbers 24 and 25 (since the girl was born almost at midnight, I reserved two days for her calender); with some hand writing - couldn't print it, had to use the smallest ink dip pen I had; a bunch of the sheets that have already been pulled off; foil binding and a tiny staple. That's my first miniature creation for the future shadow box devoted to my girl...
I wonder if I ever will complete anything =( My pregnancy album is still "in the process", the "firsts" album has only one page... don't really like that, but well, the whole life's in front of me =)))

Thanks for looking!
And come on, remember your fave number and join us at Homyachok challenge blog!


Это моя работа на тему Счастливое число по новому заданию от Хомячка. Миниатюра, отрывной календарь - там дата рождения моей дочки. Ну и заодно 24 - и моя дата рождения =) Так что пусть будет моим счастливым числом =) Микро-календарик состоит из листков с цифрами, рисовала чернилами; и немножко оторванных листиков - ведь октябрь уже, нужно оторванные тоже отобразить =) Крепление из "металла", скрепочка, все "повсамделишнему"! И вокруг - орхидеи в технике ганутель. Попробовала ее впервые и очень довольна результатом. Орхидеи - в стиле нашей спальни, см. фотку выше.
Ганутель - это такая техника, когда проволока наматывается на что-нибудь для создания пружинки - у меня это были бисерная проволока 0,3 мм и булавка; потом пружинка снимается, растягивается и между витками натягивается нитка в стиле изонити или просто как-нибудь. Проволока двух цветов, ниточка с перламутровым эффектом. Лично мне - очень нравится, как получилось =) Работа, правда, трудоемкая и очень кропотливая, но я довольная. ;)

Quilled heart

Homyachok challenge blog has a new quilling challenge announced today: Adunation of hearts. Create any quilled project, which will incorporate two hearts: either two hearts bound somehow or having some third element that joins the two hearts. I've created a 3d heart shaped ornament with hearts:

It's pretty hard to take a photo to make it look dimentional as it actually is. The quiled heart shape joins two little red hearts, the front one:

I used some nail polish to make the "stained glass" effect in the middle of the coils.
And the back side, simple red heart:

Used 3 mm stripes of pearlscent beige and cherry red colors.
Join us for the hearts' quilling challenge!