Altered art

Dear ladies (and gentlemen if there are any)!
I have some exciting good news =) I have joined two active talented girls - TomCat and Pastila - in their new project: first Russian challenge blog devoted to Altered-art. English-speakers, you are also welcome to join the challenges as I'm trying my best to keep all parts of blog translated to english and make it understandable to everyone around the world. Well, except the articles - they are majorly based on english sources, so there's not much need to translate it to English.
So, everyone's welcome - join the first challenge Affairs of heart

Дорогие читательницы и читатели!
У меня есть хорошие новости, которыми я хочу с вами поделиться. =) Я присоединилась к творческому тандему TomCat Марины и Pastila Оли в их новом проекте: это первый русский блог, посвященный альтер-арту. Сегодня там опубликовалась моя статья на тему "Что такое альтер-скрап и с чем его едят" (по мотивам англоязычных источников). Заходите, читайте, присоединяйтесь к заданиям - первое называется Дела сердечные, создаем любой скрап-объект, КРОМЕ странички и открытки, в форме сердечка, но не забываем использовать скрапматериалы (т.е. коробочка, рамочка, подвеска со скрапбумагой и скрап-цветочками - годятся; подушка, вышивка, композиция из пластики без скрап-материалов - не подойдет).
Буду рада видеть вас в числе читателей Альтер-арта =)

Quilled 2011 wish

Dear followers and passers by! =)
I haven't posted any "new year resolutions", "results of the passed year" or "thank you, dear readers" messages this season as many of crafty people do. So I'm going to fix it with a little quilled card I made for you:
Дорогие читатели!
В этом сезоне я не написала ни одного поста типа "спасибо, что читаете", "итоги уходящего года" или "планы на будущее", как многие сделали. Так что исправляюсь. Спасибо, что читаете, и хочу посвятить Вам эту открытку с пожеланием всего хорошего в 2011 году:



This card consists of 20 inchies, each decorated with quilled elements: there are Roman charcaters 2011 (MMXI) to set the year, some sentiment written in ink (May all your dreams come true in the next year. Be inspired!) And a few separate wishes: health (apple - an apple a day, you know ;) ), prosperity (as a gift =) ), tenderness (as a snowflake), love (heart), peace (dove with an olive sprout) and luck (clover with 4 leaves). So, my dear, be happy!!!
Открытка состоит из 20 инчиков (квадратики размером 2,5 на 2,5 см), которые украшены квиллингом; год 2011 в виде римских цифр MMXI, что вписывается во фразу "Пусть сбудутся все Ваши мечты в следующем году. Желаю вдохновения!" на английском, написанную перышком и чернилами. И несколько отдельных пожеланий: здоровья (яблоко), любви (сердечко), нежности (снежинка), мира (голубь с оливковой веточкой), удачи (четырехлистных клевер) и процветания (т.е. хороших подарков и больших коробок с приятным содержимым =) ). Так что, счастья вам, дорогие мои!

With this card I'm going to enter the following challenges / Участвую в заданиях:
Take a quill pill - quill 2011 on a card; by the way, my quilling-addicted friends, that's the first and only quiling challenge blog I know! Come on, join the fun! (2011 в квиллинге. Кстати, это первый и пока единственный известный мне челендж-блог исключительно о квиллинге, так что, мои квиллинго-зависимые друзья, присоединяйтесь к веселью!)
Штампомания - make a card with inchies; (открытка с инчиками)
СкрапLand - make a card with quilled elements;(открытка с квиллингом)

Thank you for visiting! Спасибо, что заходите!

Happy new year card for my husband

A card I made for my husband for this New Year:

Wanted to try that oval protected plastic window card.
Inside of that window you can see a real fir tree piece (each needle glued down with stickles - some snow + needles don't fall off); and gift boxes. One of them is open and there's a little teddy bear made of fleece standing out. Stitched and having a large green bow =)
Some pergamano swirls on the background and some microbeads below...
Everything's decent and sweet...
Until you open it:

Felted beads

Winter is a good time for dealing with felt, wool and alike warm and cozy stuff =)
So, there's my new creation - it's felted.
My friend and I visited a craft convention - I usually pay attention to the materials, instruments and stuff, my gf is interested in handmade things she can buy. This time she wanted to purchase felted beads. "Exclusive", "made manually", "work of authorship"... like $100 for a string of beads. I offered her my help for free and made for her another "work of art", totally handmade and exclusive =))))
Photos aren't very crisp though, the color of the beads is actually deep purple, but not as dark as it seems.
There's what I made:

The size of each bead is about 17 mm, I embellished them with metal flowers and strung them with organza ribbon. The latter has light purple color, but in comparison to the beads' inky hue it seems to be pink %\ My friend is happy with it, but I promissed to replace it with a darker shade if I'm able to find it.

A card with micro-pennant

A "Happy New Year" card for my best friend.


Card has a shape of frame, I made it out of a pastel paper sheet, it measures about 13 by 15 cm (5" x 6"). Background is tinted with white pearl-tone to imitate some magical shimmer. =)
Plain white punched snowflakes are falling... In the right corner there's an Xmas tree with gifts, in the upper left corner you can see my mini garland connected with some beads.
The card was inspired by Veronica's photos of her Xmas tree =)
The Xmas tree made out of wired chenille (or fine pipecleaner - as you like =)) ) embellished with red beads and silver star-sequins.
Gifts are handmade too: a few boxes, a bag of candies and a tiny felted bear:

I couldn't make myself glue this little buddy, so I fixed him with a pin. That bead in his bow is the pin head. Actually the bear can be taken out and be used as a little brooch. Not sure my friend will ever use him that way, but that's a possibility anyway =)
And the garland I made with Pastila's garland challenge:

Each pennant can be seen in details there:
01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08 and 09, 10 and 11.
Thanks for looking!
По-русски тут есть

Tiny felted bear

A tiny little bear I made:


Tha smallest one I ever made. It's about 1-1,5 cm tall (1/2") when seated; arms can be rotated slightly.
Felted with a needle. Eyes and nose are microbeads, glued.
In comparison to this guy my previous little felted bear (5 cm - 2" when seated) seems to be a giant. =)


Guess what I made it for?