WhiteRacoon's handcrafts blog

Box for crackers

2012-02-15T18:30:00.001+03:00

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 нихнеудобная, вот и сделала коробочку, куда их можно сложить и откудаприятно и удобно их брать. Вся кухня у меня зеленая и слимончиками-лаймами, так что коробка выполнена в том же стиле напрозрачной основе. А внизу маленькая хитрость: нижние крекеры всегдабольшая проблема достать, но у коробки двойное дно, котороеподнимается, если потянуть вверх маленький апельсин, и те печеньки, чтона самом дне, приподнимаются - и их легко вынуть, не поломав.
Спасибо за внимание!

Mini quilled roses pedant

2012-02-14T14:14:00.001+03:00

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

2012-01-30T11:43:00.000+03:00

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

2012-01-16T13:18:00.000+03:00

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!

Namibian Zebra

2012-01-02T14:35:00.001+03:00

A weird post being the first this year, right? No Xmas cards, no snowflakes, but something about Africa =)
That's because Homyachok challenge blog has a new general challenge started today: Around the World!
Choose a country you'd love to visit and create anything devoted to it. I've chosen Namibia. Like in most exotic lands Namibian economics strongly rely upon tourism, and having little architectual or cultural places of intrest they offer so-called 'ecotourism' - safari, wildlife tours etc. So, I thought that Zebra would be a great choice to present it for the challenge. Besides, Bushmen people of Namibia have legends concerning zebras and their stripes, so it just had to be a Zebra! And to make this zebra's origin obvious I used the colors of Namibian flag!

That's a toy I made for my baby. Simple shape, simple bright colors (this flag has a great color combo for babies!!! and the little yellow Sun worked ideal as zebra's eye!), different textures: cotton fabric, smooth satin, soft velvet, ribbed knitted and crochet details; two large beads that can be moved along zebra's legs; front legs have crackling insertations in hooves, rear legs can be stretched having rubber bands inside and these hooves have jingles inside to develop baby's hearing.Another view of my colorful Zebra:

And that's the banner of the challenge Around the world
Join us, share your travelling dreams!!!

P.S.: frankly speaking, I'd never-ever go that far to some wildlife eco-tour, the country I'm longing to visit is actually Holland and I'm dreaming of the tulip fields and Gouda cheese... but I wanted to bring up some colors and show a project different from scrapbooking or cardmaking for Homyachok followers' inspiration =)
P.P.S.: Some of my other "foreign country" project include yummy cuisine ATC, check them out if you like and are looking for more ideas: Italy, France, Mexico

Happy new year!

2011-12-31T17:03:00.003+03:00

Happy new year to all!Blogger has new design or whatever it is called, very "convenient" and very "well working", thus I can't post anything. Thank you, dear blogger!That's a shaker card (microbeads and seed beads roll in the body of the snowman and in the fir tree) I made as a designer for Homyachok challenge blog: Winter patterns. You still have time to join this challenge!Be inspired and may all your dreams come true!

Micro Christmas tree in a bottle

2011-12-03T01:20:00.000+03:00

Found a very cute challenge in Zagadka-sketches blog - Altered art: make some home decor in a jar. I surely wanna join!
Обнаружился челлендж в блоге Творим вместе - Altered art: нужно создать некое украшение в банке. Соблазнило задание, хочу присоединиться!

And there's my entry:
Вот моя бутылочка:

That's a little bottle left from micro beads, it's about 2 cm (4/5") tall and has less than 1 cm (1/3") in diameter. I filled it with styrofoam balls and covered with some white paint and blue glitter. And inserted a quilled Christmas tree in there =) With microbeads as ornaments and a little star. Though the tree turned out to be a little too high, so the star isn't very obvious from this angle... The bottle was a real cork and two red seed beads to embellish it.
Это маленькая бутылочка, оставшаяся от микробисера, она примерно 2 см в высоту и чуть менее 1 см в диаметре. Снизу - пенопластовые шарики, закрашенные белым акрилом, и смазанные синеватым глиттером (увидеть это, правда, на фотке тяжело). А внутрь бутылки я посадила новогоднюю елку. Ёлка почти квиллинг =) Украшена микробисером красным и золотым, а сверху звездочка. Правда, елка получилась высоковата, звездочка попадает на плечики бутыли.. Ну и заткнута бутыль пробкой с двумя красными бисеринами. Вот думаю, может, приделать шнурочек или цепочку и использовать в качестве новогоднего кулона? =)

To understand the size better check out the photo with my fingers and a ruler:
Для лучшего понимания размера, посмотрите на фотку с моими пальцами и линейкой:

Thanks for looking!
Спасибо, что зашли!

First bath layout

2011-11-25T13:31:00.009+03:00

Homyachok challenge blog has a new general challenge today: Foam party.

Any object you have created yourself (layouts, cards, quilled projects, clay, sewing, absolutely anything) - related to fun with bubbles and foam.
I knew what I should make for this challenge as a designer. The first page for my baby's "firsts" album: First bath.
Стартовало новое задание в Хомячок challenge блоге - общее задание Пенная вечеринка.
Я сразу знала, что я предложу как дизайнер =) Первая страничка в будущий альбом моей дочки о ее "первостях". Первое купание.

The photos of the first bath are pretty gloomy, so I had to add bubbles and light colors all over the layout. And this project features a lot of "memorabilia" objects.
For the background I used some masking (right upper corner), some dry embossing (left lower corner) and doodling.
Фотки с первого купания все смазанные и очень мрачные (ну какой свет может быть в ванной комнате площадью 1,7 кв.м., где толкутся трое взрослых и собака?!), так что пузыри и свет добавила на саму страничку. А заодно тут куча "меморабилии".
На фоне странички применила маскинг (справа сверху), холодное тиснение (слева снизу) и рисование =)

The shower curtain is a piece of a real one we have in our bathroom =)
I loved the idea that I saw in Dogmom5403's gallery. I guess that those curtains she used were stickers or something, so I made the imitation myself =)
Занавеска слева - настоящая, это кусочек от нашей занавески в ванной. Она была длинная, я ее подшила, а обрезки сохранила "на всякий случай", вот случай и настал!

The curtain can be moved and it reveals a pic of the bathing baby:
Занавеску можно отодвинуть и пришпилить анкером, а за ней прячется фотка купаемого ребенка

I'm sure my daughter will be angry at me when she finds out that I've scrapped her "nude" pics, so I made a bubble flap to "cover the shame" =)))) The foam is made of styrofoam balls.
Уверена, что когда мое чудо подрастет и узнает, что я заскрапила ее фотки "ню", будет злиться %) (я б точно злилась =))) ), потому "прикрыла срам" клапаном в виде пены. Пена сделана из пенопластовых шариков.

The flap can be opened, it hides some journaling:
Клапан можно откинуть, а там прячется журналинг

It says: "The first bath couldn't be called ideal. It took us so long to choose and buy a decent bath tub; all the cute models are extremely expensive and we have no room for them. So we bought a simple one: green with a yellow duck. We couldn't arrange the bath well because of the lack of room and experience, so Gala was frightened and cold. But we understood our mistakes and next time girl's bathings were pretty nice: she was staring at the ceiling and didn't cry.. until we leave the room! 'Llll-aaaaa'"

Some more memorabilia:
Еще меморабилия:

Our first soap =) In a zip-lock bag, it's another try of "aquarium" technique. There's a title - First bath - and a brad fish underneath the soap-bag.
Наше первое мыло! Попытка применить технику "аквариума" на страничке. За пакетиком с мылом прячутся заголовок и брад-рыбка

And some more details:
И еще детали:

A towel - another "real" thing, it's a piece of Gala's real towel =) Journaling contains the date & time of the first bath, and a list of things necessary for the procedure: bathtub, hammock, soap, water thermometer, washing cloth, changing board, towel, body lotion, baby powder, diaper, cap and fresh clothes. I used my CraftRobo for cutting the bubble-frame; glossy accent was used for the embossed glossy water drops. Plus some bubble wrap. Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!!!
Полотенчико настоящее - кусочек Галиной "слюнявки". Список вещей для купания, флокированная уточка, глосси-акцентные капельки. Пузырная рамка вырезана КрафтРобо, под уткой пузыри из бисера и полужемчужин, плюс еще пузырчатая упаковка для поддержания пенной темы.

With this LO I'd like to enter the Lollipop Crafts challenge 59: B is for... bubbles, bath and brads! =)

Thanks for looking!
Спасибо, что зашли

Новое задание в блоге Little fun

2011-11-17T18:06:00.002+03:00

That's a journaling tag I made as an example for the new challenge announced at Little fun blog: "Little fun for little people"

Я в блоге Little fun вроде как временно замещающий автор и объявляю задания. Сегодня стартовало новое: малые формы скрапа для маленьких человечков. Суть - рукотворное украшение или элемент для детской странички. Принимаем работы с 18.11 до 09.12, включительно.
Я на эту тему сделала заготовочку для журналинга на будущую страничку о "Первом купании":

Хотела воспользоваться своим CraftRobo, чтобы вырезать пузырчатыую рамку, но мой Ёжик или спит, или на руках, а плоттер тарахтит жутко, не включишь, пришлось резать ножом, получилось кривенько =( Ну, может, как руки до странички дойдут - переделаю.
Уточка с желтым флокингом сверху сидит на кучке бисерно-жемчужной пены. Капельки на подложке - глосси-акцент, полотенчико - вата с вышивкой и бумажной бахромой. Рыбки - брадс, нижний правый пузырь - нечто типа шейкера, наполненного первым детским мылом =) меморабилия =)))
вот так развлекаюсь одной рукой... присоединяйтесь!!!
Supplies I used: fish - brads; glossy accent for water drops; craft knife for cutting the circles; cotton pad for the towel; yellow flocking for the ducj; microbeads & pearls for the foam; and some baby liquid soap (memorabilia =))) ) in a sort of a shaker in the right corner. Thanks for dropping by!

Underwater world & my best creation ever

2011-11-15T17:17:00.005+03:00

Homyachok challenge blog has a new quilling challenge:
Underwater world

Join us till the 4th of December!

I managed to quill a 3d shell with a pearl inside:

View from another angle:

Pearl is not quilled though. =) For this project I used beige pearl and platinum 3mm quiling strips.
I'm planning to use it as a christmas decoration this year =) It's gonna be cute.

Wanted to make something more fundamental, something extraordinary... but my little pearl requires a lot of time and attention and every day is like a new story, life changes quickly and we're still getting used to each other. So, ladies, I'm sorry for not leaving comments and taking part in blogger life - I simply lack free time..
And by the way, let me present my newest creation: the best project I ever made =)

My miniature baby arrived at midnight between the 24th and the 25th of October (chose the first day of Scorpio to show up in this world, though everyone expected this child to be Libra =) ), with weight of 3,820 and being 50 cm of height.
And... (drum roll, please!!!) it's a girl! ;)
Wish us good luck =)

Candy give-away - Розыгрыш конфетки

2011-10-10T14:08:00.003+03:00

Сегодня 10.10 - обещала подвести итоги своей конфетки
Знаете, я такая вредная, что мне совсем не хочется сообщать пол ребенка =))) (см. примету номер 40 =))) ) Потому я собрала всех желающих конфетку в одну пачку, написала имена и взболтала в коробочке. Первое имя, которое выпало:
9. Юляшка!
Юля, напиши мне на емейл свой адрес - постараюсь завтра же отправить конфетку.
Всем спасибо за участие, внимание, комплименты и пожелания! Нам очень приятно =)

Hi ladies! Thank you for your attention and comments! Today I'm giving away the candy - and the prize goes to 9. Юляшка!

Dr. Zoidberg: Cthulhu pumpkin

2011-10-03T12:44:00.002+03:00

Homyachok challenge blog has a new challenge: Halloween!

Frankly speaking, I'm not celebrating this holiday. Well, when I was in school we were obliged to make costumes and such for the English class, it was kinda fun, but never inspired me much.
And this time I was lucky enough to combine DT plans with my own =) My husband is a fan of Futurama, so for his birthday I made a character plush toy for him. And since Dr. Zoidberg reminds me of Cthulhu - I thought it wasn't a bad idea to have fun with him =)
So, there's a little story:
Dr. Zoidberg decided to make a Chtulhu pumpkin for Halloween and started cutting the pumpkin with his claws, comparing his creation with Cthulhu image on the card (from the board game Call of Cthulhu)

And brain slugs help him a little =)

When he's done, he feels proud of his creation!

But then he starts thinking: "Hm... this pumpkin looks like me!!! Or like Cthulhu? Hmmm..."

Brainslugs agree =)

Speaking of Dr. Zoidberg - it's my own creation, I designed the pattern and have sewn him with my own hands. I made this guy from pink plush, his legs and arms have wires inside so they are bendable. And all clothes are real:

The scrubs.

And that's naked Zoidberg =))) With all his... hmm... how do you call those "skin-folds"?..

My husband says that this toy looks awfully scary =( But well, he's part of our Futurama collection:
plush Bender, felt hypnotoad, brainslug.

And Cthulhu pumpkin was processed and cooked =) And put into millet porridge. Yummy!!!!

but looks a little scary too =))) Cthulhu porridge :-D

If you're somehow inspired by Halloween theme, join us for the Halloween challenge till the 23rd of October!

Thanks for looking!

Cooking & scrapbooking!

2011-10-01T18:56:00.003+03:00

You know I'm a little crazy about mixing techniques, trying this and that; using crochet laces in scrapbooks, combining quilling and iris-folding and such... But lately I'm going farther.
I have already written an article about using edible things for scrapbooking needs:
can be found here (sorry, Russian only).
And now I'm practicing total extreme!!!
Using scrapbooking tools for cooking! =) Crazy idea, isn't it?

In Altered Art blog there's a new express-challenge (with a tutorial provided): Scrapped cookies - make shortbread cookies and use your scrapbooking tools to embellish the baked goods!
Come on, let's give it a try! Join us till the 7th of October! =)

Обожаю все смешивать и экспериментировать. В последнее время тянет на безумства типа скрещивания еды и скрапа. Статью о том, как съестное внедрить в скрап я писала
вот здесь для rus-scrap.ru
А вот теперь тотальный экстрим. Используем скрап-товары для готовки!
В блоге Altered Art blog вышло новое экспресс-задание (с моим МК): Заскрапленные печеньки! - делаем песочное печенье и используем скрап-штучки для их украшения.
Присоединяйтесь! Процесс муторный, требует времени и сил, но это оооочень увлекательно, забавно и прикольно! Экспресс-задание открыто до 7 октября =)

And another piece of good news: I've been published. I'm not much into the practice, I guess, but theory is what I'm realy good at =) I'm one of the authors in the new Russian magazine:
Scrapbooking - creative way of living - click the link to see the preview. I don't have my issue yet, but I'll boast about it, when I'll be able =)
Вторая новость: меня опубликовали. В практике, вероятно, я не ахти, зато теория - мой конек. Я один из соавторов в новом русском скрап-журнале:
Скрапбукинг - творческий стиль жизни - кликните для анонса. Свой экземпляр я пока не получила, но как получу - похвастаюсь. =)

Quilled name

2011-09-19T17:00:00.000+03:00

Homyachok challenge blog has started a new quilling challenge today: "Calligraphy"
The task is to quill any phrase, word or single alpha. The letter should be in the center of attention. I'm particularly fond of this task since I love quilled text, yet it's not very common.
And being a part of the DT I had to quill something for inspiration. =)
I had a thousand of ideas, but none seemed to be "perfect enough". I thought of making a pretty mural in shades of purple to decorate our new bedroom - couldn't decide about the word ("love" or "peace" seemed to be too obvious), or a panel with my husband's and my names quilled giving out a name of our upcoming baby - but we're undecided about the latter yet and I'm not very wiling the reveal the gender =) This and that... and I found myself dreaming about a wonderful creation just a few days before the dead-line. So I settled with my best friend's name: Sveta (CBETA spelled in Russian) and applied the technique I wanted to try for a long time.

I used 15 mm wide quilling strips of 5 blue shades. And tried to imitate the font called "Romashka Deco". Having the strips rolled up longitudinally I made a bunch of "pipes", glued them together and cut the name in the piped panel. Added some flowers and a few loose rolls.
I think it looks cute enough to present it to my friend =)

A couple of close ups:

So, it's your turn now - join us with your quilled text, words or letters!

A boy or a girl layout and candy give away

2011-09-07T14:30:00.000+03:00

Some of you may remember that a few months ago I made some Baby inchies - and promised to create a layout with them. Finally, I did it! Yeah, it took me THAT long!
I collected 46 superstitions concerning unborn baby gender and tried to figure out who we're going to have =)
Может, кто-то еще помнит, что пару месяцев назад я делала детские инчики - и обещала сделать с ними страничку. Наконец, я ее сделала. Ага, я ее ТАК долго делала. Собрала 46 примет, "предсказывающих" пол ребенка. И вот попыталась понять, кого же нам сулят суеверия. Пока делала, нашла еще одну примету, но она уже не влезла, с ней получилось бы ровно 50/50!

51% of having a boy and 49% of having a girl. I used a LOT of doodling and zentangling (call it whatever you like) here. All inchies are also stitched. No pics though, but a LOT of journaling inside =)
А пока 51% за мальчика, 49% за девочку. Все нарисовано руками, куча зентенгло-дудлинга, куча попыточек создания разных узорчиков. Заголовок "46 примет" - наклейки Making memories, с английскими буквами: n, p, u, w, e и m =)
Все инчики обшиты разными стежками. Ни одной фотки, зато масса журналинга %)

One inchie I haven't shown before:
Еще инчик, который я не показывала вблизи:

A horsey or yellow zebra =)
Лошадка, или зебра. Кусочек фигурной лошадочной ленточки, раскрашенный, с гривой и хвостом и глазиком из микробисера.

And when you open everything up...
Открываем анкеры:

Кликните, чтобы рассмотреть, если хочется. Переписывать все приметы еще и по-русски мне лень =)
Gee... Girls, do I have to translate that?.. I didn't think about it when I was making this LO...
Ok, let's begin, I'll try to make it short though.
The right side, everything about Boys (in my case):
1) If the belly "pops up" on the right side more than on the other - you're expecting a boy; if the belly is bigger on the left side - a girl.
2) If the baby pushes in the lower part of the belly more often - it's a boy; if your ribs and liver suffer from pushing - it's a girl;
3) Numeric table of Pythagoras; my maiden name, my husband's name, and the month of conception - see the numbers, sum them all and divide by 7; uneven number - a boy; even number - a girl. We've got 19. Hmmm, should check what we'll get if I spell my name in English =)
4) Good mood during pregnancy indicates that there will be a boy; mood swings, depression, aggression and such point out to a girl
5) Severe morning sickness - a girl; light or none - a boy
6) Girl "steals" mom's beauty, the lady expecting a boy looks great. (well, it's hard to judge about myself, but I often heard that my belly embellishes me =) and that pregnancy becomes me)
7) Sweets, fruit and cookies on the table predict girl's birth; pickles, meat and hot dishes - boy's. It's also not obvious, I never crave meat, but being a real sweet-tooth I couldn't even look at chocolates until the 18th week.
8) If a pregnant woman begins eating bread from the crust - she's expecting a boy; doesn't eat the crust - a girl... Well, I LOVE crusts =) And always loved 'em =)
9) Japanese diagram. It's hard to explain - just two tables. You need mom's month of birth, dad's month of birth and a month of conception. Looks like a boy... To see the diagram you need to pull the tag, just like with the next superstition:
10) Chinese diagram. Mother's lunar age and lunar month of conception. It's a very weird thing, so I'm undecided about that generally...

11) Blood type diagram: I and IV give a boy.
12) Name and karma =) Elenas tend to have children of different gender. Alexanders tend to have boys.
13) If the belly's covered with fluff - there will be a guy, if not - a girl. I have a very fluffy belly from the very beginning of pregnancy =) Even drew a hairy raccoon nearby =)
14) Blood renewing test: men have their blood renewed every 4 years; women - every 3 years. The one, whose blood is "fresher", can influence baby gender. My blood was 1 year and 11 months old on the moment on conception; my husband's ony 4 months old. Thus we're going to have a boy!
15) Some formula: 49-Y+1+X+3, where Y is dad's age, X - mom's age; what do other numbers mean - I have no idea! If the result is even - we'll have a boy, uneven - a girl. It's 50, a boy.
16) Dizziness and fainting points out to a boy; no black outs - a girl. I faint every now and then and tend to have low blood pressure...
17) Some Italian doctor found out that ladies with weight below 54 kg give birth to 98 boys for every 100 of girls; ladies with weight over 54 kg deliver 110 boys for 100 girls; Having weight of 59 kg before pregnancy I have more chances of having a boy.

Superstitions under the green inchies:
18) If the baby stays "high" and the belly grows 'up' - it's a girl; the belly grows low - a boy
19) If a couple sleeps having their heads pointing to the north they will conceive a boy, pointing to south - a girl; We sleep having our heads in the "west", so this superstition doesn't count =)
20) If a pregnant woman experiences hot flashes she's expecting a boy, suffers from cold - a girl. Maybe it's summer, but I really feel slightly hot;
21) Expecting a girl a lady gains more weight that she should; expecting a boy - less. I'm not overweight yet. =)
22) Dark marks and stripes on the skin point out to a girl; no pigmentation - to a boy.

Now we've come to the girl's superstitions!
Right column of yellow inchies:
23) Soft skin of lady's hands predicts a girl; dry skin - a boy. I'm undecided.
24) Expecting a boy the lady often has headaches; doesn't have headaches - a girl;
25) Swelling, exp. in legs and feet, point to a guy; no swelling - a girl;
26) If you prefer to sleep on your right side - you're expecting a girl; on the left side - a boy. I prefer my right side =) facing my husband =)
27) Enhancing libido during pregnancy shows that you're expecting a boy; low libido - a girl;

And to the right flap:
28) Bold men tend to have sons; since my husband's not bold we still have a chance for a girl
29) Food to be consumed before conception if you want a boy: potatoes, lentil, mushrooms, cherries, bananas, apricots, oranges, peaches and dates; If you want a girl: eggplants, beetroot, carrots, cucumbers, peas, pepper, onions and nuts. Where would I get apricots and cherries in winter?! So, it's more likely to conceive a girl with this diet...
30) Heartbeat rate during 12-14 weeks above 140 bpm is more likely to be girl's; slower than 140 bpm - a boy;
31) If baby pushes the right side of the belly for the first time - it's a boy; the left side - a girl. On the 18th of April I felt butterflies in my stomach on the left side.
32) If the bust size changes a lot during pregnancy - it's a girl; if not - a boy. See the labels from my bras: 36B (80B) before pregnancy and 80E (36E) during =)))
33) Dark colored nipples promise a girl; light colored - a boy
34) If the year of conception and the age of mother are both even or uneven - it's a girl; if one is even and the other one's uneven - a boy. 2011 and 25 mean a girl
35) If a baby is active, pushes and hiccups all day round - it's a guy; the less active baby is a girl. My baby's very disciplined, never wakes me up at night.
36) Undecided: X-cells are less active, but live longer than Y-cells, thus conception before ovulation will produce a girl; love-making during or after ovulation will make a boy. Have no fine idea. =)
37) Undecided: take a wedding band and hang it on a string above the belly. If it twists round - it's gonna be a boy; if it rocks back and forth - a girl. The result is unstable; every time shows different gender =)
38) If the belly grows forward and the waist stays in place - it's gonna be a boy; if it spreads to the sides - a girl.
39) If the gained weight stays on belly only - it's a boy; if thighs and butt become fatter too - it's a girl
40) If the pregnant woman shows her state off, enjoys demonstrating the belly - it's a boy; conceals her state for a long time - a girl. I confessed at work when I was half along the way. I used a vellum strip there with "top secret" sentiment - nothing to be seen through untill you push the strip down close to the 'hidden' text.

41) Hot feet point out to a girl; cold feet - a boy.
42) Too hairy legs - a boy; no changes there - a girl
43) Shiny and bushy hair on your head - a girl; hair falling out or being dull - a boy;
44) Clumsiness - boy; graceful movements - a girl
45) The best pose to conceive a boy - "doggy-style", for a girl - use "classical" pose.
46) Ask a pregnant woman to show her hands. If she shows the palms up - it will be a girl; palms down - a boy. Undecided, the result changes.

Pffff! Thanks for looking!
So, for those who read it all =)))
Do you want a CANDY??? I've been rearranging my stash, and decided to give away some things I don't really need. Will add a pic later. 15 papers + embellishment papers, some doilies, some fibers and ribbons, a chipboard heart album, a leaf punch, some stickers (epoxy, vellum and glitter), microbeads and beads, shells and some more... Will add more later, maybe =)
Уффф! Спасибо всем, кто посмотрел и до сюда добрался =)
Хотите КОНФЕТКУ? Разбарахляюсь и раздаю все лишнее. Бумажки - 15 штук больших, 5 маленьких, чипбордовый альбом-сердечко, бусинки, микробисер, наклейки (кальковые, с глиттером и эпоксидные), стразы, ленточки и пряжа, дырокол-листик, ракушки, салфеточки.. Может, еще чего добавлю

Click to enlarge

What should you do to qualify for a candy? Guess who we're expecting! Ask questions if necessary =)
Spread the word about my candy and sign up in the list "boy" or "girl". On the 10th of October I'll randomly draw a winner from the list of those who were right =) Although the baby can arrive any day, I'll try to send the candy before I deliver. If it doesn't work out - please, understand; I'll mail the gift any way but later =)

Что нужно сделать? Угадайте, кого мы ждем =) Если нужно - отвечаю на дополнительные вопросы =)
Расскажите людям о конфетке и запишитесь в список, за кого вы голосуете =) Быть постоянным читателем не обязательно. Среди тех, кто угадал, рандомом выберу победителя 10.10. Т.к. сроки появления нового человечка уже поджимают, то надеюсь отправить конфетку до рождения =) Но уж как получится - если рожу раньше, не обижайтесь, что отправлю когда-нибудь потом.

Gel-card tutorial

2011-09-06T10:34:00.004+03:00

МК по созданию открытки-аквариума по-русски специально для Хомячка можно найти в Хомячок Challenge blog

I made a card for Homyachok challenge blog General challenge: World of magic and was asked to make a tutorial.
Frankly speaking, I am not the one who invented this technique and this card is not the only and unique =)
Ok, this techqnie works well for fish tanks, for sea cards and interactive effects.

We'll need:
- cardstock for the card itself
- scissors, craft knife, embossing tool, a pencil, glue, some thread and adhesive tape
- a zip-lock bag
- some translucent blue gel; gel for hair styling works best; but you may use shampoo, toothpaste, liquid soap or any other supplies.
- embellishments of your choice; the one you need for sure is a charm to be placed in the fish tank.

Measure the plastic bag, mine was 7,5 cm x 6 cm. So add some allowance and make the blank card. My card is 8,5 cm by one dimension and other dimensions are shown on the pic below:

Though it might have been convenient to make the sides slightly bigger.
There will be a fish tank between the sides I and II; little 8 mm folds in the middle are meant to keep the charm; side III is a background.

Fold sides I and II together, and draw a fish tank on the "face" side:

Outline something round and add details.

Take a sharp knife and cut the water area out in BOTH sides: I and II - at the same time:

What you get when you unwrap your card you can see on the right side.

Prepare the "stuffing" for the fish tank: fish, octopus, crabs, shells, mermaids - any water creature!

I quilled a Golden fish. Very simple: one 3mm orange strip for the body, one 3mm strip for the looped tails and fins. And a little golden crown.
You can take any charm you like: a metal one, or a paper one; use felt, clay, beads, fibers - anything you can think of.
But don't forget about the size: your creature should be placed INSIDE of the fish tank, so don't make it bigger than the cut you've made.

Add two threads to your charm, use glue to adhere them well:

Decorate the card while the glue is drying:

Draw or make the background the way you like.
And don't forget about the "face" of the card. I used some embossing and distressing.

Try the charm to find out how long should the strings be so that the charm will be in the tank.

And glue the strings to the 8 mm folds we made before.
That's the side view, how it looks in the end:

Now let's take care about the "water"!
Take a zip-lock bag and some gel. Hair styling gel works best since it has the right consistency. I found only blue shampoo =) Although it's up to you whether you want your "water" to be blue. Maybe your charms look better in pink jelly? =)
The gel should be translucent, so don't choose the opaque media. And try to avoid argessive substances like toilet scrub or bleach.

Place 1-1,5 teaspoons of gel in the zip-lock bag, I added some glitter too, close the bag tightly and spread the "water" evenly. Don't try to avoid air bubbles - they look pretty cue =)

Place the gel-filled bag in the card, on the side II, and use adhesive tape to make the bag stay in place:

Cover the bag with the side I:

And glue edges of sides I and II together.

That's it:

May all your dreams come true ;)

May all your dreams come true card

2011-09-05T12:29:00.004+03:00

Homyachok challenge blog has a new challenge today!
WORLD OF MAGIC!
Any magic and mystery is welcome! Join us!

For this challenge I made a card with a golden fish:

The sentiment says "May all your dreams come true!"
I used a gel-card technique, some embossing and distressing and a little quilling for the fish itself.
The gel creates a weird feeling of light refraction, so some more pics to show what it looks like:

Join our magical world at Homyachok challenge!

Thanks for looking! =)

Gifts of summer - Homyachok quilling challenge #3

2011-08-24T11:37:00.002+03:00

Homyachok challenge blog has a new quilling challenge on:

Gifts of summer

Quill something about the harvesting season.
I came up with a fridge magnet:

I quilled some summer fruit and vegetables, arranged in a "rainbow".
Red: strawberries and raspberries:

Orange: carrots and an orange =)

Yellow: apricots (I used some velvet paper to line them =) ) and a quarter of a pear.
Green: an apple and some grapes
Blue: seedless grapes =)

and purple: plums.
Simple and easy.
The magnet also has a title: "Juice" and contains some info about the fruit juice: how much fruit do you need for a certain amount of juice. Like 1 kg of oranges can be used to produce 0,5 l of orange juice. Pretty handy to have that in the kitchen with your own juicemaker.
Thanks for looking! And come on, join us with your gifts of summer =)

Watermelon belly

2011-08-09T12:09:00.004+03:00

Homyachok challenge blog has a new challenge: Watermelon mood.
Being a part of a DT, I had to think about some watermelon inspired handmade thing. Actually I'm a part of a quilling team, but it's a "general" challenge - absolutely any handmade object is welcome, so I decided to step away from quilling and submitted a t-shirt with a watermelon:
В Хомячок challenge блоге новое задание: Арбузное настроение.
Будучи частью ДК, я сделала нечто арбузное. Вообще-то я в квиллинг-команде, но задание - общее, т.е. можно делать абсолютно все, что угодно, так что решила побаловаться:

As you may know, we're expecting a new member of our family within a few months, so my belly grows and looks like a watermelon =) In Russian these two words rhyme, so the idea came up pretty quickly. I bought a green t-shirt and found some green stretch velvet. Made an applique and stitched in two zippers. You can unfasten them to make the size of the t-shirt bigger or to use the watermelon as a pocket (can't put much in there though, but an ID-card and a couple of bucks for ice-cream during the walk can be stored there easily). The lining inside is red with black seeds. =)
Кое-кто знает, что мы скоро ожидаем пополнение в семействе, и живот подрастает. Пузо-арбузо. Так что идея пришла быстро. Купила зеленую майку, вообще-то хотела белую, но ни в одном магазине рядом с домом не нашлось. Нашла в закромах бархат, стрейч, зелененький. И сделала аппликацию. Вшила две молнии по бокам, подкрашенные белым изнутри - как корочка. Т.к. арбуз-стрейч - на пузо хорошо натягивается. Если будет мало - расстегну молнии =) Пока использую молнии как доступ к карману. Много туда не положишь, но паспорт и 50 р на мороженку на прогулке влезают =) А внутри красная атласная подкладка с черными семечками =)

So come on! Join us at Homyachok challenge with your watermelon creation!
Присоединяйтесь к нашему арбузному настроению у Хомячка:

Thanks for looking!

Salzburg A4 layout

2011-07-28T16:41:00.005+03:00

Ольгусенок had an anniversary last month and she asked her followers to help her to arrange a scrapbook - I can understand her well, you never have time to complete your own projects =) I'm still making two albums, which seem to have no end...
So I signed up for a layout about Salzburg. I'm sorry it took me almost half of a year to complete this... due to my "state", I hardly could make myself do anything at all. But I hope Olga can forgive me since she's in the same state now ;)
I've been in Austria, though we've skipped the excursion to Salzburg, so I had to think of something nice for this layout with no personal impressions =)
I decided to incorporate all photos Olga sent me "to choose from". And I know one good method to put a lot of photos in one LO - mosaic! This technique I always found pretty hard to apply to your own photos - you have to cut them, your precious and dear memories, into small pieces!.. But having someone else's photos to cut is easier =))) So that's what I came up with:

6 photos.
As the layout looks pretty bright with this mosaic I decided not to overload it with bright background too, so I chose off-white paper and added some red embellishments to support the flag of Austria and Salzburg city emblem. Some free from photo spaces are filled with red&white tiles with german words "Osterreich", "Salzburg", "Willkommen" =) Used some masking on the top of the page to make a "city horizon in the light of the sunset" =) Alphas "Salzburg" are cut with my CraftRobo.

What Salzburg is famous for? Of course, Mozart! And Mozart candies =))) So I made a little embellishment - shaker, the background of it is a Mozart-kugel-candy wrap =)

And microbeads inside.

I added some thin white satin ribbons with red beads to make the layout more "touchable". And on the bottom of the LO there's a flap, when you rotate the treble clef brad you can open it. There's one more photo (in photo corners, so it can be removed easily) and some space for journaling:

I sincerely hope that Olga would love this LO in her album =) Because I really had fun making it.
Thanks for looking!

Quilled bumble bee tutorial

2011-07-28T13:23:00.007+03:00

Русская версия МК - в блоге Хомячок challenge

The insect I've chosen has a complicated configuration so I had to study a dozen of photos to understand what parts I should make and how should I connect them. So, let's look at the photo:

source
The bumble bee consists of a few parts:
* "bumble" - the heaviest part,
* "chest" - a less heavy ball,
* head with antennae,
* 6 legs,
* 2 wings.

Let's begin with the biggest part. We'll need a lot of fringes. And the finer you cut it, the better!
There're two ways of making fine fringes quick:

1) if you have sharp tiny scissors with a fine tip. Hold a strip with your left hand, take scissors in your right hand and rest them on the fingers of the left hand, so that the distance between the scissors tip and the strip edge would stay approximately the same as you move the strip when cutting.

2) a photo with extra back light. Take a thin strip of harder material (e.g. cardstock) and place it under the strip you're making a fringe from, close to the edge that should stay uncut. Use any scissors you like - no need for a fine tip. The scissors will stuck in the cardstock piece and the upper edge of the strip will remain uncut.
You'll need to change the cardstock piece now and then as it gets worn out.
So, find some patience and nice music and cut!

For the bumble and the chest you'll need 7 mm wide strips:

0,5 strip of light yellow color (for example quilling set #19)
3 strips of black color (for example, from quilling set #24)
1 whole, 2 halves and one strip half of which is cut in fringes and half of which has 5 mm width - dark yellow color (from quilling set #19)

BUMBLE
The heaviest part will consists of two elements - half-balls. For the first, back part join light yellow fringe (0,5 of strip), black fringe (1 strip) and dark yellow fringe (0,5 of strip):

Begin to quill from the light end:

When you're finished with the "tail", glue the end of the light fringe. Holding the roll gently, insert the handle of the tool into the roll to make it "pop" and add dimension:

Cover it all with glue from the inside - and let it dry, so that the tail will hold its shape:

Continue to quill the fringes you have - black and dark yellow - but take care to move in spiral motion, the fringed roll shouldn't be "flat", make it 3d:

Adhere the tip of the fringe and again cover the inside of the bumble shape from the inside:

That's what you're going to have:

When the glue is dry to touch, fluff the bumble.

For the front part of the "bumble" you'll need a looong strip made of glued together:

whole dark yellow strip, half of which is 5 mm wide and another half - 7 mm wide - is cut into fringe, then connect a fringed 7 mm strip of black color and then 0,5 strip of 7 mm dark yellow strip.
Begin to quill from the 5 mm wide end. Make a tight "flat" roll with the 5 mm wide part.

When the fringes begin, use spiral quilling:

Each color should be glued and covered with glue from the inside:

When this part is complete and dry, fluff the fringes:

And now let's join the "bumble":

If you made it right, one part can be inserted into the other. Use a drop of glue and the bumble of the bee is complete.

CHEST
Now let's make bumblebee's chest. It also consists of two parts. The first one:

1 dark yellow fringed strip and 0,5 of black fringed strip. Quill from the yellow end. Glue the tip, push it slightly from the inside to make it pop and fill with glue to fix the shape. Let it dry and fluff the fringes.

The second part:

1 black strip 5 mm wide + 0,5 of black strip 7 mm wide cut in fringes. Start quilling from the 5 mm end, make a flat tight roll. Glue the tip and fluff the fringes, bend it as much as possible to the rear end.

Cover the rear end of the second part with glue and place the first chest part on it, press tightly and let it dry:

JOINTS
The bumble and the chest consist of two parts each, and there's a "flat waist" between them. And we need to disguise them. Take a piece of 7 mm wide strip, fold in lengthwise and make a double fringe:

You'll need about 4 cm long strips. Dark yellow for the bumble and black for the chest.

Apply some glue to the "waists" and stick the double fringe there around the whole piece:

Repeat the same with the chest.

Now let's connect the bumble and the chest. We have flat parts on each segment - made of 5 mm wide strips, remember?
Apply glue to them

and press the bumble and the chest together:

Let it dry.

LEGS
The bumblebee needs 6 legs. It's easier to make them wired - then you can shape them any way you like, use them to settle the bee somewhere or just make funny gestures =)
Choose "floristic" wire - wire wrapped in tissue. Each leg has 3 segments, marked with bends. Place a piece of wire on the ruler, measure and bend, measure and bend, measure and cut:

6 legs, dimensions in mm:

Rear legs: 18-12-3
Middle legs: 17-10-5
Front legs: 15-7-3

Take 3 mm wide strips of dark chocolate color (from the quilling set #32). You'll need an 8 cm long piece for one leg (6 cm for the front legs). 4 cm of this strip should be cut in fine fringe. Begin to wrap the strip (uncut end) around the wire from the "toes" end of the leg:

The third - the longest - segment should be fluffy, so the fringe should begin there. Cover the fringe with a thin layer of glue and wrap in a spiral motion around the wire:

That's the finished leg:

WINGS
Probably the most complicated thing to explain. They are done in technique of looping/husking. Normal people do that "with pins", making perfect loops. I never was patient enough to use pins, so I do everything with my ahnds only, so taking pics of the process is just impossible.
So I offer a pattern:

On the right part of the pic the first pattern (I) shows how you should loop the strip (little blue arrows along the outline). Double blue arrows show the dimensions (mm). Green arrows show the pressure to be applied. Red arrows offer to add some glue there where they point (almost everywhere).
Choose the thinest strips you can find for the wings - 1 or 1,5 mm wide. White color or even better use translucent vellum.
When the part I is complete, wrap another strip around it three times trying to form the shape II. The first time wrap the strip tightly and let the inner part of the wing be deformed. The other two times wrap the strip loosely. And don't forget to apply glue at the tip of the wing (red arrows)

And now let's make the wings more "natural" and shiny. Take clear nail polish, get a big drop of it on the brush and touch the tip of the wing slightly. With a very well controlled slow motion spread the polish to the wing. The nail polish drop will make a thin film between the loops. If the film doesn't want to stay there - add a little more polish and repeat the brushing movement until you're satisfied.
Be careful not to damage the film and let it dry.

HEAD
1 black strip 3 mm wide, quilled in a roll (not too tight so that you'll be still able to shape it). Glue the tip. Use your fingers to make a drop shape. And then make it a little 3d: press slightly on the back of the head to make it "pop". But try to apply pressure to the back of the head only - the "nose" is better be flat.

Cover with glue from the inside and let it dry.

Take a 3-4 cm long strip of dark brown color cut in fringes (can be left from the legs) and wrap it around the head:

ASSEMBLY
Apply a little drop of glue on the fluffy end of each leg and tuck them in the body of the bee:

the rear legs should be placed in the middle of the front black stipe,
the middle ones - between the bumble and the chest,
the front ones - between the black and the black parts of the chest.
For better symmetry glue the legs by type: both rear, both front...

Apply a drop of glue inside of the head and press it to the chest as it's shown on the photo:

Don't press the nose down.

Take two 1 mm wide black strips 15-18 mm long, fold them to make the antennae. Apply glue and place them in the head, trying to tuck between the head and the fringe going around it:

Glue the wings:

The tip of the wing should be placed in the middle of the black stripe - the junction of two chest segments.

The bumble bee is ready:

Have fun creating your winged and striped insects!
If you have any questions - don't hesitate to ask. I'll try my best to explain.
Good luck!

Rainbow bookmark

2011-07-21T11:41:00.002+03:00

A little creation in summer colors: a corner bookmark

Made it to support a new challenge on Little fun challenge blog which has started today and will last till the 18th of August. The challenge is to create a bookmark with any hint of rainbow. =) Join us =)

Well, and since the Color Throwdown has a rainbow color challenge, I'm in! =)

Thanks for looking!

Baby inchies

2011-07-19T16:02:00.000+03:00

Hi all!
Today I'm showing some inchies - squares 1" x 1" (2,5 cm).
Homyachok challenge blog has started a new express-challenge "Inch of my love" today. Express - because it will last for one week only. And the task is not very complicated. It's all about inchies: make three or more of inchies or rinchies to enter a challenge.
And that's my example I made as a member of the DT.

Сегодня я покажу новые инчики - квадратики со стороной 1 дюйм (2,5 см).
В Хомячок challenge блоге сегодня началось новое экспресс-задание "Инчики моей любви". Экспресс - потому что оно продлится всего 1 неделю и задание не очень сложное. А задание посвящено инчикам. Вот и я в качестве дизайнера вдохновляю людей присоединяться =)

Each inchie is based on a white paper square. Then I used zentangle technique and some color pencils to make a background, a different pattern for each inchie. Then I used different stitches around the edges. Each inchie has an alpha, and together they read as "BOY". The first alpha is entirely covered with microbeads and matted with white. The others have only microbeaded outlines and are covered with glossy accent. Plus there're some baby thingies on each inchie:
Основа каждого инчика - белая бумага для пастелей. Потом при помощи ручки и карандашей в технике "зентенгл" я сделала фон, разные рисунки для каждого квадратика. И разные стежки для краев инчиков. Еще есть буковки, которые складываются в слово "BOY" - мальчик. Не по-русски, потому что выписывать "мальчик" по буковке уж очень длинно =) Первая буква покрыта микробисером полностью, остальные - только с микробисерным контуром и покрыты глосси акцентом. И на каждом инчике детские вещи:

A toy car: cut with CraftRobo (like all alphas), having vellum windows and real button wheels. The tiniest buttons I could find!
Мальчики = машинки =) Машинка вырезана моим CraftRobo, окошки затянуты калькой, а колеса - это пуговицы, крошечные, но настоящие!

A bib - paper, fiber "lace" and a bear applique made from the same type of buttons + 2 microbeads for eyes.
Слюнявчик - бумага, кружева из ниточки и мишка-аппликация из пуговички, двух черных микробисерин и лакового маркера для носа.

Bathing duck. Cut manually from velvet paper, microbead as an eye, a little embossing - dry for the wing and hot for the bubbles.
Уточка для купания. Вырезана руками из бархатной бумаги, глаз - микробисер, и немного тиснения: холодное для крыла и горячее для пузырьков.

Well, it wouldn't be fair if I stopped with a "boy" only, right? So I decided to make "girl" series too.
Ну и я подумала, что будет грустно, если я не сделаю в комплект "мальчику" еще и девочку. Так что еще 4 инчика на девичью тему:

The principle is the same: white paper, red&pink zentangle, stitched edges, microbeaded alphas and some baby things.
Принцип тот же: белая бумага, красно-розовый зентенгл (только формы помягче - розочки и кружочки, а не мальчишеская геометрия), обшитые края, микробисерные буквы и детские штучки.

Girlie booties. Crochet. The tiniest I could make out of cotton thread. They seem to be too big though =( Pink lacing and red microbeads.
Девчачьи пинетки. Честно связанные крючком из х/б ниток. Меньше сделать не получилось. Розовые завязочки и красные бусинки.

Baby cradle. Used 1,5 mm quilling strips white&pink metallic for weaving the basket and making the wheels, a piece of pink paper for the hood and a half of the 1,5 mm strip cut in scallops with some piercing as a piece of lace.
Люлька-коляска. Использовала бумагу для квиллинга шириной 1,5 мм белого и розового цвета металлик для плетения корзинки и для колес. Кусочек розовой бумажки для капюшона и половинку полуторомиллиметровой полосочки, вручную вырезанной с фестонами и наколотой для имитации кружева по краю капюшона.

A rattle toy. Microbeads, 1,5 mm strips and a little piece of acetate.
Погремушка. Микробисер, полоски 1,5 мм и кусочек ацетата.

A teddy bear. A 3d applique, very small. I made a tutorial a couple of months ago. =)
Мишка-игрушка. Объемная флисовая аппликация, крошечная. Пару месяцев назад публиковала свой МК, правда, этот мишка вообще мелочь, к нему никаких МК не надо.

And finally all of them to understand the size, on my palm:
И, наконец, все вместе на моей ладошке, чтобы ощутить размер:

Thanks for looking! =)
Please, join us at Homyachok challenge blog for an express inchie challenge!!!
Спасибо всем, кто посмотрел и оценил! =)
Присоединяйтесь к нам с Хомячком на экспресс-задание про инчики!

And for those of you who hasn't gave up reading yet I have a little request!
Please, remember any superstitions, omens and predictions concerning the gender of an unborn baby and share with me =) I'm collecting those =) Thanks in advance for your response!
А к тем, кто еще не сдался и читает мою писанину, у меня маленькая просьба. Пожалуйста, вспомните, какие вы знаете приметы, поверья и гадания на тему определения пола будущего ребенка и поделитесь со мной ими, пожалуйста =) Я их коллекционирую =) Спасибо всем откликнувшимся!

Quilled bumble bee

2011-07-18T10:41:00.008+03:00

Homyachok challenge blog has started a new quilling challenge today!!! The title is Wings of summer - create any quilled project which must include at least one "thing with wings" and at least one flower (if you joined us for "Solo" challenge - use that flower in your work).
Things with wings can be different: butterflies, flies, bees, dragonflies, other winged insects, birds... or anything you can think of that has something to do with summer =)

When I got the task I thought about butterflies - that's obvious, but for me it was too obvious. So I looked for some inspiration on Inna's blog, she loves to quill insects, so I thought I could get some cute idea. But I stumbled upon another great "thing": Quilled Totoro toy! I LOVED the look of that little cute furry and fluffy creature =) Of course he has nothing to do with summer nor with wings =) But it brought an idea of making a nice fluffy 3D bumble bee! =)
So I started making paper fringes... it took ages =)
And finally I came up with this:

Front view:

A winged thing trying to find some honey in the solo flower =)

Actually when I was making this guy I expected it to become a little cute fluffy bee, but when I finished I had a feeling of Dr. Frankenstein! I made a monster! He's very big (like 4,5 cm / 2"), he weighs 3 g (0,1 oz), he has predatory antennae and scary hairy legs =) He really scares me, but I was courageous enough to touch this monster =)

Next I began arranging the project. Solo flower and the monster-bee. It turned out to be a card:

But it was the way too heavy and had too much dimension for a simple card.

So I made a kind of "home decor":
a flower in a vase with a bumblebee on top:

The flower has a wooden stem which is inserted in a bottle filled with aromatic oils of two green shades. So they not only look nice, but smell great too! =)

So, that were my "wings of summer". Would you like to join us too?

By the way, when I have almost finished my bumble bee and was happy that I "invented" such a thing... I found examples of fluffy bees:
Quilling by ManuK based on tutorial by Lora
Follow the second link to see a detailed tutorial.
Well, my bumblebee was made in a different way - it's bigger and consists of many parts... and probably later I'll post my own tutorial =)
Thanks for looking!!!

P.S.: I made a tutorial for this guy, so there you go:
English tutorial, Русский МК

Summer festival - homyachok challenge

2011-07-04T15:16:00.003+03:00

Being a designer in a team of Homyachok challenge blog, I'm glad to say that today a new challenge has started. This time it's not a quilling challenge, but a general one - actually you can make ANY project, using any technique and any supplies you like; no restrictions. But your work should correspond with the main topic. This time it's a Summer festival!

What I came up for participants inspiration is a... potholder =) Unexpected?
Well, my assosiations were like:
summer - warm - grass - green, bright and green =) And my kitchen is mostly green and lime-bright, so I thought that such an accessory will fit my kitchen well =)
festival - masquerade - funny costumes - fabric; sewing, fabric, little pieces like feather joining to create a whole piece of fun... quilting! So I made a little quilt potholder with a twist of green and bright colors.

The pattern I used is entirely designed by me, so I have no fine idea whether it has any analog, traditional name or any other author. I used 10 different pieces of fabric. I'm not a very experinced quilter, but I surely had fun making this thing =) And will probably make some more, 'cause my old potholders are blue and pink - and they don't fit my new green kitchen at all! =)
Thanks for looking, guys!
And be sure to check out other designer's works and join us at:

White cat 'happy birthday' card

2011-06-28T22:13:00.006+03:00

A card I made for my bff =) That's the girl I'm always trying to impress and it takes me a lot of time to make a proper card for her.
This year it's a card with a cat. Why cat?.. Frankly speaking the private life of my girlfriend isn't going very well, so her manicure artist thought of a trick for her: every nail art she gets has a tiny white male-cat on her little finger =) And she's going to have him until a proper male appears in her life.
I picked up this topic and wanted to make a bigger white cat - maybe he will help her to attract a nice man?..
That's the card itself:

The cat is completed designed by me =) When I was making my "tribal jewelry" I browsed some sites devoted to Native American art, and found a beautiful example...
Be sure to check out THIS LINK. Paper sculptures. Unfortunatelly, I don't know who the author is - if someone knows, let me know, pleeeeease!!! I was wowed by the gorgeous feather and hair work, and I knew I had to try something alike. Well, my work is very poor in comparison to those pieces of art, but I didn't try to copy it, just had some fun with paper hair technique.
Cat is paper pieced - it consists of 10 parts, I used scissors and some water to shape the pieces. How do you like my cat's fur? =) His eyes and nose are covered with glossy accent for some shine and dimension.

Cat stays on a silver plate surrounded with the seed bead frame. Plus some ribbons - white, shiny blue and silver, embellished with pearls. A few butterflies - thanks to Pastila for these punched wings ;)
The mat under the cat is processed with my CraftRobo - paws pattern, I glued this mat on little paper stacks so that it's obvious that the paw prints are cut out as they provide fine shadows.
And the card is the first easel-card I made.
That's the way it looks when opened:

With a sentiment plate saying "Happy birthday!" with punched and embossed corners.
For this card I used color combo from Colour create - Challenge 73? blue, grey and white.
which seemed to be too masculine at first, but then I remembered that blue is my bff's fave color, so I stuck to this scheme!

And a sketch by Арт-Уголок: Открытка №34 "В скобках"

The sketch is rotated 90 degrees, instead of dots I have paws and instead of flowers and buttons - a few butterflies.
Скетч повернула на 90 градусов, точки заменила лапками, а цветочки и пуговички - бабочками.

Having some ribbons I'm entering a Dream Valley Challenge #10 again - ribbons =)

Thanks for looking!

Wedding guestbook

2011-06-27T16:02:00.006+03:00

Completed a guestbook for one wedding, it was created for one bride who asked me to help. The photos are pretty gloomy though, because I was smart enough to think: "Great, I've done it! I'm going to give this book to the bride and then I'll take the photos with nice light and all..." - without a single thought of WHAT I was going to take pics of when I'd give away the guestbook =))) So the photos were made at night with poor lighting and not much care about the way it looks - just to show the bride that the order is complete.
So, the photos are:

It's a white satin book with deep purple ribbons and a title "Our wedding" - stitched and filled with seed beads and microbeads.

The details of the microbeaded title, I loved how it turned out, I used 5 hues of beads:

And the inside:

Very simple, ring bound, lilac pages with some little purple/white/silver stamping.

Having some cute ribbons on this book, I'm going to enter a challenge:
Dream valley challenge #10 - using a ribbon =)

And a wedding challenge at Арт Клуб
Присоединяюсь так же к заданию от Арт-клуба - Свадебный сезон

Thanks for looking!

Homyachok QUILLING challenge #1

2011-06-20T15:59:00.004+03:00

Ladies, I have great news!
First of all: I'm a member of quilling designer team for Homyachok challenge blog now =) Yay! I'm really honoured and excited, I never thought I'd ever be a designer, 'cause I heard too often that I'm good in theory and a poor crafter when it comes to practice... So I had to deal with tutorials, articles and such and never with 'designing'. And now I have a chance! Thanks for everyone who supported me!

And today the first quilling challenge on Homyachok blog is launched called 'Solo' and the task is to create one beautiful quilled flower.

There's my entry:

And a kind of close up to show the dimension and the central part:

The yellow rolls in the petals can be removed, and I still can't decide which way I like it better - with holes or yellow spots in petals.

I never paid much attention to the size of petals, and I always thought that natural petals never have the same size, so my flowers always had different petals =) This time I tried to make them all of one size. I even used a special ruler with circles to measure the rolls... and I was really surprised when petals, made of the rolls of the same size, turned out to be different! Wow... that's something to think about. And 'more practice' is definetely my next goal =)

That's the banner of the challenge:

Projects are accepted till the 10th of July. Come on join us! And anyway be sure to drop by and check out other designers' works! Personally I am amazed by the example of Katrin!

Thanks for looking!

P.S.: for those of you who don't speak Russian "homyachok" means "little hamster" ;)

Just for fun: 9 photos of certain color

2011-06-17T20:07:00.003+03:00

I picked up a tag-game on Lumara's blog: you leave a comment, get a color named and then post a picture of nine objects of this color you can find at your place.
Mine color was black!

In closer look many things that seem to be black are actually dark-grey, dark-brown or even green or blue! Besides, having a little purely white hairy creature at home prevents you from buying black things =)))
So, what I have found:
1. Chanel eyeshadows =) My favorite, having purples and grey-green inside of this black box.
2. Black toilet paper =) From my black bathroom which is not actually all-black, so I took a pic of the tissue only =)
3. Watches. Actually - my mom's. And not working. But they're black, right?
4. Ink, black ink. I'm still dreaming that I'll learn calligraphy one day!
5. Guess what? ;) A black-black, pure leather thing... that runs around the house and along with black-black pair of dots above this one on a white background makes a pretty muzzle=)
6. hmm... oops ;) that's an intimate thingie... well, supposed to be. In fact it stays in a pencil jar with pens and markers and I just love how it feels to touch! And no dirty thoughts, please! ;)
7. a black plastic bag, with fresh strawberries I bought at the market tonight =) Smells great!
8. Sony PS3 controller. My husband's thing. I have a silver one :-p
9. And a terrifying final: a knife! All knifes we have have black handles. Stylish and serious =)

If you wanna play along - ask for color =)

Люба в своем блоге устроила флеш-моб: оставляешь комментарий, она придумывает цвет, а ты ищешь дома 9 предметов нужного цвета и фоткаешь их.
Мне достался черный! "черный-черный как моя душа" (как говорил мистер Бернс из Симпсонов)
Что у меня на картинке:
1. Тени Chanel =) Мои любимые. Фиолетовые и серо-зеленые внутри.
2. Черная туалетная бумага =) Из моего черного туалета, который сам не настолько черен, чтоб его показывать целиком.
3. Часики. Моей мамы. Не работают. Но черные же? =)
4. Чернилки. Черные. Для черных чертиков по четвергам для чертежей... Все еще мечтаю научиться каллиграфии.
5. Угадай кто =))) Натуральная кожа! =) Вместе с двумя черными точками над этой штучкой на белом фоне она являет собой очаровательную моську, которая почти 16 лет носится по дому и радует меня =)
6. ой, такая провокационная штучка ;) точнее должна быть. А стоит у всех на виду среди каранадшей. Мне она просто нравится. И никаких грязных мыслишек, пожалста ;)
7. черный пакетик. Купила сегодня клубники на рынке - в таком вот пакете. Пахнет офигенно =)
8. Джойстик Sony PS3. Мужнин. Мой - серебристый =) И где он - я не знаю =)))
9. И такой вот жуткий финал - страшный зубастый ножик =) У нас все ножи черные. Стильные и строгие =)

Хотите поиграть - спросите про цвет ;)

Hairpin "July morning"

2011-06-15T14:58:00.005+03:00

As a guest designer invites to Challenge for clay blog I was asked to provide some inspiration in the next challenge. And today the new challenge has started: Summer: Green leaf
That's my example:

This time I hardly could think of something extraordinary, so I clung to the essense of the challenge - green leaf - and made it literally. A green leaf (probably a cherry leaf), and a ladybug on it. Natural size. Used fleur group clay (unfortunatelly, I closed the package not too tight last time and the most of it dried out =((( that was a great pity! a lot of material wasted and the rest wasn't as fresh and elastic as it should be =( ). For the leaf I used a real leaf (for texture), scissors (for edges) and oil & acrylic paint (for color) Had the most difficulty with the bug - tried to mimic its color, all the dots&eyes, legs and antennae =)
Added some dew drops (tried glossy accent - that's an awesome thing!) to make the work look more natural.
And that's how this thing looks being used as it's meant to =) A hairpin:

Thanks for looking! And come on, join us at Challenge for clay!

Rinchies & Little fun blog update

2011-06-13T20:12:00.003+03:00

Hi!
Some quick news. As some of you know, lately I've become addicted to miniatures. That's why I loved the idea of Little fun challenge blog. But its owner, dja-karta, faced some private life problems and she can't take of the blog any more. I thought it's a pity that such a nice thing will be wasted and offered my help. So since today I'm a co-author of that blog. It's all about the little things: inchies, tags, ATCs, mathcboxes etc.
And so today I started a new challenge: Round fun. Create a rinchie with circle embellishments, submit your creation till the 12th of July and win a prize from ART hobby online store!

В последнее время меня тянет на мелочи. Потому мне нравилась идея блога Little fun. Однако его владелица и автор, dja-karta, в силу личных причин решила отойти от дел. Мне стало жалко такое благое начинание и я предложила свою помощь, так что теперь я соавтор этого блога =) Блог посвящен заданиям на мелкие темы - инчики, тэги, АТС, мэтчбоксы и прочие крошечки.
Сегодня я объявила о новом задании: Круглые кругляшки. До 12 июля нужно сделать ринчик (кружочек диаметром 25 мм), украшенный кругами, и тогда можно будет выиграть приз от магазина АРТ хобби! Присоединяйтесь!

Some rinchies I created for "inspiration":

Purple stitch&beads rinchie with a quilled rose

Cheese & mouse rinchie

A button rinchie =) with bling

So come on, join us! =)

Wedding card - quilled

2011-06-09T11:03:00.004+03:00

I haven't been quilling for a pretty long time and I decided that I should take it up again since I really missed my strips =) And I had a very good reason to pick the tool up again - wedding of a beautiful couple.
There's a card I made for them:

A heart filled with all kinds of flowers has a negative-space "04.06" sentiment inside of it. That's actually the date of their wedding.
There's one more photo with slightly different light and some more shadows:

With this card I'm going to enter some challenges:
* Divas by design - florals; well, I hope it's obvious =)
* For Fun challenges - a wedding giftcard holder. Sorry, I have no photo of the inside - there was some handwritten sentiment and a pocket for "material" gift. Nothing really too special and a little too personal to take a pic of. But believe me, this card WAS a package for the wedding gift =)
* Polly craft challenge - Love & marriage. Didn't use any stamps on the card... but I hope it still qualifies for the challenge ;)
* Творим вместе - express-challenge "Ice-cream". Must be inspired with ice-cream. I love ice-cream! And my inspiration picture is:
Экспресс-задание "Мороженое". Вдохновляемся мороженым. Я люблю мороженое =) Мое вдохновение выглядело так:

Сама форма и розочки - вот и усеяла все сердечко цветочками. Правда, я не люблю розовый цвет, потому на открытке его немного и оттенок более сиреневато-перламутроватый, да и приглашения на свадьбу - оливково-золотистые с желтовато-болотными розочками - наталкивали на другие мысли. Потому могу сказать, мое сердечко больше фисташково-ванильное с черносмородными прожилками =) Так вкуснее!

Thanks for looking!

"Tribal" themed jewelry - eagle

2011-06-01T12:38:00.007+03:00

My pancakes and raspberries got into the top three projects in
Challenge for clay, so I was flattered to be invited as a guest designer. I'm really very happy to be chosen, but at the same time I feel a little unsure about it. Especially when I heard the today's challenge: Ethnics. It must be a piece of jewelry made of clay and having something to do with culture, traditions and/or be inspired by some tribes, ethnic groups and peoples from all over the world.
I'm really confused a little about the jewelry thing - I'm a tomboy when it comes to jewelry. =) I wear either genuine gold/silver & gems - usually given as a present by my family, something small, elegant and precious, or nothing. And since I don't wear any 'fake' jewelry, I have no idea what it should be like =) So, that's my first attempt, don't be too strict =)))

When I heard the task for the challenge I immediately thought about Africa or India: animal-fur patterns, bones, primitive art... But then I understood that it's the way too obvious, so I changed my mind. What I came up with is Native American culture. I had very limited time, so unfortunatelly I couldn't investigate the culture, all the signs and techniques used by Native American artists, so I'm really sorry if any of you note any essential blunders in my work =) I was just inspired by some general impression I got from paintings and a dream-catcher I bought a few years ago in the US as a souvenire.
So, there's the necklace I made:

I started with a dream-catcher. I tried my best to make a real one - hope it worked out =) Then I added some bright beads - as a symbol of bright sky and freedom =) and a suede cord. Two wooden beads - just wanted something natural to be there too, and two teeny-tiny dreamcatchers with handmade feathers.

To understand the size:

And the clay thing there is an eagle. A bald eagle, a symbol of America, freedom and pride. He soars in the sky towards bright sun and spreads his wings to hug the whole world =) I made this guy from 'fleur group' clay. Painted with acrylics. Used the tiniest brushes I could find and pins to make him and color. The eyes are made from microbeads. He is not symmetrical. When I made a blank figure I saw his wings being of different size and wanted to correct it, but my husband said that I shouldn't - the bird looks more true-to-life this way. I also bent his head slightly, so that he looks even more "alive" - as if he was going to turn and fly around the sun. =)

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at my first try =)

By the way, today I also have a tutorial published on "Keeping the best" blog: tear bear technique.
А еще сегодня опубликовалась моя заметка в блоге "Сохраняя лучшее": техника tear bear с помощью подручных материалов. Заходите, посмотрите =) .

Хомячок challenge

2011-05-26T13:14:00.003+03:00

Новый блог Хомячок challenge разыгрывает конфетку:

до 1-го июля.

А еще у них проходит набор в дизайн-команду по квиллингу: вот здесь.

Надо показать свои квиллинговые работы, пусть у меня будет эта:

Это такая загадка: в негативе там в цветочном круге выложено имя Аня. Издалека или в уменьшенном варианте читается проще. ;)
Другие еще можно посмотреть в блоге по тэгу quilling.

4th wedding anniversary card

2011-05-23T08:29:00.003+03:00

Yesterday my husband and I were celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary. Each anniversary usually has a name, this one is not very popular, but turned out to have three names: linen/flax, wax and silk.
Recently I've been interested in the idea of making a card according to the anniversary title (even wrote an article about that: Открытки к важным датам - sorry folks, Russian only, but can translate with no problem if someone cares =) )
So, I had a wonderful opportunity to experiment with my own anniversary.
That's a linen-wax-silk card I made for my husband:

Used lilac color because we had a lilac wedding, lilacs are like a symbol for us.
So, the card's covered with a piece of linen, embellished with lilac silk hem stitching (God, I practiced it when I was in pre-school for the last time =))) ) - and another symbol: each stitch wraps 4 threads ;)

Two hearts outlined with wax paint and flax seeds are cut outs. And in between the hem stitches I inserted a piece of real wax. Painted with wax paint a little too. It can be taken out and rolled in a candle. Didn't have a chance to do it so far, but I'll show you what it looks like when it comes to rolling =)
So, with this card I'm entering a challenge:
Pals paper arts - sketch:

Thanks for looking!

Food miniature: pancakes or crepe

2011-05-20T08:15:00.006+03:00

Ladies and gentlemen, Russian pancakes with sour cream and raspberries!
Дамы и господа, блинчики со сметаной и малиной! угощайтесь =)

Made of clay, plaint and microbeads. A dime coin nearby to understand the size
Сделано из глины. Сметана - краска, малинки из глины, обсыпанной микробисером. Виднеются еще настоящие 10 копеек, для масштаба

Сheck out the size, on my palm:
Еда у меня на ладони:

Didn't know how to call these - pancakes or crepe, since the traditional pancakes should be thick and spongy. These, Russian pancakes, must be as thin as possible and with lacy texture, the light should propagate the pancake well, the next photo demonstrates it:
Настоящие русские блинчики должны быть тоненькими и кружевными, чтобы через них свет могу проходить, вот такой у меня блинок на просвет, дыыыырчатый =)

That's my another entry in Challenge for clay - #4, food miniature, till the 20th of May.
Еще одна попытка для Challenge for clay - #4, кулинарная миниатюра, последний день сегодня, надеюсь, успеваю.

Thanks for looking!
P.S.: Should I put a new label "miniatures" in my blog?..

Mexican cuisine ATC

2011-05-14T20:47:00.005+03:00

Hi all!
First of all, ladies, I need some support, being nervous lately. Last weekend had to call an emergency for my doggie, and today we are just back home from the surgery. She's a strong little old lady, she's almost 16 now, but so far she feels good sleeping on my lap. Poor little thing, I'll have to perform a lot of manipulations to her tonight... Send us some smiles, please, we need it for recovery!

And now to the post subject. I had two ATCs: Italian cuisine and French cuisine. And I'm going to continue the series.
I found a challenge
Нашла челленж, хочу поучаствовать: Challenge for clay/ - #4, food miniature, till the 20th of May.

I thought it would be a great try!!! I used clay for creating three traditional mexican dishes.
Использовала полимерную глину (флер-груп) для создания трех мексиканских блюд

There's my entry:

First dish: guacamole

A half of avocado is made of clay, a bead is in th center. Painted with acrylics. a pile of guacamole with little red chunks (microbeads), and a couple of paper chips.
Check out the size of avocado and its rough colored skin:

Гуакамоле. Половинка авокадо из глины с бусинкой-ядром, покрашено акрилом. Оцените морщинистую кожицу сзади и размер ;) Плюс кучка закуски с микробисером и пара кукурузных чипсов из бумаги

Second dish: carnitas tacos

Taco shells are made of paper (crimpled and painted); the stuffing consists of tiny clay pieces: tomatoes, meat, greens, even tried to make a smaaaall asparagus stem. The green leaf under tacos is also made of clay =)
Мясные тако. Лепешки из бумаги, а листик салата и начинка - глиняные.

Third dish: tres leches (three milks) cake:

Clay + paint (+wire for cherry stems). Sponge cake with cream and topping and a cherry for embellishment.
Please, check out the size and the texture =)

I really loved the cake texture, though i tried to make it for the first time ever.
Торт "три молока". Давно мечтала сделать микро-бисквит, вдохновляясь работами marusic. Вышло, конечно, не так гениально, но для первого раза результат, имхо, очень неплох =) Соус - краска. Вишенка с листиком из глины, черешки - проволока.

Thanks for looking! Спасибо, что зашли!

To whom it may concern

2011-05-01T09:30:00.002+03:00

Lately I've been p*ssed off by my livejournal: can't view the friends' updates, can't open up any "cuts", can't post, can't comment - just because it's always down and I was mad at that "Zero sized reply" message I got 100 times a day! So, ok, I thought, hell with you, LJ, I'll stay at my blog here.. "Ha-ha, - said Google, - wanna more freedom? Be free!" - and threw me away from this damn blogger. And closed my google-account. Thus I could neither write anything, nor view my own blog, nor find any blogs I followed, and of course couldn't comment and lead my normal life of some blogs co-author. Hardly got it back today morning.
Sorry about that, guys!
But there's little I could do about it =( And I have no fine idea whether these problems will be back, when and how, and what to do %\ So, on one beautiful day I'll probably move to some other place - where everything depends on me and not some f*cking stupid service like this google-account.
Thank you for understanding!!!
And sorry for swearing ;)

Для тех, кто интересовался, что случилось с моим блогом. Гугл решил, что я произвожу "нетипичную активность", и вырубил на фиг мой аккаунт, в следствие чего - ни посмотреть, ни написать, ни прокомментировать, ни отредактировать - вообще ничего и никак, даже зайти не могу, заодно и блог вынес к чертям. С трудом восстановила сегодня утром. Будет ли это безобразие повторяться - понятия не имею, не от меня зависит. Служба поддержки, как все знают, на блоггере отсутствует в принципе. Так что если что - извиняйте, не моя вина %\
Вообще задолбало уже, комменты писать не могу, ЖЖ вечно падает, найду место поприличнее - уйду туда... %-Е

French cuisine ATC

2011-04-28T21:19:00.003+03:00

I managed to make another ATC for Little fun challenge - create an ATC devoted to kitchen theme - cooking, recipes, cooks, cook ware etc.
Same style as the previous one, but it's 'France' this time:

Never thought that it would take me thaaaat long to think of most popular French dishes %\

Entry dish: l'escargot:

Tissue paper twisted around a piece of wire and swirled into a snail. Plus some paper greenery and painted "garlic butter sauce"

Foie gras:

with a pile of mashed potatoes, red onion and a half of fig.
Used clay for those. Foie gras is glossy and is dripping with juice... The fig is made of two types of floss and microbeads in the center. Plus some cut fiber herbs.

And cheese as desert:

Fromage. A piece of baguette, three types of cheese: yellow with holes, white with ash-layer and a blue-marbled piece (oops, the photo doesn't show that %\) with white flaky crust. And some grapes (beads) at the side of the dish.

I was hurrying, so the quality's not perfect... but I loved working with it =) I'll make a couple of ATCs more. Anyone wanna swap? ;)

Italian cuisine ATC

2011-04-27T17:48:00.004+03:00

Little fun challenge blog has challenge: create an ATC devoted to kitchen theme - cooking, recipes, cooks, cook ware etc. I'm almost late; wanted to make a little series, but came up with one ATC only =( Maybe later I'll make more.
That's my entry:

It's a card devoted to the most popular dishes of Italian cuisine.

Insalata Caprese - tomatoes, mozzarella and basil:

Tomatoes are punched from paper, drew seeds by hand, mozzarella circles are punched from old unused ear plugs (white and soft); plus some threads to imitate herbs.

Spaghetti bolognese:

Fiber-floss spaghetti, acrylic paint as sauce, seed beads as cherry tomatoes or meat balls. Plus some cut floss herbs.

Tiramisu:

Seed beads to imitate cookies, white acrylics as cream, shaved pencil as cocoa powder; strawberry is made of paper, paint and microbeads. Some sauce is painted.

I'm off to have dinner =)

Second expecting layout

2011-04-26T13:05:00.003+03:00

Completed the second 8"x8" layout for my future 'pregnancy album'.
Вторая страничка для "ожидательного" альбома, 20 см на 20 см

I used sketch offered by Studio scrapbooking:
Использовала скетч Studio scrapbooking

Sketch is mirrored and turned 90 degrees.
Отзеркаленный и повернутый, надеюсь, он все еще узнаваем =)

Entering this challenge, of course =)

The color combo is taken from colourQ challenge #82:

Greens & blues (+ lots of white) also makes me want to enter Southern Girls' challenge: green & blue =)

So, what do we have here? Green background with white flowers, white handmade paper with lovely blue dried flowers in it - I brought it from France, embellished with torn blue edges. The inner window has a dreamcatcher weaving of yellow fibers there with beads. Instead of real photos I have a USD image, a month pregnancy calendar and a handmade embellishment of a raccoon sleeping on a cloud (with beaded stars hanging below). The raccoon is 100% handmade - I used a 'tear bear' technique, as some of you know it's perfect for mulberry paper, but I failed to find thick and suitable paper for that, so I had to make paper myself too! It's made of paper napkins and cotton. =) Loved the result! The raccoon symbolizes me =) I was veeeeeery sleepy during the second month.
Так, что у нас тут имеется. Фон - зелененький с цветочками, такой же, как и на первой странице использовала, значит, будет потом что-то типа "целостного" разворота =) Поверх - белая бумага ручной работы с синими засушенными цветочками; еще и пахнет приятно, ее купила в маленьком бумажном магазине в Париже. В тон голубым цветочкам добавила рваные края из рисовой бумаги Rayher. Внутри сделала окошко - оно заполнено плетением а ля "ловец снов" из желтых ниточек с бисером.
Правда, вместо трех фотографий у меня всего одна - в тот месяц больше не сделали, так что только узи-снимок. Вместо других фотографий - календарик и енот, спящий на облаке. Енот - 100% хендмейд. Опробовала технику tear bear - готова даже поделиться маленьким МК по созданию подобного. Техника задумана для бумаг ручной работы, а особенно тутовой (она же малберри), но в наших краях мне приличной тутовой купить не удалось - или оооочень тонкая, или оооочень волосатая, или не того цвета, или с какими-то листиками-семечками, или один лист тутовой в наборе с кучей не очень нужного за тыщу рублей... В итоге я решилась на эксперимент! Я сделала бумагу сама, из салфеток и ваты! Безумно довольна результатом. Думала, будет очень сложно, очень грязно, очень непонятно, но получившаяся пушистая и объемная енотовая моська меня очень радует в итоге =) Спит она (моська, то есть мое олицетворение) на облачке из ваты, дублированном рисовой же бумагой, с висюльками-бисерными звездочками (звездочки - это подарок от Maniasha) - потому что весь второй месяц я безумно хотела спать. Тему сна поддерживает и "ловец снов"... А еще не могла есть сладкое, потому там еще конфетка в запрещающем знаке есть...
И поддерживая тему бисера - пара бисерных кругов. Идею увидела на открытках raphiya, очень понравилось, вот применила по-своему.

With this "recycled paper" raccoon I'm entering the challenge of If The Shoe Fits challenge blog - Happy Earth Day, reuse, recycle, renew.

As long as a raccoon is an animal, I'm entering a Corrosive Challenge by Janet - Challenge 113, animals =)

And the cotton cloud makes me wanna enter Little Red Wagon challenge #77 - clouds =)

The USD image is a pocket, which hides some USD info:
УЗИшный снимок - это кармашек, где сбоку торчат усики, если за них потянуть - вылезет тэг, где записаны данные о первом узи - что, когда, как, сколько =)

The calendar is a flap too, it's fastened with a brad above it. I'm not sure I want to show how it looks open - I wrote private journaling in there, so either the picture will be all blurred out, or I'll have to tell all of my secrets =) Sorry, guys ;)
Календарик - это тоже клапан-секрет, он держится за брад и может быть отогнут. Но вот показать фотку "как он выглядит открытым" я стесняюсь - там целая история с личными ощущениями и воспоминаниями, так что мне или рассказывать все мои секреты придется, или фотка будет вся размазанная и растертая до нечитабельности, так что простите, пока не могу решиться ;)

I also hid a positive hcg test: see the little striped thingie below the calendar? With a little blue tip? Pull the tip and the test will get out of its pocket. ;)
А еще в этой страничке прячется положительно-полосатый тест на беременность, который в "полный рост" я тоже стесняюсь показать. Видите полосатую полоску под календариком? Там еще кончик синенький внизу? Вот если за этот синий кончик потянуть - достанется сам тест ;)

Thanks for looking!
Have a good day!
Спасибо, что зашли =) Приятного Вам дня!

Cheese cupcakes with berries

2011-04-25T16:03:00.005+03:00

Usually I don't write recipes here, though I publish them to my Russian blog (http://whiteracoon.livejournal.com), but the LJ service is constantly down and I can't neither post there, nor read my own stuff.
So I decided to put some yummy recipes here too, just for myself and, probably, some of you will be interested in them too.
Today I'm telling about the best cupcakes I ever tried. Well, to my taste they are perfect, but my husband said I cooked better deserts =)

For 18 cupcakes:

Crust:
100 g (3 1/2 oz) butter,
75 g (2 1/2 oz) sugar (better confectionery sugar)
1 egg yolk
180 g (6 1/3 oz) all-purpose flour

Filling:
250 g (9 oz) curd, farmer cheese - not sure if it's sold at your place, but you can always make some out of milk; or take riccota or any other cheese sudstance with curds - but drain it well
150 g (5 oz) cream cheese (Philadelphia works well)
80 g (3 oz) sugar (or confectionery sugar)
3 eggs (yolks and whites SEPARATELY)
100 g (3 1/2 oz) all-purpose flour
4 table spoons of crushed almonds
a few drops of almond and vanilla extracts

Topping
18 berries or bite-sized fruits; it can be strawberries, cherries (look very funny when you leave the stems!), large blueberries; pineapple chunks; absolutely anything you might think of. Cherries and strawberries were great; if you doubt whether the fruit will taste good with almonds - exclude the latter from the recipe.

Directions
Make a crust - just mix everything, form a ball and let it rest in a fridge for a half of an hour.

For the filling: beat egg yolks with sugar untill the mixture turns white, add both types of cheese carefully and mix it all well. Add flour, almonds and the drops of extracts, mix. Whip the egg whites (FOUR! three from the eggs for the filling and one left from the crust) until you can cut them with a knife - as if you were going to bake a merengue. Add the whites carefully into the cheese mixture.

Divide the crust dough into 18 pieces and place them into the cupcake molds: cover the bottom or spread some on the sides too. Place the molds into the preheated to 180C (360F) oven for 5-10 mins, until the crust is light-yellow.
Take it out and fill the molds with cheese mixture up to 2/3 and top each with a berry, squeeze the berry in. Put in back into the oven and bake until the cupcakes turn golden. Take out and cool.
They taste best when they are still warm. The crust is crunchy, the fillinf is puffy and soft and the fruit is juicy; the cupcake is sweet and the fruit is a little sour - it combines everything I like!

First I tried it with raw cherries. Next - I tried it with strawberries, didn't have fresh ones, had to use frozen berries. The more moisture the berry contains, the bigger the cavity in the filling appears to be:

Frozen berries contain a lot of water, so cavities appear to be pretty big. I thought that doesn't look very cute and that's what I came up with^ use this cavity for extra topping!!!
Fill it with whipped cream, cream cheese, yogurt, condensed milk, any kind of sauce, jam or syrup; you may fill it with hot semolina porridge, pudding, or anything! Or fill it with jelly and put into fridge to make a jelly filling! A lot of ideas what to add to these cupcakes =)
Enjoy:

Thanks for looking!

Оригинал записи в ЖЖ

Altered book

2011-04-15T19:33:00.011+03:00

Today Altered art challenge blog has a new challenge published - make an altered book.
Some time ago I wrote an article about altered books (Russian only), there were some ideas I liked. Although I'm absolutely not attracted to any altered objects - I prefer either something 'made of paper and meant to be made of paper' (e.g. layouts, cards) or something useful and practical. I hardly understand embellishing a drinking glass with paper flowers or making a paper box with paper ruffles meant for storing keepsakes - you can't wash it, you can't really dust it... Well, that's just my bugs =)
This time I made an 'extraordinary' thing =) I actually made a paper card holder (useless and dust-gathering =) ).
There it is:

It's an altered book. Once upon a time it was a philosophy textbook. Frankly speaking, it's not mine. I got it from a pal to get ready for a PhD exam. The exam was passed successfully, though the book was absolutely useless then. I wanted to return it, but my pal refused to take it back, and offered to pass it on. Noone wanted it too, so it stayed sadly at my work place.

Finally I decided to make something of it. While writing an article, I found a gorgeous example:

This thing's done by Isaac Salazar, whose gallery can be found on flickr, and pieces of art can be bought at www.bookofart.etsy.com
I loved it. And wanted to make something alike. But it turned out that a book should have a perfect condition for it. 600 pages are not always bound that well to make a clear sentiment by folding. Plus I'd need a loooot of time, a loooot of patience (like marking each and every of 600 pages with a pencil and a ruler) and the sharpest knife ever. So actually I failed. But when I started folding the pages, I found out that the book stays open and looks funny:

So I decorated the cover with patterned paper, made paper fans to cover the sides; painted the pages with white acrylics - when you fold the pages your hands&nails turn black and so do the pages, I had to white them out.

Made a few flower bookmarks and added a little stack of note papers + a pencil.
So this thing can be used as a card holder: tuck in the cards, the notes and such.

Thanks for looking! Have a good day!

P.S.: Some Russian lady, Litvinova, claims that she's a genius who bought author's rights of a tutorial how to make this very thing and it's been published in some issue of Russian magazine Scrap-info. I don't know her, I haven't seen the magazine - I can't even tell whether it's the same thing or not. I provided a link to the artist whose artwork inspired me - Isaac Salazar; and my work is just a by-product of my fiasco to make something alike.
From my point of view - folding pages in half is an easy-peasy technique which needs neither explanation, nor tutorial (oh my, tutorial how to fold a page in half! that must be very important, extremely hard and truly unique! =))) no, I mean, are you serious? =) I thought folding-paper-in-half tutorials are necessary either for 2 years old toddlers or mentally retarded people; luckily, I belong to none of those =) ) But ok, since she's so annoying and mean about that - I'll give a link to her blog and provide the info as soon as she stops accusing me of abusing her author's right (once again, that tutorial actually is NOT her own idea, but she bought it from someone (mydesertcottage.blogspot.com)) and manages to find the issue number and send her link (which I also do not recommend to visit since publisher's agreement don't let her publish the tutorial there, so if you're looking for altered book tutorial it's useless).
I also wonder why the heck should I post a link to her blog since the idea's not hers and her blog doesn't contain the tutorial. To flatter her star mania?..
I'm not guilty, my conscience's crystal clear; and I do not give any guarantee that the info I'll post about that mystical tutorial will actually have anything to do with altered books, but I want no problems with these silly accusations and people having superiority complex.

Little fun challenge #1

2011-03-31T20:12:00.002+03:00

dja-karta has a new blog, devoted to the challenges of miniatures (inchies, rinchies, atc and other small things). The first challenge is to make a birthday themed inchie.
I'm in!
That's my inchie:

Why is it birthday themed? Well, in russian when we wish a "happy birthday" we often say "happy jam day!", it has nothing to do with jam actually, but sounds a little alike and funny... hmmm, let's say it's like "happy broth-day!" =)
So I made an inchie with a jar of raspberry jam! All raspberries are quilled from the thinnest strips I could cut - like 1 mm. Couldn't use a quilling tool, used a pin and fingers to quill the parts. The greenery is also cut manually.
The top of the jar is covered with a fabric lid - made of gingham ribbon.
And there's a little bee - made of yellow i-clay, the strips are drawn with a pen and wings are made of shiny fiber, not glued - they pop up a little.

That's it, thanks for looking!

Keeping the best - my debut

2011-03-28T13:27:00.006+03:00

Some of you know that I'm a co-author of a challenge blog Keeping the best

And today we have the 7th sketch published, it's created by Tancha. I had a lovely opportunity to make a layout for the blog, my first one ever published, so I'm very excited.

It's a beginning of my new project. An 8" by 8" (20 cm by 20 cm) album devoted to the "time of expectation". So I started from the very beginning: month #1.

I changed the sketch a little to fit my idea =) It is turned 90 degrees and instead of 1 photo I used 5 ones. It's a photo of my husband and I - both of us in Paris, looking at each other; each of us looking up hopefully (me at the wedding and he just some other day - just love that photo of him!); and two pics of us as babies. It took me 5 hours to find a photo of me as a baby where I smile. Though I'm not 100% sure that it's me %\ I'm a very unsociable person, and as a baby I was always frowning, pouting or sulking at the camera. So it's a miracle I found a photo where that little girl isn't behaving like a gargoyle =) The rest of the photo space is taken by a large question mark blurred with blue - as a sign of the upcoming surprise =)
The photos are framed with satin ribbon, embellished with seed beads and set in place with brads.

As a background I used two types of paper: deep purple textured foiled paper by Rayher and green paper with white flocked flowers by Creative Imaginations. It feels really cool to touch! Purple paper is also used for the title alphas - cut manually.

The journaling consist of two parts: a part of calender and some words, they say: "Let the life begin! We don't suspect anything and lead our normal life. Exactly on the 14th of Jan I signed up the fitness club membership and trained hard three times a week; had a night out with my girlfriend with a glass of Chili wine. And meanwhile wonderful and magical changes are happening in our life..."

And some embellishments: satin, organza and fleece ribbons; a handmade plush bear (the same technique used as in my "New year card", just a smaller one):

On the other side - a handmade baby shaker - some quilling + a drug blister filled with beads and microbeads:

I also used sticker flowers (bought at Accessorize store - sometimes they have pretty cute stickers!), stamen (Pastila, thanks!), one quilled fringed flower and a few brads.

The journaling flap (surrounded with torn rice paper edge of light blue color - to support the color and the fluffy bear) stays in place due to the thin rubber bands which hold two blue buttons. When released the flap can be opened. I'll use it later for some secret and private journaling ;)

So, that's my debut. Thanks for looking!

"I love you, Life" poem

2011-03-19T12:29:00.003+02:00

When I showed my latest card I said that one day I'll probably translate that wonderful song I was inspired with so that everyone could feel how great it is. So I did it. Don't judge too serious, please ;) It's not easy to keep the meaning, set the rhyme and yet let the song be singable to the same tune.
There it is:
I'm in love with you, Life,
It's not new nor it is unexpected,
I'm in love with you, Life,
Once again I'm in love unaffected
Lights in windows are lit,
Finished job, coming home, feeling tired,
I love life - I admit
Its improvement is purely desired

I have got reall' a lot:
Th'vast of land and the valley of ocean,
I know true friendship knot -
Selfless male friendship with no commotion.
In the sound of each day
I'm so happy that restless I've been,
I've got love on my way
Do you know, Life, that wonderful feeling?
I've got love on my way
Do you know, Life, that wonderful feeling?

Nightingales sing above
Twilight, kiss at the break of the morning...
And the climax of love
Is the offspring that is life's adorning.
And with them we'll repeat
Childhood, youth, all the stations and piers
Next we'll have the grandkids
Once again we'll go through all those years...

Oh the time's flying by
And we grieve seeing hair turning gray now
Do you, Life, keep in mind
Those who died for you keeping their vow? (literally there were "soldiers who died defending you")
Shall the joy and the strife
Sound in trumpets that praise spring and May-day
I'm in love with you, Life,
And I hope that you're feeling the same way.
I'm in love with you, Life,
And I hope that you're feeling the same way.

Blog problems - need help

2011-03-17T18:15:00.004+02:00

Hi all!
Lately I've been experiencing unexplainable problems with blogs: I can't leave comments whereever the comment form is embedded in post. If it pops up in a new window - it's ok, if it's below post - I can't. =((( I even had to change the form for my own blog from "below post" to "a pop-up window" 'cause I can't leave thanks for commenters too! I would love to comment some of the blogs so much, but I can't =( No errors, no messages, just can't click neither "Post", nor "Preview". No matter what profile I choose.
And today I've got even more problems - couldn't log in for half of an hour! %\ no errors, nothing's wrong, the page's just reloaded and that's it.
Does anyone know how to deal with it? Any suggestions? Any ideas what to check and how to fix?
Thanks in advance for any help!

Всем привет!
Недавно у меня начались проблемы с блогом, не могу оставлять комментарии в блогах, где форма для комментария расположена в посте или под ним. Если открывается в отдельном окне - могу, пришлось себе даже такой вид поставить, а то и спасибо сказать не получается =( Ошибок не выдает, ничего не происходит, просто не могу нажать на "Отправить" и все. Не зависимо от выбираемого профиля. Так что прошу прощения, что не комментирую то, что хотелось бы =(
А сегодня вообще ужас - не могу залогиниться полчаса, ни ошибок, ничего, просто перезагрузка логин-страницы. %\
Кто-нибудь знает, что с этим можно сделать? Как бороться? Есть идеи, что проверить, как починить?
Заранее спасибо!

Nightingales sing so well..

2011-03-17T13:11:00.013+02:00

That's a card I completed today. Another try of a "card for a daddy-to-be".
Закончила открытку, еще одна проба "для будущего отца"

There is one Russian song, it's very old and dramatic. You can listen to it here:

I'm fully absorbed by the lyrics. It's called "I love you, Life". Probably I'll try to translate it in a poem one day, because it worths being translated! (UPD: Actually I did it, so you can read the translation here) It's not i-wuv-u-hunny or sloppy-sleezy song, it's very mature and serious, it's about a person's love to the life - to the land, to the time, to friends and such. One of the verses says: "Nightingales sing to well... Twilight, a kiss by the dawn... And the peak of the Love is... the biggest miracle of all - Children". So I was inspired by this part of the song and wanted to make a card based on it.
It's a tunnel-card, the first I ever made. The couple is cut with the help of my CraftRobo, the rest - grass, branches and the little nightingale are cut manually. =)
The background is colored with pencils and with silver gel pen to imitate the dawn; the layers of tunnel go from black to lilac through two shades of purple.
Есть такая песня, особенно мне нравится в исполнении Георга Отса: Я люблю тебя, Жизнь. Очень проникновенная и волшебная, да сами послушайте! Никаких там сюси-муси, уси-пуси, а очень серьезно и красиво. Один из куплетов начинается так: "Как поют соловьи, полумрак, поцелуй на рассвете... И вершина любви - это чудо великое, дети." Именно эта фраза и легла в основу открытки.
Это моя первая открытка-туннель, 3 оттенка фиолетового, изображающие рассвет; черные силуэты, немного серебристых акцентов. Силуэт пары вырезал КрафтРобо, все веточки, травку и птичку - резала я ножницами сама. =)

Some close-ups: Пара углов поближе

The flap on the right is a little box, tied with a bow, when you open it the phrase "And the peak of love is..." is finished with "greatest miracle, children" and a positive pregnancy test. Some space is left for the happy sentiment like "Honey, you're going to be a father soon!"
А справа - "секрет", завязанный бантиком. Открываешь этот кармашек-конвертик-коробочку, а там лежит позитивный тест, написано окончание фразы "чудо великое, дети", ну и чуть-чуть места для разъяснений непонятливым типа "Поздравляю, скоро мы будем родителями!"

Well, I like the card, though it took a lot of time to cut all those things and put them all together.
I'm entering the following challenges with it:
Участвую в заданиях:
ABC Challenge - Q is for quote. I quoted the song. Цитата 22.03
Оглянись вокруг - ОВ-21, Очарование первоцветов / Miracle of the first blossoms. I was inspired by the picture of a crocus: Вдохновлялась этим крокусом - он фиолетовый и прозрачный, хорошо силуэт прорисован.. 05.04

I took this color combo and the silhouette effect.
My-Scrap.ru - March challenge, inspiration by the photo: Задание марта, вдохновляемся фотографией 20.03

Design house L.A.E. - challenge 8, envelopes. Hope my envelope-box-flap on the right counts =) задание 8, Конверты. Надеюсь, моя правая "секретная" часть считается. 31.03
Мой мир скрапбукинга - 100% paper and only paper. 26.03Бумага и только бумага. Собственно, у меня там ничего больше и нет, еще клей только. Атласную ленточку по правилам нельзя, но про кусочек капроновой правила молчат =) Впрочем, если нужно, можно и ее заменить на бумажную ленточку. UPD: ок, раз велено заменить, вуаля - бумажный шнур вместо ленты:

Файне Хобби - Birds are returning from the south. Use a bird. Птицы с юга прилетают. На работе должна быть птичка - у меня есть соловей, сидит на верхней ветке в окружении нот =) 31.03
Цифровая студия Елена

manually cut elements. Элементы, вырезанные руками. У меня тут комбинация: и не руками, и руками. Если надо, могу попробовать сфоткать поближе ветки, чтобы были видны прорезы от ножниц, которые машинка ни за что не оставит. Но если так нельзя - сниму работу с конкурса. 31.03
Скрапстудия Sun House - Оказалось, люди неграмотные, умными словами кидаются, а значения не понимают :))) Некомпетенция... :\
Thanks for looking!
Спасибо за визит!

'Hot stuff' card for a man

2011-03-01T13:01:00.004+02:00

Just realized that I have never published this card on this blog, though it's been created more than a year ago. Better late than never, right? =)
That's the card exterior:

Black leather and metall =) Faux leather cover has a girl-silhouette-shaped window covered with red nylon lace. The pattern slightly reminds of the netted stockings ;) On the left side there're eyelets laced with a satin ribbon. IR should remind of a corset lacing. Yeah, I know that the eyelets look poor - I bought some real ones, not for scrapbooking, made of stainless steel and setting them without an eyelet setter made them look smashed %\
Plus some "red flames" - metall sequins.

Interior of the card:

Black lace on the right, girl silhouette - masking technique used; some lace stamping, red flames.
The central part has some black lace underwear, stitched red hearts, some inking; and a sentiment which is written with teeny-tiny-very-small characters that form a woman's body. Although all those words are in Russian and not all of you can read that - I had to blurr that, sorry, too intimate ;)
So that's the basic idea. =)

More woven hearts

2011-02-12T21:16:00.003+02:00

Some more patterns of woven hearts.
Details explanations can be found here. So I'll show only patterns:

Heart with a star

Heart with David star

Two parts are different. so there's no need to mirror anything, just draw/print them and weave.
Can also be used for some national holidays =)
Four-leaf clover heart

As a wish of good luck, also nice for St. Patrick's day or as a symbol of Ireland.

Heart with bricks

You need to be extra careful with this heart: the details are very small and precise; an ideal heart will be striped, the smallest mistake - and the strips turn into bricks =)

Woven hearts tutorial

2011-02-08T08:24:00.007+02:00

St. Valentine's coming and love is in the air =)
So I thought it's not a bad idea to share with you some simple technique of making a paper heart with 1 or 4 hearts inside of it.

Easiest version of woven hearts is well-known, and tutorials can be found here and there (for example the first link google shows when you ask it about 'woven hearts').
And that's a little more complicated version, I used it in my "When two hearts beat as one" card.

Let's begin. There's a scheme of heart petals: you may want to print them out or draw your own one - variable dimensions are present.

Cut along thick lines only. Dashed lines are there for easier understanding of the drawing.
Left pattern is used for heart-in-heart; the right one is for four-hearts-in-one.
For one woven heart you need two details: left or right AND a mirrored one. Hope the pics below help =)

So, you have two halves of a heart: of different colors and the same size, "mirrored" and having the slots cut (note: cut slots 1-2 mm more than it's shown on the pic, that will help a little during weaving). Place them as it's shown on the picture (I haven't erased the pencil lines so that it'll be easier to keep track of movements):

Lift the left and the central strip of the blue (left) half and tuck the whole green part in:

Lift the ends of all strips of the green part and place the left blue strip under them:

Leaving the left green strip in its place, continue with the central and the right one - under the first blue strip, above the second and under the third:

The only strip is left to be woven - above the blue, under the blue and again above:

So you have this heart in heart!

This picture is a close-up, where pencil lines and shadows help you to see how the heart-in-heart is formed: half of the little heart is a "flap", half of it is a "hole"

Glue all the ends of the strips down and cut the excess if necessary. Use as you like =)
Note: if you use double-sided paper the pattern on the reverse side will be the opposite - little heart is blue.

Next, we can make 4 hearts in one.
Print the right pattern (or draw yourself - it's very easy!), mirror it, use two pieces:

The process will be the same - take the whole green part and place it between the blue strips: above, under, above, under:

Leaving the first strip (the left one) of the green part, continue weaving the rest alternatively - under, above, under, above:

Two right strips of the green parts go above, under, above, under:

And the project's complete:

The hearts here are smaller, so you need more accuracy when cutting the arcs.
And again: glue and cut off.

Hope it helps =) If you use this tutorial anyhow - please, don't forget to provide a link to this blog. Happy scrapping!

How about a blog-hop?

2011-02-05T13:43:00.015+02:00

Blog hop's cancelled due to the lack of active participants.
Блог хопа не будет в связи с низкой активностью участников.

Dear ladies!
Some of you may know that I'm an author of articles for two resources: rus-scrap.ru and Altered art challenge blog. By the way, the first one will soon publish my article called "18 ways to use buttons on your projects". ;) Usually I'm asked to write some text and illustrate it with projects of different crafters (with their names and links to their galleries, of course!). I've got one more task: write about creative use of office supplies. I had about 5-6 ideas about that, but the problem is that they seem to exist in my head only! No pics, no photos, no examples.
So my idea is: let's start a blog-hop! =) I'm calling all of you, my dear crafty friends, to join me.
* The topic is clear: creative use of office supplies in scrapbooking. Example: "I cut office paper with scissors" or "I used a paperclip to attach a photo to the mat" - that's not creative or unusual, because it's just what those things are meant to be used like. "I created a title with staples" - that's a good idea ;)
* I need 10-15 friends to join me. If you have an idea - awesome, tell me the idea and I'll put you on the list. I need to know your idea first - to keep all 10-15 projects different (that won't be much fun if everyone will use staples the same way, right?). If you're in - call your friends too, maybe they'll be interested to challenge their imagination too!
* When the list is full, we'll have about 2 weeks to complete our projects. And we'll set the date of the blog hop.
* Scrapbooking layouts are most desired, but you may want to submit cards and altered-art or other projects as well - that's possible. If the use of some supplies is not very obvious I'll ask you to make a little tutorial about it.
* The quality of the photos you make should be more than satisfactory (cell-phone photos, blurred and unfocused, will not be accepted) e.g. not worse than mine =)
* The project may not be brand new. If you have already done something like that - show us =) You'll just need to publish it in your blog again.
* On the established date you'll need to publish your project, banner of the hop and a list of hoppers.
* Anyone, you, your friends, passers-by, anyone will hop along our list and leave a comment for each of us. Anyone who left comments on everyone's post will qualify for a random draw and I'll send her/him a little crafty prize-surprise (most possibly craft supplies).
* After blog-hop is finished, I'll write an article about office supplies with thanks and links to your blogs.

What do you think? Anyone wants to join? Come on! Challenge yourself! =)
If you're ready to share your ideas with me and want to discuss that privately - my email can be found in my profile.
For inspiration you may visit staples.com and see what they offer =) If you need a certain list - ask me, I'll send it by email.

Дорогие дамы!
Некоторые, вероятно, знают, что я пишу статьи для двух ресурсов в сети: rus-scrap.ru и блога с заданиями Альтер-арт. Кстати, на первом скоро опубликуется моя статья на тему "18 способов применить пуговицы в скрап-проекте" ;) Обычно меня просят писать текст и сопровождать его иллюстрациями работ разных авторов (имя и ссылка, конечно, обязательны). И вот мне дали задание - написать о творческом и необычном использовании обычных канцелярских принадлежностей в скрапе. Думала долго, родилось 5-6 идей, но проблема в том, что, похоже, их воплощения существуют исключительно в моей голове. Ни одной фотографии, ни одной иллюстрации, ни одного примера.
И вот пришла в голову идея: давайте организуем блог-хоп! =) Сейчас это модно. =) Так что кидаю клич всем вам, мои дорогие рукодельные друзья! Присоединяйтесь!
* Тема ясна: креативное использование канц. товаров в скрапе. Пример: "я офисными ножницами отрезала офисную бумагу" или "я скрепкой прикрепила фотографию к подложке" - это не оригинально, это лишь реализация тех функций канц. товаров, которые изначально им и приписываются. "Я из скрепок выложила название" - вот это уже интереснее. Пробудите свою изобретательность ;)
* Ищу 10-15 человек. Если у Вас есть своя идея на заданную тему - замечательно! Сообщайте мне, я записываю вас в хоп-лист. Идея обсуждается и сообщается мне заранее, чтоб я знала, что будет - если делать "втемную", потом окажется, что все 15 проектов одинаковые и со скрепками - не прикольно же?..
Если вы присоединятесь, позовите друзей - может, им тоже интересно поломать голову над загадкой.
* Когда список заполнится, отсчитываем 2 недели на изготовление проекта и устанавливаем дату самого блог-хопа.
* Наиболее желательны скрап-страницы, но если хочется можно делать и открытки, и альтер-арт и любые проекты прикладного скрапа. Это обсуждаемо. Тема, цвет, скетч - абсолютно любые. Если использование канц.товаров не очевидно, я попрошу вас создать небольшой МК на эту тему.
* Качество фотографий должно быть выше "удовлетворительного" (телефоно-фотки, где все размазано, расфокусированно и в тенях, увы, не приму), другими словами - не хуже моих (а у меня они не фонтан =) )
* В установленный день каждый из участников публикует свою работу, баннер блог-хопа и список участников, чтобы зрители могли путешествовать по нашим блогам.
* Проект не обязательно должен быть совершенно новым. Если Вы делали что-то подобное ранее - покажите нам =) Вам просто придется еще раз опубликовать работу, переделывать не надо.
* Любой человек, вы, ваши друзья, гости, мимопроходящие, кто угодно - будут путешествовать по нашим блогам и оставлять комментарии к работам (свою собственную можно не комментировать, конечно =) ). Те, кто оставят комментарии ко всем работам в списке, будут участвовать в розыгрыше маленькой конфетки (скорее всего что-то полезно-рукодельное)
* По завершении блог-хопа, я напишу статью о канц.товарах для рус-скрапа с благодарностями и ссылками на блоги участников.

Ну что, кто-нибудь хочет поломать голову над поставленной задачей? =) Попробовать силы, немножко порекламировать блог? ;) Присоединитесь?
Для обсуждения идей и личных бесед на эту тему - мой емейл можно найти в профиле.
Для вдохновения и поиска канц.товаров можно посетить ближайший канцелярский отдел или komus.ru =)
Список канц.товаров могу выслать желающим по запросу (сюда его постить - очень большой)

List of hoppers:
0. Me =)
1. dja-karta (http://dja-karta.blogspot.com) - idea is approved, work's done
2. Jessie (http://littlechicbowtique.blogspot.com/) - idea is approved
3. tikhonka (http://tikhonka.blogspot.com) - idea's approved, work's completed
4. ~~lila777 (http://lila777.livejournal.com) - thinking?~~
5. KiserB (http://kiserb.blogspot.com) - thinking?
6. ~~barbacucca (http://barbacuca.blogspot.com/) - idea's approved, giving it a try~~
7. ~~Jennifer (http://heldscraptive.blogspot.com/) - idea's approved~~
8. Kay (http://kayskreativekorner.blogspot.com/) - idea's approved
9. Anna (http://letterastudio.blogspot.com) - work's done
10...

Blog awards

2011-02-02T13:14:00.004+02:00

Recently my blog has been awarded by four nice ladies: Ольгусенок, Лилейка, Elsa-Astra Fuchs and dja-karta. I would like to thank them for their attention and flattering appraisal of my little crafty things =)
Недавно мой блог удостоился наград сразу от четырех замечательных девушек: Ольгусенка, Лилейки, Нади-Астры и dja-karta. Хочу поблагодарить девочек за их внимание и такую лестную оценку моих рукоделок. =)

The awards should be passed on, so I chose a few quite attarctive blogs I'm following, make sure you check them out =)
Нужно передать награды дальше, выбрала несколько блогов, которые меня вдохновляют или просто нравятся:
1. Anastasia Wahalatantiri - multi-talented artist; love her quilling! Check out her mirror-art too, and other things - that's really inspiring!
2. Carol at Extreme cards and papercrafts - I'm pretty sure you know her, she has so many ideas that they just don't fit in my head! Just want to thank her for inspiration. =)
3. Lila777 - extra-positive lady who makes the cards which look like toys, adorable!
4. Karthika - have just discovered her blog, very cute quilling!
5. Kimiburan - journal full of ideas, with very neat and inspiring kirigami; a chest of treasures concerning paper cutting!
6. KiSerB -this lady tries a lot of techniques, different styles and such, there is something to look at and to inspire with! What's more, once I said I loved the card she made... and guess what?! She sent it to me, I was amazed! Look at it:

Isn't it gorgeous? All those beads, pearls, stitching, cords, laces and that beautiful hand-drawn tree! Ася, ты супер =)))

Thanks for your attention!
Have a good day!

Altered art

2011-01-25T13:09:00.002+02:00

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

2011-01-22T20:03:00.003+02:00

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

2011-01-15T21:36:00.004+02:00

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:

A little pop-up, the idea lifted from lila777. When the card is opened a little "erotic" tree is popped up. It's made of translusent black lace and is embellished with red bow and red seed beads. I doodled some lace on both sides of the card; the sentiments are blurred - too private, sorry ;) And the right side of the card shows my first try of manga drawing. The year 2011 is a Rabbit year by the Chinese calendar, right? So the playful girl has bunny tail and ears =) So that's my little playful joke =)
thanks for looking!

Felted beads

2011-01-14T14:18:00.004+02:00

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.

Some more shots:

Beads are not tied or stitched to the ribbon, so they can be moved, though they don't slide easily.

And some closeups of unique beads (they are not all the same style). One beads is embellished with pearl white seed beads. And some other
"Marbled" bead, made of mixed dark and light wool:

Bead with one spiral swirl; it's not stitched, it's felted!

And a bead with multiple little swirls - also felted:

Never though I'll be able to make such a fine pattern on the bead, but this experience is very nice, so I'm getting ready for another felting project which I refused to complete half of a year ago because of the thin lines I should have done - now I feel like it's gonna be a work of art! Well, we'll see =))

Thanks for looking!

A card with micro-pennant

2011-01-09T19:35:00.002+02:00

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

2011-01-06T22:30:00.003+02:00

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?

Christmas garland 11

2010-12-25T21:47:00.002+02:00

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates! =)

The last day of pennant-making with Pastila. "Anything goes" day with only one task: write about your impression, likes and dislikes.
Последний день с гирляндой от Пастилы. "Свободное творчество" с единственным условием - рассказать, что понравилось, что нет и общие впечатления от затеи

Eleventh pennant:
Одиннадцатый флажок:

Snowman made of cotton buds cut at ends and vellum snowflake.
Снеговик сделан из ватных палочек - обрезаны кончики палочек, чтобы получились полушария разных размеров. Микробисер, цветная бумага и дырокольная снежинка из кальки.

All of them together on my hand:
Все вместе на моей ладони:

Впечатления от игры: было весело! Первый раз в жизни участвовала в марафоне. Мобилизует. К середине появился азарт, ждала каждого задания - интересно было! Кроме того, было очень занятно пытаться воплотить все задания в моем микроразмере =) Местами было очень сложно, но ничего, со всем справилась и Оле большое спасибо за организацию! =)
Из того, что "не понравилось" - мне с непривычки трудно было выполнять задания в том смысле, что боялась добавить что-то на флажок, т.к. что впереди - не ясно, а повторяться совсем не хочется. =) Понравилось, что было разнообразие - и по материалам задания, и по элементам. Вероятно, можно было б добавить задания по цвету или техникам. В общем не то, чтобы "не понравилось", это все, что удалось напридумывать за это время =)

Thanks for looking!
Спасибо, что зашли! =)

Christmas garland 10

2010-12-24T22:33:00.003+02:00

Day 10 of Pastila's garland challenge. Today's task is to use clock, preferably showing midnight.
I wanted to make something extraordinary: a tiny interactive cuckoo clock with turnable arrows and active bird... but last evening I got a splinter in my thumb deeply, then got it out, but the thumb was hurt... when a piece of wire accidently got into the fresh "wound" I gave up. Today I completed a little imitation of clock.
Десятый день с гирляндой Пастилы. В этот день обязательное условие - часы на флажке, желательно показывающие полночь. Я собиралась сделать нечто офигенское: интерактивные часы с кукшкой, чтобы при дерганьи шишечек крутились стрелочки... но вчера у нас закончился ремонт (ура!) и в процессе помывки и уборки я себе засадила в большой палец занозу =( Пока доставали, расковыряли полпальца. Терпеливо собирала свою конструкцию, но когда проволокой попала в рану - сдалась. Потому сегодня лишь имитация, ничего не шевелится.

Little clock with just a door for cuckoo; some texture, a little snow...
Часики; не очень видно, но там есть немного тиснения, сверху - снежок, сосульки (горячий эмбоссинг); золотые ниточки, золотые шишечки, дверка для кукушки (с самой, увы, не справилась, контуженная)

Thanks for looking!
Спасибо за визит =)

Christmas garland 08-09

2010-12-22T14:55:00.005+02:00

Day 8 of Pastila's christmas garland challenge. The task of this day: use chipboard or manually colored picture (stamp, digital stamp, drawing - whatever).
Well, I have no chipboard, besides it's too thick for the tags of my size; so I had to color the picture.
Восьмой день состязания с новогодней гирляндой у Пастилы. На флажке нужно использовать чипборд или собственноручно раскрашенную картинку (штамп, распечатка, рисунок и т.д.)
Т.к. чипборда у меня нет, тем более, в мои габариты он впишется плохо - очень уж толстый и неповоротливый. Пришлось красить картинку.

As a matter of fact I don't like coloring the pics. I don't see the point: I had a coloring book in my early childhood. And this occupation never made me smile. I DO admire painters and cartoonists, who can draw and paint themselves; but taking someone else's creation and just color?.. it sounds pretty boring and non-creative. %\
Вообще-то я не люблю раскрашивать чужие картинки, не понимаю я, чего все так с ума от этого сходят "Ах, ты так раскрасила, ах, как красиво!.." Это ж кем надо быть, чтобы не смочь этого сделать?.. У меня в детстве раскраски были, смысл какой-то смутный. Одно дело - художники, которые сами рисуют, сюжет, композиция, детали и т.д., это может восхищать, а взять чужое произведение и просто замазюкать карандашами/дорогущими копиками/детскими фломастерами? скучно и совсем нетворчески. Ну что ж =)

I frankly wanted to make a drawing myself, tried 10 times, but none of them were satisfactory - all pens and pencils make extremely thick lines for this size. %\ So instead of details I got a real mess. So I had to turn to my faithful printer and print out some clipart: a raccoon holding a wrapped gift. Colored with pencils - no shades or hues though, not much space for tricks like that.
The tag looked extremely boring - flat and trivial. So I had to think of something else - added a little flocking and microbeads. The tag lies on a coin - as big as a dime.
Я честно хотела нарисовать картинку самостоятельно, пыталась раз десять, но сдалась - все ручки и карандаши дают такую жирную линию, что вместо деталей получается грязное месиво. Сдалась. Пришлось распечатать картинку из интернета - енот держит в лапах подарок. Еще пару подарков пририсовала по бокам. Какой же праздник без подарков?! =) Раскрашено карандашами. Отсветов и теней, ессно, нет, ибо не влезли =)
Флажок выглядит скучно и плоско. Пришлось придумать чуть-чуть объемности - бархатная пудра по краю и микробусинки. Флажок лежит на десятикопеечной монетке.

Day 9 of Pastila's christmas garland challenge. The task of the day: use bells or a key. My bells are quilled. Tied with a red bow on a quilled fr tree branch.
В девятый день у Пастилы на флажке нужно использовать колокольчики или ключик. Мои колокольцы скручены из золотистой фольги - типа "объемный квиллинг". Внутри - микробисер вместо язычков. Красный бумажный бантик на наквилленной бахромчатой сосновой ветке.

Thanks for looking!
Спасибо, что зашли и посмотрели =)

Christmas garland 07

2010-12-21T08:26:00.003+02:00

Day 7 at Pastila's xmas pennant challenge.
Today task is to use calendar (dec or jan) or a stylized number (31, 1, 24-25, 7).
So what, you thought I'd give up placing a month calnder on my teeny-tiny 1,5cm tag?! =) Wrong you are.
День седьмой новогодней игры с гирляндой в блоге у Пастилы.
Сегодня нужно на флажке использовать календарик (на один месяц, декабрь, очевидно; или январь). Или стилизованную большую цифру, имеющую отношение к празднику - 31, 1, или Рождественские 7, 24, 25.
Ну что, думаете я испугалась календарика на своих полуторасантиметровых малипуськах? =) А вот и нет =)

Thanks to my printer, it managed to print it out.
Sorry for the quality of photo - a little blurred and noisy, night shot =(
Спасибо принтеру, осилил такую кроху напечатать =)
Фотка только, что символично, "Г" %) размазанная и шумная, но по-другому не получилось. У меня вчера радость была - кухню привезли, теперь вааааапще места дома нет, и свет от фонарика практически, ибо все другие источники света с сильными тенями. %\

There's my tag:
Вот мой флажочек, на линейке

Calendar and a little iris-folding.
Календарик на декабрь с красным числом, и немножко айрис-фолдинга. Т.к. офисная бумага для такого извратства очень толстая, взяла 4 цвета рисовой - она потоньше и лучше сгибается: темно-красная, ярко-красная, коричневая и бежевая с какими-то вкраплениями.

Sponsor of the day is Scrapvell. Prize (stamps):

Thanks for looking!
Спасибо за визит =)

Pergamano snowflake card

2010-12-20T14:14:00.004+02:00

The card I made a year ago, but haven't shown here yet. You know, it's easier to show the cards I'made a while ago, can't show none of this year cards - people who are going to get it can possibly drop by and see them before they get them. No surprize is no fun =)
Открытка для коллеги на новый год, которую я сделала еще год назад. Открытки этого года до вручения показать не могу - сюрприз испорчу, так что "старенькое"

So, the previous year card for a colleague:

It's pretty simple. Gift-wrap wired ribbon with snowflakes, bow and a bead.
Ornament on the left is pergamano - embossed vellum. Vellum is light blue, but it's hardly seen on the dark blue background. It would be visible on the white mat, but then the shape will fade away. I used a macro-photograph of a real snowflake, it is actually that uneven and not symmetrical.
Пергамано на голубой кальке - рисунок с натуральной снежинки, взяла фотографию в интернете. Слева - подарочно-упаковочная лента, бантик.

A close-up:

The edge is pricked and torn and then ourlined with silver gel pen.
Thanks for looking! Спасибо, что зашли!

Christmas garland 06

2010-12-19T21:35:00.003+02:00

Day 6 of Pastila's new year garland challenge. Today'stask is to use an xmas tree, and it must be decorated!
Шестой день в игре с новогодней гирляндой у Пастилы. Сегодня нужно на флажок посадить елку и нарядить ее.

Ok, my entry:

Golden string, colored edges, and two tres! It's a tiny version of famous origami modules tree. Decorated with golden microbeads and a red star on top.
Затонированная края, намотанная золотая ниточка и елка, точнее даже две, одна из них наряженная. Это микро версия знаменитых модульно-оригами елочек (если кто не знает, что это - могу ссылку привести на какой-нибудь мастер-класс). Из украшений на елочке золотые микробисерные шарики и красная звезда.

And a close up of my decorated tree on my finger:
А вот моя елочка, украшенная, на подушечке пальца:

All six with a match box:
И все 6 "С Новым" по сравнению со спичечным коробком:

Thanks for looking!
Спасибо, что зашли!

Christmas garland 05

2010-12-18T22:53:00.003+02:00

Fifth day of Pastila's christmas garland challenge.

Пятый день создания новогодней гирлянды с Олей-Пастилой.

Today's challenge is to use a star - anyhow, any way.
Сегодня на флажке нужно использовать зведочку.

My pennant:

In comparison to standard paper clips. =)
I drew some orange stars on the base of the pennant and attached a star-sequin topped with nail-embellishment star. Plus surrounded the tag with red and green fibers and put red microbeads in the corners.

Флажок в сравнении со стандартными скрепками =)
Несколько рыженьких зведочек нарисовано на основе, боооольшая звезда-блестка, сверху на ней приклеена маленькая звездочка для украшения ногтей. Весь флаг окружен двумя ниточками и в углы вклеены микробисерины.

Thanks for looking! Спасибо, что зашли =)

Christmas garland 04

2010-12-18T11:36:00.003+02:00

Day 4 at Pastila's new year garland challenge. The task is to use 2 papers (excluding the base of the tag) and a ribbon.

Четвертый день новогодней гирлянды у Пастилы. Надо использовать две бумаги и ленточку.

My micro-entry in comparison to toothpick:
Моя микро версия по сравнению с зубочисткой

Thanks for looking!

Christmas garland 03

2010-12-17T08:30:00.004+02:00

Third day of Pastila's christmas garland challenge.

Третий день гирляндоделанья с Олей-Пастилой.

I came home last evening from the store and brought 12 kg bags of food in both hands.. Felt like a maniac. Then I learned the task of the new day: we got to use a garland on a garland!.. And the smaller one has to consist of 5 or more flags. Considering that I have a tag for the garland as big as 1,5 cm (5/8") I felt even more like a maniac.
Пришла я вечером из магазина с 12-ью килограммами еды... Чувствовала себя маниаком, но что делать, раз муж все "потом", "да я схожу", "давай завтра"... И тут узнаю об условиях третьего дня: использовать гирлянду на гирлянде! Ыыы! =) Принимая во внимание, что размер моих флажков 1,5 сантиметрика, туда еще гирлянду пихать, да еще и состоящую из не менее, чем 5 элементов... Ощутила себя не просто маньяком, а маньяком-извращенцем.

There's what I came up with:

A photo of a tag inside of the caliper rule.
My micro garland consists of 8 flags each embellished with glitter gel pens.
The char O is cut manually and is flocked; though here fine flocking looks like heavy fur =)
Plus a little pricking on top - bow shape.
Фотка флажка между зубами штангенциркуля %) На микрогирлянде 8 элементов флажкового вида, каждый украшен узорчиком гелевыми ручками с блестками. Буква О вырезана руками и покрыта бархатной пудрой. Правда, в таких масштабах пудра больше смахивает на густой мех =)) Плюс немножко дыроколения - дырочки в виде банта, чуть больше, чуть меньше, для ажурности.

Thanks for looking! Спасибо, что зашли =)

Christmas garland 02

2010-12-16T08:56:00.005+02:00

Second day of Pastila's garland challenge.
This time we have to use a pine or fir tree branch.
Второй день с Пастилой делаем новогоднюю гирлянду. Сегодня нужно на флажок прикрепить еловую или сосновую ветку (не целую елку), хвойную лапу, другими словами.

There's my tag:
Мой флажок:

Stitched pine-branch, quilled pine cone; stickles, edge distressing, hand cut "H" and a few blue stars (nail-embellishment).
Ветка вышита зеленой ниткой бисерной иглой (стандартная делает таааакие дырищи в моей крохотульке =) ). Тонированный край, звездочки - маникюрное украшение, вырезанная руками "Н". Шишечка скрученная из нарезанной руками бахромки - типа "квиллинг". =)

There's a photo without so many shadows, but the upper one made the cone visible =)
Фотография без такого дикого количества теней, но зато с тенями суть шишки видно

And to make sure you know how BIG my tags are:
И чтобы было понятно, какие БОООЛЬШИЕ у меня флаги:

on my palm =)
у меня на ладони =)

Thanks for looking! Спасибо, что зашли =)

Christmas garland 01

2010-12-15T19:10:00.006+02:00

Pastila has a new amusing challenge in her blog. Every day we'll have to make one piece/flag/tag for a new year/christmas garland.
Every day the task will be announced and we have about 30 hours to complete the work. I'm late with the first one, I guess; but I have very busy days nowadays %\ With house improvement and 4 hours at medical center...
I decided to make a mini... no! a micro garland! I'm attracted to small things lately, so I'm in with 1,5 cm (5/8") tag. The task is to use real lace or holly. I used both. It's a piece of real lace and microbeaded holly =)

Оля-Пастила в своем блоге начала новую забавную игру: будем делать новогоднюю гирлянду с надписью "С Новым годом!" или "С Рождеством". Каждый день - по флажку. К каждому флажку - особое задание. На создание флажка - 30 часов с момента публикации задания (в пять вечера по Москве). Правда, сейчас у меня времени вообще нет: дома ремонт, просто ужас, что творится, творить мне негде =\ Новый год на носу, плюс еще лечиться езжу... Но так соблазнительно!.. Так что решила я присоединиться со своей мини... нет, микро-гирляндочкой! =) Высота флажка 1,5 см и по верхней части по ширине он тоже 1,5 см =)
Задание сегодня - использовать кружево (НЕ бумажное) или остролист. У меня оба: кусочек настоящего кружева (обрезанное, конечно, оно в оригинале 14 см шириной, а это его каемочка), и микробисерный остролист

It's evening and I can't get normal light, so the colors look a little weird.
Фотография вечерняя, так что цвета выглядят чуднО и непонятно.

I used dry embossing, colored with pencils and distressed the edges with an ink pad. Cut the leaves manually and used microbeads for the berries. And also cut the letter "c" manually and covered it with glossy varnish.
Сухое/холодное тиснение, немножко карандашей и тонированный край. Листики и буква вырезаны руками. Ягодки - микробисер, буква покрыта лаком.

Thanks for looking! Will hopefully be back with another microtag tomorrow. =)
Спасибо, что зашли! Надеюсь, завтра вернусь с новым флажком =)

Розыгрыш конфетки

2010-12-11T19:01:00.004+02:00

Снежная конфетка. Всем большое спасибо за участие и внимание =)
Ссылки проверены, имена списаны на бумажки, закручены в ролики и перемешаны в коробочке.
Муж вытащил одну бумажку.... (фотки лень добавлять, но если кому-то оооочень хочется - могу выложить %) )

Победитель - Лёлька.
"Лёлька said...

И я присоединяюсь к розыгрышу=)
http://scrapbeautifulworld.blogspot.com/
December 4, 2010 10:24 AM "
До вечера понедельника жду твоего адреса на мой емейл (в профиле есть). =)
Если адрес к десяти вечера не получаю, конфетку переигрываю.

Tiny Candy give-away

2010-12-10T18:56:00.000+02:00

Post stays on top till the giveaway. Scroll below to see new posts.
Сообщение останется сверху до розыгрыша конфетки. Пролистайте ниже для просмотра более содержательных записей. =)

The winter's coming closer... Many of us long for snow. Soon rus-scrap.ru will have my article "How to imitate snow" posted. And in support of this article I'm going to give away a tiny snow candy.

Скоро зима, уже хочется снега. Надеюсь, в ближайшее время на rus-scrap.ru выйдет моя статейка о том, как изобразить на скрап-объектах снег. В поддержку статьи собираюсь разыграть маленькую конфеточку

The photo does not include everything I'm giving, so read the list below
Фотография содержит не все элементы, так что см. список ниже

What will be there / Состав карамельки:
1. golden snowflake charm - золотистая подвеска в виде снежинки
2. a few snowflake diecuts - несколько вырезанных из акварельной бумаги снежинок
3. a few frames for sentiments - несколько рамочек для надписей на открытках
4. a piece of white fleece and mulberry paper - кусочек белого флиса и белой тутовой бумаги
5. lace with snowflakes 2' - кружево со снежинками (60 см)
6. white yarn with pompoms 6' - пряжа с крупными помпомнами белая (2 м)
7. white yarn with small pompoms 3' - пряжа с мелкими помпомнчиками белая (1 м)
8. silver gel pen - серебряная гелевая ручка (идеальна для горячего эмбоссинга снежинок; если выигрывшая никогда эмбоссинг не пробовала - подарю немножко прозрачной пудры)
9. 3 paper napkins with snowflake pattern - 3 салфетки со светло-голубым узором "снежинки"
10. some snowflake shaped brads and sequins, xmas tree brad - несколько пайеток и брадс в виде серебряных снежинок, звездочки и брадс-елочка
11. 1 tsp of white, silver and light-blue seed beads - ложка белого, серебристого и голубого бисера
12. stickers: gifts, sweets, snowman and snowflake - наклейки в виде "подарочков", "сладостей", а так же снеговика и снежинки
13. glitter blue metallic embroidery floss - пачка металлизированных синих ниток с люрексом (6 м, кажется)
14. white felt beads (abour 1/4" diameter) - белые войлочные бусины (5-8 мм диаметром)
15. 5 quilled snowflakes - 5 снежинок в технике квиллинга
16. one light blue card with oval plastic frame - голубая заготовка для открытки с прозрачным овальным объемным окном

The rules are ordinary and easy: leave a comment with a link to your blog where you have posted a pic and a link of my candy. Come back on the 11th of Decemeber, I'll pick up a winner randomly.
If there will be less than 20 people wanting this candy - I will not give away. Will ship worldwide, but can't guarantee that you'll get it before Christmas if you live outside of Russia.
Good luck!

Правила обычные: оставляем комментарий, где приводим ссылку на свой блог, где опубликованы картинка и ссылка на эту конфетку (отдельной записью или на панельке - все равно). Возвращаемся 11-го декабря, чтобы увидеть, к кому отправится весь этот снег.
Если желающих будет меньше 20 - ничего разыгрывать не буду.
Удачи!

Лавр и Лувр / Bayleaves and Louvre

2010-12-03T10:33:00.003+02:00

Good-hobby blog has a DT call here. So I'm trying to join.

В блоге "Творческая мастерская" набирают дизайн-команду (вот здесь). Пробую свои силы.

Need to present two articles: 12x12 layout and something else (I have a card)
По условию нужно показать две новые вещи: страницу и что-то еще, у меня это открытка.

Card / Открытка

It shows my aspiration for uncommon stuff and untraditional materials. I wanted to make a "spicy" card, so I used bayleaves to make the Christmas tree, some millet for garlands, orange cork for ornaments and glued down some rice, semolina and salt to make snow (salt replaced the glitter so well!). And some pompom yarn for the snow field. The star on the tree is shaped pasta.
Открытка должна говорить о моем желании и стремлении использовать нетрадиционные материалы и техники. Открытка "ароматная" - елочка из лаврушки, украшена гирляндами из пшена, шариками из апельсиновой цедры, присыпана снегом из риса, манки и соли (соль неплохо глиттер заменяет), на макушке - снежинка-макаронина. Снежный покров снизу - пряжа с помпонами.

Layout / Страничка

Louvre sculptures. As it often happens to me: I have a plenty of photos, and can't choose one to scrap. So I printed out about 20 and cut the circles out of them to create the bright background. The work demonstrates my propensity to have little emblishments, but connected to the subject on the photos. No crazy bunch of flowers, no meaningless keys&locks, no useless bows here and there. But I have found the background paper which supports the color of my shirt on the photo perfectly well; drew the ornament on the velvet ribbon just as it is on the stair handrail; and made a little "Venus of Villendorf" - an ancient ideally beautiful woman - to compare with the famous Venus de Milo.

Посвящена скульптурам в Лувре. Как часто бывает - миллион фотографий, а одну выделить сложно. Потому они все порезаны на кружочки и создают пестрый фон. Данная работа призвана демонстрировать мою тягу к минимуму украшений, но оформлению страницы в соответствии с фотографиями. Т.е. никаких безумных цветочков к месту и не к месту, бессмысленных ключиков-замочков и бантиков не в тему. Здесь подобрана фоновая бумага точно в тон моей кофточке на фотографии; по краю бархатная лента, с вручную нарисованным узором, копирующим узор на перилах лестницы; рядом с Венерой Милосской - маленькая самолепная фигурка "Венеры из Вилледорфа", древнего идеала женской красоты, для "контраста".

Thanks for looking!
Спасибо, что зашли!

Two more ATC

2010-11-22T12:19:00.003+02:00

Two more ATC from the ATC-game "Cat-in-a-sack" I made for my "cats":

Lavender distressed background done with "Dusty Concord" ink, spirella corners, some pricking, origami butterflies, half pearls.
I love lilac =)

Zentangled Christmas tree, a little coloring, soft black yarn around the card and a few pompoms of matching colors.

Thanks for looking!

Heavy Rain Trophy guide

2010-11-16T13:38:00.005+02:00

When I created this post I wanted to join a DT at Studio Scrapbooking. For this call I had to present 3 of my works: a layout 12" x 12", a card and something else. Two of these works can be made before, one should be new.

Создавая эту запись, собиралась пробоваться в дизайн-команду Studio Scrapbooking.
Набирали команду там: http://studioscrapbooking.blogspot.com/2010/10/studioscrapboking.html Ясен пень, не взяли %)
Нужно было представить 3 работы: страничку 30*30, открытку и скрап-объект. Две работы можно не новые, одну - новую.

The layout 12" by 12" / Страница 30 на 30

More details about it can be found there
Подробности можно посмотреть здесь

The card / Открытка

More details can be found there
Подробности можно поразглядывать там

And finally - my new project, I called it a "trophy guide"
И, наконец, третий объект - мой новенький проект, под кодовым названием "Путеводитель по наградам"

Lately I've been obsessed with a PS3 video game "Heavy Rain". It's the best game I've ever seen, I don't usually play PS3, but this masterpiece made me go crazy about it! And I collected almost all trophies there =) And this book I made is a guide to those trophies you can get in a game. SPOILER ALERT: If you're going to play this game, you may want to stop reading here, because this book contains spoilers!
В последнее время я фанатею от игры для PS3 "Heavy Rain". Обычно я не играю в видео игры, но это - лучшая игра, которую я когда-либо где-либо видела. Она впечатлила меня настолько, что я даже слов подобрать не могу. Я бредила этой игрой несколько недель. И когда узнала про конкурс, решила, что нужно сделать что-то необычное для меня именно в таком ключе. Прошла игру раз 5 %) И сделала путеводитель по тем наградам, которые можно получить в игре. ПРЕДУПРЕЖДЕНИЕ О СПОЙЛЕРАХ: если собираетесь играть в эту игру, можете далее не читать, ибо в книжке есть масса спойлеров.

The book consists of a few pages, bound together. It measures 4,5" by 6" - to fit the size of the disc box. So it's small and here I paid a lot of attention to small details.
Книжка маленькая, всего 12 на 15 см, как раз по размеру коробки от диска. В ней несколько страничек, вместе скрепленных. Т.к. размер маленький, а информации много, я уделила массу внимания деталям

And sorry for the photo quality: it's November, we hardly have sun here, so artificial light artifacts are present, unfortunatelly =(
Прошу прощения за качество фото: ноябрь, солнышка не дождешься, и масса прелестей от искусственного освещения.

I'll try to make it short in description, but I need to make some comments to explain the idea.
Постараюсь не грузить сильно описаниями, смотрите фотографии, но кое-какие комментарии необходимы, хотя бы по содержанию игры..

Details of the cover. I used sand paper for the cover to imitate wet asphalt, added rain drops (with nail polish and wet clear embossing), made a pool in the right corner and made rain-drop-circles there (with clear glue). Used real leaves (1 cm in size). Made the same origami figure that was used in the game. Made an orchid, also mentioned in the game. The title is hand painted (the paint running is done on purpose, see the original logo). And a screenshot of the main character under the rain placed on the burnt craft paper mat.
Детали обложки. Для обложки я использовала наждачку, желая изобразить мокрый асфальт, а заодно жестокость игры. Капли дождя из лака и прозрачного эмбоссинга, лужа на углу, на ней круги от дождинок (из пва). Настоящие листики (долго искала такие мелкие). Сделала фигурку оригами - именно ту, которая является ведущей во всей игре. Орхидея, которая так же присутствует в игре, - слеплена мной из пластики. Название нарисовано краской, подтеки специально сделаны - см. оригинальный логотип игры =) Вверху над кожаным шнуром, скриншот главного героя на обоженной подложке из упаковочной бумаги

The screenshot can be lifted to reveal another screenshot - one of the game's intrigues. The back of the flap has a lot of game related words hand written there.
Если поднять скриншот, то там откроется другая "фотография" - можно сказать, одна из главных интриг игры. На обороте клапана написана куча относящихся к игре слов

The first page inside of the book. Devoted to the main character's life after the death of his first son.
Первая страница книги посвящена главному герою и его жизни после смерти старшего сына

Ethan Mars is an architect, so I used a hand-drawn drawing as a background and spilled black ink on it - to show how depressive and black his life is now with only a small white corner left. There's a box with Ethan's stuff he had in his apts when he divorced his wife, and a chalkboard with his younger son's schedule.
Итан Марс - архитектор, так что для фона я использовала чертеж дома, который залила черными чернилами, чтобы отразить настроение и состояние героя после комы и смерти сына. Остался единственный белый уголок... Там коробка с вещами, которая была в квартире Итана после развода с женой, и расписание младшего сына, Шона. Все полностью рукотворное.

Inside of the box you can find a few things that Ethan probably packed: the drawing he completed on the last Jason's birthday (his older son), the card wishing Jason happy birthday (all characters on the card are cut out with scissors manually! each about 3 mm high!), an article from the newspaper declaring that he's a good architect, and a wedding photo of Ethan and his wife. The frame is real: it can stand, it has the inner frame and an acetate imitating glass =)
Внутренности коробки, вещи, которые мог бы забрать с собой Итан: чертеж, завершенный в день рождения старшего сына, открытка с поздравлениями (все буквы на открытке вырезаны руками, высотой ок. 2-3 мм каждая!), статья о том, что Итан выиграл приз как лучший архитектор, и свадебная фотография. Рамка может стоять, сделана "по-честному": фото, паспорту, ацетат вместо стекла =)

There's a bunch of "trophies" hidden on the page: behind the schedule, over the "missing child" paper, inside of the candy pack and inside of the happy birthday card.
На странице спрятаны "трофеи": внутри открытки с днем рождения, за расписанием, с обратной стороны объявления о пропаже ребенка, внутри упаковки с конфетами:

The page I paid the most attention to: a trial guide. Ethan has to complete 5 trials in order to save his son. Each is assosiated with an origami figure. I made a spin wheel with windows where you can see each trial, how it is called, who was the author of the origami figure (has nothing to do with the game, that's a note just for me), the task of the trail, etc.
Этой странице я уделила больше всего внимания. Итану надо пройти 5 испытаний, чтобы спасти сына. Все это я оформила в виде крутящегося колеса с окошками, где показывается название, суть, трофеи и соответсвующая фигурка оригами.

I frankly searched all the origami resources I could to find the schemes for the figures that were used in a game, not "called the same way", but looking as close to them as possible! And made those tiny creatures:
Перерыла все источники схем оригами, чтобы найти те, которые не просто называются похоже, но и выглядят так же, как и в игре, максимально близко. И сделала их крохотные копии, в сравнении с одноцентовой монеткой:

In windows there're trophies hidden
В окошечках прячутся трофеи, а кое-где даже описания, как добыть наиболее сложные:

Next page is devoted to another character: Norman Jayden, FBI agent.
Следующая страница о другом главном герое (их всего 4) - Норман Джейден, агент ФБР

This guy is drug addicted and has to take triptocaine - a blue shiny substance, so I spilled it over the whole page.
The smaller photo at the bottom depicts the main investigation feature Norman has - the ARI.
У героя наркотическая зависимость от триптокаина - голубого переливающегося порошка, который я с использованием микробисера и глиттера рассыпала по всей странице.
На фотографии снизу - представление главного инструмента Нормана, по-русски "УРС" - устройство расширения сознания

In the right lower corner there's a "letter" with the biggest trophy Norman can get in the game. A tiny envelope I made myself (transparent window, glue strip, a stamp - everything's real), the letter with Norman's tiny photo and the smallest paper clip I could make out of wire:
Снизу конверт, где информация о самой крупной награде, которую может получить Джейден. Конверт самодельный - все, как положено, прозрачное окошко, клеевая полоса, письмо, микро-фотография и крохотная скрепочка, которую я скрутила из проволоки

This guy appeared to have the most of the trophies, so I hid them all under the main photo:
У героя оказалось много наград, так что все спрятаны в оригамивидные квадратики под главной фоткой:

And one more trophy:
И еще один трофей (оправдывающий наличие анкера-нотки, музыкальный)

The next page: about Madison Paige, a journalist.
Следующая страница - о журналистке Мэдисон Пейдж

Flocking, leater framing, a newspaper clip.
Флокинг, обрамление кожаной лентой, "вырезка" из газеты..

She does not have many trophies, so I placed them all in the "blinds" thing. Pull one of the strings and see what's the trophy about:
Наград мало, всего 4, поместились в жалюзи-видную конструкцию. Потяни за веревочку - дверь и откроется =)

Tired already? The last page, be patient! =)
Scott Shelby, the private eye.
Утомила я вас? Все, последняя страница.
Скотт Шелби, частный детектив

Note little signs that depict the trophies: baby bottle, white shield etc =) There're about 4 mm each. The meanings of the trophies can be found under the P.I. ad
Обратите внимание на крошечные значки трофеев, бутылока, щит, человечки - все вырезано руками, ок. 4 мм высотой. Суть наград спрятана под объявлением.

One of the most serious trophies is hidden in "Perfect crime" files, release the rubber strip and unfold the origami thingie:
Одна из главных наград спрятана в квадратике "Идеальное преступление", снимаем резиночку и разворачиваем оригами-штуку, фотки и куча информации:

And the last thingie: turnable maginifying glass which has two trophies inside:
Ну и последняя деталь, кроме моих отпечатков пальцев =) вращающаяся лупа, где спрятано 2 награды:

Thanks for looking! That's the back of the album:
Кто смог прочитать все - молодец! Оборот альбома выглядит так:

Hope you liked it =)
Надеюсь, вам понравилось. Спасибо, что прочитали и все посмотрели =)

2 ATCs

2010-11-08T11:54:00.003+02:00

Haven't posted here anything laltely, working on some pretty time-consuming project which I can't show before the contest, so you'll have to wait some more =)

Today I'll show two ATCs which have already been received by those who play "Cat-in-a-sack" game with me. Two are still to be received.
There they are:

Click to enlarge.
The first one: somewhat like quilling, paper pipes =) Forming a word "Hi".

The second one: a burst of green stuff! Inked edges, craftrobo cut green grassy mat, with two "explosions" in the middle: one filled with chopped green cocktail straw and microbeads the other one - with green rabbit fur fixed with green-head pins. Green bling (and one magenta bling), green button, green striped paper clip threaded with green floss..

Cat-in-a-sack ATC game

2010-10-15T14:44:00.007+03:00

Вот и я решила принять участие в АТС-игре Кот-в-мешке
So I decided to take part in an ATC-game called "A cat in a sack"
:

Правила этой игры такие:
1. Набирается 4 участника - кота (не считая меня)

2. В комментариях отписываются желающие, первые четыре будут моими кошками =)

3. Когда набор участников определен, необходимо для каждого своего "кота" сделать АТС. Важно: это должна быть АТС вне серии, в единственном экземпляре, и она не должна быть показана.

4. И, самое главное! - в каждый конверт с АТС необходимо положить что-нибудь - будь то ленточка, картинка, пуговка, чайный пакетик(?), всё что угодно. Этот загадочный предмет кот, получивший конверт, должен использовать в ответной АТСке или же, "вдохновившись" им, создать карточку, исходя из ассоциаций (например, розовая пуговица - АТС из пуговиц или в розовых тонах, картинка с ромашкой - желто-белая карточка, лето и т.д.).

5. Затем каждый может выбрать себе еще четверых участников и так далее...

The rules of this game:
1. I call up 4 cats / members (not counting myself)
2. Everyone, who wants to sign up - leave a comment, the first four of you will be in.
3. When I get my list full, I'll make an ATC for every cat. Important: that should be a single ATC, no series, and it should not be shown before the cat receives it.
4. And the best part: in each envelope with an ATC I should put something else: a piece of ribbon, a picture, a button, a tea-bag - whatever! and this surprise thing should be used by the cat for creating a swap ATC which she will send me back. Or this surprise thing can be used for inspiration (e.g. if you receive a pink button you may just create a pink ATC, with no buttons etc.)
5. And then every cat can call up her own cats and start another swap.

Я играю I play здесь / here.

My CATS:
1. Yolka
2. Татьяна
3. Naerra
4. Astra

Two-pages layout for Paris album

2010-10-12T13:01:00.002+03:00

I have recreated one of the Paris layouts I have shown before, and added another page to support it. So there they are:

Nenika who gave me those lovely tiny crochet flowers advised me to make a corresponding page to make it a full double-pager.

Pretty much the same, just added some green fibers from the bouquet wrap; a new ribbon with pink flowers; some beads. Removed the paper flowers and emroided magenta centers on the white flowers. Some punched flowers...
And stitched down the letters.

Punched the edge of the photo and wrapped it with a coarse string. The journaling stays the same:

Telling how calm is feels among green lawns and peaceful flowers just 50 yards away from the lively traffic of Champs Elysees.

The right page: photo photos of my husband and me lying on the lawn. And a heart-shaped photo. A ribbon of the same style as on the left page, but with yellow flowers.

A splash of flowers: crochet flowers, brads, cute pins - used them for the first time ever, thanks to Ёлка who gave them to me (Спасибо, Алена!)
Again bast fibers and punched flowers with beads.

Photo in a heart shape is a collage: had to make it out of two, where either of us had only half of the head. Some more pins and coarse fibers.

Journaling and pink velvet spots:

That's a phrase form my fav movie - "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" - that's a quote of Hipolito, an unlucky writer. I tried to write the journaling exactly as this quote looked on the wall of the building Amelie had handdrawn.
I don't really like using quotes in scrapbooks, but I love this one. Translated to English it says: "Without you, today's emotions would be the scurf of yesterday's"

Thanks for looking! =)

Розыгрыш кошек / The cat winner is...

2010-10-10T20:53:00.003+03:00

Все имена из комментариев блога и ЖЖ переписаны на бумажки, скручены в рулончики, перемешаны итого 30 штук. Муж вытащил одну бумажку.
All names from the comments left in LJ and here were written down on the paper, rolled up and mixed. My husband pulled out one.

Победитель...
The WINNER is.... Ukka!

Ukka said...

и меня в желающие запишите!!!ссылочка на панельке справа http://pishitejulie.blogspot.com/

Юлия, сообщите мне свой адрес (емейл в профиле, если не найдете - оставьте комментарий, напишу Вам сама) - пришлю кошек =)
Всем спасибо за участие и внимание! Может быть скоро еще что-нибудь разыграю... ;)

Thanks for your attention and signing up =) Stay tuned, maybe I'll give away something else ;)

My first blog awards

2010-09-30T16:26:00.003+03:00

I have just received blog awards from two of my friends at the same time: Ольгусенок and Fennec. Огромное спасибо, девушки!

The rules are as follows:
1. Thank the ones who awarded your blog (check)
2. Link up the blog of the one who awarded yours (check)
3. Show the awards in your blog (check)
4. Pass the award to 10 different bloggers.
5. Add links to those 10 blogs.
6. Inform the bloggers about the award.

Ok, there's my ten in alphabetical order:
Анешка (http://a-neshka.blogspot.com/)
Забава (http://myblogfortyna.blogspot.com/)
Сузана (http://quillingwithfun.blogspot.com/)
Creative (http://beautifulchaosart.blogspot.com/)
Inna (http://increations.blogspot.com)
Kandi (http://kraftykandikrafts.blogspot.com/)
Nati (http://natiquill.blogspot.com/)
Nenika (http://elena-scrap.blogspot.com/)
Pastila (http://pastilka.blogspot.com)
Sahulka (http://marinehemd.blogspot.com/)
Some are very popular, some a not, but their blogs are definetely inspirational and creative. Don't forget to visit their blogs and check 'em out =)

Пара конфеток: моя и не моя

2010-09-25T21:49:00.005+03:00

COLLECTION is CLOSED. RESULTS can be found THERE
Запись закончена. Результаты ТУТ

Может быть, вы помните моих "кошек-в-окошке"?

Они у меня лежат без дела, подарить никому не могу, потому что все, кому могла бы, ее уже видели - а без сюрприза неинтересно. Потому хочу ее разыграть. Кто-нибудь хочет таких кошек? =)
Оставьте комментарий к этому сообщению (или аналогичному в ЖЖ). Становиться ПЧ не обязательно, но если захочется - буду рада. Если разместите где-нибудь ссылочку на моих кошек - тоже неплохо, присвою вам еще один номер. Разыграю котеек среди желающих 10.10.10. Идет? =)
That's a tiny blog candy I'm going to give away on the 10th of October. A cat-in-the-window card. Rules are simple. Leave a comment. No need to become a follower, but if you do I'll be glad ;) if you will post a link to this candy somewhere in your blog or at the sidebar I'll give you double chances of winning the card. Ok?

Cat pillows

2010-09-24T14:04:00.002+03:00

One bride asked me to make two pillows for her wedding. When I agreed, I thought we were talking about regular small ring-pillows. But it turned out that she needed real couch pillows for the photo shooting.
That's what I made for her:

They don't look very "wedding"-like, nor elegant, because the bride wanted them to look "cozy" and "homemade" to add a touch of coziness to the shooting, which will take place at her wedding this saturday (25th of September).
So I tried to make them as soft, naive and cozy as I could.
Milk-colored fleece soft pillows (40 cm by 40 cm, 16" x 16"), crochet names of the bride and the groom of creamy-chocolate color and yellowish-red felt cats.
That's the close-up of the cat:

I drew about 15 different cats for the bride to choose from, she selected this one: the most "childish" I think =) Eyes are made of tiny pompoms, so they are 3d and they follow you from whereever you look at them.
Red cats in Russia are supposed to bring good luck - I hope these cats will make the newly weds' life prosperous and lucky too =)

Pont Alexandre III

2010-09-19T20:08:00.006+03:00

A layout devoted to the bridge of Alexandre the III in Paris.

Мост Александра третьего в Париже. В основе бумага Бэззил Бейсикс с фестонами темно-синего цвета, тисненый "горошками". В середине штемпельной подушкой белого цвета по собственноручной вырезанной маске прокрасила овальчики, в центрах - золотые пайетки (на мосту золото присутствует, хотела его поддержать)
The background cardstock is from Bazzil Basics, scallopped edge and dotted embossing. I wanted to create a dark page for a long time - I'm always amazed when I see dark layouts with white accents, so I had tot ry it myself! Didn't dare to use black paper yet, so it's just dark blue (since my husband on the photo has a blue shirt on - it's a good color deal). So I had some fun with white ink, used a hand cut mask with scallops to make a kind of round edge between the three black&white photos and the colored one. Places golden sequins in the centers of the negative scallops to support the golden parts on the bridge:

Название: первое слово тоже сделано с помощью маски. Второе - вырезано из бумаги, на которой наштамповано Paris, если присмотреться. Номер "3" - тоже вырезан, покрашен золотым акрилом и покрыт лаком для ногтей с блестками.
The title is "Pont Alexandre III", the first word is made with the help of mask too, the second word is cut out of the white paper with stamped "Paris" word upon it (with blue ink; not the best of me decisions though). And the "III" is covered with gold acrylic paint and nail polish with golden sequins.

Белые цветочки на странице - штампы; Все срезы фотографий тонированы (ч/б - синими чернилами; цветная - золотым акрилом), подложки под фотки ч/б белые с мелкими фестончиками (поддержать изначальные фестоны по краям), по краю цветной фотографии нарисованы листики прозрачным лаком с золотыми блестками. Листики по углам - пайетки.
White flowers on the layout are stamped. All the edges of the photos are a little distressed with color (black'n'white - with blue ink; color photo - with golden ink) - it's not very noticable on the picture, but this twist adds so much interest in real life. Photos are matted with scalloped mats my CraftRobo has cut for me - they are meant to support the original scallops of the Bazzil Basics cardstock. And the color photo has a nail polish matting - which is glossy and has golden sequins in it, it's fun to look at it from different angles. The leaves in the corners are sequins too.

Tried to become a part of the design-team of St.-Peterburg Scrap-club with this project. Of course, no success =)

Pink wedding card

2010-09-17T13:23:00.009+03:00

Today I'm showing a card for the wedding. The wedding was actually in August, but the couple was honeymooning, so I just got the chance to wish them all the best. And the colors of the wedding were white and pink (I'd evern say magenta). And so there's the card:

It is absolutely 100% handmade, though not archive quality…
Some closeups:

The centerpiece is a newly wed couple. I was inspired by Ty Wilson’s posters, and used tiny paper stripes to make an alike looking picture – almost quilling. And some pencil strokes to color the pic. The bride’s belt is made of satin ribbon. For the bouquet I used kids’ clay called ‘i-clay’, and a feather (from the pillow) colored with ink.

With this card I'm entering a few challenges:
-A pocket full of posies challenge - Floral fantasy; roses embossed on vellum, rose pricked on the ivory background, roses in bride's bouquet. (19/09)
Скрапстудия Sun House - задание 4, "Миллион, миллион, миллион алых роз". Роз, правда, не миллион, и они не алые, но розы ведь! =) (19/09)
-Pear Tree Designs - Challenge 17, pink! Pink of all shades is present =) (19/09)
-Cutie Sunday - Pretty in pink; well, pink is pink =) Or rose. Or magenta =) (19/09)
-Stampin' Susters in Christ - real or faux stitching. I used real stitching with white thread on the pink frame. (18/09)
ScratFIT - Go Green! In this card I did not use any special scrap stuff. The frame is created with the help of foam sealants, covered with magenta paper. The "beads" on the lady's corset are actually millet (yes, edible thing!) covered with nail polish. Charms are hand made out of recycled wire, filled with the same nail polish. Greenery in bride's bouquet is a colored feather I got from my pillow. And the whole centerpiece is surrounded with rose-petals frame done in the technique of tissue stippling. To achieve that colorful irregular effect I had to color a plain white facial tissue with beetroot juice - couldn't think of anything greener %) (30/09)
-Cupcakes inspiration - Challenge 76, be inspired by a wedding picture:

Pink satin ribbon, lots of fluff, white dress and wedding theme - I suppose I'm in =) (19/09)

All the patterns I used (stitching, pricking, embossing, quilling) I made myself =)

Tissue stippling

2010-09-16T12:04:00.002+03:00

Forgot to mention that I have created a tutorial for the technique of tissue stippling, which I used in Medici fountain layout and Happy pregnancy card.
It can be found there, in English.

Забыла написать, что моя статья/мастер-класс на тему торцевания опубликована на портале Скрапбукинг для всех: МК по ссылке

Mosaic layout

2010-09-08T14:48:00.002+03:00

In the beginning of August I took part in rus-scrap.ru challenge called "Crazy lifting". Participants had to scraplift someone's project. I chose a layout done by Theresa Amlong in technique of mosaics:

Since I live in Russia ordering special stuff like stencils of grid paper was not easy: the contest would close before I get my order! (it takes more than 3 weeks to ship something), so I had to draw the grid and cut the inchies myself.
12" x 12" (30 cm x 30 cm), squares are inchies (2,5 cm)
I used 14 photos we made in Paris (yes, that's another LO in my Paris scrapbook) during the walk in Pereire boulevard. This place has a thousand bushes of roses there! Looks and smells awesome!
And when I got to know about the mosaic technique - I knew I wanted to try it! We have a lot of photos, but putting one for each LO would lead to an enourmous number of pages in my album. Choosing just one is simply impossible.
Some details:

Pieces of real mosaics (they actually are pink and magenta, but not pale-red like they seem to be in the pic).
I had two challenges for myself:
1) cutting the photos. It's so hard to cut a whole nice looking photo!
2) using pink. I hate working with pink and magenta, but I tried my best to support the photos =)
The frame around the main photo is made of light-green and pink textured papers, with mosaic-like corners. The title is cut in a piece of a green cardstock and placed upon a square with glued down pink microbeads.
This LO took 5-th or 6-th place out of 74. No prize, but not the worst ;)
Thanks for looking!
Русская версия

Another Paris layout

2010-08-29T22:09:00.004+03:00

Another layout for my Paris scrapbook.

I used fabric left from the dress I'm wearing on that photo (I made it myself, so I have plenty of scraps): stitched that right to the basic cardstock.
I loved the colors of the photo and added some pink and yellow.
Я использовала лоскут ткани, оставшийся от пошива того платья, в котором я на фотографии, - пристрочила его к основе. Т.к. цвета на фотографии яркие, я добавила на страничку розового и желтого.
Some closeups / Детали крупным планом:

That's a bunch of crochet flowers, which I received from Nenika as a gift =) plus a few beads and my try in beading: I tried to create forsythia branch, can't say I've done something nice, but I'll see what I can do about it.
Букетик из вязанных цветочков, которые мне подарила Nenika, несколько желтых бусин и моя попытка в бисероплетении - форзиция из стекляруса. Как-то не ахти она получилась, так что я еще подумаю, что с ней делать %)

Journaling, it says: "There's a nameless garden not far from Elysee's palace: silence, clean lawns and bright flowers. And 40 meters away - there's the traffic jam of Champs Elysees". It's hand written on the strips of paper, which is placed behind a piece of netted fabric with pink spots. Plus I added some rough fibers to create that "country" look which the flowers on the pic create =)
Журналинг: "Недалеко от Елисейского дворца есть безымянный сквер: тишина, чистые газоны и яркие цветы. А через 40 метров - оживленное движение Елисейских полей." Написано от руки на полосках бумаги, которая спрятана за лоскутком "газовой" ткани с розовыми точками. Плюс добавила немножко "мочалки" - для создания рустикального стиля, на который так намекают яркие цветочки на фотографии

Entering the following challenges / Участвую в следующих заданиях:
- Hobby Room Challenge - sketch / скетч (31/08)
Scrapstudio SunHouse - sewing-knitting-crochetting-embroidery / Задание 3 - шьем, вяжем, вышиваем (6/9)

Thanks for looking! (Спасибо, что зашли!)

Felted cat card

2010-08-28T12:21:00.009+03:00

A card I made to wish a friend of mine happy birthday:
Открытка подруге на день рождения

Looks childish, but bright =)
The cat is felted, red flowers are quilled, tiny white and pink flowers are punched and beaded, sentiment "Meow" is stitched.
Выглядит по-детски, зато жизнерадостно =)
Кошка сваляна по-мокрому из непряденой шерсти, большие красные цветы - квиллинг, мелкие белые и розовые - дырокольные с бисерными серединками, "Мяу" вышито
Entering the following challenges:
Арт-Уголок: Задание 13 Любовь нежность - sketch / скетч (5/9)

Color throwdown #107 - color combo / цветовая палитра.

Sew Many Challenges SMC#24 - Happy birthday! (3/9)
Волшебный мир скрапбукинга - handmade embellishment / самодельное украшение (5/9)
Мой мир скрапбукинга - These funny animals / Эти забавные животные (6/9)

Mona Lisa layout

2010-08-27T22:44:00.006+03:00

Another layout for my Paris scrapbook.
This time it's about one of the most famous paintings in Louvre museum:

The photo of a crowd near the painting is framed with beads and metal embelishment:

Journaling says: "Mona Lisa (La Joconde) created by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503-1506 is a gem of paintings collection in Louvre. There are a lot of signs and arrows pointing to Joconde and many tourists go straight there. Crowd impresses. Even more than the masterpiece. Small (77 cm x 53 cm) painting is placed behind 3 glasses, surrounded with a few barriers and four guards: you're unable to come closer than a dozen meters. But the painting has more vivid and various colors unlike that colorless yellowness which is depicted on most copies."
Журналинг справа: "Мона Лиза (Джоконда) работы Леонардо да Винчи, созданная в 1503-1506 гг - жемчужина художественной коллекции Лувра. По всему музею развешаны указатели со стрелками, ведущие к Джоконде, и многие туристы направляются прямиком туда. Столпотворение впечатляет. Даже больше самого шедевра. Маленькое (77 см х 53 см) полотно находится за тройным стеклом, окруженное несколькими барьерами и четырьмя охранниками: подойти ближе десятка метров невозможно. Но на картине оказались на удивление яркие и разнообразные краски, а не выцветшая желтизна, которой грешат многочисленные репродукции"

A picture of Mona Lisa, which I painted myself =) I know I'm a poor painter =) But I wanted to do it soooo much =) And well, Leonardo did it within 3 years and I had only one morning =)

framed with a ribbon painted with bronze.

A map of Louvre (hand drawn with green ink on a coffee-colored distressed paper) and a ribbon arrow which points to the place where the painting is situated (marked with transparent button)

Title is also painted:

With this layout I'm entering the following challenges:
Design dollies - Sketchy goodness - the sketch
Studio scrapbooking #3 - the sketch too; I combined them =)
- Мелодии скрапа - Творческий микс: использование зелено-желто-коричневой гаммы + журналинг. Цвет именно нужный, журналинг в виде выполненного тушью плана Лувра, плюс тушью же написанный журналинг справа, а еще по краю коричневым карандашом написано название музея и дата ;) color palette + journaling
And two Gingersnap creations challengles:
GC65 - Famous painters and paintings: can you name any painting which is known better than Mona Lisa? =) Yay! I'm one of the gems =) See my sidebar =)))
GC66 - Spicy supply, paint: I painted that tiny pic of Lisa on the left =) And used paint for the title.

Thanks for looking!

Button layout

2010-08-25T22:05:00.006+03:00

Today I'm presenting my new layout for my Paris scrapbook.
It's called "Eiffel queue" and is devoted to that enormously long line we stayed in to get to the top of the Eiffel tower. Many people in the line made me think about using many small things. And I came up with... buttons! =)

That's the layout. Three photos: a view of tower from underneath; a photo of my husband in the line, and a crowd wanting to visit the tower.

A close up of my buttoned tower:

Some details:

Journaling is written the way to imitate the line of tourists, it says: "23rd of May 2009, saturday: the amount of tourists wanted to go up the Eiffel tower never seizes, so we had to spend 2,5 hours in the line to get the tickets, but still we didn't go to the highest level - there was another line up there..."

With this layout I'm going to take part in a few challenges:
-Good hobby / Творческая мастерская - #8 - use a white sheet of paper as the base / Чистый лист. (ends at 31st of Aug) I actually took a piece of blank watercolor paper and based my layout on it. Clouds and grass are drawn with color pencils. If someone doubts I can show photos "in production" Для работы я использовала простой лист акварельной бумаги; облака и травка нарисованы цветными карандашами. Если кто не верит - могу показать фотографии процесса ;)
-Colour create challenge #51 - I used the necessary colors but was late to link my LO %)
Design dollies challenge - color combination (till 29th of Aug).
-Crafty catz weekly challenge # 46 - Buttons and butteflies (till 26th of Aug). I used a lot of buttons =) And three vellum butterflies I made myself.
-Scrapfit Workout 26 - Dress it up! + use black. (till 30th of Aug) I used some glitter on the butterflies and some buttons have sparkles; some buttons are black. Plus: how can you dress up without buttons? =) Every dress, even a little black one, needs buttons ;)

Thank you for stopping by and looking!
I appreciate your comments highly =)

Another harmonious pregnancy card

2010-08-23T20:15:00.003+03:00

My friend liked the previous one and asked me to make one for a friend of hers.

"Stuffed" tummy on the acetate layer upon the hand drawn picture.

Have no idea how to take a photo of an acetate! That's so hard =( Don't mind the window in the pic =))) Though the colors on this pic are best.

If you lift the acetate:

Used threads of 3 colors to create the hairdo of this lady (tried to repeaat the hairdo of recipient =) )

Real wax tiny candles, threaded mat and embroidered fringe.

Fiber doodles with blings and embossed bamboo.

With this card I'm going to take part in Res-Q Challenge - Therapy (closed on 27th of Aug). What does this card have to do with the theme? It's easy. Everyone's "me time", and pregnant women too =) So, it's obvious that yoga is a wonderful therapy. Besides, I had good time meditating when drew this pic and threaded the details. And the colors are good enough for calming one down, right? =)
With these colors I used (mostly blue and green and some neutral ones) I'm going to take part in Design dollies challenge (till 29th of Aug) and in The play date cafe challenge - PDCC43.

Thanks for looking!

A wish of "harmonious pregnancy"

2010-08-17T12:37:00.003+03:00

Another project I've been thinking about for a long time.
It is supposed to be a "happy pregnancy" card, I tried it once - here - for a friend of mine, but then I didn't want to depict any person on the card and made only the baby stuff, so the card looks more like "Congrats on your new baby". This time I wanted to make it more obvious and got an idea, which I think is funny.
Have a harmonious pregnancy!
That's how the card looks:

A pregnant lady practicing yoga (isn't it supposed to bring harmony to anyone?). The card consists of two parts: the card itself with the pic and the upper acetate layer where the gingham fabric maternity clothes are fixed. The tummy is filled with cotton, so it's 3d and soft, embellished with a tiny beaded bow.
It's so hard to take a photo of the acetate without taking a pic of yourself! %\
And when you unfasten the two little green brads on the top, the acetate layer can be lifted and you can see the inner layer of the card:

So actually not only the lady is looking for harmony, but the unborn baby too =) Yes, I know that literally this position of the baby isn't healthy, but it's just a cartoon meant to bring a smile to recipient's face =)

The picture is drawn all by myself with color pencils. I also used a few techniques to make it look more interesting.
The hair are made of an unwoven stain ribbon, and the hairdo is embellished with a real blue ribbon:

Some of the bamboos in the background are embossed (using the stencil I designed and created myself), some are only drawn.

And the lower part:

The mat is stitched (so I'm going to take part in Practical scrappers chalenge - stitching) with wool thread; the bonsai tree is made of tissue paper like in my Medici's fountain layout only in 3 times smaller size (again - does anyone know how that is called?) plus microbeads for the ground in a pot. And the candles: I cut them out of bronze-colored paper and covered with real wax (from a melted candle) and tried to make the leaking wax traces, attached black wicks and drew the flame.

So only the sentiment is missing. But since I have no pregnant friend to give this card to - it's not necessary and the card's going to stay in my "project box" =)

Thanks for looking!

Medici's fountain layout

2010-08-14T17:33:00.004+03:00

Today I'm going to show you another layout I created for my Paris scrapbook.
It's called "Fontaine Medicis" - in French, of course =)
Это страница для парижского альбома, называется по-французски: Фонтан Медичи

And with this layout I'm going to take part in View-around-you challenge - be inspired by a cake. I thought that being inspired by a cute/gorgeous/amazing/stylish cake is a little boring, so I found a book that's 20 years old and got a picture from there:
С этой страничкой хочу поучаствовать в задании блога "Оглянись вокруг" - вдохновение от тортиков. Вдохновляться красивым, изысканным, потрясающим и стильным тортом может любой, подумала я - и нашла вот это "чудо" в книжке 20-летней давности

Doesn't it look yummy? =) All those piped cream ruffles, chocolate roses and greenish embelishments! That is what I was going to be inspired with.
Вах, какОй красавЭц, а? %) Прошу прощения за качество, фотография уже подвыцвела. Все эти кремовые розочки-рюшечки, цветы из шоколадного крема, зеленоватая глазурь.. Вот этим я и собралась вдохновляться.

That's my layout:
Вот и моя страница:

"Roses" from the cake went to the background of the page: Ursus paper called "Rose bush" (later I found out that the quality of this paper sucks! will never buy it again). And the greenish-greyish color stayed there too.
The piped ruffles transformed into the ivy scallops that I made with paper napkin technique continuing the ones in the picture. If anyone knows the correct name of this technique in English (something like stippling?) - let me know, please!
Multi layers of the cake inspired me to create a few green stitched circles in the middle.
And the dark color of the chocolate cream flowers made me add some texture and color to the frames: chocolate would look too gloomy, so I substituted it with patina-covered bronze.
Розочки с торта ушли на задний план - на фоне их много, таких крупных и колоритных. Это бумага фирмы Ursus "розовый куст" (качество - просто Г, никогда больше ее покупать не буду!), и серовато-зеленоватый цвет остался на фоне так же.
Рюшечки и кремовые фестончики вдохновили меня на создание продолжения плющевых фестонов с фотографии путем техники торцевания.
Многоуровневость торта привела к вышиванию нескольких зеленоватых кругов в центре: круг на круге, прям как торт =)
А шоколадные цветочки заставили меня привнести в зелень этой страницы немного друго оттенка. Правда, с шоколадным выглядело все совсем уже печально, так что заметина его на патинированную бронзу

There are the close-ups (all are clickable):
Крупные планы (кликабельны):

The ivy scallops - плющевое торцевание

Completely handmade frame (if you take a closer look you can notice that the pattern repeats the one on the fountain!) and hand painted
Полностью рукотворная рамка, из глины (если посмотреть внимательнее, то будет видно, что рисунок рамки копирует узор на фонтане) - и вручную окрашенная

Journaling says: "Medici's fountain is considered to be the most romantic fountain in Paris. Polyphemus, a jealous cyclopus, catches his beloved Galatea in the arms of Acis, son of the forest god Pan, and is going to kill them with a rock; The sculpture was created by August Ottin in 1866"
Журналинг

So, what do you think, have I succeeded it improving the cake pattern? =)
Ну что, как думаете, удалось мне вдохновиться как следует? %)

PS: If anyone wants a tutorial to the napkin technique - I'm ready to make it Советы по торцеванию с фотографиями могу выложить, если кому-нибудь интересно