Crochet necklace

I decided to crochet necklace in my favorite spring colors. I made tiny balls and stuff it with polyester fiberfill. The result would probably be better if I used finer tread and crochet around beads. Here´s a great tutorial how to do that.

Crochet

Here´s a little crochet I´ve done recently. Although my granny thaught me how to crochet when I was 10, I never show much interest until I discovered amigurumi.  I also found granny squares are fun, thanks to Meet me at Mike´s.

DIY: earrings board

I made this super easy earrings display from a cork message board and some lace. All I had to do was to paint the board in white acrylic paint and glue stripes of cotton lace on it. I think it turned out fine:)

Paper earrings

When I bought this lovely chiyogami paper I decided to use it for paper earrings.

It´s very simple:

1. Cut the earring shape from cardboard four times

2. Glue two pieces together

3. When it´s dry sand with fine sandpaper

4. Cover with acrylic base.

5. Paint sides with acrylic paint

6. Glue the paper on and cover with Mod-podge.

Optionally, apply coat of transparent varnish.
 I like this project because variations of shape and pattern are endless 

DIY colar-necklace and skirt

I love Petar Pan collars so I decided to make one. I used felt as base and glued half-sphere beads on it. That simple.

Skirt is also very simple. I was following this tutorial.
I used velvet fabric and cotton lace (I think brown lace would be better but I didn´t find it at local shops).

Spaghetti scarf

I made my first spaghetti scarf out of an old T-shirt. I took  ugliest T-shirt from my closet because I wasn´t sure how to make it, but I´m happy with the result.

It looks good embellished with a brooch or bow.

I ♥ hearts

My Etsy finds for Valentine´s:

1. Felt soap; 2. Heart shaped dishes; 3. Crochet hearts; 4. Confetti

Bows

I love bows in all shapes and sizes whether they are on clothes, hair accessories or bags. I found some leftover leather in my supplies box so I decided to turn them to a bunch of bows that I can wear as brooches or hair clips. I love them, can´t wait to make more.

DIY: Wrist warmers

I love to wear wrist warmers in winter so I decided to make them from a pair of old tights. It was easy - I just cut the feet off and sew some white lace to the bottom and cut the other side to the mid forearm size. I´m happy with the result - they are warm and lovely.

Forbidden City

Few years ago I took a trip to China. From all the things there I most liked the Forbidden City. Being an Anchee Min and Lisa See fun, I could easily imagine walking thru the streets of City in some different era, admiring peonies or so. I even missed a trip to Great Wall of China the next day, only to come back to Forbidden City and admire the jewelry and watches collection again. If you like it too, you can find beautiful photos of the City here, and article about exhibition of Quing Dinasy robes here.

Chinese lanterns

Today, I´m inspired with the beautiful colors on this photo by Meagen,  owner of this Etsy shop and  blog.

Image credit: urbandreamphotos

Paper trinkets

I live in a house built in 1980, so my basement is not really full of some gorgeous vintage stuff, but at least I found this box with my paper trinkets when I was looking for a pair of great black lace up shoes I own and would really like to wear now ( I did´t find them). 

So,what I found was: letters set with Japanese flowers print, lot of napkins, some of them very good for decoupage, Sanrio tissues with Little Twin Stars and origami paper. This origami paper has a very interesting story: Eva from Hungary gave it to me when I met her in USA, and she get it from Hiroshi from Japan whom she met in London. So, this paper seemed to travel a lot before settle down with me in Croatia.

Handmade notebook

My first crafty project in 2012 was this brown paper handmade sketchbook. It´s very simple and easy so I decided to show how I made it.

First, cut brown paper to A5 size and fold it in half.

I made three signatures, each containing 8 folded papers.

Put signatures together and secure with paperclip. Mark four points. Remove paperclip, open signatures and drill the holes with sharp sewing needle (carefully).

Sew signatures together with needle and thread. Start at the bottom hole of first signature, putting the needle inside. Take it outside thru the second hole and go back inside thru third, outside thru fourth. Then, go inside top hole of the second signature, outside thru second and then go back inside to the third hole of first signature, outside thru second hole and back inside on the second signature. 

When sewing is done, secure with paperclips again and put some glue to the signatures and cover with a piece of cheesecloth.

Glue decorative paper to cardboard for cover.

Finally, connect pages with the cover. Glue peace of paper to the cover and part of first page. Repeat on the other side. Put your notebook under a heavy book overnight.

Gold ribbon angel

I always keep beautiful ribbons and papers from the gifts I get and reuse it. This gold ribbon was on my birthday gift and I instantly knew I´m going to make angel out of it. My birthday is in July, so it took some time to make it, but here it is. It´s very simple to make, so I made photo tutorial:

You will need: two paper balls, wide gold ribbon, narrow gold ribbon, gold knitting thread.