Cool Art

Really love the color and work of Matte Stephens. Just look at his living space! The man can decorate.

Paper Cake

My friends Birthday was last week so I went in with another pal and got her this cute cake plate from Martha.
Alas. I did not have time to bake a cake and thought a paper cake would be fun (and sugar free! Gee-willakers!).
I dug through my stash, found a few sheets that would fit her personality and cut away. Turned out alright. As I completed the top layer I learned some tips that I should have thought through when I started. Oh well.
I wanted to add two big glittery numbers representing her age on the top but ran out of time.
Would be cool if you could find a kit to do just this, no? I think lots of paper cakes could be a very cool thing to display or put little gifts inside.

Beautiful Blooms

How incredible are these enormous flower displays!? Practically takes my breath away.
Can you imagine walking those steps for some special evening?

The details posted on the site:
"Underneath the glass roof of the Cambon-Capucines pavilion was like a giant pop-up book made of white paper. The grandiose décor was made up of monochrome arrangements of roses, daisies, leaves and petals winding their way up and around the room's 32 impressive columns and draped over the railings of the entry stairway where the models appeared. Not to mention the 84 round tables tables with their tablecloths and paper bouquets. All in all, there were 7000 handmade paper flowers, which took a total of 4800 hours of work to assemble. 4000 m2 of paper were needed to create these ephemeral sculptures all in one color...."

Via Chanel

Tiny Fun

Interesting and lovely effects using these tiny flag garlands.
I think I want to try.....








First image via Oh Happy Day
Forgot the second....oops

Creative Food

I have seen this website referred to from a few different sources recently and finally checked them out. Papier Valise has some AMAZING supplies for cool crafting. Attention! They even have some fantastic vintage pharmacy label assortments so I bought a few varieties to do my apothecary jars for Halloween. Woohoo! Be careful- the prices are modest but you will want much and it adds up. :) You can tell I had Halloween on my mind (but it is April, and never too early).
I just ordered a bunch of cool stuff. This gets me excited to focus on projects that I want to do.
Academe has suffered from my lack of personal fun lately. Sorry for not having much on here to share. I have some things awaiting attention, which has been focused on other design/art work for friends and family. So... good, challenging projects, just nothing that would interest anyone here really.
Hoping to get back to 'studies' soon. My spirit is in need of creative exploration!

Tapes N Tapes

Artwork done by iRi5.
These works made using old cassette tapes are awesome.


Found via Craft

LD to the GS

Wow. Sorry it's been so long since I've posted here. My normal 'creative' time has been spent on little design things here and there and some other ventures. But the juices have been flowing again and I'm already doing some work on a few things. In the meantime....
I have been on a mission to get my garage clean. And I mean really clean and organized. I have a new saw, drill press and other tools still in their boxes from Christmas that I haven't been able to use yet because there has been NO room. Too many bikes, a Vespa and Lambretta to navigate around, boxes of stuff, weight equipment.... so we've been gutting. As I was ditching some old Paper Candy signage, I found these watercolors that I did... probably 14 years ago? maybe longer... I can't remember. And I didn't even remember that I had them. They are about 20" tall. I remember just trying to get them done, so I didn't take as much time on the girls and background. I am my own worst critic because I even look at them now and see what I want to improve. But beh- I'm not interested.... so I think I am going to crop off the silly girls and keep the scooters. I tested this idea out in Photoshop so it's included here. What thinketh thou? That would look better, right? They weren't really laying flat so they look a tad warped but you get the idea.
I have a watercolor in the making right now hogging our main table in the family room. The easel is a huge eyesore so I need to get crack-a-lackin' on that.... so much to do!

Vintage Paper Stars

This is a great step by step on how to make these.
I think you could do some cool ones just like this with patterned paper, glitter and interesting things in the center.
I'm thinking gift toppers...
ornaments....
award ribbons.... (omgoshHalloween.Fantastic!)
What about creating in felt and placing on a pillow?! oooh ooo ooo......

Photo Holder

Cool idea using vintage rubber stamps.

Love Leftovers

Okay- So Vday is over but I thought these ideas were worth noting for the future. They inspire the following:
-I liked the idea of using cupcake cups as fluted paper backgrounds. This would look great on a heard box (improving upon, of course... putting something in the middle with more oomph)
-The felt heart thing is something I would never make, but the idea/method is simple and gets my mind plotting. Already did some similar things with hair barrettes but cool pins for clothes, eh...has potential in the kid department.
-And das boats. What is it about boats? They are just kind of cool and dreamy and these look, ahem, a bit easier than the last bunch I made. I dig the big doily sail (would be cool in black!), perhaps bigger tissue paper sails... but the hearts are sweet and for some reason, not too cheesy.

Storage Grates

RAD idea here.
Don't know where I'd put some, but the colored enamel has my mind turning....

Line Love

I remember being quite young, probably in junior high when I saw a piece of art in one of my Mom's fashion/home magazines. It was simple: a model was posing in a chair placed in the corner of a white room, but the chair was a metal sculpture that looked like a huge scribble or drawing of a chair. This big, metal outline and she was sitting in it. I absolutely LOVED it. I tore it out and kept it for years in a binder I had full of images that inspired me. I have never forgotten that great idea. I don't always see work using metal that blows me away but do keep my eyes out. There is something very mid-century about having a metal wall sculpture. They can be so cool, right? But I'm surprised at how hard they are to find. So WOW!!! Found this guy's site and flipped. His name is Frank Plant and his work is amazing. A-MAY-ZING. Some of the content is a bit political, but still: the execution and style is just incredible. Sometimes I'll confess to people that this is a medium I've wanted to try and usually get funny looks. But this is what I'd love to create with it. Ah!

Fun Frivolity

Quick post to share the banner I made for Jess's blog. Looks nice and chewy, eh?

I have wanted to make one of these for a few years. A custom valentines box. I know, weird. I'm not even into those anyway or their bland red execution, but as I was browsing MS.com looking at craft ideas, I found this link and decided to do it, just a wee bit smaller. You can view her video for a better idea on the steps to follow, but here's a short version (and my few alterations).
She suggests using matboard for the box top and bottom, which I used here. First, cut out one heart shape to trace using grade school techniques here: fold a paper in half, cut out a heart 'half' and unfold, resulting in a perfectly symmetrical shape. Trace this onto a piece of the matboard and cut out. Now cut out a second heart from the mat board using the first matboard heart, NOT the template. This will give you a slighly larger heart, which, once walled will fit snugly over your bottom piece. (this is a tip not noted in her tutorial) Then use posterboard cut into 1" strips and hot glue around each matboard heart. I won't go into detail- but her video demonstrates this part well. Voila! The first picture you see is my box top and bottom and all the glue goop that is flapping around. No matter. Let's hide some mess by making the top and bottom panels. Martha suggests using posterboard for this, but I feel it's too flimsy, esp. since you'll be using the edge for pulling the box open so I used more matboard. It was a little tricky to cut with pinking shears but easy to trim down and reshape. Cut those and glue on with your glue gun. Done- see picture #2. Now what? That's what I asked myself. I liked my little box but now had no idea what to do to it. So many options- paint it? fabric? paper? do I stamp it? glue things on it? Try tons of things- could be way fun to see. The box itself doesn't take long to make- about 20 minutes or so. For this one I used velvet paper, cut again in 1" strips and glued them to the side of the outer box. I then coated the upper edge and lower visible edge with a pale pink, chunky glitter. After that I busted out some first grade whoop-art and did some tissue texture! Used a pink-edged circle punch from Martha and punched out a lot of tissue circles, then wrapped one around the end of a pencil, dipped it in glue and placed it on. Yeah- kind of tedious and more work than it was probably worth, but look at how frilly and obnoxious! Perfect for the possibly frilly contents inside... if you know what I mean. Topped the tissue with a little vintage foil cupid and it's done! Fill with candy, naughty little things, what have you....

Lofty Love

I don't really get into Valentines Day much but wanted to do something with these cool vintage valentines I found. This is what I decided to do. I nearly made a garland of some kind but have wanted to try making a mobile for a while, so the valentines were my 'guinea pig'. It ended up being easier than I thought and now I want to try some more cool varieties. When will I do this? Who even knows?!
Here is all I did:
I used 3-4 long pieces of 20 gauge wire, the longest was used on the top (and that bend in the center was an accident when I was tying the string, so be careful). I cut the remaining others in half. I used pliers and looped each end closed. Then I used a cotton red/pink striped yarn to tie everything on. This worked well because it wouldn't slip or move easily. I hole punched each card and continued to tie them on, adjusting balance as I went. Had the thing done within about 30 minutes. Now it floats above our kitchen counter and rains love and happiness down. Okay, not really that last part but it's at least festive and we can enjoy it for ONE WEEK. Sheesh. This is why I need to start things earlier. But think of all the cool things you could do! Paper cut out letters, mod shapes.... I'm excited to play.