Christmas Tags

Wishing you all a blessed and joyful Christmas.

If you forgot to get some Christmas tags in time, feel free to download these or these and print them for yourselves. Of course only for personal use.

The "Unexpectedly" Project

Ok, I didn´t plan to do this in particular but here you have a little project to do.

In the middle of a kind of a cleaning process I found out I didn´t have enough small or big – any kinds – of boxes. All I could do was to go get one or two from our cellar. Of course, they needed a refurbishing and as I said I didn´t plan to spend a whole afternoon to make them. I simply needed them – the boxes. But I wanted them to look acceptable. So...

I took the first two paints I found in our closet and simply started to paint. Red and white. No special, just acrylic paint. One or two layers, it dries quite quickly in about hour or so. Then, I took the second color and just sketched stripes on. Of course, the red layer wasn´t dry enough and that was the moment when I realized that I am in the middle of an interesting afternoon project. I went on with striping and was surprized at how cool the non straigth and not perfectly painted stripes looked like. This box turned out pretty good, didn´t it?

A few months ago I bought some metal tags and I know now is the time for them. Alright, sometimes no planning and hey, look what you´ve got.

BTW, I learnt the word "unexpectedly" through the song "Beauty and Beast." My favorite movie.

RedBubble stuff

Patterned Papers

Lately, I haven’t been designing any new patterned papers but for your information I do so sometimes. I love to think in collections when doing so. Some of them were printed as fabrics as well. I have the papers printed with a professional printing company however; they are released in limited editions only. I usually choose to print them on an ofset white matte paper of 200g/m2. Each set includes 4 papers of A5 size (14,85 cm x 21 cm). Sometimes they are patterned on just one side, sometimes they are double sided. Occasionally I get printed larger or smaller formats.

It is a great and unique source for scrapbooking and paper crafts. With every collection I try to come with an easy craft to present the patterns and it is always a challenge for me to do so. It also makes me happy when I get feedback from my customers and see how they used my papers for their own projects. It is really exciting and I appreciate that.
If you are interested please see my previous collections.

Currently, there are two collections available.

Noria – Inspired by Norway

Remember the Wooden Horse? One is made of it.

And you could have actually seen a light blue color

combination of one of the four designs on my fabric.

Purple Rapsody – Contemporary Color Combo Set.

The damask inspired theme was printed on fabric as well.

And a few examples of what you can do with the papers.

DRAWING AND DIGITALIZING

I never studied art professionally, except common lessons on a high school and one semester of drawing course under Folk Conservatory of Ostrava. I know I have inherited some talent from my grandma and it was her who as far as I remember was teaching me to draw, as well as other crafts like crocheting, knitting and embroidering. I never desired or dreamed of becoming an artist in terms of drawing and painting, however lately I found it entertaining to draw here and there and modify pencil sketches in a computer which is fun and interesting. As I am simply into designing of patterns it is a wonderful thing to combine my drawings with my repeated patterns. I love that.
That´s why you could have seen my recent pictures offered for print and sale at various places. Most of all I get the pictures printed myself and sell them at a Czech craft server but you can get some through my Etsy shop too. Then, you can choose to have them printed yourself through Zazzle, RedBubble or CafePress. The pictures are available as cards and prints to be framed. Sometimes there are additional options like prints on canvas or T-shirts etc.
With my love for fabric design it is possible that some of these pictures will be printed on fabric. But you know there are too many ideas and too little time. Anyway, I do wish to try to sew stylish bags with these prints on. I think it would be great.

Wooden Horses

From time to time I need to experiment with materials and crafts and simply try to work on something I haven’t done before. So it was with these wooden horses two weeks ago. I asked my friend to cut the horses out of raw spruce wood for me as I do not have tools for it myself.
To be honest, I didn’t really know what they will look like. All I wanted was to cover the wood with patterned papers and antique the horses to create a stylish old-looking home decor.
I used both my own original designed papers and some leftovers from my favorite Amy Butler design papers. I knew it would work but I was surprised at how cool it looked with different pattern. I made two pieces so far, so a creative play with more patterns and colors is yet to come.
My husband helped me and drilled the necessary wholes for the tails and eyes. It is a wonderful thing, to do crafts with your husband. We enjoyed it. I used yarn and pieces of wool to make the tails while the eyes are made of special washers and beads.