mockingjay pin

I finally read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games last year and was blown away by how spectacular it is. It's the story of a post-apocalyptic world in which teens are chosen to outwit each other in a vicious survival game, and where winning the televised competition literally means the difference between life and death.

Each contestant is allowed to bring one memento from home, and 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen chooses to wear a mockingjay pin. The bird is evolved from a crossbreed between a mockingbird and a jabberjay, a bird created by the pitiless Capitol to spy upon its citizens. As such, it is something that should not exist--and it eventually becomes a powerful symbol for the revolution.

I loved the first book in the trilogy, which is incredibly bleak and violent and sad. As soon as I finished it I had to look for a mockingjay pin, and sure enough, there are licensed pins, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. (There should be more merchandise to come, since the book is also in the development stage for a film.) I ended up buying a pin from an Etsy seller, though, because I liked how the metal looked and the idea of supporting an independent artisan. I usually link the sellers I buy from, but in this particular case I won't, since the pin actually arrived separated from its pinback and it was a bit of a hassle to get a partial refund. After consulting a lot of different people on the best adhesive for this sort of thing, I was able to mend it (I think) with E-6000 glue.

I love it though, so in spite of the annoying buying experience I'm glad I got one. If you're interested in seeking a similar pin for yourself, there are a number of other mockingjay interpretations on Etsy as well. And if you haven't read The Hunger Games, do. It's unforgettable.

renegade holiday craft fair

This weekend, Renegade Craft Fair returned to Los Angeles for its holiday edition. Weirdly, it's being held on the same dates as Unique LA...it sounds like there might've been a big game of craft chicken going on!

We decided to stop by Renegade--although it's smaller than the other fair, it's outside (which meant sun and food trucks) and best of all, free. There were lots of great vendors there, and we found some goodies to take home including little pins from Oh, Hello Friend, a card from Sycamore Street Press (printed on vintage letterpress and recycled card stock), an airmail stationery set from Paper Pastries (maker of those great Chefs pencils I got earlier this year), little freebie pins from dorklandia and Careful It Bites, and a set of Alice in Wonderland rubber stamps from The Urban Craft Center.

I'd been salivating over these stamps for awhile after I saw them on Etsy but hesitated because of high shipping costs from Asia, so I was really happy to see them at the fair. I love the Cheshire Cat and Wonderland stamp in particular!

It's always fun when a craft fair is in town, especially when you get to eat Korean-style galbi tacos afterwards. We actually had a fender bender on Thursday and then another little issue with our other car the next day, so it was really nice to end the week on a good note.

mine!

This doesn't happen that often, but I've decided to claim something for my own that was originally purchased as a Christmas present for someone else.

At the L.A. County Fair this summer, we browsed through Liliana International, a great booth specializing in Russian lacquer boxes, jewelry, and other gifts. There were lots of antique icons and hand-painted eggs, and best of all, a big selection of nesting dolls.

I've mentioned my fondness for matryoshka before, though I've never actually had a real set before. We found this cheery red-painted set that looks very storybook-like that I just loved, and since it was very reasonably priced we got the set to give it to someone else.

The mistake was that I decided to open up the package and leave it on display on my bookcase to admire for a little while...and then a little while turned out to be a few months...and then, well, they just look as though they belong there, all snug in their little corner. I'm sure we'll find something else nice for the original recipient.  But I'd mourn these forever if I had to give them up.

matryoshka tape

Like my beloved Hello Kitty, I fear that this theme might be becoming a little cliche, but I do so love matryoshka. We recently got a hand-painted wooden set from a Russian dealer at the fair, which we're saving for a Christmas present for someone--but what on earth was I thinking? I should have gotten a set for me, too!

What I did get recently for myself recently, however, is this fun set of deco tape as well as rubber stamps with nesting doll themes since the seller was doing a moving sale. So cute, and such a bargain! I can't wait to use them.

I'm not really a stamp collector, but I also really love the stamps from Japan that were on the package. Someone offered to send me the Wallace and Gromit Christmas stamps when they come out in the UK in November, which makes me really happy...between those and the Simpsons stamps and the Calvin and Hobbes stamps here in the U.S., my mailbox will be a lot of fun in the coming months.

dozing dormouse sale

It's always sad when one of your favorite Etsy shops closes. It looks like Dozing Dormouse will be shutting down soon, but in the meantime, Amy is offering 50% off everything in her store. As soon as I got the email from her, I placed an order immediately.

I received some vintage millinery flowers, plastic flowers for crafting, a set of vintage hummingbirds, and more of yellow velvet ribbon I'd previously ordered. All prettily packaged up with cello and ribbon and assorted trinkets, nestled on shredded book paper. In retrospect, I should have ordered some glassine envelopes as well...oh, well. If you're interested in goodies of your own, be sure to visit the shop and snap up whatever you want fairly quickly.

I'll miss Dozing Dormouse, but perhaps it will come back one day in the future. Hope so, anyway.

tiny wall art

With lots of thrifted frames lying around that I've accumulated over the years, it's always fairly easy to find a way to hang something. I was looking at my wall, and I was looking at my Craft Pudding rubber stamps from Etsy, and I thought, "tiny art!"

I quite like how the silver is slightly tarnished on the little square frames. Red Riding Hood and her affable wolf will find a place on our wall soon enough, if I could just find where our (old pickle) jar of picture-hanging materials is...

renegade craft fair l.a.

Renegade is in town! A craft fair weekend is a happy weekend, especially when you find good loot. The haul from this expedition included a few presents which can't be shared just yet, but we found some fun things for ourselves as well.

We took home this green taco-eating dinosaur shirt from Seibei, one of our favorite cheeky clothing designers. We also have this one from last year's Unique LA, and they always make me laugh when I see them. It's charming how fiercely the Tyrannosaur demands his sandwich/taco.

As usual, there were some fun freebies around the fair, such as some crafting demos, some funny little pins from Threadless, and the canvas bags I got from Yelp and Seibei.

Renegade, which is now in its second year, was held outside at the Los Angeles State Historic Park downtown. It was a little warm today, but there were a lot of people walking around. It's nice to see that the fair got a good number of local sponsors...especially because it made the event free! Renegade Craft Fair is headed for San Francisco next week, and then for Chicago and San Fran again later this year.

hannah stevenson

One of the nicest things about blogging and tweeting and trolling the Internet for interesting craft ideas is that you meet so many great people. If you'd told me two years ago that there was such a great community of creative people online who were so generous with their time and their friendship towards complete strangers, I wouldn't have believed you! But here we are, in a giant virtual community.

Someone I met recently online was Hannah Stevenson, the artist behind the storybook paper dolls. Her work was just enchanting to me, as you might expect since she illustrates outfits inspired by girls in literature. What I didn't expect was that she would be such warm and interesting person to chat with as well. Read more about Hannah and her creative inspiration, in which I talk to her about her future plans for the dolls for Handmade News.

Personally, I'd love to see interesting backdrops for the dolls, perhaps in the style of a puppet theater. And other girls I'd love to see? Sara Crewe. Sleeping Beauty. Maybe even Nancy Drew or Betsy Ray or Ramona Quimby or  Harriet the Spy. Ooo, or a Somewhat Wicked Girls line! Nellie Oleson, I think someone's calling your name.

 

Photographs courtesy of Dana Willard and Hannah Stevenson.

storybook paper dolls

I've always liked the idea of old-fashioned paper dolls. There's something about their simplicity that's very appealing, and it's a good reminder of how few material items children really need to stimulate imagination and play. 

The first time I ever read about paper dolls was in All-of-a-Kind Family, when the girls' Papa, who is a peddler on the lower east side of New York in the early 1900s, receives an unexpected load of books. He allows his daughters to pick out whatever they'd like, and they are delighted to find a storybook that was illustrated with paper dolls and outfits to cut out. 

It was wonderful! Enchanting! It seemed like a bit of Fairyland come to life. They might have dreamed about such a book but they had not known that one like it even existed.

This is just how I felt when I came across Lily and Thistle MiniMe paper doll boutique recently. Hannah Stevenson customizes each doll she creates with skin tone, hairstyle, eye color, freckles, glasses, etc. so each girl resembles your little girl--or, well, you. The illustrations themselves are utterly charming, but what made me go absolutely crazy over them were the two special clothing lines she had created: a girls in literature outfit line and a fairy tale outfit line. I had to order a set immediately.

When I received the dolls themselves just one short week after an email consultation with Hannah, I was beside myself with excitement. The doll is incredibly sweet, with lovely watercolor-y shading and beautifully shaped features. I also like that she looks like a real girl, not like a flat stick figure or an exaggerated or unrealistic depiction of what a girl should look like. The six modern-day outfits she comes with are fun, ranging from sun dresses to shorts and leggings, but what I was obviously rapturous over were the two storybook lines.

  

I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the clothing is. The dress patterns are minutely detailed, with warm, vibrant colors that somehow look subtly textured. I love the tiny birds and roses in Gretel's skirt, the soft cottony bloom in the Princess and the Pea's nightdress, the scarlet of Red Riding Hood's flowing cloak, the relaxed wool sweater worn by Lucy Pevensie, and the iridescent seashell colors in the Little Mermaid's tail.  Each outfit transforms the doll completely--somehow she has a more upright carriage when she wears Velvet's riding habit and boots, or looks more demure in Cinderella's elegant ballgown, or is ready to take flight with Tinkerbell's wings. 

I can't say enough about how incredibly lovely this whole collection is--and how reasonably priced they are. You may buy a doll (and outfits) printed on high quality cream-colored card stock, and presented in packaging suitable for gift-giving--which also comes with a cd with the images so you can reprint them if you need to! How amazing is that? Hannah also offers printable download option if you'd like to print them up yourself. The dolls come with a sticky strip, but I decided to laminate my dolls and find magnetic strips for them so they'd last a little bit longer.

If there is an imaginative girl in your life, I can't imagine she won't enjoy these lovely playthings. This is truly the most beautiful collection of paper dolls I've ever seen, and these charming, timeless girls are ones I know I'll treasure for a lifetime.

If you'd like to learn more about paper dolls, you may read more about their long history here. Hannah also has a wonderful blog which offers tutorials, free downloadable outfits, and more.

scherenschnitte: the art of papercutting

The art of scherenschnitte, or "scissor cutting," has been around for hundreds of years. Artisans in Europe, Asia, Mexico, and the Middle East have produced beautiful works of art for centuries armed with nothing more than a leaf of paper and a pair of scissors or knife. 

I first read about the art of papercutting a few years ago, and went so far as to contact a few artists with the intention to write a story on the art for a website I used to edit. The story didn't end up happening since I left as an editor last year, but since this art form has popped up as a trending topic in the crafting community recently, I thought I'd share some of the resources I gathered at the time. I spoke with several artists about their work in papercutting, and I've featured three of my favorites below.

The delightful Elsa Mora is well-known in the scherenschnitte circles for her delicate, intricate designs. I love the intelligence and thought that is behind each of her pieces, as well as the minute, feathery details and suggestion of movement in each one. This California-based artist's wonderful blog The Heart of Papercutting is full of generous links and resources for anyone who might want to try out papercutting for themselves, and it was her work that inspired me to try my hand at it. 

I attempted to cut two of the storybook children she designed (as pictured above) with a craft knife and self-healing mat, and surprised myself by finishing within a matter of hours with each one. Though my Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan have sadly slightly misshapen hands and are a bit rough in spots here and there, I think they turned out pretty well for a first attempt, and it was a really satisfying project to try. I finally got around to mounting the two children this week, and put them in wooden frames that I painted a slightly pearlescent grey.

Along with prints of her work, Elsita now also carries simple patterns in her Etsy shop for beginner papercutting enthusiasts, which is a much easier way to learn this beautiful craft than the way I went about it. She also offers her original papercuts for sale through Three Graces Gallery, and the complexity and subtle mystery in her work is truly unforgettable.

Su Blackwell is another scherenschnitte artist whose ethereal artwork makes me catch my breath. This UK-based artist creates dreamy three dimensional works, as with While You Were Sleeping above, and specializes in artwork cut from vintage books. Her 12 Dancing Princesses is just one of her many pieces inspired by fairy tales, although she also does fantastic commercial work for magazines and retailers as well.

Su alerted me last year that her artwork would be included in a Slash: Under the Knife, a group exhibition at Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and I popped in to see it last fall when I was visiting friends. The exhibit was really wonderful (even if I blanched at the admission price to the museum...oh, New York!) and I was glad to see some of Su's work in person. The exhibit just closed this spring, but you can view more of her work on her website or on her blog.

Cindy Ferguson is a graphic designer and artist who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. She says, "I have always loved drawing. When I went to Europe a few years ago, I visited my grandparent's farm in Germany. In their sitting room, there was an old scherenschnitt on the wall. It was so intricate and beautiful. I thought I would like to try my hand at the art and have become quite obsessed with it."

Cindy's Scherenschnitte blog is updated frequently with updates on her most recent projects, as well as with tutorials and free templates to download. Cindy also accepts commissions for custom silhouettes and artwork through her cindymindypindy Etsy site. My very favorite of her creations happens to be her custom piece for a man who wanted a papercut for his wife, whose favorite film is Pride and Prejudice. It features the moving quote featured in a pivotal point, "It taught me to hope," said he, "as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before." I can't even imagine the amount of discipline and fine motor control that Cindy had to use in order to carve out the lovely text. I love all the details in this papercut, from the stripes in the Elizabeth's skirt to the hands in motion to the perfect frame provided by the trees.

Please do visit all three artists online for papercutting inspiration and beauty--the patience and artistry required for each complex work of art is incredible..and perhaps you'll even be inspired to try out this beautiful craft on your own. Photographs courtesy of  the individual artists.

As I was editing this post, I realized that all three of the artisans featured have created artwork centered around books and fairy tales--no wonder I was drawn to them! (Incidentally, Hans Christian Andersen was also very well known for traveling around and telling stories to children while snipping away with scissors to create instant papercuts while he was spinning tales. The book The Amazing Papercuts of Hans Christian Andersen features many of his papercuts, and if you're a fan of his writing, it's nice to learn more about this lesser-known talent.) Two things I really love, books and craft, come together in perfect harmony.

vintage lemon yellow ribbon

A girl with a lot of pretty hair bobbies needs a place to keep them. Could the arrival of this lovely lemon yellow vintage ribbon from Dozing Dormouse help? I think it might.

Amy's package also arrived with a cute little glassine packet of scrap book embellishments as well as a handmade matchbook notepad, all wrapped up in tissue paper and lace. Etsy sellers really do have the best packaging--the wrapping is almost as much of a pleasure as the item itself.

I have an idea for how to use this for my hair pins and such, but I need to figure out how exactly to do it. My sewing machine and craft supplies are still all boxed up from the move, but I'll be able to make something with this soon enough. I hope.

accessories

I have to confess, on most days I just push my hair back in a headband or with sunglasses. I can't resist pretty hair bobbies and clips, though, especially if they're on sale. It's a little frivolous, but there are so many lovely hair accessories around these days, and beaded or sequined ones are usually actually very well priced for the amount of craftsmanship involved.

Some recent items that have found their way onto my dresser include a blue gossamer gardenia clip, golden twig branch bobbies from Urban Outfitters, a dusty pink feathered-jeweled-feather from Anthropologie, and a fancy feathered comb from teeny house bunny which has a secret charm on the underside.

Most of these can be worn either in your hair or on your hat or bag. It's especially nice when the clips come with both pin backs and with alligator clips for versatility. I think I'll add a pin back to the flowered hair pin I made last year for a wedding, which is pictured below. It's layers of silky salmon fabric burnt around the edges with a candle and fastened with sequins sewn in the middle.

I thought you might enjoy also seeing this cunning owl ring from Urban Outfitters, too. He has mesmerizing amber rhinestone eyes accenting his pale blue enamel and metal face. Of all the accessories women have, rings and bracelets might be the most fun for the wearer...since you can admire them as you're wearing them, too!

bookish

A trip to the library, a trip to The Iliad Bookshop, and a delivery from Amazon all on the same day? I must have been a very good girl indeed.

The loot by mail this weekend included the latest Coralie Bickford-Smith designed Emma (it's beautiful! And it's from Penguin, my favorite publisher!), season one of the Canadian television series Emily of New Moon (which I've been dying to see for literally years--they're finally all available here in the U.S.), darling little Labels and Stickers from The Small Object, and Sarah Water's fabulous gothic mystery, The Little Stranger, which I never got to finish when I had it from the library.

At Iliad, I also came away with the sequel that I didn't know existed to Harriet the Spy. I'm not referring to The Long Secret or its better follow-up Sport, but to a book released somewhat recently in 2003 called Harriet Spies Again by Helen Ericson. Although it was written with permission of Louise Fitzhugh's estate, and was presumably timed to the film adaptation I never saw, I tend to look upon these things with a great deal of suspicion.

But of course, I had to read it--and it's actually pretty good so far. The author does a nice job of echoing Harriet's muttering and suspicious thought patterns, which made the character such an original, as well as in illustrating the loving but careless interactions between Harriet and her parents or Cook. I'm only about a third of the way through, so the major plot devices have yet to really take shape, but thus far it's been a very pleasant surprise.

Books are full of such great promise, aren't they? I'm very much looking forward to diving into this pile.

fancy cat hair bow

There are days when you're just in the mood to wear a fancy cat hair bow. On those occasions, consider turning to Christine at dailee dose, whose Etsy shop features whimsical, vintage-inspired jewelry and accessories. I snapped up this sweet little blue and white striped bow with its vintage cat cameo after seeing a tweet from Paper*Cakes. The bow is very well made, with a nice grippy clasp and the unparalleled charm of its green-eyed cat. It makes this girly girl super happy.

bread art project

My current obsession this morning is turning photographs into toast. Pop on over to The Bread Art Project, sponsored by the Grain Foods Foundation, where you can turn your artwork into virtual breakfast.

Do be sure to read the terms and conditions, which you'll need to agree to if you want to save your work. I almost uploaded some of my stitching (would be so cute!) but was somewhat reluctant to give up the rights as indicated. This project was created with the intent to raise awareness of hunger in the United States. The Grain Foods Foundation pledged to donate $1 to Feeding America for every piece of artwork loaded, though this may have finished up since the project started a year ago. 

Still lots of fun for us, though. I've made myself an avatar for Facebook, as well as virtual portraits for friends. Enjoy!