Sweet

Elzeline from Paperfection send me this image together with her sweet wishes.
I love how she transformed the happy girl into a X-mas version!
And while looking up the link from her shop, I came across these beautiful Japanese paper stars!
Ohh, how I love them, they are so pretty!

image by Paperfection

I throw some stars around today and hope that you will have a lovely New Year's Eve.

How to make a happy girl?

Happy girls are an ArtMind trademark. From the beginning I added them to my orders. They looked a bit different then as I used to have a red avatar so I send off red happy girls. I had been told that my avatar looked a lot like Target's and that this could cause trouble. I decided to change it to lime which happens to be my favorite color. And since then, every order is accompagnied by a lime happy girl.
The world is a happier place with happy girls so I decided to share a tutorial on how to make 'em.

Here is what you need:
A cutting mat, a cutting knife, a ruler, hemp thread,
3mm thick felt, doublesided tape (2cm),
wooden bead (12mm), scissors and a thin black liner.

Put doublesided tape (2cm) on the felt.
Cut with a liner just below the doublesided tape.
Cut a piece of the hemp thread 7cm or 3 inch long.
Cut a piece of hemp thread 20cm or 8inch long.
Tie knots on the ends of the threads.
These are the hands and feet.
Fold the larger hemp thread in half and
slip the wooden bead over the end.
Tie a knot about 1cm or half an inch from the top.
Cut the felt in the shape of a dress:
more or less 1cm or half an inch on the top and going wider on the bottom.
Cut a second piece of the dress.
Remove the doublesided tape.
Place the body and arms on top of the dress.
Place the second piece of the dress on top of the other piece of felt.
Draw a happy face. :)
And if you're in a productive mood,
you can make a mountain of happy girls.

In case you are a returning customer in my shop and prefer another color of happy girl when ordering, please don't hesitate to specify the preferred color. :)
Orders placed for my collaborative work with Anna (LilaRubyKing) receive an olive colored happy girl.

My creative space

Remember I was making cards last week? While making them, I came up with a new design...

I cut out the pieces.They look a bit weird like this.

This looks better already.

No party without happy people.

Today, I will take pictures of this card and put it in the shop.

These designs are Dutch and I will take 'em to the fairs with me.

Want to show you creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's to play! It's fun! :)

How to make felt light decoration?

Today I finished off a project I started about 2 years ago. I bet you have those laying around somewhere too! Well at least I hope I'm not the only one who starts something and never finishes it! Anyway, I decided to finish it and make a few pics to show you how to do it.

Here is what you need:
light chain, olive soap or soap flakes, wool roving, towel, plastic to make a resist, bubblewrap foil.
I made the plastic resist from stiff plastic (3mm) and cut out a 'witch hat'.
The triangle is 7cm wide and 9cm high. I added a little extra (1cm) on the bottom as not to make the felt touch the other side.
If this sounds like Chinese, read on, you'll understand later!

First you need to lay out the felt.
Hold the end of the wool roving loosely in one hand and
gently pull off a section with your other hand. Hold your four fingers
against the pad of your palm, trap the wool there and pull firmly.

Lay out three thin layers of felt. When you start out vertically, the second layer needs to be layed out horizontally
and the third one vertically again.

Then place the resist on top of the layed out wool roving.

Then lay out three thin layers of felt - mostly in the middle of the resist.

Then fold the felt on the sides over to the middle.

Put some soap flakes into the glas.
If you don’t have soap flakes, you can grate some from a bar of
olive oil soap with an old grater.
Pour hot water in the glass and let the soap melt a bit.
Then use the spoon to sprinkle some drops onto the roving.

Press lightly onto the wet roving and make sure that there are no 'holes'.
If there are holes, you need to add a bit more roving before rubbing lightly.

Sorry for the quality of the following picture but I find it hard to keep
my hands still while taking a picture. So this is an action shot! :)
Rub genlty onto the wool roving while it is on the bubblewrap.
When you feel that the fibers are more attached to each other
you can rub the other side and also rub it between your hands.

Then you can take out the resist and rub it some more.
As soon as the fibers are attached, they won't attach
anymore when taking away the resist.

Then rinse the piece in water.
I usually just rinse it under the tab but used a bucket of water here.

This is what it looks like when rinsed.

Cut off a tiny part at the top of the felted piece.

This is what it looks like...

Now cover the little lamp with the felted piece.

This is what it looks like when it's lighted...

But you need to make as many as your light chain is to get this...And from a distance...
the felted X-mas trees are mighty cute and are from ViltalaKim on Etsy
the round 'disc' is a ceramic piece made by me called 'infinity'

And this is what they look like when I use my flash.
I'll try to get a better daylight picture tommorrow. :)

How to make a sketchbook?

Did you know I am really terrible at drawing? I am!
But sometimes, there are so many ideas in my head that I just need to scribble them down somewhere. I really wish I could draw better but hey, I've got other qualities I suppose... Anyway, I needed a little sketchbook at a certain size and decided to quickly make myself one.
And while I did that, I took some pictures so I could share this with you.

Here is what you need:
A cutting mat, a cutting liner, a cutting tool, a scoring tool, a pencil and eraser, paper, cardboard, book screws and a hole puncher.
I wanted a sketchbook in the size of a square of 15cm by 15cm or 5,91" by 5,91" so I could scribble my wall art ideas in there.
I cut my paper larger because I will make folds in them: 15cm by 19cm or 5,91" by 7,48"
From the cardboard I made a template of 15cm by 17cm or 5,91" by 6,69"
Put the template on top of the paper and make a scoring line.
Fold the paper back on the scoring line and go with your scoring tool over the paper.
Use the template to cut out the cover of the sketchbook. Make it a tiny bit larger then the paper. That way, it will cover the paper that is not folded or cut nicely. You won't see it on the outside.
Tip: I go to home decoration stores and ask for wallpaperbooks that they are going to throw away. In those books, there usually are some very cool designs paper which are a much heavier quality then the wallpaper. You can use them perfectly for little projects like these. Fun and free!
Mark on the template where you want the holes to be. I did this 2,5cm or 0,98" from the side.Then punch a hole in the template and put the template on the folded paper. Trace the hole.
Now you can clearly see where to punch the holes.
Take your hole puncher and take the back part off so you can see where to punch.
Put a bunch of papers in between and punch the holes.
Make sure to do the same with the front cover of the sketchbook and also add a scoring line.
For the front cover, you also need to score over the paper to make it easy to open up your sketchbook.
Now you have everything ready to assemble.
Take the bookscrew and put it through the holes.
Close it up on the back of the book.
An now it's ready for me to draw. :)
Thank goodness I made this babushka stamp so it saves me to draw that shape each time! I just stamp it in the sketchbook. :)
I made numerous guestbooks and picture albums this way. Instead of using the cardboard cover, I used a thick piece of felt for it to make it prettier.
This kind of bookmaking is an easy way to add more pages later on as you can buy larger book screws.