chinese folk art papercuts as gift tags


Today, taking a day off from work...tomorrow going to party down in Pasadena with the Relatives for my cousins wedding shower. Just look at how pretty gift tags can be when you adorn them with chinese folk art papercuts .

They are indeed very tricky to glue onto paper, but I found a solution: using just a TINY bit of "spray mount", and holding the delicate papercut in my hand while spraying instead of laying it down on another flat surface (unless you have wax paper lying around, unfortunately today I did not). It was a bit messy, but I'm very happy with the results!

magnet marbles

Miss Monica and I were at the "mullet-mart" (a.k.a. Walmart) last week looking around for garden gadgets, and lingered on into the craft section where I came upon a bag of glass marbles. Carpe Diem! From Not Martha to the Ugly green chair , I've been noticing the marble magnet phenomenon all over the internet. So thought this was the ultimate opportunity to give it a go. (Working that "blue light special" no less!)

Tips and Tricks:

� I found that using my old Berol circle template (from my days as an art major-ette) was just the trick for making perfect sized circles to glue onto the back of the flat sided marbles.

� Using liquitex painters matte medium in lieu of glue (hey if it works for decoupage...why not in this application as well?!).

� I found two great places for images:
The thumbnails on the back of art calendars (are the perfect size),
and old Anthropologie catalogs, using pictures of all of the beautiful fabrics (these being my favorite).

� Lastly don't go all cheapee on the magnets...the thick round ones are the best! You don't want those marbles to break now do ya?!

A few other ideas you might try:

� If you are giving these as gifts you might want to add a layer of felt to the back to hide unsightly magazine print.

� try gluing fabric to the back of the marbles instead of paper.


� Using acrylic paints...doing reverse painting on the backside of the marble.

Check out my recently updated Picks page it's filled with all sorts of links that inspire me.

Kathleen's flower fetish

Last night I finally got a peek at BBC America's Homefront in the Garden. It was one of the first times I've ever actually yelled at my TV ("no f-ing way!"). I've never seen anything like this before, it gave me pure chills of inspiration.

Hydraulic lifting gardens revealing another garden room underneath, an Egg shaped TV room anchoring the end of a garden instead of the usual old shed.

Garden themes that exist nowhere else in nature. It was Awe Inspiring. I love the fact that this sort of"extreme gardening" is so new it's rolling eyeballs, and shaking heads of the purists.

Arborist Axel Erlandson, also departed sharply from the traditional in the 1920's...you have to check out the Tree Circus.

Watching windows

After a new window was installed in the kitchen this weekend, I matched it to the others with this "fab" lace stencil.

When the sun shines through the windows in the morning, lace shadows dance across the walls.

Lace stencil available at the stencil library, England.

Recycled Chic


Recently I began creating cigarbox purses with different recycled things that for some reason or another I haven't been able to let go of: Old Daniel Merriam calendars, beads from old stretched out bracelets, wrapping papers from the "Tuesday Morning" store, scrap bits of fabric, etc.

I've always envisioned myself owning a home store someday with one of a kind pieces like this & handpainted Chinese silk festival lanterns hanging in the windows.

Today I read a profile about another recycler Pamela Barsky. Sounding more like a Hollywood screenplay than a true story, her background went from being a ski bum from Motown to selling her mother's engagement ring in order to open up a store in Los Angeles.

(What could I sell...what could I sell!)

If you have the chance check out the inspiring Diva's store online @ www.pamelabarsky.com ...I adore her embroidered journals.

creative space

Katarina Powell is a fabric artist that I read about a year ago in "Country Home" magazine. What fascinated me most was her most inspiring workshop. While her two little boys are playing upstairs she retreats to her basement studio...her walls and ceiling are one giant inspiration board. Filled with clippings of beautiful fabric swatches, watercolor palettes, antique rosettes, and her lovely sketches all pinned to the walls. Ribbon mobiles hang in front of the windows and from the ceiling...it's a plethora of ideas. Such an ideal space for a creative person...

It's so important to have a space where you can just lay all of your materials out, and let the work flow through you.
Right now I have a small art studio space in our garage alongside Shawn's workshop (we've never used it for cars). One of the first things that my husband did when we moved in, was putting in windows overlooking the garden from my worktable. (I didn't ask for this...he just did.) Later, on our first wedding anniversary he led me into the garage to see that he had strung up all of my paper lanterns from Chinatown with fairy lights and hung them over my work area.

Now I have a very unique workspace to call my own, just like Katarina Powell.