Paper Crafts - Greeting Cards

Isn't this card pretty? I especially love the way it opens up. It looks complicated but its actually really simple! If you had enough time, this would work as a beautiful hand-crafted wedding invitation. There are instructions on how to make this card at Stamping Mathilda. I could browse through that site for hours. The paper crafts she has posted are so colorful and cheerful. Its like a little bit of sunshine in the middle of this cold spring ;)

A gallery of Easter eggs

I remember the fun of decorating Easter eggs as a child. I'd take out the crayons, dye, paints, markers, wax, pretty much anything that I could think of to color those eggs. My designs were always (and still are) more ambitous than I could actually accomplish, and my fingertips always ended up dyed for days. In homage to those childhood memories I've set out on an online egg hunt. I found Easter eggs in the strangest of places. Here's what my egg hunt prouced:

From the UK Guardian. Article on Easter break travels.

A Celtic Cross eggshell from a research paper on eggshells. So delicate! I'm sure I'd break it if they let me anywhere near it.

Eggs in animal print? From the Baldiness website. "Next time you see an Easter egg think of a bald person". Thats really what it says!

Paper art

Artist Su Blackwell does the most amazing things with paper. I can only imagine how much time and care would need to go into the creation of each piece of art. The end result is whimsical, haunting, and beautiful. It certainly proves the awesome potential of humble materials, given the right amount of imagination. Wow.

Check out her website or this blog article to view a few of her pieces.

DIY Chandeliers and Light Fixture Ideas

Lately I've been obsessing over home renovations. Years of watching trading spaces and design shows on HGTV have come back to haunt me. The husband and I are thinking about making a main floor suite in our house. It's not going to be a giant renovation but its a big step for us. I can't wait!

As you may already know I enjoy saving money with manual labor. There are a number of projects on my list: lighting, painting, reupholstering. I'll post my progress here. For now I'm just a little beyond the daydreaming and planning stage. This week I was checking out chandeliers. I definately want to add a couple of self-made playful pieces to the space. Here were some things I found online.

Make a lamp using old metal blinds. This seems pretty simple! I imagine you could hang pretty much anything you wanted from the frame you build in this tutorial. I like the retro modern kind of look!

What about making a cd case pendant light? Again, this is pretty modern looking, and it involves recycling. I think something like this would be perfect in a little office space. It's definately bound to start some conversations.

The next lighting fixture is both practical and unique! It's a both a wine glass rack and a chandelier. The instructions aren't in english but there are photos outlining the different steps. I think you could make something similar with a metal ring or wood instead of plexiglass. I really want to try something like this for the kitchen.

These last two chandeliers are just for fun. The first is made from hundreds of bic pens, and the latter from thousands of gummy bears. There's an interesting discussion on the same page as the bic ballpoint pen chandelier: How much is art worth? Won't the ink leak? Are those pens new and not recycled? The gummy bear chandelier is so colorful! I wonder if it makes the space smell like candy. mmm.

Online photo books

Wow...I was overwhelmed by the quantity of online photo book retailers. Kodak, Qoop, Shutterfly, PhotoWorks, Blurb, SharedInk, and Viovio are a few sites that provide online photo book services.

Its far too much to write up into a single post. Other people have done their own reviews of course.

Here are a few reviews that I found:
Which websites create the best photo albums?
Viovio photo book review
Last minute photo book buying guide
Our honeymoon in Paris - A Blurb book review

For myself, I want the freedom to customize layout and covers. I didn't want to use templates. For that I think I'll try Viovio. I've designed my album using Indesign and it just needs a few more tweaks. I'll send it off and let you know how it turns out.