Stamping - Use what you can find!

I love background stamps. Especially the ones using dots. But most of the time I think them way too expensive. Hey, we are talking about some rubber and dots! 

I just used some foamed rubber stickers (I got a big package in an euro store but you can get cheap foamed rubber stamps nearly everywhere!). I glued them on some wood (0,5 cm between every dot, I drew the lines with a ruler on the wood before).

I also made some tiny stamp...

Or you would rather like some distressed dots as background? Use some bubble plastic!

See the effect?

Love it!

Or cut some foamed rubber...

Use the foamed rubber stickers itself as stamps!

If you don't like there shape, just cut them in the desired shape (I also added an eye!)

Oh, and another hand carved stamps which I made after a paper cut out design...

(but to be honest, my knife was not sharp enough anymore)

As you see, I use just some wood leftovers to mount the stamp!

Bigger dots!

To clean them I use some baby oil wipes / towels.

And my stamp trials :)

A newborn visitor!

This time of the year lizards come out of their eggs (on formentera they breed two times a year). They are really tiny (just about 3 cm) and try to hide the first days. Because birds and also bigger lizards try to catch and eat them. But in the following three days they grow several cm! In the picture you see a fresh-out-of-the-egg little one trying to hide at the windows of the house.

And yes... I have a lot more lizard pictures for you! ^^

(Podarcis pityusensis formenterae)

Inspirations: On the streets (Leipzig)

Some stencil work I stumbled over at the local market. Someone painted the stencil on a car, I like how they made a colourful underground with the yellow before using the stencil! And it seems the owner don't really mind because he has it for months now... :)

Wings

I can't get enough of the beetle wings. I just have to show you the pictures from the new earrings I made with the wings!

I like the different effects you get by using different metals for creating the earrings. I have two pairs, one in silver and the other in brass, for myself to combine with different necklaces.

 And yes, I have some in my dawanda shop (which I will be updating the next days, after being back from holiday now. As you can imagine, I made a lot of new stuff ^^)

Formentera - a little garden dormouse video

Punta rasa - Formentera - Spain


Some garden dormouse (german: Gartenschläfer, spanish: lirón careto, Eliomys quercinus ophiusae) in the early evening. This subspecies lives only on the small island formentera! Normally you can see them only if it is really dark so I was surprised at this rare opportunity to get a little film about them! 


And yes, this means I am back from holiday! Already missing the island! :)

Inspirations: On the streets (Leipzig)

Ghosts!

Little loving ghosts! Yes, seeing them I said something stupid like: "Ooooooooohhhhhhhh!" Together with a little strange and high pitched noise. But I just couldn't help it! ^^

Little vintage treasures - crochet earrings

Yes, I love them! I still can't get enough of creating more crochet earrings and I hope you still love them too ^^

Even if this light pink / rosa is not my personal colour, I am really into it in combination with the cream coloured wax beads and the copper metal parts! Strange how just the combination of materials and colours can make something attractive (like a colour in this case) which normally is not a favorite!

Just fly to the stars!

There is not too much to say about this posting except that it features some earrings (and a pendant) I made with flying things like butterflies or a bird and of course with stars!

Some of the material I already showed you... mh... months...? (last year even?) ago. Some of them I painted, other got little holes made with my dremel... and all of them are now used! 

And in case you wonder where I got all these stuff like the different butterflies: A lot of them are decoration material! If I stumble other some butterflies or other things, the first question coming into my mind is: Can I make an earring out of it!

So yes, christmas decoration, scrapbooking items, wooden little things... all that stuff comes with me!

Also old and broken or just some strange jewelery on sale if there are items I can use for my jewelery! I got the great little glas pendants from some... not so beautiful... earrings. 

And nearly all of them got a new layer of paint and lacquer!

Straws to shrimps!

I found a tutorial in a japanese craft book to create little shrimps out of plastic straws! I had to give it a try! I love the little one but to be honest I needed several trials until I could unterstand the tutorial, even if the tutorial came with a lot of explaining pictures (which were necessary, I can't read japanese!). 

I am not sure what to make out of him or whether I should make more... (the second depending on the first question, I think)

But he made me smile! :)

...and yes, I thought of using him to make earrings but he is a little bit too big for that!

Colours of summer!

One of my friends (one of them with a growing collection of earrings made by me, thanks for that! :) ) asked me whether I could go for more bold colours with my crochet earrings. You know me, I had to try how this would work! 

I searched over some days for the perfect crochet yarn / threat. The problem is that with all the fine and thin crochet yarn they just come in some kind of (what I would call) old fashioned colours. Some of them I like, don't get me wrong! But I didn't want to use pastells, I wanted real bright summer colours!

It took me a while until I stumbled at the bead section of my craft store over a bright and shiny and colourful crochet yarn (it was even written on top of it!). It is not cotton, sorry for that, but I make jewelery and not clothes out of it. And I love how shiny it is! On the good as well as on the bad side: They were on sale. I got them for a nice price, normally this crochet yarn is expensive. But they just had some colours left... sniff. And there won't be any stock anymore to use in the future! (beside the basic colours of black, white and grey... they were also not on sale... so I didn't buy any even if the grey is so beautiful!)

And here we go with my first results! I love the violet and I adore the blue / turquoise! Trust me, it is really bright and for me it is - even if I expected it - quite surprising how modern crochet can look just using the right colours. 

And also some black ones just with a colour accent due to the added bead. Maybe a little bit more on goth style... or evening wear? But hey... I prefer goth, I am still one deep inside my heart! ^^

The black crochet yarn is 100 % cotton so you can see the difference: It is not as shiny as the other yarn. Also it is thicker (still tin ;) ). But I love the effect both kind of yarn creates!

All of them together... more are on my table to finish. I just need some more beads!

PS: And of course I'll add some of them into my dawanda shop! :)

Stamp it all on fabric!

What shall I write about this? It is really an easy project! I just used my beloved handcarved stamps to print patterns on fabric. Most of the time I just used fabric ink pads for stamps. I love them because you can use them with really fine structures without losing any of them! Normal fabric paint is way too thick to use it with fine structures. 

There are just a few things to consider: 

First of all you should use natural fibers with most of the fabric ink pads (I don't know whether there is one you could use for non organic fibers) like cotton, linen or also fabrics which are natural based like viscose. 

Second: Prewash your fabric without any conditioner. Most fabrics are treated, no matter if you buy clothes or fabric. Just washing it removes the stuff. But if you use some kind of conditioner, you'll bring some stuff back again on the fibers of your fabric and you don't want that! The fibers should be ready to react with the ink / colour!

Last but not least: The fabric ink pads are not too strong colours and they don't go over dark fabric. So try your colour with a little piece of fabric if you like the result! Have a look at the two pegasus prints. One on natural / creme fabric, the other one on red fabric (both cotton). I used the same blue ink pad for both prints! 

Okay... not just three things... I am thinking of some other stuff which is maybe useful for you to know if you want to print on fabric: If you print on rough fibers / textured fabric, your picture will have some "broken" lines. You could call the effect kind of vintage image but if you want perfect prints you need very smooth and tight woven fabric! 

This blue, white and black pattern on a blue fabric was a mixture of fabric paint leftovers and a fabric ink pad. The black and white is fabric paint and the blue is a fabric ink pad. I diluted the fabric paint a little bit with water therefor all used colours are a little bit translucent. I love the effect where you can see the overlapping pattern!

The rain drops are from a foam rubber stamp I made. I just used a scissor to cut out a drop silhouette and then  I cut the "light reflections" with a sharp exactor knife into it. I just made some cuts in the foam rubber, I didn't cut anything out! On the cuts there always will be a little bit more paint so you can see it in the print!

Have a closer look to see the effect! :)

Of course, I also tried my cell stamps...

...and two stamps I didn't show you before. Some steampunk inspired pattern...

...and a mermaid... sort of ^^

Just circles with foamed rubber!

Octopus, tentacles and lobsters!

I could image to stitch a spider web around the print...

...and of course some kind of ornaments!

Any ideas what I should do with fabrics like this?