a handmade thank you

Just over three months ago, my mom threw me a baby shower and just about two months ago, I had a baby! I wasn't feeling so creative during my pregnancy but as the ninth month approached my creative juices started to flow again. I wanted to express my appreciation and love to all the people that were so supportive and generous throughout my pregnancy and so I thought taking the time to make a handmade thank you card was a nice way to show it. My daughter arrived on October 29th and we named her Olive. Click through the photos to see how I created the "I Love You" or rather "Olive You" cards...

Handmade "Olive You" card.

To transfer the graphic to a linoleum carving block, I traced it entirely with a pencil, placed it face down on block and rubbed the back of graphic with the side of pencil tip.

With a Speedball linoleum cutter, craft knife and scissors, I carved away around graphic.

To insure the stamp was looking good, I periodically tested it as I carved to see if you need to cut away more around the graphic.

I created a template for the olives and traced around it multiple times onto green paper so I could cut out all of them at once.

For the olive pimentos, I used red paper and a half inch hole punch.

With a glue pen, I attached the red circles to the back side of each green olive.

I precut card-stock to fit my envelopes and rounded the corners with a craft punch.

To print, I blotted a green ink pad over the block, while it was flat on my work surface...

...then flipped it over, carefully centering the block on the card-stock, and pressed down on the back with my fingertips.

Carefully lift the block off paper and its printed and ready to be inked for the next card!

Before I attached the olives to the cards with foam dots, I printed a thank you message on the back of the card using my inkjet printer and then hand wrote personal notes also. 

The finished card! I made about 75 all together.

With a custom stamper, I stamped the inside of the envelopes with my info to let my friends and family know I handmade each card just for them!

I keep my custom stamper set up so I can use it for everything I make by hand.

Glass Etching Workshop!

If you happen to be in New York City on September 25, come join me for a fun Glass Etching Workshop! Featuring Martha Stewart Crafts Glass Etching Cream and stencils, the workshop will expose you to multiple techniques for creating unique personalized glassware. You'll go home with a set of four juice glasses and your very own Martha Stewart Glass Etching Kit! To top it off, you'll not only learn how to embellish a glass, you'll get a lesson in filling it too—my friend Amanda will be demoing green smoothies! She is a Certified Holistic Health and Nutrition Coach, not to mention, an expert smoothie maker.

The two hour class, starting at 6:30pm, will be held at the Columbus Circle West Elm. For more information and to sign up, click on the link below:

http://www.skillshare.com/classes/crafts/Glass-Etching-Organic-Smoothie-Workshop/918037737/927338951

With a few supplies from your desk drawer...

or a readymade, Martha approved stencil design...

you can make a fabulous handmade glassware set!

Learn all the techniques and insider tips when you sign up for this special glass etching workshop!

Making Stickers for the Wild Bird Fund

This coming Thursday, the non-profit I volunteer for will be hosting a fundraising gala. A lot of work has gone into putting the event together and we're all hoping it pays off! I had the task of designing the signage and printing the large format photos with the great help of my husband and Graj & Gustavsen, where everything was printed. One of the smaller projects I took on was making stickers. 

First, I printed the WBF logo ​so there were many on a single page. I ran the page through the Xyron machine loaded with double-sided adhesive cartridge.

Using a 2" circle punch, I lined up each logo and punched it out. Scissors are used to trim around each row of logos so the punch can be properly centered around each logo.

​I'm left with a stack of circle stickers perfect to customize shopping bags, informational packages and whatever else we need them for for the event.

The Wild Bird Fund is a non-profit organization that helps rescue and rehabilitate New York City's wildlife. For the time I have spent helping out at the center, I've seen many different creatures come and go. Here are some of the animals I have had the pleasure to care for or just quietly observe...

​Here's a robin just about ready to be released.

​This pigeon is named Elsa after the kind pedestrian who brought her into the center. She had a tear in her chest and needed sutures.

George here needed a splint on his foot—his  left Tibiotarsus is broken.

Not a happy camper this little brown bat.

​Perhaps he's just a bit hungry?

​This red-ear slider turtle is about 80 years old! She's been passed down for 3 generations within a family. 

​A pair of geese getting some exercise in the water fowl swimming tub at the center.

​A swan waiting patiently for a clean cage.

​A opossum sits behind a plate of yummy food.

​Cute chirping baby pigeons.

​A curious gull.

​A injured pigeon lays comfortably and safely in a cage with food and water.

​One of the many woodcocks that has come into the center this season. What an unexpected bird to find on a New York City sidewalk?!

​This morning dove and her mate hid a egg from the staff at the center and new resident hatched!

Gem and Mineral Show, Tucson 2013

​A couple years ago I had the pleasure of traveling to Tucson, Arizona with Swarovski-Elements for the annual Gem and Mineral shows. This year, an up-and-coming new jewelry line, Victoria Louise, was kind enough to bring me along. I had some free time to walk a few different shows and tents around Tucson this time. The amount of beads, stones, rocks, minerals and gems was overwhelming but inspiring and of course a lot of fun! Who doesn't love rocks!?

​The Tucson landscape—cactus in the setting sun.

​Hundreds of crystals. I mean thousands of crystals everywhere!

​So many phantom crystals!

The biggest crystals I have ever seen!!​

​Pyrite stones.

​Piles of rocks. 

​Some rough stones look better when they're wet. A spray bottle of water is handy so you can truly see the color and shine of the stones even before it is polished.

​Some vendors display their rocks in buckets of water so you can see their full potential.

An unpolished Australian opal may look like a plain rock when dry, but run a wet finger over the surface and the opal's iridescent qualities magically appear.

​The textures of some of the rocks are just utterly amazing.

​I was loving this bubbling green specimen.

​Pyrite is one of my favorite. The geometric, cubistic natural form of pyrite I find fascinating.

​A pile of colorful bricks. Can you imagine a "brownstone" in Brooklyn constructed out of these? Would be rather funky!

​Broken bricks—chromatic pieces, vivid dust.

​Afghanis might just be the most skilled in stringing the teeniest of beads.

Precision with the needle must take practice  to string up beads as tiny as some of these.

​The Afghani beads are so small and fine that you need at least dozen strands for them to make a big statement. 

​One vendor, Sandy Schor, displayed vintage glass beads in a beautiful rainbow ombre. Red beads, pink beads, purple beads...

​Blue beads, green beads, yellow beads...

​Semi-precious stone carvings of parrot heads. Incredible! 

​Brazilian green amethyst.

​Brazilian tourmaline.

​Brazilian emerald.

​Brazilian watermelon tourmaline.

​Tucson's natural texture, a cacti's spikes! Sharp!!

​Tucson sunset.

Illuminated Address Plaque

Walnut Hollow is the source for the best fine wood surfaces, tools and accessories for crafter and hobbyists. I recently created this illuminated address plaque using their bark-edged Basswood Country Round. Follow the picture how-to so you can make one for your home too. Now your guests won't miss out on sipping spiced rum around the fireplace when they see your house number lit up in the dark forest. Oh I wish I had a cabin in the woods!

Position and center the battery pack of the LED lights on the bottom edge of the backside of basswood round. With a pencil, trace around the battery pack.

Make a chisel guide, slightly bigger than the tracing, using a utility knife and ruler.

Clamp basswood round to work surface. With a wood chisel and hammer, carefully chisel off the bark edge of basswood next to the tracing marks. Put the bark piece aside.

Chisel out the marked space, deep enough so the battery pack sits flush inside the basswood round.

Clean surfaces by removing all dust and wood shavings. Use a wood glue to affix the bark edge back to the basswood round. Rubber-bands will help hold the piece in place as it dries. Sand front of basswood round with a fine grit sand paper.

Create a number stencil. Pick a font and print out numbers to a piece of paper in the appropriate size. Cut numbers out with utility knife on a cutting mat. Save all number elements (i.e. inside circle of number 6).

Position and center stencil to front of basswood round. Secure with tape.

With paint and a foam pouncer, stencil the number. Remove paper stencil and let dry.

With the numbers that were cut from stencil, evenly mark 20 light holes. Tape paper numbers over painted numbers on basswood. With a drill affixed with an 11/64" bit, drill through basswood round on marks.

Clean off any wood dust and reapply number stencil. Touch up paint in and around drill holes. Let dry.

Seal wood with a wood sealer. Sand in between coats.

Flip Basswood round over. Place battery pack into place. Insert a light into each drill hole. Secure in place with tape.

Cut a piece of chipboard to fit the back of basswood round. Cut out a hole where battery pack is.

With wire brad nails and a hammer, secure the clip board to the basswood.

Cut a craft stick in half and nail to basswood above battery pack. It should hold pack in place, but pivot to remove pack for battery replacement.

Add hanging hardware to back.

Rummaging

Browsing flea markets, spending a day rummage "sale-ing", spontaneously pulling off the road to stop in an offbeat thrift store or dedicating a weekend to walk an antique show—whatever or wherever, looking at old things is always inspiring to me. Here are some snapshots of the interesting objects I've noted the past couple of years.

Adirondack Antiques

Brimfield 2010

Avenue A Flea Market, NYC 10/2012

Stormville Flea 8/2012

Antique Show, Piers NYC 3/2012

Brimfield 2011

Hermes Artisans

Hermes Festival of Crafts

the bag maker 's bench

Gluing on a side panel of a Kelly bag.

Pinching the side panel along the edge to secure the adhesion to the body of the bag.

Getting ready to start the hand stitching around the bag.

An authentic Hermes tie, silk fabric and the signature orange thread.

A tie's silk fabric and colored threads.

The shirt makers variety of colored buttons.

The master gilder's tools set next to stemmed glasses being prepared for their gold.

Each gilded glass is hand painted.

The tiny mechanism that makes up the inners of a watch.

A rose gold studded cuff with two of the four pave diamond studs attached.

The gem setter works under a microscope to secure each and every tiny diamond into a single gold stud.

A pave diamond gold stud attached to a waxed work stick.

The engraver's task is to convert an original piece of art into a design suitable for silk screening by separating each color out to be printed.

This image has 42 colors which means it will take 42 screen to print a single scarf.

Each color is separated out on a piece of acetate. When complete and layered, it should make a completely black design. That means all the colors are accounted for.

This intricate design was the engravers most favorite scarf that she ever worked on.

Utterly amazed at how precise, methodical and accurate the Hermes craftspeople are. The delicate care and masterful artistry is a trademark of the brand, but seeing the process in person made me completely appreciate the sheer quality of the work.

Maine Mushroom

After just photographing a single mushroom, as we began to hike up a trail in Acadia National Park, fungi seemed to be popping up everywhere along the path. Enchanted by the assortment of these whimsical forms, it took a lot longer to climb the mountain than we had anticipated. I stopped to snap a picture of over a hundred mushrooms.

Unpolished Surfaces

Earth's external blankets often organically form truly exquisite motifs. Whether its infectious lichen spreading over rock, an ancient tree's roots piercing through soil, or arranged rock tightly patched together forming a stone puzzle—these natural patterns make art that is not easily duplicated. Our Planet's form and creations are authentically unique.