Card For the Special One

I made this card before Valentines Day last year for my very special one. It was difficult to take pictures of this card. I am not a card-maker as well as I am not professional photographer:) It can be better of course but it was made with really worm feelings.
Front side:

Back side:

I aged paper by putting it in coffee for a night. As a result the paper looks old, has burnt edges and as a bonus has wonderful coffee smell.

Travel book - Ukraine

Here are new pages for my travel book. This time they are related to my trip to Ukraine. I didn't bring too many tickets, brochures, etс this time so it's only five pages.

First page contains list of clothing I planned to take. I had very small suitcase filled up with gifts so need to be minimalist.

 Next two pages are about my #1 city in Ukraine - L'viv. This city is fantastic!

 Last two pages contain memories about road trip to Uzhgorod, Chernivtsi and road-trip:

My travel book experiment

I love to travel as much as I love handmade. It's been a while since I got back from wonderful European vacations. I would like to save my memories and all these nice small things I usually bring from gateways - tickets, maps, postcards... So I've put them together and made some kind of a travel book. "Some kind" because it's my first experiment with travel book. I've seen a lot of them way better then mine.
Page about the city I liked the most - Český Krumlov

Kraków pages. We started our trip in this city:

 Next destination - Bratislava:

The following page is my favorite one. I tried to show Bratislava atmosphere without putting any words or Bratislava's landmarks... 

Next one - Vienna, city of luxury and coffee: 

 And last one - Prague...

There are other pages in the book, but they don't deserve  to be put

Handmade Christmas Cards

Christmas tree - check, Christmas wreath - check, Christmas stocking - check, Advent calendar -check, Christmas ornaments - check....What else? Christmas cards! I just found couple really awesome in pony-gogo LiveJournal blog

Why are these cards are so special? Because all of them have a SECRET. These cards are not just like any other cards, they bring happiness for your special one.
Each card has Happy Word on the back of card (these words can be any words you want). You cant see these words, they are invisible but you will definitely feel it.

More and more amazing cards for any occasion can be found here: http://pony-gogo.livejournal.com/

How to create skeleton leaves

My next "rescue" furniture project requires skeleton leaves. They can be bought in Michaels and other craft stores but there is no challenge and creation in buying stuff:-). If you dont know how they look, here they are:

So what we need for creating this beautiful leaves:

1) leaves

2) old phone book or other old book

3) baking/washing soda

4) green tea (leaves)

5) old tooth brush

6) knife

There are two ways to skeletonize leaves. 

First way. Fastest one

Step 1. Go to park, it's beautiful outside now. Collect leaves. Green/yellow/brown...If leaves are green put them to the book and leave them there for couple weeks. If they are dry - they are ready to use. I

Step 2. Prepare cup of hot strong green tea. No sugar. 

Step 3. Put leaves in tea for couple minutes.

Step 4. Now you need pan and green tea. Prepare strong green tea in the pan.

Step 5. Add baking or washing soda to green tea. 2-3 big spoon to half a liter of tea.

Step 5. Add baking or washing soda to green tea. 2-3 big spoon to half a liter of tea. Boil leaves until the leave's "meet" became soft and start separating from  skeletosn. For each type of leaf it will be each own time. Usually 20-30 minutes, oak and maple leaves should be boiled more than hour. You can boil leaves using microwave.

Step 7. Now you should dry your cooked leaves. Put them into the oven or microwave and let them completely dry

Step 8. Your leaves now looks really ugly. It should be so. Don't worry:)

Step 7. Back to green tea:) Make another cup of tea. For all steps tea should be really hot.

Step 8. Using tooth brush start to remove all  leaf "meat"

Step 9. You should be really careful and patient. Leaves are really fragile so probably you will brake couple. 

Step 10. When you decide that you got skeleton leaf - take a iron, put you leaf on the white paper, cover it with another layer of white paper and press it.

Step 11. If you want color leaves before ironing put your leave into food colouring.

It was the first and fastest way to skeletonize leaves. 

Second way.

Put dry leaves into the water and leave them there for a week or two. After some times the leaf meat starts to separate from skeleton. Then you should wash leaves with water.

"+" - time and water do all your job.

"-" - you should wait for a long time

"-" - the water is really stinking. 

After couple years of practice and tons of wasted leaves you probably will be able to create something like leaf on picture below. I am just kidding:)

Good luck!

Sources for the first and last picture: http://hmhome.ru/; http://www.skeletonleaf.co.uk/

Greeting card - kiss you

Of course you can by a greeting card in local store or online but it doesn't have a piece of your soul. And thousands of totally the same cards were bought and and gave as a gift to thousands other people.

If you present as gift a handmade card that is unique and created just for your special one

This card is not for sell but if you want one - here is my e-mail