Chic and affordable!

My treasury made it to frontpage this night.YAY!

And I created another necklace for my 'Chic but affordable'- line.
It was Rita or Alatvian who brought me to the idea: she hosted the EST challenge with the theme 'Cheap, but gorgeous!'
So I made a simple but strong and orginal design for a good price, the perfect accessory to flower up your summer!
- The flower is Fair Trade linen from Fabric scraps
- The beads are handmade Fair Trade silk.
available in my shop!

tips & trics for big families ;-)

People always ask me , where I find the time to do all those crafting.
I must admit, I am a very chaotic person, but when it comes to making time for crafting,
suddenly I am organised. :-))
One of those thingsto spare time is inviting the hairdresser to our house,
she comes to cut the hair of the six of us, ...
Very easy, I don't have to put my kids in the car and spend hours waiting in waiting rooms...
When their hair is cut, the kids can start playing again,
in the meantime I've done a lot of sorting of beads for future necklaces:-)


or taking pictures of a new creation...

Textile Sea Urchin Necklace

和紙

I think you all know that I am a paper-lover, I have quite a collection of all kinds of papers (vintage wallpapers, handmade papers, Japanese papers... I even brought a huge pile of Chinese newspapers from my hotel in New York and if I am not looking for vintage trims on the Flee market, I am lookin gfor cute cards or papers...)

Since some time I use Washi or Wagami (Japanese paper) in my designs.

I try to find an interesting detail in the paper : (a twig , a blossom, leaves...) to use in my designs.

(you can find them here in my shop.)

want to know a bit more about Washi?

Washi or Wagami (和紙?, literally, "harmony paper" or "serenity paper") is a type of paper made in Japan.

Washi is commonly made using fibers from the bark of the gampi tree, but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat.

Washi comes from wa meaning Japanese and shi meaning paper, and the term is used to describe paper made by hand in the traditional manner.

Washi is generally tougher than ordinary paper made from wood pulp, and is used in many traditional arts. Origami, Shodo, and Ukiyo-e were all produced using washi. Washi was also used to make various everyday goods like clothes, household goods, and toys as well as vestments and ritual objects for Shinto priests and statues of Buddha.

It was even used to make wreaths that were given to winners in the 1998 Winter Paralympics.

Washi was developed from the traditional Chinese paper-making process.

find more about Washi on Wikipedia.

want to know a bit more about Japan?

go to Malene's blog, Malene just came home from a trip to Japan and has a lot to share!

(thanks Malene for featuring one of my designs in you blog!)

flickr favorites

1. midsummer, 2. flower 6, 3. vintage zipper three spiral necklace - copyright amalia versaci 2009, 4. ready to go

Flowers definitely inspire me, they are a red thread through all my work.
I made this little collection with the real stuff and more abstract artwork that makes me think of flowers.

me modelling ;-))

I know that most customers like to see how a necklace hangs , therefor I try to show a necklace always on my clothes-doll, ...

I like her a lot, she is my roommate, keeps me always company in the the moments when I am lonely ...... creating. (I must say I love her quietness, I just love it that we understand each other without words ;-))

But lately I took some pictures of myself, modelling the necklaces, just to show how nice they hang on a real body :-))

What do you think, are you more tempted to buy now, or not.... :-))

anyway, you can find these necklaces in my shop.

from left to right:

Underwater Love: Silk flower and beads on a copper chain.

Sweet Jane: Fuchsia Silk beads and truquoise touches... adjustable lenght

Lemon and lime: soon in my shop.

Pinkblush Blossom: linen flower on a copper chain.

4 joyfull days!

Etsy is down for maintenance, this gives me the time to blog about a long warm weekend :-)

Last thursday was a public holiday in Belgium, and hubby also had a day off on friday, so we had a looooooong weekend.

The weather was incredibly nice here , so this sunday I spend the whole afternoon enjoying the sun, the good weather gave me the good vibes to create some new designs :-) (I'll show you some pics tomorrow).

Saturday we spend the day with friends that we met years ago. It was our adoption procedure that brought us together. The waiting during an adoption is a very hard time, we met each other a lot then, we were like brothers in arms.... :-) Now we try to meet once a year as we are not living very close to each other.
See what a bunch of happy adopted kids we have now :-)

On Friday, We spent our day in Holland, in the Efteling, the kids had big fun,

So much fun that when we drove home, 3 of the kids just slept from beginning to end .

Mies, with the fairy crown, was watching children songs on DVD and sang out loudly, but the three others just went on with their very deep sleep! :-)

Gerard, leonore and Mathilda found a new home in Japan

I want to show you my cute cats, Gerard, Leonore and Mathilda, who gave me company in my shop, but not for long, .....
they are adopted by a sweet lady from Japan,.... I know it's far, ...but I am sure they will find a nice and cosy new home there!
So I filled the empty places with new friends Emile and Lola , you can already find them in my shop.

Creating these cats is fun, so , soon, I will make more of these little pets!

Flower in the woods

Today is a 'kids' day, we're leaving early for Holland, to the 'Efteling', the two youngest are still young enough to believe in fairytales and the oldest have lots of fun with their little brother and sister believing all that stuff about witches, wolves, snowy white and little red hood :-)
We will take a yummie picnic with us, so I am sure it will be a great day!

Today I want to show you the results of my creative work yesterday.

The necklaces turned out very lightweight and give me a real summery feeling because of the materials I use: the linen and the wood.

I hope they will be a hit in my shop, because I like making them!

you can find them here.

my creative workspace

I love making these linen and silk flowers, and because of their natural feeling and look, I combined them with Bayong wood, which has a pretty reddish color.

A new design, perfect for summer, already one in my shop! :-))

Find out about other creative spaces on kootoyoo's blog :-)

Because of the light....

Is it because there is more light these days...

don't know,

anyway, lately, I create more in lighter colors:

white

cream

ivory

eggshell

linen

oldlace

snow

floralwhite

honeydew

(find these new creations in my shop.)

flickr favorites

1. ballet, 2. Niche Girl Lollie2, 3. corner, 4. round tray

Play along and share your flickr favorites, go to Artminds blog to find out how!

Earth necklace from Turkey

Yay!!!!! I won a give-away again!!! A beautiful necklace made by Yukabyguliz from Istanbul, Turkey. She is an Art Director who makes beautiful and original jewelery in her free times , really, each of her creations are like sculpture or paintings, as you see in the mosaic below
check her shop here! and check her blog here for next give-aways.

my pot of tea

I have something with teapots, you know...

remember my tea pot cards, you can find them here and here and here

I sold almost all of my handmade cards at the Open House, so I need to make a new collection.

but when will I find the time?

Maybe I should plan my week:

- Monday: making packages and shipping

- Tuesday: creating textile jewelry

- Wednesday: new designs with stones and copper

- Thursday: designing cards

- Friday: creating for the EST challenge...

Well, that's the problem with creating, it just can't be planned!!! When you don't feel like it then you just mess up. Waste of the time!

But I just wanted to to show off my new teapot in this blogpost :-))

Custom made by a friend, who has a lovely shop here in Belgium, browse her website here.

And I got this yummie Yasmin tea, all the way from China (thanks Apple and Peter!).

Browsing trough etsy I found a beautiful teapot cosy and a very cute teapot necklace to make my mosaic complete!

mm, off to make myself some yasmin tea!

Wings of Desire - memories

...When the child was a child,

it didn’t know that it was a child,

everything was soulful, and all souls were one.

When I was working on my entry for the EST challenge with the Theme 'Birds', my mind was wandering...
I used a big brass wing that has been given een beautiful verdigris patina.

That wing in particular made me think of one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen:
'Der Himmel Uber Berlin' from Wim Wenders. (In English the title is 'wings of desire'.)

Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry partially inspired the movie; Wenders claimed angels seemed to dwell in Rilke's poetry. And one of my most fav band played in that movie (I was in my twenties then ;-): Nick Cave and the Birthday party.

Find this limited edition creation in my shop.

Find the other European Entries on the blog of Carmenesque.

Scraps of maps

Lately I found a big box of old world, city and roadmaps at my parents. My father collected them for years , but since he passed away a few years ago, this box is there,... unopened...
These world maps have such great patterns of lines and color spots and they are just to cool to throw away. I am sure everyone has lots of them, and could use some ideas to get rid of them ... Or let us say: to repurpose them!
So I browsed through Etsy for some ideas.
I could use them in my jewelry or make cool gift tags for my packaging, too many possibilities, now what to choose????

Click on the pics to go to the shops and find out about the prices, all these handmade goodies are perfect for an original gift (father's day for instance...)

Japan earrings by Ktwigs31

Tiny enveloppes by Zany

Bracelet made of vintage maps and Scrabble tiles by Hocusfocus

Atlas Bange Bracelet by SoitsGray

Aceo Kandscape N°5 by Annarubyking

World Atlas Bowl by Bombus

Perfect gift for fathers Day by HocusFocus

What about re-using Undeerground maps... by ideaka

cufflinks for daddy by Dlkdesigns

Gift tags by Onespeckledegg

Custom Destination Vintage Map Necklace. Choose Your Location. By Cherrytruitt

Road Map Wallet by Kelsodeosntdance

Vintage French Map Love Birds by Cottonbirddesigns

White map hearts gift card by Bombus

The 50 States Project - Nebraska by Betastic

Tasman Sea Jotter by ariandmayadesigns

Recycling on Mother's Day

On mother's Day we went to the school of the kids, where they all gave a little performance, the theme was recycling, exactly what mummy is into lately ;-)))
My two little ones gave a performance on the catwalk with clothes they made (with the help of the teachter) from recycled stuff. (They are in the same class, but Mies is a year older then Briek) (notice the scarves on my son's face, he fell with his bike a few days before...)
Maia, the eldest, danced on a song played on big trash boxes. Meron did a performance about planting potatoes. In the end all the mummys got a glass of Cava for their mother's Day :-)

It's me peeping, right in the middle with the black sunglasses on :-)

And do you remember the Bouquet of flowers I got from Veerle for the Open House? you can see it on the first pic. here.
It nearly passed away, but I could make some great pictures with the flowers that left,
mmm, maybe that's kind of re-using too :-)
I'll make postcards out of it, which I usually send as a freebee with my sold jewelry.