Stacked tea cups 2

I've just finished the second card and came to share it!
These on the right are  the original tea cups.

And below are the ones I made today. For some strange reason I forgot to take pictures of the third and fourth cups while I was making them, I'm a bit bewildered about it since I remember thinking about taking those pictures as I was making them :D

So here we go, this is the first one, behind it is the  plate. It's not painted yet but I had embossed its edges.

 For the spoon I did an experiment, I embossed it using water, and look at it! Completely three dimensional! :)

I made some lavender twigs with a purple bow for the spoon.

And began cutting  out the pattern for the second tea cup.

My daughter told me that it couldn't be used to drink tea from after all the "holes" I had made on it, but I told her that we didn't know if perhaps it was lined with glass on the inside ;)

Here are the first two cups stacked up.

And here should go the other two cups I somehow missed taking snaps of! o.O

So I'll have to skip all the way to the fifth cup! Which here has the inside already painted.

And here it had the handle "on" for the shot. It's a separate piece.

The blue botanical pattern reminded me so much of a "Nantucket Briar" box we used to have eleven years ago! It had bathing "milk" in it, it used to bubble up A LOT! And it was incredibly fragrant! Those were the good old days! :)  

Here are all cups finally done :) All that's left now is the card, and an envelope!
That one I haven't made yet, but these are two more pictures of the finished card:

I hope you like it! If you have any suggestions of other kinds of cards I could make using teapots and tea cups I would love to hear them!

I have a couple ideas in mind but nothing in concrete yet. 

One of them would be a big cup with a tea bag that could be pulled out and the message could be written on the tea bag. Maybe it could open like a little card. I'll have to experiment a little bit with it to understand how it could work! 

I'm so glad my kids have a school break and I get to work again! 

My youngest just started kinder garden and

I've been quite busy adjusting to the new schedule and have missed writing in here!

Here is a pretty song that I was listening to while finishing this project :)

My first miniature art doll

I think he looks like a prince that walked out from a fairy tale. Probably from a French one!   X)
Would he smell of roses and mint as his colors suggest?
It must be Valentines' coming up that allowed me to indulge in the making of this charming gentleman.

I used a mixed technique to make this doll..
First I molded all the pieces by hand with  my own personal concoction of "starch-clay" it was a bit hard at first since the clay was not dry yet but I kept on working on assembling him together.

I painted a flower on the front of  his shirt that was inspired by a botanical motif on a medieval tapestry.



Below you can see some pictures I took while I made him:.




After the starch-clay had hardened I covered each one of the pieces with bits of papier máchê, waited for them to dry and sanded him for a soft finish, it felt quite velvety!



Then applied the background colors with acrylic paint.

And once that was dry I added the details with paint brushes.

I use polychrome for protection, it makes the best finish I have found so far, smooth to the touch and very shiny.

I'm looking forward to making more dolls of this kind and to experiment around with different shapes.

It is a really long process. I love the way this one looks and feels! Specially the size, it's a new one for me, so much bigger, it allowed me with SO much room than I usually have to paint on!
I love painting my dolls so much! ^u^
I could use a thinner paintbrush, one that only had one single hair at the very tip!

 I painted a butterfly on his back.

Since I had only painted my little doll beads before I wasn't sure of what I could do this time. But I'm quite happy with the new found extra-room!

It is still pretty small in size in real life, just look at the size of my fingers next to his head. It makes my pinky look chubby! (and it isn't one bit, just for the record! ;)
 
The picture below this has a post card I've been drawing as the background and 2 other pieces I also finished at the same time as this doll.

 I asked my daughter to help me for this shot, I wanted to see if he would make an earring 

:) he he he

Available on my etsy shop

Painting doll beads

 I have been toying with the idea of making a necklace full of doll-beads since I made the first few of them.

I finally started working on it! I might add the picture of the finished necklace when I'm done making it.

I had said I would post pictures of how I paint these beads when I blogged about shaping them.

<- These are the shaped beads, all boys.

So, here's how I go about painting them  :)

First of all I do the skin, if I'm working on more than one bead for the same project  I do all of them at once:

 Then I give them big rosy cheeks!

And for the hair over their heads, I used 4 different solid colors as the background, then mixed some of those colors between them to get more shades,

and  to finish it I added darker colored thin lines over the background, to resemble single hair strands :)

Then I painted their eyes and mouth, just a thin line, between the cheeks, to make a smile.

I don't always use color for their eyes, I usually just do a tiny black dot with a tinier white dot on top and off-center to give them a light.

With these I started with a big dot of color for the iris, added a smaller black dot for the pupil and a tiny white dot for the light.

Then came the shirts. Since this are all meant for one same big project I tried to start with basic colors to give them a sense of cohesion.

OK, I said tried! I had to add more colors later on! He he he :D

Next came the pants. I start with just one solid color. It will not always show by the time I'm done with each doll-bead.

Here's my first almost-dressed boy! All he needs now are shoes.

Here are all of them with their shoes on. One of them actually got away with wearing white shoes.

Many, many times, they seem to be telling me how they want to be dressed. I usually listen and follow their hints.

Finally, here are my first 3 finished dolls. Finished painting that is, because they wont be ready for use until I coat them with a glossy polychrome mixture that makes them shine and feel SO soft!

I don't think that water-proofs them. So I would never advise to take them swimming or even inside a sauna room.

I might deep one in a glass of water someday to see how that goes. If I do I'll add more to this post then and let you know what happened. In the meantime I'll tell you a short story at the bottom :)

I painted soles on their shoes! They all seem to want some sort of gummy bouncy sole! :) <3

 "The short story"

Which is actually an anecdote:

A few years ago I made my daughter a pair of earrings with this type of beads.

We moved houses and they ended up inside a fish bowl, which we had thought empty, but had a little water at the bottom. And we didn't see them until the next morning!

They sure were soaked by the time we found them, so we carefully left them on a window sill where the sun would kiss them and they were as good as new once they were dry!

I started using varnish back then after this incident. But the polychrome finish I use now is certainly much better! :)  

Why did I switch from varnish to polychrome? I will tell if you are interested :)

Update: I have some doll beads available as supplies at my etsy shop <3

Packaging

When I thought about opening an etsy shop I began to spend time at the etsy forums, I wanted to learn everything there was to know before jumping in. 

 

Now, narrowing down the whole new-etsy-shop experience to just packaging orders. At first, I felt tempted to send lots of extra treats with my orders but became discouraged while reading about it at the threads. 

 
Some users said they expected to get exactly what they had ordered and they had no use for extra "junk", which would increase the shipping cost.

So I decided to make the few things that I sent out with my orders very special.

 I feel that everything in the package should carry a sense of background for the item in it, something that tells where this item is coming from, not only geographically.

I hope they feel both baroque and spicy! Since living in México we literally breathe them in!

  So I try my best to pour this feeling into the way I wrap my items.

I love to draw stickers to close whatever needs to be closed and to attach a small tag from it at the very end.
My business cards are completely handmade; I enjoy making them quite a bit!

Thank you notes are something I came in contact with when I was seven years old. 

We had an American couple visit with us for a few days and they left one behind with a pretty gift.

Thank you notes are not something I grew up with but I was very attracted to that idea as a child and

I feel very enthusiastic about using them for my shop.

I was very encouraged from the replies to a thread I started so I began working on them right away.

 
At first I was a bit bewildered as to how to word them, I worried that my wording may fall short from my feelings of gratitude or that I might over do it.

 
I'm not sure if I'm wording them quite right yet. 

Each one is different and I only hope that the 'thank you!' comes across loud and clear.

 
I am pretty comfortable with the way I'm making them at this time, but there's always room for improvement, so I'm waiting for the next inspiring idea that helps me add a bit more to them.

The first time I had an order I just did the first thing that came to mind, which was to put it inside an origami envelope. That would be the blue one pictured on the left.

The orders after the first one started taking better shape, so now what would be inside an origami envelope looks like the picture below.

I must here pause and profusely thank my aunt for having allowed me to experiment on her! As she was my very first etsy customer! (: <3

At this moment I feel drawn to bright colors  and I was happy to find a supply shop that carries color envelopes.

For small items it was good enough but most of what I send out must be sent in bubble-wrap (just in case)

And colorful bubble-lined envelopes were nowhere to be found. 

But I stumbled upon this lady making envelopes at a paper supplies shop and I realized I could also make

them myself and line them with bubble wrap.

My first couple envelopes got me a speech from my local post master. So I had to make a few adjustments until I stopped getting "the look" from them.

I got lots of useful advice from them, to be fair, such as "nothing should wiggle inside the envelope or 

make any kind of sounds if the envelope is shaken so as to not draw too much attention to my parcel"

I also quickly learned they didn't appreciate my having taped all sides and possible tape-prone places. So I've also stopped doing that :D

I had not really given much thought at first about selling giclée prints, even after having been asked if I had some. 
I just assumed I would be able to make something new and list it every single day. 

 
Little did I know back then, about how life has a particularly steady inclination to get on the way of pure joyful non-stop crafting time!

In any case, before I wander off again, this to the left is my version of a flat-mailer, I have no clue where to get them where I live at and the post office doesn't carry them.

I'm happy they don't! 

I love making everything I use in my shop, 

whenever it's possible.

I think the ones I've made look really cute! <3

I get pretty excited every time I put a package together and send it out. 

Sometimes I wish I could show it off to my best friend before I ship it!

And sometimes I wonder if the person that 

registers the letter for me at the post office wishes he could peek inside. 

But I also think at those times that they probably don't get too curious since they're always swamped with lots of work

There is one package, that comes to my mind as having been very special. It still made it in the letter category, even though it was the largest I've mailed so far.

It had a bookmark which was special because it was the very first item that I opened my shop with, and a windsock shaped like a fish I had been wanting to make for years!

They're blogged here: 

bookmark,  windsock

This was my very first "real" etsy sell. The customer left me the sweetest and most amazing feedback I could ever have hoped for! And I hear that feisty windsock lives happily under her loving eye! That has been one of the best selling experiences ever and I wish it on everyone!

Check out her shop here.

So, as I originally meant to say, I started figuring out what my packaging would look like as the orders started happening. I'm sharing them here because I like the way they look a lot and they may perhaps inspire someone that may be trying to figure out the same things that I am/was..

  And also as a reminder to my self of what I was thinking when I started out, what my intentions are and how happy it makes me to have as much as possible completely handmade.   So that in the event that orders get crazy someday I may not decrease in quality instead of improving on it! I hope to someday look back and be able to tell that I have come a long way from today and to feel then that I have made many more improvements!