Caprilicious Jewellery - a great site

I met Neena a couple of days ago when she contacted me about my zentangles.  This lady makes some of the most beautiful and unique jewellery I've seen.  She had made a "zentangle inspired necklace" and wanted to use a couple of my pictures.  I agreed and went to have a look at her site and her blog and Oh my!  I was so inspired.  Her handmade creations are truly something special and her blog is lovely to read.  After spending some time on her site and blog I felt the need to spread the word.  I only ever write about and recommend sites that I find truly inspiring and this one definitely fits that category.

If you like unique things you will love her jewellery.

The Dew Fairies Dream Collar

Below are Neena's own words taken from her site.

 I design for the woman who likes to be noticed - stylish, individual,confident, with a sense of humour and a zest for life - Delicious jewellery for the capricious woman - Caprilicious!
I try to make traditional pieces once in a while, but by the time the finished article appears in my hands, there is always something that has crept in to make it different - a contrasting bead, an asymmetrical focal piece, a beautiful clasp. I have tried - I really have, believe me, to make simple, 'nice' designs, but failed miserably - so now I let rip and let inspiration take me where she will.

 You can find her sites here

Caprilicious Jewellery - Bespoke Handmade Jewelry for the contemporary WOMAN
http://www.capriliciousjewellery.com/index.html

Caprilicious Blog
http://www.capriliciousjewellery.com/caprilicious-jewellery-blog.html

Etsy Store (opened on 2nd March 2012)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CapriliciousJewelry

Facebook Page
If you 'Like'  the Caprilicious Jewellery page on Facebook, you can claim a 10% discount
https://www.facebook.com/CapriliciousJewellery

Thought of the Day

There are diamonds in the rough; there are diamonds in the fields of gold. There are diamonds in the heavenly sky. A woman’s love is more precious than any diamond. A woman’s heart is stronger than any rock, a woman’s soul shines brighter than any heaven. A woman’s beauty is a love that is undefined. Thank you for bringing beauty into our world, you are to be respected, cherished, and loved truthfully and unconditionally. Do not ever settle for less than the beauty of your own true heart because you deserve the very best of love and life ~~ Lee Held

ATC's - yes, more of them

Yes, I'm still trying to get all the ATC's I made, uploaded to my blog.  I think I'm all ATC'd out for the moment so won't be making any new ones for a little while.  I'll have to find a new project to start :)  Click pictures for larger images.

I used fibres and charms for these two ATC's.  The background of the righthand ATC is watercoloured.

I used a blue cardstock background for the left ATC.  There is actually no orange in the circle, it's all gold (that's my camera for you.)  For the border I used a clear Versamark pad around the outside of the card and sprinkled copper embossing powder over it and then heated it.  The butterfly on the righthand card is printed on a transparency and I used an old button to finish it off.

An old coin for the left card and some printed transparencies and buttons for the righthand card.

Paints and watercolours are used on these cards.

I cut the flowers and butterflies freehand and outlined them with black pens.  I love to use old book pages for embellishments.

Bits of magazine pages, rub-ons and quick handmade embellishments make up these two cards.

Perth Photographer - Cathy B Photography

Cathy has been my daughter's friend for many years.  She has her own photography business and as I have seen (and loved) her beautiful photographs for many years I thought I'd mention her on my blog.  I only write about sites that I find inspiring and useful and this is certainly one of them.  Not only are her photos gorgeous but her pricing is very reasonable. 

I'm going to copy and paste Cathy's own words from the front page of her site.  If you are in Perth and are looking for a good photographer for weddings, parties, portraits or pretty much anything else, please consider giving her a call.  I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

http://www.cathybrzeski.com/

Cathy's words, copied and pasted -

"Welcome

Hi, My Name is Cathy Brzeski, I am a young Perth based photographer. Photography has been a part of my life from the age of 15 and i could not imagine my life without it - it's a part of who i am. My passion is portrait and wedding photography - I feel privileged to be able to share your special day with you and have the opportunity to do what i love and capture moments of beauty, passion, joy & personality; all of which are unique to each individual.

For me photography is about fun, freedom and creativity. Its about observing your surroundings, capturing moments, and presenting your vision to the viewer.

CathyB Photography offers photographic services for virtually anything you are after, from wedding photography to engagement parties, 21st birthdays, milestone events, portraits and even pet photography! I have a flexible approach to my work and can make arrangements to suit exactly what you are after. I work hard to deliver beautiful images, for an affordable price. Please enjoy my gallery, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me!

 

Thanks for viewing my website & I look forward to hearing from you."

Facebook Timeline Banners

When I first added Timeline to my facebook page around about a month ago, I hated it.  Absolutely could not stand it.  Now, a month later I find myself quite liking it.  

Through a friend of mine, I found a great site that makes banners for your timeline and they are all free.  I'm sure there are (or will be) many of these sites popping up but for now I'm really happy with this one. 

It's called Add Covers - www.addcovers.com

Take a look, I'm sure you'll find something you like and once you have a banner, changing it is as easy as clicking a link that appears in the bottom right hand side of the banner. 

The above picture is my current banner.  I love it!

Thought for the Day

"We make a living by what we get,

but we make a life by what we give"

~author unknown~

Handmade Pen

My brother-in-law's (to be) dad makes amazing things from wood.  For Christmas this year he made the family a wooden pen each.  I absolutey love it.  I'm such a sucker for pens and have a few really lovely ballpoint pens and fountain pens.  This pen takes pride of place in my collection.

My Book of Zentangles

Although I haven't done any zentangling in a while I wanted to show you what I've done with the ones I've made.  Brian bought me a lovely black, acid free A5 book and as all my zentangles are done with black pens on white cardstock I thought the black paged book would be a perfect place to put them.  Turns out I was right.  They look great, much better than keeping them tucked away in a box where no one can see them.  

I have about four larger sized zentangles and will be mounting them onto black cardstock, then white cardstock and then placing them into black edged frames.

I'll just post three photos from the book so you can get an idea of what it looks like.  The book is now about half full so I guess I'll go back to zentangling sometime soon so I can fill it up.  

Books like this are great to place on a coffee table so your family, friends and visitors can flick through them.  The book I have has a hard black plastic cover and is made by Reno.  I can't quite remember how much it cost but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere between  $4 - $7 and there's no need for me to alter the cover as the plain black looks quite nice.

If you would like to see any of my zentangles up close, you can see them under the "Zentangles" label or click this link to open the page in a new window. "Zentangle"

Thought of the Day

"Don't let anyone steal your dream. It's your dream, not theirs."

~Dan Zadra~

ATC's

Yes, I have more ATC's to post.  I hope you like them or at least can get some ideas from them to make your own.

 Left - The girl is mounted behind a slide mount .  It's hard to tell from the photo but I ran some copper ink around the edge of the slide mount.  I distressed the word "Inspire" with some sandpaper so the white background would show through and the letters would stand out.  Middle - The top butterfly is a transparency and the pink one is a plastic sparkly hair clip.  Right - The Eifel Tower is a transparency and I coiled some gold wire around the photo.

Left - The burgundy strip is velvet.  Middle - old antique button, handmade red mulberry paper.  The cream paper is so lovely in real life.  The entire page is stitched with a swirly pattern.  Right - The girl picture is mounted onto corrugated cardboard over which I ran some white paint.  The ribbon was originally bright orange.  I soaked it in a walnut ink solution and love the colour it tunred out.  

 Left - I used eyelets at the top of the card.  Middle - The wings and face were stamped and cut out, the circle is a metal edged circular tag and I used copper embossing powder on the edges.  I also used the same powder on the top right hand part of the card.  Some wire and a corrugated cardboard crown finish it off.  Right - The crown is cut from so gold metal shim.

Images and paper from magazines were used on these three ATC's.  For the girl in the middle ATC, I cut her out of an old book page and antiqued the paper with some chalks. Then I just cut the dress out of some scrapbooking paper. 

I love to use old book pages for flowers and birds etc.

 

A few more ATC's

Just a few more ATC's for today.  I'm determined to get them all uploaded LOL

Old button and ric-rac and flower ribbon

Old button, fibres, dress form is a transparency and the black corner is embossed metal that I distressed with sandpaper.  It's hard to see the details because of the blurry photo.

The clock is a transparency and the corner is copper.

 

Lots of buttons.  The wings are a transparency I placed behind the cut out girl and the writing is a transparency placed on top of her.

 

Down the left hand side is a negative and a patterned greenish transparency covers the naked lady.  I also used square copper brads (love those).

 

I can't live without...

I thought I'd photograph 3 things that I just can't seem to live without.  One is my peach smelling deodorant ... I just adore the lovely smell of this Dove product.  Number two is my Dettol handwash.  It's the type that removes 99.9% of bacteria and you don't need to add any water to it.  My third product is my trusty pair of tweezers.  Oh my!  What would I do without these.  I literally freak out if I misplace them and I hate it when I need to replace a pair.  I can never remember the name of the ones I like so I usually end up having to buy 2 different types and keep my fingers crossed that one type works well.  I use my old tweezers for crafting. 

How about a challenge?  I challenge you to take a photo of 3 products you love or can't live without and post them to your blog.  Let me know in the comments section and I'll come and see what you love :) 

Thought of the Day

"Loving is not just looking at each other, it's looking in the same direction." 

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Moxie

We've created a monster.  As it's been so hot lately we've been giving Moxie cold water from the fridge.  Well, it seems that the little guy likes it so much that he refuses to drink normal tap water anymore.  We've tried giving him tap water a couple of times but he just goes straight to the fridge, sits next to it and meows until he gets his icy cold water which he immediately starts drinking when we put it into his bowl.  Yep, we have a cat who sure knows what he wants!

Art Journal, Idea Book, Smash Journal - all in one

I put this book together last year and apart from one or two pages that I wrote last year, I've just started using the book.  I'm not really sure what you'd call it;  a journal, an art journal, a smash book, an idea book?  Probably all of those things.  

Basically, I wanted a book with different sized papers and different types of papers in it, from very small sheets to sheets the size of the book.  This one has everything from transparencies, envelopes, small cards, graph paper, watercoloured paper ... the list goes on. I also hope to add things like receipts, photos and notes I get from Brian and Jade etc. to it. I want to be able to pick it up whenever I feel like it and do something in it.  Sometimes it will be a dated diary entry (I've decided the diary entries will have dates but they will not be in any particular order in the book.  Whatever page I decide to do it on, there it will stay.)  I also want to make lists, draw pictures, zentangles and doodles, maybe do some art journal pages, in fact just do whatever I want at any particular time. 

Here are a few photos of the book.  I used cardboard for the front and back covers and still need to cover them and 3 large binding rings to hold the book together.  There's not much in the book now.  I just wanted to give you an idea of the types of pages I'm using.  Hopefully, as the year progresses so will this book.

I hope this will give you some ideas if you are wanting to make a similar book for yourself.

 Different sized and types of papers and cardstock.

Again, lots of different types and sizes of papers.

I have quite a few little quote blocks so have placed a few of them throughout the book and will decorate each one.

A diary entry.

Envelopes for holding private things (don't forget to decorate or write on the front and back of the envelopes.  The brown paper is from a paper bag.

A couple of tags and a white page with brown stamping on the edges.

Some transparencies and some watercoloured paper.

Lists and quotes.

Front cover.  It still needs to be decorated.  I haven't decided if I'll gesso and paint it or cover it.  Either way I want to hang lots of stuff from the cover, things like fibres, charms and any other bits and pieces I can find.

Uncovered, side view.  I'm hoping it will be twice as thick with pages when it's finished.

Thought of the Day

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know it for the first time - T. S. Eliot