Finnished balnket and amigurumi crochet bunny

Cold weather always makes me want to crochet more. And this time around my head is full of ideas for lots of crochet projects. As I mentioned before I've been making my firs baby blanket. It's supposed to be a part of this baby gift basket/set. I'm not sure what else is going to be in this set, but a blanket (lovey) and a crochet amigurumi toy are a musts. At first I really wanted to restrain myself and make it one piece at a time - first finish the blanket and then move on to the toy. But boy is that a hard task for me :) I always tend on start new projects while the on going ones are still not finished. And this time I did it again. But to be honest it really turned out good this time. I managed to make the toy and still finish the blanket without having to push myself on finishing.
So here is the finished blanket. It's about 13x13'' (33x33mm), few inches bigger then expected because I went went with the flow of the pattern. It's still not washed so it's a bit stiff and wavy.

For the toy I went with the bunny. Always loved them and it seemed like a good fit for a baby's toy. I really had no clear pattern for it, just made it one row at a time :) Having a vision in my head helped, rest is just a case of trail and error. Although for the head I used this great pattern called "The Ideal Crochet Sphere" I used it before, it has few different sizes, it's absolutely awesome and perfectly round. After assembling the parts whole picture came together and I was so happy with the result. Also I made this pink dress for the bunny (it's obviously a girl :)).

Since while making the fist bunny I didn't wrote down any of the pattern I had to star making the second right away while still remembering how it was made. And this time I'm writing down the pattern very carefully :)

For the second one I switched from cotton to baby wool (Merino) and the color is Cream, more like a winter bunny :)

Crochet granny ripple blanket

After some careful consideration I decided that I have to put all of my non jewelry crafts in a separate shop on Etsy. So now I have "Pretty Dots Art" and I can finally do some more crocheting! This is so exiting, I have like a million new ideas and my Pinterest crochet board is getting bigger by the minute! But I have to calm myself down so I wouldn't start a bunch of new project at the same time (as I do so often). First of all I decided to make something that's been in my mind for quite some time, something fun and sweet for a truly special occasion - new baby. I love those gift sets/baskets so why not make something like that for a newborn girl/boy. No doubt one of the most important things for a baby is his own sweet blanket and a hand crochet blanket is always so much nicer than any of these store bought mass production ones. I've been making this big blanket for myself from some old yarn I never use, and the pattern (video tutorial here) I chose looks really nice. It's a simple dc ripple, but it looks really good, even with those random colors.

So I thought I'll do that for the baby blanket as well. But then I saw this cute granny ripple pattern and went for it instead. 

You can find the pattern tutorial here. It really is a simple pattern, basically you only need to know the chain and double crochet stitches in order to do it. I decided to go with a small lovey type blanket (about 10'x10') since it's just a part of a gift set, not the whole gift. So far I'm only on the 10th row but it looks nice and I'm quite happy with it. Hope to be finished with this blanket soon so I could move on to the next item on the new baby gift set list - crochet toy! 

Striping tape for beautiful nails

Striping tape

I love a beautiful manicure. Unfortunately I also lack willingness to actually do my nails. There is always some "good" excuse not to do it, like "Oh it's too late and I'm so tired" or "Think I'm gonna do some work with polymer clay next day, so I'll probably ruin my nails, so maybe next time" and so on. However from time to time I actually do my nails. And for those rear occasions I like to have some good inspiration. That's why I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to nail art and care. While admiring the gorgeous manicures all over the web I always wondered how do they do those tiny lines so perfect, is it the professionalism or is there some trick? One day I finally found out that there is this amazing striping tape. OMG! Where was that before? :) This tiny 1mm wide tape was like a miracle. It can be used to make those perfect lines or You can simply use it as a part of Your design, because they come in a range of colors. God knows why but it took me quite some time to actually buy this tape. I ordered it online, it didn't came the first time, so the seller kindly send a replacement. And finally it's here! It's so cute and tiny I love it. :) Yesterday tried it and it's great. I guess it will take some time to master it, but this is going to be fun.

These are some of my favorite designs.

1. http://wackylaki.blogspot.jp/2013/03/tutorial-tuesday-striping-tape-and.html
2. http://pshiiit.com/2013/06/14/decouverte-les-desserts-de-marie-antoinette/
3. http://pshiiit.com/2012/02/06/essie-tart-deco/
4. http://www.spektorsnails.com/2012/04/square-nails-design-by-sophie-from-my.html
5. http://pshiiit.com/2013/01/14/tuto-nail-art-facile-nail-art-aux-couleurs-de-printemps/
6. http://pshiiit.com/2013/05/18/bourjois-et-ses-nouvelles-couleurs-dete/
7. http://wackylaki.blogspot.com/2011/09/day-9-rainbow-nails-with-striping-tape.html
8. http://polishartaddiction.blogspot.com/2012/07/nautical-striping-tape.html
9. http://www.makeupwithdrawal.com/2012/05/striped-manicure.html

So this is one of those helpful tricks that make nail art a bit more easier. But there are a lot more tips and tricks witch can help even more. Here are "27 Nail Hacks For The Perfect DIY Manicure", I specially love this great way of removing the polish, tried it and it really works great, because removal can be a bit tricky and irritating some times.

Best wishes and may Your nails be beautiful!
Kristina

Peacock inspiration

I find myself having a bit of a peacock obsession lately. The colors, shapes and the over all mood of this majestic creature is captivating and some what overpowering. Of course this is not something new to the fashion and inspirational worlds, peacock have been around for quite some time. But for me this fascination helps to see all this from a new perspective. Now I can see so much potential for so many new projects. And let’s face it peacock is not one of the more simple creatures. Let alone the number of colors and hues.

So this all started from a couple of bottles of nail polish. One ordinary day I stumbled upon a new color collection from my favorite nail polish. I picked two lovely colors – apple green and this teal with glitter. They looked really nice together, figured I’m gonna do my nails in that green and use the sparkly teal for the ring finger (Yes I love this trend!♥). When buying these nail polishes I thought to myself that together they remind me of peacock. And that was the trigger. After few days I was working with polymer clay and decided to make some earrings in peacocky colors and this nice swirl pattern so it would look kind of like swirly feathers. It came out beautifully and made me want more of this peacock inspiration. So as always for inspiration I “went” to Pinterest. After few hours of countless images I made a “Peacock” board and got hooked for real LOL. 

Now I’m working on this bead loom bracelet pattern with a peacock feather. Since it’s beauty is mostly in the colors I had to made it in 25 colors (mostly different hues). And after raiding my bead supplies I managed to match only half of those colors. Good thing my favorite (and the best) bead shop is very near my home and my good friend works there so bead shopping is always twice as fun. So I got like 14 new colors (couple of more “just in case”) and plan to by done with the pattern soon. And I’m really excited to start beading this bracelet. Since after this I will have a LOT of peacock color beads left, I feel plenty more peacock project coming up. Right now I’m also making new set (or few sets) of crochet flowers in these colors and while bead sopping I found these gorgeous tiny sparkly cabochons in blues and purples so they will be becoming something too.

Accordingly Cup of Color may be changing it’s color scheme for the time being, we’ll see ;)

That’s it for now, till next time!

Best wishes,

Kristina

For those who love colors

And who doesn‘t, right? Personally I LOVE colors. They are my main inspiration and "creation fuel" :)

So this all started while browsing in Pinterest (like most of the times lately). I was looking for information about some polymer clay technique for the polymer clay class I‘m teaching now. And I stumbled upon an interesting post about some miracle template witch let‘s you to pick colors for extruded canes (the Retro cane to be exact). "Well this is extremely helpful!"– I thought. Tried it and loved it. It lets you pick 5 colors and gives you the final look, the result will even change if you rearrange the color order. It‘s so great, no more wondering "will this look good in the cane?", and let me tell you it‘s FUN. I made three color combinations, though it was really late and I was barely keeping my eyes open. I think anybody who makes these extruded canes will appreciate this template.

But this was just the beginning. Yesterday I looked around the page witch had this template. Jackpot! It's called "COLORlovers" and this actually appeared to be a whole, kind of social page, dedicated to colors and patterns. There you can make your own color palette, patterns, color the patterns others made and much more. There also is a store where you can order multiple things with your colors or patterns. I immediately singed up. This is just a page for such a color freak like me :D

It was a good day for discovering ;) 

And here are few of my first creations. 

Red heart fever

Love day is coming! Valentine's day in modern worl is often refered as totaly comercial. And though I agree it has some true in it, for me this special day is always really special. And not just because I have my sweetheart beside me, but also because it's a lovely pretext to show your love and apreciation to ones you love and cherish. There is one more reason why i love this day, you can waere adorable accessories and no one will question you :)

So this year I finally managed to finish all the project in time and now I can proudly share this Valentine's day collection with you :)

 

This collection combines most of my favorite techniques - polymer clay, beading, embroidery, crochet and paper arts. Some of these pieces were more spontanious and others more thought out. But I have to admit while working on this collection I was pretty inspired all the time (something that happens extremely rare).

Here are few pieces from it.

These earrings and the ring below are made from polymer clay in this very fun knit imitating technique. Takes 

a lot of time (praise the extruder) but the result is always very cute.

I tried to take the traditional postcards to another level, so that they could be also used as a piece of decor or simply a bookmark. Lets face it, after the occasion postcard tend to end up in some random box or even in the trash, coz really how many of them you can display? So it's nice then card that came from someone you love can become something more.And making these was real fun :)

For this brooch I applyed this mixed technique of embroidery and beading. Some time ago I was making these unusual bridal earring for a friend and needed some interesting texture.In the process this french knot + bead thing happened. It looked really great and I was keen to make something with it since. 

For more pieces from this collection visit my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CupofColor

Have a great day!

Kristina

Joys of gift swap

This time around i decided to take part in this wonderful gift swap organized by the Lithuania team on Etsy. I love the idea of gifting someone you probably never have met and maybe even don't know at all. And receiving gift from people you don't know is really fun too :) It was my first time in this swap, so deciding what to gift was quite a task. But finally i managed to put together a gift and send it out with best wishes. While getting my present was not so easy as it could seem. The notice about the letter came two days before the post closed for Christmas. The first day was so busy i didn't managed to get to the post office. Next day I totally confused myself with the closing time and almost got left outside the post office in the last minute. It took my fiance a bit of persuasion to the post lady to let us in (she was clearly to eager to close early). but thankfully we managed to get in and I was very happy with my package. I decided to open it at Christmas with the other presents. And what a treat I got! Wonderful linen gift bags with adorable prints and a cute needle pillow. You just have to see it yourself, so here it is -

For all of these wonderful gifts I have to be thankful to Urtė from "Lefthandedcraftclub". She has some pretty amazing things in her shop, and I love the vibe you get in the shop, it feels very cozy and sweet. And now i can say from experience her works are not just beautiful, but high quality too. 

In the end I was very happy with my gift and I will definately take part in the next swap :)

Best wishes,
Kristina