Up, up and away!

Next weekend I'm off to a hot air balloon festival. What should every girl wear to a hot air balloon festival? Why, balloon-themed earrings of course! I had this idea for some crazy earrings floating around in my head for the past week. As the weather was cold and wet this weekend, I stayed home and got making.

Fimo balloons, baskets and clouds, ready to bake

Now for the tedious bit - wet sanding!

Parts all smooth and ready to be varnished

Finished! I used silver findings and added some beads to assemble my earrings

With my little bird earring, it looks just right :)

I'm really chuffed with how these turned out. Even though they are quite big, they are very light. I feel in the mood for the hot air balloon festival already! I will tell you more about that next week on my other blog cernycaj.blogspot.cz.

♫ Wouldn't you like to ride in my beautiful, my beautiful ballooooon?! ♫

Acrylic on canvas

After a longish break, I wanted to share my latest painting with you. Last Wednesday was a public holiday in the Czech Republic, so I spent the day painting. It was so nice to get absorbed in something creative. I decided to paint the early morning sun over the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is a view from the yacht during a holiday to Sicily last summer. Good memories captured in paint :)

Mid-way through. Getting the sea right was not so easy.

Finished canvas :)

This was my first attempt at a large acrylic painting. I think I will try another soon!

Parisian prettiness

I enjoy making jewellery for myself, but it's even nicer to make it for other people. Here are two little bracelets that I made for my French friend using rocaille beads and charms.

As I know she loves mushrooms, I wrapped it up accordingly :)

Colourful Czech bead creations

It was a boiling hot day yesterday, but we decided to slap on some suncream and a hat and walk most of the way into town, admiring the art nouveau buildings along the way, to visit the new bead shop that just opened in Brno. Koralky is bright and modern inside with a great selection of Czech beads hanging neatly in little bags on wall racks. I personally prefer boxes of beads that you can dip your fingers into, but still, it was a nice shop and also had a great range of beading books and magazines in Czech and English.

Lovely beads and equipment from www.koralky.cz

I treated myself to a bead board and went a bit '90s with a selection of matte rocaille beads. I also picked up some blue nylon and some silvery elements for some earrings.

I got up early this morning to do some crafting (just like last week, as I found it works well to avoid the heat which pours in my craft room window) and in not much time at all, had made myself a nice, colourful, ethnic-looking jewellery set.

I am particularly pleased with my earrings. They are a nice length and not at all heavy.

It's so much nicer making your own jewellery than buying mass-produced stuff from a shop, don't you think? :)

I have shared this post on Handmade Monday. Why not pop over and take a look?

Picture this

I have been meaning to do some larger stamp collages to put on the wall for ages, but never got round to going to Ikea to buy the frames. Yesterday, I finally made it there and full of meatballs, trotted round and got all the things I wanted.

Nom. How cute is that cupcake?! It's elderflower flavour :D

I woke up at 6:30 this morning with the sun streaming through my window. It was set to be another very hot day. I thought I would get in the craft room and do something before it got too sticky. 

I had already selected some nautical themed stamps and started laying them out

Stuck down and framed - some fish and shells

Ships from around the world

Second one is a more classic layout with butterflies and blooms

Up on the wall :)

A customised post card for Father's Day

At last, I have made something. I haven't been in the mood for making of late. My new job is zapping all my energy both physically and emotionally. My brain is full of German and there just isn't any space left for creativity. However, with Father's Day only a week away, I thought I should have a go at a simple make.

I used a large postcard that I bought in a pack of 5 at Ikea the other year. I really like these vintage sailing ship images. To pep it up a little, I put a blue pennant on the mast, some glitter, a felt heart and some seagull ribbon on the top corner. It will be making it's way from the Czech Republic to the UK tomorrow, with any luck.

I didn't make a gift for my Dad this year, but I did find some lovely presents for him in the Highgrove online shop. If you want something a bit different on the gardening and homeware side, take a look!

What are you making for Father's Day?

New name, new look!

I had a day off today and suddenly decided that my blog needed a make-over. I found some lovely free backgrounds, headers and buttons at shabbyblogs.com and with the help of their tutorials, did some editing on FotoFlexer to customise my chosen header template.

What do you think of the new look?

I have also renamed my blog "Craft Nouveau". I have kept the original URL so that I don't lose any faithful followers :)

I hope to find some inspiration soon and make my next crafty item and share it with you. In the meantime, take a look at some of my most visited posts or browse through the archive on my side bar.

TTFN