Highlights from My Trip To Vienna

Vienna is magical this time of year. The Christkindlmarkt (Christmas Market) at Rathauspark is in full swing, and the snow that started falling last Saturday night turned our Austrian stay all the more delightful.

Graz was pretty awesome, too. Growing up in a small town and cobblestone streets in Macedonia, it was a great joy to visit Graz's pretty city squares designed just for pedestrians.

The cobblestones, which were repaved in my home town, are still at large in Austria.
What could be more charming? As you walk, each step has it's own melodic sound, especially if you walk on those high heels, terribly inadequate for long promenades :)

We found some great shops featuring handmade decoration pieces from independent artists, as well as always-stylish home accessories from Alessi (which are so hard to come by in the States). 

I just love the hanging branches and presents in this window display :)


Another thing I'll remember Austria by: Maroni - the roasted chestnuts sold at every street corner.

I could never resist chestnuts in any form, but these delicious treats, though a bit expensive (10 chestnuts for 2.5 EUR), were absolutely perfect - every time.

In the end, Austria was all about re-connecting, eating (Sachertorte, maroni, fabulous breads, and lots of meat) and drinking (spiced wine, and lots of alcoholic coffees like "faiton" with a shot of rum or "corretto" - espresso with a shot of grappa).

Vellum Ornament Lamp

The vellum ornaments I've mentioned in a previous post, besides hanging from a ceiling, can hold lights inside and serve as handmade lamps.

The vellum lamp shown above holds 10 LED string lights. I currently have it on a dresser in the bedroom where it glows in a bluish light. I plan to get more LED lights and make lamps in different sizes and colors.

Here are more examples of my hanging paper and vellum ornaments- all made by hand.

Vellum

Vellum paper is a wonderful thing - pliable and transparent, it can carry light in such a delightful way that I'm tempted to make my own lamp sculpture from vellum sheets.

For now, I have constructed a few geometric ornaments and punched discrete holes to let the light shine through.

When hanged from the ceiling at different heights, these vellum ornaments really draw the eye up, letting it rest on their symmetrical forms. And they move gently like a mobile - really soothing.

Owls

I was messing with some scraps of papers left over from past projects, and these 2 owls came out as the result.



The owls were drawn by hand (the idea came from one of my stamps), and pieced together from different paper scraps that were also cut and inked by hand.

They are quite large (as big as my hand - maybe slightly bigger), and I just have to figure out what to do with them. Create a card with them, or use them for scrapbooking...? Any ideas?

Let me know.

Cheers!

Handmade Bird Ornaments

Paper Birds ornaments are really easy to make. All you need is some card-stock paper, glue and glitter. You can also use vellum paper for the wings and jewel accents for the eyes.

Just trace the shape of a bird (in one simple line) on card stock and cut it out, then glitter the whole bird or just the outlines. Be as creative as you like.

I used snow flakes glitter (in three shapes/sizes) from the Martha Stewart collection to cover the bird (both sides), and after the glitter and glue dried, I hot-glued the light-blue vellum paper wings and added the sparkly jewel eyes.




I got the inspiration for these bird ornaments from Paper-Source and Lupin.

Handmade Ornaments: Felt and Paper

Here's a selection of amazing handmade ornaments that might inspire you to create your own.
Enjoy...









From top to bottom: Felt Acorns made by Fairyfolk, Scalloped Paper Ornaments by Prismera, Quilled Snowflakes by Kirroyale.

Handmade Felt Ornaments

Another fun idea for tree decorations: Handmade Felt Ornaments.



Laura Howard, a.k.a Lupin creates these wonderful decorations from wool felt. You can find these and other lovely things, both to decorate your home and wear in your hair :)

I especially like her handmade headbands.

Natural Ornaments

Holiday decorations can be especially beautiful when they're handmade AND all-natural.

Check out these ornaments, kissing-balls, wreaths and other decorations made by Allison from NHWoodsCreations.







She collects natural products either from the woods or her NH garden (such as, pine cones, foliage, flowers, bits of wood, etc) and uses them to create her designs.

I'm a big fan of her orange garland and her apple and pine cone wreaths. They look pretty festive, don't they?

Felt Stockings

I recenlty found some amazing felt stockings in rikrak's Etsy shop.

Unfortunately, they all got sold out (well, that's good news for Kristal Davis, a.k.a. rikrak), but you can still see how wonderful they are, and maybe get an idea of how to make your own holiday stockings.

Felt Trees

These cute felt trees were made by Amanda Carestio. Her designs can be found in this book.

You can find more info about her, as well as other neat stuff on The Long Thread Blog.

Felt Clouds, Bees, Birds...

These adorable creations can be found on Jenny's (Sea Pinks) Etsy shop. They can be pretty sweet at Christmas ornaments (and I'm all about handmade decorations this year).



Jenny's work is pretty special. I can't decide which I like best. Still, my two favorites have to be the felted clouds and the busy bee :)



I just love the raw handmade quality of these. They may look childlike and innocent, but I'm sure they took a lot of effort to create. That bee is just stunning!

Handmade Tree

This tree, which I'm currently enjoying instead of a Christmas tree, was constructed out of artificial floral branches.

First, I removed the flowers and wrapped the branches together with double-sided tape and hot glue. Then, I wrapped each branch with blue satin ribbon, and added paper and fabric flowers, a silver butterfly, as well as some interesting handmade ornaments.

We had something similar for our wedding reception: a tree made out of cherry branches with crystals and lots of light-blue butterflies and paper flowers.

Making Cards

I love making cards, especially for friends and family. There is something very precious about a handmade card - somehow the message it carries seems more meaningful (.. well, at least to me).

Anyways, these days I'm into making tree cards for the holidays.

I think I got the inspiration from my 3 handmade trees (will post pics of them at some point here), one of which was our wedding tree with crystals.




These are my latest Christmas creations.

Last year it was all about ornaments dangling from snow-covered branches, and the year before that I was pushing snowflakes.

This year it's trees.




... more cards are on their way..

Crochet Christmas Ornaments

In the spirit of handmade Christmas ornaments, I found these amazing crocheted birds and animals on Anna Kristensen's blog.



I just love how detailed her work is.

This winter I'm all about unusual ornaments around the house, including paper ornaments and lovely white and blue paper flowers.

Paper Christmas Ornaments

I know this is not wedding stuff, but I wanted to post my latest interest: handcrafted paper ornaments.



Each ornament is constructed out of fancy card-stock paper. I like to use designer printed papers, or make my own pattern using paper flowers, jewel accents, glitter-glue, gel-pen swirls, etc.



You can see some of these ornaments in my Etsy shop.



You can hang them on a Christmas tree (or a wedding tree - just for fun!), or use them as decorations around the house.



Either way, they're lovely.

I'll post more of my handmade ornaments in the next couple of weeks.
Stay tuned...