Blue flower glass necklace

These gorgeous blue glass flower beads are my favorite finding last year.

wax cotton cord to achieve perfect fit on your neck.

And a smaller turquoise bead is used as a lock.
These gorgeous blue glass flower beads are my favorite finding last year.

Lemon Curd earrings

These ones are very very LEMON :)

The beads were once part of an old necklace. I crocheted around them with ecological cotton yarn.
I love them :)

Spring is close!

Some spring feeling :)

This one-of-a-kind item is made of mix of vintage wooden beads, lovely large aventurine beads and sparkling orange glass beads!
I hope the spring will be inspired and will come sooner :)

Just before Christmas I got an amazing present - look

As part of gift exchange game, I have received these wonderful gift from Tanya Soroka.

A lovely set of Christmas decorations and an absolutely adorable felted wrist cuff - bracelet.

The little bears very soon found their place on our Christmas cactus (we were too lazy to get a proper tree this year). And the wonderful bracelet fits parfectly with my style! And I cannot be happier!


I am so grateful and happy!

Go to her shop web-page and see other wonderful creations.

And let me show several of my favorites made by her!

Get greener - upcycle!

Nothing gives me more crafty pleasure than re-using things and giving them new life. Besides, it makes my life and the life of my customers greener! And on top of this - I spend much less money on my supplies if I buy second-hand, or do an exchange for my products and thus can keep lower prices of my items :)

What can be better?

Use material that are already there. Get vintage and old items and make new. Get ideas from books on handmade that are plentiful in every library.

In this post I will give you some ideas on where to get alternative supplies for your craft and what to do with your own unnecessary supplies.

1. First of all, check vintage and second hand shops in town - many of those offer amazingly cheap old and tired items. Give them another chance! Moreover, in many second-hand shops one can find leftovers of yarn and other supplies - use it :)
This ring is crocheted with red yarn I have bought in a charity second hand shop and is embellished with a turquoise bead from a vintage necklace.
Old and tired wool sweaters can be easily felted into beautiful new accessories. Just as tiny bit of unwoven wool can make a stunning felted flower.


Check out the tutorial of TonyaUtkina on how to create a felted flower
Moreover, youtube is full with video-tutorial on what to make out of old woolen sweaters.

2. Find soulmates! I regularly post on a local blog an advert saying that I exchange my products for a bunch of old jewelry, even broken or torn (anyway I will upcycle it), leftovers of yarn etc'. You won't believe it, but MANY people are happy to get rid of things they do not need - especially if they get a handmade designed item in exchange. Besides local online forums you can find handmade clubs in town or designs faculty in university or college and simply put paper advert on their board. Believe me, you will be surprised by result!
That's the treasure I got lately from such exchange for only one of my necklaces.

That red broken necklace is made of real red corals. Good bargain, isn't it? :)

3. Revise your old stocks.
Every craft artist has a bunch of old supplies, those that are not colorful enough, shining enough, those that cannot be incorporated into any of your designs, or those little bits that are simply left over and are not enough for a new design. What do you do with them?

- Change them!
Color them, crochet around them, reshape them :)
I have a lot of amazing buttons. Many of them are absolutely unique and vintage, other more common and dark.

In my designs I mainly use happy colors, so brown and black buttons will have hard time finding their way to my necklaces. But I still love them, and I have an idea what to do with them - I will crochet around them and make necklaces out of them. Just wait and see!

- Exchange them!
Yes, your boring leftover supplies maybe a real treasure for someone else. Find your local fair and forum - give advert that you want to get rid of them and see what people can offer you in exchange - their leftovers can be a real find for you :)
- Sell them!
yes, as simple as that. List them in your shop and sell.
If you have them for couple of years, you haven't used them until today and still don't have any idea of how you will use them - get rid of them!

- Combine the leftovers.
do you have a bunch of old beads of different size and color! paint them in one color or crochet around them with similar yarn - and then they will make a nice necklace or other accessory. Their different size will only add uniqueness!

In this particular necklace most of the beads come from different other necklaces. Even the yarn I used to crochet over is of different shade. And yet, this necklace is charming, isn't it?



As I said, I love seeing old and sad things getting new life and starting sparkling again.

I hope this can inspire you to reuse and recycle. You can both make crafts and make the world better. So why not simply doing that? :)

A lot of old buttons - happy Christmas treasure

I am a happy happy happy person - I got hundreds of vintage buttons as presents from different people for Christmas - and I cannot be grateful enough!
Look at this crazy amount!


And look at how special they all are. Mmmmm - absolutely delicious :)

And the rusty old metal boxes that keep old family stories :)

Let's see what I will craft out of this amazing treasure :)

New business cards - desined by KarisaGraphic

Let me proudly boast -



I have printed my new business cards. Dear KarisaGraphic created the design and I am more than happy to hold a bunch of them on my table!



They are so fresh, springy and absolutely adorable! I will use them as both business card for my shop and as tags for my sales :)

Go to KarisaGraphic lovely shop to see more of her designs!

Red crocheted flower rings

At my live craft show my crocheted flower rings were especially popular. And so I made A LOT of them.
Now I am happy to show them here one by one :)

Here come the red ones.

This one is embellished with large wooden bead that adds depth to light and soft crocheted flower.

In this one I used a real turquoise bead, up-cycled from vintage necklace. I love reusing and reshaping vintage and antique jewelry and this ring is a wonderful example of how an old and beautiful bead gets a new life :)

And finally my last red one - with small tube black beads. Poppy ring :)


In all of my rings the metal base is nickel free and it is size adjustable.

To see of my rings - go here

Christmas in Sweden

Now, when the holidays are behind us I thought maybe I can tell you a little about Christmas in Sweden, which is in my opinion, the loveliest holiday full of lights, decorations and happy smiles outdoors despite snowy weather in December. And though it is already January, I is better late than never. :)

In Sweden, Christmas officially begins with Saint Lucia ceremony on 13th of December. On this day, the youngest daughter from each family puts on a white robe with a red sash before dawn and wears a crown of evergreens with tall-lighted candles attached to it. There are special morning services in every church, and most of them are overcrowded. One has to be in good time at the church before the ceremony in order to see it.

Christian traditions are very respected in Sweden, but for most people, the preparations for Christmas begin at late November or early December. That's when the shops start competing about who has got the best Christmas decorations (especially such shopping mekkas as Ikea, Ahlens, Nordiska Kompaniet). The same day people start trying to find appropriate Christmas presents for everybody. Christmas markets are especially popular. There you can find unique handmade decorations, presents and simply a lot of good mood.

Glögg, or sweet hot spiced wine, is served outdoors and it definitely helps to warm you up, as it is usually freezing cold at this time of the year.

Christmas decorations in Sweden include advent-ljus, special candle to put on your window sill (those really remind Jewish Hanuka candles), apples, straw ornaments, Swedish flags and small gnomes wearing red tasseled caps.

Christmas is not a proper Christmas without pepparkakor or the famous gingerbread biscuit. Swedes love making gingerbread houses – they usually make complicated drawing of a future house and then bake the roofs, walls and other parts strictly according to the measurements in the plan.

Christmas Eve you usually spend with your friends and/or relatives and eat Christmas food. Three o'clock in the afternoon is sacred, though. Then every kid in the whole country sits down in front of the TV to watch "Donald Duck and his friends wish you all a Merry Christmas". Most adults don’t admit that they love it too, but they do! I love it very much, too :)

Swedish Julafton, or Christmas Eve, dinner may be a julbord, or buffet with julskinka, or Christmas ham, pickled pigs feet, lutfisk, or dried codfish, and risgryngrot a special rice porridge. Usually it is served with a special dried bread.

After Christmas Eve dinner, some of the presents are usually opened. Swedish Santa Claus, Jultomte (Christmas Gnome) unlike Santa Claus is supposed to live under the floorboards of the house or barn and ride a straw goat. The make-believe Tomte, wearing a white beard and dressed in red robes, distributes gifts from his sack. Many are given with funny rhyme that hints at the contents. However, modern American figure is quickly catching up in Sweden and Tomte is losing his original identity.

But he is nevertheless lovely and welcoming :)

article was originally written for the Etsy Russian Team Blog

some passion!

here I am created again once so popular item :) - black fire.

This time I call it "passionately your"

Reds on black - I find this piece extremely versatile regarding what outfit you are wearing. It can fit any festivity, or regular office day, or even some lovely gothic outfit
ah yes, vampires love this one a lot :)