New cards

Between my two part-time jobs and a huge order for a stationery shop, I haven't had much time to work on new cards in the last month - until now!


This is why I need a camera (boyfriend broke the last one): the cake is light yellow, the dish is light pink, and the candles are light blue. But it all looks the same here.



There is a tic tac toe grid here, but you can't see it in the scan. I cut a tic tac toe grid into the cardstock with an exacto knife and then collaged the hearts and x's into it. (Update: new scan has the grid!)



A twist on the same concept. The Tic Tac Toe grid IS visible here!



It's about time I had an Octopus Christmas card! Octopi, having far more "hands" than humans, are more adept at juggling and can juggle more. Naturally.

33 variations

Easter eggs inspired by the matryoshka nesting dolls. The eggs in the top card were cut from a Russian language newspaper and painted in watercolor by me.

I called this post 33 variations because once this idea came into my head, I couldn't stop thinking about all the variations on the matryoshka Easter egg theme I could do. The 33 variations refers to Beethoven's variations of Diabelli's waltz - which he sent to all the great composers of the time and challenged them to compose a variation of it. Beethoven composed 33 variations. While sources vary on his motives, there is no doubt in my mind that his obsessive personality played a role.

A New York Valentine

This new Valentine's card is the result of a collaboration between me and my boyfriend. I wanted an ice skating theme, maybe a couple ice skating a heart around a lake, or ice-skating the words "Happy Valentine's Day" but I thought it might be too complicated for collage to make the couple. My boyfriend thought I should make the card more New York-centric and added skyscrapers to my sketch. After I made the lake and the skyline, he suggested adding a small bench with a couple, although in his sketch, the bench was a lot smaller and closer to the lake. I decided to place the bench and the couple closer to the viewer. And, voila! A new card is born and available on Etsy.

Experiments with Photo Styling

Etsy is constantly telling us vendors to style our photos in a pleasing way. So, today, I followed this advice in taking pictures of my newest card. Here are the results:
And yes, I realize that my other Hanukkah card is incorrect. I found that out during the Brooklyn Flea two weeks ago, when a girl told me, "That menorah's not for Hanukkah - it's for Sabbath." How embarrassing! I wanted to explain to her, "My Jewish boyfriend told me the Hanukkah menorah had 7 candles..." but I kept my mouth shut.

Dreidel Tug of War

These two octopi are engaged in a friendly tug-of-war over who gets to spin the dreidel!

Russian round-up

Ironically, I've decided to do my "Russian round-up" on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I do remember that day, and I remember it was important, but I didn't realize why at the time.

In the days after the collapse of the USSR, these local globes - globes of your country or even city or village - became the rage in all the former Soviet Republics. EnglishRussia has provided a DIY guide to making your own local globe. (Photo from EnglishRussia)

This Moscow neighborhood is home to some pretty amazing street art. (Photo from EnglishRussia)


And lastly, I'm happy to announce that I've finished my Holy Supper card! I was told that the lone arm was scary, so I made a few revisions, and voila!

A Russian Tradition

The Holy Supper, which in Russian Orthodox tradition, takes place on Christmas Eve after a day of fasting, begins with the mother of the family blessing each person by drawing a cross in honey on his or her forehead. I've tried to capture this tradition in my latest card, above, although it is still a work in progress.

(On a similar and somewhat funny note, when I showed this card to my Russian boyfriend, his response was, "I didn't know there was a tradition of drawing a cross on your forehead." But to be fair, he isn't Christian. So... :))

Happy Hanukkah

My latest card: the Hanukkah jelly doughnuts and the menorah. It took me quite a while to figure out which colors to use! The green is not as radioactive looking as it appears in this photo.

In other news, I'm re-enabling comments for this site. Please be nice.

A Kangaroo Mother's Day

Before making this card, I'd had in my mind the cartoon image of the kangaroo with a visible patch-like pouch. When, I looked at kangaroo photos, though, I was in for a surprise:

Image from this page. (I love how the joey--baby kangaroo--is looking at you out of the corner of his eye!)

And here is my version, based off sketches of various photographs, which, by the way, is not a copyright violation because it falls under fair use. The AP may have wanted to investigate this more before going public with their copyright infringement allegations.

La Chandeleur

Candlemas (February 2nd) is celebrated with a feast to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of the Baby Jesus. In France, it's also known as La Chandeleur, Fete de la Lumiere, or Crepe Day. The French celebrate the holiday with a bit of fortune telling. Holding a coin in your writing hand and a crepe pan in your other, you flip the crepe in the air. If you catch the crepe in the center of the pan, you will have good fortune for the rest of the year.

My fondness for crepes has led me to create these two cards in celebration of La Chandeleur.

Bonne chandeleur, tout le monde!

Ghost of Christmas Past

My latest creation, and of course it is teeming with all sorts of obvious symbolism. The one that might not be so obvious, at least from the picture: I used an out of focus picture of a Christmas tree for the tree at the end of the road.

I got the idea for this card from reading a patent case. This is the first time I've ever gotten any ideas from reading a legal case!

Le Noel en France

In France, children leave their shoes in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve for Pere Noel to fill up with candy and presents. Here is my rendition of this tradition, soon to be on my Etsy shop.

Ball of Yarn

This little cat is tempted by the dangling Christmas tree ball, which she's mistaken for a ball of yarn. Not yet available on Etsy; I am waiting for a clear day where I can get a good picture.