INSPIRATION: Cirque du Soleil

Hello! Good afternoon!

I've been experimenting with something new lately inspired by one of my many passions- acrobatics.
Amazingly daring, artistic shows of Cirque du Soleil have driven me to explore more about the art of circus and acrobatics.
I love the mixture of grace, beauty, strength and boldness with which each artist entertains the audience. How every performance keeps you on the edge of the seat, they never fail to bring out the strongest emotions in the onlookers.
Jumping dangerously in the air, diving from dizzying heights or walking the high wire, their strong yet graceful bodies that bend with such unbelievable flexibility. Beautiful and fluid movements of the dancers who communicate with a mixture of emotion and poetry along with their bright fantasy make up, vivid costumes and that surreal feel of their world all around that guarantees to suck you in completely!

I wanted to create something that expresses grace, beauty, strength, flexibility and boldness- all in one.
And here is the outcome of my first interpretations of the above words.

 First there was a mood board with inspiring pictures:

Then the dolls came out of that. Their bodies are stuffed with polyester stuffing and wire for the flexibility. 

Face have been hand painted. 

Available in from Etsy store

In two sizes, this one is much smaller:

Available from my Etsy store

And what do you think of my dolls? I am going to make them in a medium size too, and a lot more of bright colours, pink/ blue  hair maybe?

Gosia

xxx

Owl and bunny softies

Hello and good afternoon!

I'm sorry I haven't been writing much lately.
The weather here in Scotland has been a bit crazy and although you can't say that spring is in the air tomorrow is the first day of spring- 21st of March. That surely must mean an improvement from then on Mother Nature! Fingers crossed!
Anyway putting the outdoor conditions aside- spring definitely came to my house a bit earlier.
Like everybody else I had been feeling a bit down with the cold and slush and wind all at once and decided to incorporate lots of spring and vibrant colours into my recent projects and the outcome had no doubt brought a huge smile to my face^_^

Please feel free to leave a comment. Or share your spring projects.  I would love to see them!

Here are my Spring Owls in the making just about to get stuffed:

And here they are proudly showing off^_^

You can purchase my owls from my Etsy shop

And here are the Spring Bunnies still flat and not looking like bunnies at all:

But here they definitely are 100% bunnies! Sweet and colourful!^_^:

If you like my bunnies you can find them at  my Etsy store

One more bunny with big and cute eyes in slightly more subtle colours:

Also available from my Etsy shop

What do you think? They looks so adorable sitting together on the shelf right across, distracting me!^_^

Enjoy your last day of winter!
 Bye bye ugly slushy snow-less winter!

^_^

Gosia
xx

Follow up- our beautiful make ups!

Hello hello,

How is everyone?

We had an amazing night last Saturday! With a very artistic start-a long make up session for each of us at home and then there was a great music and lots of dancing at a very nice club! Fun fun fun!

Here are the follow up images to the previous post:

Make up artist Juli hard at work:

My beautiful make up with red feathers.

My beautiful make up with red feathers and new designed red dress.

Amazing silver eye make up!

All satisfied and ready to go!

Don't we look just lovely??^_^

Have a fantastic weekend folks!

Gosia

xx

Be bold! Rich and colourful make up inspiration.

Good afternoon.

How are you all????

I'm going dancing tomorrow and I'm very excited about it! It's been ages since I last went. I don't like the music you know.. It's all  the same noise in most places nowadays to me. It's funny when I comment on it this way I sound like my own dad who disapproved of what my sisters and I listened to as teenagers but mind you the music back then in the 90s wasn't half as bad! ^_^
My friends and I found a place with 60s, 70s and 80s music so it sounds really fun and I wanna dress up too ^_^ Or at least have fun and colourful make you. I'd love that! I'm sure my friend who's a make up artist would enjoy this challenge a lot.

Wouldn't you like anything in this style for your night out? They are just so amazing, aren't they!?

I think peacock theme eye shadows are my favourite!

I love the feathers!

Great picture!!

Awesome eye lashes!!

That's me in this lovely bold make up by Juli

As I said I LOVE COLOURS!!^_^
I made myself a dress for the occasion too, it's red with asymmetrical hem-a bit shorter front. I have a very cool leather obi belt to go with it, it is quite long and shapes the waistline really nicely.

Have a fun weekend everyone!

Gosia
<3

Notebook Cover Tutorial

Hello and happy weekend everyone!

How was your Saturday?? Mine was very productive and fun! Playing with beautiful printed fabrics is what I love^_^

There are so many lovely fabrics out there, don't you just love all the colours and fun prints?
 I DO!!! My favourite way to sew with them is patchwork and quilting, they look amazing, the more different patterns the better.

I made this patchwork neck pillow a while ago:

These fabrics come from various Tilda's collections, they are so pretty! My pillow is super comfy and I use it all the time. If you want to sew your own you can purchase my PDF pattern and instructions  here.

And today I was working on a super sweet notebook/ book cover and I will share the tutorial with you. Give it a go, it's so much fun! And the book looks a lot better!^_^
 I want to fill it in with all my creative ideas!

BOOK COVER TUTORIAL

 You will need:

-scraps of various fabrics
-lining fabric ( I used cotton)
-light weight wadding
- 2.5 cm wide bias binding
-scissors
-self- healing mat
-tape measure
-3 ribbons of different colours
-rotary cutter
-sewing machine

First measure you book/notebook:

Add 3 cm (that will be your seam allowance). Mine measures 36 cm x 24.5 cm (incl seam allowance).
Now determine how many patchwork squares you will need. I am using 5 x 5 cm square template to cut mine and I would need 60 pieces.

And here the fun part starts.. Be bold and choose fabrics with lots of different prints and colours.
I use a rotary cutter and a self-healing mat as this way you can cut more than one square at a time and they are more accurate but you could also use scissors.

Lay out your fabric squares. Place them in a desired pattern, label them so you remember the order later on.

You will also need to cut a piece of wadding and a lining fabric using your notebook measurements (incl 1.5 cm seam allowance),  cut 2 flaps too- the same length as the lining and for the width - a bit more that a quarter of the lining's width.

All the pieces

 Sew the squares together to form rows using a 1 cm seam allowance. Press each row when 

finished to the same side:

Stitch all the rows together and press.
Neaten flaps' outside edge with a zig zag stitch, turn under 1 cm to the wrong side, press and stitch. I used a decorative stitch for that:

I hand printed a small design on one of the flaps in advance:

Lie the fabrics right sides facing together and stitch the flaps on the patchwork piece:

I wanted to add heart appliques on the cover front:

 Now stitchsides of the lining to hide flaps' stitches- sandwich the flaps and stitch:

Turn it inside out, sandwich the wadding and stitch all the way around.

Almost ready!^_^  Stitch 2 zig zag lines down the center.

Stitch on the ribbons right in the center, cut them all a bit longer than your notebook length. I cut mine in various lengths:

Now we are going to hide these horrible raw edges by adding bias binding:

I wanted to add small hearts on to the ribbons...
For that you need to cut 3 pairs of hearts in different colours and 3 wadding to go inside of each- if you want them to be a bit puffed. Stitch with a zig zag in a contrasting thread.

And... It's done!! Congratulations!

And with the notebook:

Let me know if you try to make your own cover and if you do I hope you have as much fun as I did! Oh and please share, I would love to see what you come up with.

Gosia

xx