Baghy

New things in my garden

2012-01-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

Winter is finally here... we've been spared enough! So new birds are coming to eat the slices of bread that we leave outside for them. Mr tit here, is a regular:

but we rarely have robins visiting us:

As I was slowly moving with my camera to make a picture of it without scaring it off, boom! A large aspen tree fell on the roof of my house. It fell from the roots so all its weight is right now exactly on top of my bedroom's roof... auch. We could only cut some branches of it... well, my boyfriend did, I was mostly documenting, since I already had the camera in my hand :)

It was our neighbor's tree, I don't know why it chose our house to fall on!

Now I just have to think of a way to use these tons of free wood!

2011-12-26T00:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

1. EvgeniyaMaslakova
2. MariaKonstantin
3. JumiFelt
4. LaNiqueHOME

More moodboards here: Star of the East

Colorful Paper Wreath

2011-11-27T03:00:00.000-08:00

Inspired by THE paper wizard, Manufacta, yesterday I made a paper wreath of my own, using some crepe paper that I've bought a few years ago and never used.
I'll also try another one on brown-white-gold tones, to put my wrapping paper leftovers to a good use.

For the round base, I've used some decorative Easter sisal grass.
I've made sandwiches from different color papers, and wrinkled them to make the flower shapes.

It was a very fun experience as it is basically a trial and no-error-possible process. It came out pretty quickly too! I've sewn my flowers to the base, as my stapler is momentarily unavailable (it was the victim of another experiment of mine, poor thing...)

You can see the original tutorial here: manufactacarta.blogspot.com

Monday Moodboard

2011-05-30T01:10:00.000-07:00

I reaaally have to get my gears going... That "to do" list starts to look like a book.

1. silkstory
2. stephmel
3. bidesign
4. Lamercerie

More moodboards here: Star of the East

Magic Mushrooms

2011-04-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

Noo... these are not those mushrooms that make you crazy high or whatever.. these are magic because yesterday, they weren't and today there they were in my garden! What a lovely surpise! I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these are so I'm not planning to eat them although they look pretty edible to me...Don't they? Anyone wanna try them first?
I think it's wonderful how nature blooms in the least expected places.

So my enthusiasm showed in Etsy too as I quickly created this mushroom treasury - by the way, check out the shmetsy tools, they are true lifesavers for a treasury maker :)

'All the mushrooms I could carry' by Baghy

Five Enchanted Fore... SecondChants $10.00	Red Mushroom Marble EmergentGlassw... $20.00	Sm Amanita Magic Mu... sdegasperis $29.00	Crochet Red Mushroo... meekssandygirl $20.00
Amanita the Sitting... ALittleCharact... $25.00	Toadstool Hand Pain... luxfish $10.00	Forest Mushrooms Si... BagNoir $58.00	Pottery Mushroom - ... wolfartglass $14.00
Mini Felt Mushroom ... ilovehearts $3.99	The Bright Forest p... marisolspoon $32.00	A3 Print - Mushroo... PeaPress1 $15.00	Fairy Toadstool Red... FantasyCreatio... $16.95
Three Mini Red and ... jadeflower $9.00	Mushroom - crochet ... ch1306 $4.30	Mushroom fairy hous... moonforest $16.00	mushroom salt cella... lbegley $30.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Secret Conspiracy Unveiled

2011-04-21T01:29:00.000-07:00

So... as you know I have quite an addiction to buy stuff from Etsy. I received recently a new package with goodies and there it was... another Werther's Original candy! It is like the third time that I receive this particular type of candy in a package with handmade goodies.. from totally different sellers! I wonder, is there some kind of secret agreement between Etsy sellers that I don't know about? Is there a Werther's Original commercial that says "the best candy for the handmade addicts?"
Now don't get me wrong, these are one of my favorites candies, so keep them coming!

Have you ever received something surprising along with your handmade purchase?

finally, an A!

2011-04-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

I remember, during primary school, that all my grades were A, except at the calligraphy class... I always failed to succeed... my mom tried to teach me "make them like beads on a wire"... My letters were all chunky and had a lot of corners. But in time I tried to overcome this defect and now I can proudly paint initials on my books. A lot of customers ask for this service and are very happy with the outcome. It's true, while I monogram them, there's no room for errors so everybody has to walk on eggshells around me... or else!

Mmmmm Vanilla

2010-09-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

I love real vanilla flavor in just about everything... Where I live it's pretty expensive but I bought some on the internet and made vanilla essence out of it. The recipe is pretty simple - just add vodka and lots of patience as this little miracle takes a few months to be ready! Just store in a dark place and shake the bottle from time to time. I'm not good with measurements and following complex recipes and quantities but I am fairly sure I put more vanilla then the recipe states so it's gonna be a strong flavored essence. This vanilla is so perfumed - it is called Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla and it has a stronger flavor as opposed to the Tahitian one that is a bit fruity and goes best for drinks and such (just my internet digging, I have no idea how Tahitian beans smell)
Here it is, my magic potion... I guess around Christmas I'll be able to offer little bottles of essence to my family and friends :)

Vestige - Leather Journal with Vintage Ornaments

2010-09-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite journals so far - I have a passion for really old metallic stuff and I was lucky enough to find these two pieces of ornaments at a local fare. I haven't changed their look at all - these is how I bought them and they seem to come from a really old piece of furniture or such. They have a wonderful patina and I used them as a part of my design, creating the appearance of two doors.

The leather I used for this journal's cover is a beautiful sturdy matte leather. I think it goes great with the metallic gate.
I engraved a wood pattern on it and painted it with leather pigments. I've just uploaded it in my artreasury.etsy.com shop and already got two appreciation hearts :)

C'mon Baby Light My ArtFire

2010-09-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

Artfire has a wonderful deal these days! Only 5.95$ a month for a Pro account!
I recently set up my Baghy shop at Artfire - I hear it's a wonderful community with helpful folks.
There are two types of accounts - free (basic) and pro. Neither accounts have to pay for listing items and there are no fees for selling through them. The Pro accounts holders have to pay a monthly subscription which is currently 15.95$ - which is less then I pay on my Etsy monthly bill. And I even sold a journal even though I haven't taken much care of this shop yet. But now they have this awesome deal for 50.000 people tops. Thing is, you have to opt in for this deal and only if at least 20.000 people sign up, then the offer becomes official and only then they cash in your 5.95$. So I opted in now and have to hope lots of people sign up too. Till now, 3212 people have signed up, and I think they only started yesterday. You have to sign up for a basic account first. So come out, come out wherever you are... Hope to see you there :)

Fall Leaves Fall

2010-09-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

I've given up sweeping leaves in my garden... Once I'm done, I look around and it seems like I haven't done anything.

Instead, I embraced the fall leaves and enjoy walking on the leaves colorful carpet.

As I usually do, I passed my mood to my journals so here they are - little cutout leaves in fall colors that I'll sprinkle on the journals when I put them in the envelopes.

What they'll serve for, I don't know - maybe the addressee will use them for scrapbooking or just have a little fall happening when they open the package.

Wood Buttons

2010-09-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Oh, happy day! There's nothing that makes me happier these days then interesting materials. Today I received a lovely package with wood buttons, from TheHickoryTree Etsy shop... they are just so sweet and have a perfect finishing - I can't wait to put them on some of my journals... And the big ones...oh, I have interesting perspectives for them :)
I love wood embellishments as they go so great with leather! Here they are:

Gunfight at the OK Corral

2010-09-07T06:08:00.000-07:00

Once in a blue moon, I take a custom order that I find particularly interesting. Usually I stay away from journal custom orders as I end up working much more on making that journal then I foresee. Beside, I am never sure if it worked out as the customer pictured it and I am always stressed out not knowing if I'll get my best feedback ever or the worst one. Anyway, this time the task was to make a book out of some documents that attest the legendary gunfight in Arizona, known as the "Gunfight at the OK Corral".

The book had to have the look and feel of a book from the old wild west. I thought that is really cool as the actual handwritten testimonies of the men involved in that gunfight are to be found on the internet, scanned at good resolution. The documents were recently found in a jail storage room.
The documents were yellowish with stains from old adhesive tape so I had to put them on a similar background so that when I'd cut the prints to size, there wouldn't be any white borders left or anything strange. I decided to print them in color, as if I were to print them in grayscale and then tan them they wouldn't look as good.

There were 8 testimonies and a cover sheet so I wanted to separate them somehow so I created some extra pages in between them, also on old paper background, using an old typewriter font to write which testimony that was.

It was lovely to discover details about the original files, like the type of paper used, the size of the documents and the binding type, all from little clues found in the pictures. I tried to stay as close as possible to the original.

Because of the size of the documents, I had to print A3 sheets that would contain two different pages on each side that I then folded in half. The hardest and most time consuming task was to figure out which page continues with which one, cause due to the binding would be like... page 37 continues with page 54 and so on.

Then, out in the town to find the best printer service - I made sample pages at about four different locations - one was too contrast, another made unequal borders that made the binding center offset compared to the other side of the sheet, another made the pages much too shiny, and finally I found one that printed them with a nice color and feel. I opted for thicker pages as if I were to print all the documents on normal paper, the book, which is quite large, almost letter size, would have the feel of a flimsy magazine.

After I trimmed the pages, found a distressed leather piece and sewed the pages in, the real fun begun - I folded the pages just a bit, then ironed them, to have these subtle creases that give it a nice look.

Then, I torn just a bit the edges and sanded the corners - now the page look much better and authentic.

I added a belt with a vintage buckle and distressed the leather even more, tanning it with sepia pigments.
The last part was painting the journal - my favorite part :)

Although making this book was a very difficult project, I love the outcome so much that I would keep it!

I just have to hope the customer likes it too :)

Fall Bookmarks

2010-09-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

I love to let nature inspire my works - and now that fall begun in my part of the world, I made these lovely leather bookmarks with acorns theme, engraving the drawing first then adding gold, green and brown shades to them. I think they came out very nice and plan to keep some of them for the books that I read these days.

Square Is My Favorite Color

2010-08-24T02:37:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of square pendants and after I bought quite a few I decided it was time to make my own, so I bought a kit from anniehowes and I received some lovely italian and chiyogami papers along with everything else I needed to get started: Glamour Glaze, square glass pieces, metallic bails and a tube of E6000 adhesive.

It was easier then I imagined, and so much fun! There are a few steps on how to make this:
First, you add a drop of Glamour Glaze on the back of the glass square (front side is rounded the other one is flat)

then you place the glass on top of the paper, choosing the design spot that would look best and you press slightly to prevent air bubbles.

You let it set like that for about two hours till the glaze is dry.

Then, you trim the excess paper and turn it with the paper side up, adding plenty of glamour glaze on the back of the pendant.

You leave it like this for a full day till the glaze becomes transparent and not sticky anymore. Add a drop of E6000 on the bail and fixing it on the back of the pendant, right in the middle of one side, pressing slightly.

You leave it like that for another full day so the glue sets and voila! The pendant is ready!

As you can see, once you've started, you just can't stop to a decent number of pendants. At least, I couldn't!
Personal tip: since glamour glaze is water based and might remain slightly sticky in contact with water, I add a coat of another type of varnish on top of it (transparent nail lacquer will do)

Ticktock

2010-08-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I often buy white objects just to unleash my creativity on them :) This time, a clock was sacrificed. I wanted to keep it simple - just a few flower blooms here and there. I'm going out shopping for my next victim!

Do You Ever Get Over a First Love?

2010-07-11T11:21:00.000-07:00

Coptic binding... my first love, that I've neglected for so long. But now I returned to it, I love this technique! But I didn't returned empty handed - I am well prepared and armed with some gorgeous papers I've been collecting for awhile... I felt bad actually that all this beautiful things kept waiting in the closet for the big day.
So here they are, my babies:

The first one has its cover made from black Japanese paper with an elegant golden geometric pattern, for the second I used black parchment paper screen-printed with golden flowers, and the red one is dressed up in the best quality Japanese Yuzen Chiyogami paper, with gold little flowers.
They are listed in my shop, if you want to take this beauties away from me :)

Augustine the Baby Hare

2010-07-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

Please meet baby hare Augustine. She just loves to nibble on sunflower petals and most of the sunflowers in her field are just huge black circles on the end of stalks. Augustine knows that the bullfinches and other birds will come to eat the seeds in winter so she makes sure that the plant will survive until them. She is very dexterous and has learned to shimmy up the tall stalk and deftly snip eat petal off. Some of the other baby hares have heard how good the petals taste and she snips off extra ones for those waiting below.

I received Augustine as a gift and reading her story, I decided to welcome her in a very special way, with a sunflower bouquet that I know she likes :) To see more creative art textile ornaments, visit Dragon House of Yuen

Stamps

2010-07-04T01:02:00.000-07:00

I love email, but also love to write and receive real letters, they make me feel more closer to the other person, reading their handwriting and getting a piece of paper they held in their hands. I also love the different stamps on the envelopes and I decided to make something special with them. And since the people that like my journals are also addicted to handwriting, I've created a journal that has stamps on it from time to time. I like how it turned out so I plan to make more - I've got a lot of old stamps from my grand grand father that was a postman and I'll use some of them - little works of art from different places and times. But first I just gotta make sure none of the stamps is worth a fortune :)

Happy Day

2010-06-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

My sister just bought me this gorgeous pendant from MaidOfClay Etsy shop - yep, my life gravitates around this lovely site, so what? My name is Anca and I took the handmade pledge (Hiii Anca)

I've been hovering around this shop for awhile now... I can't wait to see the envy on my artsy friends faces :)

Greedy Me

2010-06-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

Can I, can I please keep it for myself? That's a question that comes to my mind often when I create something new - pretty bad for the business, I know... So here's what greedy me didn't wanted to sell - a set of goldenrod little books earrings and necklace - they look pretty on me, don't you think? They are actual usable little blank journals so inside I'll write little quotes, passwords and secrets only my ears will hear :)

Gradient Roses

2010-06-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

I love teal color, and when I bought this teal leather for my journals, I decided to make something special for them. I really wanted to design them in a romantic way, with polymer clay roses as buttons. So I experimented and here's what I've come up with: some sweet gradient roses!
I've made each petal a different color, from dark teal to white. I've started with the small petals then added a bit of white to the color for the next petal and so on. I thought I'll make mother nature jealous!
....
but then...
"Can you smell smoke?"...said my mom sniffing all the power outlets... I said "don't worry, neighbors probably overcooked a meal"
So here they are, my burned melted roses! Poor things...

Here's something that made me feel better! Found in kirstypaterson inspired Etsy shop :)

Fly, little bird!

2010-06-24T05:02:00.000-07:00

One of the not so happy aspects of having a garden is I often find little birds fallen from the nests or caught by a cat.

I save them one by one, and some live, some don't but I'm pretty sure this cute little fellow will pull it through as he/she (how can you tell?) looks healthy. It's gonna stay with us for awhile.
So here is my new roommate!

Don't judge a book by its wrapping

2010-06-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that's what I thought at the beginning - why spend time on the wrapping instead of concentrating on other more meaningful stuff? But once I started to grow fond of my customers, I searched for ways to make their shopping experience one to remember.
I enjoy wrapping the journals with care, imagining the moment my client will open the package. I buy my wrapping in large batches, that way it's cheaper and I'm always prepared for the large wholesale I'm dreaming of :)

Although the journals are paid for, I always feel like Santa Claus when I send them!

My Happy Birthday

2010-06-18T12:37:00.000-07:00

Yeap, today is my birthday, hurraaay! Since last year, I decided, each year I will celebrate my 28th birthday - so I am once again 28, and I'll stick to that age. I've been partying since morning and the party is still going. Lots of gifts and flowers, which I rushed to preserve for eternity and for some handmade paper with pressed flowers :) I've been pressing flowers for awhile now, waiting for the big day when I'll actually make handmade paper. The blue ones in the picture are so sweet and they come out so nice when pressed, that I've pressed thousands! The only disadvantage is I can only justify all my hours of work with a tiny little box where these fit.

Ikea new closets

2010-06-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

I finally bought two new white closets from the famous Ikea shop, I'm a greedy shopper and my supplies didn't fit in my furniture anymore. Ikea guys say mounting them is an easy task, but surely they didn't took into account a number of unexpected events. Here's what I'm dealing with:

Etsy Bookbindingteam Swap

2010-06-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

At last, I finally participated in a book swap with my Bookbindingteam teammates - it was so fun, I wonder why I didn't do it before - oh, wait, I remember - the laziness reared its ugly head!
But I'm so happy now with the little book I received from Beth!
I still haven't used it though - I am organizing a Miss competition with my ideas to sort out what would be the best use for it :)
Here it is - isn't it a beauty?

The journal that I've made for the swap is this one - since most of my journals are feminine, and since my recipient was a guy, I went for a more unisex design and painted this silver gate on it, adding a leather cutout lock to act as a buckle:

Tim (the recipient) liked it so I'm glad I chose this one for the swap.

Hi, my name is Anca

2010-06-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

I remember seeing on Fashion TV a girl saying "Hi, my name is Anca, and I never dreamed that I could be supermodel" - well, that wasn't me :) What I can brag with is, however, something even more fabulous:
Hi, my name is Anca and I never dreamed that I could be a passionate bookbinder! Ta-daaa!
I am a Romanian artist - if you can call me that (please do, haha) and I was so pleased when I made my first book, my first useful object, that I've became addicted! I now sell my books on Etsy - baghy.etsy.com but I'm thinking to expand to other venues, til it will become a multi-billion dollar business (just kidding)!
I hope you'll enjoy my blog, and as I haven't written a blog before, I hope I'll enjoy it too - I sure love to read my old diaries :)