Sketchbook, September 2012

My sketchbook was looking at me with sad eyes lately, so I spent some time

this weekend doing a few new pages.

I've used:

- Sakura Micron pen 005 in black and brown 

- Colored pencils 

- Gold gouache 

- Transparent stickers 

- A vintage French stamp 

- Pieces of magazine pages for the girls' dresses. 

- Sequins that my mom and sister got me from Iran. 

How to hang plates without plate hangers

 Hello everyone! I was very quiet lately, because we were doing some home renovation and I was very busy with moving, cleaning, dusting,...name it! But meanwhile I found some time to decorate an empty living room wall with some plates, saucers and little dishes. You can even see a small vintage frame in there!

Some of these dishes are gifts from my mom, sister and my lovely friend Christel ♥

  In order to hang the plates without plate hangers (I just don't like them!) I used framing wire and

hot glue gun. To make them even stronger I used several layers of duct tape.

The back of plates is very ugly now, but who cares as long as they don't fall down and break! :o)

 

In the end I scanned the bottom of each piece and made a template. This way I could see where exactly each plate is going to be and where I should hammer a nail. This step takes some time and is boring, but it's totally worth it.  

Saucer Bird

Hello friends! The last few days I was working on a few projects and

one of them was to decorate an empty living room's wall with

some plates and saucers. So I created this little plate with one of
my doodles and decal paper.

*
You can download the vector version of this birdie here
 and make your own plate/saucer in any size.

You need:

- A saucer (Mine is from Ikea)

- A printer (Inkjet or Laser)

- Clear waterslide Decal paper (You can find them on Ebay)

** Make sure to get the campatible paper for your printer (Inkjet or Laser)

Enjoy!

More pebbles

Here I painted more pebbles.

I'm planning on gluing a magnet on their back for the magnet board or fridge.

Painted pebble

Last weekend I found a few smooth, round and flat pebbles by the beach.
 I painted my signature birdie on one of them. I'll show more of them soon.
 * I've used:
- Acrylic colors
- Micron 005 pen
- Clear nail polish for sealing
 Have a wonderful Friday and weekend friends xo

Home sweet home

My new watercolor painting. I especially painted this as a house warming gift.

You can buy the print of this illustration in my Etsy shop here.

Illustration Friday: Heights

My Entry for this week's Illustration Friday challenge: "Heights".

 I did this painting with watercolors on white paper and added

 the dark blue sky digitally in Photoshop for the art print.
*This print is now available in my Etsy shop.

Sketchbook

 

Sketchbook time! Here are some new pages from my sketchbook, inspired by childhood nostalgia:

 The cat on top is the character of a cartoon called "Flower Stories" that we used to watch when

we were kids. (Thanks to my lovely sis Azadeh for the link ♥)

 The stamp on top right corner is the cover of a TinTin book in Japanese! How cute is that!

Although we used to read them in Persian ;) I was in love with all of TinTin stories.

They still bring back sweet childhood memories.

Two new prints in the shop

I finally added the print of these two watercolor birdies to my Etsy shop.

I used a piece of fabric for the mat of the tattooed bird.

Love the texture and delicate contrast with the white paper.

Hope you have a lovely weekend ♥

My ceramic collection

I have collected a lot of small ceramic dishes during years.

 Many of them were gifts and some I bought myself.

 I use them for storing small objects and for taking my jewelry photos.

 Some of these are made in Japan, some made in China

 and a few are from Iran.

You are my sunshine

Here is the finished painting. I did this illustration on white watercolor paper and added the
 grey background digitally in Photoshop.

   {    8.5x11"   }

Archival print of this illustration is available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

Work in progress

A new watercolor painting that I'm working on today. 

Hope you're having a lovely Easter weekend  ♥

How to hollow out eggs

I always hollow out my eggs so I can treasure them for many years.

There is a very good tutorial here in eHow website that you can refer to.

I prefer to insert in the needle just about 5mm in the shell and not more to

prevent the shell from cracking. I make a few more holes very close to the

first one to create a larger hole and I repeat the process for the other end of the egg.

Blow the egg out as this tutorial says.

Or if you have a rubber ear syringe just do as Martha Stewart.

Make some colorful water with food coloring and a bit of vinegar.

I have used this recipe from Martha Stewart.

for a perfect submerge and to prevent your eggs from floating on the surface you need to

fill them with water. I used a medical syringe myself.

The best way to dry the eggs is to make a drying rack like this.

Voilà! Now you have perfectly dyed eggs!

Quail eggs

Yesterday I dyed some little quail eggs.

The eggs are tiny and cute and fit perfectly in my little bird nest.

Here they usually sell these eggs in Asian supermarkets.

~

*The big feather was sent by my lovely friend Montse, from Mexico! xo

I'll show you some photos from the dying process in the next post, so...stay tuned!

My precious grandma

Happy Persian New Year everyone.

I'm a bit late because my precious grandma passed away a few hours before the new year.

I miss her so much but I'm sure she's in a better place now.

Spring is now here and I get to meet my old friends again.

They all sing very cute songs and I can't tell which one sings better!

Never give up!

I had started painting this illustration some time in September and

at that time my health situation was so bad that I left it unfinished.

I originally wanted to encourage myself with this quote "Never give up".

And now I really believe in it.

I just finished it last weekend :o)

~

Watercolor and colored pencils on 8.5" x 11" Hot-Pressed Fabriano paper

I asked my husband Suma to take a photo of me next to a table lamp.

It helped me with the lighting of the illustration!

You can purchase the archival print of this illustration in my Etsy print shop!

Instagram

A while ago my sister told me about a cool photo sharing application called "Instagram",

and since then, I'm hooked!

It has lovely filters and crops your images into a square shape, like Polaroid photos.

It's compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Here are some of my Instagram photos.

You can follow me here too!

Happiness Apple

I bought this apple from a Chinese supermarket in Toronto called "Hong Tai".

I have no idea how they created the Chinese word effect on the fruit?

Maybe with a sticker and exposure to sunlight? Do have any ideas?

I am not a big fan of apples, but this one was extremely delicious it changed my

mind about apples! I asked my husband Suma to ask his Chinese colleagues about

the word on the apple and they said it means "Happiness"! So sweet!

Ring holder

This is how I organize my rings using an over sized

pincushion and some vintage decorative pins.

~

This pretty peach pincushion is handmade by my talented friend Ginny.

She is a ceramic artist and makes adorable fruit pincushions too.

You can visit her pretty shop here.

The cute piggy pins are from an Etsy vintage shop called "EverySkimo"

which is always filled with eye-candy.

Hope you have a lovely day dear friends ♥

Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

I hope year of the dragon brings you happiness, health and all the good things!

Here in Toronto you'll see pretty Asian lanterns and New Year greetings everywhere.

I love how multicultural this city is.

I've used:

Sakura Micron 005 in black

HB pencil

colored pencils

watercolors . Gold gouache

Stamp

Some persimmon beads I've made for earrings

&

My beloved persimmon teapot