Manga by a Swede? The world is just becoming so much smaller and smaller. Coming this month, IKEA will launch CHARLOTTA, a new collection of Manga fabric designed by Sweden's Åsa Ekström. A cartoonist or "mangaka" inspired by the Japanese way of creating comic-strip stories, Åsa creates a ficticious mix of well-known buildings in Scandinavia among which Godzilla stands on the CHARLOTTA TECKNING and then shows her love of Tokyo with the motif on CHARLOTTA BLOCK. I love the CHARLOTTA MÄRKE, a mix of Scandinavia and Japan where sh'es mixed Japanese tattooing with Scandinavian motifs, "A girl in manga style dressed in a Swedish folk costume and a Viking made with an old-world Japanese mask used on stage in Noh plays as a model”, Åsa explains. See more info and images here. (Via mocoloco.com via notcot.org).

This past week we celebrated the The Poppies and the best part of the awards event was meeting all these "new to me" artists, designers, photographers, et al! And one of them is Pacific Northwest photographer, James Moes who specializes in wedding and engagement photography. And he does it so well, he won Favourite Photographer in the Jury's Choice alongside, Elisabeth of Fine Little Day. And ever since I ran into his blog, I've been wishing to get re-married all over again just to get our photos taken. And since we are focusing on weddings and valentines this month, James was willing to share some of his best with us. Here I've picked these engagement photos to show of local couple, Natalie and Lukas. Figure skating instructor and perhaps, fireman-to-be. Snowboarders and Canadians. James shot these over two days near and on top of Grouse Mountain (a local ski hill just 15 minutes and up a gondola ride from downtown). James shoots pictures from Vancouver all the way down to Portland, Oregon. See more of his awesome talent here and here!

I don't know about you guys, but I'm really loving succulents right now. So when I came across these succulent arrangements at Flora Grubb over the weekend I had to show you, if you haven't come across them already from reading my related post earlier. Flora teaches on her blog an incredibly simple technique to incorporate succulents into a bouquet or centerpiece. You can get all the supplies and how-to info here and she also links to a video from the ladies at Flower Duet who feature the same technique to create a bridal bouquet. What's cool about these bouquets is that they are completely sustainable, when you’re finished with your succulent cuttings, you can plant them right back in your garden and they’ll take root. Click here to see the rest of Flora's how-to.

Contributer post by Lisa Congdon

This week I wanted to share with you some of the work at one of my favorite New England galleries. In honor of Valentines Day Susan Schwake of Artstream Gallery in New Hampshire has curated a show in which couples--both of whom are artists--have collaborated on pieces. "My inspiration for curating this show was simple," say Susan. "Valentines day is my favorite holiday. It's about celebrating love. I thought about a lot of the artists I know and realized how they had hooked up with other artists as partners. I thought it would be fun to explore this relationship and found that not only did the couples embrace it but most all of them had a wonderful time doing so."

Artists for the show include couples:
Shannon Rankin and Justin Richel
Lisa DeJohn and Scott Patt
Mati McDonough and Hugh D'Andrade
Megan Bogonovich and Chuck Tufankjian
Julia Rothman and Matt Longacre
Anna Corpron and Sean Auyeung
Susan and her husband Rainer Schwake

Here are some examples of the beautiful work in the show.


Julia Rothman and Matt Longacre


Mati McDonough and Hugh D'Andrade


Lisa DeJohn and Scott Patt


Shannon Rankin and Justin Richel


Megan Bogonovich and Chuck Tufankjian


Susan Schwake and Rainer Schwake

If you haven't been to Artstream , it's a beautiful light-filled gallery in Rochester, New Hampshire. Susan also teaches art classes there and sells the work of countless artists and craftspeople from all over the world.



It Takes Two will run through the end of February. Work from the show can be purchased here .

Ok, I know this as a weekend project is a little far fetched, but one can dream no? I don't know about you, but all this warm spring-like weather we are having here is making me long for some good outdoor gardening, and these living succulent vertical gardens by Flora Grubb Gardens really have me chomping at the bit. I know this could be indoors too, but I'm thinking about our fence. I would so love this! Flora Grubb Gardens are selling these Vertical Garden DIY Panels online here (a 20"x20" square panel is $99.95). Click here for more inspiration. (Above image from Flora Grubb Gardens, below images by Thomas J. Story from Sunset Magazine).

The ballots are counted and we are pleased to announce today the winners of the First Annual "Jury's Choice" Poppies! Lots of thought and detail went into each choice from the amazing group of jurors that hunkered down this past week to pick. It was a rather daunting process (if you were noticing the amount of nominations) but each juror took careful consideration to pick their favorite 3 in each category, and then the highest numbered choices were again gathered into a poll under each category to create the following results! Congratulations to everyone, and a HUGE thank you to our jury, Lisa Solomon, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Faythe Levine, Victoria Smith, Andrea Jenkins, Irene Hoofs and Jen Anisef. Please note the Overall Favourite Artist Winner will be announced next week, as we wait for the jury to finish voting.

We know the winners are honoured to be chosen by such talent themselves! Each 1st prize winner will receive the following:

1.A one month's free participation at Poppytalk Handmade
2. A "The Poppies (Jury's Choice)" banner/button for your site or blog!
3. A one year's text link from the Poppytalk blog's main page under "The Poppies" category


So without further ado, we present the "Jury's Choice" winners! Congratulations everyone!



Favorite Affordable Artist - Jury



1st Studio Violet
2nd Betsy Walton
3rd Matte Stephens

Favourite Accessories - Jury Selection



1st Giant Dwarf
2nd Rennes le Chateau
3rd Kase-faz




Favorite Artist Blog - Jury Selection



1st Sandra Juto
2nd (Tie) Bookhou at Home and Camilla Engman




Favorite Crafter - Jury Selection


1st Yokoo
2nd Emma Lamb
3rd Maranon





Favorite Eco - Jury Selection



1st Wooly Baby
2nd Forest Bound
3rd Ink & Spindle




Favorite Housewares - Jury Selection



1st Bookhou
2nd BrooklynREHAB
3rd Ashes and Milk




Favorite Vintage - Jury Selection


1st The Bucket Tree
2nd Clever Nettle
3rd Hindsvik




Favorite Papergoods - Jury Selection



1st Rifle Paper Co.
2nd Yee Haw Industries
3rd Pistachio Press




Favorite Textiles - Jury Selection



1st Skinny Laminx
2nd (Tie) Repeat and Pippijoe




Favorite Photographer - Jury Selection (Tie)




and





1st (Tie) Fine Little Day and James Moes Photography
2nd Dustin Parr





Favorite Ceramics - Jury Selection



1st Up in the Air Somewhere
2nd Diana Fayt
3rd Rae Dunn




Favorite Jewelry - Jury Selection



1st Maranon
2nd (Tie) Lauren Haupt Jewelry and For Me, For You

Here it is folks! The results from the polls we took this past month asking you, our readers to first, nominate your favourite artisits under certain categories, and then secondly to vote on them! It was an overwhelming response, with the idea behind it to bring awareness to and celebrate the Handmade Community! We want to thank all of you who particpated, nominated and voted, getting the word out and supporting the independent artist/shopkeeper. We plan to make this an annual event, and loved finding all these new shops and renewing acquaintances with some others we haven't visited in a while. We hope you enjoyed it as much as us! So here it is, firstly, the People's Choice winners, and then followed shortly by the Jury's Choice next. Congratulations everyone, we will be contacting you very soon!

Each 1st prize winner will receive the following:

1. A one month's free participation at Poppytalk Handmade
2. A "The Poppies (People's Choice)" banner/button for your site or blog!
3. A one year's text link from the Poppytalk blog's main page under "The Poppies" category

Please note that this poll was intended to be a vehicle to highlight handmade artist's works; we will be awarding The Poppie's (People's Choice) award to the most popular handmade artist (we will be excluding any non-handmade items where applicable).





Favourite Handmade Affordable Art Artist - People's Choice


1st Geninne
2nd Abby Powell
3rd Kipi Brooklyn



Favourite Artist Blog - People's Choice


1st A Beautiful Mess
2nd City of Dionne
3rd Going Home to Roost




Favorite Handmade Accessories - People's Choice


1st Yellow Yellow
2nd Zomb
3rd Ponder & Stitch



Favorite Handmade Crafter - People's Choice


1st Rachel Denbow
2nd Dottie Angel
3rd Resurrection Fern





Favorite Handmade Ceramics - People's Choice


1st Diana Fayt
2nd Ayumi Horie
3rd BrooklynREHAB




Favorite Handmade Eco Artist



1st Betz White
2nd Daisy Janie
3rd Mayamade




Favorite Handmade Houswares



1st Berd & Bee
2nd pi'lo
3rd Bookhou




Favourite Handmade Jewelry - (Part 1) - People's Choice




1st Emedemarta
2nd Glamasaurus
3rd Cursive Design

Favourite Handmade Jewelry - (Part 2) - People's Choice


1st - Petit Plat
2nd - (Tie) Stonz and Valerie Tyler
3rd Moon Over Maize




Favourite Handmade Papergoods - People's Choice



1st Pearl & Marmalade
2nd Albertine Press
3rd Sweet Olive Press




Favourite Photographer - People's Choice


1st Alicia Bock
2nd Susannah Conway
3rd Elle Moss



Favourite Handmade Textiles - People's Choice



1st Ink & Spindle
2nd Dottie Angel
3rd Skinny Laminx



Favourite Vintage - People's Choice


1st The Vintage Laundry
2nd The Sunday Times Market
3rd Three Potato Four

Just found a stash of Valentine Ephemera (free to use) also from the photostream of Suzee Que (see other post below). Bonus!

"Free" seems to be a theme today! Check out these "free" vintage-style labels by Suzee Que which are downloadable (in fillable PDF) via World Label via iDiY.

Just chiming in here to show you this total awesomeness from Toronto guerilla gardener extraordinaire, Sean Martindale. Although this one is all above board as Martindale sought approval from the Art Gallery of Ontario, Martindale still installed it as if it wasn't, taking 24 continuous hours to complete as fast as he could. (Via Make Something via Wooster Collective via the Torontoist). Photo by Miles Storey/Torontoist.

Once again we are happy to host the talented Mitsy from Artmind this friday as she takes us through making these cute little wax decorations, (a fun little weekend project with the kids for Valentines). And you'll notice at the bottom of this post Mitsy is giving away some she made on her blog later today! Thanks Mitsy! (Also stay tuned as we post the winners of The Poppies later today)!

Here is what you need:

wax (you can use candles and melt them), metal cookie lid, cookie cutters, newspaper, nylon thread, ribbon, wooden sticks, needle, plier, crimp beads, beads & findings.



Make sure that you work safe when working with hot wax. Cover the area that you are working on with newspaper. Put the cookie lid on top of it & heat the wax.



Fill the metal cookie lid with wax.



Let the wax set for a while until it is stiff but still feels warm. That allows you to press cookie cutters into it without the wax cracking. You have to work quick now as the wax cools down fast. Press as many cutters as possible in the lid.



You can then remove the wax around the cutted shapes.



When you push lightly, the shape will come loose.



If it's still warm, you can easily put a needle through the wax figure. Or you can heat the needle in the flame of a candle.



Or put the wooden stick in the cut out wax figure but only halfway.



Or you can push a hole from front to back.



All the left over wax can go back into the pan and you can re-heat it again if you need more figures.



Then the figures are ready to make decorations from. Add a little ribbon to the wax decorations. They will look super in flower pots.




Or make some ornaments to hang in a branch or on a gift. Cut a piece of metal wire.



Fold it double and place a ribbon in between.



Then pull it through the hole you made in the wax decoration.



Pull the double pieces of ribbon through the loop and make a knot at the end.

Tada! :)


Or make a nice garland with beads and findings. First make a loop and close it with a crimpbead.



Press the crimpbead with the plier.



Then start threading beads & findings according to your taste and add the wax decorations in between.



End the vertical garland again with a crimpbead.



Here is another garland with the flowers. First add a loop and then knots, wooden beads and wax flowers.



Here are the results:

(Poufiks by evaforeva on Etsy)

I'll be giving these wax decorations away in my blog. So hop over there & leave a comment in the post. And perhaps check out some other tutorials I have featured there.

www.artmind-etcetera.blogspot.com
www.etsy.com/shop/artmind

Contributer post by Hulaseventy

If you love polaroid photography as much as I do, then you probably sort of want to marry it. Sadly, that's not possible. But you can wear it. And quite nicely, I might add. A few suggestions:



Polaroid-inspired scarves by Phillippe Roucou for Reborn (found via the lovely Jenny).

Pretty sure I'm in love.



Cutest pin, Oh My Deer



Sweetest ring, Yellowgoat




Loveliest necklace, Jerseymaids

Some lovely gift ideas or Valentine's decor ideas from across the pond at Rockett St. George. From heart tapestries to button love cushions, there are ideas galore here. I'm especially loving the Brigitte Herrod Button Badge Heart Picture. Each is created using a mixture of buttons from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s in a shadow box frame. Click here to see more.

Guest post by Chakra Pennywhistle

1/27/10 Central Tucson: A nice surprise. Someone decorated their wooden fence with paper hearts.

For this last installment, I thought that I would share a personal project that I have been working on. My family and I are actually in the midst of moving across the country from Tucson, AZ to Virginia Beach, VA.


The move began just at the beginning of the year and it has been quite the whirlwind. We own our home in Tucson and I have been juggling everything from running Chakra P., to renting our home, to packing all of our belongings. I knew that this was going to be quite the task and from the beginning I made it a goal to try and do something creative for at least a few minutes each day.


Inspired by the 365 Project, I decided to take a daily photograph of things that I love and will miss about Tucson. The project has served a couple of functions. It has proven to relieve the stress of the move and has also made me appreciate this city in a way that - looking back - I wish that I was doing it all along.


So I just wanted to share it with all of you in hopes that it might inspire you to get out there and photograph some favorites of your own. I also wanted to note that I am not a photographer and have found out that you don't have to be to enjoy this project.


I have been going around town wearing my camera and smiling all the way. I might not take the best photos but they have served that special purpose that only a creative outlet can. So take a good camera, a not-so-good camera, or a cell phone camera and click away! You won't regret it.

Shanna + Betsy of Hello Handmade have selected a winner for their giveaway! Here is their selection, in their own words:

We're so happy to announce that LB is the winner, and to share their favorite quote with you:

"More than kisses, letters mingle souls." John Donne

We found this quote so beautifully apropos.

LB, since you didn't leave an email address could you please email us: hellohandmadepaperie[at]gmail[dot]com to claim your valentine? We need to hear from you by Thursday evening, or we'll move down the list to our next choice, a very close second, to award them the valentine.

Thanks to everyone that left a comment, we were delighted to find so many sweet thoughts and offerings! Happy valentines day to you!

xoxo,
Shanna + Betsy

A handsome new print to hang by your entryway or (hatstand as they say in the UK) by London-based artist, James Brown. Available through Keep Calm Gallery.

I loved this photo from a site I came across yesterday called Our Labour of Love, a wedding photographer's blog (who travels to weddings) chocked full of amazing photos! Check this one out in Jamaica! Anyway, it's been a busy few days here due to compiling all the winners (both People's choice and Jury's choice) for The Poppies that my posts and contributer's posts have been a bit low. But we should be back on track soon! A few amazing tutorials coming soon (think moss terrariums and wax decorations to name a few). So in the meantime here's a few links:

Sycamore Street Press is having a giveaway at their blog.

Tugboat Printshop has affordable, original pieces of art that make feel-good, heartfelt gifts for any Valentine's day heartthrob!

Mitsy from Artmind and Anna from LilaRubyKing worked secretly on a collaboration for a few months and are now ready to show the world their new collection. Click here to see more!

Roll and Tumble Press has a fun gig-inspired letterpressed poster perfect for Valenitne's Day!

And I love this silkscreen laser cut poster (below) by Rob Ryan available at the SOMA Gallery (in the UK).

Oh and not to forget all the wonderful things over at Poppytalk Handmade, our Valentine's and Wedding market!

The ladies from Reform School are launching a new series of clubs at their shop in March and one of the clubs is a penpal club! They are reaching out to our community in hopes that people from all over the world would like to join to correspond with their local members. All one would have to do is email the following information to rollcall[at]reformschoolrules[dot]com:

Name & address
hobbies & interests
a little personal info like.. married, single, kids, career

Here's the plan:

First they'll exchange names with penpals near and far. Perhaps Margo in Maryland or Svea in Sweden. Stationery and stamp swapping is also on the agenda as well as a little time for catching up with family and friends the old fashioned way. If you love snail mail then this is the club for you! They are hoping to match up their pen pallers with friends from across the globe with similar backgrounds and interests. The club will meet one Monday a month starting in March. Margaret Haas from Paper Pastries ( a local stationer) will help host the in-shop event. They will follow up with everyone interested with more details and of course the name and address of the person they have been matched with. Naturally, any of their Los Angeles readers are invited to attend the first meeting on Monday March 15th at the shop. (photo credit - Margaret Haas).

http://reformschoolrules.com

Contributer post by Will Bryant



2 or 3 or more was initiated by Mississippi State graphic design student Kate Thomas. The goal of the art sale is to help her sister, Libbie, to raise funding for a ministry position at the University of Virginia. This is a challenging position for a young student to basically raise their own salary before you ever start working.

Just last week there was a sale in Mississippi where over 20 artists, 500 donated pieces of art, a dozen volunteers, and 5 musicians donated their efforts to help support Libbie. The remaining pieces will be available through a limited online sale this FRIDAY! This is where you come in...you'll have a sweet opportunity to snag some really lovely art for a reasonable price and support a worthy cause.

We Own The Sky" by Brandon Riesgo


"Abide" and "Be Still" by Mamie McIntosh


"Color Blast From the Past" by yours truly.


You can read more about the sale here.

Links:
- 2 or 3 or more
- Kate Thomas