Monday, April 25, 2011

Colored Shells and Matryoshka Party Kit


Hi everyone! I hope you had a nice weekend. I want to share with you a fun, creative idea we came up with that you might want to do too. This year when we colored our one dozen eggs (with a typical store bought Easter egg dying kit, that comes with dye tablets that you add vinegar and water to) it went too fast (as fun things often do) and before we knew it, all our eggs were colored! My daughter said (in her imaginative kid way), "What else can we color?" I looked at her and said, "Good question." We thunk and we thunk, and she said, "How about that plaster Christmas decoration I have left over. That was a great idea! So now the pressure was on, I needed to come up with something too! Then it came to me, "Seashells!" They have a surface similar to eggs and I thought surely the vinegar and dye would etch and adhere much like it does to the surface of an egg. And you know what? It did! Not as vibrantly, but still they turned out pretty pastels. My daughter had a ball (as did I) and we ended up with more dyed shells than eggs!

The basket in the photo is my Easter basket from when I was a little girl. It is a wicker basket striped with green and pink dyed wicker. It has faded over the years. I sat there dying those shells and thought, "Hey I bet this would work on my wicker basket!" By the time I thought of it we had already poured out the pink dye but I used a paint brush and painted over the outside green stripes of the basket. The wicker drank it right up. I'll have to remember to brush on the pink dye next year. So I leave you with my daughter's question, "What else can we color?" :)

Oh, and another question - I am in the process of designing a Matryoshka Birthday Party Kit as a PDF printable. What types of items would you like for me to include? Thanks in advance for your input! :)

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Thai Dancer Matryoshka

Thai Dancer Matryoshka Close-Up Portrait

Thai Dancer Matryoshka

As promised in my last post, my newest illustration- Thai Dancer Matryoshka! I drew a dancer because I was inspired by the hand positioning and all the gold adornments of the traditional dance costumes. Also, I couldn't resist adding another "Gold" girl to my collection. I think she would look splendid displayed along with my Cambodian Girl Matryoshka, don't you?


Thai Dancer Matryoshka and Cambodian Girl Matryoshka (she is a fan dancer),

I'm realizing that many of my Matryoshka illustrations are inspired by traditional dance costumes but I haven't always labeled them as "Dancer", this was unintentional though. I may go back and rename some of them at some point.

Have you noticed my new blog layout? I rearranged it to include a new Etsy mini (top left) of my Etsy favorites! My Etsy favorites will include Matryoshka, girls room and nursery decor, and cultural items you may be interested in. I am browsing Etsy for fun items to share with you everyday so please check back often! :)