The Garden State

And that's another map done! This time, it's a US state rather than an entire country, but it's still just as much work as it's the same size. I also still need to research the animals that are typical of the region, although in this case most of them were ones I had already developed for the main USA map, so I only had to work out how to do a few new ones, like the skunk and the snapping turtle.

So here's New Jersey, as it grew last night and this morning....

And a bit of the detail of the print (the originals are drawn on a creamy coloured paper, the prints are on a gleaming white card):

On Etsy now, here.

Onwards to the next countries on order, via a special request....

Gettin' mah craft on!

I've decided to take some time to focus on getting myself up to date with  some of the craft projects I have planned. In only 2 days over the festive break, I managed to get quite a few things made, photographed, and listed in my Etsy shop:

So, I'm hoping to spend some more time crafting, and less dawdling online. To start with, I'm working on a map of New Jersey:

Next up: maps of Iceland, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, England...

Wreathed in paper

I've been too busy crafting to blog recently, but I did remember to take some photos of my latest make, while I put it together.

So, I had an old book, which had had a long and globetrotting life (I bought it in a second hand shop in New Zealand, its stamps said it had come from England), but was now on the verge of falling apart. So, I decided to make good use of it, and make a paper wreath similar to some of the ones I'd seen on Pinterest.

I took the pages out....

Then I rolled them into cones, and stapled the ends to hold them together. Next, I drew the template on the cardboard backing for the two layers, and started to hot glue the outer layer on. At this point, I gained a rather impressive hot glue burn on my finger, of epic proportions, so things slowed down a lot while I alternated ice and cold water on it for quite some time....

But eventually, I got it beyond this stage:

And on to this:

Pretty, but it was minus a certain something....mainly, a centrepiece. But with one quick trip to Poundland the next day, I was fully supplied with all the shiny baubles one gal could need.

See?

It's now hanging on my living room door, and I've since made another for a friend's Mum - it used the rest of the pages from that book, and another one that I was wanting use the shell of but didn't need the contents. So all in all, it's a pretty fun thing to make...as long as you are REALLY careful with your hot glue! That burn hurt for days!