Vacation time

I'm heading to France to see Friends and family, I don't think I will have much time to blog. I do intend to work a lot in Paris, it's been seven years I didn't come back to my home town and I can't wait to see it with fresh, new eyes!

See you in July for Parisian impressions!

Yes, vacances! Je file à Paris pour voir si ça a beaucoup changé...A bientot!

Clothespin dolls tutorial

I was about to link to the tutorials I followed to make my dolls, only to realize that I followed more than 3 to finally make my own stuff, and that none explained how to paint the faces in a satisfying way. So I put everything together in my very own tutorial so you can make cuties all by yourself.  

This tutorial isfor personal use only. If you want to sell some dolls, please invent your very own model.

Enjoy!

I can't remember where I got the closthespins, probably at Blicks. You can find them easily, just look for traditional wood clothespins. 

I used fabrics from a quilting bundle I found a while ago at SuperBuzzy. It was unexpensive, but they don't sell samples for the moment. Any quilting fabric will do. Fabric lighter than quilting will fray, and heavier are impossible to drape on such a small object. Pinking shears are a must. I tried to make the skirts with bands of fabric , but the dolls having no waist at all makes it an impossible challenge.

For the paint I used Holbein's Acryla gouache, which is quite expensive. But the palette is very nice and girly, so I can buy my favorite colors and paint right out of the tube, and fix any problem later. The finish is the same soft finish as gouache, but water resistant enough for that kind of project. I could forgo the varnish process altogether, which I hate because it changes the colors and I'm messy and impatient. It dries a bit lighter than painted just like gouache, and is very much forgiving for color blocks, much more than classic acrylic. So it was really perfect for my little project. I bought half a dozen of my favorite colors (shell pink, mustard, leaf green,pale aqua, etc) and was perfectly happy with my purchase.

Il est possible de trouver ces pinces à linge en France. J'en ai trouvé ches Perigot, mais il ya surement d'autres endroits. Je n'ai pas traduit ce tutoriel, mais si vous n'arrivez pas à comprendre demandez dans les coms, je serais ravie de vous aider. Pinking shears, par exemple, ce sont des ciseaux cranteurs. Et quilt weight fabric, c'est de la bete toile de coton pas trop epaisse, le genre qu'on utilise pour le patchwork.

Clothespin dolls

I went on a craft spree-clothespin dolls. I'm going to Paris soon, and I wanted to make keepsakes for my darling friends when I will meet them there.

I made a little slide show, but there's like 4 out of much more-I want to keep some element of surprise! 

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Ipad users will find the slideshow here: del4yo's clothespin dolls

Je serais à Paris dans quelques jours, et comme je dois rencontrer des amies, je voulais avoir quelquechose de joli, de personnel et de très Américain à leur donner en souvenir de mon court passage. Il y a une tradition charmante, ici, de poupees faites à partir de pinces à linges. C'est très vintage, mais on trouve toujours ces pinces, aussi je me suis amusée à faire à ma sauce. Ca m'a pris un temps fou, mais je suis ravie du resultat, qu'en pensez-vous? 

Princess and the pea

Read the original here , by Hans Christian Andersen. I do love this story, it's ironic and fun and says much about fussy girls who want to be princesses. It's such a good occasion to draw pretty patterns, I had to make my own version, with characters from Aesop. I love mixing stories. 

"There, that is a true story."
 

La princesse au petits pois, conte de Hans Christan Andersen, petit conte plein d'humour,est une de mes histoires préférées. A cause d'elle je mets des petits pois partout dans ma cuisine... 176 ans après, je ne la trouve pas du tout demodée. Et c'est une telle occasion d'imaginer bdes motifs, je pense que je devrais l'illustrer plus souvent. Voici ma version, envahie par les personnages des fables d'Esope, qui n'ont rien compris du tout. "Mais arreteuh!! Ou ca un petit pois? C'est que j'aime ca moi!"

J'aime bien melanger les histoires...Je rajoute une categorie "Runcible", au cas  où ça me reprendrait.

July calendar

A publisher recently asked me to illustrate a  2012 Calendar. So there won't be a del4yo printable calendar for 2012. I just don't feel like being my own competition. On the other hand, it's been a while I haven't offered desktop backgrounds on Non Dairy, so I decided to begin, starting now, to make desktop calendars.  Because I do need to get organized, too.

Here's the first one, July 2011, enjoy!

(click on the picture to get the large size, right click -on most browsers- to use picture as desktop)

Comme un éditeur m'a récemment contactée pour faire un calendrier chez eux, il n'y aura pas de calendrier à imprimer del4yo en 2012. En y réfléchissant bien, je me suis dit que c'etait bizarre d'être ma propre concurrence. Par contre, j'ai une certaine tendance à oublier quel jour on est, et puis ca fait longtemps que je n'ai pas fait de fonds d'ecran ici...Donc j'ai decidé de faire un calendrier tous les mois et de le poster ici. Voici le premier, pour le mois de juillet, inspiré par une tasse de thé.

(cliquez sur l'image pour obtenir le grand format, faites un clic droit sur ​​la plupart des navigateurs, pour utiliser comme fond d'ecran)

Sketchbook cover for the crafty artist.

It is possible to find cute sketchbook, but the paper is often so-so. Sketchbooks with extra nice paper are designed for serious people, preferably male, in unfavorite colors like brown or black. Unless one can import Italian sketchbooks (the only fancy pretty ones), one will be stuck with a black sketchbook. I find drawing pretty things in a black sketchbook  frustrating if not uninspiring. I used to glue fabric on my sketchbooks, but gluing light fabrics on black is a time consuming challenge! 

So I bought a very pretty and expensive Italian sketchbook from Fabriano, only to realize that the cover was so nice I wanted to protect it.

Going through my Japanese Craft books I was remembered that fabric book covers are quite fashionable. So I tried to design a simple but extra cute book cover for my sketchbooks, and added an elastic to make sure they won't open in my bag. This is my first attempt, it's very simple, but I made a tutorial anyway for those of you who want to give it a try!

En Français: un inch c'est 2,54 cm! Posez des questions dans les coms si vous ne comprenez pas, je repondrais avec plaisir.

Caffeinated

I had some very good coffee at Qusquo bistro and it inspired me this. I was having a bad day running to the laundraumat after our washing machine broke, it was nice to feel welcomed ^^ Thank you!

Une pause café dans une journée de crotte! Je ne sais pas si c'est le cas aussi en France, mais ici depuis l'augmentation du prix du café, les expressos sont devenus degueulasses.J'etais ravie de trouver un petit bistro sur Santa Monica boulevard où le café est bon !

Hipster pattern

Triangles are so 2011 dearie, hi had to give it a go before it's out of fashion. 

This pattern is not free of rights, but you can use it for home projects and non commercial blogs, enjoy!

Je suis desolée, mais pour les bannières c'est fini, je n'arrive plus à suivre! Mais je le referais un jour ou j'aurais plus de temps, promis. En attendant, voici un petit pattern, à base de triangles qui sont tellement à la mode cette année que le temps de les finir je me demande si ils ne sont pas deja démodés.

Ce pattern n'est pas libre de droits, mais vous pouvez l'utiliser à la maison pour vos projets personnels, ou pour un blog non commercial.