Moon castle. Sometime it's ok to give in to the temptation.

Like whe you've earned yourself that right by finally finishing your exam session. Moon Castle wanted to be unpacked, who am I to say no?

Isn't it a beauty? I so love working on it because unlike the Fairy, here the picture is printed on soft linen. The fairy is on artist canvas, and while it looks cool, it's much harder to sew. This pic was made before the end of todays beading session. While watching the Doctor and Rori the Roman (seriously love Rori) I managed to finish the two little windows on the left. On the photo the beads are more yellowish than in real life, it's more gray actually.
However, I shoud put a few stitches on my Sheep - it's Jolly Theme-a-licious July after all! Aw, you can bet I missed Themealicious, and IHSW, and everything!
Oh, and here's a little more something - the card and bookmark I sent to Ruth as a runner up prize in my giveaway back in the spring:

I really like the gray and purple combo of the bookmark, and it goes well with the other stuff I sent

Mmm and for those of fun who got interested in the Christmas tree story, lol. Well there's nothing that interesting to it actually. I wanted to turn on the christmas light on the tree ( that were pretty old), a flash came out and got one branch of the tree and a little of the curtain. But I put it out before the fire got any serious... so that it. I warned you, nothing that exciting!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Понякога е разрешено човек да се отдаде на изкушението, особено ако си го е заслужил честно и почтено с най-накрая завършила сесия. Въпреки че би било по-разумно да оставя засега Лунния замък намира, той просто настояваше да излезе от опаковката.

Та-да-да-дам! Ето как изглежда, но преди края на днешната сесия. Докато гледах Доктор Кой с Рори Римлянина (много си обичкам Рори)  свърших малките прозорчета отдясно. На снимката мънистата са излезли доста жълтеникави, на живо са си сиви. Замъкът се работи много по-лесно и приятно от феята. За разлика от нея, той е отпечатан на лен или на подобен плат, много по-лесен за шиене от твърдото платно на феята.
Сега обаче би трябвало да се заема с коледната си овца, защото Темалишъс за този месец е коледен. Нямате си представа как ми залипсваха и Темалишъс, и IHSW и останалите :D
Иначе мога още да се отчета с книгоразделителя и картичката, които пратих на Рут.  Много ми хареса как излезе сиво-лилавата комбинация на книгоразделителя, добре се връзваше с останалите неща, които пратих.
Иии.. олеле, то станало почти три след полунощ О.о
А за утре има планирана книжна ревизия :D

Back to liiifeeee!!!!

Aaah it's so good to be back in the world of the living after that long forced exam session break! I had planned to write some post during it.. but well as you see from the gap between the last post and this one, it didn't happen!
I took my last exam on Friday 13th and my excuse for starting to post only now is that my first job was to get my hands on some crafty stuff. And did I do so with one of my many wips. Bur of course now. I hurried up and opened my Moon Castle. Well actually first I had to clean and pack my room and this ladies and gents, was not an easy job. I have no idea where all of this stuff was hiding all year long.
But let's get down to buisness!
Few weeks ago the awesome Jp from Serendipitous Stitching tagged me in the 11 things game, that in my opinion, should be called 22 things. But here are the rules:
The Rules:

• Post these rules.
• You must post 11 random things about yourself.
• Answer the questions set for you in their post.
• Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
• Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

I'll start the other way around with Jo's questions:
 Watch the film first or read the book first?
Usually the book first. I prefer to build my own image of the characters and everything, than have the movie give them to me. (But right now there's a big wonder about Game of thrones. Hmm)
2. Which book would you most like to see made into a film?
Mm I'm not too much into movies, so it won't be a surprise to me, if it turns that some of thse s titles have already been made into movies or something. A Skulduggery Pleasant movie would be nice. I wouldn't mind a Black Dagger Brotherhood series, but they will have to cut all the steamy love scenes and still air it after midnight. Def Artemis Fowl movies. And there are some comics that would be cool as anime - I wasn Seimaden and Bride of the Water God, and short Nemi clips to fill those one minute gaps in the program. Oh, and Soulless! Def.

  3. Who would play you in the story of your life?
Err as little I know the movies, even less I know the actors. Somehow the piglet from Babe comes in mind, but that won't be a good idea.

4. What was the first live band you saw?
Does a children chorus count?

5. Who is the most famous person you have ever met?
like meet and talk and stuff or just see live? If it's the second, that would be the ex-king ex-premier minister in the church in Sofia. Pure chance, I would have missed it, if they didn't tell me. If it's the first, no idea

6. Did you embarrass yourself by blushing/clamming up, saying something stupid?
All the time. all the freaking time. Please don't get me started


7. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner or Breakfast, Dinner and Tea?  or some other random names for your meals? Coffee, food during day time, food during night time


8. Does your family have a word for something which no-one else in the world uses?
Apart from names we call each other, I think not

9. What is the worst job you've ever done?
I don't think I've ever had to do something really terrible or gross... I guess my answers on this are pretty boring


10. How did you get out of doing it?
Answer of question 9 proudly gives me the right to skip this one

11. What is the theme song to your life?
That's a hard one. My life's soundtrak is more like a badly tuned radio. Right now it's playing all kinds of songs with lyrics like "h my dear god, it's so hot I'm melting"

Nooow for eleven random things
1. I'm so good at starting and dropping
2. I want to have a fur ball of unconditional love, aka a dog
3. My writing in English (roman alphabet) is so much more readable compared to when I write in my own language
4.I recently started reading supernatural romance
5.I once almost set the christmas tree on fire
6. When I can't fall asleep at night, I imafine scenarios for new episodes of series I like
7.I like getting into contests, challenges and such too muh for my own well being
8. I've never played a forum RPG and still don't quite get them
9 I think whoever first put coffee and chocolate in one cup should become a saint. Or at least receive a Nobel Prize
10. Llamas, owls and fluff pups are awesome
11.  There's a total of 12 nail polish bottles right next to me now, how random is this?


Hmm and now for my 11 questions:


1. Is it so hot where you live now?


2. If you could get into the Tardis or time travel of some kind, where would you go?


3. What are the last movie, song and book you've seen/heard/read?


4. How much time do you spend blogging weekly?

5.What's the best and worst bday present you've received?

6. Team or solo player?

7. Do you like to make lists and plans or prefer just moving with the flow?

8.  What was the last movie that made you cry?


9.Do you have some fav words to live by?


10. Have you ever wanted to live in a country different of your own?


11. How do you like your ice cream? Cone? Popsicle? Good old fashioned glass cup?


And now, just for you, an extra random fact: I'm so not good at tagging. This and the fact that I was tagged weeks ago, so probably this game has already been played by most of my followers. But if you got interested and feel like answering my qestions, feel free to do so :D


Tommorrow I'll be back with some pics! See ya :D

That other kind of decoupage

Hi there everyone! This is going to be kind of a short one. As you may have noticed, I ran out of pre written book reviews. That's what we call bad time management. I'm so good at bad time management.
Anyway, as two of my packages have been received, I showed you the cross stitched pieces, but forgot to do so for the cards. Good thing, now I have something to post. I had some quality fun time making decoupaged cards to go along, something I'm not very good at. But again, they were fun. They are very very really simple tho. I've been trying new stuff with every card and i hope to do some more the summer.
Here we go:

and

Actually the ribbon here just holds the card closed with the letter inside. The first card went to Anne and the second, that was first  made actually to Tiki. I hope my last package arrives soon, and there will be one more card to show (hint - it has a teddy)

And just when I went posting this I saw on one of the book blogs I follow a meme with a question I had to answer:



s

 Dirty Little Secret is a weekly meme hosted by us at Under the Covers. Every Thursday we get to know other bloggers and our readers more intimately by asking them a question hoping to reveal their dirty little secrets. We hope that you will all join us!

To participate in the meme all you need to do is:

1. Be a follower of Under the Covers.
2. Create a post in your blog taking the meme image (code above) and copy instructions.
3. Answer the question we propose! This can be done in any way you like, post a video, write a post etc.
4. Then add your link below.

Non-bloggers: We want to hear from you as well!!! Let us know your answer in the comments!

We hope you join us and let us know your Dirty Little Secrets!

This week's question:

If your blog crew (or if it's just you, then you are a pack of one) could make up their own pack, what name would you call yourselves and what animal pack would it be?

ANSWER

As I have terribly wild imagination and also terribly short atterntion span, I knew the answer right away:
Since I blog alone, I will be *dramatic and heavy tension music)
The Lonely Llama (of the Alpacalypse)


I think I've shared my llama love with you before, so I won't start telling you now why they're so awesome. And while my llama love originated before the DA, I would still kill for their llama plushies. And don't you try telling me that "pack" and "llama"don't go together

 FEAR US

So what's you animal and pack name?  Soo curious to know! From the meme answers I read so far, I saw many felines and a couple of wolfs.

And if you don't have something in your mind, you're more than welcope to join the llama pack! Then instead if a lonely llama, I sugest we go under The Lovely llamas. We'll fight and the exesses of drama out there, and we'll save the world. Maybe from evil unicorns spitting rainbows, maybe from dalecs. who knows, but we'll win. That's granted, because we have the Doctor on our side

And I guess we have that guy from Twilight too. Watched and read the first parts only, mild Twilight hate, but yes I think he's a cute llama. I think that guy was a werewolf and used to have long hair

Oh, and we'll have a very cool theme song! Something dramatic in the background while llamas are galloping
And how about being armed with knitting needles.

As you see, I have tons of llama scenarios in my head, and so very little anatomy knowledge in it. My poor head.

In any case, you're welcome to share your inner animal nature. Till the next time I find something quite useless, but still worth the excuse to blog and not to read (serious stuff)!
~~~~~~

Здравейте! Това трябваше да е къс пост, но съдейки по количеството текст на английски, който току що изписах, май започнах поста с лъжа. Колко жалко, а и ме мързи да едитна. А смятах само да покажа две картички, които вече пристигнаха при получателите си. И двете са семплички, но са си първите ми опити в онзи другия вид декупаж. И онова със салфетките е декупаж, и това с 3 D ефекта също. Ако се задълбочим в значението на думата като изрязване, това е приемливо, но аз все пак бих предпочела да имаше повече разграничение, за да се избегне объркването.
Надявам се третият и последен пакет да пристигне скоро, в него има още една картичка, която и тогава ще покажа - а засега ще издам, че е с мече.

Внезапното удължаване на поста се дължи на факта, че мернах в един от книжните блогове, които следя - Под кориците - едно меме. То призовава участниците да изададат своите "малки мръсни тайни" и въпросът, който задаваха сега, беше толкова неустоим, че след като така и така поствах, нямаше как да не се включа. а той е следният

"Ако вашият блог екип (или само вие, ако блогвате по отделно) бяхте глутница, какво щеше да е животното и как щеше да се казва глутницата?"

Благодарение на изключително шантавото си въображение, от което не се оплаквам, но ако не водеше за ръчичка със себе си толкова много невнимание, щеше да е по-добре, та отговорът беше налице веднага. Тъй като си блогвам самичка, ще съм (драматична музика)
Самотната лама на АЛПАКОлипсиса
Добре де, на английски звучи по-добре, но и така става.

Няма да почвам да ви обяснявам защо ламите са страхотни, и преди съм споделяла лама любовта си.
Но затова пък ми е много интересно на какво бихте се спрели вие. В меметата, които прочетох досега, имаше много представители на сем. Котки и един два вълка.
Ако пък не ви идва нещо на ум, добре дошли сте в моята глутница лами. Да, ние сме глутница. Бойте се. Респект.
Ама не, ние ще сме добри лами. Ще се борим срещу излишъците от драма и ще спасяваме света. Може срещу зли еднорози, които плюят дъги от напалм, или пък от далеци. но ще побеждаваме във всеки случай. Това е сигурно, защото имаме на наша страна Доктора, а май че и онзи от Здрач. Чела и гледала съм само първата част, въоръжена съм със средна по-сила неприязън към цялото чудо, но не отричам, че от него става чудесна лама. А иначе май беше върколак този младеж. Ако не бъркам. Май че преди имаше дълга коса.
Във всеки случай, идейки от мен, оприличаването на лама може да се смята за висша форма на комплимент.

А, и освен това ще имаме драматична музикална тема, на фона на която може да се галопира. R ie kdпъвам да спрегна хубаво име на български с две Лъ-та. Любвеобилните лами на Алпаколипсиса не звучи особено добре.

Както виждате в главата имам твърде много лами, и твърде малко анатомичен материал. Малко материал под формата на знания, а също така, струва ми се, и малко материал под формата на сиво мозъчво вещество. Горката ми главичка. И така, до следващия път, когато си измисля извинение да пиша, а дотогава сте добре дошли да си признаете какъв е звярът вътре във вас, ако не е той лама.

Happy Towel Day

I missed posting on Star Wars day.
I missed posting yesterday for the day of tthe Cyrillic alphabet.
So I decided, damn, I'm not missing Towel Day too!

No fairy tale today, because it's time for the Hitchiker's Guide! I hope you all Douglas Adams' fans out there grabbed your fav towel to commemorate him, and to eventually try to get out of this planet. Do you read me out there?

On with some more randomness, I could show you one of my TUSAL jars, it did get some love this month actually, because in a moment of temptation I stitched on my Spring. Also with it you can see my anatomy book with a handmade felt cover - one of the winners of my giveaway will recieve some of the same fabric, I hope it will show up in the post soon. 

 I made the cover wuite some time ago. Less than 15 minutes of work. I so can see this trimmed with some ecru lace or flowers from the same fabric, but let's face it. I've been carrying this with me everywhere. After a couple of vists in the disection rooms and wash-ups, I don't think the lace or whatever would survive.

Other random notes - By the bay needleart will be hlding a mystery  sal
and a new anime cross stitch patterns blog , featuring for now huuuge patterns but still very cool! While it's only in Bulgarian, I'm pretty sure that if you decide to check some pattern, you will have no problems figuring the link.

And last: UK, your song for this year's Eurovision is BEAUTIFUL. AWESOME, I LOVE it.
This year we had a great selection of songs (a surprise for me, as usually Eurovision fails to get me. Costumes are usually tasteless and songs, in the best case, aim for one summer hits). But this year I have a few favs among those who went on finals (I can name Serbia, Italy, Iceland, Macedonia) but United Kingdom's is the best, hands down.
You have my vote on Saturday, and if you're in Europe and don't have a favoritem you can do so as well. (Bulgaria didn't get to finals, or else I'd be probably urging you to vote for us, lol XD )
But. Whyyyy the first suggestion when I go to Youtube and type "Eurovision" is "eurovision unated states"?! Seriously...




 ~~~~
Изпуснах да постна за 24 май. Изпуснах за деня на Междузведни войни. Обаче реших, че е крайно време да се прекъсне тази поредица, и затова: Честит ден на хавлията! Та 25 май всички фенове на Дъглас Адамс и неговия Пътеводител грабват любимата си хавлия за да го почетат, и евентуално да се опитат да се измъкнат на стоп от тази планета.


Иначе за да бъде този пост абсолютно и очарователно рандом, добавих снимка на закъснял Тусал, придружена от учебника ми по анатомия във филцова домашно направена дрешка, за точно 15 минути. Изкушаващо беше да и добавя я дантелка, я цветче... обаче като знам как навсякъде я мъкна със себе си, след няколко посещения в дисекционни и изпирания, която и да е дантелка съвсем ще се издантелчи.

Още да добавим, че  By the bay needleart организира САЛ
а се заражда и ново блогче за аниме гобленови схеми - Гоблени и още нещо - на което може да се намерят доооста големи, но затова пък много хубави схемички.
 И за да завършим, песента за Евровизия на Англия е много добра. Наистина много добра. Тази година наистина се изненадах колко много сносни песни има, защото като цяло приемам Евровизия за парад на безвкусни костюми и песни, които в най-добрия случай целят да станат летен хит еднодневка, но този път си харесах повече от една песен.
И все пак Обединеното кралство си остава моят фаворит

[book review] It

Title: It
Author: Stephen King

Pre-thoughts:
This is not my first SK book. This is in fact my forth, so even if I'm taking part in the SK challenge on a level newbie, I'm not exactly a newbie. Not that much, I've read, especially given the number of books he has written, but still I have some idea. I've read the Tommyknockers, that was so-so, Roadwork that bored me enough to make me drop the book without finishing, and the Green mile, that I thought awesome, but still loved the movie better. I picked IT because it's one of the most famous horror novels, I had it forever in my list, and thought it would be a real shame to never check it after all.

Story:
Ok, really, do you need me to tell you the story of it? Here we have seven kids, seven autsiders who establish the Losers club to protect each other from the local bullies and later to fight together against the unnamed evil beneath the city, It. They are able to defeat it, but feeling that it's not yet over, they make a blood oath  to come back to Derry if the killings start again. They part ways and years later they don't remeber anything from what happened that summer, until one call makes them remember little by little the events and prepare for a new battle.

After thoughts:
Mm I have a very, very mixed feelings about this novel. It's most def the best from what I read from SK till know. I liked the story itself, I really did. All of the characters have real depth. I grew fond of the kids, and cheered up for them, I had my fingers crossed and wishing "happy ending, happy ending". The horror element was really good. It and its physical manifestations left aside, I think one of the scariest things was the influence It had over the people in Derry, the ability to take out the ugliest, cruelest, most terrifing parts of the human nature, and the worse is when you think, even if It made it grow and show, it was still somewhere inside to begin with. 
It's a long novel, 1000 + pages, but I don't think something could have been spared. Every piece of the story is in its rightfull place.
And yet. This book couldn't quite have me. Why? I'm not so sure. I tried not to think at all of my previous reads of SK while reading this. Granted, I didn't like that much some details of the story line, but that's not it.  It took me more than half of the book to get into story and to start turning the pages because I wanted to know what happens next, and not just because "let's see what happens next". Some part of my brain didn't stop to wander instead of really getting into the book, it counted incidents and deaths in the toilets, and greeted the Turtle as A'Tuin. When I finished the book, I had absolutely no problem to pick up another read right away until I finish my lunch (I know it's a bad habbit to read while eating, but hey, my reading time is limited). Usually  when I finish a strong book, it takes me some time and some thinking to switch to the next one.
I had a similar feeling with Tommyknockers, but here it was stronger, because while with Tommyknockers I wasn't very fascinated with the story itself and that was one more con against the pros, with It I liked it.
I guess I just don't like King's style. Judge me if you want, tell me he's a great teller as I've read in countless reviews. I keep myself the right of personal opinion, or rather feeling. What part of the style I dislike? No idea.
I had a hard time deciding whether to give IT 3 or 4 stars when rating on Shelfari, where 3 starts is I liked it, and 4 is I really liked it. I ended up giving 4.
Overall I rather enjoyed this book. It returned some of the faith that I might like other of his works. In the future I will most def check some more of his books, but with the premise that I'll be doing it out of interest in the story mostly. And I don't see myself rereading.
To all the SK lovers, I should say: I kinda envy you. It was really a great story and if you're able to sink in it, it'd be an awesome experience.

This books goes to:
Free reads  by Bookish Ardour
Horror/Thriller challenge by Sweeping me
Book in translation by The Introverted Reader (translated by Liubomir Nikolov)
And the Stephen king challenge on The Stephen King Project
There I signed up for the level novice for 1 SK book and you know what that means- I finished a challenge! woo-hoo!!!

Hosted on The Stephen King Project

Заглавие : То
Автор: Стивън Кинт
Превод Любомир Николов

"То" всъщност не е първата ми книга от СК, въпреки че за предизвикателството се записах за ниво "новак". Преди нея съм чела "Томичукалата", която ми беше горе-долу, "Пътна мрежа", която ме отегчи до степен, че я зарязах, а това наистина го правя рядко, и "Зеленият път", която вече наистина ми хареса, но затова път филмът ми хареса още повече. "То" реших да подхвана, защото е една от тези толкова известни книги, че направо те е срам да не си я прочел.

Историята
Сериозно, трябва ли аз да ви я разказвам? Аз не бях гледала филма, и въпреки това знаех общо взето сюжета. "То" проследява историята на група приятели, които като деца формират "Клуба на загубеняците", за да се предпазят от бандите в градчето Дери, а по-късно, за да се борят заедно срещу злото под града, безименното "То". Те успяват да го прогонят, но предусещайки, че не всичко е свършило, дават кръвен обет да се върнат, ако убийствата започнат пак. Години по-късно пътищата им са се разделили и те са забравили всичко, през което са преминали като деца. Но едно телефонно обаждане кара погребаните спомени да се събудят и загубеняците трябва да се подготвят пак за битка.

И такам, аз съм с доста смесени чувства относно тази книга. Наистина ми се искаше да я харесам, да си променя на 180 градуса мнението за СК и да се окаже, че книгите, които ме бяха поразочаровали, са просто изключения в богатото му творчество. Всъщност, много неща си ми харесаха. Самата история. Много ми хареса. Героите. Всичките добре изградени. Няма как да не хареса човек загубеняците, всичките. Стисках им палци през цялото време и си повтарях мантрата "щастлив край, щастлив край!". Ужасът. Самото "то" и различните му физически прояви си бяха естествено страшни, но това настрана, последиците от самото му влияние над жителите на Дери и способността му да извади наяве най-лошото, най-жестокото, най-безсърдечното, най-безчувственото у тях. И като си помисли човек, че от самото начало е имало някакви наченки на това вътре у тях, му става още по-страшно. Кинг си е майстор да опише ужаса и злото, в това грешка няма.
"То" е обемничка история със своите 1000 + страници, но въпреки всичко, не усетих нещо като излишно.
И все пак, тази книга не можа да ме хване. Защо, и аз не знам. Някои елементи от разказа, някои решения, не ми харесаха, но не е това. Отне ми повече от половината история (и нямам предвид от първия том) , за да почна да отгръщам страниците защото искам и трябва да знам какво става по нататък, а не просто "я да видим какво става после". Някаква част от мозъка ми през цялото време не се спря, а се мяташе насам натам, броеше различните инциденти свързани с тоалетни и поздравяваше Костенурката със "Здравей А'Туин!" . След като приключих "То", не изпитах никакви проблеми да се пресегна веднага за друга книга да почета докато си привърша обяда (знам, че не е хубаво да се чете по време на ядене, ама какво да се прави, когато времето е кът). А обикновено като свърша някоя завладяваща книга, ми се иска да и дам малко време, да позяпам тавана и да си помисля за нея.
Така, "То" ме остави със смесени и раздвоени чувства. В подобно състояние бях и след "Томичукалата", но тъй като там и историята не ме хвана особено, това доста натежа. А тук, историята си ми хареса, наистина.
Не ми харесва стилът на Стивън Кинг и това е. Съдете ме ако искате, и кажете, че той е страхотен и умел разказвач. Не се и съмнявам в последното де. Но си запазвам правото на собствено мнение, или по-точно в случая, чувство. Както и за специални поводи си запазвам правото да харесвам пълни лиготии и боклуци, дори и с пълното съзнание, че са такива, а да отхвърлям други.
А на всички фенове на Кинг искам да кажа, че ви завиждам, защото ако човек би успял да се потопи напълно в атмосферата на този разказ, би било наистина незабравимо преживяване. И много по-плашещо. Бррр.

Чудех се дали да дам 3 (хареса ми) или 4 (много ми хареса) звездички в Шелфари на "То", и в крайна сметка дадох 4. Като заключение - това със сигурност е книгата на СК, която ми хареса най-много (макар че и "Зеленият път" я гони по петите). Относно промяната на мнението - промених го, и мисля, че ще мога да харесам и други произведения на СК, макар и най-вече заради историята. В бъдеще, макар и не съвсем близко, смятам и да го направя - вдигнала съм мерника на "Гробище за домашни любимци" (чието заглавие, честно казано, ме кара да приемам моята любима манга Petshop of horrors малко по-леко, макар че пак не смея да я произнеса преведена) и "Тъмната кула"

Тази книга я броя за няколко предизвикателства, но най-вече искам да изтъкна  The Stephen King Project
, защото там се цаних за най-ниското ниво - една книга само, което значи... *драматични барабани... тарарарамммм* че го завърших! Първо завършено предизвикателство! *happy dances*

Tutorial: decoupage on textile

or how to make a custom background in a way so easy it just might be illegal;
or yay for not sheduled post!
Have you got bored yet of them? I hope not, lol. But here's a crafty post to make it up for it.
first, I want to show you some bookmarks (yup, MOAR bookmarks, as my second package to the USA was received)

 

These characters may look familiar to you, as this was a "omg stuff got lost"kind of package and you've already seen them stitched in a slightly different way. Patterns, of course, came from Dork Stitch (where right now you can find the cutest patterns of Sherlock and Watson that I so so so want to stitch!!)

Hum, but anyway, I got some questions on how I made the background like that. Well the answer is : I used decoupage to make the front and the back of the pink Princess Miyu, and also on the first Leonard bookmark:

I don't claim to be the first person to come up with the idea, but I didn't find a tutorial, or even a mention in the Internet, and I mostly went with try and miss kind of way. For this tutorial or something of mine, I just took a couple of photos, because I just don't think there's need for more, and because I really suck at making photos.

Anyway here we go

What we're going to need:

Cross stitch fabric: I used Aida 14 and 16 count. I think 18 will do just fine too, but I personally won't go lower than this

Some pretty serviettes, or paper tissues or I really don't know how is proper to call them in English. I guess you can use paper for decoupage too, but as at least here the sheet of paper is ~2.40 and one serviette is max 0.60 usually cheaper, I haven't tried it.

Brushes, flat or not, but they must be soft, or they will damage the thin paper (really, I tried it)

and most important, the glue

When explaining, I messes things up calling it Textile Medium, because well, this is what's written on the bottle, but it left more than one person thinming it was the fabric that was special. Sorry for that. As you see, this is a kind of glue for decoupage, but instead of hardening after drying, it leaves the fabric soft, slightly gummy, but not unpleasent to touch. It can be ironed and hand washed after it's been treated with it. Mine is from the German brand Marabu, and I'm happy with it, but I guess there are many others to choose from.

Good, we have it all gathered, now what?

First, if you have ever made "classic decoupage" then you can as well proceed the way you're used to, after checking the instructions on your glue, just to be sure. In case you haven't , here is what I do (btw, I'm NOT following the instructions of mine, but hey, it works for me)

1.Choose and cut from the serviette the design you're going to use. It can be a strip for a background, or it can be some fancy figure that you will be trimming further later. I for example have big plans for the princess and the frog serviette up there, including beads and metalics.

2. Peel only the upper layer with the picture. Most serviettes have 3 layers, but some have 4, so be careful, extra layers just get in the way

3. Dampen a piece of the fabric, about 1 cm larger than the design you're using. Sometimes less can do, if that part of the final piece will go under the seam. And by dampen, I mean make it soaling wet with glue. Yup, it will leak through the holes of the aida. Doesn't matter, you want it wet.

4. Now proceed placing you design on the fabric. My glue says to place the whole thing, to press it with fingers and cover with glue just the edges of the design. I wasn't happy with this so that's how I do it:

 - starting from the bottom, line the serviette piece with the aida rows

 - with the brush with sime glue, start pressing, until you can clearly make out the fabric holes through the paper. But be careful not to damage the serviette while doing so

- proceed slowly up, until you have the whole thing in place.

Something like this:

5. After you're done, let it dry a little, then apply some glue again, paying extra attention to the edges. Repeat untill you're happy.

6. Now let it dry completely and iron it. Check how your glue feels about it, mine says cotton setting on the back side and this time I didn;t argue.

7. Now you have your own very unique piece of fabric! You can leave it like this, if the drawing is fancy, or you can stitch on it. Since I'm doing it on cross stitch fabric, you can guess that this is the main idea after all. The wholes on the aida are not open, but are fully visible and you can easily stitch through the paper. I didn't even have to use a sharper needle than usual, but you can decide that for yourself. 

8. Finish your little piece of awesomeness any way you like. For now I've only made bookmark finishes, using biscornu-like stitch to finish it, but there is no limit. I have soo many ideas for this. Like using a square motif to make  a biscornu. And the princess froggy thing. You can use a beautiful whole image as a base and then cover it with beads, ribbon embrodiery or special stitches, going for a 3D effect. You don't have to use aida. You can try with bags, totes, t-shirts and other pieces of clothing and embelish them with  decoupage and stitching. Haven't tried this yet, but from the shop where I buy most of my crafty stuff there was a bag hanging, embelished like this. In short, if you can think of it, then it most likely can be done.

Here is the back of my finished bookmark, I'm not showing the front until mail does its work (even if I'm itching to do so).

Anyway that's it! It's really very easy and a great way to make yourself a custom piece of fabric, especially when you need it for a small project and don't want to buy a big piece. 

It's my first tutorial, so I'm not sure if I covered everything, if not just say :) And if you ever try this, be sure to say so too! As I mentioned, I'm still trying and learning new techniques and uses of this.

Now I'll be leaving you with presheduled posts again *little sigh* but I hope you won't get too bored ;) Again thanks for all the lovely comments and sorry I don't get to answer them all.

I hope you all have and awesome IHSW (cause I envy you, you know XD) Have fun!

~~~~~~

 Здравейте, този път с пост, който не е предварително написан за определен ден и час! Надявам се да не са ви омръзнали съвсем книжните постове, но във всеки случай ето един крафтърски за разнообразие.

Пристигна ми и второто пакетче до Щатите, и мога да покажа и тази доза книгоразделители. Героите са същите, само изпълнението е по-различно, тъй като този пакет пратих, когато мислех, че първият се е изгубил. 

Но да си дойдем на думата, няколко души ме попитаха как съм направила фона за Леонард от първата пратка, а сега и за розовия книгоразделител с принцеса Мию. Отговорът беше - декупаж на текстил, но тъй като в имейлите успях май само да объркам хората, обещах да постна по-подробно.

Та от какво имаме нужда - 

от плат - аз ползвах Аида 14 и 16, 18 сигурно също ще свърши работа, но аз лично няма да слизам на по-ситно

книжни салфетки с хубави десени - пълна свобода на действие. Каквото ви хареса. Сигурно може и специална хартия за декупаж да се ползва, ама тя е много по-скъпа от салфетките ^^""

Мекичка четка, може плоска или не, но да е наистина мека. Ако не е, рискувате да разкъсате салфетката. Личен опит.

И най-важното, специалното лепило.

Това което аз ползвам, е на фирма Марабу и на него пише "textil medium", както го виждате горе. За разлика от обикновеното лепило за декупаж, което си е на практика лак, това оставя плата и хартията меки, с леко гумирано усещане, но не неприятно. Може да се глади откъм гърба и да се пере на ръка с меки препарати.

Може да има и други марки, с различни изисквания, така че никога е е излишно да погледнете инструкциите. Бтв аз моите ги гледам, но като цяло съвсем умишлено не ги следвам, и пак става.

Да кажа, ако сте си играли с обикновен декупаж преди, това наистина е същото. Действайте както си знаете, просто сменете лака с текстилния му вариант. Ако не сте го правили преди, ето аз как действам:

1. Най напред си харесайте дизайна и го изрежете. Може да бъде лента за фон или някакъв по-централен детайл

2. Отлепете само най-горния слой. Повечето салфетки за трипластови, но се оглеждайте за дву- или четирипластови. Излишен слой само ще пречи.

3. Намокрете хубаво с лепилото плат около 1 см повече от дизайна. Може и по-малко, особено ако в крайна сметка този ръб ще отиде под шев, където има по-малка вероятност да се разнищи. Но наистина имам предвид намокрете. Не навлажнете. Да подгизне направо. Тъй като дупките на Аидата са големички, сигурно ще протече през тях малко лепило. Нищо. Наистина искате основата хубаво да е поела лепилото.

4. Разположете дизайна на намокрения с лепило плат. Листовката на моето лепило казва да го притиснете с пръсти и после да намажете с лепило само краищата. Аз с това не се съгласих, и вместо това

 - отдолу - нагоре - подравнявам долния ръб на дизайна с един от редовете на аидата, притискам с пръсти около първите два сантиметра, после минавам върху тях с четката с лепило, като натискам хубаво, но внимателно, докато дупките на плата не се различават добре. После малко по малко продължавам нагоре, докато цялото парче салфетка не е залепено.

5. Оставете малко да изсъхне, и повторете пак, като обръщате внимание на ръбовете. Повтаряйте тези стъпки, докато не сте доволни от това как е залепнало, или докато не ви свърши лепилото.

6. Сега вече оставете няколко часа да изсъхне напълно, после изгладете от опаковата страна, ютията на "памук"

Вече си имате персонифицирано парченце плат! Може да си го оставите така, ако е с някаква супер готина картинка, или да го използвате за фон и да избродирате нещо отгоре. По-скоро второто, иначе нямаше да го правим на аида, нали :) Въпреки че са запушени от салфетката, дупките на плата се виждат съвсем ясно и не би трябвало да имате проблем да ги улучите. Салфетката също така е съвсем тънка, и аз дори нямах нужда да сменя иглата за бродиране с такава с остър връх докато шиех, но това вече е въпрос на предпочитание.

Като свършите бродирането, завършете както ви душа иска. По стечение на обстоятелствата, досега залагах само на книгоразделители, но имам още много идеи и планове. Като да речем за онази салфетка с принцесата и жабока. Или да използвам квадратен дизайн за бискорню. Може да се ползва цяла салфетка с красива картина за основа, която после да се покрие с мъниста, панделки или специални бодове в търсене на 3D ефект. Или може да се украси някоя платнена чанта или тениска. Това не съм го опитвала, но в магазина, откъдето си вземам повечето материали имаше такава платнена чанта изложена. Накратко, ако може да се сетите за нещо, то най-вероятно може и да се направи.

За пръв път така сядам да обяснявам нещо как се прави, обикновено съм от тези, които четат :)) така че е много вероятно да не съм обяснила като хората. Ако има нещо, кажете, а ако опитате тази идея на практика, още повече кажете! :D Приемам идеи всякакви.

Та засега това е. Ще ви оставям пак с насрочените публикации за книжки :) Иначе приятна неделя на всички!

Fairy Tale Friday - The neverborn maiden

Hi dears! It's Friday again or at least it should be Friday when this comes up.
* Thank you so much for the great comments you left for the first fairy tale last week, and everything you shared. I have to say I wasn't expecting anything at all on the book and challenge related posts and I was just hoping you won't run away from my blog ;D But all the comments made me really happy, I always check them after the post is up. *squees and happy lil dances*
Now I'm going to tell you another one, that I both like and dislike. It's gathered by Ran Bosilek, another famous writer and folklorist. I translate the title as the neverborn maiden, because "unborn" def doesn't sound right here. If you know of the proper fairy tale nomenclature, please share. I went on with more describing this time, telling the tale as it should be told. If that makes too many words to read, say in the comments and for the last tale I have planned for the challenge for now I'll get back to the short version.

The Neverborn Maiden

Once upon a time, in a rich kingdom, lived a king with his son. The prince ought to get married, but from all the princesses, he couldn't pick himslef a bride. In the end, his father build in front of the castle a huge fountain - from one side it was pouring wine, from the second - oil, and from the third - honey. Then he announced that every unmarried woman in the kingdom is welcome to use it and gather as much as she wants. The prince was to watch all the girls from the kingdom that came, and pick a bride from them. One day, and old woman came to the fountain. She had no bottles, nor bowls, instead she started gathering oil, wine and honey in empty egg shells and put them in her basket. This amused the bored prince, and from the castle window he shouted "This fountain is not for the old witches like you, it was made so I can choose myself a bride, and it is very unlikely that I would marry someone like you". Then he picked a stone, threw it and broke all the egg shells in the woman's basket. Furious, she cried "I may be old and ugly, but by the kings orders as unmarried I have all the rights to gather the goods. And you shall not find your bride next to this fountain, nor in this kingdom, nor in this land. You shall merry only a maiden that has never been born". This said, the old one left the castle grounds before the prince could say anything at all.
Time passed, and as even the fairest maidens that came repulsed the prince. He realised that indeed he could fall in love only with a neverborn maiden, so he bid farewell to his father and went on a journey. In nine kingdoms, no one could even give him a hint where such girl could be found. In the end, in the tenth, an old man told him "Pass this mountain is the sun's castle. I was once told that in his garden there's a tree that hides the secret of the maidens. Go there and ask the sun to give you some of the fruit. But don't talk to him in the evening when he's tired and angry, but in the morning before he goes on his jorney" The prince reached the castle, but it was almost night already. He couldn't stand to wait more after his long journey, so he sneaked in the garden, found the magic tree and took three of its apples. Outside the garden, he cut one of them and from the inside, the most beautiful girl appeared. She asked the prince for water, but he had none, and the maiden dissappeared. Happy that he now knew the secret, the prince reached a river and cut the second apple. He gave the maiden water, but then she asked for something to eat. The prince had nothing to offer, and this girl vanished as well. Now worried, he bought some food from a shepherd passing by, and cut the last apple. The third maiden was the fairest of them all. He gave her to drink and eat and in the end she said "I had water and food from this land, now I can stay on earth and become your bride". Full with joy, the prince led her to his castle. When they were closing near, he told her "You deserve to be welcomed properly. Let my go first so I can tell my father to begin preparing the celebrations" He helped the neverborn to climb a tree, afraid that someone might steal her, as beaitiful as she was, and went to the castle. Under the tree there was a well and after some time a woman came for water, she was young, but mean and envious. She saw the reflection of the maiden in the water, but pretendind there was no one on the tree, she started complaining how heavy the bucket is. In the end the maiden went down to help her. The woman started praising her kindness and her beauty, and in the end after hearing the neverborn's story, she added "Maybe if I was to wear such beautiful clothes once in my life, I would feel pretty too" The maiden agreed to exchange clothes for a short while, but as soon as the evil woman got the dress, she pushed the maiden into the well and climbed to take her place.
When the prince came back with his father and a huge wedding party, he, naturally, couldn't recognize his bride. But the false one said to him as she knew it from the maiden "Am I not the one you took from the last apple? You left me under the sun for so long, that my sking got burnt. But you cannot turn me down now, for after tasting the food and the water of the land of the mortals, I can't go back"
The prince could say nothing, so he took her and in the castle they started preparing the wedding. The false bride to be, constantly afraid that someone may find her secret, made the castle servant to take all the water from the well and destroy it. In the well they found a gold fish that the false bride ate, thinking that this way she will finally destroy the maiden. She threw the fishbones in the garden and where they landed just in few day grew a tree, tall and proud. Whenever the false bride was in its reach, the tree beat her with its branches, tearing her clothes and skin, but when the prince was near, it caressed him with its leaves. Furious, the bride had the tree chopped down and thrown into the fire.
By the same time an old woman was passing near the castle, gathering wood and fallen branches. Some branches of the maiden's tree flew pass the castle walls and she picked them as well.
The old lady lived on her own, but every time she was out, the branch from the magic tree turned back into a neverborn maiden. The girl cleaned, cooked and worked around the house, but never showed herslef. Curious to find out who's been helping her, the old woman spied of her one day and found the secret. the same evening she said "Oh, it's so cold tonight. I better light some fire" and reached for the magic branch. Afraid, the maiden turned back into human form and the two women started living together.
Meanwhile in the castle, the final preparations were going for the wedding, but the false bride broke the precious pearl necklace the prince had given her. Unable to put it back together, she called all the women near the castle grounds, promising a huge reward. Noone was able to do such fine work, until the neverborn maiden came, with her face hidden. She promised to repair the necklace, but as a reward she asked that the prince, the king and everyone in the castle gathered to watch her work. Having no choice, the false bride agreed.
The neverborn maiden started beading the necklace and with every pearl she was telling a story "Once upon a time, there was a prince... his father built a fountain with three sides.. " and by the last pearl she had finished telling her own tragic story and showed her face. The prince recognized her as his true bride, the deciever was chased away, and the couple lived happily ever after.

Well I think by now it's pretty clear what is there to like and hate in this tale. From one side, it's an awesome magic tale. It follows quite predictable way, but it's still very interesting and I like all the magic and fairy elements.
On the other side, the prince is a total jerk, quite stupid, and with an evident need of glasses. He's rude, impatient and a show-off in the beginning of the story and didn't change much. I go back to the tale again, and can't see one moment when he proved himself useful or good for something. Beside being a prince there is nothing more, that is. I almost feel sorry for the maiden to be stuck with him.
Yup, my dragon guy is def the best :D
In the other variations of this tale I found, the old woman that cursed the prince used broken clay pots instead of egg shells and the prince broke only one of them. Other difference I found was that he waited and got to talk with the Sun who let him take only one apple, but the prince couldn't choose and so he take all the three. I think the mildest variation was where he talked to the sun's mother and she gave him the three apples. Anyway, I still think he's a jerk.
In that variation too, he uses one of the fishbones to clean his teeth. No, really. When I talked about Soulless I mentioned that sitting on the other person's hedgehog is a good sign for a future together. Using the other partner's bones to clean your teeth is not so promising.
Do you know some classic fairy tale stories, where some characters are not being threated the way they deserve, getting more or less than what they should?

This goes to : the Fairy Tale  challenge

Hosted by Tif Talks Books

~~~~~~

Ето още една приказка за книжното предизвикателство на Тиф. Този път си избрах една приказка на Ран Босилек, която хем я харесвам, хем не - Неродена мома

Причини за нехаресване: добре де, принцът си е пълен простак. Да видим какво всъщност успява да направи той по време на цялата приказка: да виси и да зяпа през прозореца, а като му доскучее да мята камъни по възрастното население, с което просто сам си изпроси да го кълнат. Да свие на Слънцето ябълките -  вариантът на приказката от линка е малко по-милостив - той има разрешение да си избере и да вземе една, а вместо това си обира и трите. В този, който аз помня, направо си влезе с взлом в слънчовата градина и си ги отмъкна. Но въпросът е принципен. После, за да може да се изфука, заряза булката пред двореца, че да доведе сватбарите, с което даде възможност да се развият всичките останали събития, не особено приятни за неродената мома. Когато го изправят пред подмемената невеста, той се пооглежда, почесва се по брадата, казва ами хубаво, и си я прибира, сигурно с някакви блуждаещи чувства за вина. И общо взето  до края на приказката не се изявява с нищо друго, като изключим, че в горния вариант спира да си почисти зъбите с една от костите на рибата, през която форма за малко минава неродената мома.  

Като приказвах за предната книга, Без душа, споменах, че според мен сядането на таралеж е обещаващо начало на семеен живот. Да си чистиш зъбите с която и да е кост на другия партньор като цяло не е.

Общо взето много ми напомня на принц Чар от Шрек.