Sailing around the world...

Hello my dear friends,

I hope this finds you well, healthy, happy and productive to the most possible extent.

Days here are full and are shared among processing pictures, most of them to be placed at the shop's shelves,

making cards and other products which I'll present to you quite soon, working on the appearance of this new blog here and preparing the plans for the renovation/redecoration of a teenage boy's room, to be taking place this autumn.

At the same time, I'm finding temporary solutions to incorporate this small business in the arms of this also small, loft apartment, trying to organize the products made, the orders and packing station, while keeping it simple and spacious.

Not the easiest thing to do...We are surrounded by prints in various sizes, paper boats, cards, recycled paper, twine and strings all over!

I owe a lot to the patience, understanding and support of my partner for having all this done.

But enough with talking, I'll make new pictures (again!)

of the apartment and working station and share them here with you. Better see than talk ;)

In the meantime, I thought I present to you the post I had prepared for Ikea Family Live, which got aired yesterday.

So, are you ready for some action?

Time to wake up the crafty child inside and have fun while reusing newspaper pages...

We are making paper boats!

Let's get started and remember to ask your children to join you for lots of happy time together!

Choose the colors that you like and match to your environment and proceed with cutting square sheets, as many as the amount of boats you wish to make.

this print is available here

If you wish your boats to have some charm, as I personally consider it, cut one or some of the sides of the squares by hand, so that is has a look like the one which appears above.

 You can achieve that by patiently folding the sides a few times, until cutting by hand becomes easy and appears precise.

This is how your garland will appear seeing the bottom side of the boats and...

above is an easy decorative idea for your dining table.

Spread them all over, or place them on the plates, standing on a handwritten note, stating a name or wishing a good morning for example.

And some tips for incorporating them into a garland:

Use baker's twine in your preferred combination, as there are so many possibilities. Here a brown and white one has been used.
 Now this is the part where you can exercise your patience, as you should be careful as to not destroy our little, happy, paper boats while threading them together.

And there's a secret for keeping the boats steady:
Use a bead underneath the "sail" which you'll then knot in place.
They will not sail away at all, instead they'll make you drift away with your own thoughts when looking at them!
Below is the garland that I came up with using the pages of a Dutch newspaper, brought from an Art Gallery in Amsterdam this May.

About the way to display it, there are few possibilities

but am mentioning here two :

 Hang it horizontally and you have a summery, stylish, happy garland!

Hang it vertically and you have a lovely mobile!

These little fellows make up for wonderful decoration for your boys' rooms as well, but also your girls, if you use patterned, flowered and dotted paper in cheerful colours.

print available here

And for those of you that prefer minimalism, muted and natural tones, the print above would be suitable to come and live in your home.

Ivy ~ xx