Brenda Walton

A Parisian Christmas

Fleuri, one of my favorite Northern California antique shops, is all dressed up for the holidays. Owner Sonia Moreno and her sister Sylvia have infused their artistry into every detail, combining vintage treasures from Paris with contemporary handmade creations in fresh and unexpected ways.

The shop is pure delight and inspiration, and I could spend many happy hours exploring this magical, glittering wonderland. 

 

See more of Fleuri's Christmas Delights here and at Fleuri ~ 7301 Fair Oaks Blvd, Carmichael, CA., 916.973.9848. Many thanks to Terry Ryan for her lovely photographs.

Where Women Create

I’m excited to announce that the Winter issue of Where Women Create features an article on The Divas! Diva Weekend 2012 details the projects, the inspiring friendships, the fabulous food and the enormous fun we all have together. 

Hostess Dena Fishbein’s narrative and Linda Studebaker’s photography make you feel like you were there, crafting alongside the girls! You'll glimpse the excitement and joy of creating with some of the most talented and lovely women I know.

Where Women Create is a quarterly magazine that brings its readers into the studios and lives of extraordinary women. It’s an inspiring resource for artists, designers and crafters. 

Ye Olde Apothecary Shoppe Party Favors

I’m having big fun this week with Halloween projects, using goodies from my new Haunted Collection from K&Company.

For this project, I started with some vintage pharmacy bottles found at a flea market. I decoupaged antique book pages and die cut apothecary labels. Then I added ribbons, string, buttons, spooky spiders and some creepy clear dome stickers.

These bottles make wonderful party favors, filled with candy corn and licorice. With spooky, tongue-in-cheek text like Kidney-Flavored Syrup, Spider Fangs, and Pickled Bat Wings, your guests will surely cringe!  

Trick or Treat

My newest collection for K&Company is now available, just in time for your Halloween cardmaking and decorating! The papers and embellishments are loaded with shimmers and sparkles, metallic inks and glossy foils. Here are some of the highlights:

Spooky and charming dimensional stickers, embellished with ghoulish glitter.

A fabulous and frightening assortment of apothecary labels for your poisonous potions.

Apothecary jars filled with scary specimens and real microbeads.

Chipboard skeleton, Dracula, bats, cats, candy corn, pumpkins, ghosts, and tombstones, embellished with glitter and enclosed in a keepsake haunted house-shaped box. 

A creepy collection of clear dome icons and expressions.

A scary assortment of eerie expressions and journal tags.

Hair-raising dimensional stickers, embelished with glitter.

Ghoulish dimensional stickers embellished with glitter.

Creepy characters embelllished with glitter, stitching, gems, ribbon and real feathers.

Spooky sayings and eerie expressions embellished with black glitter. 

Six ghoulish designs (three of each design) die-cut to the perfect size for photos.

 

Creepy chalkboard labels to personalize with your own spooky message.

 

Haunting black spiders embellished with elegant gems.

Creepy kraft pad with nine spine-chilling designs (two of each design).

 

And a ghoulish assortment of speciality papers and acetates with glitter, foil and shimmer.

For a closer look at some of the Haunted products, check out this video, courtesy of scrapbook.com.

Just a note: the entire Haunted Collection is selling out very quickly. It’s available at craft stores nationwide and online at eksuccess.com.

Happy Haunting to you!

DIY Coin Purse

Every year, I get together with a small group of good friends for several days of non-stop crafting. It’s like summer camp for crafters! Each of these women is a talented artist and it is immensely fun and inspiring to see what they create.

We meet in a different location each session, and each of us brings a project idea plus all the supplies needed. For our recent get-together, we made coin purses, Christmas ornaments, lampshade chandeliers, and tote bags. Whew! No wonder I was exhausted (but elated) at the end of the four days!

 We really enjoyed the coin purse project. These darling little purses are practical, cute, and make great gifts. They can be left plain or embellished. They only take a small amount of fabric, so we used all those leftover scraps every crafter has been saving. The materials and instructions are explained at The Purl Bee.

Our group took a break for lunch, featuring Sweet Red Pepper Soup. From left: Melissa Neufeld, (me), Dena Fishbein, Anne Higgins, Kathleen Francour, and Tina Higgins. Taking the photo: Jo Packham. Dena’s colorful quilting fabric designs for Free Spirit adorn the curtains, sofa and tablecloth.

Easy DIY Mother’s Day Centerpiece

Suddenly, all the roses in our neighborhood are in full bloom. It’s a most magnificent time of year! I love to bring them indoors, where I can make simple floral arrangements, and enjoy their beauty and delicious scent all day long. 

Here’s a quick and easy project that will make a wonderful centerpiece for your Mother’s Day brunch. I used only one type of rose (Eden), but you can mix different flowers and colors if you prefer more variety.

You will need about 30 roses for this project. I like to use a combination of partially open roses and closed buds. You will also need an Oasis floral foam sphere, cut in half and set in a clear plastic dish (sides about 1” tall). This half-sphere is 8” in diameter and 4” tall, and it is recycled from a previous arrangement - so it already had holes in it.

Cut the flowers, preferably in the morning, when they are full of moisture. Remove the leaves, and trim the stems to about 2” long.

Saturate the florist’s dome with water, so it is completely wet. Drain off excess water.

Beginning at the top center, insert the roses into the foam, varying the colors and sizes.

Rotate the dome, inserting more roses until the entire dome is filled.

If you find gaps between the roses, fill those areas with small rosebuds.

Make a band out of scrapbooking paper or ribbon, to conceal the sides of the plastic dish. Your arrangement will look fresh and beautiful for about one week.

Happy Mother's Day !

 

Celebrating Mom

For several months, I’ve been busy designing my latest collection for Mother’s Day. I’m really excited about the final product, and at last, it is available in Papyrus stores nationwide! The collection features my original watercolor paintings of garden florals and butterflies, sure to bring ooodles of joy and cheer to your sweet Mom.

The bags feature lots of bright, happy color and sparkling highlights. Each includes a top-stitched grosgrain bow handle and sweet, scalloped trim.

The dimensional elements are generously embellished with glitter and gems.

 

 

Although designed for Mother’s Day, these bags would also be perfect for a birthday, baby shower, or get well gift. Who doesn’t love butterflies and flowers?

Also included in the collection…two Mother’s Day cards and coordinating pink butterfly glittered tissue. Oh lala!

Whimsical Wonderland

One of the most inspiring shops in the San Francisco Bay Area is Tail of the Yak, known for its eclectic array of delights from all over the world.

The inventory includes a little bit of everything…gorgeous French ribbons, handmade paper boxes, exquisite antique Italian jewelry, glassware, fine writing instruments, and imported paper goods.

If you are in the area, this amazing shop is a must-see. But, if you don’t have the opportunity to visit in person, I hope these photos will allow you to feel as if you were able to make a very quick stop anyway. Here are a few of the highlights:

Antique wooden mannequin in the front display window, adorned with papercrafted medallions.

A selection of printed paper tape, ribbons and silkscreened journals.

A fabulous bouquet of handmade paper flowers greets visitors as they enter the store.

Festive paper garland made of crepe paper medallions. The silver balls are made of thin metallic paper.

More garlands intertwined with a fabulous Murano glass chandelier. The white globes at top left have been dipped in watercolor.

A whimsical paper chandelier made of scallop-edged paper circles and possibly drinking straws?

These colorful garlands are irresistible, and oh so reasonably-priced!                         

Hand-made shelf paper featuring silkscreened patterns.

These exquisite gold garlands are made of lightweight wood.

An antique book of sketches for stitchery patterns.

A wonderful selection of postcards and greeting cards I have not seen elsewhere.

These silkscreened calendars are free with purchase.  I like to recycle them as giftwrap

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Tail of the Yak, 2632 Ashby Avenue, Berkeley, California.

An Easter Wish

Wishing you and your family a beatiful Easter.

Sealed with a Kiss

I recently had the pleasure of designing a very special collection of letterpress greeting cards for Dominique Schurman and Papyrus stores.

The direction for these designs was inspired by vintage typography and printer’s ornaments from the turn of the century…with a contemporary twist. It was immensely enjoyable to work with beautiful fonts and lovely quotes that I’ve been collecting for many years. Printed on the finest quality paper, each card includes postage and an elegant gold adhesive seal.

The elegant Niquea.D correspondence collection containing all thirteen cards is available online and at select Papyrus stores nationwide.