Thanksgiving printable placement cards collage

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? :) Probably, you already have in mind what are you going to cook for the feast. More likely, you already have home and table decoration... And would you like to have something small as final touch on your holiday table? :) Let me share cute placement cards that will be great for Thanksgiving or just fall-themed party.

Halloween printable tags for wine glasses

Halloween is on its way, and there is a time to think about home decoration, candies, and other essentials things that makes the holiday the way it should be :)

If you are going to have a party in your home, you'll definitely need to decorate a table with decors that fit the theme of Halloween. And I believe it's exciting to make some decors with your own hands :) So... let me share something today... It's wine glass tags... or paper charms :) They are especially perfect for standing dinner where people moving around socializing and can forget where they put their glasses. Having the tags will help them do not loose their wine glasses :)

Artistic tea sets by Yury Tarler

Unfortunately, I haven't met Yury Tarler in person, but I know him virtually as a member of Russian team on Etsy.


Looking at Yury's art works in his Etsy shop, I always knew he is a talented artist. But I was impressed after reading this article on Russian team blog. Yury had painted many portraits of famous people like Pope John Paul II, Nelson Rockefeller, and others.

Free digital collage - July 4-th

If you are looking for some inexpensive gifts for July 4-th, why don't make them on your own?

Napa trip with friends

Have you ever been in Napa? :) In this gorgeous wine country in California... I've been there several times but this time, I guess, was the special one. Why?..

Berry muffins recipe

Look at the yummy muffin! :) You can bake them with any berries you want: blubbery, cranberry, raisins... they are all will be good!


For the recipe, we will need:
2 cups (1 up is 240 ml) of all purpose flour
2/3 cup of sugar
2 tea spoon of backing powder
1 cup of fat reduced sour cream (I used fat free Greek style yogurt)
1/4 cup of canola oil (or any other oil with no scent)
1 egg
1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
2 cups of butter milk or kefir

Resins, walnuts, cranberries... 1/2 cup of each. You can use or just resins, or nuts, etc. I like to mix all of them. Also, 1 cup of blueberries will be fine. Well... any your favorite berries :) Around 1 - 1 1/2 cups...


Preheat oven to 390 F (200 C)

Mix in a bowl flour, sugar, and backing powder


In separate bowl, mix sour cream, oil, egg,and vanilla. Mix them until smooth.

Add dry ingredients to the batter and mix well. The mixture will be dry. So mix in butter milk or kefir little by little. The finish mixture should be thick but liquid. If it's too thick, just add more butter milk. Add berries and nuts.


Spray or brush muffins caps with oil and place them in muffin pan.


Spoon the batter in the caps. Fill around 2/3 of a cap.


Put the muffin pan in the oven and bake the muffins until golden brown. Try them with wooden tooth pic. Depends on oven, it may take 20-30 minutes.


Enjoy your muffins! :)

Spring note cards exchange

Did you know that March 8 is an International woman day? :) Probably not... or maybe had heard about it but forgot?... :)

In Russia and other post-Soviet countries, the day is a real holiday. We don't celebrate some socialist ideas... we just celebrate a Woman's day. All woman and girls get flowers... a lot of flowers and gifts. :) For us, this is a celebration of spring.


I'm a member of Etsy Russian team on Etsy, and we had note card exchange for the holiday. So... recently I got all of the cards that I supposed to receive... What amazed me, they are mostly hand made... Well, why I'm amazed... we are crafters! That's what we do! :)

So this gorgeous photo note card from Tonya (TonyaUtkina)


This amazing hand cross stitched note card from Natasha (Skrynka)



And this great note card from Tanya (SocksAndMittens)

Also, I got extra one from Mariya (LovelyTrifles) :) Mariya missed the gift exchange, and she was upset about it. To make her happy, we just sent to each other note cards...


Girls, they are amazing! :) Thank you very much!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I wish you a lot of luck! :)

I always love the idea to take a greeting image (digital or printed note card ) on my own. I like to challenge myself especially with occasions like Patrick's day because not much attributes I can find around in my home :) So... in this case, it's shamrock (or something looks like it... I really don't know) from my backyard and a mug of beer (which was consumed by my husband later :)... He was happy... )

Hope you like the idea I came up with :)

How to solve a problem with printing digital collages

I've noticed that my customers some times have difficulties with printing digital collages in JPG format. If you are facing the problem (usually, it's wrong size of the clip art images), please contact me to get your collages in PDF format.

I'd like to explain the way how clip arts may be printed from PDF file. This method usually works with no problem.

The steps and screen shots are for Windows operated computer.

First of all, PDF reader is needed. Please, navigate to Adobe website, download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader. This is free software, so you don't need any license. Run it.

Click on an image to get larger view. Go to File -> Open. Choose a file in popped up window and confirm.


After file with digital collage is open, go to File -> Print


Set scale as None or as Fit to printable area. Please, try both setting and choose which one fits your needs.


In most cases, this scenario works. But if it doesn't, please contact me!

Jewelry product photography. Albina's creations

Albina is my fellow team mate in Russians on Etsy team. Recently, she asked me to work on good pictures of her jewelries. You know why... her article is going to be issued in a magazine! I was excited to get this challenge - to take really good looking pictures for the magazine. :)


I hope I fulfilled the order :) Also, just a little secret... I'm really proud of myself because I really improved my skills in product photography. If you'd look at my first pictures, gosh... they are really unacceptable :( I know, that I need practice more and more to get them better, but I feel that I've made pretty much big step in this field :)


Look at the gorgeous jewelries! Albina is a great wire sculpture artist. Her creations are really unique.


Honestly, I'm not a big fan of copper jewelries. I prefer silver or gold, but these one make me to think about my preferences. :)



I wish I could make something like this... *sigh*