Lots of little crafts and Christmas decorations

I've been making lots of small stuff recently, because I got a chance to actually show and sell some of my works. There's an annual Christmas poetry event we take part in (last year we did an installation and i always get to decorate the place). So this year i will also sell some of my handmade items there. I'm trying to prepare as much things as i can, so i've been busy with that a lot nowadays. I didn't bother taking proper pictures, because not everything is ready yet, but here are Instagram photos of some things i've made recently.

Lots of crochet doily coasters

Little crochet pouches (they still need buttons)

Fabric covered pins

And finally some Christmas stuff! Gingerbread-looking carton decorations

Fabric covered carton Christmas tree decorations.

Punktieren/Ous Mal / Coaxil split packaging

For all the other three releases i've decided to make carton boxes. I kept the same shape and dimensions as i had for my previous boxes, but this time instead of gluing the boxes together i've decided to keep them closed by securing them with rubber bands (i got the idea from the other tape packaging done by our friend artist).

For this release i've decided to use Mitya's sister's old painting sketches that have been lying around in our house for months. When Mitya's parents were moving, they wanted to throw them away because his sister didn't need them, they were just some paint experiments. But we liked them and thought we could use them for something. And finally they were just perfect for this tape.

I just love how every box is unique while they all are done in the same style.

We used white tapes and plain stickers with just the artist names on them. All the info was printed on the label paper, plain text on a white background. I like how the paintings on the boxes go all crazy and colorful, while all the rest of the design is really minimalistic.

You can check the description and sounds at Jozik records.

Sashash Ulz / кот кот split packaging

Four new tapes are out on Jozik records and it's time for me to share the packaging i've made for them.

For this tape i've been sewing fabric envelopes again. We found this beautiful fabric (it was actually a large skirt) at a second hand shop. The skirt was enough for exactly 49 copies, we were lucky with the size (we planned an edition of 50 copies first).

For an insert i got a new idea this time. I used textured craft paper, which i was lucky to get 50% off from Sinelli, it's really good to buy these things in summer when the sales are huge. I used label paper to print the info for the insert.

I am especially happy for the tape labels. I scanned the back side of the fabric and printed it on the labels. I think the color goes really good with white tapes. And i love how colored stickers look on matte opaque tapes.

You can check the description and sounds at Jozik records.

New notebooks

Some time ago i have found a nice tutorial through Pinterest on how to make notebooks. I was so happy to have found it, i've never realized it could be that easy. The way i did my notebooks before was easy as well, but this is quite a different technique and the notebooks that come out are a different kind.

So the first thing i did after finding this tutorial, was trying it out on old receipts. So i made a nice shopping list notebook to hang on my fridge.

Then i tried making another notebook with some used printer paper. I used a ladybug stamp with ink of "lavender" color on every page to make the notebook prettier. I've started using the notebook already, it's so nice and small.

I really enjoyed making those. It is a very good and easy technique for the kind of notebooks where you write on the first page and rip it off afterwards to write on the next one.

But today Mitya asked me for a notebook that is small as well, but he wouldn't need to rip the pages off so they need to be holding well. So i decided to use my hole puncher and a ribbon. I've made two notebooks, the greyish one is Mitya's now. I used an image from a used magazine for the cover. For the other one i decided to add the ladybug stamp on every page as well.

When i was putting an extra notebook to the box where i keep my crafty stuff that is not used and not yet given to anyone, i've noticed a couple of notebooks i've made long time ago but haven't shared in my blog for some reason. Here they are. Made of old receipts. The covers are scans of my watercolor madness.

Olli Aarni / summerTales split

For this release i've decided to make fabric envelopes similar to the ones i did for our 4-way split. Actually i used exactly the same dimensions, the only difference was that these bags do not close. The fabric i chose was not as slippery as the one i used for the 4-ways split, so i saved some time by not attaching press studs to them. And this pretty fabric used to be old soviet curtains that were hanging in Mitya's kitchen in Petrozavodsk when he was a little kid.

For the insert i've scanned the fabric and printed the pattern adding all the info on the other side.

Since both splits came out at the same time, we kept the design matching by having white cassettes for both releases as well as making same kind of labels on the cassettes, just changing the text color.

Check the description and sounds on Jozik records.

Notebooks

One day, among the other advices on how to save paper, i've read that old receipts can be good for writing all kinds of lists on them. After that i've been saving all the receipts i get and writing all my grocery shopping lists on them. But since i don't do that many lists, the old receipts started to pile up. Then i got an idea of making small notebooks out of them. Here's what i got:

The Moomin pics were cut out from my Moomin calendar.

Those are not the only kind of notebooks i've been making recently. I get loads of printed handouts in my uni and most of them are printed on one side. So i made some A5 notebooks and now the other side of each paper can be used as well.

I am planning to give these as presents to some nice people.

4-way split on Jozik records

We've finally put out a 4-way split cassette on Jozik records. The artists on the split are Architeuthis Rex from Italy, Hobo Cubes from Canada, Mpala Garoo from Russia and our project Banana Pill. We've been waiting for this release for a long time. We even had to change one of the artists on the cassette. Originally there was supposed to be Summer Recreation Camp from Spain, but unfortunately he did not have time to record his material and we got Hobo Cubes on the split instead. I hope we manage to release something by Summer Recreation Camp some other time in the near future.

I've spent quite a lot of time creating the covers (i still have not finished them all), but i like them.

For the fabric envelopes i've bought a huge skirt from a second hand shop. We ordered orange tapes via e-bay from a very nice guy rainbowtapes. Even though shipping was a bit too expensive, the cassettes look good and the quality is good as well.

I did not want to make any stickers with artists' names for the cassettes, because the cassettes look good on their own. So i used a hole-puncher to make blue and green sticker dots to indicate the sides of the tape.

The tape can be ordered from Jozik records.