Sweet Little Madelief Remembered

Tamara’s friends Marieke & Richard came to her with a very special request: would she make a remembrance garland for their beautiful little daughter Madelief? Madelief was only physically with her parents and sister for a day, a short but very intensely lived and loved life. Marieke & Richard described the intimacy shared with Madelief this way: ‘So much love in one day, that is what happiness is, that is what it means to live...’
The star garland, partially made of the birth announcement cards, now adorns a highly personalized little altar where a candle is kept burning for Madelief.
Madelief is such an appropriate name too: a madelief is a daisy. The poet Chaucer called this perfect little flower the ‘eye of the day’. Indeed, its yellow centre resembles the sun, an eye looking up at the heavens. On top of that lief in Dutch means sweet, lovely.
We hesitated to write this article, but Marieke assured us she is comfortable with this. They want their perfect little girl to be remembered as much as possible. Marieke, Richard and Fien, you’re so brave! Lots of love to you. May Madelief continue to keep an eye on you from the heavens.

In Good (European) Company

Etsy is setting up an office in Berlin, to promote Etsy crafters and artists to European audiences. Matt and Benedikta are decorating their workspace with all manner of hand made delights, so cool! Also cool: their blogpost features Tamara's yummy chocolate origami ball and she's in good company:A bite, anyone?
Thanks, Marta, for updating us!

New: Cards with Colourful Buntings!

Happy to finally list new items in the shop: cards with little buntings! These are definitely faster to make than books, and fun too! The only thing was: I couldn't find the right size envelopes anywhere in town or in my fairly large supplies. So, I just made a couple from wallpaper. They combine quite well with the cards, don't you think?

The Paper Dress Museum: Paper & Perfection

The Paperfection sisters were together again, this time in Spain! We got some new stuff done for the shop and a custom remembrance garland (more on this in a later post). On top of this, we paid a visit to the paper dress museum: Museu de Vestits de Paper in Mollerussa. We were blown away! The things some people can do with paper!These stunning dresses were made for an annual competition and were paraded on the catwalk. Now they're on display for all to see and you just wouldn't believe they consist entirely of paper! The rules are quite strict: nothing but paper, metallic or laminated papers are excluded. No glue is allowed whatsoever; the garments must be sewn, either by hand or on a machine.
A particularly spectacular piece was a replica of Princess Laeticia's wedding dress. The front and the four meter train were embroidered with gold and silver thread and depict fleur-de-lis, wheat, clover and strawberry. Even the veil is made of nothing but paper: thousands of meters of thin strips of crepe paper were rolled into thread and then crocheted. The tiara and jewellery are made of... paper too! And, yes, that's Queen Elizabeth II's coronation gown in the background.
Other dresses even featured paper bobbin lace. Imagine the hours spent on one dress! I understand many dresses are the work of professional costume designers but anyone who's up for a challenge can join the next competition, at the end of this year. The categories are: dresses of an epoch, contemporary fashion and fantasy. Luckily for all the busy bees, there's also a paper dress contest for Barbie...
My oh my, this is what I call paperfection..!

Sign the Petition to Make Biological Food Taxfree

For our Dutch readers: I just came across an initiative by Leo Dijkgraaf. He wants politicians to decide making all biological food products tax-free for consumers for at least two years. The idea is as follows: this healthier food will become more popular, prices will drop, more people will be able to afford it, et cetera. I think this is great! If you do too: please sign his petition at http://www.biobtwvrij.nl/

A Wedding Guest Album for Allie and Scott: Widest Book Ever!

It's been a big project and it has been completed... a personalized wedding guest book for Allie and Scott in the US. The style and colours are based on the couple's wedding invitations, by Holly from http://www.teardropweddings.com/ - gorgeous and fun work (top left)! Every single page was individually decorated...... and used as place cards at the dinner table. Each guest wrote their wishes for the bride and groom on their personal spreads. These were sent back to me to bind into the final book.
This presented a bit of a challenge, because if each guest would fill in a four-page spread, I could no longer fold the pages into signatures and bind those into a book. Instead, I would have to bind each and every spread separately. And seventy spreads of heavy-weight paper were already this big a pile! I had no idea how it would turn out, but it worked! I even included spacers to make the spine extra wide. That way, after A&S stick in all the photos, the covers will level out more or less horizontally.
With a spine of 15 cm (5.9") the book is almost a cube. My widest book ever. So far, because now I'd love to stretch it even further and find out what the limits are... Will keep you posted on this one! And Allie and Scott? May they live happily ever after!