Package sent

Packaging; this is how i sent my flat magnet sets into the world. Pink tissue paper folded, business card tucked in and a dotted ribbon to finish it off. Pretty enough?

Belated holiday gifts and video edited

My Love visited friends and family in Europe during the summer and of course he was so sweet to buy me some gifts. Unfortunately he forgot to bring them all when he came home! But receiving belated holiday gifts send over in the mail is a lot of fun, so no hard feelings.
He knows me so well. He picked up these pretty nesting dolls.

And remember i wrote about my love for capsule toys? Looks at this! Blind capsule egg from The Littlest Pet Shop! I never saw these before. I was excited already before i even opened it.

My excitement was even bigger when i found this little squirrel tin inside! Oh, wait, there's something inside it! Ooooh. A tiny tiny squirrel hanger (how do you call these phone embellishment thingies?)

Love and I bought ourselves a great video camera, which he took with him on his trip and he made lots of wonderful footage. We picked one of his instrumental tracks and i edited some of the Amsterdam footage over it. Take a look at my video editing skills! hihi ;) If you like the music you hear, Love has a myspace with some of his music.

Making It!

If you have visited the Heart Handmade Blog this past week you might have read about it already: "The Making It series". Today, finally, i can announce that i'm honored to be part of this series. I love the passionate subtitle of it: "Four designers. For stories. One common goal... To make it in the world of handmade."

I can't promise you that after the 12 weeks that this series will run, i will 'have it made', but i will promise you to give some more insight as to what i'm doing in regards to my crafts and my business. The ups and downs. The struggles and the positive breaks.

Read my introduction here and also visit the other designers involved, Dana, Tina and Kristina.

Sticker sets

I used some of the images from the vintage Dutch comics to make stickersets. Kinda like how i made the magnets. I also gave them a protective coating, but instead of magnet backing, these obviously have sticker backings.

Top left: Size: 2.25 x 3"
Translation: "Gosh! I didn't know that! Auntie saves all her papers behind locks." "Leny wouldn't care about one lock!"
Top right: Size: 4 x 2.75"
Translation: "I'm sure that she took something and still i'm not missing anything. Hey, wait a second..."
Bottom left: Size: 2.5 x 1.75"
Bottom right: Size: 4 x 2.5"
Translation: "On Saturday when Judith and Leny arrive for the major sports game..." "Hear the crowd! Look who is busy!" "Wow! Frida! We have two good athletes instead of one!"

Top left: Size: 3.25 x 2.75"
Translation: "I would want to get those ten bucks back that i lent her last month." "You know, i have a date with that guy that moved into our street recently."
Top right: Size: 3 x 2.5"
Translation: "And i threw in immediately..." "And i know that you find me irresistible too! Just like when you asked me out to the movies."
Bottom left: Size: 2.5 x 3"
Translation: "Why can't a boy be on time for once! Gone with that worthless thing!"
Bottom right: Size: 2 x 3.25"
Translation: "But that waiting for him... horrible. I don't wish that to my worst enemy, what do i say, no even to Dorien Snijders. Besides, if it takes too long he won't smell my 'Lucky Spell' anymore."

Top left: Size: 1.75 x 1.75"
Translation: "Hurry up snow shufflers!" I need and will go to Jeroen's house!"
Top right: Size: 2.25 x 2.25"
Translation: "It was horrible what he told and i felt sorry, for him, for those unhappy people and for myself..."
Bottom left: Size: 1.5 x 2"
Translation: "Oooo!"
Bottom right: Size: 2.25 x 2.25"
Translation: "I couldn't believe it..." "So... than i'm rich!" "Yes... twenty thousand pound!"

The first two sets are made from original images, for the last set i used repro images.

Brilliant Award

Darling Tizz over at Tizzalicious gave me an award! Thank you lady, you are too sweet. I have never received an award before! Do i stand up and give a thank you speech? hihi...

There are some rules along with receiving the award:
1) Put the logo on your blog. Just did here in this post.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded you. Click on her blogname above. Please do, her blog is wonderful!
3) Nominate at least 5 other blogs. Oh there are so many great blogs out there that i visit, see my list after these rules.
4) Add links to those blogs on yours. Click their names.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs. I will!

Okay, now for my nominations: (i'm not sure if you ladies already received this award before, but i don't think that makes a difference in me giving you some love)

First let me give the award to Lala @ Lala-on-the-gogo. Her whole site is filled with lots of eyecandy and her blog is one of the greatest. If you love all things cute and vintage, her blog is the place to check out.
Then there is Little Rascal, she is such a sweet lady with a great sense of style which she lovingly shares with all of us on her blog.
Jamie Ferraioli and her Magic Bean Buyer blog. Oh, she makes such cute things!
I love checking in on Willy-Nilly Waterlily and her adventures in craft and cute. How can you not love?
The fifth and final spot on my list is for all that i haven't mentioned here and should have. So if you are reading this and thinking hey, why didn't Ismoyo list my blog? Then this spot is for you!

This all reminds me it is about time i go and update my linkpage!

Moo Stickers

I wanted to order Moo stickers for a while now, and finally i actually did it. They were delivered real quick and look so cute! Especially the stickers of the felted cupcake cuties. I'm going to stick those on to the little white boxes they are in. It makes the packaging a bit cuter and this way i can see which color is inside the box without having to open them all! Oh, sometimes i am so clever.... ;)

Fan with a face

The work in progress that i posted yesterday turned into this. A fan with a face! Like pimp your fan. It is so hot in NY, enough with all the heatwaves already! So we bought another fan for our house. My Love is the best. Why? The first thing he said when i had assembled the fan was "You know it needs a face." I do. I know.

This is what happened the next day. Obviously i hadn't found the time to make a face for the fan yet. So Love took it upon himself to use a sharpie and draw a face! He was trying to make a point here. Baby, please make a face for our fan. Ok, we're crazy like that.

So easy-peasy, while watching a movie, the fan got a face. I know (or do i hope?) there are people out there who understand a fan needs a face. ;)

If you're anything like me and my Love and you want to give your fan a face, it's real easy.
Here is a fast "revamp- your-fan-tutorial":
Dive into your fabric scrap stash, cut a circle as big as the plastic inner circle on the front of the fan. On most fans you can easily take this off, so trace around it for the right size. I used some embellishment glue to attach a white felt circle onto the plastic fan circle. Next i did a quick sketch of how i wanted the face to look like. I cut pieces of felt in the shape for the eyes, brows and mouth and used fabric glue to attach them to the main circle. Place the whole thing back onto the center of the fan and voila! A fan with a face.

I'm thinking of maybe even adding something to the actual fans inside. Not sure what that will do to the breeze, if anything. If i do expand this fan revamp, of course i'll show it here.

New life for letterpress drawer

Another revamp. For sooo long now i've been wanting to get my hands on one of those shadowboxes with many small squares to display my small toys in. You know one of those letterpress drawers. I knew i wanted one and redo it, paint it, make it pretty, ismoyo style. I did find an amazing piece but that was when i was still living in Amsterdam and getting ready for the big move overseas. Not a perfect time to purchase a heavy wooden item. Would not fit easily in my suitcase...

So i told myself i had to wait until i was settled in over here. Not even knowing for sure if these kind of letterpress drawers were a thing you could easily find here. I knew they were a big hit in the Netherlands in the seventies. A lot of houses had one of those on the wall filled with small ceramics.

How happy was i when i discovered this (dusty) piece in a small thriftshop not too far from my home? I was dancing inside.

A while ago, before i found my piece, i got even more inspired to go on a hunt for one, when i saw a revamp of a house shaped shadowbox with lots of squares for display on the Craft Addictions blog. She did a great job painting hers and putting pretty papers as the background. My version was to paint the outside and all the edges/borders between the squares a crisp white and use lots of fabric scraps and modge podge glue for the backgrounds. There was a lot of measuring and cutting to get the fabrics the right sizes, i don't know why, but almost every square was another size then the others.

I could not wait to hang it up on the wall. I choose my favorite wall which i think is perfect for this. Added some small toys and needle felted animals to display and you have new wall decoration and a very very happy me!

Revamped Display Stand

Remember the display stand i found outside on the curb? I finally got around to revamping it!

I started out with cleaning it thoroughly, then i got the idea to do some decoupaging on it. Had pretty napkins to go on there. I haven't made a picture, but believe me, it didn't turn out pretty. It was a mess. So before the modgepodge dried i peeled everything off. It was yucky. Back to square one and further, now there was this sticky mess to clean. My second plan, that did work out, was to use this flowery vintage fabric on it.

I was planning to display my seventies dolls on it, but most of them are still in storage in Amsterdam, and i don't really know where to put the display stand anyway. So now it's just standing here on the floor, all revamped with nothing on it. I am pondering the idea to use it what it is actually meant for, to put plants on it. So maybe i'll be on the thrifting lookout for small planting pots. Until then, it's just a revamped display stand not displaying anything.

Pay it forward #3

I never did show the last Pay it Forward package i had sent out. I made two small fabric mini art pieces and two vintage image bottle cap magnets. They went to Sabine Brandt, just before she went on a trip, so i had to wait with showing it here until she would get back and see them first, then i kinda forgot to post and show off. Better late then never?

Mail sent and mail received

Yesterday was a wonderful mail day. I got some mail sent out and there was some mail received. By me and by people who were waiting to get something from me.
First of all, Suki has been sent on to the first part of her journey!

Then there was the email from Mandy saying that she received my Pay it Forward crafts. I made her two mini (3"x3") fabric art pieces. One with one of my illustrations turned into a felt applique and one with a felt flower on the front. I added two bottlecap magnets with images taken from my vintage postcard collection.
More surprises arrived at new homes. I did a cute and crafty swap with Roxanne and she got the goodies I've sent her. I don't have a picture of all the goodies i put in the box, but do have a picture of what i made for her. I felted this little bear like animal for her. I found this pretty box which made a perfect little home, it fitted like a glove!


Last month i was the very lucky winner of this gorgeous milk glass set from the wonderful blog at happydash! It took awhile for it to arrive here, due to the wonderful service at my local post office (yes, this is sarcastic).
But let's say it was just to build up anticipation and my joy was even greater when it finally did arrive! It is soooo gorgeous i can't even explain. The two cups and plates with their lovely prints and the shape of the plates resemble painters tablets. Oooohhh... loving it, thank you Tonya for spoiling me with these!
And i got even more spoiled when i opened up a surprise package from Jonah of Maluhia Designs. The prettiest and cutest fabric! I really needed to catch my breath for a second. I can't think of any crafty project that is so wonderful that i will be able to really cut in these fabrics. But i'm also aware they are meant for me to use. Maybe one day i'll think of something. Thank you sooo much for this amazing treat!

Personal printed magnets

With tidying up the house i came across a pack of magnet sheets that i had never used and sort of forgot about.
So with a couple of minutes to spare it was time to try them out.
They are easy to use, just put them in the papertray of the printer and print whatever you want on them. And then you cut out the desired size/shape. I used my cutting board and exacto knife, but i guess you can use normal scissors for this too.

Of course i chose to print an original Ismoyo image for my trial runs. And i printed a vintage image that connects with my Indonesian roots. It's an old advertisement for an Indonesian recipe book. Another personal connection with the image is that is was published by "De Bijenkorf" (beehive) which is a large department store where i, as a young girl had my first official job.

Personalized I-pod

My ipod was already personalized from the moment i got her. I had her shipped from asia with a custom engraving on the back. It is a quote from Shakespeare and it says If music is the food of love, play on.
After she had played me many hours of music something terrible went wrong. Oh no! Everything gone! We had a love hate relationship for a while. It just wasn't the same anymore.. I'd put a pink sticker on the side: cruel but cute so I'm worth it. (A happy bunny quote.)
And time heals all wounds so by now i'm loving my ipod again.
In her celebration i used a bunch of nail stickers to make her look extra pretty.

Fabric wallhangings

Still catching up here. I have been wanting to put up these pictures, and I don't know why I couldn't find/make any time to show them. So finally.

They are fabric covered canvases. Can't have enough wall art. I was reminded of them by Meshell's creations a while ago. It took me awhile to get to take pictures of them.


I've gone wild sewing on buttons, fabric, trims and other decorations. I enjoy making color compositions. It feels like everything has it's specific place, even before I even start, their own spot where it belongs. My task is to get them there. Sometimes it works and I get it, but sometimes I don't and that makes me sad..

The girl with the geese on the checkered fabric is a picture I found on one of my vintage children's postcards. I got her onto the fabric trying out the freezer paper fabric printing for the first time. The border under the ducky, or is it another goose? are three different trims stacked on top of each other. The flowers on the right fabric canvas were printed on iron-on paper. Used some scraps of white felt to iron them on to. (think I'll make more of these 'appliques', I like!)

More decorations on fabric. It's like making a collage. One of my favorite pastimes! The lady on the right canvas is my mom. I used the same image on my very fist handmade bag too! And same as with the flowers above, ironed the image onto white felt.

My inspiration box

I was catching up on my blogreading when i read about a inspiration box on Cut Out + Keep Out. Cat posted a tutorial on how to fold a box to use as an inspiration box. Now, i didn't feel like folding, plus if i would make an box for inspiration i want it to last a little while.
Hm. what box to use and upgrade to become the special box of inspiration?
Hold on, didn't i just recently got this pretty shoebox on a lucky day?
It's perfect! It hasn't gotten a purpose yet, no items have found their way to the box yet. Pink fake fur will protect the inspiration. Cut out in a box shape, sewn the tops edges and spray glued it into the box. Since i didn't attach any to the outside, the top of the box still fits perfectly.

Freezer paper fabric printing

I would love to have my own fabric screenprinted. And maybe one day i will. But until then i have to find other creative ways. During my last visit to NY I've bought some original Freezer Paper.
I had read a lot of interesting things about the different kinds of usage of freezer paper, got some tips and tricks from my lovely blogvisitors and got everything i needed to get started. The paper, the fabric, images i wanted printed. I picked some illustrations from vintage children's books and postcards. And then i sat down to think it through. Don't want my beloved printer slash copier slash scanner to break in the process.

In the end it wasn't even that difficult, but it was an adventure doing it. Basically, you just iron the fabric to the freezer paper and run it through your printer.
The freezer paper has a regular paper side and a waxy side. I started by cutting the freezer paper to the size of a regular sheet of printer paper and then lightly ironed the fabric to the waxy side of the freezer paper. If you would want to try this, don't put the iron too hot, medium will do. It will make the paper stick to the fabric and at the same time easy to remove later. When you're ironing check if the paper is sticking to the fabric. If not, just iron some more until it does.
Then cut around the paper through the fabric so they're still stuck to each other, but now the same "printer paper" size. You can also start out by cutting both the fabric and the freezer paper separately and then iron them together, but i like to cut afterwards. You don't want no loose ends go through the printer, the edges must match up, otherwise threads can get stuck inside (yep! happened to me, spoils all the fun of the printing adventure).
When you're sure its ok you can use the sheet of paperfabric like you would a regular sheet of paper in your printer. Maybe stating the obvious; know how you should place the paperfabric sheet (which side up), you want to print on the fabric, not the freezerpaper.
After you hit the print command, let it dry and gently peel the fabric from the freezer paper. You don't have to throw away the freezer paper, you can re-use it a couple of times!

When using this technique you don't want to wash the fabric afterwards. The ink won't hold up. There are waterproof inkjet cartridges on the market and there is a liquid you put on the fabric before you print, but i have neither. So I'll only use my prints in projects that aren't prone to end up in the washing machine.

**Note later today: While doing my blog reading round i just found out that Maria over at One Hour Craft has posted a link to a recently posted tutorial on A Beautiful Craft doing what? Yes, freezer paper fabric printing. I feel a bit silly and slow now. My first instinct was to delete this post of mine, there is no need for it right? But decided not to and leave it here anyway. *feeling soooo unoriginal right now...*

Pink around the house

I have taken some time to make pictures of all things pink around my house as my participation in Project Spectrum. Believe me, I could have gone on for a long time. Yes, I've got a lot of things in pink. Going through my rooms I already started to kinda worry about the next months with the other colors... what to do? Do I even have items in blue or green? That's gonna be the real challenge to come up with some kind of interesting photo collage with the right colortone.

I might make another round through my house next weekend. Because I really passed on some great pink items. Like this small retro looking digital clock a friend of mine once gave me when he came back from being in Canada for a long time. He's a great designer. I'll check and see if I have a url of his website. Ofcourse I'll have to add it to my link page.

And can I take this opportunity to show an earlier made craft project? It is pinkish.
I started out with a small blank wooden chest of drawers and some funky paper napkins. I decoupaged those onto the outside. The borders and insides of the drawers are painted white. The three cuties on top I found one day in a large dollar store in Brooklyn.

Counting down to Christmas!

Christmas is coming! I don't mind the winter cold as long as i can sit inside with the people i love, good food, music and ofcourse some sweet craft projects.

My Christmas tree is fake and it's been with me for years. Last year i did buy a small real tree, but i felt sad when it started to loose the green and turned brown on me in January... So I'm back with my small fake tree. Added a pink guirlande and some lights and voila!

The Christmas ornaments i made by accident. By accident? Yep. I was working on something else which included a couple of tiny pompons. And if you know how to make those, you'll recognize half finished pompons in my ornaments. I only added a string and a cute little Christmas bell.
I hung them on the lamp in the middle of my livingroom. Now i bump in to them everytime i walk there. The sound of the little bells makes me smile.