I have been collecting glass paperweights for several years now. I usually find them at our local flea market in Alameda, CA. They've always seemed magical to me. Miniature worlds encased in glass. When I saw a tiny glass bowl at an import store (probably used as a salt cellar or condiment bowl) I got the idea to turn the bowl upside down, fill it with baubles, seal it on the bottom and turn it into a glass paper weight. Easy breezy, right?

    You can customize them by using old photographs, ephemera, tiny vintage bits and pieces and lovely sentiments. Make these as gifts or party favors. Try encasing your guests’ names beneath the glass domes at your next party.

Gather:
Small Glass Bowl
Vintage wallpaper, photo or ephemera
Matte Board
Felt
Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
Spray Adhesive
White Glue
Scalloped Craft Scissors
Small Embellishments (to fit under glass bowl)
Pencil
Marker

Create:
1)    Spray the back of vintage wallpaper (or other background paper) with spray adhesive and adhere onto the matte board.

2)    Place the glass bowl upside down onto the area of wallpaper (or other paper) that you want to have show through the glass and trace around the rim with pencil.

3)    Remove the bowl. Using the scalloped craft scissors cut the matte board ¼” away from the pencil line.

4)    Place the bowl upside down onto the felt and trace with marker. Remove bowl. Cut ¼” in from the line with scissors and use white glue to adhere the felt to the bottom side of the matte board. Now your paperweight won’t scuff what’s underneath.

5)    Now for the fun part. Add embellishments using hot glue. Make sure that the embellishments will be within the rim of the bowl. Use millinery flowers, bits of old jewelry, small gems –anything your might decorate a scrap book page with should work.

6)     Hot glue the rim of the glass bowl onto the wallpaper.

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This week I was a featured designer on The Jolly Jabber, the blog of The Fat Quarter Shop at fatquartershop.com.

They're an online fabric store that carry my fabrics. The blog entry is about my Christmas Snowflower collection, already out for purchase! Plenty of time to start creating holiday gifts.

Below is a photo of my paintings before they were scanned into the computer and turned into the fabric collection.

Click here to see the entry!

 

 

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Remember when I wrote that I had a lot of summer travelling to do? It’s not over yet! That’s why I’ve been away from writing blog entries for the past couple of weeks.

I just got back from another week in New York City. Aside from business meetings, window-shopping, and museum going, my family and I wanted to complete another routine NYC stop: Veniero’s Pasticceria!

This Italian bakery has been around since 1894 - in the same family and the same location! Their cheesecake and cannolis are famous throughout the city.

My husband Danny loves their Black Forest cake (chocolate cake with rum, filled with amaretto infused cherries and whipped cream.) Danny’s step mother, who lives in NYC, is a big fan of Sfogliatelle (flaky pastry is filled with sweet ricotta cheese) and we always pick some up for her before we visit.  

The funny thing is that after I hired my assistant, Katrina, I found out that her family owns Venireo’s! So this time when we went for our customary visit, we made sure to say hello to her Dad, Robert, and Uncle Angelo. They were beyond hospitable! After we introduced ourselves, they rolled out the red carpet. We were given a tour of the whole place, even into the bakery where we watched the bakers create the famous desserts. At each station Robert and Angelo gave us a taste of the process. When we sat down in the café, they piled cookies, pastries, and cakes onto plates and filled the whole table up! Unbelievably delicious. As if this wasn’t enough, we were given shopping bags filled with even more sweets before we left. We managed to eat those over the next few days, just in case you were wondering!

 

 

 

If you’re ever in the area, I highly highly suggest visiting Veniero’s. It’s located at 342 East 11th St. & 1st Ave. They even ship pastries all over the country! I think Danny has some plans to order a Black Forest cake soon. Check out their site at venierospastry.com.

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Hello!

This week I created not just a facebook page, but a facebook fan page for Dena Designs. I'm brand new to facebook.com, but hopefully you're not and you can become a fan of my page! I hope to keep it updated along with this blog as much as possible, and the great thing is that you can add comments and links, as well. If you've been waiting for a really good reason to join facebook - this could be it! That's why I joined.

The Dena Designs fan page on facebook is here.

 

 

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I’m back home! The Surtex Show in New York City and the Licensing Show in Las Vegas were big successes. But my travels are not over yet; I have meetings all over the country for the rest of the summer. 

I want to share with you some inspirational furniture I saw last month in NY at my favorite home department store in Manhattan: ABC Carpet & Home. This store I a must see! I took my camera inside and captured what’s new and hip in the home dec world.

 

 

 

I love the bold colors and textures. ABC Carpet & Home is located at 888 & 881 Broadway New York, NY. What do you think? Do you have a favorite store that inspires you?

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Hi everybody!

Sorry I haven't written in a couple of weeks. I'm still not home in my sunny studio. I'm now in Las Vegas for the Licensing Show! Surtex in NY was a big success, and I plan on writing more about both when things settle down again. and it was so good to see my daughter Rachel! In the meantime, check out my photos on my flickr page. 

 xo, 

Dena

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Things in my studio have been so fast paced for the past week. Tomorrow I will be leaving for New York City! I’ll be there one week for this weekend’s Surtex Show which features licensed artists and designers from all over the world.  And even better will be seeing my daughter Rachel who goes to school at the Fashion Institute for Technology in Manhattan. When I’m at Surtex I’ll be sure to take pictures of my decorated booth which will hopefully have a sheer, sparkly blue and green tent canopy on top (as long as it stays put)! I’ll probably be back on my blog in two weeks or so.

Xo
Dena

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