Perhaps you're snowed in right now or fierce winds and rainstorms are dampening your spirits... or even if you're lucky enough to live where the weather is glorious, there's [almost] always time to enjoy a papercraft kit. It's so satisfying to make something special, try a new technique, or just plain take your mind off your cares for a couple of hours. Have a look at these potential mood lifter kits that I found on Etsy.      

Paper jewelry is anything but ordinary and it’s more popular than ever! While Valentine’s Day might inspire searches for heart-themed designs, symbols of love and artistic craftsmanship are timeless.   Modern and Minimalist Paper Jewelry   Monica Peksa (featured previously ) in Austria designs sleek, contemporary paper jewelry that's worthy of a second look. These stylish earrings feature a heart-inspired silhouette , while the pair below is elegant with its green-grey and gold color palette. Isn't it surprising that it is crafted from mundane corrugated cardboard?

A Google Alert led me to a very nice segment on CTV News about collage artist Merrideth MacDonald of Hunky Dunky Dory Paper Art . With a site name like that, I suspected it would be fun to learn more about Meredith and her hobby-turned-career of creating magazine paper collages. I wasn't wrong... she has a sense of humor as many of her Instagram post captions prove.

I've written before about my stash of handmade quilled cards that have never seen the light of day. I was thinking I might do another how-to book, but I've moved on from that idea (and the zillion hours that would be required). Instead, it's more fun to dole them out on this blog every now and then, and so today I'll share a couple more designs to give you ideas for making quilled cards that won't take a ton of time.  

One of my neighbors must have put up a new bird feeder recently, because there's been an influx of feathered friends in the yard. I've been googling the more unusual ones and even spotted an owl one dark, drizzly morning. I wonder if it was Siri who picked up on my newfound interest in birding and shared the info with Instagram... I'm suddenly seeing lots of bird posts. In fact, IG is where I was introduced to the graceful paper bird sculptures of Lucy Jean Green , many of which include a kinetic mechanism.

(In Other Words... When Things Don't Go as Planned)   For the past year (at least!) I've had a little pile of quilled marquises and tight coils on my desk that have been patiently waiting for me to assemble them into a necklace pendant. I don't know why I never made time to finish the project, other than the fact that I didn't need the pendant for any particular purpose. But recently, I did... a top I planned to wear to a holiday get together would look nice with silver-edge black paper. Thus, this new necklace made it into reality at long last.