Clarebeth decided she wanted to go the carnival of Venice (or Carnevale di Venezia in Italian). She could be mysterious and a little naughty, and maybe even be a completely different person than she was in everyday life.The idea intrigued her.

She might even meet the handsome stranger of her daydreams.

Clarebeth made this beautiful mask to wear during the Carnevale. She also decided to learn more about the original masks Venetians made for the festival.

Ventian masks can be made in leather or with the original papier-mâché technique. The original masks were rather simple in design and decoration.

http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/venice-carnival-dates.htm

http://www.jann-van-brugge.com/pages/carnaval-venise.htm

http://venetianmasksshop.com

http://carnivalofvenice.tv

Is anyone selling Decopatch on etsy.com? Thinking about it?

If you are, let us know. We’ll be glad to put a link to to your shop/showcase.

Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade. Their mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.

How did everyone like the Webisode? I thought it was really great. Jami did a fabulous job.

I think the puzzle idea is very creative and would be a great project for kids. I especially like the photo frames at the end of the episode. I loveeeeeeee the black and white floral design.

Fifi was scheduled for an interview with Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue. She was applying for the job as her new fashion muse. Fifi figured she better get a new outfit for the occasion, and impress Ms. Wintour with her fashion smarts.

So, she shopped around via the web, and assembled this stunning ensemble…

A giraffe bracelet by Kenneth Lane - http://www.maxandchloe.com/

Some pumps by Oh Deer

And a cute little dress she saw on Ivalde’s Heim, a fashion blog from Norway!

Look for the announcement on Vogue!

The girls are thrilled!  Their beloved New York Rangers are in the national hockey league playoffs!  Well, all except Clarebeth, who is a New Jersey Devils fan, and felt sad and let down when the Rangers knocked them out of the playoffs.  She’s consoling herself by thinking they could mash them into the boards next year!

One of their quilter friends from Pittsburgh is naturally a big Penguins fan.  Dolly plans on booing Jaromir Jagr every time he touches the puck.  Dolly knows this is going to incense Pico-Pico, who is such a big Ranger fan and wears Jagr’s jersey even when she watches the games on TV. Dolly on the other hand adores “Sid the Kid” and now that it is playoffs, she is wearing the cap everywhere.

It’s gonna be intense!  Will their friendship survive…?

Tiki, Fifi’s cousin at the Oakland Zoo, is getting her own bespoke coat. She was feeling the cold of the damp Bay Area winters, so the staff got in touch with a horse-blanket designer who agreed to donate her services to tailor a coat for Tike.

Someone had suggested a leopard print in order to freak out the other giraffe’s, but good taste prevailed and her new winter coat will be forest green and feature a removable liner for those in-between days.

COME THE BEGINNING OF APRIL WWW.DECOPATCHUSA.COM WILL BE SHUT DOWN.

No worries though, we are simply combining our USA site with the French site WWW.DECOPATCH.COM.

The blog will stay up and running so keep on stopping by and sending us your pictures because we love to see what you all are up to.

Fifi wants to gather all her friends and familly for a PARTY! If you have any images of crafts, decorations, decor, or pretty much anything with giraffes, send us some PICTURES!!

Have you ever seen those blank mannequin/body forms in art stores and not know what you could actually do with them?  Well here are two examples from Damselfly Crafts located in Glasgow.

Kako Ueda creates incredibly intricate and beautiful artworks from cut paper. Seen here is a detail from “Tree of Life.”

From Ueda’s artist statement:

Cut paper exists in many cultures and is normally perceived as a craft medium. In Japan where I was born, this medium is used for stencil making — a way to make patterns for kimono wear. I became attracted to the medium because of its history as well as its process of cutting to make images. Cut paper piece has a look of a drawing at the same time has its own physicality.

I am interested in organic beings — insects, animals, and human bodies — how they are born out of nature but constantly influenced and modified by culture.

One of the reasons that Greeks and Romans made so many impressive stone and marble sculptures is because these materials must have been abundant in these areas. So the same logic would apply to Japanese people’s love of paper. Japanese traditional paper (wa-shi) is made from certain trees that are easily cultivated in their soil. And there is something in the Japanese psyche that finds beauty in impermanence and fragility. What is attractive about paper to me is that it is easy to manipulate… but at the same time, under the right conditions, some paper materials (books/manuscripts) will survive for centuries. Life can be fragile but, at the same time, very tenacious.

See more on her art site - www.kakoueda.com