Yesterday I started my 365 project (read more about that here), and I started it off with making this tiny little grungy squash book (2×2 inches). I didn’t get a good photo yesterday so I wanted to add some. I’ve never done one of these before, but thanks to this awesome tutorial by Rach0113 it went totally OK and I’m pretty pleased with mine!
Have a look at her tutorial on YouTube and don’t forget to give her thumbs up!
Neat, huh? Get those inks out!
I hope to put some tiny family photos in this sometime in the future, it’s perfect for small wallet sized photos and some tiny notes!
Ok, so not only is it Friday, I’m also completely addicted to Pinterest. It’s a complete flood of inspiration and colour (and pictures of delicious cakes, for some reason), and as I’m pinning things to my boars they grow and overwhelm. If you EVER have any lack of inspiration, look no further. But also, be warned that it’s hard to close down you browser once you start.
It’s a bit like ending up spending a day googling random interesting things, except, people have done it for you.
I can’t help it, I just think they are funny. Fuh-Nyh! What project doesn’t get a boost from googly eyes? Old stamp motifs or funny shapes get another dimension. (Plus: Boring baby pictures? Boring photo of your granny? The answer: Googly eyes!). I used quite a lot of them on the X-mas cards I made the other month (note to self: don’t forget to actually SEND the X-mas cards this year), and then I couldn’t stop myself, I put them on everything. Anyway, I found a lot of inspiring googly-eye-nutters on Flickr, enjoy!
Tricks was the one who got me hooked on making jewellery, she makes the most original and personal things. By chance I found a couple of silver acorn pendants in a shop near our work the other day, and I thought of her instantly. At first I thought I’d have a go at making her a pair of earring for x-mas, but then I just couldn’t, because I just know she’ll make something amazing out of them, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with!
She instantly sent me this inspirational picture, and what can you say? I just wish I had long nails and knew somebody who could paint them for me like this!
Tuesday! We start with the “make-your-own-flower embellishment” challenge, moving through the “make-your-own-spring-is-coming embellishment” challenge (ideas are forming), leading up to the semifinals, date to be announced later, where we conlcude with the “make-the-bestest-spring-card-evah” challenge.
After a couple of hours of concentrated embellish-making, dinner will be served at Casa Royale de Tricks.
Now, I am just as psyched as Jen about G45, I mean, I never knew it could actually physically hurt to know that there are papers out there that I do not yet own, but there you go… seriously, I am in love with their designs and color schemes.
On another note, I felt I needed to share this. You NEVER KNOW where you will find a creative streak and an artistic itch waiting to be scratched. My boss actually gave me the tip that led to the find, so all cred goes to Staffan the Hoff for his insights. This guy is just too much, and who knew that middleaged overwheight men in Minnesota could be so creative. I just love the fact that this man, once he found something he cared enough about, took the time and the pains to do his thing. Plus I laugh every time I see the result. With no prior skills or knowledge of how to go about things, he set out and accomplished the task he wanted. That is just amazing, and to me, shows that there is a scrapper in all of us!
Visiting the CHA Convention would be like going to Disneyland. I would really love to go sometime, but living in tiny old Sweden, oceans away, and not being a millionaire, that dream will have to wait a couple of years. Thank gawd for the Internet, right? Blogs reporting directly from the fair, discussions going on online, web shops bringing in the new stuff for me to squander my money on.
But like any trend it takes a while for some stuff to get here. Some products catch on here in no time, some takes a bit longer, depending. Say for example that us Swedish scrappers in totally caught up in cute pastels and romantic lace at the moment, then something bolder might take a while to get rooted.
And also, we have so many great little web shops here, run by scraplovers: small, personal, diverse. Of course what will be sold in those stores will often reflect the taste of those running it. So, say for instance that there is a lemon green trend going on over seas - that might not catch on because web shop owners would rather sell what they think is pretty. Good and bad, see ? If I had a web shop, of course I wouldn’t sell anything I didn’t like myself. The contents of Swedish scrap stores often directly reflect our own “local” trends.
Don’t get me wrong though *grin*. Like any devoted scrapper us Swedish ones are quite eager to find and incorporate as many new things as we can get our hands on ;)
For instance, the Graphic 45 “Fashionista” paper line! I want to run around screaming “They’re here, they’re here!”, because now that I’ve seen them I don’t know how I ever lived without them. I have a gargantuan soft spot for anything vintage and those papers just give “that feel”. If I could I’d make a paper pyjama and sleep in it I would, but it’s just unpractical… It’s been out for a year but hasn’t been a common brand in Swedish stores, but look at them! Every paper is like a gem! Each one gives me a million ideas!
Graphic 45 got Best of Show in the CHA Summer convention 2008, for exhibiting with excellence. Wow, I’d have loved to see that exhibit. I’ve done my fair share of conventions and fairs and it ain’t easy making an exhibit look inviting and accessible, and keep up the good spirit during the entire show!
All in all, what can I say? I am in love. Me and Tricks very quickly ordered some of these papers, they are on their way in the mail now! Can’t wait!
I feel so horrid, here Jen has posted all these amazing posts, and from me, the one on vacation… nothing. Squat. Absolutely nada.
In my defense, I did come down with the worst cold I have had for probably 3 years, I have been out of it for almost 2 weeks! Anyways, enough on that. I remember when we went looking for shrink plastic, that was so much fun, we borrowed a car and drove to all our favourite spots for scrapbooking supplies. That card Jen made with the little coffee cup embellishment is just so cute. She used so many techniques on it and it looks GREAT!
One of the things I love about our scrapbooking is that we do many things together, Jen and I. Most of the things mean so much more to me than just a trip to the store. We discuss ideas and talk about different techniques. Along with all other aspects of life. Many out there scrapbook by themselves, and ofcourse the majority of my scrapping is done at home. But don’t be afraid to pack it all up and go enjoy your hobby together with a friend, an aquaintance or just an organized group at a store. Even with all the carrying and worrying about papers and inks, it is worth it. The joy of sharing your hobby with people is great. Plus, every time I scrap with Jen I am so inspired. She does all these wonderful things and combines techniques in ways I would never have thought of! Not to mention the cards that she makes are just beautiful, well designed and expertly executed.
This past Saturday I was invited to dinner at my moms to celebrate my nephews first birthday. So my plans for the day were to go shopping during the day and then go have dinner with my family. I was pleasantly surprised by a textmessage that I recieved, comparatively early on Saturday morning. A friend of ours, which I haven’t seen for a while, asking if I wanted to take a walk in the city today and maybe go for a cup of coffee. Was I ever interested! I called her up and we met up in the city. First on the list was get a present for my nephew.
He will look awesome in his new Barbapapa shirts that I got from Åhlens. After I got the gifts for him, we went for a stroll down at the waterfront. Walking along we come to a staircase leading down, and a streetlight. But not just any streetlight!
Unexpected Streetlights
Even the smallest parts of our comminty deserves good, well-lit housing! It made me so happy that someone out there in our city took the time to beautify this streetlight. Finding these little houses really warmed me and put a smile on my face. Houses on streetlights, now part of the scraposphere!
Ok, so we had our outing! It was an overall wonderful day. We started off by going swimming, well deserved and oh so relaxing. Jen has some excellent fotage of our actual outing, I am going to show off my first attempts at actually carving my own stamp.
Now, I remember from school when I did this that it is not as easy as it looks, the material doesn’t always work with you, so I decided to try something fairly straightforward. An acorn. Now, I didn’t get this idea out of the blue, I love acorns and I know for a fact that Jen loves acorns too. So much that I actually gave her a necklace with acorns for her birthday. We were both wearing our acorn necklaces (cause I had to get the same kind for myself), and I happen to have 2 beautiful candleholders that look like acorns.
The acorn candleholder
I got the candleholder at www.lagerhaus.se. Both the tablecloth and the lovely little container (that Jen gave me a pair of) are from www.ahlens.se.
Alright, so on to the carving. I sketched out the acorn I wanted to make on a regular piece of paper using a pencil. Then I turned the paper upside down onto the lino and held it firmly in place while I rubbed the image with my high tech butterknife. This way I got a phantom image on the lino, and I filled in the edges with black and got to carving. it worked pretty well, the actual carving takes a lot, a LOT of concentration and after this little snibbet, I was beat.
the Carving of the Acorn
I think that when all was said and done, it turned out pretty ok. Alright, I love it. I shouldn’t, but seriously, it looks really nice, I am going to mount it so I can actually stamp with it, because lino is a really really numb material, and when you stamp you really want some flex so that the image is transferred properly. This is what the end result looked like:
Stamped image and original sketch
These were my first attempts. Jen really got into it also, and no holding back for her! She drew this wonderful swirly intricate leaf that turned out just wonderful! I will let her post pics of that!
/Tricks
Oh, and a big THANK you to Jen, who made a manual of how to link properly, make better images and how to upload and everything! Without that manual, my post would look very differnt (read horrible).
