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I think I’m getting addicted to Shimelle Laine’s Starting Points! See, I have this stack of printed photos that I just adore, and I have had a hard time getting started on them. Shimelle’s Starting Points seems to be exactly what the doctor ordered. I can look at her Starting Point, have a photo in mind but quickly make a base for a layout and then tweak it. Suddenly I see some favourite moments down on a page, and that makes me very happy. So, off I went to take a stab at this weeks layout.
Although spring is here, and I am looking forward to some happy sunshiny days like crazy, the photo that really got me singing this week was one from mine and Jed’s first Christmas, a photo of my adorable in-laws from when they came to visit. Me and jed live in Sweden, but his family is form the UK, so sadly we don’t get to see them very often. We try to go over there twice a year, but that first Christmas his parents came to see us! After some debate we decided to cook them an English Christmas dinner, rather than a Swedish (i.e. more roast than pickled herring).
Cooking the dinner actually went allright! And it was a lot of fun. Certainly my first time cooking an English Christmas dinner, but hopefullly not the last. But what I remember the most from that evening was that we all seemed to be in a really silly, happy mood, toasting and laughing. Scottish poetry was recited and there was even some dancing going on in my living room! Completely priceless, if you ask me.
So even if it might seem a bit oddball to do a Christmas layout in the beginning of April, I for one am very happy I got this photo into my album. And I’ve hardly ever used my Christmas themed papers for anything else than cards before, so at least I made a small dent in my stash. Yay!
I should have posted these pics at Christmas, but here they are, a bit late!
My mum is such a sweetheart, and I love her so much. So, of course, if I can custom a gift for her that is unique and shows her how much I care, I will try my darndest! And as a crafter, giving a gift to ones mother is of course the optimal thing to do. Nobody loves your handmade gifts as much as your mum *wink*
I wanted to make my mum a PMC (precious metal clay) silver pendant for Christmas, and I thought about the deign for quite some time. I’ve just started out making things in this material, and just started out making my own designs, so, of course, I wanted to get it just right. I wanted it to mean something.
This is how it turned out in the end:
The front is quote simple, making the hearts more visible. The rectangular shape finishes off is in a scroll-like manner. However, if you turn it around, it looks like this:
The backside has an intricate, swirl pattern that is stamped by hand. I just loved the idea of it as a little secret, a hidden detail just for my mum to wear. There is also my signature, of course, and the PMC 999 stamp.
It’s always a bit nervous giving someone a handmade gift. The handmade look is not for everyone, naturally, and what I think is beautiful is not in everyone’s taste. But my mum seemed very happy, and I a got a big hug, and I think she got a bit teary-eyed (so did I), so I think she liked it. Which makes my heart very happy.
I hope you liked it too! If you want to see some of the other items I’ve made, make sure to check out my Etsy shop. Thank you for stopping by!
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Handmade decos are always a nice touch to a card or a scrapbook layout, I think. It just feels great to be able to make something from scratch from the supplies you have, and it gets a little more personal, which is what I always want with my Christmas cards. Sometimes a Christmas card is only thing you send someone that year, maybe to a friend or a loved one that lives far away and you’ve haven’t had a chance to see or talk to in a while. That’s why it feels important to me; I want the recipient to know I’m thinking about them.
So here are some of the Christmas cards I made this year. I decided to hand paint some baubles with watercolour. I really can’t paint at all, but this technique is fairly easy: Draw a circle on some watercolour paper, dampen the circle with water, then add colour, a little bit at a time.Make it a bit darker around the edges and leave a little spot where you don’t put any colour at all, which makes it look a bit shiny.
When deciding on size, I punched out a circle with one of my punches and used that as a template. That made it easy to punch out the baubles perfectly circular after I’d painted them. Also, I used some of my small snowflake- and heart stamps to make a decorative pattern. I stamped the pattern in water resistant ink before I added the watercolour. Lastly I sprayed the baubles with some shimmer mist. To make the card a little dimensional I adhered the baubles with some foam dots.
I was really pleased with these cards, I wanted to make more like them, but I went on to other ideas, more posts to come!
Stay safe, everyone. :)
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I mentioned earlier about my friend who loves stars *S* So of course I made her a Xmas card with stars on it as well! I chose to just put the word “merry” on the front, because that’s exactly how she makes me feel :)
I love making my own Xmas cards and being able to make them a bit more personal. I’m so happy that it seems like the cards made it out in time!
This years pile of Christmas cards, I’m sending them out today! Close shave, but I managed to get all the cards done and put in addressed envelopes in time. Today is the last date to send off your Xmas cards in Sweden, if you want to be sure they make it out in time.
I really had fun this year with the Xmas cards; some were more personal than others, but all in all I managed to do a great variety of cards! Beats making 25-30 cards exactly the same, as I used to do a few years back. Back then I was obsessed with them all matching and looking the same, until one day, when I came to the conclusion that that was BORING, and it wasn’t like the recipients had started a secret club who’d have yearly meetings where they’d compare the results of all my postcards they’d gotten. Don’t limit your own creative freedom! That’d just be silly :)
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The Christmas cards needs to go in the mail next week if they are to arrive in time, especially the ones I’m sending overseas. So I have to get a move on! I thought I’d done rather well so far, but when I sat down and reviewed my list I realised I still have a few to make. Gah! Glue glue glue! My problem might be that I never like to make the same type of cards more than a couple of times, 2-4 for the most of any card. It’s much more fun that way, getting to try new techniques and motifs and colours. But I guess it’s not so great when it comes to speed and productivity, hehe…
I like to add handmade embellishments to whatever I make, if I can manage. So I tried to paint these X-mas baubles in watercolour. I don’t really know how to paint but painting different layers of the different shades worked out quite well. I made them the same size as one of my circle punches, do cutting them out was a breeze. I have soem pics of the finished X-mas cards to post, I just need to get them off my camera. But here’s a sneak peek at least! Have to get back to stamping and gluing and making more cards! *Hurries back to my crafting nook*
P.S. What’s the chance of me setting up a Craft Signal light, like in Batman? It could be a monkey. I could flash it towards the ceiling and make an alarm noise and run to my work space shouting: “To The Craft Cave!”… Seriously have to look into this… It feel very important… Maybe I should write a theme tune…
I had a completely scrappy weekend! On Saturday I met my friend Andrea at an art supplies shop to buy some pretty papery goodies, and then we spent almost 9 hours in complete frenzy scrapping a wedding album for her sister. And we finished it! And made it look awesome! It’s just something about adding all the photos into a context and a complete story that makes them just a little bit more amazing to look at.
Sunday I spent with my dear mom, making Christmas cards. It was ages since we did something together just her and me, so I felt really grateful we had the chance to schedule that day in. She made so many pretty cards, I just had to sneak some photos of them and share. We have completely different styles, so it’s always surprising and fun to see how she’s gonna end up using her supplies!
We ended the weekend with a nice dinner, my mum, dad, Jed and I, shared a bottle of wine, talked about crafty things. I’m lucky to have a family that indulge me, they let me go on and on about my ideas and plans. I feel like I talked their ears off. Maybe I should get out of my crafty corner more….
I have started making some Christmas ornaments, and of course the most fun is to make something for your family. I decided to make these little hearts for my mum and dad to put in this tree, and I wanted them to look a bit vintage, so I painted the hearts in several layers of paint and then sanded the edges down a bit. When I decoupaged them I added some crackle glaze on top.
The photos are of me and my brother when we were growing up, and there is also one of our old family dog, who we all miss dearly. I thought this would be a nice way to add some memory keeping to our Christmas, and something a bit different than a mini album or a scrapbook page. There are so many fun ways to preserve those memories!
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I think it’s fun to add a little extra, not only to the Christmas card itself, but also to the envelope. It makes it all the merrier to find it in the mail, don’t you think? A pretty envelope with your name written by hand, and a little something extra cute, at least you’ll know for sure it wont be a boring invoice ;)
I got these little stamps with a crafting magazine, and they were perfect for this! I stamped them on a nice thick paper with water-resistant ink, and then hand-painted them with watercolours. The motifs are tiny! It took some patience. But overall I’m pretty pleased, they feel very cheerful!
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It is a bit frustrating before the holidays, I really want to spend days and days crafting and doing fun projects and X-mas gifts for my loved ones, but there is just too little time. Suddenly there’s only a few days left. It’s just ironic that the time when one has the most cheer and enthusiasm to do something there is just NOT enough time to do it. I need to win a lottery or something so I can take December off!
I sent out all my X-mas cards in time though, and even managed to take a few photos of them, even though they don’t look all that good. Taking photos of projects during winter is not the easiest thing to do in Sweden. Good daylight conditions is pretty much out from October to April. But I cranked up the ISO on my camera and turned on all my X-mas lighting and my living room and almost blinded myself with little desk light, so hopefully some of them can be posted here. Soon. As soon as I find time!
I did NOT do as well as our friend Malin however, who has been making her own candles AND made a whole crate of beautiful X-mas cards to send out. Amazing! I’ve seen her craft in person a couple of time now, she just goes for it, she is so efficient and still manages to make both fun and beautiful projects. I bet her friends and family will be pleased to get one of these:
Colour me impressed!
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