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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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Vanja Utne is a Norwegian illustrator and artist that I love. She makes wonderful art, and her illustrations are so charming and just looking at them makes me smile. She’s also the creator of one of my favourite comics on the web.
Go visit her site and check out her wonderful stuff at CheesePirate.com:
So, this Christmas she sent out some Frostfell cardswith her own illustrations on it, and she sent one to me! It was totally one of the highlights during the holidays, and certainly one of the nicest cards I’ve gotten. I wanted to send her a card back, but also, I couldn’t help but make these Cheese Pirate earrings. Handmade, custom made and limited edition *wink*, these are the only ones, and only for Vanja!
This character is Lunch, the rodent bard:
I love this little rattie so he got some dangly hearts to hang out with him. And this is the cheese pirate, with some shiny loot (because he’s a pirate. So he needs some treasure. But I didn’t add any cheese):
I’m looking forward to seeing more art from Vanja, and I hear rumours of the possible publishing of a book soon. I’ll pre-order mine!
Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe!
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 Christmas I wanted to make something handmade in silver for my friend Andrea, just to show her my appreciation. She’s been cheering me up and being very supportive, but we don’t get to hang out as much as I’d like. I decided to make a pair of earrings. I found a pair of sterling silver hoops that were perfect, and wanted a star theme (we both love stars, an it a theme that suits her!).
I gotta tell you though; making all these tiny silver stars was a bit of a pain in the arse, especially getting the holes for the hoop the right size without breaking the clay. But once they dried and I’d mended them with some paste, I could sand them down and polish them a bit. In the end they turned out great!
The burning process is one of my favourite parts about making PMC jewellery. It’s a little piece of magic, really. That thing you’ve been working on that looks so grey and dull suddenly bursts into flame and turns into pure silver. It’s pretty awesome, and it’s always very exciting to see the result!
Mixing it up with a colour perfect for my friend, this was the end result:
I’m really happy with the finished product, as soon as I pierce my ears I might make a pair for myself ;)
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www.scraplagret.se, a great Swedish web shop, has a fun challenge every month. The October challenge was to create a layout, a card, something altered or whatever seemed fun, in a christmas theme, but in non-traditional christmas colours. The deal was to use pink, turquoise or/and purple. Now, what I really like about challenges, especially ones like these, is that it makes you think outside your own tiny, little box. Would I have made a christmas card in turquoise if not for this challenge? Probably not. I would probably have stuck to gren, red and gold. So there you go, challenges are fun. I will have to do more!
And this is the card! Keep your fingers crossed:
Time to get into that christmas spirit, peeps! 70 days left to find those pressies to your loved ones! Woo!
I’ve been wanting to try this out for a couple of years now, but just haven’t gotten around to it. I remember as a kid when my dad used to show me how to solder (he’s an electrician, so he had a lot of skill). I remember when I started pre-school and my mum got her first job after her maternity leave, soldering circuit boards and mother boards for computers. She also had a lot of skill! So when I saw a video about soldering charms a few years back I thought: “Hey, THAT I can do!”. Well, some skills are just not inherited, and some does definitely not come naturally to me.
Getting the supplies has been kind of a challenge, actually. I have ventured into many hardware stores asking questions about soldering and flux gel and copper tape, and since they are generally not artsy and craftsy they have been giving me very strange looks. I actually got a “Little missus, you should visit your local craft store instead” today.
Well, my boo helped me get a soldering station on a bargain and I just couldn’t keep putting it off any more. I finally found a place that sold some thin glass pieces (why are THOSE so hard to find? I’ll have to go into glass fusing next) and I was found standing in my little kitchen today, windows open, smoke from the soldering up my nose, giving this charm making a first try. I failed on so many accounts, and it’s crude so say the least, but here it is:
 First try. Paper from Graphics 45 It was only my first try after all. I’ll try again. Preferably with a kitchen fan close by, ’cause I’m feeling a bit woozy. But it was FUN. Tools, you gotta love to have tools.I’ll do better next time!
My friend Natalie had a birthday a few weeks back. I hadn’t seen her in a while and I was kind of busy with work so I couldn’t go to her party. But I wanted to send her something, so I stared thinking of making her a pair of earrings. Natalie is such a great woman with a background in martial arts and Egyptian dancing. She’s been studying to become a teacher for several years, and is now working as one. She is strong and colourful and feminine. So she is the inspiration for these earrings:
 Earrings for the b-day girl!  And a close-up
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