Christmas decor

On my Christmas break I have had time to play a little in my crafting corner. In the beginning of December I bought some Christmas stars at a local grocery store. They were a little plain, but I had an idea for how to decorate them. I made 2 poinsettias out of 3 mm foam, die cut some poinsettia leaves out of parchment and cut out some silver pine branches. I used dies from Spellbinders and Marianne Design. Finally I decorated with some red frosted berries, which I also bought at the grocery store. This is the end result:

This is my last blogpost of 2017 so I wish you all a Happy New Year. See you in 2018.

A Christmas layout

A while back I made this Christmas layout. The picture is a from 2008 and is one taken by a photographer for our Christmas cards that year.

I have used papers from Maja Designs Christmas collections "A Gift for You" and "Home for the Holidays" and from "Vintage Frost Basics" plus some white cardstock. The 2 chipboard baubles are from Scrapiniec. I have used dies from Sizzix, Crealies and Precious Marieke. I used gesso and a stencil from Carabelle Studio for the scripture. All edges are distressed and I have used some silver thread, silver star half pearls and silver Stickles for decoration.

Here are a couple of close ups of the layout:

Christmas gift tags

I also made several gift tags this year:

The bottom ones were really easy to make, I used some Dixi Craft toppers and a die from Nellie Snellen (the same die I used for almost all of the tags), and I was able to get two tags out of every topper. On some of the tags I added snowflakes and trees.

Christmas cards 2017

Merry Christmas !!!

Wauw, where did December go? It went by really fast in my opinion. But I shouldn't be too surprised about that, since I get that feeling every year ☺.

I managed at the very last minute to make my last Christmas cards in order to get them mailed in time to arrive before Christmas. Here they are:

I have used all kinds of different brands of paper and dies for my Christmas cards.

Art class at work

Sometimes at work we have some art classes arranged by the employee association. This one that I just participated in was about learning to use different kinds of ink, and how you could play with them. The hard part is seeing something in the splatters you make and bringing it out in your picture. What we did was putting a few drops of ink on the paper, then turning the paper up, down and side to side in order to get the ink to spread. You can also make some areas of the paper a little wet before adding the ink in order to get some other effects. Then you let the ink dry for a little bit and then wash it off. After the paper has dried you can then continue with a new color and so on.

I missed the first session, and we didn't play with colors every time, so for these I used some extra papers the teacher had. I'm not so happy with these, because I'm not so crazy about the colors, but it was fun to see if I could spot something in the splatters.

As you can see, I have tried to draw around what I saw and on some of them I have added extra color to highlight it, and in the tree I drew a few birds.

But I was also very lucky and made 2 very nice pictures that I might actually hang on my walls here at home:

The seal just appeared by itself, all I did was draw around the body and the eye and add the two white spots in the eye, to make it look alive.

On the picture with the flowers I tried to control the colors and which way they ran, and I think I did a pretty good job with that. This is by far my best picture, and it was also the last on I made in the class. I would have made more like this if I had had more time. I don't think it'll be something that I'll be doing at home since it is very messy.

Lemoncrafts new collection "Violet Silence"

Lemoncraft has just released their amazing new collection "Violet Silence".

As the name hints and as you can see, this collection contains a lot of gorgeous purple colors. I definitely have to get my hands on this collection, and I already know which picture I'll be scrapping first with these beautiful purple papers. The collection can be bought at the Lemoncraft webshop.

Star-folded Christmas card

I have seen the star-folded Christmas card several times on blogs and Pinterest, but this is the first time, I have tried to make it myself. I gave it a try because Lemoncraft has a Let's Scrap Together challenge, which you can read more about HERE, and I thought it could be fun to try to make this kind of card. So here it is:

I have no idea which brand the paper is since I have thrown out the front piece. But all the patterned paper is from the same paper pad. For the stars I used a Marianne Design die (CR1226), the pine branches are made with a punch, the stocking is fussy cut from a DixiCraft topper. The snowflakes, which I bought at the local grocery store, are painted with white gesso and after they dried I painted them with some white acrylic paint and immediately afterwards I sprinkled them with some snow glitter. The ribbon is from my stash. All the edges on the star are inked with Distress Ink - Vintage Photo.

Christening card for Hugo Alvin

A colleague of mine ordered a christening card for a little boy, so I made this for him:

The inside of the card looks like this:

And no, I didn't attach the text the wrong way ☺, I simply turned the card so it had the fold upwards this time, so the card would be able to stand.

For this card I used a 12x12 sheet of paper from Best Creation Inc. called 'Sweet Baby' and blue cardstock. I used dies from Spellbinders - Matting basics 6x6 and Elegant Ovals, and from Marianne Design I used LR0218 and COL1398 (pram and banner). The flowers (except the blue ones) are from WOC and blue flowers, halfpearls and ribbon are from my stash.

Easy birthday invitations

I have been going through my pictures and have found a lot that I have never blogged about, so I'll be showing a lot of my older cards as well as new ones I make. Here is 2 different birthday invitations that were made for Rebeccas 5th and 6th birthday parties. Very simple and therefore very easy.

I have used dies from Spellbinders and Wild Rose Studio. The Hello Kitty face is from the Internet,  but I can't remember where.

Christmas cards 2015 & 2016

I haven't shown my Christmas cards for the last 2 years, so here they are (at least the ones I could find pictures of).
2015:

And 2016:

From the pictures I can see that I have used dies from Sue Wilson, Spellbinders, Memory Box, Marianne Design, Precious Marieke, Impression Obsession and Dovecraft. I have also used some chipboard from Dusty Attic and some card toppers from DixiCraft. The papers are just different kinds I have in my stash.

I really need to get started on my Christmas cards and I also have plans about making gift tags, so maybe I should dedicate my next weekend to that, since Christmas is just around the corner.

Layout of William

I finally made a layout of my son. I used a picture of him when he was 1.

For this layout I have used papers from Maja Design from the "Crea Diem" and "Vintage Frost Basic" collections and som light blue cardstock. I have used dies from Marianne Design (LR0455), Nellie Snellen (the flowers) and a China die for the leaves. I used the following chipboard from Dusty Attic: Fancy Trim #4, Word pack #18 and Small Trellis and they were all inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. For decoration I used a stencil from Dutch Doobadoo together with some pearl stencil paste from Pentart, blue decoration glass stones, lace, halfpearls, blue and brown ink stains and flowers - both homemade and from WOC. And then I used a script stamp here and there.

I was very pleased with the way it turned out, and most importantly so was William. With this layout I'm participating in Maja Designs October challenge. This is their moodboard:

And you can read more about their challenge HERE.

Maskuline birthday card

Another colleague of mine turned 30 and once again I was asked to make the card. And that was a great opportunity for using the "Denim & Friends" collection from Maja Design.

I used 4 different sheets from the 6x6 paper pad. I cut the squares with Spellbinders Matting basics 6x6, and I distressed all the edges and inked them with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The numbers are cut out with a Marianne Design die. I decorated with some cheesecloth, a button with some hessian thread and some halfpearls.

With this card I participate in Maja Designs October challenge. This is their moodboard:

And you can read more about their challenge HERE.

Pram card for a christening

A colleague of mine resently got her second grandchild, and for her first grandchild I made a pram card (which I haven't shown here yet), and so she asked if I could do that again. She would like the card to be in green, since the little girl is red haired.

For this pram I used papers from Lemoncrafts 'Everyday Spring' collection and white cardstock, and for the pillow and blanket I used paper from a Joy Crafts 8x4 paper pad called ' Baby bloc'. I have used dies from Nellie Snellen, Presscut, Joy Crafts and Tattered Lace. I decorated the pram with lace, halfpearls and 2 splits from my stash. The little blanket is closed with half a velcro dot, and in there, you can write a little greeting.

Rebecca's cards

Rebecca, who is my youngest, has always been a very creative little soul, and when I started papercrafting, she immediately got very curious about it and wanted to play along. So when I found the Baby Blue die cutting machine from Tattered Lace at a very reasonable price, I decided to buy it for her for her birthday, which was back in July. If you don't know the machine, here is how it looks:

It is a very small little machine, the plates only measure about 7.5 x 16 cm, but she is very happy with it. I also bought some dies for her, and she has bought some herself as well. Here she is busy at work:

And here are some of the cards that she has made so far (with a little help from me):