New book: Arne & Carlos "Knit-and-Crochet Garden"

Good news for the fans of the Scandinavian knitting duet: Arne and Carlos - the English edition of their knit and crochet book has been available on sale now :) I'm a big fan of A & C myself. My own copy arrived from Amazon about a month ago :) I'm lovin' this book! It's so full of spring/summery ideas and vibrant with colours. Perfect book to work on after Christmas as the spring is approaching :) A few photos for you to have a peek inside the book:

Definitely the star projects in this book are the crocheted blankets:
I'm in love with this one:

Classic granny squares:

According to A & C they are a perfect way to use up your stashed scraps of yarn

There are plenty of crochet projects for your home and garden:

And there's also something for the cross stitch lovers:
pansy cushion covers, xxl cross stitch :)

Most of all I love these knitted sachets - they are gorgeous! I think after Christmas I'll have a go at them. 

There are a few new knitted characters in this book too:

And of course Arne an Carlso are showing oof their gorgeous scrapbook:

Happy Days:

And finally the famous photo from the book that went all over the internet:

In the meantime A & C are busy publishing their next book! It's not known yet when exactly the English edition will come out but for sure it's going to be in 2014. The new book will be all about a regional Nordic knitting (from Setesdal) and it will feature projects like socks, mittens, jumpers and some toys :) As always I'm awaiting this book very impatiently. 

(Early) Christmas Cards 2013 (10): Knitted jumper style (1)

Hi all. Long time no blog post. I know, it has become very quiet here. Two of my friendly readers asked me in their comments if I was ok (thank you Judith and Amy. Very thoughtful of you x x) I am ok and alive :) Well, a few things caused my absence. First, the kitten who is quickly growing up, requires attention and keeps very active most of the time, which in turn it keeps me active too. Secondly, my blogging mojo has somehow evaporated and I temporarily lost my interest in blogging (a blog burn-out perhaps? or maybe some sort of autumnal depression/laziness?) and thirdly lack of time and work stresses successfully got me out of my crafting mood (oh! perhaps I should blame the 50 Shades of Grey ebooks too!) I've been trying to hand-make something throughout all that time but it's not much, I must admit. Not very productive. However, I'm hoping to be back to my regular blogging now :) The build-up of the blogging material has been on my mind all the time. Time to get on with it. 

Undoubtedly, Christmas is approaching fast and although I haven't been blogging much for the last month one thing is certain: I've been shopping for some red and white Scandi stuff and oh God, how I much I've been enjoying it! Roaming from a shop to a shop I've been buying Scandi-themed cups, bowls, platters, bed covers, napkins, kitchen towels, candles, Christmas tree decorations (being in my element!). Nowadays the choice in the shops is so huge and the Scandi theme is still on! It must me the 2nd or 3rd winter when the Nordic patterns reign among the Christmas products. I still dream of lidded a mulled wine pot with a tealight warmer with a Scandi theme :) I just ordered a lovely set off eBay. I've already stocked up on some bottle of German mulled wine :)

Back on the craft frontline, here are some of my new cards. Embossed jumper-style with lots of white and frosty blue colour. (I really love this embossing folder from Sizzix!) I tried first with the square version and a decorative band from a lovely Dutch scrapbooking paper. It glitters and sparkles but I don't think the photo really shows this.

Then I went for the version with the rounded edges...

and some other decorative bands:

I really enjoyed making those cards. The cosy knitted theme is so Nordic'y - I so love it!. More cards and more crafty news to come soon. I shall keep you posted. Promise :) Will be catching up with your blogs soon too! Been wondering what you have been up to.

Hope you're all having a good week and thanks everybody, whoever stops here, for their comments. Missed blogging for you. xxx

(Early) Christmas Cards 2013 (9) & A new furry addition to the household :)

What a week and what a weekend! Each day of this week brought something new and  each was busy for me one way or the other. The weekend is just passing by. I really don't know where this time is flying. Day after day and night after night and we are already at the end of September. To be honest, I haven't done much this week - just a few cards in the evenings to add to the overall Christmas card collection So I'm showing you the two new ones :) This time a little more traditional take on Christmas cards with lots of green accents. I missed some green shades after such a long time making red and white Scandinavian ones. 

I absolutely love that lacey die cut Christmas tree (Cheery Lynn dies) and the red heat-embossed reindeer from A Muse Studio stamp set. The poinsettia on vine punched border is Martha Stewart's punch.

Little details - tags, strings, borders, charms is what I've always liked :) I'm still in love with bakers twines too. I keep seeing a lot of them on eBay and in craft shops. They add a lot to the festive charm.

And another go at Christmas greens but this time with a bit of yellow too :) The image is comes from a Noolibird stamp I bought last year and this cute folky bird in a festive wreath has always been one of my favourites in my stamp collection. 

This year another punch joined up my collection - a Woodware punch - Large Holly Leaf - how did I do without it before? I find it so useful and I just love the shapely holly leaves it punches. I feel tempted to use it on each of my cards! 

And finally, last, but not least - meet Cookie - our new addition to the household :-)))) We got her yesterday from a woman who apparently saved her life from an outdoor fire. She's full of beans and she's just trying to settle down. She's about 10 weeks old.

I just melted when I saw her photo on facebook. The white whiskers and the "milky" moustache simply captured my heart.

She's so little and so everywhere! I haven't had a little kitten at home for ages! I'm getting used to it again.

She's so sweet and she loves a lot of TLC. She is not liking our old cat Stinky though. She's very distrustful towards him and giving him lots of hissing and growling at the moment. I hope they will make friends in the end because Stinky is a real can't-be-bothered docile cat.

Linking Hand-made Monday no. 136 tonight. I'm really curious what other crafters have been up to.

The Prairie Schooler: Nordic Holiday 3 / 9

Time to reveal some of my WIP. Another part of my The Prairie Schooler Nordic Holiday cross stitch has been finished - the two turtle doves :) Please forgive me a little untidy look of the cross stitch - the wrinkled fabric and the presence of masking tape. I'm gonna sort these stitches out when I have finished them all. 

Now all three stitches look like:

And the fourth one is coming its way :)

I haven't had much time to sit down and cross stitch for the past few days. This week has been somewhat tiring for me. Perhaps I'll be able to catch up with my xxx over the weekend :)

Need my pillow now :) so I'm off to bed. Have a good evening! x 

Kraft cardstock

Just a quick update on what I've been up to. 

Have I ever mentioned before that I'm in love with natural brown (recycled) kraft cardstock? :) I so well am! 'Twas time to top up my cardstock resources :))) My new order off eBay:

I ordered two new card formats this time - narrow tall cards and large size cards. Very happy with these card blanks :)

Most of my Christmas cards this year will have a natural brown card base. It just seems perfect for vintage and Scandi-themed cards. It blends well with various colours and it's got that rustic and hand-made feel too. Ideal for tags as well.  

But the discovery of the month for me has been this paper!

I sooo much love it!!! It was a must-have for me. I love everything about it - the colour, the patterns, the texture, the thickness, even... the smell :) I've been looking for papers of this style for a long time and now Lili of the Valley shop sells them. Gonna cut some them up tonight for some new cards! :) Noticed my new lovely small set of "stitchy" stamps? :) A little treasure in my stamp collection. 

Back to my crafting now. Have a good evening and thank you for your visits x x x

(Early) Christmas Cards 2013 (8): Cards with washi tapes

Yay! Weekend finally! This weekend I won't be doing much, I guess. Just a bit of knitting and cross stitching. Perhaps I'll find some time to sit down to make some more cards. In the meatime I'm going to show you  some cards I used the washi tapes on. Washi tape is a relatively new product on the market. It's a type of a low-tack masking tape but as opposed to the traditional boring masking tape, washi tape is patterned and decorative and it can be used in scrap booking or applied to various surfaces like glass or plastic. I have a few of these tapes at home and thought they may look good on some Christmas Nordic cards ;) So here are my attempts at including the washi tapes in my cards :)

Mine are naturally (surprise! surprise!) Nordic-themed :) They are a bit translucent and your can layer them to get some overlapping shades :) For this card I used Himalayan Snowflake from Martha Stewart, stamps from Scandinavian Christmas set, also from Martha S. and the Norwegian star stamp comes from craftfun.pl :)

Moving away from reindeer to ... Scandinavian wreath hearts :) This lovely heart stamp is from Noolibird and it has been one of my favourites since the beginning. I wanted to create a red and white card with some green accents :) 

And finally a festive card with a mixture of red, white and turquoise. This time three snowflakes have been stamped and heat-embossed with some scalloped layers and washi tape. The snowflakes are a Noolibird brand again. I love how they come in various shapes. The Merry Christmas stamp is from Scandinavian Christmas stamp set from Martha Stewart (as mentioned above). The red paper is Scandinavian Christmas from Marianne Designs, the polka dot paper comes from the last year Hobby Craft Christmas paper set. 

And what about you? What are you up to this weekend?