Christmas Cards 2013 (18) Leftovers: Mittens, bauble and snowflakes :)

Hi there. Hope you all have had a nice weekend. This is my next to last post with my Christmas cards of 2013. We're almost there! ;)

This time, it's two cards made with lovely green scrapbooking papers with  a Nordic design

For the green mittens I came with an idea of sticking to them a piece of green lace for a textured cuff and of course the cute red gingham ribbons were a must too! All is simple but decorative, huh? :)

The red and white snowflake card: I came with an idea for this card as I was trying those punched snowflakes against some backgrounds. It's just a simple arrangement based on symmetry and contrast. I put some adhesive red and white pearls (a note to self: get more of these in the future). I liked how it came out.

Thank you for your visits and comments. Have a nice Sunday! x X x

Christmas Cards 2013 (13): Red and white once more

Although Christmas is technically over, I still got some more of my Christmas cards to reveal on the blog. I've been very card-productive this year so I've given some sets of my cards as gifts to those friends of mine who don't make their own but are appreciative of hand-made creations. 

This batch of cards is, again, revolving around the Scandi theme. I used my favourite stamps and scrapbooking papers of all various brands on them (Panduro, Papermania, Martha Stewart). 

The focus here is on the scalloped edges. I love scallops. So do the baker's twine and all folksy stripes :)

The card below is an attempt at making a hand-stitched patchwork card (a perfect way to use up the scraps of pretty scrapbooking papers you don't want to chuck away) and also the christmas tree with a 3D effect made by piping a white glass painting relief paste. Sort of a "gingerbread" effect.

The papers I used for these cards is Papermania "Home for Christmas" series from last year. They are one of my favourite themed papers available on the market. Their designs are so ultimately Scandinavian and they add a lot of charm to the cards. Think, after the New Year I'm going to look for some more of these papers and have an extra supply before they disappear from sale ;)

One more card with hand stitching - I really enjoy adding this feature. It adds that extra "hand-made, rustic" decorative touch.

So what do you think, huh? :) Enjoy the rest of the weekend. x x x

Christmas Cards 2013 (12) : Red, white and brown.

Hi everybody. Sooooo busy and rushing with everything now as most of us are with only a few days to go before Christmas. Just popping here for a moment to blog about these cards:

It was great fun with Marianne Designs dies, Papermania papers and Martha Stewart stamps. Loved making these. 

And all three together:

Hope everybody is ok and enjoying preparing for the festivities :)

(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 (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?

(Early) Christmas Cards 2013 (7): Nordic Blue (2). The Gold Mold Cape.

Hi. In this windy and rainy weather we've had for the past few days I've been feeling inclined to stay with a book and blanket on the sofa rather than to venture somewhere outside. Looks like the season for cold rainy and windy days is just round the corner. 

Craftwise, I'm still working on my Christmas cards and I've been thinking of having a go at selling them at my workplace this year. Just out of curiosity and for fun. I even bought the protecting cello bags for my cards yesterday. I've never sold my cards before as I tend to be rather pessimistic about the card sales considering the fact how many people can make their own cards these days and how many of them still prefer to buy a pack of 10 for £1 and which end up in a recycling bin after the festive days. So all the excess of my Christmas cards will go on sale at work. I really wonder how much interest they will receive :) 

But in the meantime here are some more cards in the frosty blue shades but this time with the mixture of natural brown kraft cardstock :) I love to use this natural brown card - it combines well with lots of colours and it is a nice change from a traditional white card. 

The card below was made using a card sketch I found on the internet. I think it was the one from the Mojo Monday blog where there's a great choice of card sketches to choose from.

Beneath, a simple card with a stamped and heat-embossed Snow Bird - a stamp from Noolibird.

The two cards together :)

And my first attempt at embellishing a gate fold card. The snowflakes have been punched with Martha Stewart punches and the reindeer stamp comes from Noolibird again. 

This type of card kind of reminds me of ... a cupboard so I embellished "the doors" too :)

I kind of like how it opens and closed and stands on it own :) More cards coming soon!

*  *  *

Saturday was luckily a nice sunny day here in North Wales so me and my bf grabbed an opportunity and went out to Wrexham County Borough Museum to see the Gold Mold Cape - we just made it on the last day of exhibition as the Mold Cape is back to its house now - The British Museum in London. For those who don't know it, it's a piece of ceremonial outfit that was unexpectedly discovered buried in a stony grave found in one of the Welsh fields and it comes from the Early Bronze Age, being about 3000 years old! What amazing craftmanship!
The cape was well displayed and I was very pleased how the photos came out :)

The cape must have received lots of interest from the public as there were crowds at the museum, even on the last day of exhibition. Below, this is how the archeologists imagine the cape was used during the ceremonies - completed by a necklace which agrees nicely with the upper line of the cape. It's assumed it once belonged to a woman of a high status. No skeleton parts survived in the grave unfortunately. Apparently some other capes existed too as some extra bits of gold leaf were found in the soil too. 

Below, a contemporary attempt at creating a tool that would reproduce the embossed pattern on the cape. Surely the bronze age people couldn't have one like this! ;) It must have been done by hand somehow.

I really enjoyed this short museum trip. You just don't get to see such things everyday. So fascinating!

Linking up to Hand-made Monday tonight :)