Christmas Cards 2013 (16) - Leftovers: Knitted and cosy

Just to say a quick "hello" as I'm catching up with the blog posts. Here are some more Vintage Scandinavian cards I made for Christmas 2013. My aim was to make them as cosy and country-side like as possible hence ginghams, tartans and knitted patterns. 

 I loved working on all those little cards details :)

This knitted heart stamp belongs to my favourites now :)

...and there's something about the red tartan I can take my eyes off :)

And a couple of vintage cards with lots of Christmas green colour. Just a nice break-off from Scandinavian reds and whites

I'm currently working on some crochet projects and will be updating you very soon! Anybody thinking of spring crafting already? :)

Christmas cards 2013 (15) - Leftovers - Santas

Hi all. Again a few weeks of blog silence. This is due to some unforeseen circumstances. January 2014 turned out to be a horrible start into the New Year. The list opens with the 2 cats ill with the cat flu, costly vet treatments, my broken tooth filling and frequent trips to the dentist. Also, we have had the members of the bf's family hospitalized because of their age and condition, two distant relatives died and one person, a very close and dear to us, has been diagnosed with a progressive terminal illness. This was a very upsetting and devastating news for us. It has obviously put me off blogging and crafting too. I'm trying to take it all in and process this new situation inside me but it's very hard. Unfortunately the world doesn't stop just for us and our miseries and the show must go on. What can we do? Just to be strong, supportive and make sure each day is lived out to the full and treated as a bonus 'cause you never know what's round the corner... and let's not waste time anymore. I'm really waiting for some brightier, sunnier days...

Blogging backlog, as usual. I still got some xmas stuff I have never shown on my blog. Sorry this is way out of date. Just a quick look at the last batches of my festive cards, if you're not bored yet.

I really enjoyed myself making these cards. Stamped background, tartan patterns, vintage santas...

And how has your start into the New Year been? Hope you are all ok and happy. x X x

Christmas Cards 2013 (14): Scandinavian Vintage (1) Nisse

I swear I will bore you to death with  my Christmas cards. Sorry my dear blog readers, I'm not done with my festive ones yet LOL  How on earth have I managed to make so many this year? I must have been at the full throttle with my creative mojo. Definitely a proper big production this year.

This time it's a style of cards I've really taken to and I would call it, let's say Scandinavian vintage. Remember this post about my stamp printed papers? I used then my "jumper style" stamps to create the  cosy "knitted" backgrounds and I thought they would look good on the vintage type of Christmas cards. 

Scandinavian Nisse (the Norwegian word for gnomes) are the focal point in those cards. Do I have to add that I thoroughly enjoyed myself composing those cards? I have a feeling I'll come back to this style next year with some more vintage images. Those I used come from Pinterest and ultimately they are the images printed on the vintage Scandinavian postcards.

My God Jul stamp from Panduro seemed the be just perfect for this occasion.

A bit unusual Christmassy tones over here - mostly gold and brown and cream - suited to the colours in the picture. As I was making this card, I thought about one of my colleagues who doesn't like traditional Christmas decorations because they bring her bad memories about lost dad and brother. She never sets up any Christmas tree in her house. She was very pleased when she received this card.

Thank you for your comments x

Cross Stitched Vintage Rose

Hi all. Today's post is all about roses :) 

This is my recent make - a cross stitched vintage rose designed by a Dutch designer Eline Pellinkhof. Again, it was a freebie kit for Mollie makes magazine. Eline has got a very romantic feminine style of expressing herself and this shows in her books and projects. A bit similar to Tonne Finanger and her Tilda world. Check out Eline's blog for more info and inspiration.

I have recently taken to those lovely vintage rose designs one can see in magazines and I was very happy stitching it. They have sort of folky feel you often can see in Polish folk paintings and fabric patterns and embroidery. 

And now, what my source of inspiration was... Just have a look at those gorgeous florals in the photos (source: internet)

Coming back to Eline again, I envy her this fabulous cross stitch wall painting:

How do you like it? :)))

I loved this cross stitch from the beginning. For a change I stitched it with 3 strands of cotton for a denser and fuller cross effect. I think the ribbon + lace feature is a nice thing too.

Eline's project involves winding strips of fabric around the embroidery hoop. To make it simpler and faster, I painted mine with acrylics mixing red, raspberry and white :) I still have plenty of cotton left, I may stitch it again as a motif for a card sometime. 

Very pleased and enjoy looking at it. It will be a decoration in my bedroom.

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Welcome my new followers and visitiors. Thanks for your visits and kind comments you leave behind. Pleasure to read :)

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Would love to share this cross stitched rose with a lovely bunch of crafty people at Hand-made Monday. Do join in this interesting highly social blog hop :)

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (1)

Summertime is this time of year when we all appreciate surrounding us Mother nature more than usual - trips to parks, forests, meadows, walking in valleys, we all have done it... I missed some summery floral themes in my crafting so when a magazine subscription came through with this poppy cross stitch kit I wished to stitch it straight away. This is a freebie stitch kit from the World of Cross Stitching (issue: 206, 2013). The redness of the poppy is so striking and tempting that I couldn't resist making this eclectic floral card. 

There were a few shades of red to use for this poppy. It took me about 3 or 4 stitching sessions to complete it. How I managed to avoid a mistake with this frequent colour changes, I don't know but as I was backstitching all shades agreed perfectly well with the chart. Proud of myself! :) So, dear reader, if you cross stitch yourself, you will know what I mean ;)

I'm really pleased with this stitch and the mounting. The redness of the flower contrasts nicely with the pastel aqua background sprinkled with butterflies. Very eclectic, romantic and feminine at the same time :)

This little cross stitch kit belongs to a product line called The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady - inspired by a book of Edith Holden with the same title. I had a good look in my craft boxes and it turned out that over time I've collected quite a few of such kits. I just put them away hoping I'll stitch them in the future. Perhaps now it's time to bring them out :) They all remind me of old botanical books and herbaria.

I even found a set of card making papers and tags with this theme :) (My goodness! How much stuff I've got squirrelled away!)

Sounds like I'll be making some botanical stuff in the near future! 

In the meantime I'm working on a tropical bookmark from Cross Stitcher. This one is quick and easy to stitch. 

Linking to Hand-made Monday tonight! Do join in! Thank you for your visits and kind comments. xXx

Card for Dad

My dad had his celebration day last March which actually falls on the same time as St Patrick's day. I made a card with a vintage car for him and used some lovely rich brown scrapbooking paper for the background. I've kept this pretty paper in my crafty stash for a long time hesitating each time if I should use it or not - touching it, looking at it and putting it away each time (don't we all do that sometimes with our resources?:P) Dad definitely deserves this. The edges of the paper and the badge have been distressed for the old look ;) 

The vintage card was well received. Dad and mum really like it :)
I also jazzed up one Easter card :) Initially it looked like this:

I found it a bit too plain so I embellished it with a relief paste I normally use when I do glass painting :) I thought the little dots would add a bit cheer to it.

Now it looks like this:

Currently I'm enjoying my 2nd week of Easter (school) break so plenty of lying-ins, reading and working on some little cross stitched cards :)

Thanks for visiting my blog. Please feel free to comment or ask. 

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