Dressing it up

Found this really sweet dress pattern somewhere on the 'net and thought it would fit perfectly with a butterfly background paper from the Jane Shasky CDrom.

The card itself is a regular easel fold, lilac cardstock lined with butterfly paper and a bit of green.

Took some trial-and-error to get the folds on the dress right but in the end it worked. And a nice bow at the waist hides any imperfections :-)

The extra butterflies I decoupaged to give a bit of height, Add a ribbon, some liquid perl and some embossed greetings - card finished.

 This is the pattern (not sure if the size is good to use but with a paint program (or a plain copier) it can be resized fairly easily). Dotted lines are scored and folded as seen above.

The bottom text of the card reads (translated)
"A friend is someone who knows everything about you and still likes you"

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Not that I'm especially hot this time of year but it's the title of this adorable House Mouse decoupage, from the House Mouse Decoupage CDrom (quickly becoming one of my favorites). Some of the other decoupage is available on the other House Mouse CDroms as well, but this one seems to be in one spot only.

Anyway, a friends birthday again and I knew he's into hot chili peppers, the hotter the better even.. So what could be more fitting than a hot birthday card.
Regular 6" card, cream cardstock base, lined with some House Mouse coffee patterned background paper. A bit of decoupage on the topper (not everything available, just a touch), a greeting and a ribbon.

The actual present was of course in theme, a chili pepper recipe book, some dried chili peppers and some chili pepper seeds (tabasco among them) for the curious gardener.

Tip-toe through the tulips

Tulips. Is there a better way to signal that spring is finally around the corner?
Not so fast in Sweden of course, but at least they are a colorful addition to dark and dreary (or snowy and cold) January when the first batches arrive from Holland (where else than from the Land of Tulips)

I've got a dear friend who adores tulips and also has her birthday in January, So of course she gets masses of tulips in all shapes.

To the left is the 2015 version of my tulip card for her. Nothing exceptional, a regular easel card based on cream cardstock, lined with soft spring green cardstock and a pretty victorian tulip paper with a boquet so nicely placed for the main focal point.

Dies from Joanna Sheen (those leafy dies are so pretty!), border made with a Martha Stewart punch.

Doily, a wooden heart-shaped button and some bling to complete the card.

The gift placed inside the fold was of course a gift card at a scrapbooking web shop :-)

To the right is last year's card. Also a regular easel card. Neat and easy.

I was temporarily out of tulip paper (!) so went to craftsuprint.com, an excellent resource for all kinds of cards and craft projects You download and pay for the designs you want to use (prices from 0,20 and up), and once donwloaded they can be used as many times as you like.



As one of my favorite authors would say..

"But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange and red, and red and orange and yellow, like the ember in a nursery fire of a winter's evening. I remember them" - Neil Gaiman in Coraline

Christmas Catch-Up, part 2

Well, what to do with this nice new Bigshot, all the papers, CDROMs, embossing folders, dies... Make cards, of course! Lots of cards! Just in time for Christmas!

A few samples of this year's Christmas cards:

CDROMs used were PollyAnna Pickering's Christmas Moments and Magical Christmas Moments from Creative Crafting World. They have other lovely CDROMs and DVDs too - check them out! Especially their series Paws For Thoughts are favorites of mine. Only wish there was a larger selection of breeds available.

Embossingfolders and dies from Joanna Sheen - don't miss out on the ivy dies, especially the mirrored pairs - gorgeous and so fitting for all occasions - and of course the usual selection of satin ribbons, liquid pearls (gold) and poinsettia Christmas flowers. I used a few metal charms as well, lovely but took some glue to make them stay in place.

 The birds on the following two cards are from a coloured art pad by Lily Of The Valley.

Great value for money!!
Such adorable pictures and often available at special prices. They had some great offers before Christmas so I treated myself to lots and lots of art pads....

Thought I'd try making a white card too, embossing folder and poinsettia die. Not too bad.

Christmas Catch-Up, part 1

Having thought about it for a year or so I finally treated myself to a Sizzix Bigshot a few months ago!

We've had a lot of fun since, even though it makes this hobby even more expensive as there are plenty of Must-Have dies and embossing folders.. 

I've also bought a lot of CDRoms, most of them from Joanna Sheen. The combination made for rather quick Christmas cards (apart from the usual paper-matching-selecting agony), quick but still rather nice if you ask me...

Twisted easel cards, my favorite variety and oh so easy to make - instead of scoring straight at 3" to make a regular easel card, score vertically.

Here's a good tutorial on twisted easel cards from youtube..

Thought I'd share two examples of Christmas cards using Joanna Sheen's House Mouse Christmas CDROM, two of the sweetest pictures with several decoupage layers, decorated with liquid pearls, satin ribbons and poinsettia christmas flowers.

Here is a list of all Joannas CDROMs - they're too lovely to only link to House Mouse.

By now I think I've bought them all. Oooops..

"All you need is LOVE ..and some chocolate..."

I received quite a lot of scrapbooking material for Christmas and among the papers some with a chocolate theme. Very handy for chocolate fanatics (and who isn't...).

Not much of a LO, but .. regular light beige cardstock with two different chocolate papers (one of them cut with a new die, Lifestyle Crafts Cutting Dies Nesting Eyelet Squares) a doily, a blue ribbon, a tag and some golden decorations made with my pearl maker. The topper chocolate paper has some nice glitter effects hard to make justice in photos.

Getting back into blogging..

Well, well, how time flies! Not that I've laid of scrapbooking (much) but this poor blog has been severely neglected. Time to remedy that.
First of all, how about a look at this gorgeous flower arrangement by my dear friend Marlina:

Looks a bit bridal, you say? And oh so rightly ... Yes we're married! We were married in late October 2013 and a wonderful day it was. An outdoor wedding close to the rapids in the national park at Gysinge, with the sweetest priest and his wife the cantor (very handy, that).
The weather in Sweden isn't exactly cooperative that time of year, but it made an exception for us..

Of course we received some beautiful cards and there were plenty of photos taken. Some day they will make it into a very hefty album.