give me an X

Once again a big Xmas. This was an order from a friend, for a friend. :)
Don't think I'll ever get tired of making letters, I looove letters in any shape, and combined with christmas it just can't go wrong. ;)

 A greyish colorscheme, with a hint of red for highlights. I choosed a striped paper for the X, and used quite a lot of stamping over it, to get a softer look.

 I've grown kinda fond of these pine cone-stamps, and they really look great here! A few strokes with a red pen on the ribbon, a bloodred heart (what else?), and a touch of red around the edges and I'm done.

I also matted the "merry"-tag with red paper, and found a punch with a santa-hat in my stash that's just so funny for the silver reindeer.

I've entered in the following blog challenges with this post:

Secret crafter - Anything goes
Charisma cardz - Anything goes
Crafty catz - Santas hat
Top tip tuesday - Anything goes
Aud sentiments - Anything goes
Dream valley - Christmas
Paper play - Christmas
Dutch dare cards - My favorite things
The sisterhood of crafters - Black, white + 1 color
OLLCB - Anything but a card

baby girl baptism

I had to have a break from snowmen, santas, tinsel and wrapping paper, and decided it was perfect time to make the card for Ebba's baptism. It ended up very very pink....

 For the front I used a border punch with cute little hearts, a greeting stamp and big bold bow threaded through the card. (Yep, I did trim the ends before giving it away, seems I was in a bit of a hurry to take these pics ;))

 A really sweet paper for this card. With the delicate flower branches it needed only very little effort to look stunning, so I just enhanced the twigs with a thouch of ice stickles in crystal and pink. To match the bold-colored bow I matted the greeting with a cherry paper, again with the heart shaped border.

For the chrisom I tried something I've thought about since I made the wedding dress card (Here comes the bride[card]); to make a chrisom with the same technique. :) I soon discovered it needed a few adjustments as I went along, but the original idea is still there with the folded skirt (even though you can't see it in these photos).

The pink petticoat is stamped with a floral swirl, then heat embossed in Bridal for that shimmering look. For the hemline a touch of ice stickles. The vellum dress is open to reveal the petticoat. For the borders I used a pair of pattern scissors and then the tip of a pen to make the dots....wich aren't that visible here...naja. You can see the glittering twigs a bit in this pic though.

I needed something to draw attention to the chrisom without taking over the card, so I made the dress "fall out" from a small chipboard frame. A flower sticker in the same color as the bow looks nice on the top, and pearls are always pretty (and covers up the joint between the top and bottom part of the dress).  

Cute, huh? :)

I'm also entering in the following blog challenges:

Simon says stamp - Anything goes
Aud sentiments - Anything goes
Top tip tuesday - Anything goes
Charismacardz - Anything goes
Secret crafter - Anything goes

Season's greetings

I wish you all a wonderful holiday!

More matchboxes, and a tag to match

Sorry you guys, it's been a while since I posted anything here. It's just... this time of year is craaazy, and I love it! :)

I decorated some more matchboxes, this time as part of a christmas gift for my son's teachers.

 They're all different, but still goes kinda well together.

I also made some quick tags, that I think turned out really well. Just three stamps, and a little extra red for the bow. Sweet!

And here's a snapshot of the finished gift.

Merry christmas y'all!

Bigger bolder Xmas

I got a request for a bigger "Xmas" letter, so I made one in 18 cm instead of my usual 7 cm.

 The X is made with shimmering white cardstock, stamped  randomly with a vintage christmascard stamp in black.

 The "merry"-tag and an adorable little reindeer in silver glitter.

Since the X was bigger, I had to make a new template for the "mas"-part. I changed the font also because it looked better this way. :) Onto the already heavy patterned paper I stamped and heat embossed a swirly stamp in black. A mother-of-pearl heart, and a couple of rhinestone embellished snowflakes felt right here.

Fair[y] and square

Some days ago I brushed up an oooold card of mine, to send as a birthday card. Seems I was into squares back then :) Anyway, I just added the fairy sticker in the upper left corner cause I felt something was missing there.

For the inside, I kept it simple with one of my fave sentiments, a grass stamp, some ice stickles and a butterfly, and it was good to go.  

Match up matchbox

Tis the season....to make gifts! :) Everyone deserves a litte somethin' this time of year. These matching sets of candles and matches (yes, pun VERY intended ;)) was made for our sweet Mixgruppen-leaders Maria & Ingela. 

 I fell for these ahdorable ornament-shaped candles, aren't they the cutest? ...and the sparkliest ever too, there's glitter all over my house now. LOL

Purple candles needs a purple box of course. I already had my eye on this santa sticker for this, and even found some purple snowflake? star? naja... He looked jolly so I went with Ho ho ho for sentiment. :)

 Almost forgot to photograph this one. ;) The ornament candles in gold/copper had a flower pattern wich I embellished with a red center.

The trees are cut by hand, and the left one heat embossed with a copper swirl. The happy snowman is part of a sticker, and I also added a few golden leaves and little red bling.

A bonus box. :) This is my own match box, made a few years ago.

Happy birthday greeting box

It's been a while since my last mini box, but this weekend I had a chance to make a box for a birthday girl. It's a girly girl box with lace and "diamonds", all in pink of course. The lace is really more pink than this...hm. A pink birthday sticker fitted perfectly on top.

 Flowers, and more pink, inside...

My son wrote the greeting (the girls name) inside, and I embellished each square with a small flower/butterfly/note sticker. That's it! Easy peasy. :)

Christmas treats

This year it'll be super fancy christmas candy in this house...or atleast that's the plan. LOL
We bought chocolate molds and will give it a try with filled chocolate, along with the usual knäck and marzipan figures of course.
Anyway, this made me think about making a box for all the goodies. Now, I don't know if it means we'll fail, or that we'll eat it all at once, but this box is only 9x10 cm... :D The cute deer from The greeting farm 's Forest friends was just right for this.

A touch of Glossy accent on the eye.

I made a little window to display the treats, cutting a hole through the lid and covering it with acetate from the back, and with a scalloped border on the front. 

I needed chocolate for this photo, but we still haven't made any "real" ones, so I'm just using a trial batch here. :)

Mi casa es su casa

 Yet another Home, this time for my sweet friend Anja. Black and white and a hint of red on her wishlist. :)

 I went with balloons flying over the treetops here. Heat embossed silver fir and a few red blings along with the big shiny tag made the H complete.

 Balloon out of focus, I guess it's becasue it's so far away..? ;)

 A little bit of everything; butterflies, pearls and heat embossing.

 I really like the vellum mini tag.

 Swirls whirls all over the place. Some are in the paper, some embossed. The black one is a felt swirl. For the big heart I wanted shine so I tried out aluminum tape for the first time. It's shiny alright... and I like it. The small heart brad wasn't the right color for me, so I used nail polish to make it this yummy deep crimson red. LOL Anything goes, right?

 Yup.

 Ok, you can't see it here, but the "is" is very shiny. These chipboard letters was the reason for the "shinyness" on the other decors, there's gotta be some consequence to bind the word together...and speaking of binding; have you noticed the scrap of red twine everywhere? :)

 Mmm, roses...

Last, but not least, I put the initials of all the family members on the side of the word, along with a few hearts and the word "love".

I'm entering my letters in the following blog challenges:

ABC - E for embossing

Fab 'n' funky - Anything goes

Crafts and me - Pearls and swirls

Timbroscrapmania - 3dimensional
DYSU - Ribbon (or anything you can tie)
Simon says stamp - Anything goes

More merry xmas

I almost forgot to post these! Xmas letters that some of my friends have ordered. :)
If you want one too, here's the post where you can order: Xmas came early
There's still a little time to make them before christmas. :)

 This one's in red, white and gold.

 Here's a black, white and red Xmas.

I neded a box for the black/white X since it would go by mail. Of course I couldn't stop myself from decorating the box also.
All displayed items are stamped with lovely christmasy stamps from Viva Decor.

Paper rose tutorial

I loooove making paper roses!! Both because they're so stinkin' cute AND because they're super easy to make. I thought I'd show you how to make a folded paper rose. :)

 So, this is how you do it...

 You'll need this: paper, scissors, circle punch (or anything round really) and fast drying glue ( I use Glossy accent). Ink is optional. 

 First, make the circle. Punch, or trace a round object and cut it. The bigger the circle, the bigger the rose... duuh. :O

 Cut circle into a spiral, no need to be precise here. Mind you, the width of the spiral cut determines the hight and affects the size of the rose. A narrow cut = a flatter, wider rose... As you can see, I also snip off the tip of the spiral. No real reason for that, I just don't feel I need it. :)

Now, fold the edges of the spiral a little, pinching it between you fingers as shown, all the way around.

After wich, it should look something like this, back and front showing. If you wanna ink the edges a bit now is the time. I ink the first part (what will later be center of the rose) a bit more, and just here and there on the rest. 

Now, starting from the outside going in, make a tight roll of the paper spiral.

I hold it like this while I roll it to make sure the bottom edge is fairly aligned. That's where you glue later, and it's easier to make a nice rose then.

 

Rollin' rollin' rollin'...

 

The last bit of paper will form the base of the rose. Just pinch it a little, and give the rose a light squeeze between your fingers, with a thumb on the bottom and the indexfinger on top of the rose. Then....

...let go!!


Leave it for a while on your desk and watch it evolve from a paper roll into a rose. When satisfied with the size, pick it up agian.

Hold it upside down like this, and put a fair amount of glue over the base. Fold over the flap and hold for a few seconds. Now is the time to shape the rose into final form; push, squeeze and adjust.

 

Place it on the desk again, and give it a proper squeeze with your thumb. This will make the back nice and flat.

 

All done! Easy peasy, huh? :)

So, that's the folded rose, but as you might have seen on my first photo, there are other roses too. I don't fancy them as much, so I almost never do them, but there's a simple rose where you don't fold the edges, and a scalloped rose where you cut the spiral in a wavy, scalloped shape. Both of these looks better with a double sided paper since you see more of the back on them.

My paper rose neclace, love it! :)

That's it, I hope you enjoyed my first ever tutorial.  Thank you for visiting. :)

No go start making those roses right away!!