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!!

Surf box

Got to use a card from my stash last weekend (displayed in this post). :) It's really great to have a few (ok ok a LOT) ready-made cards for those last minute gifts. The birthday boy wished for money and I wanted something more than just an envelope to give him, so I made a little gift box to match the card. They DO match, it's just my camera acting up on me here. ;)

All papers used are from DCWV's Thahiti Beach mat stack.

Let it snow

Today's post is a really quick snowman card. That is, it CAN be quickly made, if you wanna. I choose to put a little more effort into it today, with ice stickles, paper pen, heat embossing and even a hat. :)

 But it can be made also with the three circle punches on top of each other, and some pencils to draw arms and charcoal pieces. A felt carrot nose and felt scarf and it would be nice and easy even for kids.

 Handwritten sentiment cause I had no stamp with this text...

 For the hat I used half of a punched out circle, a scrap piece for the "brim" and a blue dew drop on top.

Hi there. ;)

I found a few challenges for my little snowman:

Craft your passion - Let it snow (isn't that just perfect? :))
Whoopsi Daisy - Colors of winter
DYSU - # 46 Splash of blue
MAWTT - Let it snow (an other one, yay!)
Fab 'n' funky - Baby it's cold outside

Butterflies in da house!

I've made a fluttering creation for a butterfly girl.

I know three important things about her; this girl's cutting-edge, with house in her heart and butterflies up her sleeve, so I really wanted to incorporate all of that into her letter.

The look on the J turned out like this cause this is how I apprehend her; the colorful (in every sense of the word) vintage/retro style I think (I hope!!) is spot on Johanna. :)

A little white on white stamping (and embossing) is always right.

I found this super cute pair of scissors in a jewelry store and just HAD to have them for this project, cause one thing she cuts is hair. ;)

Some more wise words...I like this one a lot. 

She may love butterflies, but I love roses (you know that by now) so naturally I found a place for roses. Butterflies loves roses too... ;)
Each tiny butterfly has inked edges and a glittery body. 

'My heart needs house and love'

I was searching for a vinyl record charm but didn't find any, so eventually I came up with this sentence instead, puzzling it together with a few odd words from various stamps. I think it's VERY true for her. :)

I'm entering this post in the following blog challenges:

Crafty Ann's - #53 Floral frenzy

The stamp man - Collage background
Dutch dare card - # 138 Punch time
Flutter by wednesday's - Open challenge
Crazy 4 - At least 3 of each; papers (background, rose, rose leaf), embellishments (brad, scissor, heart) & punches (butterflies)
Clear it out - Orange and brown (bow, row of flowers on top)



More button bracelets

I couldn't stop myself from making a few more bracelets.

It's made just like the teal/green one in my previous post, but this time I threaded it tighter and that was better.

I really like the colors in this one, so autumny. Chestnut, ivory, walnut, maple, pumpkin, amber....very much autumn. :)

In action.

Then I experimented with some other techniques, like threading with a thick wire. I'm thinking about remaking the top bracelet though, cause I've found a neat little button that would be nice in between the big ones. We'll see. Too bad the turqouise button looks so plain here, it's really a very nice shimmery button. :P 

 Very comfy on the wrist. :)

For the two bracelets here I tried using a ribbon instead of thread. A loop works as the clasp, I think. Not that easy to put on singlehandedly. Hmm...

 A single ribbon for the red/white bracelet...

 ...and a double for the ivory/brown one.

If you manage to put it on, it looks pretty good.

I'll think about these threading techniques some more, they're not perfect...yet. Hahaha :D

And, of course, I found some cool challenges too:

Craft your passion - Anything goes + brown

Dream valley - Anything goes

Button bracelet

Was thinking I ought to DO something with my buttons... So I googled of course, cause that's what you do nowadays, and got quite a few ideas. :) This is my first project, a button bracelet in teal and green.

 For this I used buttons ;) and elastic thread, made small piles of two or three buttons and just threaded through each button. You can't really see it, but every other button is a simple, smaller button that will be on the inside of the bracelet.

 All piled up. :)

There are so so many cute buttons! If you look closely, you might catch a glimpse of the 'back' buttons.

This was so much fun and easy to make! I'm sure I'm gonna have loads of bracelets soon... :)





...and so I did, haha! I'm sorry for the poor picture quality but it's pitch black outside and I just couldn't find a brighter lamp at this time. :P

A bunch of shimmering button bracelets.

 I think I have a thousand of these golden honey colored button-ish buttons! Luckily, cause it took quite a few to make this one... and it turned out pretty alright. Hard to even tell it's buttons.

 This bracelet was a bit more tricky. I wanted the small gray button to stay in place between the large white ones but it didn't go my way at all. Maybe if I had a wire and made it a more solid type...I dunno. Naja, I don't have any wire so I came up with the idea of a small supporting button in the back (like on the first one), so that the white button is wedged in between the smaller buttons. It's working so-so, but it'll do for now.

 The red/gold bracelet actually is the simplest. It's just one layer of buttons all the way around, on top showing the button with golden rim, and for the back a plain red button.

A bit crowded with all three on the same wrist, but it's just to show you what it looks like to wear them.

Now there won't be any more bracelets done tonight (it's almost midnight here), but I do have a stack of autumny buttons waiting for me... :)

Even though these aren't really scrap stuff, I just can't resist entering some fine blog challenges that I found. Check them out! :)

Simon says stamp - Buttons

Papertake weekly - Anything goes

Paperplay - Button up!
Scrappekammeret - minst 2 knappar
Dream valley - Anything goes
DYSU - Teal
Crafty Catz - Anything goes
Allsorts - Anything but square   Hmm.. ;)