Teacher appreciation, part A

Last, but not least. Here it's a handwritten letter-style background, to wich I added more confusion - I mean depth - by masking with numbers and glimmer mist. Sadly all that sparkle won't show up in this photo.

A for Agneta.

To me the background resembled a somewhat stormy summer sky so I went with that feeling and added some clouds and birds also. The minimini tag tagged along here too. ;)

What's better for a windy day than flying a kite? It's made from newpaper paper from the E, and this too sparkles....

Down on the ground is where hearts and roses grow.

Teacher appreciation, part E

About time to post the last two teacher letters, especially since the new semester's already upon us. :)

E for Eva.

For this letter I used the colors blue (of course) and turqouise with splashes of yellow. The background paper is a blue tinted newspaper since I think books and papers ought to fit a teacher. Or maybe that's just in my head? Anyway, I softened the rather strict paper with quite a lot of swirly stamps.

I'm rather fond of these minimini tags...

Creme white roses got inked with a warm yellow that worked really well.

The straws are stamped in yellow and then enhanced with some distress stickles. The buttons were just cute. :)

Jeans pocket card

Some time ago I needed a really quick birthday/gift voucher card done, and ended up with this one.  

Inside there's a jeans pocket to hold the voucher, and along with the black&white, hints of red and silver sparkle, it turned out kinda cool. 

words to live by

The last few weeks I've been busy with a new project: making a painting for the conservatory. I knew I wanted it to be reclaimed wood and a quote of some sort, but I didn't know it would involve that many steps! I'm pretty pleased that it's finally done. Pleased with the result also. ;)

 Like I said, I took scrap pieces of wood (some green, some white and some raw) and lined them up in some sort of disorderly order, and had my hubby help me screw them together. It ended up almost 170 cm long.
Then the hard work began.

To make the wood look really old and shabby I sanded, brushed with a wire brush and stained with a very strange and kinda nasty smelling concoction of steel wool, white vinegar and coffee grounds (wich by the way gave exactly the worn look I was after, great!!).

When it looked aged enough, I covered it with a thin layer of white paint, and once dry I started over from the top: sanding, brushing and staining. And some more sanding. Pew.

Finally time for the quote! I printed out the "enjoy life" and cut each letter out to make a stencil. For the rest of the quote I traced letters from another stencil and then filled every letter by hand with an itty-bitty brush... wich is, by the way, not the very best thing to do on the hottest summer day this year. I believe the paint dried already on the brush...

Then I sanded again.

I did it, and I like it! :)



 I also made two mini-paintings with parts of the stencil, one joy

...and one life.

I had a lot of fun making these and I'll be making more, soon.

Enjoy life!

Dress card tutorial

Ok, so this is a tutorial I've been thinking about making for a long long time. Thanks to a stranger I finally did it! :)
I got a mail from a girl who saw my Here comes the bride[card] and was curious about how to make it. After creating a very quick tutorial for her I figured I could just as well share it with you too.
Here goes.

First, here's my original dress card to the left, and the smaller template to the right.

Start with tracing and cutting a circle. This template is app. 12 cm in diameter. Mark out the center. Now it's time to measure where to score (in this tutorial I've drawn lines with a pencil, but you're really just scoring).
With a ruler, mark along the edge of the circle, 2 cm for the big piece, and 1 cm for the small one. You'll need 5 big pieces, with 4 small pieces in between each one.
Note: this is not an exact measurement, if your cicle is larger you'll need to adjust here. Also, if you want a wider dress you can make bigger pieces, and vice versa. The ratio is however always 2/1.
After scoring, cut at the top line and fold the others so that you end up with three parts facing up, and two down. The two remaining "flaps" will be the back of the dress. There you have it!

I added a lace petticoat but that, of course, is optional.

My template transfered onto scrapbooking paper. The top was made by first cutting the desired shape in plain white paper, folded in half for symmetry, and then traced and cut.

The finished result.

Teacher appreciation, part H

This is H, for Helena, in my teacher appreciation series. 

Again a blue base, this time in a combination with soft green floral swirls and white picket fence. I needed a little more pattern in the upper part, so I added hearts, keys, text column and a flock of birds (wich I stamped twice, and heat embossed the top layer in Silver pearl).

Paper roses was just the right embellishment for this paper. Growing from the roses, a delicate swirl of turqouise transparent pearls.

A few items are present on every letter to make this into a whole. An organza ribbon - although different colors for each letter, a heart, stamping with "magical memories", a plaque with the class name and year...

... and the white on white stamping.

Even though all of these things are the same, I still think each letter is unique and beautiful. Hope you agree. :)





Teacher appreciation, part M

Summer's almost over... naja, ok. Maybe it just feels that way...it's not really over, this is the summer that went missing. :P
Anyway. In the beginning of summer I was given the honour of making this years teacher appretiation gifts, both for my sons class and for the parallel class. Yay! :) I loooove making these letters.
Before starting with this project, I made sure to find out what colors they liked best, and what colors they'd never wear or have in the home. Kinda cool that they all answered blue as the favourite. :)

First one out, but actually the last to be made, is M, for Marie. Her favourites were blue, white and pink. I picked this lovely paper in summer sky blue, with torn pieces of newspaper here and there. Roses and swirls in soft pink, and a few details in white made the finished result look soft and romantic. 

For more depth, I used a template with numbers, and sprayed gently with glimmer mist. A couple of soft stamped crowns as another layer. The itty-bitty butterflies are punched from another newspaper paper, wich I had used for one of the other letters. Not that it matters for the recipients, but for me it ties all the letters together nicely, and I'm all for making it nice and proper. ;)

Romantic roses and a butterfly resting on top.

If you've seen any of my altered letters before you must know by now that I really really like this white on white stamping on the side of the letter. I don't ever get tired of this. :)