Happy 30:th x2

I'm sorry for being such a bad blogger. Good news is that I've been so inspired to do things and I have a lot to show you.

Yesterday I went to a local yarnshop where they had a "knittingcafe". I got a bunch of helpful tips and started on a beautiful lacey vest in light turquoise and glitterthread. I'm so excited about it, but it will take me a while to finish it. Good thing I'm a size S, lol.

I'm also looking for interchangable circular knitting needles so if you know where I can get some for a good price let me know. I have found a pack of 9 for $45 so far.

I also got my Dt package from sweetpea stamps today. There was a lot to choose from and I got so excited a started a project straight away. Very "out of the box" kind of thing and I'm really happy I could be that creative.

But for now I want to show you an easel card I made for my guest spot at the whiff of joy challenge blog. It's a card for my mom's husband that is turning 60 next week. The idea came from me trying to pronounce: sixtieth. I was wondering if that's really how you say it. But you say thirtieth and so I came up with the idea of wishing him 30, but times 2.

 I wasn't sure how to make the edge, but I decided that the fleur-de-lis needed to show. It made the card look more interesting:

I colored the image with oilpencil. I used brads that look like screws to make the card more "manly". Alan's fav colour is blue so I wanted the card to be very blue. I think the olive green and blue works really well together. This is my third male card and I have made them all in some kind of green/blue shades. So that's my tip today: if you make a male card - start with green and blue.

I'm using this card for a couple of challenges (more to come when I'm more rested ;)
simon says stamp - a splash of green



Now I'm off to bed after a big crafting day. Yey!

Birthday photos

 So I'm a little bit paranoid about having my pics all over the net, but I figured I owe it to you :) I know it's much more fun to "see" the person behind the blog. Besides, I'm 30 now so it's time to stop being afraid, lol. I'll be a brave girl and upload one of the pics as my profile photo. It's time to stop hiding.
I have a new hairdo on these pics - bangs and straight hair that frames my face. I've always liked this look on other girls and kept thinking: in my next life I want to be a girl that fits in hair like that. Well, after being so sick I thought to myself: who cares if it suits me or not, I want to give it a try. My hair grows freekishly fast, so it's not a biggie if I regret the cut. I decided to cut it and it actually suits me! I never liked my flat straight hair and my mom always curled it and dyed it blonde. It never stayed curled though no matter how much products we used. When I moved away from home I started dying it purple-ish and haven't been able to stop since then. So in my late twenties I finally started to make peace with my hair and liking it the way it is. It's superstraight and shiny so I never have to use a straightning iron and can abuse it as much as I want - it looks healthy anyway.Ok, so that was the history of my hair, lol.

Here's what we did on my b-day:

First we went to the movies (Percy Jackson and the lightningbolt thief) at 3.30 and afterwards to a bakery for a little snack...Hot cocoa with marshmallows, yum!

After that another movie (Alice in wonderland 3D) and then a fancy italian/spanish restaurant where we had a wonderful meal. I had tortellinin with parmaham, fresh parmesan and pesto. For dessert crema catalan with lavendel icecream! All of it was sooo good. And I let myself had a glass of coca cola. I haven't had one for almost three years now. I stopped because I found myself addicted to it and my dentist wasn't happy about it.

After the amazing dinner I didn't feel like going home yet so we went bowling:

where I actually won the last round!

Back at the house I had a wonderful cake that was waiting for me. My sweetie had ordered it from the bakery with my original name on it - it was even spelled right! It's the polish equvalent to Katherine or Katarina as it is in Sweden.
I also got some more presents. The best one was a daylight bulb! Now I will be able to take great pics in the evening/nights when I craft so keep a lookout for tutorials. Unfortunately it was broken so I have to get it exchanged tomorrow.

Have a great night and if you feel like shopping, Lacey at stamp and create  has a 25% off offer on all greeting farm stamps. She also has Kraftin' Kimmie and Whiff of joys. I just got myself a bunch...

New DT call at pixie cottage

I had such a great time celebrating my birthday yesterday. I'll let you know all about it later and maybe even add a couple of pics so you can see what I look like. I'm a bit paranoid about doing that, but I feel the time is right, lol. I'm 30 now so I have to be mature...NOT! LOL I refuse to grow up and you can't make me! :D

Also: I'm keeping my candy open for a couple of more days since I have a couple of deadlines I need to focus on. If you haven't entered yet you can find the link by clicking my candypic in the sidebar.


At the moment I thought I'd let you know about a DT call over at the pixie cottage blog. The owner - Michelle - has a great shop where you can get all sorts of materials at great prices and even her own line of stamps. She is also carrying sweetpea stamps among companies like magnolia, whiff of joy, stampavie and the greeting farm to name a few. The call ends 15:th so you don't have much time to apply. She's looking for a couple of different members so hop over to her blog to read all the details.

Now I have a hard time deciding on three projects to apply with, but I decided on these three:

First is my altered box. There are so many pretty details here and I'm very proud of it as it was my first try on something like this.
I used Willow from Whiff of joy where she thrown leaves. I cut away the leaves and used a birdstamp from hero arts instead so it looks like they are flying away from her hands. The text also suits perfectly and I'm quite proud of the bird I made from scratch that sits in the right lower corner. I used different prima flowers and papers from Webster's pages.Text is computergenerated and image is coloured with promarkers.

Next is a wedding card made with a sweetpea image called rising flame. I wanted to give her a frosty look instead of a fire-like one. I made a little vail for her using a piece of mesh that I mounted behind the image. I also glued on a metal bead - a heart with wings - in her hair.

Last, but not least, is a birthday card I made using a Whiff of joy image and papers from Basic Grey. The name is from two quickutz alphabets. I coloured a white ribbon with my promarker to match the card perfectly. I coloured the image with oilpencils. I didn't even realize this card had a distressed look until a friend pointed it out, lol. I'm very proud of it since it's a style I would like to do more of.

Ok, so there was my top three thus far. Hope you enjoyed them.

Happy 30:th!!!

Today I'm off celebrating my 30:th birthday and I thought you would get something nice to look at meanwhile (since you're not getting any cake ;)

Here's my card I made for the whiff of joy challenge blog this week. So those of you who go there have already seen it, not as detailed though. It was a sketch with the middle part shaped like a gate. I instantly thought of this stamp, Charlotte with mailbox, when I saw the sketch. This is the first time I've used this stamp that I got last week and these papers from Basic Grey. I got the stamp and a bunch of Moonlight whispers Kraftin' Kimmie stamps last week.. I bought them at stamp and create and I can seriously recommend the shop. It's run by Lacey and it's seriously one of the best shopping experiences I've had. She is so helpful and I managed to buy during a special she had which made the stamps even cheaper since I'm always looking for great deals. The shipping was great and fast and especially great to Sweden (And no, I'm not getting anything out of advertising, lol)
The text stamp that says "love inside" is from a set of stamps I won as candy. Worked great with this card! I made the envelope by colouring plain white card I use for my stamped images with almond promarker I think it was (same as for the mailbox). Then I stamped on it, added the black lines and dabbed black ink around the edges to make it stand out. I also added a shade under the "flap".

Ribbons that were originally white and that I coloured in with promarkers to fit perfectly:

Hearts were cut out with different dies and punches and I sandpapered some of them to get that white border.

Hope you've liked my card. Now I'm off to bed so I can actually get up tomorrow to celebrate and not sleep away the whole birthday, lol. Although if it's any day you should be able to do exactly what you want it's your b-day, right?

Ok, now I seriously have to go. Hoping to make it to bed before 3am. It's 2.42...
:D

Last day of my 20-somethings...

Actually it's a little over an hour until midnight, but I was born 1.50pm so I still have some hours left :D It feels a bit weird. Nothing will really change - it's a day just like any other, but still....
A friend of mine read about a man that did something new every 10 years. One decade he worked for some big company, the next he travelled and so on. Don't remember the details, but it sounded like a great idea. According to him it was easier to set goals for yourself if you have a tighter timeframe instead of: "sometime in the future I would like to..." I think there is a lot of truth in that. Despite everything I am quite proud of myself and what I've achieved. I still have one big dream that I keep thinking about:
going to Australia and diving in the bareer reef (before it disappears!), swimming with dolphins and cuddling with koalas and wallabies (my fav stuffed animal is a kangaroo) There is no doubt in my mind that I will achieve that in my thirties.


So here's how I'm thinking: 
my 20:ties were all about finding myself, finding my place in the world in relation to it and to my fiancée. A lot of fear of not doing the right thing, making the "right" choices, finding what it is that really makes me tick. Having a few jobs that I didn't really enjoy and were not so good at. But at least they made me realize what I didn't want to do and what I was NOT good at. Then finally finding something I loved: studying art and developing more crafting skills and also being nicer to myself, not having to be so perfect all the time. And just over a year ago where I started this blog and came in contact with all of YOU wonderful people from all over the world, bringing a smile on my face and not making me feel so alone.

Now for my thirties I'm focusing more on my career - continuing studying psychology and maybe letting it be my careerchoice? (it's about time, lol) Travelling more, being as happy as I am and definatelly continuing blogging and developing my crafting skills. Maybe sometime in the future I'll write a book or have a tutorial blog - who knows. With you as my support I feel like I can do anything! Sheesh, now I'm almost looking forward to tomorrow instead of dreading it, lol.

Yesterday and today I got some more birthday cards - the last ones before my actual b-day. I know there are some more on the way, but these are the last ones right on time.  I'm really getting them from all over the world!

The first one is from Andrea in Germany. She also included a magnolia stamp that I've been wanting to have, but was too cheap to buy, lol. Thank you so much Andrea! Love the colours on this card and the beads on a string are brilliant! Love the little embossed hearts too.

Next, a card from Linda, Sweden. I love that it looks like the kitty is holding the same flower she has put in the right lower corner. Almost like a real memorbilia. Fab colouring too. Love the ribbons and flowers.

Last but not least - the card that dropped in today was from Elsina in Israel.I really like the motif and the smaller sized card. Fab colours too. Did you notice that the girl's dress is the same pattern (but smaller) than the background paper? Just gorgeous.

I'll be back after the weekend with at least one great project. Sweetpea stamps are having a new great release from the Elaine Cox series and I'm working on something very cute. I can't reveal much, but I will say this: you will think it's a HOOT!

Great news!

Things are really going for me lately. First I got chosen guest designer for the whiff of joy challenge blog, then I found out I was chosen top five passionista at the promarker blog with my sweetpea card. And finally yesterday, I got a mail from Katharina - the owner of whiff of joy - asking me if I would want to make a tutorial for the woj tutorial blog with my bookmark cart! I'm on cloud nine at the moment... :)

Bookmark cart

 little bit late, but better late than never, right? I want to show you the project I made for the whiff of joy challenge blog this week. I took more and better pics so you will get a better look.

The challenge was "coffee and cream". I made a cart with bookmarks:

The images are coloured with oilpencils and a kind of alcohol rubber to make the colours smear. Love this new medium and it's especially great for colouring animals, don't you think? The shapes are cut out with nestabilities and I coloured a plain white silkribbon with "caramel" promarker to make it match the animals perfectly. The sentiment on the front of the cart worked great for the theme aswell.

 

I added a bunch of tags where you could write the reciepent's name.

 

The bookmarks are wrapped around grill sticks. I put some doublesided tape on top and bottom of the sticks to make the bookmarks stick. It took me a while to figure out how to make them stand up. It was the best solution I think. 

If you make something inspired by this let me know so I can come and take a look. If you want to know how to make something like this yourself - let me know and I'll make a tutorial. It's not hard to make this yourself and it would make a great going-away gift!

My birthday cards

Just a quick note letting you know that I have replied to everyone that mailed me for my address. If I haven't, please e-mail me again. I might have missed it due to the computer virus I had earlier.

I'll be back maybe tomorrow with pics of my project for the whiff of joy challenge blog. I've been shopping today and had a make-up done from l'oreal which was quite fun. I'm very inspired to craft at the moment which is good. The only problem is that I don't know what to do first, lol. When I sit on the sofa making jewelry and I need something from my corner I go there to get it. Then I see something I need to colour and do that instead - at least until I need something there too and come across my sewing project...LOL

More birthday mail

Wohoo, these past few days I've gotten FOUR lovely cards.
The first one is from Lynn in the US. Love the dekadent look of it and glitter! Don't you just love glitter?

Second card is from Maria in Norway. I really like the dryembossed and inked sentiment. The flower really makes the card stand out.

The inside is just as nice as the outside:

Third card is all the way from Australia. There were some really cute kangaroo postage stamps on the envelope. I've always wanted to go to Australia, it's my dreamplace no1. Maybe for my 40:th b-day? Love how different this card is. The sentiment is on vellum, the butterfly is embossed as is the background card. Just brilliant.

 

There was also a little giftie in there:

Last, but not least a card from Yara. We belong to the same house mouse yahoo group and have "known" eachother for years. I think I'm on some kind of birthday list of hers because every now and then I get a card out of the blue. Love the colours and the embossed panel. Think I have to "lift" (aka steal, lol) this layout. Really like how it's put together from different panels.

Thanks a lot ladies. I'm really happy for the cards. It brightens my day to get up and see envelopes on the floor in the hallway (we get our mail through a slot in the door)

Valentine earrings

Today (and a bit of yesterday) I've been working on my guest designer project for the whiff of joy challenge blog. Can't show it yet, but will do that tomorrow when my project goes up. I'll also take better pics straight away and post here. I'm sure you'll love it!

So you won't feel disappointed today I will show you a pair of earrings I made for myself for Valentine's. I whipped them up while I did my necklace, but forgot to show them to you. The pearls are a bit whiter than they look here and match the silver beautifully. Darn it, I really need that daylight lightbulb NOW!!!