The perfect secret santa gift

We have a wonderful tradition at work for christmas. We each draw a name out of a hat (a bowl actually) and at our little christmas get togheter at work we give that person a gift. That way we can make the gifts a lot more personal. I made this big snow globe for my college Elva, and the photos are of her cute twin sons on one side and of her and her hubby on the other side.

It is that time of year again...

The most wonderful time of year! I love christmas preperations and the Advent is for me a time to spend with family, baking, cleaning (within reason :Þ) and decorating. One of my favorite decoration is the Advent wreath. I used to make it a circle, but last year I decided to go out of my "box" and found this clever candle holder. It has a trey underneath that makes it possible to water it and keep the spruce fresh. And the scent is heavenly :D Have a joyous Advent!

simple and easy x-mas cards

I made these cards for an Icelandic magazine called "Húsfreyjan", the christmas edition. The goal was to create a few christmas cards that even beginners could make without having or buying a lot of fancy stuff. They can be made using only paper, scissors, glue and a few embellishments.

Glamorous shoe card

Here is another take on my shoe card. I just can't get enough of these :D I used the a couple of the roses I made yesterday and some speciality paper.

Flower power :D

You may have wondered why I only bought white flowers. Well, here is why. I would LOVE to have all the possible color combinations available in all different kinds of flowers, but that would cost me LOTS of $$$. Most of the time, when I cannot choose a color for flowers or chipboards and such, I buy white or blank ones. That way I have more possibilities to use them. I have all kinds of colors to color with in my stash and to show you what you can do, I did a little experiments this morning on those flowers to show you. It is super easy to do PLUS you get your own unique flowers :D

Here you can see all of them together for sizes. The large flowers are about 2" wide.

These were all done using just watercolors. Pretty simple, you can color them as much as you like and the watercolor almost paints itself if you just let the paper suck it in.

The green one I sprayed with Tattered angels glimmer mist. (olive vine) and the cream one, I didn't color at all, I only used a damped brush to put some really shiny gold powder on the edges. This powder is a cosmetic gold powder, it is a little more coarse than mica powders but not as coarse as fine glitter. It looks like a slightly coarse powder of real gold. (pretty neat huh :D)

First I randomly and very loosely painted this flower with yellow watercolor. Then I used orange stickles on the edges. This one turned out prettier than I thought it would :Þ

Here I first painted the whole flower with MM speciality glace-gold paint. It turned out quite flat I thought, so I added some of that pretty gold powder I have and then I used black ink loosely on the edges.

This one is my favorite I think. It was such a nice surprice. First I used black ink (with a brush) to color the flower totally black. Then I used a little of the gold powder on the edges just for fun, and OMG it looks STUNNING dont you think ?

These two were hard to capture on photo. They are both really shimmery. The white one I first sprayed with Grapite glimmer mist and then put some silver stickles on the edges. The blue one (sorry about the shade) I just painted with Shimmerz Blingz.

I have not made a single scrapbook layout since August...sigh...but an occasional card has been whooped out from my craft den :D Here are a couple of tri-shutter-fold cards that I just love making. I think they are just perfect for cards with memories, as they can stand on their own like a mini scrapbook/picture frame :D

This one is a sympathy card, for my FIL's brother who past away just recently. He was a great bird collector and a sheep farmer. The personal note is written on the back.

This card was alot of fun to make. It was for a sweet lady I worked with. She just retired and we held her a farewell party and gave her a present and this card. The pictures I used are all from work. I choose red and gold since they are totally her colors :D A personal note is handwritten on the back.

Here is another photo taken from the side. Sorry it is not in focus, but I just wanted to show off the pictures from dressing up at work. We have so much fun there :D

Update and eye candy :D

I am so sorry, for my total absence here these past two months. I started working again in september and at the same time I decided to change my diet (to the better). It is great, but SOOO much work. I am spending 5 times the time I used to in the kitchen now. I am slowly getting the hang of it and finally getting some scrapping done.

I managed to shop a bunch of wonderful roses a few weeks back from iamroses . They are just so gorgeous don´t you think :D

So here is my peace offering, a little eye candy for you guys. I hope you forgive me for totally neglecting you guys!

making more flowers

Now, this flower making has become addictive :D They are super fun to make and not hard at all!

Here is a new lo with my dear daughter. Her 15th birthday is coming up in just over a week. I can't believe how fast time has flown. Seems like yesterday when this picture was taken. Reminds me of treasuring every moment. :D

and another...

I just had to try this out in girly colors. I love making these. I didn't have a magenta rose in my stash so I used a big white rose and my watercolors and hand colored it.

I am trying to make the most of my last week of summer vacation. I can't believe it is almost over, but it will be nice to into a routine again and go and meet all the great people I work with :D

Cards are fun

It is so much fun making cards. I especially love making different shapes of cards. Here is a little number I did for my little nephews 5th birthday using my slice machine.

I LUV shoes

Well...who doesn't! I made a template for this shoecard myself. What I like about it is that it opens partially. This card was for my best friend's birthday. This may have been the first, but certainly won't be the last. The template is ideal to use with double sided paper. Pattern in or out..I think it would be cute either way.

When I figure out how to convert the template into digital, I will share it with you guys. :D (it was just hand drawn on scrap paper)