For Sebastian

As you know, I've been quite busy cross stitching lately...... The advent calendar is still not finished..... but I've managed to finish this birth sampler for Sebastian (my hubbys niece's baby). It was a christmas present, so I kind of had to make it before christmas. Hope he is pleased with it.....

More birds and stuff....

More ATCs (6.4cm x 8.9cm).... If anyone wants to trade please let me know...

It's all so fishy....

ATC (8,9 x 6,4 cm) Water colour and pen on w/c paper and cardstock

Birds....

These are my latest ATCs.... Water colour and pen on water colour paper. 6,4 x 8,9 cm.

Boys boys boys....

Ok... so I have been very busy cross stitching lately.... not much time for art. But I have managed to make a few cards.... So many people are getting babies these days.... all boys!!! And such an occation can't go unnoticed!! So cards were made.

These two were made for my two nearest neighbours (one next door, and one directly across the street)

And this one I made for my husbands niece in Norway. She had a boy just 3 1/2 weeks ago.

I'm still considering making my christmas cards this year...... better get a move on if I'm doing that though... I made all my christmas cards last year.... not quite sure if I really want to do it this year. Maybe just make a few for my closest friends and family...?? That'll mean less time for art....

Update II

This is how far I've come on the advent calendar..... I've finished the top pic plus the three first borders. Just another two borders and the bottom picture to go.... Will I make it in time??? Probably not since I've got another cross stitcing project going.... it's going to be a christmas present, so I can't put a picture of it on here just yet.... sshhhhhh...

Back to the advent calendar..... I've altered it a bit.... The borders are supposed to be stitched on aida bands and then sewn on to make pockets for the advent sweets..... but I don't fancy the pocket idea (it makes the calendar buckle and twist when you put things in it) so I'm stitching the motives directly onto the calendar itself. I'm then going to put small rings next to each number so you can hang small parcels from them instead. That way I'm not that restricted in size of what I want to put in the calendar...... I have no idea where to get small rings though.... but I know they are out there somwhere.....

Update..

... on my cross-stitching. Here's a picture of the calendar before I did the back stitch on the top bit:


And here is the top picture of the advent calendar finished, with back stitch:

Huge difference.... isn't it. It always amazes me how much the back stitch brings the picture to life.....

The back stitch on this bit was really.... uh.... phewww.... boring. Normally I don't really mind doing the back stitch, but on this picture it was very very small stitches (some just a quarter of an aida square) so it was very time consuming and you needed a lot of concentration to keep track. I think I spent as much time on the back stitch as on the cross stitch itself....

I have fininshed the top border (under the teddy) and started the second border as well, but I haven't got a photo of that yet. Will do a bit more and then do another update....

Cross stitching

I've been cross stitching for a few years now, and I really enjoy it! I've done quite a few pictures. And this year I decided to make Maja an advent calendar. I only started 4 (or is it 5) days ago, and this is the result so far. It's gonna look something like the picture on the right.... Hope I will have time to finish it before december.... something I really doubt.... but I'm gonna try!

The one million masterpiece

This is fun.... you should try it out. It's called The One Million Masterpiece, and you can contribute to this if you want to by drawing a little thing online.....

This is what I made:

Finally..... NEW atc's!!!

I made these only a couple of weeks ago..... but I've had trouble with uploading pictures to this site....

Alphabet ATCs

Here are the two alphabet ATCs I promised to upload when they were finished... They are for Wrick over at LMAO for the illuminated alphabet swap (one letter pr atc). They are both water colour and pen.

More knitting...

I've done some more knitting. It was so much fun knitting those pussycat arms, that when my MIL sent some knitting wool remnants, I decided to knit Maja some new slippers.... Nice, thick, warm ones for winter....

More old ATCs

I've found some more ATCs that I did before my holiday.... these I hadn't even scanned...... They're both water colour. I'm not quite sure if I really like them..... maybe that's why I've just left them.... Anyway, here they are...

Edited: Why don't my pictures get bigger when I click on them??? Anyone?

New.... old ATCs

I just found some ATCs that I made before my holiday stashed away with my paints....

Here we go again....

Ok, I've just signed up for another atc swap over at LMAO, illuminated alphabet..... I do love letters... Big letters, small letters, colourful letters..... mmmm.... where will I start. I used to do a bit of calligraphy years and years ago.... Too bad I've got all my calligraphy notebooks in Norway... Anyway.... The swap is 2/2.... which two letters will I choose?? I haven't done anything arty for a little while.... so it's a bit hard getting started again.... guess I'll just have to jump into it (as we say in Norway).

Oh, I came over a great blog today. I really like this girls style.... Artista Blog. Well, actually, I had a look at a lot of great blogs today, but I guess I can't really link to all of them....

Miaow....

I know this doesn't count as art.... maybe more like craft..... but I have been creating, I've been knitting. My little girl really wanted to have some "pussycat arms"..... so yesterday I decided to make her some....

I didn't have a pattern, so I just had to make it up as I went along....

This is what the pussycat arms looks like finished and on the model...

Maja was really pleased with them. She even insisted on wearing them to nursery this morning.... And this is how she looks now.....

Good night....

ATCs for Victoria

Ok.... finally...here are the two ATCs I made for Victoria in the "Theme of your choice" swap at LMAO.

The top one is called "Seahorse" and is a water colour and pen painting. "Slithering Snake" is painted in acrylics. The snake is cut out and glued to the card and the text is cut from an old book.

Finally

Yay.... I've finally managed to finish the two ATCs for that other swap I'm in.... yeeeessss!! I sat down yesterday and decided to just doodle a bit to loosen this stuckiness I'm in.... and voila... I'd made a card!! I guess deciding to just doodle took the pressure off and just loosend me up a bit??

Well, after the first card was done, I found my long lost acrylics.... and made another card with them.... I haven't got round to scanning the cards yet, but I will later on today (I hope).... and I'll post them here.... so Victoria; stay away if you don't want to see them.....

Struggle....

Uhhh.... now it's been more than a week since last I updated here.... I'm having some kind of block at the moment..... can't seem to get anything right... I've made a few ATCs, but none of them are anything to brag about.... but I guess I learn from that too....??? Hope so!

I have finished two of the cards for the swaps I signed up for at LMAO... still have two to go though.... and.... as I said.... I'm struggling! BUT there is still a week and a half to go.... so I'm pretty sure I will have worked through this silly block by then...

These are the two cards that I have finished:

The theme was "cityscapes".... These two are for Jessye. I hope she likes them.....

I'm surfing the net quite a bit now... just to get some inspiration to get over my block..... Follow links whenever I can/have the time..... My friend Victoria always has lots of great links on her site.... and she is also a very talented artist that inspires me loads..... Thanks for having such a great blog, Victoria!!! By following a link on her site I found Audrey Kawasaki.... wow, great artist!! I also happened upon Annette Lindner.... wowza! I like her use of colours....

Well, I hope I get myself sorted out with this block thing..... I'm starting to feel the neeeed.....

Another week gone....

Where does the time go??? It's been a week since last I updated this spot.... So, what have I been up to?? Hmmm.... Oh, yeah.... I've made another deco. A creepy crawlies deco. I haven't put it up anywhere for people to work in it yet.... guess I'll have to do that.... I made this one from that book I found a bit too small for my first deco. It's just over ATC size.... lets say about....*going to next room to find a ruler to mesure*... 7.5 x 10.5 cm. And here's a picture of the front:

I hope someone will want to work in it... Well, I guess it's up to me in the first place to let people know I have it so they can sign up.... will put it in a flight list somewhere soon me thinks....

I've also signed up for a couple of swaps over at LMAO. I wasn't going to sign up for anything just now since I'm off for my summer holidays soon.... but I couldn't resist... so I've been working a bit on those cards.... will post pics when they are done (or maybe not until the recipient have got them....) It's only 4 cards to send off, so I guess I'll make it before I go to Norway.

I've also received a few things in the post; a few lovely ATCs from different people (pics of them in my yahoo album). I also got a couple of lovely paintings from Kim in Saudi (haven't scanned them yet, but they will be in my yahoo album when I get round to do that...) It's the first time I've gotten something other than ATCs.... very exciting!! Will have to get more into that side of mail art.... maybe sign up for some 4x4 or postcard swaps when I'm back from my hols....?

All my received ATCs...

As I promised in an earlier post..... I've uploaded pictures of all my ATCs that I have gotten from other people to my Yahoo photo album.... you can have a look at them here. I spent most of the day today scanning them.... there is something wrong with the settings on our scanner, so it doesn't scan the colours right.... and I can't figure out how to fix that.... so I have to go and fix every single picture that I scan...... phew.... I couldn't get all of them quite right though.... never mind... now it's done... and if I scan things as I get them from now on, it won't be such hard work. Yea, that's a plan!

I DID it!!!

I finally made a deco!! Yay! Here is the front page:
It's a little book, 10,5 x 10,5 cm. It has 8 pages, so I'm gonna try to get 6 people to work in it.... The first and last page will be used for people to sign the book so I know who has been working in it. The theme is .... well... doh... Owls. I'm sooo excited! I've put it in the Deco flight list over at LMAO, so I hope someone signs up to work in it.... This is fun! Will have to make another one now... I guess I could get addicted....

Trades and stuff

I just sent out two envelopes to two different trades today! I have another envelope ready to go out this afternoon or tomorrow as well. So hopefully, I'll get something in the mail again soon... It's sooo exciting.... waiting waiting waiting... and then BANG there they are.... more beautiful cards...

One of the cards I sent out today was this:

I made this one specially for Kim in Saudi Ariabia. I hope she doesn't see it before she gets it... We were doing a trade with a card she saw in my gallery, and then she wanted a cat card as well, so we decided to do a 2:2 trade.... great... I like 2:2 trades because it doesn't cost much more to send two cards than one... so you kind of get more for your money, if you know what I mean..... and I like that.... I'm always on the lookout for a bargain....

I've also been working on these cards:

The image of a triangle with holes in it, is something I started drawing a few years back. I kind of like the floppyness (if there is such a word) of some of these triangles. I made them to experiment with markers on. I'm not quite sure if I like working with markers.... I like the intensity of the colour it gives.... but I think I need to work more on my technique. I don't like the way it makes marks where you overlap the colour.... but I guess working with really cheap markers doesn't really help..... I wonder if more expensive markers are the same??? Hmmm....

Anyway.... that's a bit about what I'm been up to the last few days.... Oh, and my deco..... well.... I started making one, but I think the book I made is a little bit on the small side.... I'd like it to be a little bit bigger.... so I guess that will be my next project.... I hope.....