A summer bag

I have crocheted myself a new summer bag... I finished it end of June... Well, I guess I need to line it before it's finished...

You can find the pattern for the squares I used HERE (pattern is in both norwegian and english). I didn't have a pattern for the bag itself, but I've used 13 different squares that I just crocheted together as the work progressed...  

I've put up a photo of  each side so you can se all the different colour combos.

Thanks for looking:)

CAS

Another very late posting... These are the cards I made for two of my colleagues at the end of the school year back in June. I guess it's about time I put them on my blog as there is only just over a week left of the holidays... Where did all the days and weeks go? Well, I guess it'll be nice to go back to work again. I'm looking forward to the new school year, and it's going to be good to meet all my colleagues again, and I'm really excited to meet all the children and find out how they've been over the summer:)

I made the cards very clean and simple with only some dry embossing, a ribbon, a (cheap) stamp (that I bough at Søstrene Grene), some bling and a couple of cutting dies...

I've been quite crafty this summer, which means that I still have a few more things to show... so stay tuned... ;)

Wedding anniversary

Hubby and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary back in June...(I know... I'm a bit late with my postings...). We don't normally give each other gifts on this day, but I bought him a chocolate and made him a card. The card is tiny though, only 6,5x7,7 cm...

Thanks for looking :D 

Nespresso embellishment tutorial

I've been looking at my Nespresso pods for ages, admiring the beautiful colours, and wondered if there was anything I could do with them instead of just binning them when the coffee was used. Then it hit me, I could try to empty out the coffee and make some card embellishments with them.

This is one of the first embellies I made.... and I was so pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I'd show you how I did it... well, at least the first step...

I start with removing the foil lid and emptying out the used coffe grinds from the pods. I wash them and let them dry thoroughly.

When they're dry, I pinch/crunch the top a bit with my fingers, like so...

I then take a wooden spatula and flatten the pods as much as I can.

And to make them really flat, I put them under a wooden chopping board and stand on them... lol....

et voila... gorgeous, flat, colourful metal disks, ready to decorate with flowers, ribbon, buttons, twine, beads etc.

Here's a card I made with one of the nespresso pod metal disks....

(Digi image by Fred she Said, coloured with Promarkers. Martha Stewart punch, paper flower, twine, Nespresso pod)

Hope this was useful... If you try it out, I'd like to see what you do with your pods. Please leave me a comment with a link to your project.

Neon coloured drawstring bags

The weather today wasn't much of an outdoor activity kind of weather. It wasn't really bad, but it wasn't very warm or sunny either, so we decided to spend the day indoors. So, the girls have been playing with my sewing machine. They have been making themselves a drawstring bag each.

They've done everything themselves... choosing the (bright coloured) fabric, kutting it, pinning it together and sewing it all up. OK, so I helped a bit with getting the right pieces lying the right way in the right place when making the opening for the string...

They were both very pleased with their new, neon colured drawstring bags.

Happy camper....

We've been away on a short camping trip. We went to Gothenburg to meet up with my brother and his family. And, of course, to go to Liseberg, the amusement park.

The weather wasn't really the best, but we managed to get the bbq out the first and the last day.

According to the forecast it wasn't supposed to rain on friday, so we decided to go to the amusement park that day. Not rain my a.... woops, sorry... it did RAIN. We were soaking wet... and when we got back to our tent after spending the whole day, wet, in Liseberg, the rain had dripped off the tent onto the floor cover in the tent, so the whole "indoors" were flooded... Luckily, the bedroom part of the tent has it's own floor, so at least that bit was dry.

Apart from the wet friday, we kept quite dry and warm, but we didn't see the sun. All in all, I think we all enjoyed being away for a few days, and it was great meeting up with my brother & family again.

I think we will consider doing this again sometime soon (even though it might rain...)

A girl and her bike

I don't have any cards to show you. My father in law has been visiting the last few days, and before that I spent most of my time outside in the nice, sunny weather. So I haven't spent much (any) time in my craftroom lately....

But look who's cycling without stabilizers.... this is her third attempt on her first day...

Wee Hummingbird

A couple, or maybe three, weeks ago I won a challenge with one of my cards. The prize was $15 worth of digis from Fred She Said. This is the first card I've made with one of the digis I chose. This one is called Wee Hummingbird & Petunias. It's not my usual style of stamp, but I really enjoyed "playing" with it, and I'm sure I will use it again soon.

Image is coloured with Promarkers. The pink paper is stamped with a couple of different stamps to make it a bit less plain/more interesting.... Sentiment is made with small letter stickers.

This card goes into the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday - week 208 - Sketch.

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - challenge 186 - In the garden.

I love Promarkers - #117 - Anything goes.

Thanks for looking.

Hurraaaaa!

Hurraaa for 17. mai!

Gratulerer med dagen!

Malt av Maja Siobhan (9). Akryl på lerret, 10x15 cm.

Home alone...

Poor little Maja is home from school with a tummy ache today... She had a sore tummy yesterday as well, but not as bad as today. At least we tried going to school, but unfortunately I had to take her home just after the first lesson... hopefully she'll feel better soon.

Hubby and I were home "alone" for the first time since we had children this weekend. No children! What to do first... lol... We should have been in a 90th birthday in Switzerland this weekend though... but we couldn't get anyone to look after the girls from thursday to friday evening when my parents arrived, so we had to stay at home. My parents arrived late friday evening, and after breakfast on Saturday, they took the girls with them on an overnight trip in their camper van. It was so much fun going on a "date" with my hubby on Saturday night... a film and then restaurant! Great!

I also managed to make a card this weekend... no children at home, and hubby in the garage "working" on his bike gave me some ME-time! Yay!

Image is Teen Fairy Mia by Mo Manning, coloured with Promarkers. I have used a flower stamp and a text stamp on the designer papers to tone them down a bit.... and also some paper tape. I've added a doily and some flowers, and the image is mounted on 3D dots Stickles on the wings.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

2 Sisters Challenge - #91 - Make it girlie.

Crafty Calender - Things with wings.

The Corrosive Challenge - #149 - Flowers and doilies and bling.

Paper Sundaes - #120 - Things with wings.

The Squirrel and The Fox - #17 - One for the Girls.

Thanks for looking!

Clean and simple...

I saw some beautiful, clean and simple cards over at Stephanie's blog the other day. I loved her cards so much that I needed to have some myself! So I was naughty and stole her idea... I have changed a few things.... Instead of twine, that Stephanie used on her cards, I have used ribbon, and I've used different embossing folders, and different sentiments on every card. I just love how my cards turned out... and I hope that Stephanie isn't too mad at me, and will forgive me for stealing her idea... (she's just so brilliant at making clean and simple cards...)

Thanks for looking!

Sorry for the bad photos... I guess the light wasn't the best at the time of taking the photos...

Sweet pea

Hope you all have had a brilliant week end. My week end has been nice and quiet. Woke up to SNOW yesterday... so that was a perfect excuse to stay inside and play with my stamps and papers...

Image by Sweet Pea, coloured with Promarkers. Butterflies by Cheery Lynn. I have also used some ribbon that I coloured with my markers, a MS punch, polka dot embossing folder, a doily and some recycled buttons from old clothes. The girls clothes and the butterflies have been covered with Stickles... I guess you can see the glittery bits better in the pic below.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Sweet Pea Stampers- Recycle and Birthday.

Papertake Weekly- Anything goes.

Thanks for looking.

A purse... or two... or three....

I've made the cutest little purses... I saw these purses somewhere a while back, and I really felt the urge to try and make one. So the other night, I sat down and made one for Maja.... I used a 15x15 cm piece of paper that I scored at 3,2cm on opposite sides, and then turned and scored at 6,4cm on the other two (opposite) sides (did that make sense at all...??). It's a bit hard to explain the next fold, so I'm not even going to try... After all the folding was done, I embossed it with my flower embossing folder and rubbed some ink over it to colour it. I've used different cutting dies to decorate it, and a piece of velcro (under that little flap) to keep it shut. And, of course, some ribbon for handles.

When Maja saw the purse, she really wanted to make one for her friends birthday, so we did. Do you think Susie wanted one too....?? YES! She wanted a blue one.... She wasn't too pleased that I spelt her name with different letters than the other two purses though... even though I like those letters better... (that reminds me that I need to get some more alphabet dies...)

These purses were real fun to make, and easy too. I'm sure I'm going to make more of these...

I'm entering in these challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts Monthly Challenge - #23 - Ribbon or twine.

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes.

Thanks for looking!

Gone Shopping...

Luckily, it looks like Susie's ear ache was a one night thing. She hasn't complained about her ears at all today. Phew!

This is a card I made while I was over at my friends house the other night.

I have borrowed the border punch, the text stamp and the "splat" stamp from my friend, so I don't know what they are.... Image is Miss Anya by The Greeting Farm, though... and she's coloured with Promarkers.

This card goes into the following challenges:

Simon Says - Anything Goes.

Anyone for Anya - Girly Girl.

Dream Valley - Challenge 31- For a Special Lady

I really appreciate your comments. Thanks for looking.

Gone fishing....

We've had such a great day here today. It started off with Maja's team winning the last handball match of the season this morning. Yeehaa! It's been really warm and sunny all day too. We've been outside a lot today. We even had lunch outside on the decking, and the butter was all melted after a few minutes on the table (it was sat in the sun though...). Dinner was had outside too, and the girls have played with their lps animals in the sun for hours. Bliss!

But I guess all good things must come to an end.... I've just been sitting in bed with Susie (5), trying to get her to sleep, for almost two hours. Her ears are aching... She finally fell asleep after I managed to get her to take a painkiller by offering her money (I'm such a good mother...). Hope she feels better tomorrow.

OK... so... here's a card I made for a colleague of mine. She needed a card for her boyfriends birthday. He is really into fishing... I didn't really have a lot of fishing related stamps or digis... but I managed to dig up this mean looking fish. Hope it is what she wanted....

I added a bit of sparkle to some parts of the fish... you can see it a bit better in the pic below.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers - The Sportsman

Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 214 - Animal magic

Charisma Cardz - Challenge #16 - Blue, Black and White.

Thanks for looking.