Christmas Tag Tutorial.

Challenge time over at 

Vintage Challenges

This time the challenge is called 

'Vintage Christmas'

A suiting challenge for this season, 

when it's about time we got started with Christmas projects, 

if you havn't already done so that is! : O) 

We want see your Christmas creations, 

ranging from Christmas cards,  

Christmas decorations, Christmas Notebooks to a Christmas scrapbook page. 

The choice is yours.

Just a criteria to stick to .... VINTAGE. 
We have a great prize from our sponsor too!!
300,- NOK worth of rubberstamps...

So put on some nostalgic Christmas music to get you in the mood,

You have until November 13th to upload contributions :O)

This is how I made the tag.....

I used a Ranger #8 craft Kraft tag as the base.
Ripped up some old book pages and dipped them in some strong coffee,
and left them to dry over night.

I then used matt decoupage glue to attach them to the tag, I just painted on the glue
and lay the strips of pages over the tags, cutting off the stray edges
 then I sealed them with another coat of decoupage glue. 
Setting them aside to dry, flattening out the tags every now and then
so that they wern't too 'curly'.

Next step was to randomly stamp them with 
some wintery branch stamps from Basic Gray.
Once the stamps were dry I sprayed the tags with 
Perfect Pearls Mist - Biscotti,
and gave them a quick blow dry.
Then i used a pallet knife to randomly 
spread on an uneven patchy layer of gesso paint.

Once the gesso was dry, (that drys quite quickly)
I made another layer using the same teqnique using 
Distress paint - weatherwood over the Gesso. 
Making sure to leave open spaces so you could still 
see some of the stamps, old book pages and gesso.
 Distress paint takes a while to dry, 
and its not always a good idea to hurry the drying process up,
this affects the size and quantity of the crackles in the paint.
SO I put it to one side again to dry.

In the meantime I started rolling
some scrap book strips to make the christmas tree.
Decide how tall and wide you want your tree to be,
and make the strips accordingly, 
start with the longest and decend slightly each time in size. 
I sprayed the strips with a bit of water to dampen them 
thus making them easier to form.
A little line of glue along the edge of the roll and left to dry.
I glued a small doily peice to the tag.

I put a strip of doublesided tape on a scrap of cardboard 
approx 1 cm wide and 2 cm long 
and wrapped some red and white butchers string around it 
covering approx 1cm.
(Size will vary depending on the size of your tree).
I then glued the bottom rolls of christmas 
tree to the remaining peice of cardboard.
Then glued it to the tag and glued on the rest of the tree 'rolls'.
I used Panokit glue that drys fast and clear.

Final touches, I added a ribbon strip, some snowflakes and 
attached a ribbon through the hole.

 These techniques can be used on lots of different
projects imagination is your only limitation!

Good luck :O)
Nina

Panduro Hobby Christmas card Competition.

Right now Panduro Hobby is having a competition!

You have to design and make your own Christmas card.

(yup its looming, in fact only 2 months til Christmas now! 

Can't wait personally, I LOVE CHRISTMAS!)

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to enter, and the prizes are FAB.

Here is my entry:

 (I decided to make a tag, 

but with a card like place to write on the back, 

I do hope that they accept it as a card....)

The back side, showing the 'flip-up card' bit, a text stamp 

from Panduro and my personal stamp.

On the side I used a Panduro Foam stamp, 

its cool 'cos you can only see the silver ink from some angles.

I stamped straight onto the background I made 

using the new and Beautiful 'Tilda' Tissue paper

glued on using Panduro's own Decoupage glue.

Here you see a selection of Panduros Washi Tape, LOVE IT!

A vintage button sewed on with hemp string, and 

a scrap of of lace ribbon attached to the very bottom.

 In this photo i have tryed to capture the 

shine of the panduro stamp, 

embossed black Christmas tree.

Here you see the gorgeous new 'Tilda' ribbon 

attached to the top of the card.

I really enjoyed making this 

and it didn't take a whole lot of time either.

I had better skip along to Panduro with it one day soon.

(competition closing date is 11 Nov 2012)

Happy days! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Nina x

Design Team Vintage Challenge # 33

Join in! 

Make a Vintage style hostess gift and enter the competition over at  

Vintage challenges 

before the 28th of December at 6pm CET

and be in the running for a great prize from this weeks sponser

stämpelkallan.com
We the design team pick the winner and four runners up ourselfs!

Hey folks! 

Dosen't time fly when you are having fun?!

I am certainly enjoying myslf working through my 'To Do List' :OD

Over to this project, I made a Christmas hostess gift. 

It contains some vintage golden christmas tree candles, 

tied with a beautiful peice of ribbon from Dorothea. 

The crystal snowflake hair clasp can be removed and clipped onto a jacket lapel or on a handbag etc.

I have made a cone shape with some left over chicken wire I had. 

I got this idea from a beautiful project EttenA made *thank u :O)*

Then I lined the cone with some pages of an old book.

I cut the tag using my spellbinders labels 4 ( my all-time favourite :O) 

using craft paper and old note paper then added the sweetest lamp 

stamped from our sponser this time

www.Stempelkallen.com 

I painted it with distress inks. 

Lastly I have tied a peice of hemp string to make a hang loop.

I am entering this project into the following challenges:

Simon Says stamp - Anything goes.

(open til 7th Dec.)

Paper Play challenges - Tags and wrappings.

(open til 7th Dec.)

DYSU #48 - Ribbon (or anything you can tie)

(open til 7th Dec.)

Wishing you all a nice weekend, 

wherever you are and what ever you have planned I hope you will be smiling :O)

Hugs Nina

Christmas cards one, two and three.

Its beginning to look alot like christmas, everywhere I go.... hum de dai. 

With the exception of snow that is!

Its very mild here for this time of year, a whopping 9 degrees yesterday! Compaired to last years constant minus degrees and the snow had already lain thick for a month by now! 

I WANT TO GO SKIING!! So hurry up already and snow!

On to the topic of this post, christmas cards, have I mentioned that 

I LOVE CHRISTMAS??!

 I have used Mo's digital images on all three cards, and I must say that they are a delight to paint. 

I have used my husbands design papers as a background on all of the cards and as you can see I have kept them pretty 'clean and simple'.
 

 Mo has so many sweet images, and the one above here has to be one of my favourites, you can just imagine the trip 'grandpa and grandson' or 'father and son' have been on collecting greenery for decorations, no doubt sent out by 'mother' or 'grandmother' who is at home in the kitchen baking some delish cake to be had with a cup of hot cocoa after their trip to the woods.

Nuts? me? some people talk to their stamps! I like to make up stories about them hehe.

I mentioned that the images were a dream to paint, I used Tim Holts distress ink refill 'Vintage photo' to paint all of them (with the excepition of the heart on the wee girls dress, I sed 'Tattered rose' there).

Get this, I put ONE drop of it onto a peice of acitate and managed to paint 6 images before the ONE drop was used up!! Talk about stretching a long way!

And here are the cards along with a whole other bunch of cards that are all stacked up

ready to go on sale. They are on sale now at

'Hud og Helseklinikken'

 in Kolbotn in Norway.

If you want to order one yourself in time for christmas then let me know.

These ones shown in this post cost 60 NOK + postage.

I am entering these cards into the following challenges:

Stamptacular Sunday challenge #140 - 'Anything christmas'
(open til 3rd Dec.)


Totally Paper Craft Challenge #94 - 'Christmas'
(open til 1st Dec.)

Creative Card Crew - 'Monochromatic'
(open til 4th Dec.)

Paper Sundaes Challenge #97 - 'Winter wonderland'
(open til 3rd Dec.)

I bet everyone is really busy themselves with christmas looming in the distance, 

glue on the table, glitter stuck under your fingernails 

and the odd paper snowflake stuck to your bum?!

thats why your comments are so apreciated.

I hope you are enjoying it all at the sametime, 

remember its a whole year til next time!

'What gets done gets done, and what doesn't doesn't'

is my philosophy, works for me anyway. 

Happy days!

Hugs Nina

Christmas in vintage style

Firstly welcome to my new followers, always nice to see new faces.

I can't belive how many of you there are now! 

*

I was chosen to take part in the Stamp challenge 

along with 3 other ladys for this years 5th Edition of Ett Trykk, 

a Scandinavian inspirational magazine for cardmakers and scrappers. 

I was well chuffed, and enjoyed the challenge!

We were each sent a beautiful photostamp from 

'Kreativ Hobby' 

and was asked to make 2 projects showcasing it.

I chose to make a CD gift envelope (using my own design) and a notepad.

Here is a detail photo of the notepad below.

I have used my Zutter Bind-it-all to make the spine, 

and the text stamp is from Waltzing Mouse.

Here is the CD gift envelope, 

 I have used amongst others papers designed for me by my husband.

This is the backside.

and a side view.

I had so much fun making these projects!

Thank you Ett Trykk for choosing me to take part.

I am entering these works in for the following challenges:

Anonyme Scrappere - Christmas in vintage style.

(deadline - 22nd Nov.)

Stamping, Scrapping Challenge Central - Christmas/Holidays.

(deadline - 3rd Dec.)

The Cute and Girly November challenge -Christmas Girls.

(deadline - 30th Nov.)

Addicted to stamps challenge - Shabby chic or vintage
(deadline - 12 Nov)

Thank you for all of your comments, I appreciate you taking the time! 

Enjoy Autumn before its gone for a whole year!

Regards Nina

Yiihoo! No more christmas cards for a long time!

I am just catching up!

(something I made earlier.. as they always said on 'Blue Peter' Lol)

Here are some of the last christmas cards that I made this year,

and I am so pleased that all 60 of my mix of cards and gift tags were sold!

I must say that i'm glad that the christmas rush of making things is over,

and am now looking forward to a long break

from making all things christmassy!!

Lol
(well I was really good this year and started in september, so it's been a while!)

I hope you are all enjoying your christmas breaks and

are charging your batteries for a great New Years Eve!! :O)

Thank you so much for all of your lovley comments,

I really do appreciate them all :O)

2011

is just around the corner,

and boy what an exciting year it is going to be!!
*

*

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought tae mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne?....

and ther's a hand, my trusty fiere and gies a hand o' thine!

we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet for auld langs syne .......

Skål! Cheers!

Hugs Nina xx

More tea bag cards

More Tea-bag cards, I love making these! He he.

I had an idea that I wanted to make some that looked very natural

and in a way enviromentaly friendly.

I think I may have mentioned it before ;OD but

Christmas is my favourite time of the year,

but It is also a sad time for me cos I miss my Mom.

It was also her favourite time of the year, and she made it so special for lots of people.

We had open house partys and the atmostfere was always buzzing with christmas cheer.

She would teach others how to make traditional Norwegian decorations etc,

and people still say that they think of her and remember her especially around christmas time,

which warms my heart.

The Cranberries - 'When you're gone'

And the backside...

These teabags smell fantastic!

A blend of Camomile, Rooibos, Lavender, and Cocoa Beans

I hope they will calm any stress the recipient should have

in this notoriously busy time.

This Norwegian stamp says in English:

A christmas hug from me, hope it finds you. Merry Christmas.

Whist taking these photographs today,

I realised how much love there is in and around my house!

So I went on a around taking photos of the love that can be documented.

I look forward to sharing them with you in my next post!

In the meantime love from me to you :O)

Hugs Nina xx

Teabag christmas cards

Time flys when you are having fun is how the saying goes and boy is it true!

I went to see A-Ha in concert one of their last ever :O(

Fantastic!!

T'was a birthday presant for my husband and it was not easy keeping it a secret!

I have been busy the past couple of weekends showing

and helping other people make paper crafty bits and bobs.

Mostly family and some friends too.

It has been great fun, just seeing how happy and proud they are of the end product.

This teabag card was one of the projects,

I found some measurments on the net, but ended up having to make my own cos I couldn't make it all fit together and work!

I am thinking about making a tutorial with my measurments if anyone is interested?

Without further a do, here are the little sweeties....

They are only 9x9.5cm! So cute!

Inside

Backside

I have used some super-sweet blue snowflake paper from 'Little yellow bicycle'

And some blue spotty paper from inkido.

A little stiching round the panels and a good distressing all over with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo.

I used spellbinders to chomp out bits on the inside sleeve and Marvy snowflake punch.

I am entering these into the following challenges:

The Stampman - Challenge # 11 - Take any 3 colours - Christmas theme.

Stamp Something - Christmas colour combo something.

T.P.C - Challenge # 45 - Xmas punches.

Kort O Mania - Utfordring # 29 - Lag et julekort.

Yeehoo, Hope to find time soon to pop round and do some of my own blog hopping again soon!

I look forward to it :O)

With wishes for a wonderful weekend for you all

Hugs Nina xx

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Wooohoooo!

Its all white outside!

Forcast of -25 degrees on its way!

Better get all wraped up then!

I really enjoyed making these tag pockets, all cosy and warm in my cubby-hole.

I set myself a wee challenge to make something without thinking too much!

Just make it and that quickly!

Lol

(the reason being that I usually measure everything twice, spend lots of time pondering over details etc.

The result being that the project takes so much longer than it should do to be finished!)

They look like they are made from squashed toilet rolls,

they are not though, I have used bazzil card.

The images I have used are from Sagen Vintage Design,

the ribbons and pearlstring are from Panduro and Minne Hjørne.

These were so quick and easy I made a bunch of them :)

The tag sits inside the pocket like so...

I have also used:

Chalky transparent paper from Panduro,

Design paper- Nostalgi by Gudrun Loennechan,

Spellbinders Label four and circles,

Marvy snowflake punch medium and small,

Archival Ink Coffee,

Tim Holtz - Vintage photo,

Text stamp - Minne-hjørne,

Martha Stewart Doily punch,

Half Pearls - Kaiser,

Vellum scraps,

Glimmermist - Marshmallow.

I am entering these for the following challenges:

CES Challenge #13 - Lovely Lace

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #110 - Homemade christmas Gifts
Totally Gorjuss challenge #57 - Not so traditional colours. I reckon trad. colours are red/green/silver/gold etc, hope they agree :)

Flutterby Wednesday Challenge #131- Angels (optional sketch, I opted not)

Totally Papercrafts challenge #43 - Snowflakes/snow

CRAFT challenge #77 Using Vellum

A spoonfull of sugar Challenge #130 - Distressing

Phew!! Hope you are all well, I look forward to seeing all your creations soon!

Wishing you all a great weekend

Hugs Nina xxx

Hanging stars

More sleep has been had yiihooo!

Now for some decorations,

'heres one I made earlier' Teehee,

I made the red one whilst at the Ski meet (ski treffet)

They are really simple and easy but beautiful I think.

First I used my star spellbinder to cut out 3 stars from watercolour paper for each finished star.

I then embossed the star stamp from Waltzing Mouse on each. used my bone folder to score down the middle of each star.

Then I used a round spellbinder to cut all the middles out and my crop-a-dile to cut the small hanging circle on each the slapped them together with glue

then threaded the metal snowflakes in place.

I also distressed a bit around the bronze stars that I actually cut out in thin brown card when I think about it :)

Wahhlaah star decoration :)

I should be doing something else now so must dash, back soon!

oh and I am entering these for the

Christmas blog challenge- They want to see a decoration :)

Hugs Nina xx

Origami Star card and patchwork tree.

Hey lovley peeps, Hope everyone is enjoying there week so far, its almost the weekend! Lol

Things are quietening down here now after Kim had his ear operation and Scott is almost over the neumonia he had, I almost got a full nights sleep last night!!

Thats almost worth writing down in the book!

Without further a do, onto what this blog is about... the crafty stuff :)

I am working on chirstmas cards at the moment (for a change).

For this first card I folded some nice thin papermania paper into a star shape

OR-I-GA-MI style

The ribbon is from Panduro, and the stamp is from mmmmm my cupboard... no that won't do, my brain seems to be somewhere else today, it must be in shock of having had some sleep!

erm hehe I can't find the stamp now either! I give up, anybody know where its from??!

Next I wanted to try out some patchwork style work again and ended up making this tree card.....

and a close up...

Lol and i've just realised that I have taken a photo of this card before it was finished!

I was feeling that there was something missing but didn't want to loose the simpleness of it,

in the end I embossed the text 'God Jul' in the top righthand corner which helped alot.

These lovley packages are from Magnolia and the crimbo tree is made from papermania scraps :)

Both cards are painted with Tim Holtz distress reinkers.

Back with more soon!

And just before I go I want to say Thank you sooo much for all the lovley comments you ladys give me, I really enjoy reading them :)

Hugs Nina xx

ps. How funny that so many of you thought It was a real pepperkake in my last post, I am flattered that some thought that I could have written that text with icing!! I think I might of been a

'masterchef cake lady'

if I had! hehe :)

May the wonders of winter warm your heart.

Wow the rest of my evening last night disapeared as I got lost in Blogland!

It was such a wonderful journey through all of your blogs and some new ones too.

You are all so very inspiring! Thank you :O)

Here is more updating of what I have been up to whilst on my wee blog break.

The first is a tag made from a cardboard cup coaster. The text is embossed with seafoam white, and then distressed around the edges with vintage photo from Tim Holtz.

My husband says they look like pepperkaker. hehe

( I've made a bunch of these :O)

Sorry the lighting for photographing this next card was crap!

I've done my best in photoshop, but well anyway you get the gist :O)

I've used a new stamp that I bought from Papirloftet. Isn't it lovley!?

Very victorian age I think, I sew a sig-zag stitch around it and chose some colours I deem to be vintagy/victoriany :O)

The background papers are from Making Memories.

the text stamp from 'kort og godt' says

'Real christmas excitment

is found in the sparkle of childrens eyes'
(and mine too ;O)

Thank you for all of your lovley comments, its great to hear from you again!

More to come soon :O)

Bye for now

Nina xx

I'm dreaming of a white christmas....

I'm just so into the christmas spirit at the moment! (hope it lasts!)

I have never been so ahead with my christmas related projects as I am this year!

What a wonderful feeling that is!

*** It snowed here last night and the ground is all white and fluffy.***

There is something wrong with our fiber- cable connection at the moment so the Tv is on strike,

My boys and I chose to watch 'postman Pats christmas adventure' on Dvd this evening since the childrens hour was down, (who would have known that Pat is a pro iceskater!!) so they are getting into the christmas swing with me too Lol :O)

Here is another couple of cards I have made, again, they are quite simple with no stash!

( but they are a bit grubby :OD)

The Images are from Panduro and are painted with Tim Holtz refiller inks, using a painting style that i havn't tryed before - shabby painting as I call it! I think it has given the images a bit of an 'old fashioned' look... would you say so? Or should I not give up my day job??! Lol

The snow flakes are punched from Marvy in sizes small and medium.

The music paper is from Panduro and the rest is made from scraps.

Its back to photoshop to fix some more images ready to post soon,

But first i'm coming to visit your blog, on my very own private bloghop :OD

I hope to pop in on you all soon!

Smiles Nina xx

yip-e-de-do-da-yip-e-de-day my oh my what a wonderful day!

Helloooo!!

Just thought That I would make an apearence here again! After a long blogging break, I feel its time to get back into the swing of things :OD

I have been being creative whilst i've been away though, and have tryed to document all that I have made, and have finally gotten around to doing a bit of fixing in photoshop this evening, so I will be posting over the next few days.

I have a tendens to give all of my cards a grubby vintage look, and I love it, don't get me wrong!

But as I am going to be selling christmas cards I thought that the grubby feel may not appeal to everyone, thus I made some clean and simple winter style cards.... ( and a whole load of grubby ones too! hehe)

I have used beautiful vintage images from 'Sagen Vintage Design'

I must say that these cards actually do look better IRL!

I have used watercolour paper and simply chomped off the corners with my MS Iron Gate punch,

And Threaded a couple of strands of tapestry thread in silver around the images.

I made 15 of these cards mostly with different images in different shapes and sizes but the card size I have kept the same in all of them 13.5 x 13.5.

This is cos I got a fantastic deal on some envelopes that suit this size Lol.

Back soon!

Smiles Nina xx