Elegant Christmas Cards

My first video ever! See how I make elegant but simple Christmas cards. In the end of the video you'll see variations of the basic design.

Jewel Tones

I have been doodling rugs recently. The woolly texture of them is very appealing so I find it fun to try to make illustrations that imitate them. This one had colors that I really like so I repeated them on wool too.

Here's the first set of wool that I dyed. (Available at Etsy)

And here's the second one. (Also available at Etsy)

These jewel tones get me in a good mood, hopefully you too! Colorful day!

A Nature Inspired Pattern

This is my second pattern on the pattern design course.

We were given instructions to take certain kind of photos on one day. Then on the other day we picked one favorite photo and started sketching based on that.

The instructions for making various kind of sketches were pretty good. Here's my photo where the inspiration for the pattern came from. I think the similarity is quite noticeable.

The process was very fast for me. I haven't been feeling fell and had a flu, so I just did barely what was asked. I really feel that the pattern design is something where I want to develop though! I try to put more energy into the next assignments.

Starting with Simple Things

Here's my first exercise for the Pattern Design Course: die cut circles on a painted background. This is terrible simple for me, it felt awful to leave it like this!

Ornaments All Over The Place

The Rise of Ornaments

I have been making this collage piece by piece and it's finally finished. What can I say, I am hooked in ornaments of all kinds and new ones burst from my mind every day.

My next goal is to design a new line of fabrics. I have prepared for it by signing up Rachael Taylor's pattern design course. I hope that the course will keep me motivated to do the task! Not that it's unpleasant one, but even if I love designing patterns, it is also hard work and requires a lot of thinking.

I have got a lot of new visitors this month. Thank you! It means a lot to me to share all this with you!

In Progress

A new ornamental collage in progress!

How I Survived a Scrapbooking Marathon

In September I attended a scrapbooking marathon, organized by Big Picture Classes with Lain Ehmann as an instructor. The marathon lasted 26 days and you were supposed to make 26 layouts, one each day.

I was busy with a craft fair for the first two weeks so I started 14 days later than the others, determined to make all 26 layouts. My advice: don't do like I did if you ever attend this kind of challenge, start in time - no start ahead if you can! I had to make 2 to 3 layouts each day. Sounds impossible for someone who has a day job and who usually makes one layout in 4 to 6 hours!

But I did it! I accomplished 26 layouts in 12 days! How did I do it?

1) Scrapped in digi. I scrapped 23 digital layouts and only 3 on paper. Digital scrapbooking is so much faster!

2) Found photos easily. My photos are pretty organized. I star them using Stacy Julian's method: I give 3 stars for those that I want to scrap, and 2 start for those I might scrap. I also use a limited number of keywords to tag them and have created plenty of smart albums (albums with predefined rules) in iPhoto.

3) Made some smaller sized layouts. 5 of the layouts were in 8 by 8 size. I usually scrap in 12 by 12 inches but I discovered a new concept with 8 by 8 size. I use only one photo on the page. The subject of the page is "Today". The photo is taken on the same day that I scrap it. I write about miscellaneous stuff connected with that day. This concept suits so well with my life! I might take an odd photo with iPhone, then just go to my computer and scrap the page. I have made plenty of these after the marathon and it is one of the greatest discovery for me provided by the challenge.

Here are a couple of the layouts I am particularly proud of.

I am a terrible cook but as everyone in scrapbooking is crazy over cupcakes and there are so many designs to got with cupcake photos, I baked some! And the cherries on top are from the cherry tree in our garden! The digital elements are from Mary Pop's kit I heart Sweets.

The guidance for the last day was to let go and do something wild and break the rules of scrapbooking. I decided to use my own elements only, few photos, a poem written by myself many years ago and some doodling. It all came so easy, knowing then that I am passing the finish line!

Florabell

Florabell, available at Etsy

It was so much fun to make this bag. I used to make these regularly but had to take a break once I moved to a new house. The inspiration of making these stopped then but when I found a bottom part from my stack of unfinished projects, it all came back! I also have another one on needles.