Endings and beginnings

Maybe 2011 was a fabulous year for you, a once in a lifetime year, filled with adventure, joy and love. Maybe it was a terrible year, a sad year that you just wanted to get rid of as fast as possible. Or maybe 2011 was just one of those years that seemed to pass without anything special happening. A year with no rollercoaster rides.



For all of you out there I wish that 2012 will be your best year so far! Not your best year ever though for what will you do 2013 then?

May 2012 be a year filled with happiness, laughter, sadness, contentment, anger, joy, brilliant colors, rainy days and true beauty – all those things that life is really about!

May it also be a year filled with the joy of creating and the year when you seek, find or keep your artistic passion! 

 

Lots of love to you all!
Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Bicycle tube necklace

A flat tire is usually dead annoying but why not cheer yourself up by using the bicycle tube for making a necklace.

You need: An old bicycle tube - you can use a brand new one too of course if you don’t want to wait for a flat tire before trying this DIY out… needle, scissor, fishing line (0,25 mm) and pearls or other embellishments.

Start with cleaning your tube with soap and water. Let it dry. While it is drying you can chose the pearls you want to use. I often buy “ugly” or broken trinkets at jumble sales and “slaughter” them to reuse the pearls.

When the tube is completely dry you cut off pieces with your scissor. You can have all your pieces in the same size or you can let them vary depending on the look you want to create.

Wooohoo now it is finally time to go wild and crazy, mixing pearls and tube pieces to a unique necklace.

Measure how long you want your necklace to be and cut a piece of fishing line that is approximately 2 cm longer. Thread a needle with the line and start stringing pearls and tube pieces on it.

If you make a small necklace you have to start and finish it with a lock. I usually use one from my “slaughtered” findings. If the necklace is longer so you can thread it over you head then you don’t need a lock. Then you just finish by tying the pieces together with two or three knots.

The variations are endless...

I really love making these! They make great gifts and if you use recycled bicycle tube and pearls from jumble sale findings the cost you next to nothing!

Now I leave you for the weekend. I wish you a festive, fantastic and fun New Years Eve and I hope to see you all next year!

Jeanette

Do I have an artistic passion?

Last year I participated in One World One Heart hosted by Lisa Swifka. It was a great event and helped me find my way to many new bloggers around the globe. I am still following some of them. This year Lisa Swifka is launching a brand new event that is replacing One World One Heart. It is called Our World Our Art and will be an annual international blogwide art event.

Lisa says : “Its mission is to give all of us who create with our hands in many mediums and in many genres....a chance to celebrate our authentic artistic selves and our authentic artistic vision....together. This event will also continue the importance of meeting other bloggers from around the world making connections, forming friendships.”

What qualifies you to become a participant? Being an artist or a crafter? Well Lisa says that you have to have an artistic passion. So what is that then? No one explains it better than the creator/host herself:

“….In my book, and for the purposes of OWOA, we're going to call it your "artistic passion". So what does that mean? It means if you sit in your home or studio and you have supplies (whatever they may be) and you create something out of those supplies - by hand - and with your own designs....AND you LOVE doing it to sell or to just do it because you love it or because it brings harmony to your very existence....then you have "artistic passion". …. “

I have been creative all my life but to call myself an artist or a crafter always felt wrong somehow. I think I didn’t have self-confidence enough. I wasn’t well known or educated in arts & crafts and I didn’t have exhibitions or sell my “art”. So naturally I wasn’t an artist!

But I have absolutely no problem with artistic passion. I have loads of that. My life would be empty and not worth living if I wouldn’t have time to create. Hey I even wrote a Creative Manifesto…. So I can`t wait to enter Our World Our Art when it starts in the end of February. Hope to see you there too.

Do you want to read more about the event and the rules to participate you will find it here.

Take care

Jeanette

Getting started

Do you remember my leaf? The one I am making for the Swedisk Art & Craft Society 100 year anniversary next year? I have been thinking about how to create my leaf for quite some time now but on Boxing day I finally got started. I decided to go for wet felting and the "working name" is Tree of Life. I needed to make both a front and a backside for the leaf.



Placing the wool on the prefelted fabric



Wetting it down with hot soap water



Hanging it to dry. The red is the front side and the pink is the backside...I think. ....So far...

 I plan to add needle felting and embroidery to it as well and probably some text and photos in decoupage. It was a relief to finally get going instead of just thinking about it. Sometimes I am SO very hard on myself and everything has to be perfect at once. That sort of stops me from getting started at all in fear of it ending up all wrong. Which is extremely silly really because I can always make another piece if I am not satisfied with the first one....

The leaf has to be ready at the end of February so for once I am not making a last minute project...

Take care
Jeanette

Things I Love Tuesday

My knitting projects

A very merry Christmas to you all

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Gift tags

I love giving more than receiving. It’s the ultimate joy for me to find that exactly right gift especially when you can surprise someone with it on an ordinary day and not for a special occasion like Christmas or a birthday. I also like to gift-wrap them in a personal way. Since Christmas is just around the corner I would like to chare with you how I make my gift tags. If you dot want to use them as tags you can hang them in your Christmas tree as well.

I use vintage photos from the web but I think it very is important to honor those who have published them. These photos are lovelly freebies from the talented Teri Karhs at Pringle Hill Studios . I also used paper from a vintage book, card stock and glitter glue. You simply can`t have to much glitter glue in your life!

I cut out a photo with my scissor and also cut out a pair of angel wings using the vintage paper. I glued the wings on the back of the photo and then glued the "angel" on a piece of card stock for stability. Then I cut everything out. Added glitter glue to the wings and a small tread on the back for hanging.

This is the finished gift tag

Once I got started I had so much fun that I just kept going.

I will finish this DIY with a hot tip. If you want lovely vintage photos then you can hurry over to Lisa Vollrath. For the 6th year in a row Lisa at Ten two Studios and Go Make Something has been counting down the days to Christmas with printable image sheets. They are freebies to use in your own art work! Now if that isn`t true Christmas spirit I don`t know what is. Very generous !!

Now I leave you for the weekend. May you all have a merry Christmas!

See you all after the holidays!

Take care
Jeanette

I`m done!

The Christmas ham is in the oven, the Christmas cards are sent and the gifts are all bought and gift wrapped. The Christmas tree is standing in the living room ready in all its splendor and the sweet smell of hyacinths are spreading all over the house. I am done! Now Christmas can come….

Tomorrow I have a Friday Tutorial for you and then I will leave you for the Christmas holidays.

So….

From me...

....to you

A very Merry X-MAS!

Jeanette

PS The cap is one of my knitted gifts….for my husb….schhh don’t tell. Next year we won’t loose sight of him in the ski slopes J

No snow in sight

We very seldom have snow in these parts of Sweden but the last two winters were long and hard. We had snow, lots of snow from the end of November until February. The south Swedes tend to handle snow badly and we are not used to having to drive carefully on hard packed snow. We were bitterly complaining about busses and trains not going on schedule and about lousy plowing and snow clearance. Come end of December we all wanted the snow to go away.

Kisses in the snow beats kissing in the rain!

This year we have no snow at all. Not a single flake! Everything is a boring grey, grey, grey! So this year I long for busses that are always late and to have to climb over walls of snow that are left by the snowplows. I want to take long walks in the winter landscape feeling nice and warm in my down jacket, long johns, mittens and cap.

I should have been more grateful last year…..

Take care

Jeanette

Things I Love Tuesday

Christmas decorations

Take care
Jeanette

My weekend in pictures

I had a good weekend. I spent Saturday with my family celebrating an early Christmas Eve since my sister is going abroad on Thursday. We almost always celebrate “Christmas Eve” twice because my sister and brother in law have a house in Thailand and usually spend their Christmas holiday there. Good food, laughter and presents – can it be better? On Sunday I made Christmas cards and decorated my house. I also continued on my knitted gifts and while I was knitting I kept saying to myself – next year I will get started in time….   

Take care

Jeanette

The Friday Tutorial

Reindeer garland
I am alot into garlands right now. They are fun to make and easy too and they give your home a fast touch of Christmas. So how about an easy, fun and fast project for the weekend?


Last year IKEA (yeah, I visit it a lot….) had reindeer Christmas tree ornaments. Since I have a crush on reindeers I found them extremely cute but I left the shop without them thinking I could make some of my own. Unfortunately I happened to forget that I absolutely suck at drawing! But when in need – google! So I googled reindeer template and I didn’t just find a template but also a great blog. Don’t you just love the internet?  Visit the blog here.

This is how I did the garland:

I chose some lovely red paper with different patterns. These are scrapbook paper colored on both sides but you could just as well use paper from some glossy magazine.




I traced the template to the paper and cut the reindeers out with a scissor. Then I glued them to a piece of string and the garland was finished!



Here they are hanging on the wall just waiting to be hung in the Christmas tree.



Now I leave you for the weekend. Hope you have a creative one!
Jeanette

Sneak peak

I haven`t showed you any of my creative work lately. Thats because they are kind of secret and will be releaved for friends and family on Christmas eve. But you can get a sneak peak at the gift wrap... I think it`s almost as fun wraping them up as it is making the gift itself.

Take care
Jeanette

In need of some Christmas spirit

I have always loved Christmas, the capital letters kind of LOVE. Well I don’t love the hectic buy all the stuff you can get and put under the tree kind of Christmas that leaves people all hollow eyed and desperate in the shops. I love the Christmas that involves friends and family eating gingerbreads, drinking glühwein and playing scrabble. To go all crazy on Christmas decorations and make most of them myself. The warmth and joy of spending time with my loved ones.

This year I don’t seem to be able to get round to Christmas. It’s like Christmas barely happened. I know, I know it isn’t here yet but I am usually way into the good cheer - peace on earth – good will toward men feeling at this time of the year. It’s bothersome and it worries me.

Maybe it’s an age thing or an I have too much to do at work thing….Or it could be a what the heck happened to October and November thing. It could also be a weather thing. We have no snow!

Well, what ever it is I hope it’s  a passing thing.

Take care

Jeanette

Things I Love Tuesday

Candle lights

Jeanette

My weekend in pictures

I had the cold from hell this weekend! I had planned to get most of my Christmas shopping done as well as decorating my house and garden but spent most of it in bed reading and feeling sorry for myself instead. On Sunday I managed to stay out of bed for a couple of hours and then I made a wreath for my front door and hung my newest acquisition on the wall in my hallway. It’s a deer (of course), a reindeer in fact. My husband hasn’t really decided if he likes him yet but I think he is SO cute. Especially after some Christmas pimping…. I guess my husband is grateful that I don’t want the entire sleigh team hanging from my roof though…

Take care

Jeanette