Something made, something lost, something won

Today I put the finishing touches on two pairs of baby socks. These are pairs number 12 and 13 - I think... I've made so many I've kind of lost count. And that's only in the last year and a half!

I've made the recipe for these socks myself, based on an old pair of socks Krissie had from her childhood. It can be found here, with illustrated steps. It is my first attempt at writing a recipe, so let me know if there are mistakes. Now, I know there are a million baby sock recipes out there, but these were just so cute I just had to figure out how to make them! Thanks to Krissie for the loan.

And I was just waiting for this to happen - Charmy has run away. Not through the window though, but the door! She ran out between my legs and straight over the edge of my first floor veranda, the crazy thing. Still missing in action, but has been observed. I reckon she'll be hungry tomorrow, and hopefully she'll still be close by.

But as if the universe knew I was having a really bad day, it compensated by letting me win a prize in the March challenge at Ett Trykk with my butterfly set! So a surprise prize is coming my way and I'm just aching to see what's in it!

Confirmation card and candy entry

The confirmant herself chose these colours for her day: pink, brown and turquoise. I like her idea! The turquoise is a breath of fresh air to the otherwise very classic and muted pink/brown combo. It's very difficult to get it right though, there are a million shades leaning to either green or blue. The photo doesn't quite show them right either.

I bought lots and lots and lots of charms and other metal embellishments on the Scraporama craft show, and they are a joy to use! The image was coloured with Prismacolor pencils, and then showered in Glimmermist Old Lace, also bought last weekend. It doesn't show, I know...

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I've entered this card to a blog candy at Crafty Goings On - she's giving away 72 Copic markers and oh boy oh boy I want a chance to win! All she asks is that you link to a card with a coloured image. Count me in! (Closed)

I'm back!

Well, Things Take Time. I don't like to leave the blog candy posts at the top, but all my other projects have either been half-way done or (ahem) not started at all. At least I've managed to make this card even though Charmy keeps jumping up into my lap seeking attention. The parents of this (on-the-way) baby call her their little princess - and it couldn't have been a better occation to use this sentiment stamp! Even the little crown charm says "Princess".
And if Charmy can just take a little nap soon, I might have another card to post tomorrow.

While we're waiting...

I'm currently working on sorting through my new scrapping supplies and trying to arrange it all in some sort of organised fashion, ready for use. After my weekend in Oslo and the craft show Scraporama, my wallet is thin, my laughter muscles sore, and my stash seriously expanded! I'll be posting something really soon, I promise. But for now, here are some of the great blog candys out there - as if I have room for anything more now. ;) Oh who am I kidding - there's always room for more stash!

Sally-Ann is giving away some paper, ribbons and more to celebrate her new DT position and more. Congratulations!
*Closed*

Zoe has a lovely blue candy going on - truly one of my favourite colours.
*Closed*

Stacey is celebrating her first blogoversary with a delicious candy. Congratulations!
*Closed*

Jak is giving away a whole pile of stamps and some glorious paper! Wow.
*Closed*

Jacqui has a candy with one of the new WoJ-stamps and much much more...
*Closed*

Spring is in the air

My little house guest wants to get outside and I won't let her from fear that she'll run away. She goes home to her Mom in the weekends and gets to go outside there, in the environment she knows. But on sunny days like this one we need air in the kitchen/living room, so I keep a window open. And she knows what's on the other side! I try to block her way, but I'm afraid she'll manage to slip out sooner or later...

Blog candys

It seems it's candy season all around! Here are a few more.

Angella has a really cute candy, full of lovely fabrics and more!
*Closed*

Gro is celebrating 5000 hits with a wonderful pastel-coloured candy. Congratulations!
*Closed*

And I'm just in time to enter Karin's candy. She is celebrating over 25 000 hits! *gasp*
*Closed*

Oh, and on CraftStylish, they have regular book give-aways. The latest one is sooo cute!

Mile-a-minute scarf

I saw the pattern for this mile-a-minute drop stitch scarf at Turvid's blog and was instantly smitten. She wasn't kidding when she wrote it could be made in a single evening!

I've never knitted a drop stitch pattern before, and there is something very disturbing about just dropping stitches from my needles, without actually knitting them. That being said, this is a very easy and friendly pattern, even for a beginner. I'm currently working up the nerve to have a go at this one.

My scarf is knitted with Gjestal's Bris (50% wool, 50% soy) on 7 mm straight needles. 17 stitches gave it a width of ca. 15 cm, and I made it 150 cm long plus 15 cm fringes on either end. I like my scarves really nice and long. ;) I had this yarn lying around after an attempt at entrelac knitting, as it turned out that the yarn really didn't suit that particular project very well. But I knew instantly that this would be perfect!

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This yarn has a very slow colour shift, so to make the fringes appear more even in colour I made up this technique to make them: Wrap the yarn around a stiff whatever-that-has-the-right-size-something. But instead of making one fringe at a time as usual, make them all at the same time by wrapping the yarn the desired number of times around your object. Then go over the same strands again with your yarn, and repeat until you have the fringes as thick as you want them. From the first picture you can see that I have made 15 fringes. (I ended up using only 12 of them.) You can also see that the reverse side of my board is really messy, that's not a problem. Just use the front side as you work. I wrapped the board 7 times, making each fringe 14 strands thick. When you have what you want, cut the strands along the bottom edge - that's the edge where your yarn ends after wrapping. You can cut them all at once, just be careful to gather each one at the top edge so the strands don't get all jumbled up in each other. Use a crochet hook to attatch to the scarf.

Blue-lilac batwing shawl

I've been meaning to post pictures of this shawl for a month now. It was finished a few days before my brother's wedding - in the nick of time! It's the same design as the one you can see in this post. The yarn is a finer mohair than the first one, and combined with a thin silver thread this time. I was a bit worried that the silver thread would be too dominating with a thinner yarn, but in fact, it is actually less visible! I guess this yarn is fluffier and therefore covers it more.

Trying to find a colour to match my blue dress was a nightmare! I didn't even consider this yarn to begin with, but after trying to find a suitable colour among those I thought would match (and failing miserably), I decided to examine every single variety I could find right next to the dress, and suddenly this colour seemed entirely different from what I first thought. Hm. I was never really sure that the colours worked the way I wanted, but I wore it and I'm glad I did!

Marianne 30 years

Notice a theme here? ;) I kept the colour scheme simple, not only because I like it, but because I'm pretty sure that Marianne would prefer it too. Most of the paper is Bazzill Bling in white and two shades of blue. It's a very simple gift really, but there's a lot of care put into it.
The long cylinder is a box of chocolate drops that are ment to be melted in hot milk to make a fantastic hot chocolate drink. The metal cylinder was actually very stylish in itself, but of course, I had to make a paper jacket to match the rest. The sentiment says "A day without chocolate is like a day without sunshine".

Again, plain and simple, but the huge Bazzill flowers and gorgeous QK butterfly make such a statement on their own that the card doesn't need a lot of details.

"Enjoy life - eat chocolate!" The chocolate box is made from a Toffifee-box that I traced onto the last piece of my beautiful shiny butterfly-embossed paper. Mental note: buy more. The inside tray was nice and sturdy, so I just covered it in thin blue and white pattern paper. Because of the special occation I wanted to give something other than the Toffifee, so I made orange-flavoured chocolates with walnuts.

Before wrapping the present, I slit open the sides of a clearbag to make a long sheet of clear plastic, trimmed the length to fit and wrapped it around the tray, fixing it in place with the adhesive strip. It is one of those details that give that little extra, kind of professional feel to a project.

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Update: I've added this butterfly set to the monthly challenge in Ett Trykk.

Blog candys

Line is celebrating becoming a DT on Stampacular Sunday Challenge with a great candy! Congratulations Line!
*Closed*

Ladybug and Friends have renewed their website and also started a blog, and is spreading the good news with the help of a little candy!
Closes March 31st.

Candy! But of a different kind.

Some production today, this is card number four! It's been a while since I did one of these megaflower cards, but they have been very popular, so why not revisit the theme. The new twist is the doily (which is actually intended for baking), and putting the stamp in the middle of the flower.

And what about that candy coloured pattern paper? Wow, it is so sweet and refreshing! I originally intended this to be a baby card, but when I look at it now it could actually be a birthday card for a girl as well.

Ingvald 60 years

My parents ordered this card - another of those difficult man-cards... But this one turned out ok. This stamp is so big there is little room for anything else. I guess that's a good thing, it means I don't have to use a lot of girly embellishments. ;) There's barely any space for a name, but somehow I always manage to squeeze it in somewhere!

Ladies in green

I'm trying to get ahead of the demand for my cards (read: trying to keep up with it), and sometimes it makes sense to make two cards in similar colours and layout at the same time. The second card was started while the glitter glue on the first was drying!

Lazy Charmy needed the shade from the table today. It must be hot to have black fur...

No flowers baby card

This card came together pretty quickly. But - what? No flowers? Not one!? How did this happen!? Weird. Very weird.
Lovely flash reflexes here - the fog has rolled in and covered everything in a thick layer of light-absorbing cotton. Just the right kind of day for cinnamon apple cupcakes, hazelnut hot chocolate and two good friends! The appartment is strangely quiet now that they have left... Fortunately I have an attention-seeking cat to comfort me.

Blog candys

Steph is away on holiday - the lucky girl gets to shop scrapping supplies in the US - and is giving away some ProMarkers as a blog candy so her blog will have some company while she's away.
*Closed*

Jannhild is celebrating over 10 000 hits with a great blog candy! Lots of flowers and charms and more, just lovely.
*Closed*

Distractions

I should have made this card on Friday. I spent the whole night on the sofa after a loong day at the mall with two lovely friends and a baby while my car was being serviced.

I should have made this card on Saturday. I made two baby cards instead and had a cup of tea with a collegue who dropped off her cat.

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I should have made this card on Sunday. I finished a wedding card and played with Charmy the cat.

I should have made this card on Monday. I discovered this blog and got completely lost in it. Read all the posts back to January 2008. It made me feel happy.

I should have made this card on Tuesday. I did!

Wedding card

Just a quick wedding card I finished last night. I really should have been making two other cards, but this was half-way done and I just couldn't resist it! Shame on me.

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The brown StazOn stamping pad looks almost black when stamped on regular paper, so I was pleased when it turned a lovely soft brown on the vellum.