Gift box

I've saved the box that my Galaxy S3 came in, thinking I'd make it into a nice looking gift box. The lid slides on in such a satisfying way and the inside is clean and elegant. The outside had a logo and some stickers that I painted over with white gesso, knowing that the sticky-back canvas I would cover it with is slightly transparent. Some careful cutting and folding gave me reasonably clean edges, but I chose to line the edge of both base and lid with some thin lace trimming anyway, and two extra strips down the center line for detail. A layered flower is the only other decoration. I filled it with some treats for a friend, as a house warming gift.
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DIY distressed photo canvas

Aaaaaw... Now look at that cutie!! :) She's my niece, 7 months old in that picture. What a smile. :)
There's a ton of detailed tutorials out there on how to do this, check this one out for example. I'm not going to bore you by repeating it - but since there are so many variations, here's a super quick recap of the choices I made: After tweaking the picture to my liking (and mirroring it!) I printed it on a laser printer on ordinary printer paper. I used a thin layer of Golden Gel Medium (Soft Gel, semi-gloss finish) to attach the picture and three more coats after removal of the paper pulp, for a good seal. Then used the same medium to fasten the lace, which wraps over the canvas edge. The string was the final touch - it's something K's mom does when she makes her own art, so this canvas should fit in nicely in their home.

The transfer of the photo was nearly perfect! In fact, far too perfect for the look I was trying to achieve. So I scrubbed really hard along the edges of the photo, even scratching it with my nails, to give it a more distressed look. I also sanded down my signature (bottom left corner) a bit.



When I chose the lace it was late at night, and the sunlight the next morning sent me into a bit of a panick. The lace was crisp white and the canvas is off-white - a difference that was invisible in lamp light, but incredibly ugly in sunlight. What to do, what to do... DistressInk to the rescue! I carefully inked the lace and sides of the canvas and the problem was solved. In fact, I probably should have inked it even if the lace matched the canvas. The darkened edge (which is surprisingly difficult to see in these photos) created that depth and definition that pulled everything together, and it echoes the brown string. All in all, this was an easy project that looks awesome. :)

A prettier whiteboard

Did you know that any glass frame can be made into a whiteboard? As soon as I realised that I knew I needed one for my hallway. I usually keep a quote or word of wisdom on it, as well as jotting down things I need to remember before walking out the door in the morning. Remember to bring that card you made last night, for example. The post-it note reminder I've stuck to the door handle wasn't quite as elegant as this - and this thing isn't likely to fall off and hide under the shoe rack and cause me to forget that card anyway.

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I suppose it would look even nicer if this was a lovely frame, but I wanted to make it using only materials I had on hand, so the clip frame will have to do for now. It has two layers of scrapbooking paper inside. The larger one is fairly light in colour, so my writing will show up easily. The brown and pink colours match well to other stuff in my hallway, but it's very easy to change them if I want to. Just take the frame apart and add other papers!

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Made a mistake? Wipe it out! A paper towel works well if you don't want black finger tips. I've got a make-up sponge near this frame and that's also practical.

(By the way, I found the quote on Pinterest. Of course.)

More gift tags

Since my mother ended up with all the gift tags I made last weekend, I've made another batch for myself in a similar style. These will do for a while, and I'll just whip up more as I need them. They are so quick and easy to make! My mother's button box had a few treasures, but most of these buttons come from my own, rather boring, collection.

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I couldn't resist giving these a spray of Glimmermist Old Lace for some shine. The edges are inked with DistressInk Vintage Photo.
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Christmas gift tags

Who hasn't enjoyed a deep dive into grandma's or mama's button box? ;) I got a chance to do just that this weekend, and made these easy gift tags with the treasures I found. The DP is thick, double-sided cardstock from Panduro. I cut them into tags with my Cuttlebug and tied the buttons to it using red baker's twine. The most time-consuming part was to get my oversized baker's twine through the tiny button holes!
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Kitchy and cool, just look at that clear button... ;)
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Some more earthy, traditional buttons give the tag a completely different look.
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They make a nice little set! My mother scooped these up right away, so I think there will be more button treasure hunts in my near future... :P

Christmas traditions: advent calendar

Not much activity here on this little blog lately... I'm making christmas gift by the dozen - and, for understandable reasons, I want to keep them secret for now. Expect lots and lots of posts after christmas! ;) Thank you all for visiting, even if I don't have much new to show you yet!
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But I'd like to give you something to look at while you wait. Those of you who have been here for a year or more have seen this before, but a little rerun isn't all that bad, is it? ;) Last year I made an advent calendar and shared the pages throughout December, and I've really been looking forward to bringing the calendar out on display this year too. I scrapped one 12"x12" page for each day - and I'd like to show you some of my favourites. If you like what you see, here's the link to the whole set of posts, where there are detail photos, material lists and more general info on each page.
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December 4th, one of the few pages with flowers. I could go on and on about that DP, it's so gorgeous...

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A simpler, two-tone layout, with a poem that starts out so pretty and cute, and ends in a naughty surprise. ;)

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After a little digging in my parent's albums I found this photo of myself as St.a Lucia at six years of age. I cleaned it up and made this layout about bringing light into the darkness.

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Ok, so there wasn't that much snow, it was just absolutely everywhere... My poor car was just spraypainted with the stuff. Sometimes you should just stay inside.

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A clean, simple layout with one lovely picture. I need a change from the embellishment overload sometimes, and this one does the trick.

-Ahem... Did I say embellishment overload?? ;) Well, sometimes more is more. I also like this one for its quote about the "little spark of madness".
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Nearly christmas! This layout is among the last, and echoes the first page and its focus on time.
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So if you'd like to see more, feel free to have a look at the whole set.

Vanilla extract gift set

I'm already on my second batch of vanilla extract, believe it or not. I've kind of made it this year's birthday gift theme! The recipe booklet is an important part of the gift, so I've made a few of those too. ;) The look of baker's twine against kraft paper is so classic. This bottle's style also suits it so well. It all feels really old-fashioned and homemade, like something from many years ago.
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You're probably sick and tired of hearing about my vanilla extract by now. ;) I just figured I could show you how I strain it! After a few months of vanilla pods steeping in vodka, there are the inevitable inpurities such as vanilla seeds and vanilla pod fibres floating around in there. While this is neither dangerous nor imparing the taste (rather the opposite in fact), it doesn't exactly look very delicate. This is what I came up with - a really simple DIY solution using stuff already in my cupboard. The coffee filter is the perfect strainer! Just force the dripstop valve open with tape or elastic (see my brown hair band in the picture?) and let the extract drip into a clean bottle.

For Kari

Hello there, remember me? It's been a while, at least according to the date on my last post. Sure doesn't feel like it though. It's been an eventful two weeks for me, some nice events and some not so nice. But it feels good to be back, and I even have something to show you!
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Don't you just love the golden glow of the home made vanilla extract? I know I do! I could just stare at those bottles for ages. And trust me, it has taste to go with its good looks as well. ;) This bottle goes to my lovely sister in law - hope she can put it to good use.
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And as a help, I made her a little booklet containing recipes using vanilla extract. I kept it plain and simple, just kraft cardstock, white Bazzill and red baker's twine. The border punch is the MS doily lace of course! I made a slightly fancier one for my mom a while back.
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A quick look at one of the inside page spreads. The text was just printed directly on the Bazzill cardstock and cut to equal size pieces before being glued to the kraft cardstock. Unlike the Bazzill, the kraft cardstock has the advantage of looking the same on both sides and therefore makes a nice base for these kind of projects.

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Oh, and that butterscotch sauce recipe you see there deserves a whole blog post for itself! I'll get around to that some time this spring/summer - if I manage to shoot some pictures of it before it mysteriously disappears. Oh MY... I could drink it straight from the bottle!

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I'm adding this post to the Mother's Day Ideas party at Somewhat Simple, even if this particular bottle went to my sister in law. It was, after all, my vanilla loving mother who was the reason I got this thing started!

Vacation activities

What do you do when the weather doesn't cooperate with your vacation schedule, and you find yourself stuck in a cabin without computer, internet and your 1TB media player?

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Bring indoor activities!

Colouring stamps is something I rarely have the patience to do once I've got a card going on my desk. So why do I have a whole box of stamped images from my card making friends? Go figure. This easter's dreary weather seemed a good occation to actually colour in some of them. And now I have the challenge of finding matching papers after the colours have been laid down. You'll see I can't use any of these after all, haha!

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Misunderstand me right, though! I really enjoyed my stay at our new cabin, despite the weather setback. ;) This is the first time I've spent the night, and I had some time to myself as well as some company from my parents and my brother and his wife. My brain is still in vacation mode, and I love it... :)
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As you can see: lots of bad weather means lots of coloured images. ;)
And yes, those are christmas stamps in the top row! I figured christmas cards have fairly predictable colour schemes and it seemed an easy thing to start with. Plus, I just adore that Willow with lantern stamp. *swoon*

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-Ready - steady - scrap!

Exploding Magic Box

For my very dear friend Kristin, an exploding box! All she wanted for her big day was a card, sorry I didn't manage that Kristin, you're getting this instead. Hope you're not too disappointed sweetie? ;) Oh, and I should warn you all that this is another long post. I seem to be drawn to the bigger projects these days. Bear with me. :)
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I've totally ripped off this idea from the amazing Magic Boxes blog by Elaine. Take a look, her creations are fantastic! She's written a tutorial on the basic construction of a small exploding box, but I just followed it loosely, using measurements I calculated on my own. My box is larger, it covers an entire piece of scrapbooking cardstock and measures 8,5x8,5 cm at its base, 11cm in height (plus lid). These colours aren't usually my first choice, but I find myself drawn to warm, yellow-orange colours these days... Breaking the winter blues I suppose! :)
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Making the flowers was the most time consuming part of it all. Every flower is made from two punched-out Retro flowers sprayed with Glimmermist (Sunflower, Green Meadow, Tiger Lily), inked, curled, detailed with Stickles Star Dust and glued together, finished off with a stamen made from a cut, sprayed, glued, glittered, rolled-up paper strip. The whole thing is then mounted on springy acetate strips. Complicated? Well, yes. That's a lot of steps to complete, and counting in the drying time of all the Glimmermist and glue and the sheer number of flowers required, it all adds up to quite a task. But the result was good, and that's the important thing! :) :)

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Elaine has just written a tutorial on how she makes her butterflies! It's very detailed and I used the same principles, but with different materials that had the right colours. My butterfly stamp has quite large black areas, so I was generous with the glitter, gems and Stickles to compensate. I chose to cut off the stamped antennae and replace them with antennae made from two slivers cut from folded black paper (again, a trick I found on Elaine's blog). Much stronger than the originals! I covered them (and the butterfly body) with Glossy Accents as a reinforcement.

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The full effect of the exploding box cannot be demonstrated in pictures, so I made this super short video for you! Since this is my first attempt at this kind of project, there are things I'd like to change, things you just have to try out because no written tutorial can cover it. How flexible is your acetate for example? I'd like to have gotten some more movement out of the shorter acetate stems and could have made them much thinner. In fact, I've carefully trimmed the shorter ones with a craft knife - with my heart in my throat fearing the knife would slip and cut me (or worse - the project!). You never know these little details until you try it and see for yourself. Now I know, for next time.
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Every bit of this box is hand made by yours truly. The panels are made from a pattern paper with a very subtle yellow organic pattern stamped with this great stamp and heat embossed in green. The Glimmermist has been put to good use again, the same three colours as used on the flowers. This paper was then mounted on a shimmering green pattern paper and the whole thing glued to thin cardboard for weight. The ugly sides were covered with silver heat embossing.

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When I made the lid for this box I decided to try and get an illusion of the side panels continuing up onto the lid, unbroken. I didn't quite manage to match the colour intensity of the lid to the top of the side panels, but it's not too bad. On the inside of the box, the same panels appear, but this time on a pattern paper with a more visible design.
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Elaine is very generous in sharing her techniques. In this post she explains how to make the stamens I've made here. This flower is made with the biggest Retro punch - for reference, the lid measures almost 9x9 cm. On the inside of the lid I've put another mat like this one with a little greeting for Kristin.

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I hope you've enjoyed this project! I certainly enjoyed making this box, and although it was a lot of work I'd really like to make more. Thanks Elaine, for the great idea! :)

Vanilla extract recipe booklet

This little booklet is filled with a few recipes that requires vanilla extract. It went along with a huge bottle of my home made vanilla extract, that my mother got as her birthday gift last week. I wanted to show that vanilla extract is useful in a wide variety of recipes, so this collection is quite diverse. It includes frosting, cinnamon rolls, strawberry sauce, a classic crême brulée (of course) - and many more!
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I simply printed the recipes on white Bazzill cardstock and adhered them onto dark silver cardstock that was run through the MS doily lace border punch, and tied three double strands of ribbon to secure the whole thing together. A title in QK Eliza and some ribbon on the front completed it. I'm working on a simpler one now, to go with the rest of the bottles.

Accordion album for Helle

Before you start reading this post ladies, I suggest you go and make a cup of tea and move yourself and your computer to a more comfortable chair. While you're at it, find a blanket and turn off your cell phones, because what I've got for you today is going to take a while to get through! ;)

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Ok, you're all settled in? Good! Take a deep breath and let's get started with the basics. My good friend Helle turned 30 years old this January, and this is her (very delayed) gift. It's basically a store-bought accordion fold album that I've decorated. What I originally had in mind was something more like Elise's mini books (like this one). Full of scraps, little details, some pictures and a little text. But you know how it often goes - for whatever reason, a project morphs into something completely different.

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One side of the album (above) has pictures of Helle, combined with a few sentiments and quotes. To create something of a recurring theme in all these different layouts, all pages have a light green background, and green is the dominating colour. I've used a pad of overlays from Making Memories (called Clear Creations: Doodles) extensively throughout the entire album. It seemed to have the right style, and came with sentiments, quotes, definitions, titles, photo overlays and tags. Great value!

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In case she gets tired of watching her own face, I chose mainly nature pics for the other side, with more quotes, poems and sentiments. Again, the dominating colour is green, but this time on a light beige background. I organised the pictures in something of a yearly cycle to get the right flow.

The album can be displayed like in the picture, or partially folded for a smaller space. Below are shown every double page spread in the album. Click on any image to see it larger and read the quotes!

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To start it off, I scanned a few old pictures from my photo albums and printed them at home. Funny pictures, these two. On the left, we're "fishing" for candy out the window, on the right she's wearing two pairs of glasses... :) You can see the MM overlays used here! Other materials include Bazzill die-cut borders, Scrapper's Choice Journaling Spots and DCVW Floral Prints paper stack.
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Slightly newer photos. The one to the right is one of my favourites! I just love the light and her pose. Would have loved to do something about the background though. DCVW papers and Bazzill die-cuts again. I've also added a home made flower (lower left corner) made with this tutorial.
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The quote on the left overlay fits the picture wonderfully: "Open your mind, open your heart, open your arms, take it all in. -Kobi Yamada" The picture on the right is framed by an overlay, with a definition of the word "friend" in the corner. Lots of papers scraps here, Scrapper's Choice Journaling Spots, Kreativ Hobby rub-on and some Panduro Punchinella (the green metallic perforated foil on the left side).
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Now, on the other side of the accordion album! Take a breath ladies, we're more than half way through! ;) The green continues with some photos taken near my previous home. PB sentiment stamp, more MM overlays, BG embossing folder, Prima pearl centers.
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Oops, these two turned out much more similar that what I'd prefer. I had them planned out differently, but moved things around as I worked and suddenly they were almost identical... Oh well. I like the splash of red that echoes the little bit of red found in each picture. Left side: an amazing August evening sky seen from our old cabin.
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With the golden colours of fall dominating these pictures, I abandoned the green almost entirely for this double spread. More Punchinella, the always present MM overlays and also a sentiment stamp.

- Finishing the album in lots of green again! This poem is absolutely lovely, it's all about daring to be exactly who you are, and I felt it fitted Helle just perfectly. It's actually a stamp that I put on one of the SC Journaling Spots. I couldn't resist using this picture again, I already had it lying around and when used in black & white it didn't feel like just a copy of the other layout. Punchinella again, QK Moxie SM and some Prima chipboard digits.
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All in all, I'm really pleased how this album turned out! It was quite a task to complete, but I have once again proven that the right amount of sleep deprivation does wonders for the creativity! I often do my most effective and creative work after my last night shift, when I usually stay up instead of sleeping anything. But I wonder if I've put the bar too high now? This year is filled with 30-year birthdays, and I'm not sure I'll manage to make any more of these... ;) Helle will just have to be the lucky one I suppose.

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Thanks for making it to the end ladies, it was quite a journey. Well done. ;) I'm off to bake a little I think - my fingers are sore from all this typing and I have a serious craving for something with a little bit of chocolate in it. It is Saturday, after all! Have a happy weekend!

Cocoa in a jar

This concept was completely unknown to me until I stumbled across it on a blog shortly before christmas. Cocoa mix in a jar! A quick Google search yielded lots of recipes - not just for cocoa mixes, but cupcakes, brownies, even soups and stews! The principle is simple enough - layer all dry ingredients compressing them well to maintain a sharp line between each ingredient. Decorate your container and be sure to include instructions for preparation. Done! It's even upcycling - this glass used to hold tikka masala sauce.

I used this recipe as my guide, substituting brown sugar for some of the white sugar, and a few drops of peppermint extract for the candy canes. It would have looked more festive with the candy canes, but I unfortunately didn't have time to go searching for it. Ingredients are (from bottom): Powdered milk, cocoa powder, white sugar, brown sugar (with peppermint extract), chocolate chips. The brown sugar is sticky and forms a nice seal over the white sugar which would otherwise mix with the chocolate chips, and it tastes great too. ;)

December 25th - Christmas Day

When making this layout I decided to keep it very simple as this one is intended to stay displayed for several days to follow, and I wanted the lyrics of this song to be the focus of attention. It is, without question, my very favourite christmas song! The melody is wonderful, and the lyrics thoughtful and relevant to both the historical aspects of christmas and our modern world. Unfortunately it's not that well known - a Spotify search only yielded two hits, neither of them quite my style. I guess I'll just have to sing it myself then. ;) But if you're interested, here are the links to an instrumental version and one with vocals.
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Just four layers and the last pieces of a luxurious lace ribbon. Some stickles and a stamp of a peace dove and that's it.
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Here are the lyrics in close-up for my Norwegian readers. I won't even try to translate. I'd never do them justice.

Merry Christmas to you all!

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Papers: Maja Design Vintertid: Varma Kläder, Making Memories Pearl Swirl I Do, Core'dinations Vintage

Embellishments: Unknown peace dove stamp

Other: Stickles Star Dust, silver ink pad