Photographer's mittens

The temperatures are falling and we've just had a few nights with real frost. Last year we had already been buried in snow for weeks by the time December came around... That's what it felt like anyway. ;) It's undoubtedly more practical this year, but I'm still hoping for some snow for christmas. And on that note, I'm now well prepared for my wintertime photo safaries! I've knitted these mittens, specially designed for photographers, you'll soon see why. This flash photo shows the dramatic effect of the reflective thread I used on the back of the mittens. It's a good thing to be visible - the cold weather is, after all, usually accompanied by terribly dark afternoons...

-On the other hand, this photo shows how subtle the reflective yarn is in full sunlight. I made a little grid in Excel and just improvised the snowflake design there. Actually, I first tried holding the reflective thread along with the merino yarn when knitting the body of the mitten, but as the thread has absolutely no stretch, the tension got all wrong and the thread was hardly visible most of the time. In the end I frogged it and reproduced my design using duplicate stitches. It was easier to control the tension, but still a bit tricky. I like the results very much though!

-And here's the photographer's secret for comfortable shooting in freezing winter weather! Each mitten has holes for the thumb and index fingers so the focus ring and all the buttons can be easily worked and most of the hand still remains protected from the elements. When the camera rests for a while, just pop the fingers back in with the rest and warm them up again. I was afraid the holes would let in a lot of cold air, but with a row of single crochet stitches around the opening, they actually close up fairly well.

-Photographer's mittens in use! They are a snug fit so I have a fairly good grip despite the smooth wool. As usual, you can find the details on my Ravelry page.

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Thanks for reading - and finally, a tip for anyone who intends to go photographing in cold weather: Remember to bring a plasic bag and seal your camera in it before going inside, and leave it inside the sealed bag until it has reached room temperature, to avvoid damaging condensation inside your precious camera. You might want to upload your pictures right away, but be patient! Your camera will thank you. :)

Surf's up!

Now this is something I've never done before: A surfing themed wedding card! Hmm. How to approach this challenge... I must admit I spent quite a while thinking about this one. In the end, I went with graphic papers representing waves and sand rather than photographic ones in order to make the card slightly more stylish. The two surfing boards are there on the suggestion by the person who has ordered the card. Well, the surfing thing can definitely be checked off the list, but what about the wedding thing? I'v included a few hearts here and there, but is it enough? I don't know... I don't quite know what to make of this card. Am I pleased or not? That depends on when you ask me - it changes all the time.

The little details here were essential in making these appear as surf boards and not tomb stones. Some tweaking was required... Several times. Another thing that helped in that regard was using my Prisma pencils to give the surf boards a sort of shaded midline, an illusion suggesting a 3D shape.

Trude 30 years

It can be great to recieve requests for cards, but they always come with a certain amount of apprehension. What if they don't like it? It's one thing to give away a card for a birthday or something, but to sell it? Well. I've decided to just go with it and try to fulfil their requests as best as I can! This card draws inspiration from several cards she liked and I hope she's pleased with the result.

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A few flowers and leaves are complimented by scattered flat-backed pearls in two tones. There's also some embossed and sanded Core'dinations cardstock, cheese cloth and green Glimmermist.

Simple and shiny

Told you there would be a glittered card next. ;) Nothing spectacular about the layout, so this is a card all about texture and shine. I've worked in some sharp contrasts, between the rough fibre paper and the shiny Bazzill Bling cardstock, the soft cheese cloth and the sparkling letter. These cards rarely do well when photographed, but make such strong statements in real life. Must be seen to be properly appreciated.

See? Shiny! I must have been a magpie in another life. :P The chipboard letter is painted with lilac Shimmer Paint and coated generously with lilac PearlEx. The whole card has been Glimmermisted as well, for good measure. Yummy.

Christening card for Kristine

Oh look at that DP... It's from Pion Design and I had dreamed about it for a while when the nicest, sweetest person just gave it to me, for no reason whatsoever, other than just being nice. She probably noticed me drooling over her folder full of paper and took action to prevent me from going berserk. Thank you, thank you. I would have made something with it immediately if only I had brought some purple cardstock. At least I had a wonderful occation where this cuteness would be perfect! My little niece was christned a couple of weeks ago and she has a LOT of purple stuff. To display as much as possible of that lovely design I kept the text frame and embellishments to the opposite corner. No name on the front, I put it on the inside instead.
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The greeting is stamped on a die-cut and sanded piece of Core'dinations Whitewash, and framed by a simple arrangment of my trusted Prima flowers. I was tempted to glitter them up, but as I was making two cards for this occation I decided to have one with glitter, one without. You'll soon see the other (heavily glittered) one that I made... ;) Remember to bring your sunglasses.

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.)

Invaders! From space!

Ah, the memories... Little green spaceships in vaguely bug-like shapes on a black screen. No? Just me then? Yes, I really am that old. I remember playing Space Invaders. With a joystick, even! Feel free to LOL now, I'm wearing a silly little grin myself. I'm a bit of a nerd and not afraid to admit it - although I prefer the term "intellectual badass". ;)

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The idea for this card was found on Pinterest, to which I am now thoroughly addicted. I might, in fact, be in need of a "Pintervention"... It started out as an excellent tool for keeping track of tutorials, recipes and such - but has ballooned into a massive time-waster. I can go surfing other people's pins for hours if I'm not careful... It's even worse than blog surfing! :P But, as this card demonstrates, sometimes I stumble upon a great idea that actually makes it into reality. Thanks to Pinterest for the card idea!

Know this

Oops, I used the same stamp again. I can't help it, it's just so lovely! And since this card was made spesifically for a certain person, I went with the one that spoke to me the most, and this was it. Oh how I love the Penny Black sentiment stamps... *swoon*

That vertical strip of blue paper was something neat I got as a gift from this person - it's a thin blue crumpled paper with a really shiny gold coating. I ran it through the Cuttlebug with an embossing folder and sanded it. The brown papers was a nice contrast to that strong blue colour, and to lighten the card I tried to work in something white here and there.

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And again, there's that gorgeous brown baker's twine! The tag was originally a dark steel/pewter colour, so I covered it with a thin layer of Gesso before distressing it with some ink, just to keep the card looking a little brighter. The cheese cloth also sneaks in again. Love that stuff!

Simple baby card

Ok, I'll admit it. I've hardly invented the wheel with this one. But you know how it is, sometimes you just go with a well-tested design and try to make the materials do the work for you! This green fiber paper was a spur of the moment purchase and now I wish I had more... It's such a lovely, bright colour and the white fibres are shiny and add so much texture.

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Jute twine and the cute bear charm are the only embellishments. Keeping it simple!

Vintage-y card

I almost messed this one up completely by stamping way too much, but I think I managed to save it by covering some of the stamping... It's still a bit messy, but not too bad. The lovely text stamp is by Penny Black of course. This is the first of some cards I made on a paper crafting day with a few other ladies - we had a whole day and I still only managed three (and a half) cards! Somebody obviously spent too much time talking instead of crafting. :P

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Several layers of torn and inked pattern paper, some cheese cloth, and Sticky-Back Canvas are the main ingredients here. The only accents are the two metal flowers with a half-bead each, and some brown baker's twine. I love this stuff so much that if I ever come across other colours of baker's twine I'll buy them all!

For Eva and Olav

While this isn't technically a repeat of my previous card, I certainly drew inspiration from it. Quite necessary too, as this was a card I had... sort of forgotten. *ahem* And I had to whip this one in a hurry, late at night. Similar materials, slight variations in layout. The metal heart is a paperclip I painted with Gesso, wiped carefully to reveal its silver core, and sealed with a layer of Glossy Accents.

Wedding card

By some miracle, my desk is now starting to appear beneath the half-meter layer of paper and stuff it's been buried under for the last months. I've still got some tidying to do, but I'm already finding a new drive to make cards. It could have something to do with the rain outside as well of course, but I'm betting the clean cleaner desk is the deciding factor here. ;) This wedding card came toghether from the odds and ends I found near the topmost layer of remaining debris (although some digging was required to find that particular Stempelglede stamp), and still works fairly well. The mat is lightly sanded yellow Core'dinations Whitewash. I went over the text in the stamp with Glossy Accents, which looks really cheezy in yhis photo, but was in fact a nice touch in reality.

Wish

Another simple 10x10 cm card. They come together quickly and make nice little cards to add to a small gift, or to send "just because". Anyway, I love making them during card making evenings with friends. ;)

Baby in a bag!

So, fall is coming fast around here, and little babies need something to keep them warm. This "baby bag" (does anyone have a better name for this??) is just the thing when you need to go somewhere in a hurry - just put the baby in and put her right into her car seat wearing this. I made this for my little niece and is a bit big right now, but will hopefully fit well when winter strikes for real in the new year.

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I've used a recipe called "Nataschas kjørepose" from the Norwegian book "Myk Start" ("Soft Start") by May B. Langhelle. Since the "soft start" refers not only to the recipient of the knitting projects, but also the the skill level required of the knitter, the recipe is made up of many pieces knitted flat and sewn together. Now, I really don't like sewing in my knitting projects. It doesn't look good, it's usually a weak point in the construction, and it's fairly unelastic. Plus it's incredibly boring and I'm a skilled knitter by now anyway. So as you might expect, I made sure to complicate the recipe as best as I could, removing all but two seams in the process! ;) I won't bore you with the details, but the only places I couldn't avvoid sewing is where the arms meet the body. The shoulders and hood were grafted instead of sewn.

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There's a neat little trick in the recipe giving you these lovely columns of stitches running along the edges. I love the look - such a great way to finish a piece of knitting! Must remember this in the future.

In order for the safety harness of the car seat to be properly fastened without removing the baby bag, there is a small hole in the back of the bag that the center strap of the harness can pass through. It's difficult to see in the picture, but it's there, just to the left of the topmost button. The strap then goes between the baby's legs and out between the buttons in the front, to meet the two shoulder straps that goes on the outside of the baby bag.

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The top button is just a little bit larger than the rest. This is actually a result of having just six of the smaller buttons. This flower button just happened to be a good colour match, as well as being a perfect fit in the topmost - slightly loose - buttonhole. Talk about luck! :)

Dream

Just a small card today, it measures 10 x 10 cm. It's a lovely format to work with! Perfect for card making evenings at a friend's house. I'm slowly trying to get into the card making groove again, after a long hiatus over the summer. Summer is, after all, the time for bringing knitting projects out into the sunshine, while the impending fall invites to long evenings by the desk. More to come, hopefully!