Life Happens

Sometimes life throws you a curved ball.

It certainly did for me two days ago, so now I can not use one arm for 6 weeks... lots of pain and painkillers involved, so resting a lot and no crafting and no work.

Blogging will not happen but hopefuly check/comment other blogs once in a while

Shut Your Eyes Tight

Ever put down a book and asked: When is the next one (the 3rd) coming out? Hah! I already know the answer to that: April 24th :o)

2nd book about the retired police detective (homiside), Dave Gurney, who's little grey cells are once more being put to work when the mother of a brutally murdered bride asks him to investigate the circumstances, as the local police have not made any progress in solving the murder.

When he digs deaper into the tragedy he is once again facing something that is not as it seems, he "just" need to find what that something is, which is covered in a labyrinth of sexually disturbed young women, the suspect that has vanished without a trace and lies.

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A lot of you already know about my love of books, but go over to Steve McCurrys blog and see the great post he did celebrating books with quotes and some of his awesome photos :o)

Remember My Name (HuskMitNavn)

HuskMitNavn (Remember my name) is a Danish artist, who started out with street art (grafitti) but is now also present in galeries, museums, books, newspapers etc. An exhibit with and about his works, From Workshop to Artwork, opened earlier this year at KØS - Museum of Art in Public Places and immediately came on my to-see list.

I read about him in the Kaffeslapperas book (by the way there is a knitting pattern with one of his designs that I have to try out), seen some of his drawing in the Danish newspaper Politiken, so was really curious to find out more about his works.

This guy was definately one of my favourites - back to childhood memories, where you could get a moving box to be just abobut anything. Suddenly it just popped into my head: What if HuskMitNavn made a childrens book with this caracter, with his own cool drawings telling the adventures of the time machine boy/man from when he hatched the idea to build his own time machine and the things that he saw during that journey? Or is it HuskMitNavn's intent with this work that it fuels our imagination, like it just did mine?

Lots of drawings/comics that really made me laugh, and interesting to see sketches and then photos of the finished work on walls etc. Can not wait to see more of his works in the future :o)

Cola Classic

Always trying out different colas, and this time I was genuinely surprised. The Cola Classic from coop tastes like a Coca Cola though less "crispy" .... but if it had been just the same, they would have been violated the Coca Cola copyright. Cola Classic costs less than a Coca Cola making it affordable for those with a very low income but yet a worthy substitute to The Real Thing.

America By Car

192 (!) black and white photos by Lee Friedlander in this exhibit, where he litterally shows you America by car. Not only did he drive around in the US, all the photos are taken from his car from 1995 to 2009.

"Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" - Whenever I see those words a Gary Larson comic strip always pops into my mind creating a smile on my face. Lee Friedlander uses the mirrors to enchance the image or make a contrast to the view that the car is facing - the effect is never the less astonishing. Think about it: How often would you stop your car and just remain sitting in the car while capturing the view with a camera? Most of us would get out of the car and just a  little closer to the view and then capture it with the camera.

The day after I saw the exhibit I started thinking: How about that there were two rooms with his photos instead of one - one room black and white photos and the second room, same pictures just in colours. It would be like two exhibits in one as I think the pictures might tell two different, yet similar, stories depending on being in black and white or in colour.

Iconic Photos - Steve McCurry

Most of you will most likely recognize this photo with an Afghan girl - it is a 1984 frontpage photo from National Geographic shot by the American, Steve McCurry. I was actually convinced that I did not know any more of this photos before going to see the exhibit with his photos in Øksnehallen, but I was proved wrong. I recognized several of the photos but until going to the exhibit I did not know the name of the photographer.

The Danish newspaper Politiken has a slideshow of this pictures here, and two of the photos that I like the most are among them: 1) the four nuns dressed in pink each carrying and umbrella and 2) an Indian tailor saving his most important thing, his sewing machine, through the waters caused by a monsoon.

So was started out as a must-do-something on a vacation day turned out to be a colouful trip around the world through the eyes of Steve McCurry, and hopefully I will continue it soon when I get the book with his wonderful photos. Go to his website as you will find a lot of his great photos there - a bit of a warning though: the time will pass away fast as you will get lost in his picures due to awesomeness :o)

July 2012 Tea Swap - Part 1

You do know that Pinterest can steel a lot of your time if venturing on to that webpage? On the other hand that site is full of ressources and ideas, that you suddenly remember to use, if you have pinned them.

Fran called the July swap out with a "Hello, Summer" theme, and for me summer is not only nice weather but usually also a little bit of travelling. Soon I realised that I would have to use 3 different techniques if I wanted to created the card idea that popped into my head.

Wanted to make a double card, but had "only" found a tutorial, that will do for some of the idea - and luckily I managed to alter it just a little bit to fit my idea.

The card's front needs to show my interpretation of travelling, and an idea that I got from a pin on Pinterest seemed perfect - plus I do like to do some weaving ;o) I always save maps from my vacations so it was easy to photo copy parts of a Manhattan street map + a US map onto some thin photo paper, however not glossy photopaper as I wanted to ad something more to that frontpage.

I remembered a freebie digistamp from Beyond the Fringe Crafts that I saved about a year ago - made me smile when I first saw it as immediately thinking "Travel souvenirs" - I believe most of us have our "thing" when it comes to travel souvenirs weather it be maps, photos, small replicas, posters etc.

Well this is the swap card as it looked when I sent it off to Jayne :o)

Stamped coloured with COPICs and the red border is WASHI tape.

Enjoy your tea, Jayne :o)

Because I Can

A fellow crafter from PaperCraftPlanet, Niamh, shared with us, that a girl named Ellie is going trough a rough time since she has been diagnosed with NF1 (Neurofibromatosis). As she loves getting cards, what is greater than sending her just one more smile?

Lost in Paper Scraps shared these owl digis last year, coloured them with COPICs and mounted them on earth tone papers. Those expressions on the owls' faces: Don't they make you want to crawl into the card and hug them? Owls were chosen to go on the card as I have seen so many kids passing me, while I was reading in a nearby park, with the soft owl toy in their hands. I just hope the card  fulfill it's purpose :o) If you have the time and want to make a card for Ellie, follow the link above and you will find her address.

Tea Pots - Third Crafter's Tea Part Swap Part 2

The third swap theme at Crafter's Tea Party is: tea pots. Ahmm... here is a secret: I actually do not own a tea pot. No need to re-read what I just wrote, because I simply have not found a replacemen for the one that broke 13-14 years ago. Why? Well I am picky and want one that speaks to me.

In the absence of a real teapot, these are in my possession:

If the people you visit do not drink tea reguarly, they might not consider, that you need something to place the teabags on - letting them stay in your cup makes the tea bitter or super strong.

If you have loose tea, you often use a tea filter (in the absence of a tea strainer), and then one of these could come in handy: to close the teabag and preventing too many tea leafs in your tea cup.

Found this one in the DAR Museum (Daughter's of the American Revolution) in Washington D.C.: a fabrick coaster with spices, so when you place a warm tea cup on it, the spices put a nice Christmassy scent in the room.

With favourite color being blue, this was something I had to own.

There you have it - my life with "tea pots" :o)

OK back to the swap. Decided that I was a long time ago, that the iris fold has been on one of my cards. The paper used in the iris fold is once again recycled tea bag wrappers - this time so you could sence the various kinds/labels of teas out there.

Another excuse to use Mel Stampz freebie Moroccan tile paper, and one of the sentiments from Taylored Expressions CreativiTEA set was added.

Tea bag holder was inspired by this tutorial, same Moroccan tile paper used and the Bugaboo digistamp I have used on many swaps.

This card went down under to Karen in New Zealand - and she already received it so ok to post it now - and it contained some CHAI tea as I know she likes that.

Prequel??

Have always been a bit facinated by the Aliens movies, so was curious when I some weeks ago went to the cinema and saw Prometheus.

I am a bit thorn. Is this movie supposed to be a prequel to the Aliens movies? Or it is a movie on its own where the director is playing with "What really happened with Prometeus?" as the first Alien movie actually refer to these events?

A lot of great actors in this movie, and you do get to see an interesting dilemma, that you did not see comming so that in itself keeps you in suspence throughout the movie. And then when you leave the cinema you can not help think if the movie is hinting for a sequel of its own.

Patriot Colors

The latest challenge at Order of the Opus Gluei: To show our patriotism with our flag's colors - well colors of my flag is red and white, but I am not going to showcase something related to Denmark. Instead I will pay tribute to friends, family, new friends (met via the WWW) who celebrated Canada Day on Saturday or 4th of July today.

Both projects uses the same technique: iris folding, and there are lots of inspiration to get at Circle of Crafters. A US friend of mine living here in Copenhagen dropped by my house to ask me to make a card for her parents for 4th of July - I had already started my "coloring by numbers" to find the right color combo for a true American star. Coloring by numbers - a bit like what we did as small children, but using the folding template as "canvas" using markers in the colors you intend to use. If doing trial folds with paper it could either end up being a costly affair if many attempts is needed or make you run out of the paper you want to use.

When she saw the star and the idea to the Canadian maple leaf, she actually told me, that I should make the same card for every recipient, as they were "looking fantastic!" - well trust her judgement, so I went with it.

Can show them to you now, as the recipients have started to write me back:

Red paper used for the Canadian maple leaf is actually from a magazine commercial, that had numerous of red nuances - perfect to give the leaf a little dept. Paper used for the American star is handmade paper from India. Tried to keep these cards "simple" with symbols of the Canadian and US patriotism in the center.

Happy belated Canada Day

Happy 4th of July

Entering it to
Order of the Opus Gluei: Challenge #134: America, America or wherever you hold allegiance.
TLC's Lets Party

Christmas in July

Guess what?! I got a Christmas card in the mail today. Yes, seriously! And not a late one that should have arrived in 2011.

It is from Starz (one of the helping mailers at Secret pal 2012) over on PaperCraftPlanet - one who must know that I like blue, snow, Christmas etc.

Here is another secret: it IS actually Christmas in July in Denmark (also in the fellow Scandinavian countries, as we share the following) - and NO we have not decorated yet for Christmas ;o)

Danish for Christmas is "jul"

Danish for July is "juli"

.... get it?? JULi

See told you that it is Christmas in July here.

Tea Pots - Third Crafter's Tea Part Swap Part 1

Dreamtime .... seing the card that Karen sent to me in the tea swap really made my thoughts go back to the time, where a girl named Sadie and me where "inhaling" pot after pot of tea. Imagine if we could have gone to a place like this to enjoy a cup of tea and just pretend to be adults even for just one moment.

Karen - What is the name/brand of that stamp?

She continues the stylish girly feeling with the enclosed paper teapot:

This extravagant teapot is "hiding" the two tea samples that she sent to me, enabling me one more to taste new tea - I have tasted Puerh tea before, but not by this brand.

Thanks Karen - the little girl inside me woke up again when receiving your wonderful swap.

Pleasantville - Stay Tuned

When I spotted Birdie Brown's July freebie and challenge yesterday, the thoughts in my head started fighting each other: my first tv (a black and white one that I inherited from my parents when I moved away from home) - hmmm Black and white: one of my favourite movies: "Pleasantville" - my brother's previous profession: TV repairman....

Hello..... That's it!! A card for his 50th birthday next May - WOW! that means that I am 10 months ahead when making this card... but then again cards for him is often causing me a headache. The layout was ready in my head yesterday only to find out that I did not have any black paper - went to the local crafshop when they opened this morning so I could make it.

Entering it into Birdie Brown's July Freebie Challenge

Last of June



Love that scooter

 

Yarnbombed staircase

Where did June wander off to? It is already July. Did not have my SONY camera with me yesterday, but did remember that my mobile is equipped with a camera.