Words of Inspiration

Behind the Smile - Encore

The quiet courage
so many MSers show
just leaves me in awe.

People have no clue
how much sadness lies hidden
behind a bright smile.

This challenge is tough.
We all make the best of it.
Sometimes it's too much.

Judy

TAD 2011 - Day 5: Everbody Can Fold A Star....

.... or maybe not ?! When you learn something as a child, you automatically believe, that it is something the whole world know how to do....  It is not until years later, that you face the reality. Foliding a paper star - Fröbel Star - is something you can do in less than 5 minutes, granted you know how to do it. When searching the net to find the how-to-instructions earlifer today, I learned not only the real name, but also that it was an invention of Friedrich Fröbel, that believed in challenging the mind of the child when learning something new - he was the one who invented kindergarden. The silver one is folded of bought paper strips (smaller than those I usually use) - and the other one is my attempt of making my own paper stripes out of paper (the coin for size comparison is the US coin, a dime). In the process, I discovered two things. 1) The thicker the paper, the wider the strips need to be, 2) Make sure, that both side of the paper will fit the purpose, as both sides will be revealed when folding it. Hmmm....and now I will be on the lookout for suitable paper to make my own paper star strips.

TAD 2011 - Day 4: Pillowboxes

Remember, when you were a kid, at the most fascinating thing about some presents was actutally the wrapping/boxes they came in? It even warms my heart to this day, when I see family or friend's kids react the same way. As an adult, I have actually realised, that I can still be exited about the wrapping.... "Oh I need to save this - it could be very good in some creative project some day" - sounds familiar? Well was about to throw out a catalogue, when I realised that there were some cool full page pictures inside that wouldl be perfect for that pillowbox stensil, that I bought last year, but hadn't used.... until now that is :o) P.S. Found out, that I didn't submit this yesterday, I must incidently have hit the draft button instead... Mr. Sandman did the entertaining last night after a very looong day at work.

TAD 2011 - Day 3: Influx from Asian Culture

Happy Chinese Lunar/New Year :0) Well, the card of today is somewhat inspired by the Chinese New Year, but is actually more to do with the Japanese culture. Decided to try out a origami kimono (my first attemt) and wanted an red, Japanese style background. The solution was to attach part of a napkin with decoupage laquer to my cardstock, and the kimono is made of imported Japanese paper. The sentiment is the kanji sign for "beauty" to embrase my fondness of Japanese kimonos.

Happy New Year - Xīn nián kuài lè

新年快樂

Xīn nián kuài lè

Happy New Year

Happy Chinese New Year - and welcome to the year of the rabbit. If you are in China or other places celebrating the Chinese New Year, you will experienced that a lot of things are closed for the next five days, due to the big celebration. The Chinese New Year is the biggest tradition in the Chinese culture.

A few basics about the traditions:

Fireworks
Get ready for a lot of fireworks - and it going to be noisy
Fish
Lucky Chinese New Year symbol.
Oranges
Receiving oranges when leaving the host's house is a symbol of that house sharing good luck with its guests.
Red
Symbolises good fortune and joy
Red envelope
Given especially to kids and young people - somewhat equal to Christmas presents, as this envelope contains money

I was lucky to be in China, when we entered the year of the Ox (my Chinese zodiac). I have celebrated Chinese New Year with friends and know a lot of the traditions connected to this special occasion, thus making the Chinese experience much more colorful and interesting.

TAD 2011 - Day 2: Irish Folding....Ehh... I Mean Iris Folding

Can't upload this directly on the posterous site - so I have to email it...yesterday the picture came out really bad on the website, so I only had the chance to edit it here. Well enough about site problems - today I opted for a card for the upcoming Skt. Patrick's Day.... Couldn't find a template for a good trefoil, so I created my own. Hope the recipient will like it, as Skt.Patrick's Day is her day.

TAD 2011 - Day 1: Tag You're It

Day one of the Thing-A-Day challenge... I have decided, that I have too many projects that all suffer under my procastination - the excuse: Well I can always do that - it really takes no time, and I rather challenge myself with a bigger creative idea. Last X-mas I created the gift tags in very last minute - using rubber stamps, paper and copics.... well not exactly something that showed me, except for the fact, that they were homemade for the occation. This year is going to be different so I already started doing something X-massy... sorry... but this idea has been luring in the back of my head. The inspiration is from Sweet Paul's blog - but spiced up with a personal touch. The pictures are taken by me during the second half of 2009, and I added some rivets and instead of the plain white string - I went for something typical Danish (the red/white string) and I might blame it on my genes :o) It came out even better than I hoped.... going to create some more of these and give them to some friends, who might want to use them.