Now You See It - Now You Don't

Some street art vanishes almost as fast as it is put up in public display - you shoul act fast if you want photos of it because I might not be there when you return in daylight or with a better camera than your phone's camera.

The other night I went to a mail box to send of an old fashioned letter to a good friend (that is our way of communication - old fashioned snail mail) and my eye caught something colorful.

Three persons made of colorful HAMA beads. When I took the photos, somebody had already made an attempt to steal them and the morning after they were all thorn as they have proven harder to remove that people had thought. Albeith the pegging board you use to place the pearls in patterns is a Swedisk invention, the HAMA beads is a Danish invention, so I remember these from my childhood, where we made them in a very young age and used them as presents to family members - somewhere in my Christmas ornament stash I even have some that my nieces made me 10-15 years ago.

This is from August 2014 from a pillar just outside the music venue Culture Box here in Copenhagen - it is actually the club's logo, and it was on the pillar for a least a month. The reason it was up there for so long - I think - was probably that people believed that the club had placed it there themselves - but knowing the building owner any other street art attempt, tagging etc. has always been removed very fast, and it was by pure coincidence I spotted it as it was not too obvious in it's spot.

Christmas Cards 2013

A front page of the Danish magazine, Femina, caught my attention in mid November with the Fröbel stars - had a feeling that this would be the inspiration to this year's batch of Christmas cards.

 

It took two weeks until the idea finally appeared in my head - not the complete star but the base could be made in white and then added to the card .... only to reach an obstacle that took me 2 days to solve: wanted to fold the starts of gift ribbon in the 0,5 cm width only to find out that the size (which has pretty much been available all my life) now only comes in the with of 1 cm = way to big for my purpose. Solution - using my paper cutter to cut out 0,5 cm paper strips of regular white A4 paper = lots of cutting... 37 cards with each 6 stars requiring 4 paper strips = 888 paper strips

 

 

In hindsight might not have chosen to pursue that idea, as each card including folding 6 star bases, punching etc took more than one hour.... but then again once my mind is fixed on an idea :o)

March 2012 Tea Swap - Part 2

Have seen several cafes having letter writing nights lately, as a lot of people misses receiving a handwritten letter or card in the mail in the world of emails, SMS and MMS. Despite that postrates have gone up in a lot of countries, there are still a lot out there, that is creating their own cards - papercrafting or based on own photos. I happen to participate in a monthly swap where creations and tea fly around the world.

Received this beautiful shabby chic style card from Karen on Tuesday and I just love it. Sadly the technology is not there for you to touch that butterfly, but the texture on that surface makes is very real. Karen wrote to me, that it would be a little late but I would happily have awaited longer for a wonderful creation like this.

When opening the card, it revealed the treasure of two teabags: Vanilla Nut Creme Decaf Tea and Pomegranate Raspberry Green Tea - both from STASH. Can you hear a cup of tea bewing right now?

The letter from Karen also contained two other non-tea goodies, but keeping them a secret for now, as I want to use them in some cards to be sent out. Karen: Thank you soo much! You know I love your blogposts/poems/photos - but adding your cards to that wonderful list of creations from you....and you know what I am talking about when I am saying that this arrived just in time for a pick-me-up.

Letter In A Letter

That I received today from Maria, one of my crafting friends which I met on Paper Craft Planet's Secret Pal group. An old fashioned letter with a handcrafted card. Isn't her creation awesome?

Now there is a secret to this card - and it took me an hour to figure it out. The letter on the card can be opened and inside was some stamped snowflake images :o) Can you believe it - an hour!! *LOL* Maria knows that I am a very frequent traveller and I love snowflakes, so this card is sooo me.

Just had to share it with you and hope you have some friends that once in a while send you cards.

Recycled Envelopes

No no. It has nothing to do with reusing an actual envelope. It is about making envelopes from a scrap op paper thorn out out of a magazine, book, newspaper or catalogue... something you might have just trown into the recycle paper bin.

There is actually a lot of printed publications, that have pages with a full-page photo just screaming to be reused as an envelope. Well at least it is screaming in my little world. The middle envelope is a page from a Martha Steward magazine, and the others are from a supplier catalogue (from work - about to be thrown out) and a clothing catalogue.

100+ years ago, paper was sometimes scarce and very expensive, and at some point, people simply reused an envelope up to 3 times. A few more of my friends have rediscovered the joy of a handwritten note/letter, so I am in constant need of envelopes - and they really enjoy these colorful envelopes.

When You Cannot Find...

Can you create it yourself?

Well, believe it or not, I was chasing letter sets last week, and couldn't find any??!! I wanted to send of my first letter to the girls in my Dear Darlings Penpal Project group and in my mind - simple note paper was out of the question...

Suddenly a possible business trip was luring in the horizon...

It had so be something "me" on the paper if I was to make some letter paper myself...

Well didn't want to have this blogpost until I knew that my letters have arrived at their destinations... I think, I nailed it: What could be more "me"?

Well the business trip didn't happen, as too many uncertain factors was involved - and a compromise with safety is not an option. When I travel, there is always envelopes and notepaper in my bag - and as you can see I have already a small collection of various stamps at hand if needed... airplane time is not only for reading or watching movies, in my world it also includes letter(s) to friends and family.

PenPals via a blog?

Couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw a blogpost on one of the blogs, that I am following, that someone has put op a blogpost encouraging people to sign up for a penpall group. Now if that is something for you too - visit the link mentioned.

Old fashioned letter writing - that I hope will never go out of style. The initiative is awesome.

Well I signed up and has already been assigned to a group - letters will soon be posted to them.

Creative Recycling

I love to read other blogs for inspiration, and earlier this year Carmenesque had a blogpost about packaging and recyling.

It reminded me of my own envelopes, that I have made since I was a full time student. Being a full time student, money were sometimes scarce at the end of the month, and it could mean that you would rather save money than spend it on new envelopes ... You simply took what you had at hand to make new envelopes, and you could often find cool papers in magazines, brochures etc. Later on I bought a plastic template at the local hobby store so I did not have to used the miserable envelope that had served the last of its life as a template.

I still make my own envelopes - and I still write letters. I use email everyday at my job and find it relaxing to writing to friends and family the old fashioned way - email is only used if I want a quick answer.

A while ago I read somewhere, that envelopes was a scarce commodity a few hundred years ago, so an "envelope" was often reused 2-3 times, even more in some cases. I do not reuse envelopes, I recycle them instead in the papercontainer situated in my building (but only the letters that aren't "keepsakes").

All you need is cool pictures etc from magazines, glue or double adhesive tape and scissors... and if you do not have a template, I am sure that you have an old evelope, that you can use as a template.

What ever happened to.....??

What ever happened to the old fashioned letter? Ever since email made its way into everybodys life, letters have now been talked about as "the old art of writing letters"..

Hey... I am not old!!! And I still enjoy finding a letter in the mailbox from a good friend or a family member... now it is all about emails, mobile phones etc...

I am reading soo many emails during the workday, so I do not want to go home - turn on the computer in order to hear some news from my friends and family... some of them tease me, that I still prefer to write letters, but some of them actually likes getting letters in their mailbox (not the email mailbox).. others say, that we are busy doing stuff at different times, so a phonecall might be bad timing, hence they prefer to send an email - hey why not send a letter instead.

Since 1989 one of my best frinds and me have used letters as our primary communication method - for us it has just been natural to send news via postcards or letters instead of picking up the phone or sending an email. Only in rare occations we those the other means of communication, because we both like to sit down with a cup of tea and read a letter.

When I go travelling - a notepad, a pen and some evelopes always find their way into by bags: when not reading good books on the plane, I write letters to some of my friends letting them know, what has been going on in my life/mind lately.... and I still send postcards. If others do not have the time to send a postcard but are sending me a sms/mms instead - well do not bother because I do do not consider it to be personal...

X-mas greetings are very close to my heart - a couple of years ago I starting making all my x-mas cards myself. And now there is no way back, everybody I know will not settle for a bought card, that you can buy at any store - on the other hand, I know that not everybody are creative, so I appreciate getting a card from the stores etc... X-mas greetings via email where all the reciepients are disclosed - do not send one to me

This blog is just to put my thoughts into cyperspace as a reflection - I keep a journal, where I put similar stuff down but also includes my impressions of people that are somehow in my life. And I do have a web-album on GOOGLE's Picasa simply to share some moments from my travels with my best friends - not all pictures are posted there, that is not my intention, but I get soo many ideas from friends when they comment my pictures - usually I travel alone, but using the Picasa website actually enables me to share some memories in a totally different way, because I do not have to "hold lectures" when talking about my latest destination: they have already seen, what have impressed me the most and often others knows something about it and is more eager to start a conversations based on a picture.