Little Corner of Ania

I visited three awfully cute children the other day (oxymoron, isnt…awful in combination w/cute?), and just had to bring them chocolate. And as I had some time for preparation, I looked to my messy desk & found some scraps and bits and pieces to decorate the chocolate.

The polka dot paper seen here is from October Afternoon, while the flowered paper is from Crate (one of my fave sheets from them…sigh…only have about one sheet left, boo!)…got a new shipment of doilies, so now I’ve started using doilies again (I was almost out of doilies! eeks!). Pins and flowers found on my desk, the large flower is from Prima (I think it’s an old one, but it might very well be one of the new ones too…I’m not quite sure….it looks pretty though..like a fairy sorta)….the smaller are some white ones from Kort & Godt which I colored w/gold mist..oh and I ordered some bakers twine from The Twinery the other day, the {I love you sampler pack}..it looked like a nice assortment of colors and I’ve seen so much praise about their twine..and I have to say I was positively surprised – pretty pretty colors and it’s thicker and “fuller” than the other bakers twine I have (from some etsy-store)…sweet! And addictive, eeks!

I have so many cute chipboard pieces from Crate Paper that I really need to just start using! So I did =)

This paper is from Crate Paper, as well as the chipboards. The stamped letters were made with the new Prima press by the way, love mine!! So fun and easy to use :)

Gong xi fa cai!
Apparently it’s Mandarin for Happy New Year (or well, prosperous new year?).
Thanks to reading about Leena Loh’s preparations and excitement about the Chinese New Year (did you know we’re now into the year of Dragon? I guess you do, even here in Norway the papers have had bits and pieces on the Chinese NY and how this year is a powerful one and stuff…after the NY actually started..and you’d definitely know if you play WoW (think – the annual Lunar festival)) a while ago on her blog (this was the initial post that sparked the idea to see if I could do something on it…well worth the read & her whole blog is so pretty – from pretty photographs to lots of creative bits and pieces and inspiration, tip and great ideas), I got inspired and was able to invite myself to someone locally who’d celebrate that event so I could write about it in the newspaper I work for. And take pretty pictures. And (most important!) sample some of the amazing Chinese cuisine. Real homemade Chinese food! Tasted amazing, in case you wondered. Whee! Thanks Leena! :D

So, I had a request all the way from Jamaica (*waves!*) about how to create the canvasbook shown in the last post.

Well, I had actually taken images of the process step-by-step-ish, but wasn’t sure whether there were “need” for me to post such a tutorial or not. Sooo am happy somebody actually asked! :)

Step one – gather some sheets of papers for the content. The papers I used was ledger ones from Prima from last season. Wasn’t sure how to use them otherwise *blush*. 
Cut and stack them like, 3-4 sheets together.
(I didn’t measure mine before sending off the projects to CHA I’m afraid. I eyeballed stuff and I *think* they’re like, slightly less than 5x7 inches when folded)

I used the sewing machine to stitch together the middle – but if you don’t have a sewing machine – don’t worry – just use staples :)

Now, take a sheet of canvas (I used the new Poppies & Peonies-collection from Prima) and adhere three rectangles of cardboard like shown above. The rectangles need to be slightly larger than your folded ledgerpapers/contents, and you need to remember to space them out some like shown above so it will fold properly. You can use patterned paper instead of canvas np, you might just want to strengthen the middle part/parts that’ll be folded when done (with either bookbindertape, canvas, extra paper, or cover the whole book in multi medium/sealer, preferably w/two layers...).

Right. Talking too much. Cut the corners like shown.

I used these clothespins to help securing the canvas while the adhesive was drying. A bonefolder to help folding the edges is always appreciated!

Find a proper length of trim or ribbon, adhere to the middleish of the book like this.

Cut another sheet of canvas to cover the insides. More clothespins!

Don’t forget to fold it some too during drying so you’re sure the folds looks pretty and stuff before it dries completely!

Then as for the contents…just add lots of liquid glue in the middle & secure the folded sheets tightly inside. Let it dry “standing”.

Then….decorate stuff….I went for a simple decoration for this one, since the canvas was pretty in itself :)

 

Hope you enjoyed this one :)

Edited to add this q:

 

Amanda Said,

6:43 PM

This is gorgeous! Can you buy the canvas from the Prima website or do you have to buy it elsewhere? I've enver used canvas before

Thank you!

The canvas shown here are part of the new releases coming out this Spring. To my knowledge you can’t buy directly from Prima, but it should be available in stores some weeks after CHA (which starts next week actually). For online ones you could try Two Peas in a Bucket, Scrapbook.com, or Frantic Stamper – have no idea if they’ll take in this specific canvas, though. And there’s some stores doing preorders too, but I’m afraid I dunno which. Oh and for plain canvas I can recommend Claudine Hellmuths Studio sticky canvases. Hm. I’m not of much help, eh?

 

Right. Want more CHA-peeks?

I’m in love with these tiles from Prima…

Not to mention these genie stones!

Drop by the Prima-blog and check out the gorgeous jewelleries the other DT-gals whipped up! I wanna make me some too! Plus – there’s giveaways going on. Giveaways = win!

Not to mention the Maya Road peeks – more giveaways there too!!

These rhinestone-trims might very well be one of my faves…

Alright. Have some off days coming up, which’s great, cause I have a growing list of favors and cards I need to create/prettify. Why do people have their birthdays and other stuff like, all at once?? :p

 

Oh, and then there’s the Marit Larsen-concert this Friday. Wheee!!

So,

seen the peeks yet over at the Prima blog? Some more of my stuff has popped up over there, in the Poppies and peonies-post, which means I can share’em here too, yay =)

So. First out is this ATC…we’re doing an ATC-swap in the DT, I’m creating one for Stacey Young, which can be seen above….and I’m getting one from Karola Witczak, whee! I added some gesso on mine, tried to stamp on it and discovered the stamp got smudged and didn’t seem to work well on the gesso (it yielded a crisp and fine impression on the paper – but an utterly sucky one on the gessoed canvas, boo), added some more gesso to cover up the mishap then went on adding some glimmer mist splotches onto it, a canvas butterfly (*loves*), a flower, a wooden pennant, a vintage trinket (*lovestoo*) and a wooden button then called it a day.

Products:

• Canvas ATCs: 922030
• Charlotte melon: 557300
• Wood tickets meadow lark: 554378
• Trinkets songbird: 554255
• Resist canvas natural: 554699
• Twill black: 550479

So. This Poppies & Peonies collection is a mostly canvas-based (and a few more things too, like some foam stamps and resinflowers and stuff) created by Donna Downey. Mm.. grabbed two canvas sheet & decided I’d make this journal myself (there’s already-made journals and stuff in the collection too…I did however have a number of ledger-papers from last CHA I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with, so I decided to put them to some good use…or something like that).

Looks sorta nice, eh?

The bird-trinket is one of many designed by Marion Smith, as seen in this post. I attached it to the chipboard/canvas with Glue Arts hot glue..been using that more and more lately..! The chipboard is from the Nature Garden collection, and the petal pin bead is just *loves* :) (it’s bendable though, which I assume would be a plus for jewellerymaking, but not so much when it comes to scrapbooking…still looks amazing though!)

Also used another kind of canvas for the insides :)

 

Products:

• Canvas – poppy a canvas sheet 921934,
• peony canvas sheet 921958
• Chipboards – 950293
• Trinkets – 555207
• Petal pins beads – 556716
• Ledger paper – 843755 and 843748

ALSO!

Seen that the Maya Road peeks has started??
*in love with so many, many things!*

Like the Vintage Mini Wood Butterflies, or the Vintage Wood Birds…

Head on over and comment for a chance to win some new goodies! :)

Right.

Have a lovely weekend! And for those of you celebrating the Chinese New Year, happy celebrating!
(I’ll be working this weekend, yay)

First: Thanks so much for your help when it comes to the questions I had in my last post! I *think* I have it down when it comes to the meaning of “Joyeux anniversaire” and “Heureux anniversaire” (although there’s a slight conflicting feedback – so far no French people have elaborated on the finer meanings of these words, so if you have anything to add I’ll be happy to learn more about when to use what).

The ribbon I asked about indeed is seam binding (Julie Blanc: it does not seem to be taffeta to me from what I could see from googling – but thanks for the suggestion!), I even got a direct link from Anne Kristine (also known as Aksh) (who use this a lot – and quite superb at it if I may add…she’s truly amazing with the shabby style!) and have already purchased lots and lots =)

 

Right.

Onwards to more new stuff:

Right now Glue Arts is sponsored by Studio Calico, which meant we got to play with the October kit. Fun fun! It’s been a while since I played with a kit, and I’ve never tried Studio Calico, so yay! I must say I especially loved the products that’s Studio Calico’s own, like the graphic papers (love – I see why they fit well with American Crafts now – what I got seemed in the same gate as their graphic-oriented products).

I’ve elaborated more on the different steps of this layout in this blogpost if you’re interested.

I fell in love with these chipboard-butterflies from Sassafras! Plus this graphic card (which’s really just a note from Studio Calico or something like that)!

On this layout I mixed papers from Sassafras, Studio Calico and Basic Grey :)

This is my daughter and my nephew. Can hardly (can’t hardly??) wait to see him again in two weeks!!

3 quick things:

 

1. French speaking people: What’s the difference between “Joyeux anniversaire” and “Heureux anniversaire”? (Yes, I asked google translate, but it just responded “happy birthday” to both).

 

2. I’ve updated my resume blog into this template called “Dynamic views”. What’s your verdict? Is it just me or does it seem to take slightly longish to load? Is this a good template for a resume blog which sorta have pretty static pages/posts? Or should I just go back to my old plain-ish template, with an old fashioned and pretty linear postageline?

 

 

3. Do you know what this ribbon is called? Or where I can buy it? (I purchased mine at Familieskatter a year ago or two, but they don’t have a webstore and I’m like, it’s too silly to email them just because of a ribbon..or is it..?) It’s a bit like twill, but not as thick or crude….more..sheer or organiza, except…it isn’t either (and yes, I’ve searched for all the above on ebay and still haven’t really found this exact kind of ribbon). I love it because you could crumple it or use it straight or mist it and stuff and it was so versatile and amazing and I regret not buying more of it or remembering what it’s called. Waah!

 

Hmmm.

I think that’s it.

Well.

Hope some kind souls will take the time to help me out w/the urgent questions!! :)

 

Suppose I should add these cards (made with Momenta for Glue Arts), but I don’t really like them myself. Ahwell. Can’t always win..

The January Prima Product Pick & Color palette is up, and within minutes of seeing this palette I whipped up this little box. Literally. Or well, maybe not, but I did start on this the same evening as the palette was revealed to us (funny sidenote; just read this article on memories which questions whether our memories really are our own/correct…. intriguing piece..esp the hot balloon-experiment).
Nevertheless. This palette:

..was the one that inspired me immensely.

I used prima-products from CHA-S for this one, ie – none of the new stuff. So, sorry if you wanted a peek or two of the new stuff! I must say – I *love* these leaves – they come in both metallic-colors (Aglow) & in felt (Vermont). Sigh. Wish I had more of these!


If you want to make your own box feel free to check out the tutorial here. You need two such boxes (or well, halves) – made from squares measuring approx 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 and 8 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches (ie, 1/2 inch diff in size…approx). Don’t forget the circle-punch to create such half-thingies you see pictured above; it’ll make it easier to take these boxes on/off.
I like making such boxes. Personally I think bulky flowers are difficult to work with when it comes to traditional layouts – but for such projects they’re such a perfect match!
Products:

• 843489- Printery– Emperor
• 843502- Printery- Negative
• 843496- Printery- Pressman
• 552749- Carlotta – smoke
• 553029- Gillian – cinder
• 553524- Aglow – black magic
• 553609- Splendor – winter

Right.
Had some fun last night with this one. Need to practice more and stop being fazed by mistyping stuff – that makes me lose seconds!! The top people doing this test types like, 190ish words per minute. Wow!

Visit the Typing Test and try!

When Wenche announced her January-challenge over at 3ndypapir, I knew I had to join whenever I got the chance. Yellow is a color that I love, but never really actually use. So with her challenge being about using the color yellow, I happily obliged.

I added a number of Prima-flowers to this card (I esp *love* the big one here, the one with the bling in the middle!), some veeerrry old Prima-bling from like 2007 or so (haha! They’ve remained one of my faves thru the years though!) & stuck some Maya Road star-pins in thru the flowers. OH and see the letters? Awesome poolside-thickers from American Crafts – I couldn’t find any R or A’s left in my sheet so I cut this Q in half so it became exactly these two letters I needed. Ahhh, love it when the design allows you to do such stuff and turn out smashing =)

 

And as for the heart – I have a heartshaped minibook (by Maya Road) that I’ve torn apart & used in layouts and cards instead. I knew I wanted to use it, but at the same time I thought covering it in one sheet of patterned paper sorta would be boring when I hadn’t envisioned doing much else with the card itself.. So this time I simply cut a number of strips (with various widths), taped the one end lightly and started weaving the strips until it was large enough to cover the heart.

Before using the chipboardheart I painted the surface just in case it’d peek out from between the paper…then I covered the heart in adhesive and attached it to the woven mat.

 

Then all you need is to trace your heart & cut it out. Pwetty, eh?

The woven heart makes it look more “fun” …it’s going to a six year old girl, but the card itself could just as well be given someone who’s turning 60 too.

This Prima-layout was created using the Songbird-collection, along with..hm…well, all-new-stuff for CHA-W. You can find it on the Prima blog here. The picture is from the vacation in Paris we all had last Fall, and hmm.. I think this might be the first picture from that vacation that I’ve scrapped :p

This was also the first time I tried Ingvild Bolme’s craft knife, which I’m happy to report absolutely deserves a stamp of approval (yeah, like it counts for a lot, I know *grin*). Nevertheless..I cut part of the figurines, added another patterned paper as backing and then used small 3d foam squares to make sure the cuttings sorta stayed popup’ed.

Love these graphic tags! And the bling…and the tiny butterflies (whee) and the normal ones, which’s hairy this time. Initially I didn’t think that was a pretty addition (the earlier butterflies from Prima aren’t hairy sorta), but somehow I suddenly started to take a liking to them. Weird.

Lotsa pwetty flowers (adorned with crackle paint)! Oh, and a wooden clock, I truly love these… See the peachy piece of canvas btw? I sprayed golden glimmermist on it first then quick patches of vintage pink and it turned into a perfect blend of color that matched the papers superb. Pure luck that made me go whee! :)

 

Supplylist:

Songbird Paper: 844011, 844028, 844059
Resist Canvas: 554750, 554675
Say it in pearls: 553944
Say it in crystals: 553999
Wood clocks: 554613
Essentials Petals Songbird: 555580
Flutter bits songbird: 555627
Lady godivas raspberry ice: 557096
Laraine blue lagoon: 557652 (took the leaves)
Allegra annaise: 556501
Mariposa topaz: 556778
Paper tag set: 921873
Alphabet stickers: 555405
Quick dry fluid chalk – dry sand 891176
Tools: craft knife 890964, 5x7 cutting mat 890926
Other: Glimmer mist – vintage pink, gold, frost, patina, chalkboard mist – chalk, Glue Arts adhesives, distresss crackle paint – picket fence, sewing machine

 

Right. We’re baking Magnolia Bakerys Vanilla Cupcakes atm (or well, I printed out the recipe, made the kiddo double it and directed to the kids what to do. Worked swell!). The bare cupcakes tasted amazing - need to make the frosting now. I got a cupcake decorating set from my sister last Christmas, and the kid’s been bugging to use it ever since :)

Sooooo. I do adore making cute, little boxes.
Especially when I feel that everything goes right and there’s no fuzz or pulling of hair while pondering what to do how and where…it’s truly a nice feeling when it comes over you when you create. I savour it – because truth to be told, it isn’t always this easy (noooooo….tic :p).

Nevertheless..one of the interesting things is that combining different materials (here: ribbon, canvas, chipboard, patterned paper, kraft, mist and glitter) contribute to its interesting dimensioned look…I know it’s a pretty much used cliché – but I think you safely can say so about the way this little embellishmentclutter on the top of the box is built – layering the different materials yields such an interesting dimension. So there =)

It was created for Maya Road, as shown in this blogpost (where I also elaborate a bit on how this box was made).

And look! It contents sweets! (big, shocking surprise, I know ;p)
Maya Road supplies:
Chipboard: Coffee or Tea Mini Chipboard Set, Wavy Layerable Chipboard Banner Kraft Journaling Tags - decorative,
Butterfly Canvas Set,
Timeless Memories Stamp Square,
Small Organiza Roses Ribbon - Olive,
Maya Mist: Popsicle Blue, Eggplant purple

Now, over to something else.
You know CHA’s around the corner, no?
Well, maybe not exactly around the corner, but – it’s fast approaching!
Here’s one of my favorite lines from Prima – the Yuki collection:


…and Almanac – it’s reminiscent of Printery from the last CHA-S – just…prettier, if I dare say so!
(and LOOK! WOODEN CLOCKS! pwetty tiles!)

Songbird….so so lovely:

And finally..just need to share this lovely little trinket – genie stones:

…
sigh!
I have more favorites and stuff – here’s my CHA-W 2012 pinterest board for those of you who likes that stuff. I’m not good at using pinterest I must admit, but it’s sort of a tradition (well, 2nd time, so it’s becoming one!!) to pin peeks and new stuff for CHA :)
Atm there’s mostly Prima in there, I know…it’s not because I’m on their team and thus partial or anything, I just haven’t found that many CHA peeks yet (among my favorite manuf-blogs that I have in my feeds)! :p

Right. One last CHA peek, this time from Maya Road:


Oh, and one last thing too: The newest Craft Origine challenge 2:



This time it’s a sketch!


Here’s the words from Virginia of Craft Origine:

To start this new year, Craft Origine present you the Challenge #2!
To participate, you must do a creation with the sketch above. You can use the colors, supplies and materials you want.
The page of the winner will be posted on our blog and will receive a set of stamps Craft Origine of his choice ! The pages of the other participants will also be published.
The challenge begins January 8 and ends January 21 at midnight. Participants from all countries are welcome!
Please send your creations by email to: vlemagoarou@orange.fr. Indicate in the subject line: CRAFT ORIGINE CHALLENGE #2. You will receive a confirmation email.
I hope this sketch will inspire you.
Good luck !
Bises

And here’s the link to the challengepost on their blog! Right!
Gotta jet now! Work calls!