Bad, bad blogger!

Wow, it's been ages since I last posted. I have no excuse other than things have been CRAZY at school... Not much time for anything else!

I have crafted some things for a swap though, as soon as they're received I can show you. And I've bought some shiny new craft books -which I'll never have time to actually read, but that's another story!

This is an ATC made for a "Used Postage Stamp ATC" swap. You like?

Recently received

I've been lucky enough to receive some really lovely things in recent swaps, so I thought I'd make you jealous! :-)

This first item is a beautifully made fabric bowl, made by Kwality570 on Craftster. Isn't it amazing? I gave it to my mom, and when I visited her last week we tried to make a couple of fabric bowls ourselves. They turned out NOTHING like this, I can tell you! :-)

Next up are two neat homemade soaps, and 3 great custom magnets (do you recognize Stella?), both received in the Craftster Sweat Shoppe Swap. The soaps smell great and I gave the magnets to Stella's parents who liked them a lot.

And last but not least, these lovely ATCs made by Jody, received in a private swap at Swap-bot. I love these pretty vintage ladies!

Artist Trading Cards

These are some of the ATCs I've been making in the past months. This first one is a replacement for a card that got lost in the mail, grr! I've never had mail go missing before so I was a bit upset. But I quite like the replacement!

These next two are zetti themed. I've been playing around a bit with the zetti style, but I still feel like I don't quite "get it"... Do any of yoy ATC makers out there have inspiration tips?

And this last one was for a feminist ATC swap, it was great fun! I love the quote, it's from a feminist website.

ATCs

Thank you for all the nice comments about my little toadstools! I definitely want to make some more toadstool themed things soon, they are so sweet!

I have more swap stuff to show you today. These are two ATCs; one was made for the Alphabet ATC swap, and one for the Buy Nothing swap. I'm quite pleased with both of them.

I named the first one Weeping Woman, it is a collage made with scrapbook paper, vintage text, and plain white lace that I painted with black acrylic paint. I just found out about this trick - it's a great way to get exactly the color of lace that you need for a project, and you can paint as much or as little as you need!

The second one is entitled Marie Antoinette, and incorporates vintage text from a Swedish dictionary, acrylic paint, scrapbook papers and an old stamp. If the style of this card looks familiar to you, it might be because I was inspired by the lovely Malin of Dandelion Daisy - she makes wonderful ATCs!

My favorite craft tutorials

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while. There has been a lot of things going on, good and bad. The (very) bad thing is that we've been informed that our company is considering closing down their Gothenburg office, which means I'll probably be out of work in a month or so. And at the worst possible time, too! I'm very worried, but trying to stay positive.

The good thing is that I've been crafting away for several different Craftster swaps. Pictures coming soon! In the meantime I thought I'd share some of my favorite craft tutorials. This is the current top 5:

Photo from CraftPudding

1. Make a baby food jar pincushion - This is a sweet little tutorial that CraftPudding posted a couple of weeks back, I can't wait to try it out. A great way to repurpose old glass jars!

2. Excellent bookbinding tutorial - This is a wonderful tutorial if you have ever wanted to try bookbinding but feel intimidated by all the tools and complex techniques out there. Clear instructions, helpful pics, and no expensive tools required!

3. Toadstool tutorial - I recently rediscovered this tute, it's great! Make a cute pincushion or ornament and decorate it to your heart's content! Author LucyKate even arranged a toadstool swap - see all the photos here.

4. Fabric ATC tutorial - This tute has some great tips and tricks for making fabric ATCs. I want to experiment more with non-paper ATCs as soon as I'm done with the Craftster Alphabet ATC swap.

5. Fabric Dollhouse Tutorial - I haven't had a chance to make this yet, but I had to share it anyway. Such an adorable idea!

Crafty 2008 (part 2)

Time for some more pictures! This first one is from last summer. It shows my pincushion, made from a thrifted teacup. I love teacup pincushions, they're both pretty and practical! There's a tutorial here if you'd like to make your own. You can also see one of my ATCs in the picture, and the Booties I made when Stella was born.

The next photo shows a little bunny embroidered for Stella last fall... The cute pattern is a freebie from Wee Wonderfuls - check it out here! I turned it into a little doll but I actually think it was cuter before I stuffed it!

The last photo is actually from 2007, and it certainly isn't my own work.. But I just had to share it! Look at this vintage wedding dress! Look at those puff sleeves! All those ruffles! I just love it! :-D

Have a great week!

Shades of blue

Has it really been that long since my last post? I keep meaning to post, but real life keeps getting in the way!

Top row: "God Save the Queen", "60's", "Castle".
Bottom row: "T is for Time", "Bluebell, "Man in the Moon"

I finally made some ATC:s not related to the Craftster alphabet swap! It was great to be able to work a little more freely, and I had lots of fun making them. And it also made me realize just how much papercraft stuff I have lying around - wallpaper, images, stamps, ephemera packs... I'm forbidding myself to buy more until 2009!

I'm keeping two of these cards as inspiration, and the "Time" card is for the Alphabet swap, but "Castle", "60's" and "Man in the Moon" are all up for trade! Let me know if you're interested!

And I also wanted to show you one of the cards I made for the latest Alphabet swap:

I painted the nest using watercolors. When I was little I used to paint all the time, I don't know why I haven't for so long. It's great!

My latest ATCs

I'm busy preparing for yet another exam, so I haven't had a lot of crafting time... Just thought I'd show you my latest ATCs. I'm in an alphabet ATC swap at Craftster, and we've reached J, K and L. Here are my contributions:

This batch was a lot of fun to make! The L card is my first fabric ATC, it's a bit wonky but it was fun to try something different. I favorite is "J is for jam", I love working with watercolors!

And just for fun, here's another pic of little Stella!

Craft fair fun

I'm back! We had a great weekend at Keith's parents, with lots of crafty inspiration. On Sunday, we visited a craft fair where Keith's grandmother and little sister were selling some of their creations. Tons to see! I didn't buy much since I need to save my money this month, but it was great to walk around and just look at all the beautiful things. The things I did get are this lovely apron made by Keith's grandma, made of a pretty and practical waxed fabric - perfect for my messy baking! - and a cute handmade card.

Oh, and check this out: We drove to the fair IN STYLE!

This awesome 1960 Dodge Phoenix belongs to Keith's dad, who is a mechanic and nuts about classic cars. We had so much fun riding with the windows down and singing rock'n'roll tunes!

Since I got back I've been busy carving stamps for the rubber stamp swap I'm in, and I also found the time to do some more baby crafting. I love Heather Bailey's Bootie pattern, so I thought I'd try it out. Here's my slightly lopsided first attempt:

I hope my sister won't mind that they're blue! I was looking for a nice color combo, and didn't stop to think about the fact that blue is supposed to be a "boy color" (I think that's rubbish anyway) before they were half finished. Oh well, I'll just have to make a matching dress then! :-)

Oh, and since they have all been received now, here are my latest Artist Trading Cards, made for the Alphabet ATC swap at Craftster. I'm really proud of them. What do you think?