Papercut Forest

Aargh! I hate this messing about with clocks! My system seems to tolerate it less and less as the years go. Today I feel jet-lagged and feeble. I slept enough, but my body isn't really happy about the change in the rhythm and the disappearance of the light in the early morning.  I don't mind if the powers to be want to leave the time into summer time mode for ever and I technically would lose an hour of my life, just stop changing it. (That is rubbish of course, because I live the time I live, it doesn't really matter how it is measured).
  
I love papercutting. The forest was inspired by a card I received, but the idea of making a papercut for this shadow frame was there already. There is very little to say, the pictures tell it all.

The "door" open,  so you don't have the reflection of the glass, but you will see also bits, which are not on the show when the front is closed.

 I wish I could get myself doing these some more often, so I could get better at it. A good papercut is a fantastic piece of art in my opinion. (Mine is not really art, just craft).

Twin Gifts

As per usual I have been making gifts for our twin nieces. This time a short consultation with their Mum resulted in making things for their room, cushion covers to be precise. I cannot remember when I have last panicked this badly about something reasonably simple to make. The sewing stars were not aligning themselves at all. I had an awful time deciding the design, did not ever get a result which I was totally happy with, but as I was yet again very late at it, had to push on with what I had in mind.

The twins' Mum tipped me off with colours they favour at the moment, so that was at least decided for me. This one was easyish as the spotty fabric was readily available on the local high street.

Making the pink one was tough a journey. I suddenly realised that I had practically run out of pink material as I don't often use it for my own things. I managed to dig out a few pieces from my assortment of left over materials, but had to go and buy a bigger piece for the back and for the background of the "flag". My local shops seemed to have only a piggy and brownish shade of pink or the desired shade but in a design destined for the nursery. (And not very nice ones). In the end I made a lucky find in the charity shop of a pink cotton shirt, which was in good condition. That saved me from sewing one set of buttons and button holes as well!

The covers ended up all wonky, but hopefully it is not too noticeable when they are plump with a cushion inside them.

Crafting against the clock on Saturday morning I put together these cards to go with the presents and got them to the post office with fingers sticky with glue. I made it, but I am traumatised for life!

Have the sewing stars been aligned for you?

Washbag and papercutting

...not that they have anything to do with each other. I made a washbag (again) for one of our nieces. She is 18 today and had at some point wished one of these. I decided to take a gamble and make one without asking whether she still needed one. Luckily she liked the bag and I guess at her age with sleepovers and festivals and all sorts of travelling there is always use for one of these.

All the fabrics apart the green one are from IKEA. The lining is waterproof and the outside thick cotton. I had them in my stash, I don't think that the outer fabric is in production any more. I admit that it became either too long or too low, the proportions are not quite as I wanted them to be.  I was working to a tight deadline and had not time to adjust by starting all over again.

Here are some inside details:

 

I have made two papercuts lately. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the first and the better one. I sent this little card to our niece.

 

Again I wish I had started earlier to have had more time to get it right. I am at the moment very fascinated by the possibilities of papercutting, I would like  to try to make some pictures with it. Watch this space!

March Journal day 31 and what did I learn?

So. Today is the last day of Journal March. It has been really enjoyable to wake up and check what the task was for the day and think about it.

Today's task was: What did you learn in March?

My learning is not at the deepest philosophical level, but an important thing for me.
I have truly had a very serious block for drawing for a good while. I don't mind it at all when I am sketching a  dress or a bag or even an embroidery, but drawing in order to produce a picture on a paper has been a no-go area for a good while. It has been good doing it this way; a set task, not necessarily drawing and just for my own perusal. I wonder whether I should push myself through a month of painting as well, hmm....I should find a place to chuck topics at me. Maybe not quite once a day, maybe twice a week. And I would not mind doing a month of papercutting as well. I have discovered I like it a LOT!

Maybe even that horrible cold was meant to happen. I had more time. Correct: I prioritised differently, as I had no energy to do housework and sewing and gardening and, and,...I gave myself permission to be creative without having to have a product in the end. 

Have a Lovely Easter everyone and I will be back soon. Maybe even today...depending on whether I am required to be the DUNGEON MASTER in the Elf Son's game. I take my role very seriously, you see.

March Journal day 24

Today's task was: Glue Easter sweet wrappers on this page. If you don't have them, tell about the sweets in another way or ad lib something.

I must admit that we don't have any Easter sweets  in the house, nor are we going to have any serious amount, because none of us eats them. We like our sweet stuff all right, just not any coloured-gummy-sugary-things. We do like chocolate, but are quite discerning what type of chocolate we eat. Easter eggs seldom make the cut. I tend to buy our son one "Lindt" golden bunny, just to have something Eastery.

One thing we all might eat is Cadbury's mini eggs. Last Easter I wrapped them in foil to make edible mini eggs for my sister-in-law's Easter egg hunt! It would not have been much fun to glue the bag here, so I decided to design nice eggs. Of course they would be filled with the yummiest dark chocolate with different add-ons like orange and ginger. I like nuts, but don't tolerate them very well, so no nuts.

 If I have time and energy, I might blow some eggs and decorate them like this with papercuts and hang from some branches as our Easter decoration.

March Journal day 22

Today's task was "Three dreams that came true"

 I liked this one. Just like Inari said in her post, it is easy to forget how many of one's dreams actually have come true. I could have chosen my husband and son, who actually top the list, but decided to go very materialistic.

I will ask my husband to help me to take a better picture, because several of the colours came out totally wrong. Edit: He's been. Now the right page is wonky, but colours are better. You get the idea, anyway. 

I decided to do something different today. I had seen some superb papercut art on the net and thought that I give it a go. I know that when you see a relatively simple looking papercut, it is more than likely that making it took a long time. Before the end result is reached many other shapes and colours have been tried. I need much more practise to get good at precise cutting, but this will do for today. This actually took longer than any of the other pages, believe it or not!