Highlights of 2015

This has been a good and interesting crafting year for me.

I started being a designer for Hobbykunst megastore, the online craft magazine StampARTic, guest designer for the magazine Ett trykk. I was have also been a designer for Scandinavian paper fun (challenge blog) and a guest designer for Nicecrane design.

During the spring, I applied for a design team spot for Prima marketing and Kaisercraft. Prima is an american based craft supplier, and Kaisercraft is an Australian based craft supplier. The design team calls were out, at about the same time, and I went through to the finals and got a design team spot at Kaisercraft's designteam for 2015-2016. 

Prima Bella Rouge dress

This dress was made for the Prima design team call. This dress was made over a hand made dress form. You can find the tutorial for the dress form in this blog post.. 

You can find more photos of Prima Bella Rouge dress in the original blog post.

Prima - mixed media minialbum

This minialbum was made for the Prima design team call. The album was made from scratch, and was fun to make. The aim was to show a lot of different mixed media and background techniques along with using lots of different Prima papers and embellishments. I will only show a few of the pages here. More photos can be seen in the original blog post, My story - mixed media minialbum.

There is a small pop-up airplane on the last page. I really love designing pop-ups, and trying to figure out how they work.

Kaisercraft design team call

The Kaisercraft designteam call came out about the same time as the Prima design team call. I had decided to apply for the design team this year. Kaisercraft is an Australian Scrapbooking brand, and that was just a bonus for me. I do very much believe in "building your own doors". Opportunities will not necessarily knock on your door, but you have to work for it. So I had a go, and applied. The task was to create one layout, one card and one beyond the page item.

This photo of Uluru, is one I took in 2007. 

I also created one of my lamps and a small card. I have had the tutorial an template for this lamp published in Ett trykk (October 2013). You can find the template for the lamp in this post.

You can find my first Kaisercraft design team entry in this blog post.

I went through to the final. All the finalist got sent 2 different paper collections. We had to create with both collections, create a blogpost and send the items we created back to Kaisercrafts main office.

I got this fantastic Time Machine Collection (I still LOVE this collection!). Among the things I created was a box with a minialbum and a pop-up card.

We also got the Home for Christmas collection, and I decided o create a small church with lights inside and a small lamp post.

Later I created the same church in Maja design papers, scaled it down to 5cm tall, and mounted it inside an acrylic Christmas ornament. (See furter down in this blogpost).

My Kaisercraft finalist DT entry

Guest designer for the magazine Ett trykk

This year, I have also been a guest designer for the magazine Ett trykk. Everything in print has to be made a long time before the magazines are printed. This advent calendar was created in June and published in October, I created this advent calendar with papers from Maja design. 

You can see more photos from Nyhavn Christmas calendar in the original blogpost.

Hobbykunst - Project life

I have been a designer for Hobbykunst for some years. This summer, Hobbykunst had a visit from Becky Higgins. Becky Higgins had  a few classes and I was lucky to get one of the spots in one of the classes. 

This is a PL page I made for Hobbykunst, just before Becky Higgins visit. The photo is from New York, and edited in Photoshop, to create the black, white and orange colours. You can find more photos of the Nwy York project life page, made for Hobbykunst in the blogpost.

Hobbykunst has moved this year, from Vestby to Lørenskog. This is a short blogpost showing my items on show in the shop at Vestby.

Classes

This year, I have been very lucky. I have been asked to give classes in Kjøpsvik, Førde, Larvik and in Oslo. One of my classes at Hobbykunst, was creating three different folding Christmas cards. This was a very popular class and the classes were full.

Original blogpost about he folding Christmas card class

Christmas ornament with Maja design

I used the small church template, I created for Kaisercraft's final DT call and scaled it down to 5cm tall. I cut it out of Maja Nyhavn papers, and added it inside one of Hobbykunst's small acrylic Christmas ornaments (8cm in diamenter). I also added lights inside the church. This is definitive the post I have had with most likes. In one of the groups I posted it in, this got over 1250 likes, which is completely surreal on a papercraft project. 

You can see more photos of this Christmas ornament in the original blogpost.

The vintage car, a video tutorial

A few years ago, I created a vintage car with a rubber band engine. This was done as an example for some school kids. I struggled finding instructions on how to create cars with rubber band engine, so I created the instructions myself, end published the template. Later, I created a Silhouette file, based on my template. I give the Silhouette file away for free (but you have to ask for it - see mail address). Several people struggled putting the parts together, and I was asked to do a tutorial. So this year I published the tutorial

Vintage car tutorial

Design team posts for Kaisercraft

So, I got on to the Kaisercraft design team. I have really enjoyed it. Here are some of the posts for Kaisercraft.

This is a funny mixed media layout. The image is of two Santas visiting their neighbour's kids (who really still believe in Santa). You can find more photos in the Ho ho ho - layout blogpost.

You don't always need to use personal photos in your layouts. This is a photo I took last summer in England. I just love all the quotes on Kaisercraft's papers. You can always find some good quotes to work with. You can see more photos in the Life is pretty amazing layout blogpost.

We get the Christmas collections quite early on Kaisercraft's designteam. The holy night collection, was one of those Christmas collections, I really enjoyed working with. You can see more of the  Christmas cards in the original blogpost.

This baby mobile, is one of the first tutorials I did for Kaisercraft. You can find the template and you-tube tutorial on this Baby mobile in the original blogpost.

This is a box I created with the Treasured Memories collection from Kaisercraft. You can find more photos of the tractor box in the original blogpost.

The Maja design Glitter House box.

This house with a glitter house, puts house was created with papers from Maja design. You can find the template for the box and for the house in the Glitter house box with template blogpost.

My first adventure for 2016

It is almost the end of the month, and end of the year. As this post is being published, I am on my way to one of my largest adventures ever. I am in California, for a bit of a holiday and CHA! This year I have managed to get some tickets for CHA, and I should also have some items for show on CHA for Kaisercraft.  I will keep you posted with news from CHA, so watch this space and my you-tube channel.

The tractor box

This month, Kaisercraft's design team are showing two new and wonderful collections. The first one, is the Treasured Memories collection. For my Kaisercraft post this month, I started creating a tractor box.  

The tractor and the box is made from scratch. 

The box is kind of quirky, with an interesting corner. 

Beside the tractor, I have made a few hay bales. We often call these "tractor eggs" in Norway.

Kaisercraft Products: Papers: Treasured Moments collection: P2007 Memory | P204 Nostalgia | P2010 Flashback | P2013 Gazettee | PP287 Paper Pad | CD101 Cardstock Weave – Coconut | CD603 Premium Cardstock Black.

Other: Acetate for the windows. Electrical tape for the hay bales.

Treasured Moment - masculine card

We are showing maskuline cards with the Treasured Moments collection in Kaisercraft's blog today. Treasured Moments is a fantastic and sweet feminine collection, but it can still be used for maskuline projects.

I have used the papers from the Treasured Moments Paper Pad (PP987) and Collectables (CT846).

The circular dies is from Rayher.

Kaisercraft Products Used: PP987  Paper Pad | CT846 Collectables |  KM101 Kaisermists – Charcoal | CD101 Coconut Weave cardstock | DD706 Decorative Dies Cogs.

Christmas with Maja's Nyhavn

This year, I have been guest designer for the magazine, Ett trykk. My challenge for the October issue was to create an advent calendar. Being a magazine, the photos has to be delivered quite a long time before the magazine is out in the shops. This calendar was made in June. Nyhavn was one of the relatively new collections from Maja in June. I was inspired by the houses in Nyhavn and the houses on the papers, when I created this calendar.  Each house, with the base is 20cm x 11cm x 23 cm

In the beginning of December, the calendar will be full of small gifts. Very little light will shine through the windows, because the gifts will stop the light shining through. As Desember passes, and the gifts are opened, the light will shine though more, and more windows. This calendar is there just as nice before the gifts are opened, as afterwards. 

There is room for electric tea lights inside the calendar. There is also room for led lights inside the houses. 

The houses are stuck down to the base with magnets. The houses can therefore swap places or be turned around. 

 

There is a small Victorian conservatory at the end of one of the houses. I have added a small Christmas tree with led lights, inside the conservatory. 

All the windows and doors can be opened, to collect the advent gifts. All the windows and doors are hinged with handmade silver paper hinges.

There is room for larger advents gifts inside the roofs.

The roof on one of the houses, can be removed, and the advent gift can be retrieved from under the roof.

Materials: Bazzill, Maja design - Nyhavn. Base: Maja design – Nyhavn - King’s square. House: Maja design – Nyhavn - Sitting at the dock, Romantic lunch and A dockside in bloom. Roof: Maja design – Nyhavn - Veteran ships, King’s square. Small sledge: Maja design – Nyhavn - Sitting at the dock. Windows; White Bazzill and Vellum. Other: Handles for the roof: KaiserCraft - Metal Drawer Knob – Silver. Windows and doors: Poppystamps - Dies - Madison House. 

October issue of the magazine Ett trykk.

Wishing you all a merry Christmas

Mixed media Kraft bags - part 6

It is almost Christmas, and this is the last post with simple craft bags for this time. Totally, I created 24 different bags. They were for an adventcalendar for a friend.

"Experience" bag

The background has been made with a stencil from Tim Holtz and gesso. Over this, I used left over paper from Papirdesign: julekos. The corrugated cardboard is left overs from some wrapping. The stamp is from Tim Holtz and the rose is a Mathia rose. The small golden edge at the bottom is made with decorated borders dies fra Rayher and glitter paper.

"Invent a new one" bag

I often find it difficult to use yellow in different creations. Therefore, I have challenged myself on this bag. First, I used a Tim Holtz stencil and Mustard seed (yellow) distress paint. I gave the bag a light spray with black acrylic paint. The ruler pattern is made with a stencil from TIm Holtz and black distress ink. The film strip is washi tape. The chevrongs are made with my own stencil. The stamp is from Tim Holtz. I have also used stickers on the background, to create effect.

Vintage bag 

This bag has had a light spray with acrylic paint. The paper in the background is from Papirdesign: julekos. The image is an old vintage image from a diecut sheet. The fir branches is made with Rayhe'*s dies: fircone and branch. 

24. of December bag

The bag has been decorated with papers from Papirdesign: julekos and craft bazzill. The circle behind the santa is made with Rayher*s Spring Wreath dies in kraft. I have used a red wnd white string with small bells. The number 24, had been cut with a Silhouette in glittercardstock. The motive of the santa is from an old diecut paper. 

Wishing you all a merry Christmas