Saturday!

Hello, world!

What are you all up to this amazing Saturday? Myself, I'm listening to fab music from David Guetta, and looking out my widow on all the fabulous fall colors that are taking over the world, while preparing for Inzpiramässan tomorrow, the scrapbooking fair in Helsingborg, where I will participate in KiAs Butik's booth. We'll be off in the middle of the night, and so... uh... coffee will probably be a necessity all through the day.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a layout I did just because. And I haven't made a layout just because in... like... forever. Just DT stuff and such things. However, the other day it happened. I got into business with linen fabric, dictionary pages, washi tape, acrylic paint , kraft paper and whatnot.

This girl has turned six, and she's now a big schoolgirl, and suddenly she has developed quite a lot of attitude. Although, I really love that she has, because I know she will be able to fend for herself in situations where we can't be there for her, and that's a comfort.

Have a great Saturday, everyone!

Friends

Here's a little mixed media piece for you today, with a pair of fabulous angel wings I got in my last DT-kit from Scraplagret. The cuties on the photo are Agnes and her best friend.

I wanted to make something special out of the wings instead of hiding them on a layout, so I glued them onto the back om the frame. And these girls are sweet as angels (some days, at least), so I thought it was a good idea.

So, that's all!
Have a great Monday, everyone!

//Jenny

A real princess...

...aaand she's got style, for sure!

Agnes went to a princess party last weekend, and of course, she had to have her hair curled, and dress up in her prettiest, most sparkling, pink princess dress. Posing like a real princess isn't really a problem, once you're in that kind of outfit.

The layout is made with papers and embellishments from KiAs Butik, and one of the layouts I will bring to Inzpiramässan in Helsingborg next Sunday. I'll be there with KiAs butik, so if you're there, be sure to stop by and say hi!

Lillan...

...our stupid, sweet, silly girl with the half ear and weird zig-zag eyes. We miss you so much. Rest in peace, sweetie.

If you don't have a studio...

...then what? At home, I have my little craft room/office, where I scrapbook, work, paint, pay my bills, and surf the internet. Nowadays, I seem to have to share it an awful lot with the kids - Albin playing Minecraft, Agnes playing games at different gaming sites, and with P, of course, who needs to check up on his pals at Facebook now and then. Still, I have it, and after the kids' bedtime, it's all mine. At the farm, however, there simply is no room for me to have a studio on my own. Not yet, at least.

We are planning to extend the farmhouse in a not too distant future, and put the kids in the extension, and that would leave upstairs available with no less than three rooms to use for crafting and gaming, and perhaps we could even sneek in a guest room up there. But for now, this is what I will have to make do with:

Just a plain cabinet, right? I bought it at a thrift store for next to nothing, and I imagine it has been sitting around in an old barn somewhere before it ended up there. It's got wormholes in it, it's a bit shabby, a bit wonky, and after I painted it, I couldn't put all of the handles and key plates back, because several of the tiny screws that were used for that before were so rusty that they couldn't get a grip in their old holes. However, I LOVE this old cabinet, and I've filled it up with all sorts of inspiring objects that I use when decorating and crafting. Just have a look:

I've got everything from eggs to fabric to antlers and lace in there, and most of the things are just waiting to get used in one half crazy project or another.

There is lots of driftwood, collected in the summer when we were at the beach, feathers, seashells, wooden spools, clothespins, twine, wine corks, pearls, you name it. I've put most of my collections in here - things I love to take out and look at, and things that can be used to make other things.

 Buttons, candles, vintage lace, pins...

 Cinnamon sticks, more driftwood, embroidery hoops, which will hang on the wall somewhere eventually.

 Dictionary pages, vintage button boxes, fabric from Albin's outgrown jeans and shirts, which might become a quilt some day, and a jar of sand from our favourite beach ad Haväng.

Monogrammed linen towels, coasters and flower frogs... Did I mention that I love flower frogs? I have plenty of them, but I'm always on the lookout for more when I'm on a fleamarket or in a thrift store. My favourite is a big green one, but that one isn't hidden away in the cabinet.

All in all, I'm pretty happy to have a place where I can store these items and to be inspired just by opening it up and looking at all of them. But of course, I look forward to the day when I can have an entire room of my own also at the farmhouse. Cuz I haven't got the faintest idea where I will put all of my scrapbook supplies the day we move out there permanently. I guess I have a lot more purging to do before that day comes...

Happy crafting, everyone!

My second art journal page!

I'm back with a very short post for you today with another spread in my art journal.Yes, I am getting braver like that.

I've used some papers and elements from the Fleamarket collection from Riddersholm Design, and tons of blue glimmer mist.

OK, that's all. I have a busy day tomorrow, so I'd better hit the sack!

Take care!

Oh, and by the way... I do appreciate a little comment once in a while, so I can check back with you, and see who's visiting ;)

A tour of the farmhouse bedroom

I'm in an uncluttering mood today. I spent the larger part of the afternoon in my oh so uncluttered farmhouse, and if it is going to stay that way when we move there permanently, I need to get rid of stuff. We are downsizing quite a bit, and I have no idea where to put all of our junk, really. So, I've started an uncluttering frenzy at home. I really need to purge this house. And I also need to get rid of the dead ugly 1970s bookshelf in the living room. It has driven me half crazy for the last ten years with its sheer ugliness, and I can't for the world believe that I haven't thrown the hideous piece out earlier. However, this evening, I emptied it out, completely, and tomorrow, even if I'm going to have to drag it out myself, it will be gone.

Uncluttered farmhouse, it is. We haven't put in any big bucks out there, and we are far from finished, but there is one room that feels done. The bedroom. It's completely done, it's light, airy, didn't cost much, and I love it. So, how about a tour?

The bench is made from reclaimed wood, and it only took me a couple of hours to build. The photos on the wall are fastened with patterned masking tape - very easy to remove if you grow tired of them.

Don't you just love feathers? All of these but two have been found on our property. Most of them are from Common Buzzard, but there are also feathers from pheasant, hawk, and one of them may be from a Red Kite, speaking of which, we had some really close encounters with both kites and buzzards this afternoon. Our meadow was being mowed today, and the tractor probably scared a whole lot of mice and other rodents out of their holes, making the meadow a proper smorgasbord for the birds of prey. Thus, no less than five (!) red kites kept circling over the farm, accompanied by at least one buzzard. The kites came so close to us, totally fearless, trying to hover in the wind. It was just an amazing sight, really impressive the way they use their wings and tails to steer through the air. And they are HUGE. Then, on our way home, all of a sudden a buzzard landed on a fence post just as we were passing by. I stepped on the break, so that the kids could watch it a little closer as it looked right at us with its fierce eyes and spread its wings and took off again, only a couple of meters from the car window. They are such cool birds, so majestic!

I have been wanting to wallpaper an entire wall with book pages. I started with this little wall, on the side of the closet, and I really love how it turned out. This is poetry pages from one of my favourite poets - Gustaf Fröding. The chair was in the house when we bought it, and it is so perfectly worn.

The curtain rod is kind of fun, I think. Back in the days, they used these wooden poles to build hay racks, and I have a barn full of them. P said he might use them for firewood, or sell them, but I don't think so. I have plans for each and every one of them, both inside the house and in the garden, so I claimed them right away.

Here's the bed. The mattresses are placed directly on top of wooden pallets (which unfortunately didn't fit into the photo). The chairs used for bedside tables were also left in the house by the previous owner, and we're extremely happy abput that. The room is so narrow that our old bedside tables wouldn't fit, so we might just keep these chairs. They are too wonky to sit on anyway, so this is the only way we could use them.

This pillow cover is very special to me. It was part of the bedding in the bridebed for my great grandfather and my great grandmother. His name was John and her name was Jenny (like me), thus the monogram JJS. It's quite beautiful, isn't it? I have a matching quilt cover too tucked away, and (I think) my sister has got the other set.

The ladder was also made from hay poles, and I use it to hang blankets and clothes, and the dresser was a gift from P's parents. My initial thought was to paint it white, but I have kind of grown to like the chipped grain painting that is on it now. Soneone put a lot of effort into painting it like that when it was new many, many years ago, and I love how it looks so old and worn. So, it will stay in this shape for now. Maybe I'll grow tired of it later and paint it.

And now it's past midnight, and there will be no more uncluttering tonight. I'm going to go up to my not-so-bright-and-airy bedroom in this house (it's got dark blue wallpapers... which was so in style when we renovated this house back in the late 90s) and try to get some sleep so I can get back to my uncluttering business tomorrow morning again.


Take care!

Another She-art canvas

It's Friday again, and even though the weather is a bit so-so today, it feels like it's going to be a good day. I have this weekend completely open, haven't decided on anything yet, and that feels great. I might start up a project at the farm, or I might just stay at home and try to catch up on everyday chores, where I'm a bit behind, to be honest. But the fresh air and high skies at the farm seem very alluring at the moment. So, we'll see.

I made a she-art canvas with elements from the Huntington Garden collection, from Riddersholm Design, and that's what I have to show to you today. I really like the balloon theme in the collection, and I wanted to use it on my canvas somehow.

I ravaged my stash for little things to add to this canvas, to make it more interesting, and then I covered it all in white acrylic paint. I love making these things! I just don't know where to put them all.

 

So, have a nice Friday, everyone, and a great weekend.

 

//Jenny

My first art journal page!

Yes, I did check my temperature. No, it's not too high. I just remembered how fun it is to write on this blog.

OK, so a while ago, I was brave enough to share my first art journal page at Scraplagret's blog. And now I think I'm brave enough to share it here too. My art journal is in fact an old school anthology, which had been outdated and was about to being thrown away. I rescued it, because the paper in it was fairly thick and sturdy, and I thought the bookprint pages would make a great background to my art journaling attempts. So, to make it even more sturdy, I glued the pages together in pairs, and I also removed a few pages to prevent the book from getting too thick. I will glue and remove even more pages later, as I hopefully fill the book up with paint and other pretty stuff.

I then primed the pages with white acrylic paint, and got down to business with masks, mists, ink, pens, glue and even more white acrylic. This is how it turned out:

Have a nice day, everyone, and happy crafting!

//Jenny

Who said things couldn't be for free?

We are renovating the farmhouse on a budget. Essentially, all that we have bought so far is paint, paint, more paint, a little piece of carpet, some hardwood flooring, a fridge, a freezer, a wardrobe and two IKEA couches. The rest of what we have done and put out there haven't cost us a penny. The bed is made from old pallets with an old door, found in the barn, as a headboard. The kitchen is all repainted. The coffe table is an old one with a fresh coat of paint, and the shoe rack in the hall was built from scrap wood from a saw mill that is no longer running. The bedside tables are old chairs that were already in the house. We have refurbished all of the kitchen cabinets, and we have been given some old, shabby-looking furniture from our friends and relatives. And that's great, because that's how we like it. It hasn't cost us much, in other words.

We have taken on a lot of junk, and made it useful in our home. P is such a junk-finder, and I've always been teasing him for it, but as it turned out, I've become just like him. Junk is good, and if it's free junk, it's even better.

Take these fruit crates, for instance. A friend of mine had them in her barn, and she had no idea what to do with them. So she gave them to me (along with lot of other stuff she thought I might be able to use). One of my summer projects this year was to scrub them off and take them inside and make something of them.

One became white, and got it's leather handles fixed, and thus became a pretty nice piece for storing some inpiring magazines and my favourite sheepskin slippers by the bed.

It didn't cost more than the paint and some nails for fastening the leather straps. The other two crates are now storing matches, old newspapers (for kindling) and firewood by the fireplace.

So, one person's junk can be someone elses treasure. Sometimes you need some paint to fix it up, and sometimes not even that. Free is great, right?

Be crafty!

//Jenny

Riddersholm Ink-It

How about that? I'm actually updating today as well! I have a few cards and a layout to show, with papers and new inkable/mistable or whatever-you-want-to-doable Ink-It flowers from Riddersholm Design. I really, really love these flowers, and there are just so many things you can do with them (I actually gave the kids a few each to play with, and you should see the marvellous creations they came up with.)You might want to check out the Riddersholm blog for tutorials on these flowers, from me and from the other designers.

First up is a card with papers from the fabulous Fleamarket collection. I just love the blues and browns of this collection, and it is so versatile for all kinds of layouts, cards and other pieces.

Nest up is a card with the Huntington Garden collection, and this might just me my so far favourite Riddersholm collection. I love the theme of it, the soft colors and the vintage-y patterns. The pinkish coral tone in the paper turned out to be a perfect match for one of the Glimmer Mists I had at home, so I just misted these adorable cherry blossoms for the card.

Here's Huntington Garden again, with its greyish purplish tones. And again the ballons... I love balloons!

Sooo, today is a lovely, sunny day here in the south of Sweden. Agnes has dance practise this evening, and Albin has football practise. Myself, I have a batch of laundry to deal with after work, and then there are lessons to plan and bags to pack for tomorrow. Just another day in the life, in other words, but an unusually bright one.

Take care
//Jenny

How about doing something about this ol' blog?

Hi. It's me. I'm here. I'm alive. And I'm going to try to kick this blog back into existence again. I have so much to share, both scrappy things, homey things and other artistical endeavours I have attempted. I have spent all summer doing things at the farmhouse, and trying to think outside the box when it comes to interior designing on a budget. Do I really need to buy a fancy shoe rack, or can I build one out of reclaimed wood, that actually fits underneath the stairs? The kids can't reach the coat hanger - can I build one for them with things I already have? Oooh, I so want one of them fancy subway signs I have seen on Pinterest - now, what about those plywood sheets P brought home the other day, and some paint? Things like that, you know. So, I have created. I have scrapped. And I have painted a few rooms too. I have even put in some carpet this summer, all by myself. I'd love to share the results, if there are some people out there still reading this blog.

Anyway, I'd like to start with some scrappy items. I have dabbled a bit with mixed media this summer, and last month I created these two items for Scraplagret. First up is a layout, where I have used a few fun techniques to create texture. I have used thin fabric, doilies, tons of acrylic paint, mists and inks to make a mess, if nothing else. And what a blast it was!

Then, after I'd done that, I thought: Why not venture into the unknown world of She Art too, while I'm at it? So I did. And this canvas is what came out of that whim.

Believe it or not, I actually also started an Art Journal! But you will have to wait for a couple of days for the first pages of it. Because I intend to keep this blog alive! I might have to change the whole layout of it, and maybe even its name, but it will be up and running. I was a bit embarrassed the other day, when I spoke to my friend Kristin, who runs KiA's Butik, and we sorta touched on the subject of blogging.
"Oh, I haven't updated mine in ages", I said.
"I know", she said. "Not since June 24."
That made me realise that there still may be people reading it. And the purpose I had with starting this blog years ago was to make an attempt to inspire others with what I do. What's the point in creating something if you are only going to hide it away?

So, keep your fingers crossed, good people. The blog might be alive for many years to come...

//Jenny