Magic Snowflake Paper Toy

For all the impatient kids who are tired of bending over their their iPads or TV-shows (and perhaps even some of their parents?), I have this little Christmas present. If you have never had a kaleidocycle in your hands, it's about time you did. This is a cunning little paper construction, and easy to build yourself - and I have made you one with festive and seasonal snowflakes. 

All you have to do is download this design, print it on regular paper (perhaps the heavier quality, if you have it), cut, trace and glue. I took a few photos to show you - see the mini-tutorial here. 

It folds endlessly into itself, giving you lots of time to think of something nice and relax for a bit. Think of it as a very low tech fidget spinner, and even something you might decorate the seasonal table with. 

I even made you a primitive GIF to show you how it works.....

Happy Lillejuleaften as we say in Danish - or 'Little Christmas Eve'

Holiday spirits-ish

Even though I am technically only semi-employed and freelance working at the moment, it feels great to be able to say: Finally Christmas vacation and a bit of peace and rest! Or not quite yet, that is. Today we are having a party at our house, tomorrow it's office Christmas parties, Saturday it's going to be all about (I suspect) slightly panicky shopping - and then there's the big to do on the 24th.

But then, perhaps? All I wanna do is take a long, long walk, some place beautiful and quiet, without shopping bags or places to be at a certain time.

I love this photo, I found it on Flickr a long time ago. It's by Manuel Raposo, and appears to be taken in Salzburg. I want to be in that photo.

A Christmas card: Snowflakes in New York

Dear readers! I wish you some happy holidays, however you celebrate them and whereever you celebrate them - here it will be done by winding very much down after some busy weeks, no months, for my little family, where work has taken most of our energy. Also some of the energy I usually put into my Christmas DIY postings, I'm afraid - but I hope you have enjoyed the couple I did manage - I have already gotten some very sweet feedback, and that really makes me glad! 

Here is a Christmas card, of sorts. This little story has been on my mind, since I saw a mention somewhere, many many months ago, but it was a winter story - so I forgot about it. And randomly got reminded again via Instagram, the other day! So here goes... 

Everybody knows the iconic Flatiron Building in New York - but you probably have to be around it, at street level, so to speak, to know about the activities in the small glass pavillion (the so-called 'prow') at the bottom. For some time, a local gallery - the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, has curated art shows in this small glassed-in space. Always colorful, poetic, spectacular and eye catching stuff, it seems. I discovered this via This is Colossal, a rather cool visual arts blog. 

In February 2016, a young New York paper artist, Chelsea Hrynick Browne, made the most fantastic installation of literally thousands of small kirigami papercut snowflakes, suspended on lengths of nylon string - to make the space look like a rainbow colored blizzard was happening. 

Here it is, in an actual blizzard - photographed by Michele Palazzo (more photo credits at the end).

I do have a soft spot for anyone who gets so obsessive with their scissors, as you may know. Check some of my other posts tagged paper artist!

I also love snowflakes in windows (discover some of my earlier mentions here!)

Chelsea Hrynick Browne is interested in mathematics, patterns and repetitions - and I can't imagine how long it takes her to complete a task like this. All the snowflakes you see, are double layered (apparently laminated in some kind of thin, shimmery film), and very detailed. They are all cut by hand, by her.

Here she is, at work, hanging the installation - and a couple of images from her Instagram shows some more detail of how her square motifs typically look.  

Photos: Street evening photos from: untappedcities.com.

Portrait and details from Chelsea Hrynick Brown's Instagram
Detail of flake hanging in window from: fibonaccisusan.com

Just for fun, I'll wrap up this post with a nice old photo: the Flatiron Building with it's distinctive prow, just seen at street level, at the 'point' af the building - looking probably much as it does today. 

Origami flashback: Katrine's tree

It has been a madly busy December for me - I started a new job just a few months ago, and that has been a great experience, but also something that has had the most of my attention, obviously. I do, however, sit in the evenings and empty my stressful head with origami. And tomorrow, fourth Sunday in Advent, of course I have another little DIY project for all of you out there, likewise inclined to find it detoxing, de-stressing and just plain cosy to sit and fold pieces of pretty paper. And tomorrow it will be more origami, because that is my favorite paper thing at the moment!

My fondness for origami started with an English teacher, Ellen, who laid the foundation for my love of the English language, who taught us that when in Australia you should always check your shoes before putting them on (for deadly spiders etc.) - and how to fold the classical crane, the tsuru.

For years it was the only origami I knew how to do, but the lately have I just started to browse for cool little origami things, that would work well as Christmas and Easter decorations, and that has been just such fun. It has turned into several things you can pick up here on this blog - check my full list of DIYs or my Pinterest paper design board.

Last years obsession was definitely these - and my friend Katrine really took that craze to the next level! She literally made hundreds of them, and made them in a very nice way, putting a bit of wire and some pearls through the paper form, a very pretty way of hanging them.

Let me show you her fabulous tree, dedicated to only origami, even the top star - and stay tuned for tomorrows origami project!

24 Days Advent calendar gift wrap / shop update

After some very busy weeks, I finally landed in November pre-Christmas mode, got my 24 Days Advent gift wrap and Tictail shop ready, and are now open for business!

Check out the whole concept here in the heartheart shop - a few teasers are seen above!

Big PS: In true Christmas spirit I knocked a few euros off the original price, since I realized I had miscalculated my packaging and shipping costs a bit, so go get them!

 

2021 update: Please go here for absolutely free download of this new version. The only trouble is that you have to download each sheet individually - but they are pretty! They are scaled for print on A3 paper.  

24 Days Advent calendar gift wrap now available in the shop!

Wow - The shop is now open, and you can buy my new and improved 24 Days Advent calendar gift wrap and have it delivered at your doorstep!

No more mucking about with the inkjet printer (and emptying a full set of ink cartridges), and these babies are laser printed and therefore the colors really pop and look great. The color palette is more or less the same as last time (this is not random - this red / grey / electric blue / pink combo is very dear to me, and says festive and Christmas and happy. And that kind of thing.) - but most of the patterns are new, and the sheets are A3. 

Please go to the shop and order now - in time to get the calendar done by December first! I very gladly ship Worldwide, but of course, if you live in Brazil or Australia, the shipping takes some time.

I will process all orders promptly, from day to day, if at all possible.

 

2021 update: Please go here for absolutely free download of this new version. The only trouble is that you have to download each sheet individually - but they are pretty! They are scaled for print on A3 paper. 

New version of the Advent Calendar Giftwrap on it's way!

Remember the Advent Calendar Giftwrap I made last year?
(....the paper shown in the photos)

It was a great hit with my son, and with several other people, as it turns out - so this year I have decided to do something a bit extraordinary. I am having a small production of this paper printed professionally, so this year, you won't have to bother with the printing yourself!

It will be brand new colors and patterns, but the concept is the same; 24 different patterns, all playing with numerals in different ways, for a quick-fix but fine looking Advent Calendar. Hang the gifts on a string as a garland or display them in a basket or on a shelf, and let the small ones have some fun figuring the gift of the day out. The sheets will be approximately 30 x 40 cm. this year (or A3), enough for a proper size gift, or even a couple of small ones - and will be printed on quality paper in what I hope will be fabulous colors!

The 24 sheets will come beautifully wrapped in tissue paper and a strong cardboard tube - and will be for sale in my new Tictail-shop from this Sunday, November 1st. Yippeee..!!

I haven't landed on the exact prize yet, but it will be reasonable, and I will ship worldwide. Order as soon as you can, so you'll have time to make dear young ones a cool looking Advent Calendar, ready for December 1st.

So, gotta go - am madly busy to get this product ready for sale! Stay tuned....

2021 update: Please go here for absolutely free download of the new version from 2015. These were a commercial product, I had them printed in a small batch and sold the kits online, but now they are yours for free. The only trouble is that you have to download each sheet individually - but they are pretty! They are scaled for print on A3 paper.

Nollaig Shona Duit

Nollaig Shona Duit means Merry Christmas in Gaelic, and since we just came back from a short and very intense visit to Dublin, I had an excuse to headline with these beautiful, strange words. Now, if for some reason you cannot feel the seasonal spirit or the Christmas vibe - you could go to Dublin to fix that. The whole place is lit with fairylights and glamorous decorations, and the shopping streets are brimming with people and buzz. Okay, we were there on Black Friday, so perhaps no surprise, but it was really quite cosy. Dublin is beautiful (it was my first visit), people are downright charming, and it all felt very relaxed.

See - doesn't it look rather okay to you?

We liked it a lot! The Gaelic language was very prominent everywhere, signs were all in both English and Gaelic, which is something I was ignorantly unaware of. It is a mysterious and dramatic looking language. The last image is from one of the many festive streets in midtown, and the banner says Baile Átha Cliath which is the Gaelic name for the city of Dublin.

24 Patterns Advent Calendar Gift Wrap

December 1st is a week from now, and some of you are probably making advent calendars for your lucky dear ones. I am making one for my son, as I usually do, but this year I felt like making a bit of a wrapping concept (otherwise I just wrap 24 gifts in as many different types of paper as I can find in my drawers). 

Remember the four Sundays gift wrap I made last Christmas? I thought that was quite fun to make, so I decided to go all the way this year!

Here is the 24 Patterns Advent Calendar Gift Wrap - click here for the PDF.
I have decided to make a new version of these, so stay tuned for news when Christmas is coming!

 

2021 update: Please go here for absolutely free download of the new version from 2015. These were a commercial product, I had them printed in a small batch and sold the kits online, but now they are yours for free - only trouble is that you have to download each sheet individually - but they are pretty! They are scaled for print on A3 paper. 

The idea is super simple of course: wrap 24 small gifts, each one meant specifically for a certain day, and your kid might have some fun finding the correct one. That happens to be fun, when you are five and in the process of learning numbers! All of you who have the numbers down, might just enjoy the colors and patterns.

Okay, they are A4 and thus suitable for, well - rather small objects. But you may just wanna print an extra sheet for the larger gifts, and if you have access to A3 printing, just hit the 'scale to fit media' button.

Happy wrapping!

November nagging

We have this arrangement in my household - we live two places; in our flat in Copenhagen from October to April-May, and all summer we live in our little cottage - kolonihavehus - half an hours drive north of Copenhagen. It's really very clever. We live in the middle of the city, which I have done all my life, and still get to have a garden with birds, flowers, fresh tomatoes, wonderful neighbours and only a ten minute bike ride from the beach. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

The only thing is, that in September, when we move back to the city again (and since we usually have someone else living in our flat during summer, it is a quite literal move, with clothes, personal stuff, work things, books, toys - SO many things. Think a car stuffed to the brim - at least twice. Something like that.), well, when we move back, we always get into our project mode. Sigh. We start all kinds of optimistic things in the flat - and then we kinda loose pace. And then comes November. And I feel like welcoming the wretched, depressing dark season with a home that is at least in some kind of working order. But we usually have cans of paint, toolboxes and bits of wood lying about, waiting for us to finish whatever.

Last year it looked like this in November, since we moved our bookshelves (many, heavy and very full) to another room. The stacks of books were everywhere for weeks and weeks, and as you can see, I started christmas decorating in the middle of chaos. Eskild is helping me, I can see, and he is about to hang some Hama hearts!

Now, a year has gone by and the bookshelves are in place - but this year it is something else. There is always something, and we are never done by December 1st. Not that you have to be, particularly, but that date is a kind of deadline for me, since Christmas is just too much, if you have to deal with the home improvements as well. Okay, this is boring - let's talk about something else.

My son is five now, and has become a very passionate producer of everything Hama. In fact, at the moment he gets up early weekend mornings and starts making perleplader, before breakfast even, and with the rest of us fast asleep. Here he is, working hard, Sunday morning.... He will wake me when he needs the iron!

He is super productive, and I think it is so funny, because I just recently discovered - quite by chance, through a random back link - that the post about Hama hearts I hint at above, is the most visited post I have ever written on this blog! Almost two thousand visits up till now, which is a lot for this blog. And I have studied the statistics, and it seems to just have a steady stream of visitors. How about that. Hope some of the Hama fans visiting here, also check out some of the other Christmas projects I have designed myself!

But let me show you the work of the next Hama happy generation in this household. Cool, huh?

Merry Mariah to all af you

Today is Christmas day in Denmark - and I thank you for checking in on my spot here most days in December - and I hope you have had some fun with the paper designs I made this year.

Last night I worked an all nighter, or almost, as one of the gifts I had planned, was a homemade book for my son. Guess when I started production? Yup, rather late last night. I was done around four o'clock. 

Now I am printing and assembling it, while sipping a cosy coffee and sniffing the occasional spurt of nose spray. With a side order of paracetamol. We are all a bit poorly, as the Brits say, but we managed to get all done, that needed to be done, and now is the time for some proper relaxation.

You do the same, all of you out there. And may peace prevail, in any way, shape or form.

Here is a little video I simply just love - the song is a classic, but this particular and very laid back version must be the best ever!

Click here to see Maria Carey, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots (from December last year)

A little tree and some lame excuses

Hi everybody! Here we are suffering from some bloody inconvenient tech troubles, so the cute little paper project I was going to share and upload today, is going to have to wait. Otherwise it is a very fine day, perhaps the first sunny day in weeks, à propos the winter solstice yesterday.

Instead, I will show you my sons christmas tree, complete with polar bears and maneki-neko, and see if  we can get the wi fi or printer installation or whatever the heck the problem is, up to speed again.

Malmö

The usual christmas shopping expedition to Malmö - always a bit special, even though I go there several times every year. It is a lovely place for strolling, windowshopping and fika (= relaxing with a cosy coffee break). Fika is of the utmost importance, if you ask me.

This is one of my favourite fika spots in Malmö, Konditori Hollandia, smack in the middle of the central walking street. I happen to know of several people who regularly take an outing to Malmö and have never been there, because it looks a bit too old-ladies-with-hats-and-furcoats like, but that is possibly what I love about the place. Today I had something slightly perverse to go with my lussekatt - a saffron truffle petit four. Yum! Konditori Hollandia is warmly recommended.