Hey, it's December 1st! Let's make trees.

Hello everybody! It is December 1st, and Christmas is officially the theme of this blog for the next many weeks. I will try to post often, though perhaps not every day, and this year I will try to post a few projects especially for kids, or those of us who like very, very simple projects. 

So let us begin with one of those!
(And I do promise some comlicated-looking-but-actually-easy paper things as well, just as usual....)

For newcomers to this blog: My DIY's have a sort of general philosophy. They are nearly always paper designs, and simple and straightforward to make, though sometimes they require a steady hand. But that's about it. I try to do the thinking for you as often as possible, and usually you just have to print, cut and follow easy instructions. 

I start with something completely different, however, because already the other day, I talked about Hama Beads. And since we have been at them for weeks (they never leave the dining room table), I started making these little green trees, and the little plantation just grew and grew. We kinda like them, and my son, aged five, made the smaller ones. They just require a large square pegboard, and some counting skills. You could add colored beads for tree decorations and perhaps even add a star to the top. It's not that I in any way came up with this idea, but perhaps I made it a little bit simpler for you, if you save (it's just a gif) and print this diagram. 

They are a little bit different that the 'flat' Hama ornaments, and my son found it fascinating that it was so easy to make something 3D. We had a lot of different green colors, but they would look so cool in reds and pinks - or whatever you like!

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?

Work, work, work. And I mean this in a nice way.

This saturday we met for a proper, traditional klippeklistre-session. Lots of fun was had by all,
and everybody produced some really wow pieces. And ate a lot of food and sweets!

Here are a few samples: several angels with interesting outfits, the christmas rabbit (?), snowflakes,
the multicolor Pippi Longstocking Hama-ornament (and Hama-hearts, of course!), the afro angel,
the other afro angel, the disco pan flute, the neon star....
And lots of deep concentration!

Halleluja, Hama

From top:

Monster from creme de la krea
Door sign I made for my nephew
Woven bracelet fram Spagat - and I think there is a tutorial over there, some place,
nope, that link was gone - but found it here. It is in danish but has drawings on page 3.

Last, but not least -
the legendary Copenhagen Street Art crew OEPS (photo by Finn Frandsen, Politiken).
These two hardworking girls have been adorning the city with Hama Beads in the most
astonishing way. I hear they have moved on to other media, and you don't see their
work that much more, but their pieces were sought after and fought over - and impressive!
They developed a special tool for sticking their work up on hard-to-reach high places,
something involving collapsible broomsticks, hinges and other clever things. Charming!

Hama hearts

So okay, we need a little break from all this paper-scissors-glue-stuff. We need plastic! And no blogging about holiday crafting i Denmark without at least one post about Hama Beads. (but ok, we already covered snowflakes.... here!) Hama Beads are a part of growing up in Denmark.

I dare you to find one Dane between the ages of 5 and 75 that has not:

1. made at least a heart, a star, a kitty cat, a roaring dinosaur or
   a lovely multicolor necklace for an adoring family member. 
2. been presented, gift wise, with at least one of the above.

To me, the smell of melting plastic, is a happy one.

Making 'perleplader' has always been a great babysitting ploy with the slightly larger kids, and the work with selecting the colors, getting the beads organized on the tiny pegs, carrying the finished design, carefully, to the ironing board (manned by the Responsible Adult) are all skills that require concentration and focus, and are very developing for a five-year old. Don't underestimate the power of the Hama Bead.

And you can make lovely 'woven' hearts with the heart shaped thingy! I made these, the other day....

For the last couple of years they have had an absolute heyday (they are a danish invention, and date back from 1971, read here) as a medium for street artists and kitchy jewellery designers. Hama themselves have been busy in the development unit, and today all kinds of kits, beads in various sizes, tools and whatnot, are available. A few years ago, the beads and the pegboards were all you had, and I'm an old skool kind of Hama-girl: I stick to my basic shapes, and my larger 'freestyle' pegboard, for doing letters and such.

I like making hearts, stars, snowflakes, letters. What do you like? You can iron them, string them on wire and make cute things, or make 3D objects. Or you could be inspired by the Masai to make lots of multi-string necklaces in brilliant reds, blues, whites, yellows (a pet Hama-idea - haven't gotten around to it yet, though)

Hope this will inspire you. Happy beading to you all.

Here is a link to the authorised webshop - with worldwide shipping: www.hamabeads.com

Spring 2015 note: this is crazy! Almost four thousand people, and counting, have checked out this particular blog post. Fun that you found your way to it! We still love playing with Hama here in my house, and here are some other posts tagged 'hama beads', maybe you'll enjoy those as well.

A quiet start

I welcome you all to this seasonal pop-up-blog, in which I will be writing about - well, something,
I wouldn't be surprised - as I am sometimes prone to rantings.

But most of all, I will give you a little something to print and make every day - usually woven hearts,
but sometimes not. The hearts are my thing, though, so you can expect a few of these. I make them
every now and then, so some of them are not necessarily christmas-like. But you will see....

No cheating, though. No advent calendar downloads until December 1st.

Last year Copenhagen was covered in snow, at this time. I love snow and everything about it and,
contrary to popular belief, it is not that common to have two months of snow, as we did last winter.
It was glorious.
I so hope we will have some this year again. Piles of it, enough for skiing, enough for us to get really
used to it, and just relax and enjoy it.

The only sort-of-slightly christmassy decor I have felt inclined to do, is perhaps a bit inspired....
The flakes are made of Hama-beads, and these I will definitely be mentioning later.
As I have a bit of a fetish. And, as you can see: foggy, wet weather. No snow.