A 2021 update and 10 year anniversary

Exactly ten years ago I had the idea to make a digital Advent calendar for my friends and family, after having made them silly, weave-it-yourself Christmas hearts for some years, as printed Christmas cards. I decided to post a new heart online every day from December 1st. to December 24th.

I wasn't quite sure how to do it, and decided on the Blogspot platform a bit randomly - since the interface was super easy to use and customize - and I had a VERY busy month, since I hadn't quite done 24 designs, when I began posting. I started out gently, on November 28th (see the very first post here), with a bit of a warm up. It was lots of fun, and the year after I had to repeat the whole thing with NEW designs, since lots of people insisted, that it was now a most important Christmas tradition!

In 2012, I had prepared a bit more, and posted a variety of paper DIY projects, not only the woven hearts. And gradually it became an actual blog, where I shared a lot of things I find joyful, from graphic design to architecture, fashion and paper art - to the small stories from my everyday life. But as a theme, all year round, I have posted fun paper projects you can print and make yourself, and always for free. I made a practical list of those posts right here - and the rest you can explore in my tag cloud to the left.

The concept is always the same: all you need is household printer paper, some scissors and glue and access to a printer. And the designs can't be too complicated to make - but I always add my own custom design to the printed templates. I love working with patterns and colors, so that's half the fun for me. Origami has become a central thing, and I never tire of looking for new fun ways of making simple, pretty paper decorations.

I don't have a philosophical take on any of this, but still: I would like to encourage you to do seasonal decorations yourself from cheap or repurposed materials, as opposed to buying a lot of new plastic stuff every year. And enjoy yourself while making them.

Blogging frequently became too impossible to combine with work and family, and from 2019 I haven't updated the blog. It will stay where it is, however - lot's of people are visiting still, and I like the idea of that. Recently I gave the blog an Instagram face and when I feel the urge to share a fun paper project in the future, it will happen there.

So why don't you follow @heartheartseason on Instagram?
And thank you for ALL your visits and feedback and sweet comments over the years. 

love, Tina

Have a Heart on Advent 1st

Let's kick December off (well, almost) with one of the very first designs I made for this blog: The Countdown Heart from 2011, from the original Advent Calendar format, where I posted a new heart every single day in December (all of them woven hearts, as these are a traditional and very old Danish Christmas decoration). I was on maternity leave and had more time for blogging back then!
You can read a bit about weaving hearts here. I also made a simple one page tutorial.

Here's the original post from 2011, with the design to download as well, of course. 

But I wanted to post an origami heart as well, and I found that these (seen on the dark background in the photos), originally made for Valentine's in 2017, are great for Christmas as well. They can be used as gift tags, mini Christmas cards or made into a really cool garland (see photo - they have a natural slit on one side, that you use for the ribbon) - and if you punch a hole for a bit of string, you could decorate your tree with them. 

They are super easy to make, and a fun origami design - note: made not from a square paper, but from a rectangular one. Which is why I did a whole series of measured papers, ready to cut and fold, in a lot of funky red / pink / coral patterns. 

You will find the original post here, with free tutorial + pattern paper to download. 

This is what the Countdown Heart looks like (below), before you weave it - and if you have never woven a Christmas heart before, now would be the perfect time to start!

You will find loads of more or less crazy heart designs, and some nice ones too, on my list here, especially from 2011.

 

FindersKeepers

I'll be at FindersKeepers on the weekend 19-20 November - a really nice designers market. This time it's held in the old green grocers market hall in Valby, and it's much worth visiting: lots and lots to see (and buy) - and great food stalls too!

Proud to be included in this really great company and looking much forward to it. In my little stall, I will be selling my 24 Days Advent Calendar Gift Wrap, of course, and I hope to see you there!

Read all about it right here - and take a peak at all the great potential Christmas shopping you could do there.

FindersKeepers on Instagram (images above are from here)

Are you making an Advent Calendar?

Because if you are, you might want to get one of my lovely 24 days Advent calendar gift wrap paper kits - available for 17 Euro plus a bit of shipping in the heart heart shop, and still in time to ship internationally to most places before December 1st!

Go have yourself a colorful December...

More calendar fun

Being in the Advent Calendar Business, I felt I had to do a little instagram tour of what other calendar crazed people are up to - and I found a couple of fun ones! 

This first one, the charm bracelet (I suppose you get a new charm every day?), is just brilliant - and very doable as a kind of DIY project, as it seems to be sold out from the shop? Anyway, it's too cute, and maybe they get fresh supplies, who knows. It's from here: Meri Meri.

Then I found two versions of boxes, which is a nice thing in itself. Hard to fit everything into a box, though, but maybe you give itty bitty calendar gifts? Then they are great.

The first ones are from German Snug Studio, I like the way you can make interesting patterns with them. Very tasteful.

Also into boxes, but these are graphic and black/white is Katrina Bohan. She has a whole Pinterest board of her free printables, many Christmassy things among them.

Last, but not least, because these made me smile, are the clothespin wreaths for candies. They were concieved by the etsy shop 'Colourful Gifts'. 

And check out the great looking styling of twentyfour boring, brown paper bags by Barcelona instagrammer Imma Salmeron. So festive! Feliz Navidad to that one, I say. It doesn't have to be complicated.

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.

A bit of Yayoi and a bit of anniversary

Louisiana has a stunning Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the moment, and it is not to be missed, if you are in the least bit interested in visual art, art history, pop art - or if you just happen to like to have your senses bombarded with color and wowness. It is a very in-depth look at her long life as an artist, and I found it completely absorbing, and spent hours there, even reading a lot of the tiny print about her fascinating life.

I have written a bit about her before, a mini-portrait of sorts, read here, and also a bit here (I am a great Yayoi-enthusiast!) and I have shown some of her most characteristic polkadotty work - so I thought I'd show some impressions from the Louisiana show, of her more subdued work. All her work is a partly about obsessive repetition, but you have seen the colorful dots and pumpkins such a lot, and I was thrilled to see these pale, discreet paintings (the Infinity nets), all the beautiful black/white photos and her graphic work. 

I also adore the color explosions, the whole sensory overload - and if you do too, you will be richly rewarded. But I really like this side of Yayoi Kusama, and of the exhibition. You should really, really go see it! It ends in late January 2016.

And now for a bit of a long PS:

I discovered, quite randomly, that this is my blog post number 200!

This is not what I had ever in my wildest fantasy imagined, when I started a little semi-private advent calendar event in 2011, but this blogging thing has grown on me. 

I will never be an every-day-kind-of-blogger, not even close, but as it is, I always have much, much more I would like to write about, than I actually manage to find time for - and that tells me I should keep it up. Also, I started a job outside home recently, with an almost full weekly schedule, and that makes blogging harder, but not impossible, no no.

And Christmas will come to the blog as well, for the fifth season this year - yay, another anniversary! 

There will be paper projects - well, not quite daily, but absolutely weekly. So keep the printer, the scissors and the glue handy. And if you want to get warmed up a bit; here's a Pinterest board that links to most the DIY's I have posted over the years - or go to 'DIY's - the full list' in the top menu on this page.

And this year I will even open a small online shop, as well - for one very special product!
More about this is to come, real soon. I'll keep you posted.

Let me use this PS to thank everyone who finds their way to these pages. You are so very welcome, and I hope that my tips, thoughts or paper designs add a bit of color to your life. And you are always more than welcome to leave a small (or large!) comment and let me know who you are.
 

I'd love to know!

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!

First advent and a little quick fix for you

Late last night I wrapped 24 small silly gifts for my son - ranging from glow in the dark dinosaurs to a pack of fake sailor tattoos (if you know him, please don't tell him). They hang on a long rope suspended on the front our bookshelves, and that is how we do it. Every morning he gets to choose a gift, and open it after breakfast.

This kind of advent calendar is very popular in Denmark, and as much as many parents loathe them, I still cannot resist the sheer joy it brings a four year old. I buy about half of gifts and his grandmother the other half, and I rarely buy anything that cost more than a euro (his grandmother tend to go a bit more crazy). Anyway - some people hate these things, some do a sock, as you can buy the things as you go along - and some only give the little gifts on the four Sundays of advent.

I do the full 24 gifts thing, because I like wrapping things, and the gifts in themselves are pretty.

Well - today is not only December first, but also the first Sunday of advent.
For those of you who haven't gotten around to inventing a clever gift calendar thingy for your dear one(s), here is a little something that might inspire you. And it is a quick fix - all you have to do is print the PDF (it is right here), and find four little lovely things to wrap. It might be four chocolate bars, it might be four golden rings (four calling birds won't fit, since the sheets are only A4, ha ha) - I'm sure you come up with something.

I like making patterns, and all sorts of graphic details or shapes can set off some kind of pattern or repetition going on in my head, when I am in that particular mood.
These patterns are made from the numerals 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 - and are little hints about which gift to open on which Sunday.

Happy first advent!

2021: I have a new location for my downloads, please go here:
Advent 1  /  Advent 2  /  Advent 3  /  Advent 4 

The star

It is December 24th, and I will let my darling nephew take care of this post.

My sister made this fantastic advent calendar. I just love it - and I am so impressed.
She has the patience for the embroidery and trimming a piece of burlap with fine gingham fabric,
sewing on the dozens of little hooks, and all that.
That is so admirable.

I am more of the quick-quick-results-results-NOW-please kind of DIY'er, but I wish I had more
stamina. Maybe in time, who knows. Anyway, I love this kind of advent calendar, where you put
on a little ornament every day - and the finishing touch is the star, of course.

With that, I wish you all a very merry christmas.

24 Little houses by Mr. Printables

This morning I browsed my way past this adorable advent calendar, at a spot I have never seen before:
http://www.mrprintables.com - and this page looks interesting!

So I guess, if you have nothing much to do today, this dashing skyline could be on your mantelpiece
by sunset. You can read all about it, and download all the templates right here.