Green paper trees

These are really pretty and very easy to make - but you have to forgive me for the not so interesting photographs. The sky is dark grey here in Copenhagen today, and taking pictures indoors was close
to impossible. This is what natural light I managed to find....

They are flimsily cute, very 3D and turn and twirl at the slightest little movement in the air. 

I made you a two page design, that is meant to give you print on both sides of the paper, as that
looks so much better with these, because you see them from all sides....
Set your printer to print only page one, and then take your prints, turn them over, put them back in
the tray - or in the hand feed tray - an then print page two. Real easy.

Start a little pine forest here.

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here for the front print -
and here for the back side print (it's a print-on-both-sides design)

Flowers

These are a few of my geraniums - I have 19 different ones, wich is a little mad, and rather a lot
of work sometimes - but when they all bloom, as they do most of the summer, in all these intense
red and pink hues, it is worth it, of course.
I wanted to make a little series of flower hearts, with old fashioned 'grannys pajamas'-like
floral prints on them. I like old fashioned, slightly corny flowers, like geraniums and dahlias.

Here is the first floral heart - download right here.

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here for all the floral hearts (A) + (B) + (C)

Happy Lucia

Celebrating the saint Lucia, is not as big a thing in Denmark, as it is in Sweden - but there is one
tradition I do my best to follow every year, as I am a bit of a closet Swede: baking Lussekatte or
Lucia saffron buns. They are delicious and vaguely exotic with the sweet, musky saffron taste.
They are said to originally not celebrate the saint Lucia, but to be symbolizing the fight against the
evil and dark forces = Lucifer, hence the name 'Lussekatte' or, as I have seen them called among the
english speaking: 'Lucy cats'.

Download your recipe here

Update: I have tried this recipe, and it's better, I think. The dough is not quite as buttery rich, and rises better. It's in Swedish - but Google will translate, if you need to!

Here is what Donna G. Genzmer from the University of Wisconsin writes:

Background:

St. Lucia is an Italian saint who has been adopted by the Swedes. She gave her dowry to the poor. Her fiancee denounced her for this. She was blinded and burned. The flames didn't touch her so she was stabbed in the heart. The red sash represents the wound. It is said that she appeared during a famine in Sweden in the middle ages carrying food to the farmers across Lake Vännern.

 

She is associated with the idea of light. In the middle ages, December 13 fell on the shortest day of the year. (In Sweden, the sun is not up very long in winter. In some places it doesn't come up at all.) This holiday celebrates the fact that the days will now get longer.

Today:
On the morning of December 13, the oldest daughter dresses in a special long white dress with a red ribbon around the waist and white socks and no shoes. She puts a wreath made out of leaves on her head. The wreath has 6 - 8 candles on it. Nowadays the candles are usually battery powered light bulbs instead of real candles. Her sisters also wear special long white dresses but they have shiny ribbons around their waists and they have another shiny ribbon around their heads. They carry a candle in their hands. Her brothers wear a special long white gown with a shiny sash and a pointed hat with three stars on it. They carry a baton with a star on it. They are called Star Boys. 
The children serve coffee and special saffron bread to the rest of the family. They walk into the bedroom with the oldest daughter in the front, followed by the next tallest girl, down to the smallest. Then the boys follow with the tallest in the front. As they bring in the Lucia bread and coffee the girls sing "Santa Lucia" (in Swedish, of course), and then the boys sing "Stefan was a Stable-boy." The children then go to their neighbors and teachers and serve them the coffee and bread.

Significance of Symbols:
candles - light 
yellow (saffron) bread - light
bare feet - charity

(Traditionally, you can eat the bread until Christmas, but not before St. Lucia)

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.

Tweet tweet

 ........A nice little birdy is all I am capable of today. Download here.

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here  and here for the birdies.

Party Hearty

I bet there are lots of you out there, that is going to some kind of christmas party today. I know I am.

I am trying to get enthusiastic about it. It has been a very exhausting week, and my dream scenario for
this saturday evening would be lying on the sofa, watching 'the Wire' and eating chocolate - wearing something shapeless and wooly.

As opposed to eating the Big Danish Christmas Party Buffet, wearing something tight with heels.
In fact one ought to wear a sweatsuit to these things, because you eat so much food (and yes, some
of it is really delicious. I am mainly a pickled herring and schnapps girl, myself. How about you?)
and you drink too much, making the heels a veritable staggering danger.

But: I will be a trooper and give it my very, very best.
After a couple of herrings (with onion and sour cream, mmmm) and a few cold ones, I will probably
feel altogether more at ease.

And I do have a very comfortable pair of quite glam patent leater flats......
And my sequin butterfly. Done.

I have made a disco heart for all those of you who are trying to get in the mood, like myself.
Party on down right here.

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here  

Mirrorball borrowed from http://trove.org.uk

Smells like christmas spirit

Yesterday was such a nice day, and I ended it with a fun and totally improvised pizza dinner with
a whole bunch of great people - in all ages! The older kids made hearts in abundance, and the
sweet lady of the house took a particular fancy to my use of Wunderbaums - so todays heart is a
special edition: The new Wunderbaum Hearts - download them here.

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here (A) and here (B)

The Wunderbaum is a crazy, kitschy thing, to most of us - but it has an adorable sort of 'generic tree'-
outline, and I frequently buy them as silly gifts.

Read more about this little house plant here...

Going flaky - part two

Yesterday was a yet another crazy workday, with very little time for blogging and making christmas niceness. I think you deserve some compensation.
Today I give you a nice little sheet of snowflake themed hearts. Oh yes. Flakes again.

Here is a little teaser - download the whole thing here.

2021: I have a new location for my downloads: please go here (A) and here (B) 

What's with the flakes?
Must be because I am longing for this:

And - most especially - for this (even my old skis have flakes on them, see?):

Stars

Sorry for posting so late today - too much mundane work.

Here is bit of work for you guys. It took me a while to get around to these, I didn't have patience
to make them as a girl, but now I love making them. They are really easy, once you get the idea.
In Denmark they are very popular, and the little paper strips you make them from, are sold in
supermarkets and bookshops - which makes it much easier.

For you out there, who doesn't have such conveniences - make a whole bundle of strips, once you've
got the ruler and the knife out - these are fun to make! They work well in sturdy, not too flimsy paper.
You can make them from all kinds of ribbon as well, of course.

I give you a tutorial today - not too interesting for most of the danish readers, but I know that I have
readers from USA and Australia, where not just about everybody knows how to make these.
And I will leave the tutorial-link where it is!

For a while I just made bundles of white ones, but I have this urge to embellish - so I paint them
or dip them in glue and glitter and make sure they get just the right kind of festive ribbon!

I especially like the ones, where I dipped just the tips in glossy paint - I'm definitely gonna make more
of those.

Go get started HERE