9 marching elephants

9 elephants, and then I were tired of making them.

My plan was to get rid of some leftovers by making pot holders. Sadly I overrated the capabilities of the insulating material I bought. The elephants will therefore be used as mug rugs instead.

New cartoon wallets

The process is time consuming but finally, the new stack of cartoon wallets is finished. There were exactly 30 of the in a combination of Calvin and Hobbes, Tom & Jerry, Disney, The Hulk and Lucky Luke.

What remains is the image processing before I can start listing them on Epla. (Norwegian Etsy)  But the image processing will be a challenge this time. I had to admit defeat and get a new computer. The reason why I put up with the old one for so long was that it had an original Photoshop version on it. I got the program from a former employer a few years ago so I had no product code or CD anymore.

I have therefore had to use the free program Gimp. I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this program. Considering the opportunities it offers it’s quite amazing that its free. But its not Photoshop so I’m missing some features and the things I don’t miss takes a lot longer to get done. (And a little longer becomes a lot longer when you multiply it with 150 + images)

Sew as you go...

That was more or less what I did with this bag.  I had no pattern, just a picture in my head of what I wanted.

Last summer I was lucky enough to come across a fantastic ribbon from the 70s. Since then I have been looking for a project and last week I decided to use it for a bag.

My original plan was to make more cartoon wallets, but as always when I’m in the “should have done” mode my imagination takes a detour.

All my bags need to have a zippered inner pocket; I also prefer to close it with a zipper, have contrasting colors and for it not to be too large. (I see no reason to carry around more than necessary.) 

With that as my starting point I began looking through my fabric collection. How many times I had to cut a little here and pull up a little seam there until I finally got the shape and size I wanted I dont know. Sadly I was not able to have the zipper closure that I wanted. The solutions I tried made the ribbon around crumble so I decided to go for a magnetic button instead. I have since then, of course, managed to figure out how it should have been done, but at that time I was tired of the whole project and decided to leave it as it is. I should also have used a stiffer interfacing to avoid the bag falling over at the magnetic closure. But all in all not too bad for my first attempt with no pattern or other instructions.

   

Upcycled birthdaycard and gift wrapping.

Last night a good friend celebrated his 40th birthday and because the present was practical I desided to put more of an effort into the card. The front is made of a piece of an old album cover with glued on scrapbooking letters and a puzzle piece. Inside there are 4 pages with pictures and facts about the year and date he was born.

A half hour before I was supposed to leave for the party I remembered that I had forgotten to wrap the present. I didn’t have time for some creative brainstorming so I decided to go with a rugged look. But a plain cardboard box was a little boring, so with the help of a magazine and some double sided tape I decorated it with a nice bow.

If I had more time I would probably put more effort into selecting the pages, color and general finish, but all in all I think it turned out ok.

From maxi to midi

After an incredibly hectic summer its now back to everyday life. July disappaered in work, work and more work. I was the only one not on holiday so I had to try to do the job of 4. It did natural go out over other things, like creative projects, blogging, and any hint of social life :) But finally it was my turn to relax, so now I have just come back from two lovely weeks in Gumbet / Bodrum, Turkey. I have naturally not been able to get too much done in the day I have been back, but just before I left I remade ​​two maxi dresses that had been lying unused for some years. They therefore went from maxi to midi in an easy cut, sew finished.

Sorry for bad pictures, but I was in the middle of packing at the time :)