*** Merry Christmas! *** (and a little tutorial)

And if you find yourself with some free hours on Christmas Eve, below's a little tutorial for this last minute, easy to make handmade Christmas decoration.

Take a piece of cardboard and prime it with gesso.

Use some letter stencils to trace the letters on the cardboard.

You could also use the stencils to fill in the paint directly. But as mine are broken, I decided to just trace the lines and paint them afterwards. This also allowed me to make them a bit bigger and bolder.

Add some more layers, details, textures, colours, emebellishments, patterns. The possibilities are endless. I kept mine quite simple.

Then cut out the letters with a pair of scissors.

Use a cutting knive to cut out the bits in between, and to do any tidying up, if necessary.

Punch two holes into the top of each letter.

Use a piece of string to string them all togher.

And it's ready to hang on a door, or wall, or your Christmas tree.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

No sitting in the dark, but instead a very bright Christmas ahead

Last week, I was afraid I might have to sit in the dark at Christmas, because of a broken bulb, for which a replacement seemed just impossible to find. Well, I solved the problem.

It included getting another Christmas light, though. But at least both of them are working.

But then, last Saturday, I went to the julbasar, the Christmas market organised by the Swedish church here in town, and look what I found! It was actually the very same light that I had seen in several online shops, but which was just impossible to mail order to where I live.

And then, on the way out, I saw that other, smaller, red and green one, and I just couldn't resist.

So, instead of one, I have now a grand total of four. And all of them in perfect working order. Although the two new ones are much brighter than the two supermarket ones (which are a bit pathetic, really). They don't have those strange very low volt/watt bulbs that you can't get anywhere, but proper ones, for which I can actually get replacements here.

But the main thing is, I finally got my Swedish Christmas light (and some), and I'll definitely be having a very bright Christmas.

Sitting in the dark

I've been wanting one of those Swedish advent lights that you put in your window for ages, but there were hard to find here. Last year, finally, I spotted them in one of the supermarkets, but I was too late, they were already sold out. So this year, I made sure to go there early, and finally got one last Friday.  They're very simple, available only in red or plain wood, and with these horrible plastic thingies around each lamp. But I was going to paint it anyway, so it didn't really matter.

When I got home, before I even had unpacked it, I could hear a rattling sound inside the box. Not a good sign. One of the bulbs was broken. I considered taking it back the next day, but then I didn't really liked the bulbs either, and thought I would just go and get some new, plain ones anyway. So I spent the weekend happily painting. Several layers of white went on.

I even tried spraying the plastic thingies with a snow spray I found somewhere at the back of one of my supply boxes. But it wasn't really an improvement, so at the end I just threw them away.

I decided to keep it simple, and just added a green line around the top edges. That looks so much better, don't you think? Well, it definitely fits much better into my living room than the unpainted version.

Now all that was needed were some new bulbs. No problem, I thought, especially now, with all the Christmas lights everywhere. Well, I was wrong. It seems that getting spare bulbs is just impossible. I went to several shops, and even googled them on the internet, but with no luck. Not even in the shop where I bought the light did they have spare ones. They suggested that if I still had the receipt, I should just bring the whole thing back, and they'd change it for a new one. Yes, well, I do have the receipt, but I doubt they'll take my painted one back. Even if it does look prettier....

If you know of a place where one can buy/mailorder small 3,2V 0,064W spare bulbs, please let me know. Otherwise I might just end up having to buy another one of these lights, just for the bulbs - or sitting in the dark this Christmas...

Happy Easter & A new Moleskine journal page

When I did my Gelli printing the day before yesterday, I used a page from an old journal to roll off the excess paint on the brayer. Well, it would have been a pity to just throw it away, especially as it was the perfect size for a background in my Moleskine art journal, which I haven't used in ages.

Pasting down the background page and cutting off the paper around the edges. I love the rounded corners of the Moleskine.

Just added a circle and some dripping in my favourite liquid acrylic colours at the moment - Genesis Green and the metallic Platinum Pink.

Adding some words and details. March has been an eventful month, which brought about some unexpected change in the last few days. The "new shores" are only local yet, and only concerning one part of my life, but I'm still dreaming up bigger dreams. Sounding all about mysterious? I know, but it's all so fresh yet, that I still need a little bit time to get my head round it all before talking about it.

I love how my Moleskine journal gets fatter and bulkier with all the textures on each page.

I'm going to have a lazy Sunday now, after having been woken up in the middle of the night by the church bells calling the churchgoers to the late night Easter service for 15 minutes at full blast at eleven, and then being woken up this morning by the Easter concert from the Methodist church next door, and more church bells from the other churchs for morning service. And I thought this was going to be a quiet little holiday... And on top of it all everything was white outside this morning, and it just started snowing again. It's a never ending story this year.

Have a wonderful Easter Sunday, whichever way you're going to spend it!