Colouring My Year

Hello, hello!

You don't have to look too far or long to know that adult colouring books are all the rage these days.  They've even popped up on the market here in Sweden - I bought one for a crafty friend of mine for her birthday last month.  Then Christmas rolled around and Santa had left me a very special fabric-wrapped present under the tree...

Tula Pink Colouring Book & Fabrics

Yup, not just beautiful Tula Pink fabrics but a Tula Pink colouring book (who knew?)  Boxing Day I broke into this super fun book with my fresh box of Crayola pencil crayons.  Fuzzy new PJs, blanket and colouring book - now that's what I call a relaxing Boxing Day.

Mandala Flower

But that wasn't all.  A pretty awesome Colour Your Year calendar was also under the tree; and what better motivation to keep up with some creative colouring than a monthly panel to work on throughout the year?  I've already gotten started on January's koi pond.

January: Koi Pond

Colouring Lovelies

I've been puttering away on it this week and lily pad leaves have grown in number, lily flowers are nearly done and another koi (plus bits and bobs) have also been added.  I'm still trying to decide on colours for the circular elements around the koi and the foam bits.

I'm thinking that once the year is over, I'd like to use the finished 12x12 coloured pages as backgrounds for scrapbooking pages; perhaps for a monthly overview layout.

And just in case you wanted a closer look at those gorgeous Tule Pink fabrics again, here's a bit closer shot:

Tula Pink Love

So what about you; have you tried adult colouring yet?

Oh Snap! Birthday Card

Hello and welcome back!  I'm sharing another recent card creation today; this time for a dear male friend whose birthday is today (Jan. 31).  As many of us will agree, somehow masculine creations can be tricky - you often don't want it too sentimental and many guys just aren't cool about 'girly' icons (hearts, butterflies, flowers, etc.), although to be fair, I wouldn't be thrilled about receiving a card with monster trucks and hunting motifs so fair enough.

However, all of that was *not* a problem with this card.  In fact, this card basically designed itself and was super quick and easy!  Don't you just love when that happens?

Oh Snap! Birthday Card

So since I haven't scrapped for a month, I decided I would look for inspiration by rooting through my scrap basket.  The "oh snap!" Simple Stories strip jumped right out at me - the humour would be a perfect start to this card.  Then the scrap of diagonal stripe paper, also by Simple Stories, which happened to be the exact size of an A6 card base - it was like these pieces were meant to make this card.  Zigzag stitched them together and I was half way home.

So I grabbed the rest of my Simple Stories leftovers from the Barcelona album I made Alice.  There is nothing birthday or celebratory related in this line of papers but I thought the month tiles and little calendars would be perfect for highlighting my friend's birthday so popped and layered them on top and circled the correct day on the calendar.  Finally, a cute red arrow clip and a few sequins later and I called this card done.  Easy peasy!