Article feature in Isabellas Magazine

My sweet friend, photographer Tina Brok Hansen  and I made this article for the Danish lifestyle magazine Isabellas :-) I created the Scraps, and Tina did the styling and photographs. We worked hard and had so much fun, and it makes me so happy to finally be able to share this.

A little closer, and a few shots extra:

A few Behind-The-Scenes snapshots ;-)

On the side

I made such a mess with all my stuff in Tina's studio ;o)

We had ourselves a delicious lunch; fish cakes with home made remoulade, rye bread and spicy grape fruit salad

Tina's calling the shots ;o)

I also did this little Video for the article, filming the making of one of the greeting cards. Please forgive the quality ;-) It's horribly cut, and sometimes during the 14 minutes, you can't even see the important stuff. (sorry)
But it's made with the best intentions, to give a glimpse of the process of putting together a collage.
If I ever do it again, I promise I'll work on my technical skill ;o) (The clip is in Danish)

To se more Scrapping and collaging, please see here and here.

If you need items to get started, or just want to expand your collection of materials, I make these little bags of emphera- and scrapping paper goods and sell them here in the shop.
Each bag is unique and one-of-a-kind.

Example. S O L D.
See more by clicking the image

Shop's Open

I have re-opened my Etsy shop for these little one-of-each-kind emphera/paper-scraps lucky bags.
The shop had not been open very long, before orders rolled in—thank you for taking interest, and for your purchases.

There are still 7 bags left in the shop.
Update: Now 4 bags left in the shop.

Each bag is carefully put together with items selected to suit one-another, for you to use in a collage, altered book art, greeting card illustration, or other art work :-)

Keep Cool & Create ;-)

...
Camilla Engman wood collection

»what's wrong, dude? –'you yellow...?!«

Our ol' coffee table is wonderfully large and fits our needs perfectly, but was also dark-ish, and adding to the excess amount of wood-colored living room pieces (too many shades of brown).

So, with a swift decision (followed by a less swift execution) it got a make-over :-)

Before. 1st layer of base coat on sides and legs

Found the great rubber band-tip is on Pinterest! Worked like a charm :-)

»That's whatta thought! A yelly-belly...« 

Remember? ;-D Here. At 1:50 minutes. Love those movies!

...

Paloma Valdivia, artist

Scraps re-visited, part II

Blog: Red Cheeks Factory

♫ Pitbull »Back In Time«, from MiB III

Scraps re-visited

from »Scraps«

Yokoo
(check out her awesome tumblr logo)
is one of my favorite designers. She seems to do everything that she does very much her way, I find this so inspiring.

Her work, her style, her pictures and self-portraits are so original, and she tops it all with such humor!

On Yokoos Tumblr you can find links to all of her places, still, I'd like to make an extra link to this "Etsy Handmade Portrait", which is so sweet.
In the film, at one point Yokoo says: »What happens to good artists is that, when you create art from the need to be loved, you do your best ...«

Beautiful.

Have a happy weekend :)
C

Vacation

Went to Corfu—a sweet Greek island, with generous, wonderful people, sunny days and the ocean salty and warm. Swimming in it 'till our fingers got all wrinkled up!

Had feta for breakfeast, lunch and dinner (almost ;-) and did very little but read the books we brought, solve cross word puzzles and eat ice cream! A wonderful vacation.

I share »After Dinner« foodie photos at Clemmensen&Brok.Want to pop over for some leftovers? :-)

...

I hope you have had a wonderful Summer Holiday? Perhaps still holidaying?

Me, I started working today! I wonder if I'll get the hang of it before it gets the hang of me?

;-)
See you soon!

Emphera and collage »Lucky-Bags« in the making

Vacation time is upon me, makes me quiet and mellow. And a little ponderous ... :-)

In August, Isabella's magazine will feature an article made by Tina and me, on how to make greating cards, tags, seed pod bags and more using collage as decoration.

To make beginnings easier, or to help inspiration, I have made a bunch of little »material-sacks«, with carefully selected paper scraps, emphera, old picture lottery pieces, ribbon, stamps, and much more, and putting them up for sale.

I believe my Etsy shop will be re-opening for these, but it's still on the drawing board.

First, a sneak peak...

Each bag measure 10x10 cm

More Hama-love

Just love making there little tiles. More here and here.

»Champagnebrus« and »Københavnerstang« Earrings, maybe?

...

»Push to add drama« I'll say! :-) Video from TNT

Midsummer Night

Shu·bi·dua

Yet, in the midst of it all, when the »witch« started to scream (ground mouse fireworks hidden in the bonfire), and hundreds of us stood by the fire, singing, and admiring this midsummer tradition, I couldn't help but think of all those poor women, midwives, self-thinkers who ended their days here, not that long ago in history. Screaming for real. My heart sank a little.

Sorry. A fest it was. The summer night was bright and warm, and the bonfire was beautiful.
Happy Midsummer!

New stamp

Made this new rubber stamp for mindfulness therapist and yoga teacher Christin Illeborg.

The bird and the clock is an image we have worked with for Christin's profile for a while (you can also see them here in Christin's newsletter). First time it appeared was on a postcard I made for her quite a while ago:

I cannot say enough good things about Christin. She's a fantastic yoga teacher and a warm, wise person.

»That which shape our lives are not circumstances, but how we relate to these circumstances. With this comes great freedom, but also great responsibility. This I happily accept.« – Christin Illeborg

...
Snug.magnets from Snug Studio. Let's play!

Marathon Singing in Vartov's Courtyard

Started this morning off with Højskole (hymn) singing at Vartov. On this, the brightest day of the year, the courtyard in Vartov is filled with hymn-singing people from 7am until 10.30 tonight. One hour for each theme in the Danish hymn book, the songs are chosen by those present throughout the day by shouting the hymn number desired.

from Vartov's www:
»Vartov, situated next to Copenhagen’s city hall, is a large redbrick edifice with four buildings arranged around a placid courtyard. Vartov is known mostly because of N. F. S. Grundtvig who was a pastor in Vartov Church from 1839 till his death in 1872.
Vartov as it looks now was built in 1724-1755. In earlier days, Vartov was a hospital for poor and elderly people. The sickbays were placed in the southern wing of the building - with an open view to the Vartov Church placed right in the middle of the wing. In its heyday about 500 people lived in Vartov. A family could own and inherit "a bed” in Vartov and so take care of elderly people in the family.

Today Vartov is owned by Grundtvigsk Forum, a grundtvigian society started in 1898 and still dedicated to reinterpret Grundtvig’s thoughts and make him known in Denmark and abroad. The society has members doing local work all over Denmark. Grundtvigsk Forum takes part in current debates and arranges conferences and seminars. Furthermore the organization runs The Grundtvig-Library and the Grundtvig-Academy which are also based in Vartov. Vartov also houses three children’s institutions and several ngo’s such as The Danish Cultural Institute and the Association of Danish Museums. Two university centres are based in Vartov, namely Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre and The Grundtvig Study Centre.

Grundtvig
The poet, theologian and educator N.F.S. Grundtvig (1783-1872) is one of the most influential persons in Danish history, his ideas having left their mark on church, school and politics and still being vividly discussed in the Danish society.
Grundtvig lived most of his adult life in Copenhagen – hometown in the 19. century of as well the philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard, as the physicist H.C. Ørsted, the author H.C. Andersen and the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.
   
His thoughts were crucial for establishing the folk high schools. The folk high schools intended to enlighten peasants to take part in society and political life in the new democracy - Denmark had its first democratic constitution in 1849. The folk high schools are boarding schools based upon free conversation between student and tutor. Today they have spread all over the world. Grundtvig got his high school vision from his travels to England where he visited the colleges of Oxford University.

Due to his fight against the establishment Grundtvig was under censorship for a long period, and his struggle for freedom of religion has made a deep impact upon the Danish legislation and the life of the Danish church. Among others Grundtvig wrote a third of the hymns in the hymnbook of the Danish Church.

A cultural movement in Danish society is named after and inspired by Grundtvig: Grundtvigianism. It has influenced art, schools, buildings, church life and the democratic institutions. The Grundtvigians are popularily seen as the happy Danes who, referring to the first line of a wellknown Grundtvig song, live "a plain and active, joyful life on earth”. This overall cultural broadmindedness is combined with the emphasis of christian life in church, stressing the sunday service with the two sacraments, the baptism and the Eucharist.«

THANK YOU!, Lea for introducing this :-) This was sooo cool!

...

...on the balcony. Without ever making a sound

Love this newest book cover for Nicole Krauss' Great House. Love her website too.

+ Amy Lucy Children's Photography

Angel Card #01

Claydies

Scrapped book cover

»Your Guide to The World of Dreaming«

I recently made this book cover, using gouache and collage as base, altering and adding digitally after scanning.

The scanned original gouache/collage,  front & back

Most the work I do is digital, but I just love it when I get to mix with analogue techniques :-)
...
Mumkaa's journal pages. Favorite pages here, here, here + here, here, here