Tidbits : Monday Moodboard

My monday moodboard is turquoise and brown.
For more monday moodboards see here.

1. krize
2. TwoTreesBelgium
3. woolicious
4. eleanors

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

My flickr favourites of today are all about the colours of nature.
For more flickr favourites see here.

1. Bridget's free pattern for the Knittn Kitten!, 2. 8x8 set, ikea screen 2, 3. wooden buttons, 4. fertile fields1

Challenges : Vikings

Every week the European Street Team at Etsy organizes a challenge to make something with a special theme.
The theme last week was organized by VknO and was called "Vikings".
She writes: "I was thinking of a challenge that has a connetion to my corner of the world. Ok, I'm from Norway where we have a lot of water, some snow and ice, semi-high mountains and a 'ugly' history. Water (Aqua) has been used, snow/ice is just too cold and mountains have to wait till next time.......... cause I have choosen a part of our 'ugly' history for this weeks challenge: the VIKINGS!
I would like to see items that are somehow related to Vikings or to the time when vikings raided and colonized parts of Europe.
In addition to a Viking-connection, there has to be some recycling or upcycling involved when creating the item. It's up to you to decide how much recycling/upcycling as long as it is involved somehow."

After scanning through my buttons, I found some old used bronze coloured ones which reminded me of shields. Then I remembered I had some pieces of leather laying around that once were a leather jacket. So the idea was born, it had to be a viking called Erik with his drakkar ship; the discoveror of America. Two brooches and they are for sale on Etsy !

Challenge : Africa

Every week the European Street Team at Etsy organizes a challenge to make something with a special theme.
The theme last week was organized by creationsbyeve and was called "Africa".
She writes: "I would like to see creations inspired by this wonderful continent" and she gave us lots of beautiful pictures in her blog as inspiration.


I thought pretty long about this challenge because I did not want to make the "obvious". After scanning through my buttons, I found some beautiful ivory-white ones with a kind of brown traditional pattern. I remembered that I had some lovely wooden beads and some wooden sticks, so decided to combine those with the buttons and ordinary cotton rope. To make it a hybrid between traditional and modern, I made a very long necklace that you can wear in lots of coils around your neck (i.e. the traditional African jewelry) or in one coil with two long loose tails. It's for sale on Etsy !

Challenge : Photograph

This week our European Street Team on Etsy was organised by antigoni, and she used a picture to inspire us:



This picture gave me an atmosphere of gold, wood, brown, green and flowers. I tried to combine all those feelings in the following brooch. The large button in the middle is brown and of wood, the buttons around that are golden, and the buttons on the outside are green. Together it forms a flower.

Buttons : permutation of wasps or coral snakes or corncobs

I have a lot of these small thick buttons in orange and brown, and I did not know what to do with it. Mixed, they remind me a bit of wasps or coral snakes or corncobs. I had to do something funny with it, and started to lay them down in patterns. These buttons feel great in your hands because they are pretty thick; so I kept on laying out patterns. That's how the idea came upon me to make a permutation set of all possible pair-combinations of the numbers 0, 1, 2 and 3, and to make necklaces in that way. (I am sorry for those who never liked mathematics in school, but I am a very mathematical person; can't help that)

These are the series (orange, brown): 0 0, 1 0, 0 1, 1 1, 1 2, 2 1, 2 2 , 1 3, 3 1, 2 3, 3 2, 3 3. This means 11 necklaces in total.

Crazy isn't ????

Etsy : Then and Now ......

vadjutka from the European Street Team on Etsy had the great idea to gather "then and now" items from the members; you can see them on her blog: http://craftsthenandnow.blogspot.com/

I had to look into my old stuff and finally found this 1985 brooch. This brooch is one of the first I made (I think it was in 1985) and I am still having it ! It's made from this metal instrument you get with IKEA furniture to build it. Back then my husband and I bought our first IKEA chair, and after it was build, the instrument became a brooch. There are some wooden beads on it and some plastic female screws too; probably also leftovers from some IKEA thing ......

And this is what I make at the moment; various buttons are sewn together to form a brooch or pin. It's part of my P8 Button Art line.