Paper craft place names

Paper craft 

Scandinavians love to craft with paper at Christmas, the Danes have become particularly known for this but let me assure you the Norwegians have been paper crafting for decades too.

Last year I shared with you how to make these lovely paper stars, see here I shall be making some miniature ones this year too and back in 2017 I showed  how to cut out paper baubles here as well as a fun take on the age-old Scandinavian tradition of weaving paper hearts to put on the Christmas tree here

I have always been a sucker for stationery from a  small child, collecting stickers, notebooks and even having a vast collection of paper serviettes, things have not really calmed down and in almost all of our cupboards in our home you will find some form of stationary still unused, waiting to be loved and many waiting to be made into something.  I have a block of design sheets about A4 size that I decided needed using this year and with a little bit of folding became these lovely little Nisse.  I am going to use them as name places.  I've decided that this year has been pants enough and it's time to even dress up our everyday dining experience and have a bit of fun, I could do with some more cheer and joy and small things like this do it for me. 

You can use fancy paper, wrapping
paper or plain paper to make these
Father Christmas place names,
but the thickness of the paper matters

You will need:

2 sheets square paper any size, either different colours or different patterns OR 1 sheet of square paper that has a different colour of patterns on the reverse

The thickness of the paper is important, too thick and the folding will not work, too thin and the Nisse will not stand up.  Best thickness is that of origami paper to give you an idea.  I first practised on normal A4 (cut to a square) photocopier paper and it worked well

 

I took several photos along the way but I cannot compete with the clever video that I found on line. If you are tempted to make these, watch the below video clip, see how simple and quick it is and have a go. Fun for adults and children alike. 

Video tutorial

I also tried making these out of serviettes and although they will not stand up look good on a plate and a little festive.  I used two paper serviettes here to achieve the two pattern look.

Festive serviette folding

We are using these for every
day place name settings 

♥  We are in the week of Christmas and wherever you are and although this maybe not be the Christmas you had hoped or planned on, I wish with all my heart some cheer and joy your way.  ♥

Glass

December 17th 2018

Glass cocktail stirrer

The art of glass entered my life a few years ago and I can honestly say it has brought me joy.  From
the first scratchy cut on the glass to opening the kiln to see what the heat has done to my simple creations, there is nothing, nothing that I do not like about it.

Despite not having really made much this year, the Christmas spirit began to seep into me through the fusing of glass, from looking and searching out ideas, to sketching some thoughts down on paper and then tweaking the ideas once I began to cut has been so much fun.  Want to see my little creations?

The first Christmas haul included 'nisse' and some trees

From the three nisse in the kiln to before firing, look what the heat did...

I made little heart tokens in all shapes and sizes, some to hang, some as little pebbles and a few as stitch markers too.

Hanging hearts with frit and wire

Pebble token hearts with copper and
heart stitch markers

I made glass for the talented Kim at Little Hearts who has two cats, this was my version of her feline friends...

Cats in glass

And then I made some Christmas tree cocktail stirrers, before firing...

Cocktail stirrers in glass before firing

Christmas tree cocktail stirrers made in glass

A glass tree in tack fusing to give some texture

My husband is not kind to his cufflinks and losing them or treads on them, who knows what he does to them, so this year, he will have four almost identical pairs!

Glass boat cufflinks

Then finally we came upon the idea of trying to slump some bottles and see what that would do...

I added some copper hearts to one and thick
kiln paper in the bottleneck to keep the opening

Look closely you can see how I am trying to
keep the neck open so it will not fuse shut

It worked!  Fused bottle with an open neck so I could add flowers!

Can you see how the bottle has become flat!

Now if you will excuse me, I think I may go drink a few glasses of something so that I may make some more glass presents out of bottles... hic...

♥  Have you decided to make any presents this year?  ♥

Scandinavian Nisse

Scandinavian Nisse   
December 12th


The Americans have Santa Claus, the Brits have Father Christmas and the Scandinavians have nisse,

Jul nisse with grøt, øl and a cat, but could
easily have been a pig or a goat,
typical animals found on a Scandinavian farm

but who are they?

In Norway and Denmark these little house/barn elves are indeed known as Nisse, but in Sweden, they are called Tømte Nisse and in Finland they are Tonttu.  These mythical creatures from Scandinavian folklore are usually associated with the winter months, especially the winter solstice and Christmas.

Being shy creatures they were not often seen and lived in forests, barns or attics.  Historically Nisse tended to attach themselves to a family of farmers and were known to work hard and create harmony and look after the farmstead, the home itself and especially the animals.  All they demanded in return for their hard work and bringers of luck, warding off evil was to be respected and fed at Christmas with traditional Grøt and øl (porridge and beer) 

Woe betides the family that did not respect the nisse as he was also known to be of bad temperance and very mischievous once upset.  One famous legend that is often retold was that the nisse became so furious when the grøt he was presented with did not have any butter that he killed the farmers best milking cow.  Only later to learn the farmer had butter in the grøt but that it was underneath.  On discovering his mistake the nisse stole the neighbouring farmers best milking cow to replace the one he had killed!

Grøt ~ porridge with butter, sugar and cinnamon

Today the nisse is depicted as a cheery soul with ruddy red cheeks, short and stumpy wearing a red pointed hat.  Historically the hat and clothes used to be navy blue or grey, but the hat was indeed red matching that which Scandinavian farmers wore.  It is said that nisse can become invisible and this is how they either work hard or create their mischief without being observed.  It is said the inside of their red hats is grey and that when they turn the hat inside out to have the grey side showing they become invisible!

In modern time the nisse is often just associated with Christmas and so has become known as Jul nisse.  A male family member will dress up as the Jul nisse wearing a nisse mask and costume and visits all the young children on Christmas Eve, asking each one if they have been good.  He frequently will ask the children to sing him a song and in return will deliver presents.  The song generally sung to the nisse  is this one:   Christmas Eve song is sung in Norwegian with the following translation:  

In the Barn Sits the Nisse

In the barn sits the nisse with his Christmas porridge
So good and sweet, so good and sweet
He nods and he eats and he is so happy
‘Cause Christmas porridge is what he loves
But around are all the little rats
And they peek, and they peek
"We really want some Christmas goodies!”
And they dance, dance around in a circle

But the nisse waves his big spoon
“Oh no, you be on your way!
’cause I want my porridge to myself
and I’ll share with no one, no one else!”
But the rats they jump and dance
and they waggle, and they sway
They scratch at the porridge and they stop,
and they stand close to the nisse

But old nisse is a feisty one,
and with his body, he makes a jump.
“I’ll get the cat if you don’t let off!
When the cat gets here, this will stop!”
Then the rats all run so scared,
oh so scared, oh so scared.
They sniff at the porridge a few times,
and one, two, three they are gone.

We too carried on the tradition of the Jul nisse visiting our children on Christmas eve, but I was very mindful that the shoes or boots worn were not ones that could be easily identified.  Our most memorable visit was when Ella was perhaps 4 years old.  She heard the bell ringing by the Jul nisse, looked out of the front window to see him walking up the drive, jumped up and down as if she were a teenager in a pop concert and promptly fainted from sheer excitement!   Another year the Jul nisse tried to give her a present clearly labelled for Eleanor, Ella seeing this squealed in delight barely able to contain her excitement whispering this was her best friend and she lived only a few doors away, the Jul nisse said that he visited all good children and Eleanor must be a lovely girl; Ella beamed.  But careful we were with the visits as my mother as a young girl recognized her uncle's boots and the magic was lost...

Over the years I have shown you many of my nisse that I have in our home, so today instead I bring you a round up of ones online that I particularly like.

Crochet Nisse ~ click link for the crochet pattern

Typically short with a large nose,
this is the perfect nisse

Tomte nisse ~ Swedish by name by showcasing the necessary long beard

Korknisse bent hat ~ over the years we have made many of these, I think my mother first made one about 40 years ago, I love this version though with the bent hat.  For both knitted and crocheted versions click here: Nisse ~ eclectic home life

Pattern on Ravelry:  Nisse

Two nisse with heart hats   ~ I just adore these nisse, a very modern take but super sweet.  I have not made them but they are on my list to give them a go.  The pattern is in Swedish but she does have a translate button, if you make them before I do, please let me know. 

And finally, a large Nisse made in the style of amigurumi from the blog 1dogwoof, Nisse pattern

Do you have any Nisse/Father Christmas patterns to share?   ♥

Christmas countdown

December 18th

Yay,  today the children break up from school and we can throw away the clock for a couple of weeks. We can have lazy pyjama mornings and take our time over naughty but nice breakfasts. We may even watch a movie in the middle of the day. This week leading up to Christmas will be full of togetherness, making and baking, talking with the inevitable sibling bickering and we'll have comfortable silences. I love the school holidays and I love Christmas. This IS my favourite time of year.  The week leading up to today has been just as busy and as fun however, even if we were still ruled by the tick tocking of the clock. 

Monday

Mamma arrived from Norway to spend the week with us. We have so much planned it was great to have a mothers hug. I'm blessed. 

Mamma and I

Tuesday

I decided to have my own 'works do' and invited witty, clever, compassionate friends for drinks, nibbles and chat.   

Drinks and nibbles

Beautiful nibbles and drink were brought by my lovely friends and I may have supplied one or two bits too ;) 

Wednesday 

The yearly outing to buy a Christmas outfit. My mother every year  takes the children out and chooses an outfit with them so they can  wear it on Christmas Eve.  It has become their tradition and a generation between they all love it. It melts my heart. 

Thursday

Meeting up with my chosen 'auntie', chosen because my parents moved to a country where they were foreigners and she and her husband became their best friends.  My chosen aunt and uncle have celebrated all the important occasions in my life and the sad ones too and we have celebrated most Christmas' together with their children and now their grandchildren, 'my niece and nephew'.  Do you also have a 'chosen' family?  Aren't they the best .  The evening saw my daughter dressing with extra care and asked me to help her with her make up; the occasion, her first 6th form ball.  She looked wonderful.  My son, took the opportunity to invite some friends over for pizza, whilst my husband was on his 'works do' and mamma and I made one of Norway's oldest cookie recipes.  A great evening for all. 

Preening for the ball

Everything matched

Friday

Today after school finishes at lunchtime we will choose our Christmas tree.  This is early for us but as a family we collectively decided to change the game plan this year.  Mamma leaves this weekend to return back to Norway and we all wished to decorate the tree with her, after all this is a family activity.  I am so looking forward to it and we will have an 'eclectic' mix of food for the evening beginning with homemade sausage rolls, no doubt copious amounts of the red stuff followed by a Friday night takeaway curry whilst trimming the tree.  Sheer bliss, except for the out of tune Christmas singing that is also somehow compulsory...

 

 

 

Joining in with  Amy  today sharing my five week day moments with you. 

Pop over to see what everyone else is up to. 

 

 

I was given a new 'Nisse' this week from an old Norwegian friend who is an extraordinarily good knitter.  AS most Norwegian knitters she too makes many knitted cork Nisse and handed this one over saying, see, look I can knit an English version too now!  Genius, can you see from the photograph below, why the Nisse on the left is English and the one on the right  is Norwegian?  Send me a comment, what do you think?  Will reveal all in the next post...

Spot the difference between an English Father Christmas cork and the Nisse

 

Christmas tree crochet

12 December

For years we have had wonderful cork knitted nisse sitting on our window sills at Christmas, but I always felt something was missing.  I didn't really know what and I wasn't even sure if something was missing.  It wasn't until this year when setting the cork nisse out, I realised they needed to be in their own environment.  I tell you December nights do strange things to me, what on earth do I mean by corks needing their own environment?  Well let me show you...

Fun champagne cork nisse...

Knitted nisse with champagne cork bodies

Nisse now in their own environment...

Knitted nisse & crocheted trees

                                                                                               ... do you not agree this is more fun?


I wanted to keep the cork theme and had a practice using the champagne corks as a base, but I came across two problems 1) I had realised that I had not been drinking enough champagne this year, something I am now determined to change in 2015 and so therefore did not have many corks 2) the bulbous part to the champagne cork made for a bumpy tree.  Back to hitting the wine bottle and there has been no problem doing that this year, so I had an abundance of such corks to use as the base.

Very quickly the conical top is formed of the tree

Crochet cork Christmas tree

Row 1:  Magic circle then ch 1and 4 sc into the ring. 
Row 2:  2 sc into next stitch, 1 sc in next stitch, repeat - 6 stitches
Row3:   sc all the way round - 6 stitches
Row 4:  2 sc into next stitch 1 sc in next 2 stitches, repeat - 8 stitches
Row 5:  sc all the way round - 8 stitches
Row 6:  2 sc into next stitch 1 sc in next 3 stitches, repeat - 10 stitches
Row 7:  sc all the way round - 10 stitches
Row 8:  2 sc into next stitch 1 sc in next 4 stitches, repeat - 12 stitches
Row 9:  sc all the way round- 12 stitches

♥  Continue this way so that all even rows you begin with 2 sc in the first stitch and then you sc 1 more stitch than the previous even round.
♥  All odd rows should be sc all the way round and should be the same number of stitches as the previous row.


Keep checking the size of your tree compared to your wine cork and crochet as many rows as necessary.  This will vary depending on the yarn you use and the size of hook.  I used a 4mm and dk yarn.  I crocheted 23 rows with a total of 26 stitches.

Decoration & adornment:
Go to town and bling up the tree for Christmas or alternatively leave it plain and simple and natural looking. 

When I  used chunky yarn and a much larger hook the tree was obviously too large for a  cork to stabilise it, so I used an up turned shot glass, it works well.  What is great about not stuffing the trees is that they will fold flat for minimal storage space when not in use,  an issue in my home!

You do not need to cover the cork, in fact I stopped just short of covering the cork as I wanted some of it exposed to look like a tree trunk.  The larger tree covers the glass for obvious reasons.



Cork left to be visual to resemble a tree trunk

Plain and simple is sometimes best

I was able to make the smaller tree in about 15 minutes without any adornment or decoration.  They really are quick  and quirky to make.  They could soon be multiplying in our house... ♥

watch this space...♥

Norwegian Christmas Crochet

11th December 




Crocheted nisse

Back at the end of October I began thinking about the blog and the posts that I wanted to put 'out there' during December. I quickly realised that lots of my traditional customs and that which we do in our home was eagerly and enthusiastically  thrown out into the web ether last December. Not wanting to regurgitate the same old, it dawned on me that I may actually have to give the Christmas month some serious thought during early Autumn.

 

My go to craft of the last couple of years has been crochet and it was here I began tinkering with Christmas patterns. I am not a designer nor am I a pattern writer but I wanted to make something that was all mine.  It's hard. Very hard. And I cannot say with hand on heart that I have truly managed it. I goggled, I searched, I flicked through magazines and books and I pondered. In the end I returned to our family favourite knitted nisse (see post here )  as my inspiration for a Selma designed crochet pattern:  I crocheted hanging nisse for our home.

Perfect, nisse in the holly bush

These nisse get everywhere, outside to greet visitors





Crocheted Nisse

Basic nisse without finishing touches

For those that do not know, nisse are quite naughty and so I wanted them to not look 'perfect' but to have a little cheekiness to them, I hope that has been achieved.

To make the basic crocheted nisse:

With red yarn, we are beginning at the bottom of the nisse

Row 1:   Magic circle and ch 2, then 6dc into the ring and ss to join

Row 2:  ch 2 and  dc into same stitch.  2dc in each stitch, ss to join - 12 stitches total

Row 3:  ch 2 and dc into same stitch.  1 dc in each stitch and ss to join 

Row 4 & 5: same as row 3

Row 6:  ch 2 and then 1 dc into each of the next 4 stitches.
On last stitch switch to flesh colour yarn and introducing it on the last pull through this final dc stitch. 
Continue with flesh colour and 1 dc into the next 5 stitches. 
On the last dc change colour back to red on the final pull through.  1 dc in red for the next 4 stitches ss to join

Below are just sample crochet swatches not the nisse, to show how to change colour

Begin dc as normal, pulling through loop
for the first time

On the second pull through of the dc stitch,
switch to new colour

Pull through the new colour  ready to
begin using it on the next stitch



Each nisse has its own character and look,
I love that, but they basically all look like this!



Row 7:  Change colour to white ch 2. 1 dc in each stitch, trap in the loose threads whilst crocheting

STUFF the nisse at this stage before we begin crocheting.  I have stuffed some so they are more bulbous in shape and others are much slimmer, just to add to the variety of appearance.

Row 8:  Change back to red.  ch 2, then I dc in next 2 stitches .  dc3tog  1 dc in the next 3 stitches   dc3tog   1dc in the next 2 stitches  ss to join

Row 9:  ch 2  dc3tog   1dc in next 2 stitches  dc3tog  1 dc in 2 stitches  ss to join

Row 10:  ch 2  dc in each stitch ss to join - should be 6 dc

Row 11:  ch 2 3dctog   1 dc in next 2 stitches ss to join










To create the hanging loop just chain double the length of the hang that you desire and sew in the end at the top of the nisse.  Again on mine I have varied the length of each of them to add interest.

A chained hanging loop

Finishing touches.

Eyes:  these can be embroidered on, or in my case I sewed on two beads.



The eyes have it?!?



Beard:  Using white yarn and a needle with double thread, all around the flesh face parts sew lots of white loops to form a beard, see photo



To keep the beard loops the same size, I loop them around my finger



Hat pom pom: Here I used a variety of different ideas, I used the same lop method as  for the beard, some were left with no pom pom and other just lots of white strands.  I am still to actually make one with a real pom pom, but I will, I promise!


To pom pom or not to pom pom, that is the question

 

Once I was in the flow of making these, I changed each one slightly and depending on my mood, I may have added a second flesh colour face row, made the hat section longer, added in extra stitches around the mid riff etc. just to create variety and give the little chaps individuality.  A couple were not even given beards, puberty had obviously not kicked in on them yet. 

Play and have some fun!  I did.

Nisse and holly work well together

A pubescent nisse!

 

 



Crocheted nisse (Santas) and Christmas trees, the tree post will be tomorrow

♥  Hope the week is treating you well ♥