Getting Crafty with Craftenhagen

Posted on May 2, 2018 by dejligedays

I’m not sure I have ever mentioned here on my blog about the adult crafting group, Craftenhagen, that I run. I took the organising of the monthly crafting meet up from Valentina Fussell, who hosted it in her home, after she and her family returned to the US a couple of years ago. I love the group as it means that we can try different crafts without having to make the commitment to buying a lot of materials if the craft isn’t for you. It really doesn’t matter if you have done the craft before or even if you are particularly good at it, it’s just fun to try something new and spend an evening chatting with people whilst being creative. 55044926-4A6B-4A57-9BDA-E88882AFEABC

We meet monthly in a community room in Vesterbro and examples of crafts we have tried over the last twelve months include Lino printing, shaker cards , fancy pom poms, decoupage Easter eggs and sugar paste flowers to name just a few.

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The group is not run for profit and the price covers all the materials (sometime equipment you get to take home so you can do more) and some light snacks and non alcoholic drinks.

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We have a Facebook group where you can join the next event and there are two more dates booked to take us up to the summer break. In May we’ll be making macrame key rings. Often the craft is suggested and then demonstrated by one of the members and sometimes we have an expert crafter come in and show us their passion.

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We’d love to see some more people come along so if it sounds interesting pop over to the Facebook group to find out more.

Kreakassen – craft boxes for children

Posted on January 23, 2017 by dejligedays

For those of you with crafty kids living in Denmark, then you will be, undoubtedly, interested in a relatively new concept here called Kreakassen.

Kreakassen is a monthly supply of four creative projects a box including instructions and simple materials. The projects in the box are related to the season or time of the year. This means that Kreakassen has adapted the seasons and festivals and offers creative projects for those times that you and your child would like to do. Kreakassen delivers it all: the ideas, materials (although it does not contain every day crafting materials such as pens, pencils, scissors, glue and brushes – they do see boxes of these too) and instructions so that you can bypass the laborious preparations and jump directly to creating.We were sent a box to try out (a Halloween themed one) and my son loved it. All children are different but Kreakassen is aimed at 4 – 8 years olds, although older children may enjoy the projects and younger ones with more help from an adult. There are four projects in the box – a couple longer projects and the rest quicker ones. All the instructions are pictorial and in Danish but pretty easy to grasp.

You can take out a subscription or buy a box on a monthly basis. Their website (www.kreakassen.dk) has all the details. If they are oversubscribed you can add your name to a waiting list. The website is currently only in Danish but run it through Google Chrome and its all there.

Danish Christmas hearts

Posted on December 4, 2014 by dejligedays

Hearts are at the very centre of Christmas decorations here in Denmark. The lights strung along Strøget and other shopping streets have large illuminated hearts as their centre piece. These pleated Christmas are about as traditional as you can get when it comes to Danish christmas decorations. HC Andersen made the oldest known hearts in 1860 and they are still going strong today.

Many families get together on the first Sunday of Advent to make these heart together as a celebration of the coming month. I remember last year glancing out of my kitchen window the see the artists who lived across the street gathered around the table, candles burning, with their children and grandchildren making the hearts together. What a lovely scene and to me sums up what the Christmas season should be all about.

I have made a little video showing how easy it is to make these hearts. Here in Denmark it is easy to get recut templates to make them but you can download the template here and use with your own papers.

Make your own Christmas wreath for under 150kr

Posted on December 3, 2014 by dejligedays

This is the first of two little Christmas DIYs this week. I decided this year to make my own Christmas door wreath rather than decorate a natural one like last year. Over the last month or so I have been gathering bits and bobs to use to decorate with over Christmas. I decided to make a white and silver themed wreath using a woven wooden wreath made from light coloured wood as the base. I then added some birds and cones from my old Christmas decorations plus some little baubles and a happy Christmas message. As Jenni from Museum Diary pointed out the Danish God Jul is a lot easier to incorporate than Merry Christmas or Frohe Weihnachten!Once my glue gun was warmed up it took hardly anytime to put together and I am delighted with the result. So for under 150kr I have a unique and beautiful wreath to welcome guests this Christmas. How about you? What kind of wreath to do favour?

What I used:

Letters from Notre Dame spelling God Jul (these were originally red but I painted them white to fit my colour palate) = 34kr

Base wreath from Søstrene Grene = 24kr

Birds from last year = 30kr (approx)

Cones (painted by me) also from last year = 30kr (approx)

Baubles from Søstrene Grene = 8.80kr for 12

Plus my trusty glue gun, hobby paints and brushes, pva glue and silver glitter – all from my craft supplies.

Chair renovation with Farrow and Ball

Posted on July 2, 2014 by dejligedays

If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen my dilemma of how to approach the renovation of this 1940s Swedish kitchen chair I bought from the fabulous Affär in Vesterbro. I liked its original look but felt that it needed a new lease of life. On close inspection I could see that it has been painted a few times already so would welcome a change.

I met the team from Farrow and Ball, a UK based paint company, at The Hive. They offer an international delivery service via their website. I had the chance to play around with their paints at the conference and I was very impressed. Whilst talking to them I mentioned my planned renovation of my chair and they invited me to take part in their Fleamarket Challenge. I chose this beautiful green colour, Teresa’s Green, from the 132 colours they have. I must confess living in Denmark has made me a little scared of so much choice but I knew the basic colour palette I was thinking of. They also kindly sent me a dark primer and a great paintbrush. I must confess I was a little startled and apprehensive about how dark the primer was but I trusted them and they were right. It covered all the original paint work in one easy coat and the lighter colour took to it perfectly (as you can see in the photo above).

I enjoyed working with the Farrow and Ball paint. It was virtually odourless and eco friendly (which is important to me), wiped easily off the floor (as I was a bit messy) as it is water based and its application was a dream. I will definitely try more of their paints in the future.

Here is the finished chair. What do you think? I love it.This is a sponsored post but the opinions are all my own.

Making Paper Flowers – part 3

Posted on September 29, 2013 by dejligedays

This is the last post for a while about my paper flower making as I need to give my glue gun burnt fingers a rest before I try the last flower, rose, on the course, but I am so happy with my dogwood display and red dahlia I wanted to share them. The dogwood display took around six hours in total to complete but totally worth it.

This dahlia took two hours…

Making Paper Flowers – part 2

Posted on September 14, 2013 by dejligedays

So, my papers arrived from France, thanks to my mum, and I couldn’t be more delighted. They are more delicate in colour and much softer to work with, both aspects make them much more realistic. The green for the leaves is still not quite right but I think its the best I can get anywhere.

We went for a foraging walk on Sunday for twigs to incorporate into my dogwood flowers and I am so delighted with the results. As the cut flower season is drawing to an end, I plan to make a number of longer length ones of these to have in a vase over the winter.

Here is my first post about making flowers from this Skillshare course. Don’t forget you can still enrol on the course so why not pop over to Skillshare and join in the fun!

Making Paper Flowers

Posted on September 3, 2013 by dejligedays

I love crafting and have wonderful memories of creating things with my mum as a child. It is also something that I enjoy doing with my son. I have long wished to attend one of Brittany Watson Jepsen’s flower making classes and I was sad that as I moved back to Copenhagen she was leaving to return to America. You can imagine how delighted I was to see that she is teaching an online class on the fabulous website, Skillshare.com.

The class is called Mastering the Art of Paper Flower Making and you can sign up at anytime and get started creating wonderful paper flowers.

I signed up as one of the first to take this class as it launched last week and I am loving it so much. I made the first of the three projects, a dahlia, on Sunday and my son sat watching with fascination. Note to Brittany – if you can make a video of a flower for a four year old to make you have your first customer right here! I am waiting for some more delicately coloured paper to come from France before I try the next two projects.

So pop over to Skillshare and join in the fun!

Creative Space

Posted on April 8, 2013 by dejligedays

I love being creative and whilst I am not the best painter in the world, I enjoy painting ceramics. I was delighted when, a few years ago, a ceramic painting shop opened here in Frederiksberg aptly called Creative Space. I have always gone alone and this is a big treat for me as mum of a very busy little boy.

The set up is simple but very enjoyable. I usually book a space and when you arrive your work space is set up with everything you need – brushes, water, cloth and empty paint palette, and of course, as this is Denmark, a candle.

You then browse the shelves of plain, unfinished ceramics and once you have made a choice, tell one of the super helpful assistants who will bring the piece to your work space. You then chose your paints, stamps, stencils etc from a selection available. There are baskets of magazines and books for inspiration. The staff are also ready to answer any questions and on your first visit run though everything with you when you arrive.

Having made the mistake years ago at a similar place in the UK, where I sat and stared empty minded at my chosen piece of ceramic for about half an hour, I now plan what I will paint before I come. This time I wanted to do a delicate pastel vase and inspired by the constant presence of snow this winter I chose to do a confetti snow fall – I hope it comes out as well as I imagine.

So once you know what you are going to do, you then while away a lovely couple of hours. It has a great atmosphere; relaxing but up beat music and there is always a great mix of people from large groups, families, single people and those a lot more serious about their work.

Once you have finished and paid it is about a week and then you collect your finished masterpiece.