Swirly in Craft Ideas Magazine Fall 2016

 We are thrilled to be part of the 2016 Fall issue of Craft ideas Magazine with a Thanksgiving project.

Corn cob place card holder

 

What we really enjoy with the how-to project for the magazine is that will supplied them with step by step photos to make the project.

 

 Be sure to check out a copy of Craft ideas Fall magazines at your favorite magazine seller.

Our Swirly Crush

If you know anything about Swirly is that we love, love, love, our magazines. See here, here & here. We especially love the Holiday themed issues. With fewer magazines being produced we feel the need to spread the word when we find ones that shine.

Fresh Style simple ideas for creative living….. does just that! It shines brightly in our book! 

The courtship....

We first came across this back in 2012 when we gathered all the Holiday issues we can find at our local bookseller etc. We prefer magazines that have a heavier focus on creative projects, holiday décor ideas and projects versus cooking and recipes.  With a quick glance through the pages, and seeing the inspiring creative projects, the beautiful photography, and artist profiles, we knew this was one for the Swirly library.  

We’re dating….

Then the 2013 Holiday issue came out and we knew this was something special. The lovely smooth quality of the cover paper stock alone is worth picking us up an issue. It feels like “buttah”.

We are In Love….

Now we are in 2014, and we found that we were picking up every issue, not just Holiday based…that’s big. The most recent issue is chock-full of design eye candy with simple ideas, creative living ideas and inspiring spaces. We highly recommend that you check out this magazine (for anyone who still misses and craves the Mary Engelbriet Home Companion content, we think this will fill that void). We, for one, are excited to see where Fresh Style magazine goes from here. 

 

Fyi

We are not affiliated or have been paid by the editors of Fresh Style to promote this magazine.  Would we love to see a marriage (story) between Swirly Designs & Fresh Style in a future holiday issue of the magazine? YES!! Of course:)  But honestly we really just want to share with you all things that we like about it and maybe you will enjoy it as well.

Share your thoughts… We would love to hear if you are crushing on this magazine too.

Somerset Holiday & Celebrations 2013

Even thou this magazine was released back in early September, it's one you can refer back to all year long, since it has how-to projects for many holidays and celebrations through out the year.
We are especially overjoyed to have had contributed two holiday themed projects: a Halloween project and a Valentine's one for the 2013 issue of Somerset Holidays & Celebrations.
If you were busy running around for the holidays like a lot of us and missed this issue on newsstands, you can pick up a copy online here.

Decorating for Valentine's

We love creating and making beautiful ornaments to adorn your our Swirly fans homes for every holiday to the point we sometimes get side tracked and forget to decorate our own home.

So yesterday toward the end of the work day, we had a little time to spare (which is rare for us) as we were cleaning the studio up. As we started organizing the colorful paper we have collected, we thought hmmm we could either stay in the studio and clean....or take some of that cute paper and dress up our entryway. YES that's it!

Here is the result! Using scrapbook paper and a  few other items we totally transformed out entryway into a Valentine's showcase. Oh so sweet and very easy to do it yourself as well!

We made this picture gallery wall last fall and yet their are still picture frames without family pictures in them. So this was a perfect opportunity to put some pretty magazine pictures or decorative paper into the frames and voila the wall sings Valentine's. 

We added what few of our own ornaments we had left over from our Valentine's collection to this yarn wrapped tree we picked up at West Elm this past Christmas.

Our tweet heart bird cage sample sits on a square shadow box with a fabric greeting card inside. We love to frame greeting cards!

We made this snowflake shadow box as a mock-up for a possible how-to. But now it's happily displayed on our wall.

As you all know we are fans of magazines especially holiday related issue (see here and here just to refresh)  So we when came across this display piece that someone was throwing out we knew exactly what we could use it for.  It's fun going thorough old holiday issues and displaying them each holiday. 

 

This gold table top tree is the only permanent tree that we have in the house all year long (not including the trees in the studio of course). It greets our guest as they enter our home. It's mostly decked out in gold woodland ornaments but we'll add a spot of color to give it a seasonal pop! Adding a few seasonal ornaments, some beads, and a piece of 12 x1 2 scrapbook glitter paper under the tree and it is transformed.

 

On the other side of the entryway we have a shelf above where we hang coats.  A perfect place for more frames that we filled with valentine images. Books and other items share the shelf as well.

So simple and so rewarding... in less than an hour we transformed our entryway into a Valentine's gallery. So what if it's only up for only a few weeks and so what if only a few family members will see it. Hey maybe the UPS man will appreciate it:)

Do you decorate your home for Valentine's?  Which room do you decorate the most for the holidays?

Happy Valentine's

~Lianne & Paul

Crafts n' Things Magazine

 Here is a fun holiday how-to project we created for the December 2012 issue of Crafts n' things magazine. We supplied them the step-by-step text and the finished snowmen magnet pieces so the magazine could photograph them.  Here is how the how-to looked in the issue.

These pictures below are shots that we took ourselves to submit the how-to project for consideration in the holiday issue.  The idea behind this project came to us when our son would keep ripping out pictures and writing down all the new toys he wanted for Christmas and sticking them all over the house. With these wish list magnets it could help us organize all his requests in one spot. 

Happy Holidays!

A Peek Inside Our Swirly Studio

Do you want to know the best way to clean your studio or craft room?
Have it profiled in magazine about Studios! As excited as we were to have our studio in the pages of the new winter 2011 issue of Cloth Paper scissors studios magazine our mood went from cheers to fear really quick! How on earth were we ever going to clean and organize our studio plus photograph it right in the middle of designing our fall collection. It's still a big blur but we did it and the story came out great.

In the article, we share how we transformed one of our rooms in our 150 year old house, into a winter wonderland workshop where we create our Swirly Designs all year long. Also how we work together in the space and some of our favorite storage pieces we have for our materials.

Be sure to check out the issue next time you are out and about at your bookstore or craft store.


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*** What didn't make it into the issue is how we reworked our studio closet from just a place to store boxes of materials, to creating almost an extra room where everything has it's place now. We had a local builder come in and help us design a closet that works for our needs. He did a great job listening to what we wanted and the craftsmanship is top notch!

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Swirly in the Sweet Life

Looking for some sweet holiday inspiration? Then be sure to visit Simply the Sweet Life and check out their FREE online 2011 Holiday magazine .
It's full of wonderful holiday ideas and delicious recipes and Swirly:)
Yes our new mini woodland winter set graces the pages (page 32_33) of this whimsical issue .


Image above is from Simply the Sweet Life Magazine Holiday issue



Image above is from Simply the Sweet Life Magazine Holiday issue

Check out the eZine and tell them Swirly said hi!
Below area few more close up shots we took of this
7 piece Woodland Winter set.

Mushroom, Little Owl and snowy pine cone


snowflake and candy cane

glittery star and starry night

There is still a few of these sets available so be sure to pick up yours today.
Have a Sweet and Swirly Holiday! SORRY SOLD OUT!

Stocking up on magazines!

For us, Halloween is more then just buying and eating candy all month long. At least that is what Lianne keeps telling me. So besides picking up those yummy treats every time I head to the store I also indulge another sweet tooth of both of ours and that is the search for the NEW Halloween Magazines. You know that the fall season is coming when these magazines start arriving in the bookstores towards the end of summer.

If you visit us frequently here on the swirly blog you know our love for Holiday themed magazines and books runs deep. Here are a few past posts about our addiction here and here and what we do with all this beautiful eye candy inspirations here.

Like our little chipmunk friend who was visiting our yard earlier this week (see funny photo at top), stuffing his cheeks and stocking up for the winter season, we do the same with magazines (without the sticking them in our mouths part, that would just be weird). We gather and collect them up during these months and then when the Holiday craziness is over, like early January, we'll snuggle in a warm cozy chair and enjoy.


Here is this years new stash of goodies! It so nice to see a good size collection of new and original Halloween inspired issues each and ever year.
Our little display in this picture was something we found on the side of the road over the summer. Works perfectly to display the issues in the studio don't you think?

Women's Day Specials Halloween was one of the first Halloween issue that I picked up. The deep blue color of this cover is very striking and really jumps out on the newsstands, but I had to do a double take, because it looked eerily similar to last years issue. They must have realized the color combo worked well enough to bring it back this year.


Of course you must have heard about this great new online order only bookazine from Matthew Mead titled Autumn with Matthew Mead. If not... I would recommend checking out his site. It's full of beautiful holiday inspiration imagery. Swirly was featured in his 2010 Holiday issue.


Phyllis Hoffman Celebrate is turning into one of our new favorites. Even though it is more food focused than we would prefer, we are always so charmed by it's beauty that we can't pass it up. We did notice with this Halloween issue that they included a special trends section that profiled our fellow Halloween folk artists friend Johanna Parker.

Happy haunted reading! Be sure to stock up on these inspirational issues before they disappear!