Christmas Thieves

[swestrup]

I got a very nice card from skjalm today, along with a hand-made heart-shaped Danish candy basket. There were also supposed to be a set of munchkin cards inside, but the envelope had been opened somewhere along the way, and the cards were stolen. Grumph. At least they left me the rules.

taxlady, by the way, absolutely loved the candy basket thing. She makes them for the holidays, and even has a how-to up on her website, but this one was far nicer than the ones she makes. Now she wants the pattern or she'll be forced to disassemble the one we got to find out how it was made.

While I'm mentioning cards, I should also say that I've gotten one from _greyknight.

Oops! I almost forgot that I've gotten one from bohemianpsyche as well. It arrived a few days ago, while the party was still in the mad-planning stages.

Thanks to all of you for the cards!

Comments

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

I hope that I sent the card I think I did... the one with the pretty snowflakes. :)

[swestrup]

I got a card with lots of strange snowmen, not snowflakes, but its all good!

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

ah see, I had forgotten if I had decided to send you the funny card or the pretty card...

[skjalm.livejournal.com]

candy basket

Yes! You're the first person to realise that they're not "christmas hearts" or "decoration". They are in fact perfect for stuffing a lot of extra candy on the christmas tree :-)

and the cards were stolen

That's a bit annoying. I had even stapled the envelope shut to make sure the cards wouldn't fall out on their way.

Can it have been some kind of customs officer who removed them or something? The woman at the post office said Canada was quite strict about what was in the mail...

Oh, well. Can't win them all...

[swestrup]

Well, I knew they were candy baskets because I'm married to a Dane.

As for the cards, its true that customs might open anything that looks suspicious, but cards are not a controlled item, so they would be required to put them back, reseal the envelope and mark 'opened by customs' on the things.

I think some sneak at some postoffice just decided to steal them.

[skjalm.livejournal.com]

Btw, here's a slightly more complex heart

And yes. It did take a long time to finish.

Now she wants the pattern

Here's the quick version:

1. divide the square into sevenths, i.e. if you have a 7cm wide square there should be six lines drawn with one cm between them
2. draw a diagonal from top-left to bottom right
3. draw half a heart around/over the top part of the diagonal line between the second and fifth lines (erm, I'm counting from right to left here ;-)
4. cut up along the second line from the right, then along the diagonal and the half-heart and finally straight up along the fifth line
5. cut straight up along the first and sixth line
6. seperate the two pieces of paper and fold them together like a normal heart

When preparing for the last step you should take a minute to consider precisely how the two halfs should be put together. The trick is simply to make sure the the two half hearts are not "pointing" in the same direction.

*re-reads directions*

Pah! I'm going to have to draw you a picture to go along with that...


Cut along the blue lines. And if you want to make other patterns than a heart just draw one half along the diagonal. A snowman, santa claus, star, christmas tree... anything that is symmetric around its center axis.

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the instructions. The heart threw me off at first, 'cause the one you sent had a Yule tree. I wish I had that paper they sell in Denmark for making hearts.

How big is that more complex heart. Looks like it took a long time to weave, but at least it's easy to figure out.

[skjalm.livejournal.com]

*slaps myself for forgetting which heart I sent to who* ;-)

As for the large heart I'm pretty sure each small square is 5mm so since it's 24 squares in each direction that would make the square part of the heart 12cm by 12cm.

And trust me: it was not easy to get the tip of the heart assembled. After all that weaving the small errors (skewing and not-too-precise cutting) add up and makes the final part nearly impossible to finish. But it was great fun and the look on my friend's face when I gave it to him was priceless :-)

I wish I had that paper they sell in Denmark for making hearts.

Damn, I should have known that last week so I could have mailed you some. If you want some let me know - I pass a hobby store each day that sells these things so it's no bother.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grey_knight/]

Happy Holidays, one and all....
(spells my name wrong in his post to boot....Grmmph.)

[swestrup]

Nah, I got it right. You've just been spelling your own name wrong since day 1. I just have hesitated to mention it before so as not to embarass you too much.