Hey there! Hope everyone out there is doing great!
I just wanted to give an update. The walkway to our house is coming along and in a few months we should have a carport as well as grass in the yard! YAY!
Also, there was a spontaneous mini class/school reunion at the Alte Münz in Kaiserslautern (the old hangout) and it was so great to see everybody. :-) We should do this more often, seriously!
It was also wonderful to see my parents... even if it was only for a little bit! :)
On 17 February we celebrated Danny's 12th birthday! Where on EARTH has the time gone?? Woahhhh. He really is turning into a young man.
On 19 February would have been my friend Cirsten's birthday... I still remember every year, even though she's been gone since 1999. RIP Cirsten.
And... I did get a bit creative... just a bit... :)
And here is a beautiful sunrise for you from awhile back.... Have a super day!
I gave in .... it would have been too much work to rebuild another website. And I do still want to blog! So, I bit the bullet and signed up for Typepad premium again.
We've settled into our house and have really gotten a LOT done in a short amount of time. We have most of the lamps we want installed, most of the furniture. Just a few more pieces of furniture and some of my crafts and it will look really cool.
The patio has been completed and in spring we will have the landscaping done. Can't wait!
I will be posting photos in a little bit, so watch for those.
This is the best choice we could have made. The neighborhood is great, neighbors are nice ;-) and the landscape is just gorgeous. I don't know how many sunrise/sunset photos I've already published via Instagram... but it's quite a few I'm sure. :-) Can't get enough of it.
The kids enjoy now being able to just go out and meet up with other kids in the area. What a turnaround! They love it as well. :-)
We are very much looking forward to Christmas in our new house. It's a whole new and wonderful feeling and I am more excited than I have been in a long time!
I kept the Christmas cards simple this year, due to lack of time and my scraproom is not organized the way I want it yet. ;-) But... at least I sent them, right?!
As soon as the tree is up (this weekend) I will definitely post photos of that... Our first Christmas tree in our own house. Yay! So...stay tuned for more!....
Have a wonderful day whereever you are in the world!
To say the least, I've been pretty busy as we starting building a house this year and will move in the end of July! YAY! It's pretty exciting stuff! I've hardly been able to "create" anything. Mostly dealing with things revolving around the house, obviously....like picking out flooring, wallpaper, paint, furniture, etc.
Here are a few things I did do along the way...
As soon as we are settled in the house, I will be creating once again. Here are some photos of the house....so far...
The front/side view
View from the back... still a mess at that point
tiled stairs to the basement
View looking from the back of the house... :-)
Mosaic in kid's bathroom
bathtub in our bathroom
tiles in our guest bathroom... (will be the same for master baths)
And most recently the kitchen floor tiles...
So, things are coming along. :-) But I gotta tell you... I cannot wait until it's finished! At times it can be a royal pain in the booty! :D Exciting and stressful at the same time. We will survive!
Oh.. yes, I almost forgot! I am now an official Bokwa® Fitness Level 1 Trainer! In case you don't know what that is, here is a video that says it all.
Hey there, thought I'd blog since I realized yet again....that it's been about a MONTH. sowwy
My dad's 75th birthday was on 25 July 2012. Wow! He has been truly blessed with a ton of guardian angels, which we are all very thankful for. I made him this card and he will be getting a nice album (when it's finished) ... I'll post photos later. ;-)
What's been going on... well, on 2 August we celebrated Jenna's 9th birthday. Time flies as they say. Incredible how she's grown and how independent she's become. She's just getting prettier by the day....boys, watch out! She's going to be a heartbreaker for sure! :D My little cutie.
Since her one grandma wanted to get her a bike and we wanted her to be able to pick it out, I made a pop-up card with a bike (cut with cricut expression) as a symbol of this plan. ;-)
She loved it!
We celebrated at the pool, which was a fantastic idea since it was pretty much empty except for us. People were unsure of the weather, plus it's summer vacation (people are away) and the kids had a super time.
They either took over the entire sand box (had parents asking for "permission" to get a bucket of water for their toddlers - LOL) or they were jumping around in the pool. As a little gift and thank you for coming, I made these cool wallets out of iced tea cartons that I got directions from at this site: http://spoonful.com/crafts/carton-wallet
Well, the kids thought those were just so awesome. Made me feel awesome too. ;-)
In August also, we found out that we got a place for Jenna at another daycare (where some of her friends and classmates are) after we had actually received notice that they could not provide a place. We had been ok with that, since the place she was at was great as well, offering so many things to do and lots of sports. We decided to leave it up to her, so she wanted to go to the new daycare, which is only for another year anyway. We were all happy on the one side, but it was sad as well since she has been there from the beginning of her Kindergarten days. So, I decided I needed to give them something to remember both Jenna and Danny by and made this little mini tag book, which I think they liked.
Then it was my best friend Christine's birthday on 8 August who lives so far far away from me... :-( So, I always make her a nice card to show her how much I miss her...
This card was made entirely with the heat embossing technique...using SEI Mimosa and Hero Arts stamps, plus Zing embossing powders. I love these colors! And she enjoyed it too.
Currently I'm working on a customer order for a few pages of a Marriage Travel Book. Neat idea actually. I may show a few images if I get permission from my customer. ;-)
Sunday it was hot... about 103°F or 39°C HOT. So, we decided to go to the pool...so did about a gazillion other people. At any rate, we had an awesome spot that had shade all day long. Danny is so creative... he started gathering leaves and little twigs, etc. and made lunch... on his shoe. ;-)
He's just cool like that. ;-) Love him so much!!
In almost a week, we will be vacationing in Turkey!!! I cannot wait to be by the ocean and not have to worry about silly things, such as housework and accounting stuff. Yeahhhh!
Then school begins again.... oh boy. Danny is going to a new school, 5th grade, and will have to take the bus. New school, new kids, fresh start. I hope he likes it. Jenna will be entering 4th grade, same teacher, so nothing new there.
And... we... are in the process of planning our house. Yes, I said house. We are building a house, our own, us... YES! YEAHHHH! Should be finished around May/June 2013 and we are so very excited. It's a duplex house, but can't be picky in these parts. I will finally have a scrap studio with STRAIGHT walls! Finally! And I won't have to sweat in the attic anymore...hehe.
Otherwise, not much else is going on at the moment...thankfully.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and spending time with their families!
I just wanted to share some recent cards I made. One is a sympathy card, which I find really difficult to create... especially if I knew the person. It's hard to try to draw the line between being too cheerful and getting the message across.
On a happier note...here is a card I made for my hubby... :)
That's all for this rainy Sunday. I vow to post more often in the future!
How I love to give my family and friends my own handmade Christmas cards. I don't think I could bring it over myself to ever purchase another card again! It's just so much more personal....more like a mini-gift. My heart goes into each and every card. :-) Here are some of the cards I made this year...some are cute, some are distressed, some are vintage and some are plain. What kinds of cards are you getting this year?
There are quite a few more that I made, but I could not fit them all onto one block. :)
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends and may your New Year be happy, healthy and filled with fun!
November/December 2011's Design Team project for Scrapbooking Stuttgart was to make 2-3 Christmas cards from the materials that was sent to each of us. So this is what I made...simple, but cute:
Goodness! I just looked to see when I last blogged and it was SEPTEMBER!!! I'm SO bad! Sorry guys, don't know what happened there. I guess I got so wrapped up in my custom orders that I've neglected my blog. Never to fear, I'm not gone, no way. ;-)
Aside from my custom orders, I did a few other things along the way....
A birthday card from my nephew.....
Some altered letters for www.scrapbookingstuttgart.de
A marathon congrats card for my hubby....
A 60th birthday card....
A sympathy card...
custom order of Slovenian Christmas cards
A so sorry card for friend who's birthday I totally forgot (shame on me)..
Last, but not least.... a Halloween Card.... :)
I would have more to show you if I was authorized by some of my customers, but they prefer not to have me display their customs orders....such a shame... ;-)
If you are needing me to design any Christmas cards or gifts for anyone, place our order now, because Christmas is not too far away!
I wish I could post something special every day. But...sometimes I think, what if nobody cares? What if it's just not important or interesting enough? We all have our doubts.
It has been a turbulent few weeks. I've been doing two jobs the last few weeks, during which my daughter had a tonsillectomy, so I was in and out of the hospital just running around and completely frazzled. There was just no time to post anything.
There were a few things inbetween that I was working on, some of which I can't post (tell ya later) and the others were just a few little cards for co-workers, friends, family...
Next week the kids are off to summer camp (no overnighting) for two weeks, saving me from needing to make breakfast in the morning. ;-) The second week of which I have a week off. HALLELUJA! Part of the week I will be visiting my parents. My dad will have the veins in his legs operated on, so I'm thankful to be with my mom during that. I'll get to see old acquaintances again, my dear cousin Anja, my best buddy Frank and the yearly carnival will be on, which I haven't been to in YEARS. Okay, it's really dinky, but boy do they know how to party. LOL
The second part of the week, I plan to DEclutter....not clutter, the apartment, starting with my office and scrap studio. There is SO much filing to do, so many things that "I thought" I would be selling on Ebay. (Yeah... right.) I figure I'll donate or throw out since it's not worth Ebay (unless it's electronic equipment or parts). There is just not enough time in the day if you know what I mean. LORD! There are so many scrapbooking magazines and supplies I need to purge that it really isn't funny anymore. I'm always looking for stuff or else I find stuff I had forgotten I had. Oh brother. My procrastination has really gotten out of hand. I just look at the piles, don't know where to start, turn on my heal and walk away. ADD doesn't make it any better. ;-) But, I plan to do one corner at a time and try not to look at the entire mess. Hopefully soon, there will be space to actually comfortably walk through my studio and office. (to the relief of my hubs I'm so sure).
After summer camp, Hubs and the kids are visiting the house in Bavaria (the one we don't live in). Unfortunately, this will be taking place without me since nobody gets vacation time in September. (too many events going on). On the other hand, I will have a week of peaceful evenings and can go out any time I want! Yeah!!! But, I will miss them! :-(
One more thing... just wanted to tell you about the dream I had last night. I rarely dream, because I usually don't sleep enough to get into that phase (another story in itself), but it was a really sweet dream. I dreamt I was walking in a garden and I think my daughter Jenna was with me, but I don't remember clearly, when I saw a small swarm of butterflies, really little ones. They were so cute that I went over to them and held out my hand, which soon had several little of the beauties tickling my hand and I giggled (and Jenna) and laughed, and thought how wonderful they are. That is all I remember....but I loved it. More dreams like this one please!!
You all have a great weekend! I'm going to be enjoying the weather, the pool and my family this weekend. I am in definite need of relaxation and carefree hours.
Whatever you do, do it with a smile! Have a super weekend everyone!
As Design Team member at Scrapbooking Stuttgart, I was recently sent some products to use for whatever I wanted. Once I got started, there was no stopping me! LOL With just two sheets of double-sided patterned cardstock, twine, 3 kraft gift bags, brads and metal embellies, (and a few items from my stash) this is what I came up with.
It's been awhile and I apologize profusely! It's been a busy busy life.... still is for that matter! We've had Easter and I've had an big event at work we've been planning for (in Zurich). Now that it's over, I can breath....even if just for a little while. ;-)
I know Mother's Day is long over, but in my last post I had been making flowers like a crazy person and just wanted to show you a few examples of how you can put your handmade flowers to use. It's nothing new or extraordinarily exciting, but these are my examples and perhaps it will spark something in you.
This year's Mother's Day card....it had my mom in tears, which was exactly what I was aiming for....tears of joy that is.
I've been making decorative frames for all seasons....Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Fall, but I didn't have one for Spring. So, my handmade flowers fit perfectly for what I wanted to make. I drew stems with leaves in pencil on cardstock, then pierced holes along the design and back stitched some green thread on to it. I adhered the flowered, stamped a flourish on opposite corners and was done. Yes, it's simple, but romantic and I like it. Just another decorating idea for ya.
Question for you: Would you purchase something like this if were for sale?
Stay tuned for more uses of handmade flowers....Until then, have a superb weekend!
As promised, here are 5 more cards I whipped up yesterday in the scope of design team work for Scrapbooking Stuttgart with the "Life of the Party" line by Basic Grey. I also used the Tim Holtz Alterations Sizzix die "Sewing Room", really fun stuff. Check it out...
Birthday card for anyone...
"Thx sew much" card....thank you card (fun dress form!!) - NOW available at Scrapbooking Stuttgart!
"Miss you sew..." I think this turned out to be my favorite one from the batch. ;-) I'm hooked on the dress form people!!
"Just wanted to say hi there!" - Cutesy card
"Adore" card for various occasions....mainly loving ones ;-)
Hope you enjoyed all the possibilities of what can be done with this great Basic Grey collection! Until next time....I'm going to enjoy the sunshine!
It's about time I posted something again isn't it? I was recently sent a few papers from the Basic Grey "Life of the Party" line by Scrapbooking Stuttgart to use for either layouts, cards or decor. I used a bit of it for cards (more to come) and wanted to show you what I made out of one each, white cardstock (colorcore) and bazzill kraft cardstock along with 4 papers from the BG line. So, here it goes...
This can be used for just about any celebration. "Block party" paper, colorcore white cardstock, various buttons, Creative Imaginations letters stickers & Fiskar's scallop punch.
Thank you card made with "Getting Bigger" & "How you've grown" Papers, Bazzill Kraft Cardstock, Tim Holtz Walnut Distress Ink, Cosmo Cricket Chipboard letters "western"
"Party" card using bazzill kraft cardstock, "getting bigger" Basic Grey pp, "candy bag" pp by Basic Grey, CI alpha stickers, Tim Holtz Walnut Distress ink.
"Happy Birthday" card with white colorcore cardstock, "getting bigger & candy bag" pp by Basic Grey, Prima flower, Prima Pebble, White Signo pen, Tim Holtz Walnut Distress ink and old mesh, fiskars scallop punch.
If you enjoyed this fun paper and would like to order, just head on over to the shop at Scrapbooking Stuttgart and buy on location or order online!! She's got it brand NEW!
Like I said...."more to come" so check back in a bit. ;-)
I have been wanting to blog for what seems like ages. All I've been able to do is post classes and send newsletters. Although I'm feeling like a chewed up rag, a little case of the flu, I neeeeeed to do this!
During the Halloween weekend I decided to take a spontaneous trip to see my parents with the kids. Since they have both been very sick this year, Dad with his 4th heart attack and quintuple bypass and Mom with a dangerous intestinal problem, followed by 2 operations, I thought it might be good for them to get to see their grandchildren and daughter. ;-) We were pretty lucky with the weather. It was cool, but sunny on Saturday (which is when the Air Base decided to do Halloween) and I took quite a few photos:
Danny makes such a cute Luke Skywalker and Jenna was adorable in her witch costume. Unfortunately, it was a little cool, so they had to cover them up. Most of the time I was the keeper of the laser sword. ;-)
This is Kindsbach Lake in the town in which my parents have lived since about 1977/78. I do believe this must be one of the best outdoor photos I've taken, but that is mostly due to the beautiful weather and gorgeous bright autumn colors. ;-) We had a short, but nice walk around the lake with Oma Lotte (Grandma), the grandkids and I. ;-)
Then, I wanted to get photos of them together...and this is what came out of that ;-)
Danny and Jenna can make some pretty goofy faces....I'll givem' that. Guess they didn't feel like getting their photo taken today. ;-)
Then I caught them from behind.... ha!
I love the color of the leaves in the forest and I wanted to catch a glimpse of my mom walking on this path.
The photo on the right warms my heart. Danny collected several leaves or rather ferns...and then went up to his grandma and put his arm around her waste and walked along side of her. So precious... just wants to make me almost cry. ;-)
Here are a few more impressions of our visit to Kindsbach....helping Oma in the garden...and "making stuff"
Danny is very good with his hands....not exactly sure what he made here, but it looks cool...just like this heart he made for me out of legos.... ahhhh... isn't he the sweetest kid??
and Jenna here helped Oma to get the leaves out from under the tree....I think she left a few hairs on some of those branches. ;-)
So now I want to show you my DREAM HOUSE. When we build a house, I want it to look just like this! An American family built it (as you might be able to tell due to the style) and it's right on the lake. Of course, it does get noisy during the sommer, but hey... they have that lake right out their front door and can jump in it any time they want! Cool deal. Unfortunately, they had to recently sell it. Sold it waaaay too cheap if you ask me! Anyhoo... here it 'tis...
It's simply amazing to me... I am so in awe of this house! Want it!!! Now!!
And here is what I have been up to scrapbooking-wise.....
A recent beginner scrapbooking class....
and a frame for my best friend's sister who's pup recently died....such a sweet sweet dog too. :-(
Unfortunately, another doggy in our family died too.... Oma Gitti's doggy Tanja. We're all very sad about that and miss her so!
And then yet another doggy died.... his name was Sam and belonged to one of the daycare teachers who has been bringing him for a few years now, so the children knew him quite well. He was only 6 years old.
... back to scrapbooking / card making / frames.....
I'm trying to make a decorative frame for every season/occasion....
Finally scrapped some old Kindergarten photos of my two sweeties and their "Red Group". They really enjoyed it there!
A masculine birthday card for my very good friend Frank...
and an envelope I decorated...
Address erased to protect the innocent ;-)...
A purple birthday card for a friend whom I happen to know likes purple.
A sympathy card...
a with compliments tag
and
An early X-mas tag for a customer I placed with her order
A minibook class I taught on Saturday...
Everybody have a great week!
P.S. Don't forget, next Saturday is a Christmas Card Class! If you're interested and have time, now is the time to register..
Good LORD! Time flies! I just checked my blog to see when the last time was.... how embarrassing! It's been close to a MONTH! I apologize profusely for not blogging sooner. Major stress at the day job. The days just whizz by and it's hard to slow down. Then my side-business here, well throw in the family with 2 kids and you can guess that I'm basically on the move 24 hours a day. I keep telling myself to BREATHE... but, there's no time! LOL
For the last 6-8 weeks I've had bursitis, an infection in my shoulder, which was irritating for one, but it also prevented me from doing TaeBo, which I really hated. Yesterday, I was finally able to go and although every muscle in my body seems to hurt, I'm SO GLAD that I finally get to go again! I missed it sooo much!
I just wanted to show you what I've been working on the past few weeks, so here goes!
I actually made this for a Cinch Mini-Album class and will be selling it on Etsy or Dawanda afterwards. Believe it or not... it was a "cinch" to make. LOL
I made this thank you card using one sheet of thick designer cardstock (DCWV Mariposa, 8x8), Ranger Dimensional Pearls, Jenni Bowlin Letter Stickers and a Martha Stewart Butterfly punch. The DCWV papers in this collection are SO pretty!!
A boy birthday card for my nephew....hope he ever got it since there was a gift certificate inside!!! Haven't heard from the little bugger yet. The red piece is 3D using 3D foam pads and is backed with a jeans design paper.
Just made this one a day or two ago...see, I can't even remember! Doh!.. Anyway... I wanted to protect the other mommy's kids, so that is why they are sensored. I used Tim Holtz design paper, prima felt stem, regular manila tag with walnut distress ink, flower made with dictionary paper, punched, distressed with various Holtz Distress inks, crumpled and stapled together. Looove those flowers! Martha stewart fence border punch, Tim Holtz ticket "dream", Ranger Dimensional pearls & Rock Candy, Prima Pebble, Journaling card from Yellow Bicycle.
Here is more detail on the flower:
So, now I have the munchies and I need to go to bed. Jenna has a little something she needs to do on stage in school for the 1st grader ceremony. She's so proud. :-)
I just wanted to give you some inpirations for the day (should it inspire you that is...). I recently made some special cards, see below. I just LOVE to stitch on cards. It's really much easier than it looks! If you can use a sewing machine just for basics, then you can do this too. I promise! ;-)
and this (below) is the inside of the card:
and a get well soon card for my Mom...who is still in the hospital (poor thing)
and a thank you card for an invitation to visit a nice woman and her children we met on Grand Canary
I've been very busy this weekend, not only food shopping, washing, cooking, but also creating!! Lots to do and sooo little time! But, I love it or else I wouldn't make time to do it, am I right?
First of all... an ADHD story about my son, Danny, 8 years old. Yesterday, after my trip to IKEA for a new chair, I had left some scissors in the dining room after cutting off some tags. I remember putting them away and after a time I walked into the dining room and noticed a good piece of hair (blond) lying on the rug. I pick it up and look over at my son, who has this exact piece of hair missing from his bangs...now forehead showing through where there should have been hair. So, I ask him, I say "Danny, did you cut your hair?". He looks at me and says, "Me? No!...Huh??" And I say, "You're saying you didn't cut your hair." ...He says with big round eyes, "No, Mommy, I didn't!". So, I take him over to the mirror and say "Gee, that's odd...there seems to be hair missing from your bangs, now isn't THAT a coincidence!" ...Get this....he says, "But, I DIDN'T cut my hair." LOL Okay, this wouldn't be the first time he's so obviously caught in a fib and still won't admit it, even if you PROVE he did it. (ahh... life with ADD, never gets boring) He finally admitted it, but of course, could not tell me WHY he cut his hair. That's because no thought went into it. His brain said... ahhhh, scissors...cut.... hair, end of story. And then, he forgot he even did it. It was just sort of, well, the most natural and obvious thing to do. It's hard to even get mad at him for it, since he didn't do it for attention or to be mischievous. No bad thoughts behind it, just simple and unrestrained impulse. Now I know where all of those odd looking cuts in his shorts and pants are coming from...not on the knee part, but on the thigh cut at a 90° angle ("Mommy, I fell..."). Uh,...yeah, buddy, sure. But, I gotta tell you... it sure does not make it easy for me to leave him and his sister alone for any given amount of time. I'm always a bit afraid of what his impulse might tell him to do next. Know what I mean?
So...now to the creative part... here's what I've been doin'!
This is August's Sketch I designed for the www.simea.de website for this month...
And this is the matching layout with the sketch.
Gotta love those Prima Marketing pebbles, so gorgeous!!
This layout will also be featured on Simea's website at some point this month....It's about how I LOVE strawberries. The picture colors turned out weird, because my printer was acting up, but I used it anyway, since it had kind of a retro vintage look to it. lol
closeup of the beautiful prima rose....love the vivid colors!
Please never mind the odd looking...or rather missing faces. I wanted to make sure nobody got on the web, that didn't want to be on there. ;-) Kinda reminds me of the movie "The Ring" though...a little spooky there. I made this as a going away present from the daycare mothers for one of the childminders who is leaving to work in Munich this month. LOL
So..."The Ring" again... this time a card for one of the childminders from the daycare for all her hard work.
This card was for my wonderful friend Emel, a housewarming card. She'd invited us today to check out their new house.... niiiiccccee house! :-)
And THISSSS... is a card for my brother dear who will be turning FIFTY... still can't believe it!!! Did a bit of Tim Holtz on there... Love the BINGO card!
I made this tag for the inside of my brother's card...it looked so empty. ;-) Love Tim Holtz!!!.. no, wait.. I ADORE Tim Holtz!!
This was the first draft of the 50th birthday card below. Yes, I know, it looks so completely different. LOL That is because I wasn't aware that 30 people were supposed to sign it. ;-) I'm sure I can sell it or that there will be another 50th birthday where it'll be needed. Tim Holtz again with the Grungeboard swirl shape, Fired Brick Crackle Paint and Glossy Accents over the top of it.
Last...but never least LOL, is a card I made for my friend Emel to give to her co-worker who's turning 50. She needed a BIIIIGGGG card, so that lots of people have room to sign it. So, basically, it's a 12x12" piece of cardstock folded in half. Now, THAT...is BIG!
Whew... Not done yet though...still have quite a bit planned. Classes are coming up in September using the Cinch! More on the next post!!
I just wanted to post some recent projects so you don't think I'm sitting around picking my nose... ;-)
A birthday card for my dear Daddy who will be turning 73 in just a few days and I'm so grateful he's made it this far. I'll be wishing him many many more birthdays to come! ;-) This card can be made in ten minutes or less using the following:
ready-made card or make a card from cardstock standard size
This going-away card was a custom card I made for a well... customer. ;-) She needed it for a co-worker who is leaving to work in Africa (wow!). So, I thought I would make a fitting card with some earth-toned colors.
You see, with just a little variation, you can use a similar design (as shown with the first card) and make it look quite different. Turn the design 45° in either direction and you have yet another design variation.
I recently had to make my daughter Jenna some invitations and since we are celebrating on a pony ranch and she wanted to help, we used her horse stickers to match the theme. Take a look:
psssttt... foam pop dots ;-)
The one on the right is the back side with the invitation information.
I just used one sheet of cardstock, using the front and back of the piece.
I recently received a newsletter from MOO who make business cards and they offer a mosaic of your mini moo cards that looks like this:
which inspired me to make my own mosaic frame, since I still had old mini moo cards that I really didn't want to throw away (my phone number changed) and a nice frame I recently bought from IKEA:
Super easy to make! You just have to make sure your spacing is even. Now I have some nice "family" decor to display either on the wall or on the counter, buffet top. :)
My new partner Yvonne Simon of Simonarc have decided to make scrapbooking in Stuttgart just a little more popular, so we've come up with a new blog, click on Scrapbooking Stuttgart for more details. The website is in German, so if you live in the Stuttgart area and do not speak German, here is a little explanation of the website. As I stated, we are trying to gather together scrapbookers in the Stuttgart area for crops or classes and Yvonne has been adding some scrapbooking machines to her current printer shop Simonarc, just in case you are looking for something particular. If it's not in her shop, then you can ask her and she will see if she can get it for you.
Classes are held in English as well as German, so no worries there. If you are in the Stuttgart area and are an avid scrapper, just drop us a line. We would love to here from you and maybe you might be interested in attending a crop.
You can also follow us on twitter and facebook to keep up on information about events, classes or workshops.
We are looking forward to hearing from you so we can get together and having a great time scrapping!
Ahhh..... for at least 5 months you will be one year older than me. ;-) I made this card for my husband, and yes, it has hinges. Don't ask... Anyway, I made it for him an decided, since he knew what he was getting for his birthday....tickets to Rodger Hodgson (former lead singer of Supertramp), I would do something silly. My co-worker suggested printing up fake concert tickets, so I found something on the internet (it escapes me at this point) that produced these fake tickets, totally cool! LOL He thought it was pretty funny too. Something different for a change, that's for sure.
Dear Hubby.... have a WONDERFUL birthday! Love ya lots!!!
Just wanted to do a little market research and see how many interested scrapbookers are located in the Stuttgart area. Google doesn't seem to find much in that respect. Here are a few questions for you. Please leave a comment below.
Where in the Stuttgart area are you located?
Where do you purchase your scrapbooking supplies?
Are you interested in classes? If so, what type? i.e. Beginner and advance scrapbooking, cards, other decorative crafts?
Do you hook up with each other for crops? If so, where?
What crafts have you created already? Please enter your URL in your comments so I can see your work.
I have room for about 6-10 ladies and have all kinds of tools, such as the cricut expression (die cut machine), the cuttlebug (die cut / embossing), corner chomper, eyelet setters, magazines, paper cutters, mats, inks, stamps, etc. etc.... I wouldn't mind hosting a crop once a month in my home. Bring along your supplies or you are also welcome to use my tools for a small fee. So, if you're interested in hooking up with other scrappers or are interested in scrapbooking classes, let me know. I'm happy to help!
This is the Father's Day card I made for my Dad. He didn't get the German Father's Day card I sent, nor did he receive an entire mini-album I had made a few years back for him thanks to the wonderful German Postal System and obvious thieves who think there is money to be had. This time I sent it registered mail. If he doesn't receive it this time, then I KNOW something fishy is going on and I will SO be knocking down the door to the post office to complain (again). Everything else seems to get delivered...but when I send stuff to Dad.... hmm... Maybe someone at the post office has it in for him! Gasp! They better watch their backs....just sayin'!
I mean...who would want to steal a personalized card? C'mon people, get real!!! I will be highly teed... if he doesn't get this card, for real!
Today is Rick and my 10th anniversary! Can you believe it? I know I can't! Time really flies, especially when you have kids and your daily life becomes stressful and full of appointments and things to do. Through it all, we made it to here. I'm counting on it staying this way too. ;-)
I put a lot of heart into this card since it is our 10th after all!
Yes, I used a bit of Tim Holtz schtuff.... like distress ink, crackle accents (on the heart), grungeboard, key, keychain,...And I had great fun. I really love the crackle accent on the heart, looks so cool and shiny! I really hope he sees the love! :)
FINALLY, the sun has come to my rescue! I was beginning to doubt that summer would even come this year. Nonetheless, this makes me verrry happy. And, of course, the fact that we are leaving for a nice vacation on Wednesday to the Canary Islands. I so cannot wait!! I've never been there, so I'm really looking forward to that!
Anyway,....just wanted to show you a few cards I made the past few days....
and this baby boy card (this was sooo much fun!!)
What can I say....creating just makes me happy! :) More to follow... ;-) Catchya later peeps!
So... I have a ton of tags and have to use them up, so I thought I would make a tag this year instead of a card for my hubby for (German) Father's Day....which was yesterday.
I used lots of Tim Holtz Stamps and one from Hero Arts with black Archival Ink so that I could use plenty of Tim's distress inks on top of that. I used Vintage Photo, Crushed Olive, Walnut Stain, Fired Brick and Tumbled Glass. The "E" stands for Erik. ;-) Then I used an arrow (also Tim) and a brad, stuck it through the heart. Unfortunately, this is a night time photo, so you can't see how I bashed the brad to distress it a little. I topped it off with a ribbon and stuck it to his gift. Violá!
My mom already received hers and thought it was the greatest card I have ever given her. ;) she was sooooo happy about it. So cute! That is exactly the reaction I wanted from her. :)
I saw this technique with the tags a while back and posted it as well with some other tags I made. I temporarily adhered the 3 tags next to each other, then used one stamp across all three and heat embossed with part black and part pink sparkly embossing powder. After that I ink distressed them and adhered using 3D foam tape for dimension. Underneath is just a wide strip of patterned cardstock. I punched a scallop border, used a white gel pen (Signo) to display a bit of stitching, wrote in happy mother's day. Added ribbons to the tag holes and flower with brad.
I must apologize since I've taken soooo long to post! Yikes! I just have so much going on....like all the time. ;-) But, I must say, I'm stressed, but feeling good, so that's okay. ;-)
My father, for whom I made the get-well card (which the brilliant German post office misplaced and finally LOST, by the way), had to have bypass surgery (5 bypasses in one operation) just a few weeks ago. He'd suffered his 4th heart attack a few days before Easter and it was "time" he finally let them "cut" him to fix him up. He's now in a rehab/wellness center accompanied by my mom and is doing better from day to day. He hasn't walked that far in years, quoting my mom. ;-) I'm very relieved to say the least!! - Update: he had to be flown back to the hospital yesterday as he was having complications and is getting a pacemaker today. Never a dull moment!
What I've been up to:
Last weekend I held my "Cool Card Class", having 6 students and we made 5 cards in a little over two hours. They loved it and they did a great job.... and I just LOVE to teach. ;-) Unfortunately, I didn't get around to taking photos, but Yvonne from the class took some and posted them on her blog (sweet girl). So, I'm just going to "steal" them and post them on here as well. ;-) As always, she did a wonderful job of photographing these! ! :D
I've also been quite busy with design team work, custom orders and class planning / organization on top of my basically full-time investor relations job and my family!!! So, if I don't answer your emails right away or don't get something done quite on time, have MERCY on me! ;-)
Don't miss out! Check out the web and go to popular scrapbooking websites for giveaways, prizes, contests, etc.! Here are just a few you might have fun with (source: scrapbook update website):
Scrapbook Update: We’ll be joining the NSD fun with a big round of giveaways on Saturday starting at 10am! (And just maybe we’ll sneak in some challenges too…hint, hint)
Studio Calico: 10am-7pm eastern time. Hourly chats with design team members, challenges with prizes and two big prizes of 6 month Studio Calico subscriptions.
Designer Digitals: Store-wide 20% off sale for NSD is already underway! That’s well over 7000 digital scrapbooking items, plus one new item at an introductory price of $.99. Sale lasts until 6am EST Sunday morning.
Paperclipping: 1pm-3pm PST. Noell Hyman from Paperclipping will be doing a Live event. She’s doing a charitable project for NSD, encouraging people to purge their stashes & donate their unused supplies to local programs devoted to creating life books for children in state custody.
Scrapbook.com: 11am-7pm PST. Special NSD forum will be hosting a virtual crop with challenges, mini-contests, treasure hunts, and many more activities at the top of every hour. They’ll be giving away a hundred prizes, all valued at more than $75.
Club CK: 9am-6pm MST. New sketch every hour. Page titles and fonts free for download. Photo and layout contests with randomly drawn winners – prizes include Stampin’ Up! products and Two Peas In a Bucket gift certificates.
Chatty Scrapppers: UK scrap site (and Scrapbook Update readers) Chatty Scrappers are having NSD fun for a long weekend, with an online crop from April 30th-May 3rd. Join them for challenges, tutorials and prizes!
TwoPeasInABucket.com: NSD is also going on for a long weekend at Two Peas, as they will be celebrating from April 30th-May 2nd with sales and sponsored challenges.
Scrapper’s Guide: This digital scrapbooking education site is giving away four copies of Photoshop Elements 8 bundled with Premier Elements: two copies in the Scrapper’s Guide Forum and two copies on their Facebook page. There will also be a Mother’s Day give-away which you can access from their home page, and a 25% off coupon for anything in the Scrapper’s Guide store.
amillionmemories.com: Their online crop starts Friday at 6pm PST with the posting of online challenges, and a chat at 9pm PST. Saturday the festivities continue at 10am PST with a scavenger hunt and tutorials.
My next class "Mini-Album Magic" will be on 16 May 2010 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. ! There is only 1 seat left, so sign up soon if you would like to take part in it. Here is the info:
Location: Memories Artwork
Fee: € 20 including materials (album kits in neutral colors) & tools
Bring: B&W small photos to fit a 6x6" Mini-Album containing 8 pages (6 pages for photos)....and FUN!
Description: We will be making a 6x6" accordion style mini-album with photos & embellishments from scratch!
Just made a quick get well card for Dad to cheer him up at the hospital since they don't seem to be treating him very well there! Hope he gets to come home soon!
YEAHHHH!! Spring is finally here! The trees are beginning their explosion of leaves and blossoms and the world looks wonderful in the sun!
Now I've been saving packaging from some scrapbook products that I wasn't sure how I was going to use, but Simea asked me to make something from packaging, so I hopped to it and made a little spring card. I hope you're a little inspired to put some of your packaging to use instead of throwing it away. You can use it for just about anything...cards, layouts, signs, frames, etc.
If you make anything with packaging, don't be shy, send it to me and I'll display it here on my blog. I would love to see what cool stuff you come up with!
Please note: New class planned for
end of April, on the 24th from 3pm - 5 pm!!
In
this two-hour class we will be making 5 cards from prepared kits. The
cost is €15 including supply kits and use of my tools. Location will be
at Memories Artwork, Rosenstrasse
13/1 in 70794 Filderstadt.
In order to register, please Email me.
;-) Look forward to some fun!
My kids wanted to make cards today... so sweet. :-)... So I gave them a few things, sort of like a "card kit" and this is what they came up with. Not too shabby! :-)
Hello out there! I'm still alive, just busy busy!! Aren't we all? Some of the busy time was spent creating nice things for Christmas and I wanted to show you some of what I've been doing and hope to inspire you to make some wonderful Christmasy creations of your own!
Here I took an ordinary frame and turned it into Christmas decoration for my mantle.
Gold embossed pillow box for small items, such as stockings, socks, jewelry, chocolates... the list is long. ;-)
I love hanging little things like jingle bells....they're so cute!
If you would like to give money, a little tag holding a gift card or money is really cute!
okay... one more card...
I'm really into the sheet music and birds (Jen Wilson digifile). I recolored the bird in photoshop, cut it out and adhered. The scroll is also made with PS Elements.
Hope this gets you into the Christmas spirit! I'm off to a Christmas market now to show children how they can decorate gingerbread men! And to freeze... LOL
I apologize for not posting for a while now. There has been a bit of turmoil lately in my life. On the one hand my job is very stressful, especially during "event season", but I must say I am loving my job even though I have work up to my ears, so that I barely have time for scrapbooking as I work a lot in the evenings from home as well.
Then Friday a week ago, my husband's grandmother died, the day before I was supposed to attend an event for work, so I was panicked about what to do with the children since my husband had wanted to leave to be with his mom. I did find someone, but it took forever! The next day I woke up with a terrible headache and started vomiting. It was the stress of it all apparently, but I thought it was some type of virus as I had never had that happen to me before. So, pressure from work was on and I felt really bad about letting them down that day. There was just absolutely nothing I could do about it. The next day I attended, still feeling sick and a bit weak, but I made it through the day. Luckily.
On Monday, my mom calls and says, "Your grandma was next." She died that day... only 3 days after my husband's grandmother. What a fluke! So, wow... no more grandparents around. You begin to start thinking about your life, how old you are, whether you're enjoying it enough, what you could do better, etc. Ah, yes.
I also have a bit of custom work waiting on me to have time as well, plus cards and things that I want to sell at the artist's market coming up the end of November, so that is always in the back of my mind. I just wanted to show you a few things I was able to do. (click to enlarge)
Ooh, I see I need to make more vertical cards! My next batch! More to follow...
This is from some custom work I'm doing right now...just a few accents.
This tree stem I just kind of eyeballed and cut out. Then I rough-cut the top of the tree from green cardstock, embossed it with my cuttlebug, inked it with distress ink, adhered it to a scrap orange piece of patterned paper and cut around the tree to frame it a bit.
This was made using my cricut expression die-cut machine.
In case you can't tell.... that is an ice cream cone I made from scratch.
I love creating different accents for my layouts that fit perfectly to the theme or the patterned paper. So, even if I don't have anything bought that would match the page, I'm always finding new ways to make my own and it's really a lot of fun.
These are busy times and they will stay busy until Christmas vacation. I'll be off for THREE weeks! YESSSS! Can't wait.
NOTE: Any custom orders for Christmas must be placed with me by no later than 1 December in order to arrive in time for the festivities!!
Yes, I know... making Christmas cards again.... but I look at something and then get so inspired that I have to do something about it. It's like an itch. LOL Anyway... I made a few Christmas cards again and wanted to show you a few pictures of the journal I made in Karla Dudley's Journal 3 Ways Class. The class has already begun, but I'm sure she will be having more workshops. Now, I have to tell you, this woman amazes me! She has 5 kids, including 2 sets of twins...two boys, two girls and the oldest is another boy. Wow... is all I can say. Then she's got kids getting sick all over the place, but takes the time to shoot videos and show her students how to make cute journals. I have to hand it to her, Karla: My hat is off to you girl! You are just a cool gal!
Little "medallion" tutorial here:
So, I made these two cards with "medallions" on them that I made myself. The easiest way is to take a 12" strip about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2" wide, cut along the edge with either scallop scissors or zig zag, but it should be something that is uniform, no tearing scissors or anything like that. Next you want to fold the piece back and forth like an accordion, maybe scoring each line before you do that to make it work a bit easier and look straighter LOL. Then just glue the ends together with tacky tape so it doesn't come apart, then push down on the middle part to make it flat....go ahead, I promise it won't fall apart. But, in order to hold it together, you're going to need something sturdy to put on that middle part. Use a scallop circle, a big button, or a regular circle, a flower, anything you want, but you will have to make sure you use a good adhesive to make it stick. I used glue dots, which seemed to work pretty well. Make sure they're heavy duty and the cardstock is fairly heavy weight. Chipboard might be even better. Then just use 3 D glue dots or pop dots to adhere to your card or layout. I really love the look of it. Next time I'm going for ones a bit smaller though. ;-)
On this one, I originally stamped the flourishes with opaque white stazon ink, but you could hardly see it, so I went over it with a white gel pen to make it stand out more. Truly had fun making the medallions!
Now to Karla's Class! She's so sweet and her videos were so cute. Making the journal was easier than I thought. Tomorrow is week two! Can't wait to see what she comes up with! :D Check out the journal I made today.
The angle of the photo I took, makes it look crooked, but it's not, trust me. ;-) I got this free Katie Pertiet border swirl brush from Designer Digitals. Go check it out!
These are the inside pages using Karla's swirls from the class. Love those swirls! Can't get enough of them.
Here are the pages with the journaling brushes that Karla designed. Don't you just love her handwriting? I mean, okay, mine is not the worst handwriting, but I just loooove Karla's... kind of looks similar to Ali Edward's style of handwriting.
So, folks, that's all for now. I've really got to get to bed! ughhhh....busy week... what am I saying? Months!
I know, I know....Halloween has not even happened and I'm already going on and on about Christmas! Sorry...that's the way it is. At any rate, I was googling and stumbled across some pop up cards that inspired me to make this one.
just simple, but ok
this part was a bit more difficult as it was my first time making a pop-up card, but I love the look of it so I may try out some more and post. I saw a video from an Australian stampin' up lady and I believe her name was Robbie, but I'm not sure!
Then I googled for gift boxes and once again, landed on Kristina Werner's blog where she had a video of an origami box with a matching lid. I never thought it would be that easy! Aren't they just cute?! Cool! Please check out her blog for more inspiration.
Google origami gift box and you'll be sure to find her video on the box.
I was experiencing a bit of withdrawal from scrapbooking, but I really need a creative break after finishing a large wedding album that I really put my heart into.... here is a peak:
In November I will be attending an artist market and I'll be selling all kinds of Christmasy items, such as cards, tags, frames, gift boxes and minialbums (if I make it that is..lol). So, I got started with a few cards this weekend (I know...ughhhh...it's only September and the weather is still so beautiful!). Anyhoo....here are some of the cards I made... one of them is not a Christmas card. I just saw a German stencil I picked up at a hardware store and got an idea. ;-)
This card above was inspired by Kristina Werner Design. You should check out her blog, just awesome!!
And THEN, I made another something inspired by Lisa Tutman-Oglesby and her fabulous ideas. You should go check out her blog as well. Very inspiring! This was made very quicky, using modge podge to adhere and then cutting off the excess paper around the edges. You have to work very fast with modge podge as it dries very quickly. Slap on a few stickers and violá! There you have it! An entirely new and personal notebook.
Wow, just had to share this with you!! Kristina Werner makes fantastic videos on her blog and now she's made yet another fabulous video tutorial for three (yes, three!!) awesome Halloween cards she's designed. They have really cool shapes and cute details. Check it out on her Blog and lots of other videos. Now just sit back, relax and enjoy this load of creativity!!!
Hello my fellow blog readers! First of all, I would like to thank you for reading and looking. I wish I would have more time to read all the blogs I would like to read, but it's just not possible. But anyway...THANK YOU! :-)
Came up with this idea yesterday for some reason. I used to post our monthly schedule in our kitchen, but it seemed so drab, so I decided to get a cork memo board and dress it up a bit. didn't take long at all! :-)
I think it turned out pretty cute. ;-) I look forward to putting our schedule up there now!
And this is a hybrid card (PSE 6.0) for my nephew Luke. Since he will be turning 11, I thought I needed to make it look cool. So I did all of that in Photoshop, printed on cardstock and then inked the edges. Eh violá!
Wow...I cannot believe how fast this year has whizzed by! I just remember celebrating Mom & Dad's 50th anniversary like it was yesterday. I made them an album with lots of love and they absolutely adored it. Mom picks a new double spread to display each day. I so love how she enjoys it. :D
Now their 51st anniversary is tomorrow. Mom is still struggling with being weak from the massive pneumonia she had to fight and I know how rough things can get when you're sick. I made this card with that in mind. Love is key, always is and there is always a silver lining. This too shall pass, I am confident.
Mom & Dad: Hope you can celebrate at least a little bit tomorrow. Love you lots!
This must be card month or something. :D But, I'm having fun nonetheless. I love to create and to inspire, which is why I share my work....in the hopes to inspire my readers! I want to spread some scrapbooking love across Germany! The word has spread a bit, but it's nowhere near what it is in the States. So, here goes nothin':
The flower is a heidi swapp large flower folded twice and glued together, then affixed with the birdy brad. The border is a material decorating ribbon with an adhesive lace border on top, hero arts stamp and the leaves are stamped with SEI mimosa clear stamps and cat's eye chalk ink and the entire card was inked with Tim Holtz walnut stain ink.
This card was made with just part of an SEI mimosa patterned paper, cutting the flower around the edges, adhering, then used pearl gems around it, hero arts birthday stamp, small flower also from the patterned paper and then inked with holtz distress ink. Very simple!
This is a regular candle (if you can tell) decorated with patterned paper (hard to see here), a heidi swapp flower, unknown crocheted flower (dawanda) and a making memories vellum tag, K&Co gem, Basic Grey brad. Very quick and simple.
Every month I create a card sketch and my own example of that sketch, which is then placed on Simea's website where you can also download the sketch in pdf format. Here is the card that I made for August. Please check out Simea's website for the pdf...under "Inspirationen". Please check out her website for more awesome ideas!
I made this card for a client of mine who was sweet enough to hook me up with a wonderful interior decorations shop who also renovate exclusive villas and such. She's just so sweet, I had to make this card for her!
I made this quick little card for my mom this morning (sending it off today), because she is just such a sweetheart and the best mom I can imagine!! She's the kind of mother that would give you the shirt off her back (literally) and I wanted to thank her for having faith in me and always being there for me. She's absolutely the best in my book! I love you Mom!! (this card took me only about 5 minutes)
Just a few cards I made....and a layout about a rainbow or two! I'm really not used to using such bright colors on a layout, but in the end, I sorta liked it. :D These days with the way the economy is and the weather, bright colors are definitely a plus!
Hey guys... I just wanted to post some of the Christmas cards I did this year. I felt REALLY bad last year, because I made some really quicky cards that weren't what people were used to, because I just did NOT have the time. But this year, I "made" time to make special ones. Here are just a few. Maybe some can inspire you to do some yourself?
A few months ago my best friend Christine's father died. Very sad, since I've known him since I was 13. He used to pick us up from anywhere we were and was such a sweet, loving, kind person. I made this card for her and her family.
And another friend's mom passed away quite suddenly last week at the age of 60. Again, another very sweet woman that I've known since I was a toddler. I'm still in a bit of a shock. I made this one for her.
I just wanted to show you a cute cupcake card my best friend Anja made for me. She knitted that! Can you believe it?! Isn't it cute as can be?? My best friend Christine sent me a nice birthday card too that plays "Girls just wanna have fun". ;-)
My mom is getting a very special card from me, because she's quit smoking for 5 weeks now! That is why I just had to make her a card to tell her how very proud I am of her!!!
for her 70th birthday. She liked it very much and made me very happy!!!
What do you think?
It was such a beautiful sunny day today. We were in Munich from Friday through today, celebrated her birthday on Saturday and today we met our vacation family from Crete in one of the most popular Biergartens in Munich for a few hours before we headed off homeward. Munich is really a very nice city.
That is all for now.....I will be keeping busy with scrapbooking, but my first and foremost goal is to lose 5 kg! At least by the time we go on vacation! My pants do not fit me anymore!
