Wieder eine neue Welt / Again a new world

Vor nun schon mehr als einem Jahr habe ich an dieser Stelle über ein neues Hobby berichtet, das ich entgegen aller Unkenrufe noch immer mehr oder weniger regelmäßig pflege: postcrossing – wildfremden Menschen Postkarten schicken und von anderen wildfremden Menschen welche bekommen.

It was more than a year ago that I blogged about a new hobby that I still indulge in on a more or less frequent basis (against all odds): postcrossing – writing postcards to strangers worldwide and receiving postcards from other strangers from all corners of the globe.

Die neueste Postkarte, die ich schreiben soll, wird an einen Kjell in Schweden gehen. Wie so viele hat er ganz klare Vorstellungen davon, was auf der Postkarte drauf oder nicht drauf sein soll – allerdings bezieht sich das bei ihm nicht auf das Motiv, sondern auf die Seite mit Adresse und Briefmarke. Oder eben nicht Briefmarke: er bevorzugt diese maschinell erzeugten Portoaufkleber.

The latest card that I’m supposed to write will travel to a certain Kjell in Sweden. Like many other postcrossers he is very specific about what kind of postcard he would and wouldn’t like to receive. Though in his case he is particular about the side that features the address and stamp. Or not the stamp: he prefers these automatic meter stamps.

Es geht mir ehrlich gesagt immer ziemlich auf den Nerv, wenn die Leute so spezifische Wünsche haben – ich habe auch Favoriten angegeben (Elche, Weihnachtskarten), aber im Prinzip ist es mir egal. Mir ist eigentlich wichtiger, dass die Leute was zu erzählen haben.

I sometimes get really annoyed when people have these very specific requests – I also posted what I like (mooses, Christmas cards) but in general I couldn’t care less. It’s much more important that people have something to say.

Wie auch immer, Kjell hat auf einen Blog aufmerksam gemacht, der mich fasziniert: Mail Art Postcard Exhibition. Da gibt ein Mann in Pennsylvania seine Adresse an und bittet um kunstvoll selbstgestaltete Postkarten, die bei Gefallen dann in diesem Blog veröffentlicht werden. Da sind die spannendsten Sachen dabei.

Anyway, Kjell mentioned a blog that’s fascinating me: Mail Art Postcard Exhibition. A guy from Pennsylvania has posted his address and is asking to send in artsy self-made postcards that he will publish on the blog (if he likes them). Some of them are really great.

Besagter Kjell meint, er habe am liebsten einen schön gestalteten Umschlag mit IRGENDEINER Karte drin. Das erinnerte mich an Schultage, oder vielmehr Ferientage, an denen ich mit einer Freundin von einem Eifeldorf ins andere genau das gemacht habe: abgefahrene Umschläge gestaltet und versendet. Das Wochenende wird hoffentlich Zeit bieten, in dieser Hinsicht nochmal aktiv zu werden.

The aforementioned Kjell states that he’d love to receive nicely designed envelopes with just any card inside. It reminded me of school days – or rather vacation days – when I did just that with a friend, from one Eifel village to the other: create extraordinary envelopes and send them. I hope the weekend will offer a little niche to revive that activity.

Grüße von einer Barbara auf Bastelentzug
Greetings from Barbara on creativity deprivation

Es ist soweit / It finally happened

Langsam komme ich mir etwas hyperaktiv vor, aber jetzt habe ich auch das noch angeleiert: einen Shop bei DaWanda aufgemacht: Papiermanie! Mal sehen, ob ich den dauerhaft füllen kann – und viel wichtiger: ob auch jemand was kauft. Mit einem Klick auf das Banner zur rechten könnt ihr den noch in den Kinderschuhen steckenden Shop begutachten.

I admit it: I do start to feel just a tad hyperactive but I’ve started yet another thing: I opened shop with DaWanda: Papiermanie [paper mania]! It remains to be seen whether I can keep it filled – and more importantly: whether people buy things. Click on the banner to the right and have a look at the shop and how it’s moving on from infancy.

Barbara

Premiere / A first

Das Jahr neigt sich dem Ende entgegen und mich hat eine Magen-Darm-Infekt außer Gefecht gesetzt bzw. an die Wohnung gekettet. Nach zwei Tagen Zwieback, Salzstangen und Tee kam heute aber mal ein bisschen anderes dazu und gleich regten sich die Lebensgeister wieder.

The year draws to a close and I’ve been put out of order by a nasty stomach bug… or it at least chained me to the apartment. After two days of zwieback, pretzel sticks and tea I have ventured into pasta realms today and felt instantly revived.

Und gleich hatte ich einen Geistesblitz. Ganz im Sinne des Recycling habe ich mich über meinen „Alaska’s Northern Lights Engagement Calendar 2010“ hergemacht und ihn zu einem Briefkarten-Set verarbeitet. Und dieses Briefkarten-Set wird das erste „Freebie“ auf diesem Blog!

And immediately I had a flash of inspiration. All in the spirit of recycling I tackled my „Alaska’s Northern Lights Engagement Calendar 2010“ and made it into a stationery set. And this stationery set will be the very first freebie on this blog!

Es besteht aus fünf Umschlägen (23 x 9 cm) und passenden Karten, sowie Adressetiketten – und wenn der ausgeloste Gewinner aus Deutschland kommt, lege ich noch 5 Briefmarken „Nordlicht“ drauf.

It contains 5 envelopes (23 x 9 cm) and matching note cards as well as address labels – and if the winner (drawn by lot) is from Germany, I will add 5 stamps „Northern Light“.

Nun – wie funktioniert das jetzt? Wer dieses Set gewinnen möchte, muss bis um 12 Uhr mittags MEZ am 03.01.2011 hier unter diesem Blogeintrag einen Kommentar hinterlassen, worauf er oder sie sich im neuen Jahr freut (Geheimnisse??). Der Sieger wird spätestens am darauffolgenden Wochenende an dieser Stelle bekannt gegeben… und ich würde mich freuen, wenn ich mehr als drei Lose basteln müsste 🙂

So how does this work? If you would like to participate, leave a comment underneath this entry until noon GMT+1 on January 3, 2011 – letting me know what you are looking forward to in the new year (any secrets??). The winner will be announced here the following weekend – at the very latest. Let me add that I’ll be excited to make more than three lots 🙂

Ich wünsche euch allen schonmal ein gutes neues Jahr!
A happy new year to all of you!
Barbara

U – is for Under the Tree

There’s a new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge: U – is for Under the Tree. I have to admit that when I started working on my project I didn’t realize that it could be anything other than a card… but to me „under the tree“ naturally meant it was supposed to have to do with a present. What I created is a card (or in fact a series of three of the same theme) that is a present.

It shows my very favorite motive: a moose! In this case, the moose is an ornament that sits in a little pouch of transparent paper and of course can be taken out and hung on the tree – as a present.

In this sense, of course, it is ON the tree rather than UNDER the tree. But oh well… if I don’t qualify for the actual challenge, it doesn’t matter – it gave me a great idea and I had the best time working on those cards!

Same same - but different!

World Card Making Day

Yesterday was World Card Making Day! (So much for old news…) And I had such big plans – and then everything turned out very different. There were a few things to take care of before I was to get started on the planned projects. One of them was to collect a few chestnuts for today’s centerpiece to the left… I had a friend over for tea and cake. So I went out and successfully collected a few chestnuts. And on the way passed the Book Cupboard, or Books Outdoors as is the official English term. People stop by to drop books they don’t need or want anymore – some maybe even leave books they particularly like, so as to spread the word. And whatever you find there and would like to read, you can take it, read it and either return it or keep it. I really like the idea and even though many books are quite worn and old (just old, not qualifying as antique, I’m afraid), you can sometimes find real gems there. This cupboard is situated in a very nice area of the city where a lot of people pass on their Sunday strolls or on their way home from work. There are a number of comfy benches close by so you can even take a little break and read the first pages before deciding to take it or leave it.So of course, I went to have a look as well – I always do when I happen to pass by. And this time I also found something interesting and decided to take it home: a map book published in 1978, one that is commonly used in schools (in more recent editions, of course!) And all the plans I’d had until that moment were dust… I suddenly thought that these maps would make beautiful envelopes and soon discovered that I could even make matching note cards to go with them out of one page. Don’t get me wrong: I love books and map books in particular – I can spend hours just studying maps, I guess that’s when the geographer deep inside resurfaces – and the thought of treating books with anything less than care is foreign to me. I’m the kind of person who buys a book AGAIN when a glass of water was accidentally spilled on it. I hate dog-ears. You will not find books with broken spines on my shelves. Yet I was ready to tear apart this beautiful map book… I guess I felt that I was taking it to another state of being or something.

And then I was at it for more than five hours, making 24 envelopes with 24 matching cards in 11.5 x 21 cm…

And when I was done, I arranged them into four sets of 6 cards each, a „Germany Edition“, an „Americas Edition“, an „Asia Edition“ and a „Europe Edition“. And thought of larger envelopes to use as packaging. And thought of labels to go with them.

And then I went to bed 🙂
Take care!
Barbara

T is for Tree

Would you believe it? There is another Christmas card blog out there! It’s the ABC Christmas Challenge and what they do is have a new challenge every other week, the theme depending on the letter of the alphabet that they’ve reached. So they started out with „A is for Angels“, moved on to „B is for Bells“ etc. Now we’ve reached „T is for Trees“… and I wonder what will be next: „U is for…?“ Anyway, I got into the tree card creation mode and this is what resulted from that – as I had the supplies and was in the mood for it, I made two in one session.

I guess that’s it for today… or not?!
Barbara

More from the creative corner

I guess it’s save to say that I propelled myself into Christmas mood within hours after returning from my business trip… And I keep discovering all those challenges! Thanks to all of you who post them! There’s the weekly challenge over at CPS and that’s what I – albeit loosely – worked on this morning. You can see the sketch to the right and below are two cards that were inspired by it.

Initially, I meant this to be a Christmas card but then decided to leave out the Christmas sentiment - because I think it could just as well be used for a December birthday, don't you think?


I love snowmen... and by now can hardly wait for snow!
We’ll see what else is going to happen in my creative corner this afternoon!
Barbara

Back on the paper trail… again

FINALLY!! I can hardly contain my excitement! For the first time ever since I started working on the apartment some time in mid-June I have found an afternoon on which to totally indulge in paper creations. Pure bliss!
Even more excitement to think that by writing this entry today I also manage to participate in the September challenge of CCALR. This month’s challenge: create five Christmas cards in an unsual format – that is other than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches… (which I believe would be 10.8 x 14 cm). I have made all my cards in 2.95 x 8.27 inches – which is 7.5 x 21 cm. And I had a blast. Here goes:

I had initially planned to mass produce this one but after two I realized I'd run out of the snowflake netting in the background. So I thought of other designs...


Oh yes - I like stripes almost anywhere, not only on my shirts! This also allowed me to make use of some of the scraps that have been accumulating here... I think I'll make some more of these cards. I really like them.

One of those days I will also figure out a way to ensure better lighting when I take pictures of the cards…

Oh and yes… I have been cheating: last night’s post on Liberia already came from home – I’m back!

Have a nice rest of the weekend!
Barbara

Birthday card

My new creative corner has yielded the first results! I admit that the monkey ended up looking more like he was participating in the javelin competition at the jungle games rather than brachiating from branch to branch but anyway – it was the perfect birthday card for my sister: my present was a „coupon“ for a day spent together at the zoo… hopefully being able to visit the recently constructed hippodome at Cologne’s Zoo. It’s supposed to be quite the experience…
There have been more results of my newly awakening creativity in paper crafts… Still no Christmas cards, though 😦 But now let me put together the entry on more output I’ve had recently! ~Barbara

Flowery Christmas in May

This has been one of those days when you get home from work and just need something to take your mind off things… that is to say perfect to finish the last cards for this month’s challenge at the blog of fellow Christmas card crazies. The challenge was:

Here’s our challenge for May….Since April showers bring May flowers, let’s use flowers on our cards this month along with ribbon(s) and button(s).

I admit: mine usually only feature flowers and never buttons but I decided to post them anyway. Again, I was challenged to make cards I wouldn’t really think of by myself. That will forever be the favorite part of these challenges for me. Anyway, here they are:

I guess that could have been an entry for the April challenge as well - creations in pastel colors...

Oh gosh, there IS a button after all! Completely forgot about it!

And there are some ribbons...!

I think this is my favorite... or maybe the one with the Christmas tree.

Can’t wait for June… and for whenever it happens that I’ll re-do „the other room“ and finally have a fixed creative corner…
Barbara