Oktober 3, 2010 von Barbara

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

September 27, 2010 von 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

September 27, 2010 von 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

September 26, 2010 von 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

August 29, 2010 von Barbara

Thank you dinner

At the very last minute I created the menu for the thank you dinner I held last Thursday for the two friends who sanded the floors of the apartment for me – the two of them and their partners that is. I was able to enlist the help of yet another friend who is a very good cook to make this something really special. I called it „D³“, which only makes sense in German: „Das Danke Dinner“ (the thank you dinner). (Un?)Fortunately, my creativity didn’t reach a level that allowed for an adequate centerpiece as well so I had the flower shop around the corner take care of that and I have to say I absolutely love what they came up with. We then started out with a tea cocktail, followed by an avocado-papaya salad served with king prawns with a coriander-garlic stuffing. An absolutely fabulous cucumber-ginger sherbet constituted an intermediate course before we moved on to chicken à là créole. We then had a little room left to accomodate crêpes Suzette with walnut ice-cream and apricot brandy. Yummy!!

August 29, 2010 von 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

August 23, 2010 von Barbara

Bastelecke! Creative corner!

Das wird ein zweisprachiger Blogeintrag, denn das muss ich mit ALLEN teilen 🙂
This is going to be a bilingual blog entry as this has to be shared with ALL 🙂

Gestern erst ein Eintrag mit der Vorstellung meiner tollen Lampe (die mich wirklich jeden Abend aufs neue fasziniert) und nun geht es gleich weiter. Ich kann nur sagen: es gibt einen direkten Zusammenhang zwischen der Frequenz der Einträge und dem Grad meines Wohlbefindens!
It was only yesterday that I posted an entry introducing my great new lamp (which just doesn’t cease to amaze me, night after night) and here we go again. It’s all I can say: there is definitely a correlation between the frequency of entries and the degree of my well-being!
Zum Überblick und besonders für diejenigen unter euch, die die Wohnung tatsächlich kennen folgt ein Foto mit einem Blick aus meinem Wohnzimmer ins Ess- und Bastelzimmer…
Have a look at a picture I took in my living-room, looking towards the dining- and creative room – to give you an idea about the general set-up and in particular for those of you who actually know the apartment…
Man schreitet also durch den Türrahmen, wendet sich nach links und sieht…
You step from one room to the next, turn left and see…

Tadaaaaaa! 🙂
Die Beleuchtung ist noch nicht das, was sie sein soll und diverse Behältnisse fehlen noch… aber ich bin BEGEISTERT. Wie ihr vielleicht merkt 🙂
The lighting isn’t what it’s supposed to be yet and some boxes are still missing… but I can hardly contain my excitement. As you can tell 🙂

Ha!
Barbara

Mai 17, 2010 von 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

Mai 1, 2010 von Barbara

Back on the paper trail

I returned from a 4-week vacation in Indonesia and Malaysia only last week… it was extended a little bit by the disruption of air traffic after that Icelandic volcao had erupted. But I had a great time traveling Java, Bali and then some in Malaysia, meeting pen friends along the way and making new friends, too. And even though there was enough to plow through at work, I was soon back at creating cards as well. My Dad will be 80 this June and it was time that we sent out the invitations. So I set out to create a card that was simple (talking about straight lines and such), festive and easy to mass-produce. And I even found a way of including a „souvenir“ from Malaysia: I found the glitter paper in a store in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown. Here’s the result:

I have a feeling I’ll soon be back participating in the CPS competitions… and see what the Christmas Card blog will challenge us to in May 😉

Take care!
Barbara

März 13, 2010 von Barbara

Snowmen in green

It has finally happened: I have found a community that seems to be just about as crazy about Christmas as I am… creating „Christmas cards all year round“! That’s the end of being defensive about this hobby 🙂

They do a challenge every month and for the month of March the idea was to create five cards that are mainly green and feature a snowman. It was something I would never have thought of: to me, snowmen somehow go with blue… probably having in mind ice that has a blue hue or the perfect blue sky of a winter day. Or just that green is associated with spring, with all the fresh flowers etc. Whatever. But thanks so much for suggesting this – I really like the combination and am happy that I was pushed towards trying!

One of the cards also is in this week’s CPS 157 challenge.. I had already published it here but will add it again into my display here.