Ally Pally after-effects

And guess what, Helene used all her purchases straight away after going home! She produced some lovely ATCs with her new papers, stamps and glitter pens. Thank you so much, Helene, I love it.

Petra.

Ally Pally - what a day

Early this morning we set out to spend the day enjoying ourselves at Alexandra Palace. As there were three of us and we had the feeling that maybe there might be quite a bit to carry when heading home we went by car. Helene drove. It all went very smoothly and within an hour we arrived at our destination. Jane had warned us that it might be extremely busy and we even might need to wait to get into the show but luckily we did not have to restrain ourselves and we got in almost immediately.
It was amazing. Where to look first? What to buy? The items on offer just seemed to be endless. From necessaties like glue, pads, tape to pen and gorgeous paper, to basic cardstock and atcs, envelopes and sleeves to embellishments and, of course, stamps. The variety of stamps you were able to purchase was just overwhelming.
I found tow complete new ranges of stamps I had never heard of beforehand: Little Claire Designs and Stamps Away. They are great especially Little Claire Designs. I love them and could have bought all of them! and their dies.
We also had a chance to take part in one of their ATC swaps. Although I must admit I was a disappointed about the participation. Only six ladies took part. Their ATCs were wonderful and these are the ones I got:



Eventually we had to leave, the show was nearly over and our wallets felt - and still feel - very light



But it was very enjoyable to spend the day with friends and being able to spend money on things you love. And now ........
..... work starts - organizing the new purchases, making cards, .... :-)



Petra.

Showtime ....

.... at Alexandra Palace. Tomorrow is THE big day. I go with two friends to the big stamp and scrapbooking show - yippeeeeeeee ...... We haven't been talking about much else the last days or even weeks. It is sooooo exciting. I have not to this show before and it is only my second crafty one at all. The first I visited was in Farnborough which was nice but it was a bit disappointing as it was very quiet. So, we will see how this one will be, I am really looking forward to it.
I made myself a list of everything I need/want to buy and will try very hard to be a good girl and stick to my list. Well, you can always try ........ One of my friends told me that they have an ATC swap at Alexandra Palace so I made some ATCs to take along. I still need to finish the backing on some:

sorry for the quality of the photos, it is not so easy to take photos with flash, the colours just look washed out and the stickers show reflection :-(

take a break cupcakes


eat cake


ladies shopping


gardening


Which reminds me, I need some ATC sleeves .....
Hope you have an enjoyable Sunday, Petra.

Leaving

This week a very good colleague and friend left, not only her job but also the country. She is going to live in Germany. It is always sad to see nice people you really like leaving. The card I made for her turned out to be a bit subdued - probably not really a surprise. I reduced the stamping to a minimum, just the sentiment. The stamp I used is from Penny Black sentiment stamp set, papers: BasicGrey, ribbons: East of India and Pattberg, the buttons I found in my Grandma's button box.

Petra.

Milk Carton

Ever since I have seen the milk carton from Pam on the Elzybells blog I wanted to give it a go. Pam, thank you for the template, it is so nice and lovely as box for a little present. (a similar one is on the Mirkwood template page)
To work out how to do it best it took a little bit of thinking, tweaking and tuning. As I wanted to make one as birthday present I first made a prototype and learning from all mistakes, I then gave it a second go:



In a way I like both, they are perfect as box for some very nice yummy butter biscuits :-) And I will definitely make some more. Petra.

Shabby Chic

For the first time at the beginning of this week I came across the blog of the Daring Cardmakers. I love their creations and I was immediately hooked by this weeks challenge: Shabby Chic. This is something completely new for me, a real challenge.Most of my cards feature some sort of stamping and I always try to keep a clean and uncluttered look. Well, shabby chic is anything but uncluttered. So I had a go and this is the result, I hope you like it:

Thank you to the Graphics Fairy for the fabulous images. They are amazing! Add-on bits: rub-ons from K&Company, lace from my Grandma, blings from Kanban.

Petra.

Elzybells Challenge #27

The challenge is to alter a stamped image. The topic I choose is: everybody needs a break from time to time even if you are a great painter.

I used two different Elzybells stamp sets, Masterpiece and a small cup and sentiment from Cool Beans.
The image is coloured with Koh-i-noors/OMS. The painting and the cup is paper from American Crafts.
The image is layered on brown craft card, and Basic Grey paper.
The ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons.
And a little Kaban bling .......

Have a good break, Petra.

Autumn

Do you feel the same? Although the days are wonderfully sunny, the mornings and evenings are getting quite chilly already. The air smells of fading blooms, trees are loosing their first leaves, the last fruits are to be harvested.

It is autumn!

The pears are picked and stored in a cool and dry place.

Most of the apples have become victims of the wind. More apples have fallen down than there are hanging on the tree. In one way this is a shame as there will be hardly any left for the winter month. And the question is always what to do with the windfall ones. This time I decided to make 'Apfelmus' or applesauce:

Cut the apples into smallish junks, mix them with cinnamon, a little bit of light brown sugar and a tiny amount of water. Then simmer it for a few minutes till the sauce has the consistency you like. I like it when it is not entirely smooth :-) . I always use a French Jam Pot (Bassine a Confiture en cuivre) for this process. It is fabulous!
When I was a child, my grandma used to eat applesauce with maccaroni and fried bread crumbs, I loved it. These days I like the applesauce best with yoghurt - although thinking about it, Peter likes it best with some nice piece of pork.

And then the last blackberries.

They are now very very sweet and tasty - yummy. But what to do with them. Jam, Freezing, ... quite boring so I went for some delicious little blackberry cakes.



... picking, preparing and adding to the dough ...



... fill it into cupcake cases and bake ...



... the result - even better with a little dusting of icing sugar ...



Yummy! Have a good start into a new week. Petra.

Design your own stamped patterned background paper ....

The previous Elzybells challenge really inspired me to create more stamped patterned backgorund paper for my cards. Own of my friends will start an Art Mastercourse at University very shortly and I thought it would be quite nice to give her a wish well card

I quite like the result :-): I used very strongly textured white card stock, drew blue and green squares onto the card with Sakura pens. The white swirls were created with the Sakura eraser pen. Afterwards I stamped painter utensils onto the background.
The image, sentiment and background are stamped with Elzybells Masterpiece clear stamp set. The colouring is done with Koh-i-noor pencils and I couldn't resist to add some little blings. Voila, ready to go.
Have a nice Sunday, Petra.

Elzybells Challenge Card

The challenge is to make your own patterned paper to be used on the card. It really got me thinking. And in the end I went for a very subtle style:
I created a square pattern using yellow and white Koh-i-noors on white textured paper for Acrylic painting, stamped random Long Daisy flower heads with black Heine ink on top of the squares. For the card itself I stamped the Long Daisy on white textured paper using Stazon Jetblack, layered the image on yellow and black plain paper and added some little yellow Kanban self-adhesive pearls. The sentiment is stamped also using Stazon Jetblack ink:



Petra.

Charlie, the puppy

My colleague Jane got a puppy about two weeks ago. From the pictures you can see that he is a real cutie. And I thought that it would be quite nice to make a card for him and his 'owners' (and a good excuse to make a card!).
I used Elzybells stamps for the background, the sentiment and the main image. The paper is plain dark blue and light yellow, stripy paper from K&Company; as for the colouring I mixed Koh-i-noors' and felt tip pens.


And as I was stamping away I thought that it would be maybe quite nice to have a matching envelope :-)


Have a nice weekend, Petra.

Schultuete

Tomorrow my step-grandson Nathanael has his first day at primary school. It is really exciting - more for us than for him I think! In Germany tradition has it that every child which starts primary school will be presented with a so-called 'Schultuete' (= school cone or school bag) by their parents or grandparents before they set off to school. The 'Schultuete' is a big cardboard cone, prettily decorated and filled with little toys, school supplies, and various other goodies. It is given to children to make this first day of school a little bit sweeter.
To carry on the tradition I decided to make a cone for Nathanael. I got the material from Hobby Craft (paper), used various Sizzix die-cut shapes and bits and bobs I had at home. The first step was to decide on a colour scheme for the cardboard. I chose light blue and chocolate brown for the card.

With the help of a pencil and some string I drew the cone shape onto both cards and then cut it to shape. You might wonder why I needed two cones but the individual cardboard would have been too flimsy to stand the weight of the goodies :-)

For me making two cones which fit into each other has always been a bit of a nightmare. It was not any different this time and it worked only with the help of double-sided tape, a lot of tacky glue and patience.

Crepe paper sits between the two cones. This will later be used to close the cone at the top.
And after the structural work the fun bit - the decoration.







And, of course, not to forget the contents .......

Nathanael's granddad, Peter Pop as he is called, will drop off the cone tonight so that Nathanael will find it tomorrow morning as a surprise.

This project reminded me very much of the days when my two children went to school for the very first time. They were so excited. New environment, new friends, the teachers and, of course, a huge school cone. Today they are both already adults, 24 and 26 years old. Time just goes so quickly.

Happy first school day to all who start tomorrow! Petra.

ATC swap follow-on

These are the fabulous ATCs I received in return for mine:



Petra.