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.