What goes around…

Hey there How’s it? Looks like my “going back to regular blogging” plans are still on hold for now
How are your plans for tomorrow night? Going partying? We sure are!
How was your holiday season? Did you get some nice presents?
Look what my darling got me:

(image src: http://www.unique-way.de/dsc/7/1/57834/arena-copenhagen-kette/)

Love me some pretty jewellery from my honeybun
This is one thing he got in return:

To make this, I used a simple bulletin board, loads of spray adhesive, staples and some cool retro fabric – chosen especially for my oldtimer-lovin’ boyfriend
Here’s to his work space getting more organized from now on

And here are some photos from some of this years’ Christmas cards:

This one (Day 18 from the Holiday Card Series) is a rather elegant card I made in two different versions.

The next card is the one I mass-produced this year: extremely mail-friendly and for boys and girls alike

The idea came from this card (also from Kristina, who’da thunk )

Next up is a tricky one, the twine is pretty thick and therefore hard to get through the paper without tearing.

This is another shameless CASE from Day 6 of the Holiday Card Series.

The following card is from Day 4.

And this one is my interpretation of Day N° 1.

Last but not least Day Number Two, realized with my means:

Which one is your favourite?

Wishing you a great start into 2012 and no hangovers
Xoxo – Nina

Stand up again

Hey there!
How are you doing?
Today I’m done with all the exams and normally that would equal being done with everything. But not so for me since… well those of you who know me are up to date already. For those of you who don’t: some nasty stomach bug prevented me from taking one exam. So I won’t be “done done” for some time still, which totally sucks. I’ve therefore decided that the following really is my song for now:

But in todays final exams I did really well, so that’s cheering me up

Enough rambling for today, here are two cards I made recently, one for a new baby girl:

The layout and idea is from this card created by Melissa Philips. I love those fabric and felt swatches – perfect for a little girl. The fabric is mostly Heather Bailey and the felt is Oatmeal from Benzie Bazaar. Cardstock and ribbon are PTI Rustic cream, letter stickers are Cosmo Cricket and American Crafts (glitter!! eek ^^) and the die-cut is from Collage Press Sweet Shoppe. And a butterfly from the stash, of course – I loved getting to play with glittery things, bows, felt, butterflies… yay for that little girl

 And here’s one masculine birthday card that has a great autumn feel to it:

The idea is totally stolen from this link I found on Nora’s blog. It took some time to sew this by hand, but it’s so worth it Also, my sewing machine is broken. I’m lazy, y’know The felt is Benzie Bazaar again, the cardstock is Coredinations and Stampin’ Up.

Anyhow, a nice hot tub is waiting for me and I hope it’ll help against this autumnal cold.
See ya soon!

You remind me of home when you’re around me. Next time you leave, don’t go without me.

Hey everyone!

Long time no see, I know.
Tomorrow is my first day of exams, which is precisely why my blog has gotten so neglected. I’m really looking forward to being done with the exams (hopefully in a good way) and although it will take six consecutive days of “anything you say or do can and will be held against you” (6+2 exams in a row), I’m just so annoyed with all the tension and excitement that I really want to get it over with. And pass, of course.

If I really make it and pass all the exams, this would mean that my student life is officially over and that six years of studying and twelve years of dreaming about becoming an interpreter were not for nothing. I really hope my nervousness doesn’t get in the way tomorrow (or any of the upcoming, decisive days for that matter) and that next Wednesday, when the interpreting exams are done (just two oral exams about cultural & translation studies to go), I’ll have more than one reason to celebrate. There’ll be champagne, now that’s for sure!

Anyhow, I’ll leave you with a photo of our Callicarpa bush with violet berries.

See you soon and please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Hugs – Nina

P.S. The title of this post stems from this Lissie song.

Ain’t that peculiar

Hey everyone!
How’s it going?

Just stopping by to say hello to you and post some recent projects.

Here’s number one:

This is just a little notepad I made for Angy‘s birthday using some Daily Junque paper and twine as well as a little die-cut felt cloud in oatmeal, fabric thickers in charcoal and alphas from October Afternoon & Cosmo Cricket.

Next up is this little card I made for my grandpa’s 70th birthday:

Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t do it justice – the sun was blasting and the location wasn’t ideal either, but I hope you get the idea. The background was stamped in Ocean Tides on cardstock of the same colour. The stamp is from Studio Calico and the sentiment is Papertrey Ink. The patterned paper is from the Upcycle (how punny!) Mini Deck. To finish it off, I wrapped some white/grey bakers twine around the panel and drew a few dashed lines on the sentiment flag. The overall idea came from this card created by Kristina Werner.

This btw is one of the famously delicious Oreo Cupcakes, made recently for my friend Janina’s birthday. Yeah, the frosting is actually meant to look different, but it was too warm and the cream didn’t work the way it was supposed to.

And now, as promised, a glimpse of our weekend in Munich:

There was some random dancing in the park, visiting the German Museum, meeting friends, having Brezel & Weißwurst for breakfast, doing touristy things, admiring lots of great architecture, applauding the Isar surfers, enjoying a Rotling at sundown on the steps of the Feldherrenhalle, trying a Dirndl on, having “Breakfast at Tiffanys”, getting a makeover at the Benefit counter, eating little works of art, shopping felt, and lots of walking. Munich is so very worth a visit – lovely city!

Okay, gotta go and get a massage, my back’s killing me.

See ya soon!

The Middle of Nowhere

Hello World!
How’s it going? Over here, the hottest topic around seems to be the windy, rainy and cold weather that’s occupying the place of seasonally appropriate weather. And of course, when skies are grey, no way I could take any decent pictures (I always rely on natural light). Luckily, the weather changes by the hour, so here are some pics of cards I recently created:

This one is a shameless CASE of this stunning card by Laura Vegas. The original just kinda screamed my name and it’s great to use for a male recipient since it’s so clean relying upon structure rather than bows and flowers.

The patterned papers used are Studio Calico and MME, the ribbon is Harvest Gold Twill from Paperytrey, the letter stickers are from Basic Grey and the rest is from my stash.

I’m particularly proud of this card made for a friend whose cousin is getting married. The doily in the background (from my lovely friend Angy) was misted with Mr. Hueys Lunch Tray, adhered over a strip of Dear Lizzy Mixtape and partly covered by a Dear Lizzy just write ticket. The letter stickers are charcoal fabric Thickers and the sparkly flower is a Prima Sugar Blooms one.
The design idea is very loosely taken from this card from June 2010 by Sarah Martina.

Last but not least, here’s a card I had to make for a sad event. A dear neighbour of ours recently lost the fight against cancer and so I made this sympathy card for his wife and family. He was a great person and we’re going to miss him.

The background was stamped in PTI’s Charcoal (image from PTI’s Giga Guidelines) and the papers are from the Cosmo Cricket Upcycle Mini Deck. To give the card another personal touch, the sentiment was handwritten.
This btw is my interpretation of a recent MACM from Kristina Werner.

Otherwise, not a lot has happened, I’ve been trying to cross some things off my list and last weekend we went to Munich for fun. I’ll show you the pics next time
ATM I’m working a bit more in the wine store to cover for my boss, who’s on a well deserved two-week vacation.
And from next week on, our excercise schedule at uni (preparation for oral exams in October) starts. I’m trying not to think about the exams too much yet, just makes me nervous
I’ll also be trying to scrapbook a little in the next time since there’s quite some stuff I’d like to record right now. I’ll make sure to show you the results

Have a nice week and talk to you soon!

Nina

P.S. This is the cool (2005) song the above blog post title is from:

Read the writing on the wall*

Hey everyone! How are things?

In good old Heidelberg it’s windy, raining, but the sun is shining all the same.
I had promised you to post the photos of my apple pincushions way back in February, but so far I can’t for the life of me find the pictures I took… :/ If I find them, I’ll of course share them with you. So for now, I’m going to show you an envelope album I made for my friend Julian, who is a pilot. It came in handy that my most recent delivery of lots and lots of paper crafting goodness contained two stamp sets that lent themselves to this project.

 I have used this “Envelope Book” idea from Heather Nichols several times over the past years and I’ve always been very pleased with the outcome.

This time I stuck to the colour combo Rustic Cream/ Dark Shadow/ Harvest Gold/Aqua.

The stamps are PTI, Studio Calico and Tim Holtz.

The backside was covered in Rustic Cream CS, then stamped in Palette Noir and American Crafts Aqua Chalk Ink. To add some interest, I sprinkled Mister Huey’s (lunchtray) onto the cardstock.

Whaddya think? It basically took me forever to finish this, must’ve been the “thesis syndrome” holding me back. That’s also the one responsible for my lack of pincushion photos, I guess.

On another note, Thursday last week, Buck turned 5:

And we made a field trip to Strasbourg, where we got to interpret the Parliamentary Assembly’s Session for three days (silent booth, of course )

That stewardess (sorry: uniformed crew member ;D) in the middle is yours truly
We had so much fun there

Anyway, gotta go and help my best friend packing, for tomorrow she’ll move to Berlin :/
See ya!

*The title stems from this great song (that I included in my thesis): Kodachrome by Paul Simon.

In my lonely room

This post will be the most exciting yet, at least for me. When I post this, it will mean that I have handed in my thesis.

[Insert a *big* YAAAHOOOO!!!]

I can’t believe it’s finally over. I’ve never worked so hard in my entire life and I was amazed at how quickly the pages accumulated. I never thought I’d be able to write 80 or even 100 pages about a topic, let alone a whopping 158. With annex the whole big chunk of A4 paper is about 3cm thick. I wrote a book, people! Over 43.000 words!!!

Anyhow, I’m sure to let you know about the results from the survey soon and am gonna leave you with a card I made:

The layout and ideas for this card are, once again, from Roree Rumph’s lovely creations, this time it’s the second card. All ingredients are from the Crate Portrait Collection (plus a fuzzy felt butterfly, some pins, half pearls, Cosmo velvet ribbon and white/grey bakers twine).

And here’s the video to today’s title (indeed, writing a thesis is a lonely business. Also: it’s no fun. at. all. It is interesting though).

Good night everyone!

Ein kleiner Post vom Frühstückstisch

Hey everyone,

just a quick note to tell you I’m still alive and nearing the deadline for my thesis.

As you might imagine, I’ve not been crafting at all in the last months, except for the CAR3 and Mother’s Day.

Here’s the little card I made for my mom this year:

I really struggled with this teeny weeny card (it’s 4 1/4 x 4 1/4), maybe I’m somewhat out of practice The whole design idea is from this card by Roree Rumph.

Anyhow, gotta go and get ready for another splendid day at the library

See ya!

Have… to… decide… arghh

Hey there,

just a quick post (and a rather functional one, I’m afraid) to ask for your advice on an Easter-related question:

Which one should I choose?

I love them all:

the white one with the great pink/white/brown scarf,

the chocolate one  with its cutie pink nose,

the tan one with the green scarf and

the grey one with the OMGsnowflake

all made by Yarnigans, one amazing Etsy shop I discovered thanks to Cath.

Thanks for helping me decide and happy Easter!

Nina

And the Gutschein goes to…

Liebe Mädels (ja, es gibt offenbar keine scrappenden [deutschen] Männer da draußen, oder es hat sich nur keiner getraut ),

bevor ich zum Tagesordnungspunkt “Gewinnerin bekanntgeben” komme, möchte ich euch allen ganz herzlich fürs Mitmachen danken. Ihr habt kräftig in die Tasten gehauen, alle haben mit angepackt und so haben wir sage und schreibe 610 ausgefüllte Fragebögen erhalten!! 565 hiervon allein aus Deutschland. Ich bin wirklich überwältigt von dieser monströs großen Zahl – seid ihr nicht auch überrascht?!

Ich bin nach wie vor mit dem Auswerten und Verschriftlichen dieses Ergebnisses beschäftigt, aber ich wollte mich an dieser Stelle bei vier Menschen ganz besonders für die sehr erfolgreich verlaufene Umfrage bedanken:

Bei Daniela und Carola, die mir mit Rat & Tat zur Seite gestanden haben und mir mit Inhalt und Form unglaublich viel geholfen haben.
Und selbstverständlich bei Barbara und Dani Peuss, ohne die nie so viele von dieser Aktion erfahren und dabei mitgemacht hätten. Werbung kann sehr viel erreichen – und ein kleines Leckerli auch
Und achja, ohne Google Text & Tabellen (danke, lieber Google-Gott für die Darstellungsfunktion, danke!) hätte das auch nie funktioniert
Also wie gesagt: Tausend Dank an euch, liebe Scrapper, und nochmal Tausend an meine vier lieben Helfer <3

Und jetzt: Trommelwirbelllll….. Gewonnen haaaaaat:

NEFASET!

Dani schickt dir in den nächsten Tagen eine Mail mit deinem Gutschein zu!

Vielen lieben Dank nochmal an Euch alle, die ihr teilgenommen habt und die Umfrage zu einem solchen Erfolg gemacht habt!

Bis bald!
Yours truly – Nina