Hey peeps,
just a quick one today: A friend asked me to make her a manly Thank-You card this afternoon, so I whipped up this little number:

It uses my brand-spankin’ new “Dankeschön” stamp by BastisRIKE plus a banner cut out with my silhouette, some washi, Mr. Hueys in Dark Calico and Mint Julep, a leaf cut out of Benzie Bazaar felt (thanks, Angy!) and a woodgrain-embossed cardbase (thanks, Dana!). I found it really hard not to use any bows, glitter or pink ^^ And that sums it up.

Have a lovely week!

(using my Silhouette Portrait, Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper Pad, SC Patterned Paper, some washi, Mr. Hueys, a leftover from a pink doily, twine and a badge from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection)

Hope you’re having a great week!

Nina

P.S. Title from this lovely song by Brooke Fraser.

a Happy New Year to everyone of you!

In case you were wondering – I’m still alive and well, it’s just that the holidays, a vacation and that whole being-self-employed thing can take up quite a lot of time. Also, in December I have posted some things in forums as opposed to my blog which added to my blogging hiatus.

So, without further ado, I’d like to show you some of the Christmas cards I made – hope you’re not too tired of looking at Christmas-related stuff

This year’s go-to card design – very flat and mailable, yet with trendy elements like sewing, washi tape and glitter splatters.

A little emerald green and woodgrain plus gold…

Some fun winter scenery courtesy of this lovely card made by the very talented Julie Ebersole.

Cute snowman (a brand-new Tim Holtz blueprint stamp) on diagonal stripes…

A little bird bringing winter wishes to dear friends…

Some more sewing and stamping…

Unfortunately, this lovely number apparently didn’t make it to its destination…

And that would have been the card for my (celebrity superstar ) friend Dana, if the Swiss post would have bothered to deliver it to her… *insert grumpy face*

I did hop onto the bandwagon of December Dailies in 2012 and since mine is not even halfway finished, here’s a sneak peek of the cover

What do you think? Any favourites among these?

Thanks for looking and see you soon!

Why, of course I jumped onto the gold/glitter/feathers bandwagon, what did you think?!

For this classic wedding card, it was old and new and nothing blue, for the birdy stamp is from Basic Grey’s Urban Prairie Collection (remember that one?) and I think it’s just perfect, embossed in black glitter Zing!

The following, in no particular order, are some projects from this year that I hadn’t taken pictures of (so far) – yes, I still have them, that means they’re actually for nobody but for myself to keep! I’m fearless, people, I try new stuff even if it’s scary

That’s a mini album (using the MakeSomethingSplendid Tutorial [I had purchased the full kit, but I didn't take pictures of the one that I created with it]) which has all the photos and stuff from our trip to Munich last year.

That little number (oh Boy!) is just a tiny, stapled book to hold all the business cards I receive these days.

The idea came from the cute daybook Amy Tan(gerine) was carrying around. She just washi’d the memory tags and photos down, which I thought was genius, since if you only washi tape one edge, you can still lift up the tag to read what’s on the backside.

This layout and the following two are shameless CASEs from those beautiful layouts by Rahel Menig. They’re 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, quite an approachable size for a cardmaker

A more christmassy one. (In case you’re wondering, that’s sunlight on top of the page, not warped paper. Oh yeah we get sunlight. Sometimes.)

Yes, it is

And that’s a really simple card, more than just loosely inspired by this lovely creation from Kimberly Crawford.

Sooo, we’re coming to the end of the little show & tell and so here it is, last but not least, the pièce de résistance (after which I could indeed not resist anymore and had to start scrapbooking on 12×12 – like real scrapbookers do!! *gasp*):

It`s me! Holding up a 12×12 layout that I did all. by. my. self.
Except that it was a class taught by no other than the wonderful Amy Tan herself.
Aaaand she took an instagram picture of me! With my layout! And posted it onto her Instagram page! And *the* Céline Navarro commented on it! Telling Amy that she “knows that girl”! Eeeek. *nerd out*

Ahem. Yeah. Where was I? Oh right, that was all – for now.
See ya, ladies!!

First off, as promised, the nail polish from Kiko (hi Tina!) – I bought a charcoal coloured one (looks almost black on the nails [two layers - one is too thin]) and, of course, an emerald green one (such a trendy colour atm [something that Dana pointed out to me], had to have it) – I’m lucky I already own an emerald green cardi, now all I have to do is pair that with every possible item from my wardrobe – autumn here I come

I really want to get scrappin’ again, yet there are a million things on my table right now that need attention (yet aren’t that enjoyable), so I’m pretty lucky I got some cards done at least.

Gonna show you photos of those next time, here’s a photo of cross boule equipment instead:

(oh and there’s said cardigan, haha that was coincidence)

Have a nice weekend!

P.S. Wow, I am so much quicker writing a post with a glass of wine next of me – now why is that, I may ask? (Amber, you with me here?) )
PPS. The title is from a current favourite, One Republic – Feel Again (nope, didn’t see that one coming)

I had to take a night shift to finish it off, but that was totally worth it – the recipient liked it a lot.

So last weekend, we went to a lovely concert with this band:

And they were kinda surprised when the crowd turned their backs on them…

(It was their last concert in Germany, so the Crew had given out a written note to everyone of us, to do what you see on the photo as soon as the band would ask us to sing along.) We had a great time – the songs are much more powerful IRL and Valeskas enthusiasm on stage is just adorable. Also: she looks like a fairy.

Thanks to Wiebke, I managed to snag their autographs onto my new CD:

I really want to make a mini album about this weekend (even though I still have New Zealand, Munich and Fischermühle waiting in line… argh). Thanks Dana, for the drive and thanks to Marco & Wiebke for everything!

See ya!

P.S. The title stems from Sara Bareilles’ song “Carolina”.

And here’s my card:

On the card you’ll find all of the above colours (plus a little black thrown in for contrast) and some of the gorgeous Papertrey products.
I used the following: Harvest Gold Cardstock, Background: Newsprint stamp set, Bitty Box patterned paper in Summer Sunrise and Twill Ribbon in Chartreuse as well as Solid Satin Ribbon in Melonberry.

Thanks for looking!
I’m off – you’ve gotta enjoy the sun while it’s there! *whee* B)
See ya!

P.S. And, of course, credit where it is due: the card idea is from this lovely number (3rd card) created by Dawn McVey
P.S.S. Apparently the sun is making me all dizzy – I shouldn’t forget to mention that this die-cut was made and given to me by my lovely friend Dana, thanks girl!!

Cool, huh?
So yeah, this is a card I made some nights ago after a long day full of translating marketing stuff  The “sketch” for this one is Dawn’s adorable card following the release of Studio Calico’s new kit.
Random insert: Okay, this is weird, a soap bubble just came in through the tilted window and floated onto my desk to pop. Um yeah… where was I?

Ah right, I wanted to show you the whole card. Tadaa:

The composition is similar to her card, except I used different materials (also: no die-cut machine) and I decided to tilt the tag. I really love how this turned out and can’t wait to try the other designs from her post.
So if you’ll excuse me now, I’ve got to get my paper out

Wheee This is my new but old little treasure. I have wanted a functioning typewriter for quite some time now and when I saw photos of this lovely mint-coloured, well-designed Consul typewriter, I knew I had to have one. I just bought a new ribbon and ta-daa…

I’ve already used it to write on cards made from scraps lying around on my table and it’s perfectly imperfect:

I just can’t stop using my new wood veneer paper - it’s super thin and therefore easy to use with paper punches. I had tried my hand on 2mm balsa wood, but it starts to crumble away when I try to cut into it.
Anyhow, hope you have a nice week
Talk to you soon!

Chocolate/Vanilla Cake Pops, first take

And, of course, she got a birthday card (I made the paperclip, using some My Mind’s Eye fabric and a common paper clip – I need to get hold of some fabric stiffener, that would prevent the fraying and I’d be able to make cute embellishments like those bows)…

… and this Accordion/ Leporello album made from scratch (using this idea with different measurements). My album measures 4 1/4 x 6 1/2 and I am particularly proud of taking the courage to stamp on fabric – I test-stamped on a leftover swatch and found that Stone Grey Staz-On didn’t show up too well, but Palette Hybrid Ink in Noir Black made a nice impression.
I was really happy to finally use my newly acquired Tim Holtz stamp – it is sure to make an appearance in future projects as well since I am totally in love with the font treatment

Here’s a little collage showing you the insides of the album:

If you have any questions, let me know

P.S.: The title of this post is, of course, the title of a favourite song by Mike & the Mechanics, but currently the tune playing in my head is Mayer Hawthorne’s “A long time” – an appropriate title as well ;D