Kicking things off in style

Hey there, how's your weekend going? I had been working on a communication concept all week long with a fellow student and I'm so glad the presentation went well yesterday. Doing a presentation is all okay for me but knowing you have not professors but professional agency staff and marketing heads in front of you to rate your performance... ahem.

On another note, did you see that little button to the right? Wahooo, I'm part of the new Scrap-Art-Zine design team!!! :) To celebrate the new magazine design team, our new website design, Facebook page and blog, we have teamed up with some wonderful sponsors for twenty-one (the next issue in March will be the 21st) amazing giveaways. 

There are several ways to enter your name until next Sunday, January 29 for a chance to win. Everyone can play, so hop over to the blog!

Lost, not found

Hello dear readers, has anyone of you seen this card?

As you may recall from the last post, I joined a mini kit swap last year. For 2012, I'm going to swap birthday cards with another group of scrap gals because, honestly, who of you would turn down a bunch of beautiful handmade cards in your inbox? The first birthday card is due in about ten days. I had it all ready to mail and now it's hiding from me... argh. I'm quite sure it will magically appear after my visit to the post office. Ah well, one more card for the stash :) Have a fabulous start of the week!


Supplies
Stamps: text stamp (by myself)
Ink: PTI True Black and Tea Dye Chai
Patterned Paper: Studio Calico Countryside (Wildflower)
Cardstock: PTI kraft, Dani Peuss creme and steingrau, lavender (from stash)
Other: PTI dies (Butterfly, Signature Series: Butterfly, Limitless Layers 2 1/2), PTI rustic twine, PTI Vintage Button Lemon Tart, PTI Impression Plate Text Style, sewing machine/thread, washi tape

Homemade stamps

I realize it's a bit late for a Christmas post but I just have to share this (new to me) discovery. Did you know you can turn virtually any die into a stamp? It was late November and at that time I was in desperate need of Christmas stamps for a mini card kit swap on a German scrapper's forum. Then, when I saw one of Studio Calico's add-ons (Printer's Drawer) to their December kit I kind of had a spark of genius: Take some ordinary fun foam, sent it through your preferred die-cutting machine with any die you have on hand and temporarily attach it to your stamping block. Tadaa, new stamp!! :D

As you can see in my photo, I used fairly thin fun foam (approx. 1/8 in) and then glued a second layer on top of it b/c the foam became heavily squished in the Cuttlebug. What do you think? Will you give it a try or have you already made something alike? Again, I'm probably not the first to who have made this discovery but thought I'd share with you anyway. Btw, here you can see the stuff I sent to my fellow kit swappers...

...along with these little hybrid thank-you notes I made with Illustrator, some baker's twine and PTI dies:

One fun fact from making the kit: I was required to send two 6x3" pieces of patterned paper. With the left over pieces, two half sheets of pp, I intended to make my Christmas cards for the year. Guess what? I cut 6x4 inch pieces instead. Guess what? I had a super lazy moment (didn't wanted to go out to an LSS for just one sheet of paper) and decided to cut one inch strips from these pieces and rock the cards with that. Guess what? I sent photos of two of the cards to Crate Paper and they posted them on their blog. Ha! 

Needless to say I'm humbled to see my cards among these talents!! Okay, enough of my terrible ramblings. Have a great weekend, all!

Simple is the New Black

Happy New Year to all of you! May it be filled with lots of love, 

adventures and dreams come true :)

Usually I don't do new year's resolutions. I know, I am tempted to give in to the high hopes a new year brings just to feel guilty I cannot keep up with the whole thing. So, my route to new year's resolutions for 2012 is a fairly simple one: Drink two bottles of water every day (I'm through a bottle already, yay!), trying to keep things simple, have fun and take a photo every day along the route. What about you? Did you settle on your resolutions yet or rather not make any resolutions at all?


In true new-year-clean-slate-and-all style I kept my card for today fairly simple and also sentimentless though it actually was a birthday card for one of my cousins, a New Year's Eve child:

That's it from me, now. I have the week off and want to take the time on this rainy day for some much needed cleaning and purging. 


Supplies
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Round and Round
Ink: Papertrey Ink Ripe Avocado
Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary 
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select White, Vintage Cream and Raspberry Fizz
Other: Studio Calico Mister Huey Shine and Dark Calico, Papertrey Ink dies Limitless Layers 1 3/4" and medium scalloped border, Papertrey Ink Impression Plate (diamonds), Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Ranger Ink Glossy Accents and Tiny Attacher, foam dimensionals, sewing machine/thread