Just a quick post to be in time for the Papertrey Ink Challenge Day 9:


BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLIES AND LOVELY LEAVES

(Sentiment =PTI)

This card reminded me a little bit of our favourite café located in the ancient inner city of Zadar in Croatia: hubby and I love to sit outside in the sun and read an exciting book or a magazine … it´s very pretty inside, too (LOVE the red chandelier!), but the icing on the cake is the very old inner part of the house…

Thanks for visiting – have a nice day!

Blog Hop!

Welcome everybody to this blog hop for a precious friend!

She lost one of her fur-babies last week and we wanted to let her know we are thinking of her!

It´s dedicated to you, DORCAS!

If you came from Yenni´s blog, you came to the right place. (If anyone gets lost along the way or has started in the middle, you may want to go to our blog hop host STACEY and start from the beginning.)

Dorcas, I made a sticky note booklet for you and I hope it cheers you up a little…

I know, that you are not sooo fond of much bling and sparkle, so I went with a more decent botanical theme… I hope you like it !

It´s yours and will be in your post box in (hopefully) about 2 or 3 weeks.

So, now it´s Jen´s turn. Please check out her lovely project! :-)

A big hug to you Dorcas and thanks everybody for hopping along with us!



Leafy Minicards

Hi all!

How are you? It´s bitterly cold here in Austria and I´m frreeeezzzing!!! So, I´m longing for spring!

According to my longing I´d like to share 2 vernal mini cards today:

Ok, I know, these were only a matter of minutes and they are no spectacular piece of arts ... but ... let me tell you the story behind : I bought a perfume with a really nice fragrance in Italy last year ... so far, so good... but .... let me show you the packaging:

It was so pretty on both sides, that I knew for sure that I would make something with it from the moment I bought it :-) And - as always - I couldn´t resist to use some glitter to sparkle it up :-)

I´d like to participate in the Crafty Cardmakers´Challenge  with these.

Thanks for looking!

Snowman-Mini-Card

Today´s mini card was inspired by a very pretty (quite CAS) card of Kristina Werner - you can check it out HERE.

Here´s my take on Kristina´s idea:

I used the Mini Envelope Die from Papertrey Ink to cut the matching envelope:

I´d like to enter it in these challenges:

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge

Kaboodle Doodles Challenge

Kreative Stempelfreunde

Thanks for visiting today!

Playing with cutting dies

Did you know, that a cutting die isn´t just a cutting die - but can also be an embossing tool?!

Though I knew it, I never tried it myself - until now....

1) For today´s project I cut red cirlce-strips with a border die and adhered it to my card. 

2) Then I put my silicone shim UNDER my card so that the die would not cut through the card but only leave an impression... you have to play a little with the correct thickness of your stack of plates and shims depending on what embossing machine you have.

And this is my result:

An aunt of mine will need a surgery in about 2 weeks and I need a card to ensure her, that we think of her and care about her....

She was the one who taught me to sew, when I was a child - so every time I think of her, I have a sewing or seamstress theme in mind...

This is what I came up with:

I´d like to participate in these challenges with my card:

Moxie Fab Word Die Cutting Challenge

Papertrey Ink´s Make it Monday Challenge (using border dies for creating a background)

Thanks for visiting me today!

Embossing in cutting dies

What? Embossing what? In cutting dies? 

Ok, I´ll clear up the mystery: did you notice this detail on my last card?

I used a Spellbinders cutting die and embossed the die cut while it was still in the die. 

Does everybody know how to do this without harming the embossing folder? 

If not, here´s how:

1) die cut any shape you like

2) turn it over and lay it onto the flat side of an embossing folder

3) put a silicone shim and an embossing plate on top - leave the embossing folder OPEN!

4) walk it through the embossing machine - turn it over and voilá!

A perfectly embossed piece with a small frame all around thanks to the cutting die!

As I´m NO fan of wintertime, I decided to use it for a very bright-colored card...

(Linda, thanks again for the very beautiful pin(s)!!!)

I´d like to enter it into these challenges:

Die Cutting Challenge on the Moxie Fab World

CR84FN Color Challenge

Card Sketch Challenge at The Craft´s Meow

Thanks for stopping by today!

Published! /4

Published again!

It´s such a nice and funny feeling to see own work in a publication :-)  I encourage you to try it yourself !!

This time a wintry wedding card has been accepted...

I made the rose myself with Fimo and a gorgeous mold from the "Mold Muse" etsy shop:

When I started making these, I coudn´t stop - it´s addictive and relaxing...

You wonder where my card has been published?

On page 40 in my favourite magazine:

Come on, try it too! Submit your work - it´s fun!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great week!

PS: I´d like to participate in these challenges: 

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/12/week-135-new-beginnings.html

http://cardcrafterscircle.blogspot.com/2011/12/challenge-3-anything-goes.html

http://simonsaysstampschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/12/simon-says-anything-goes.html

http://frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/2011/12/fabulous-friday-challenge-something-new.html

 http://pileitonchallenge.blogspot.com/2012/01/pile-it-on-1-of-2012-anything-goes.html

15th Anniversary & homemade envelopes

Today is our 15th Wedding Anniversary!

As I was absolutely in love with the card I made for Tom last year, it was really hard for me to come up with something I like at least roughly the same...but then I saw the gorgeous papers from the Lost & Found collection by My Mind´s Eye and instantly bought the Breeze "Boyish" Handsome Paper.

So here´s this year´s card - quite CAS :

I made an envelope too, so that I can participate in the CAS-ual Fridays´ challenge (card with a coordinating envelope)

A while ago I wondered, if I should buy more envelope dies, because I love the one that I have so much (the mini envelope die by Papertrey Ink) - but those envelope dies (doesn´t matter which company) are really expensive here! And I would still have only some certain sizes. 

So I decided to make all my future envelopes myself - it´s so easy! Just a matter of a few minutes!

My dear friend Dj told me that she likes to make huge cards up to 6" x 7-1/2". So I wondered, how I would do an envelope for such a card, so that the points come together right .... I thought it would be best to measure the dimensions of the card and make some pencil marks on a 12"x12" paper before scoring...

I made a small drawing to explain, what I mean - the card is represented by the yellow sticky note:

I would score along the sides of the card then, fold the paper and cut off the needless corners.

Does anyone of you have another or better idea to do this?

******** Vegetarians : skip this following sentence! ***********

Ok, I´ve to "fleet" to the kitchen now - preparing our anniversary-dinner: salmon toast with Prosecco and steaks with potatoes - yummy!

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Thanks for stopping by today!

Basking in the glow of yellow

Thank you everybody for your nice comments on my last blog post! I promise to travel with you again!


Today, I´d like to participate in some really nice challenges with this easel card:

I used an "A day for daisies"-image ( "Holding Fire Flies"), so I´d like to mention this challenge first ("anything goes").
Then there´s a "fany folds card" challenge at Bunny Zoe´s Crafts.
Do you know the new "Runway inspired challenge" blog? Here´s their inspirational photo:

Then "Anything EXCEPT Christmas" at the Corrosive Challenge Blog and "Anything but Christmas" at Totally Papercrafts.
And last but not least "All creatures great and small" at Secret Crafter.

PS: Oh, I feel so "yellow" today :-)  ...so I´d also like to show you a cake I made for my parent´s wedding anniversary... a Mangocream-Chocolate-Cake ... I know, the embellishments (out of white chocolate) are not formed perfectly, but I like that - so you know that it is "homemade with love" :-)
For the centerpiece I edited a wedding picture of my parents with Photoshop ( I added some digital gems) and sent the file to a company, that printed it out on sugary "paper"...

(I think it was such a unique idea of my Mum to leave out the flower bouquet and take a Bible instead!)

Thanks for visiting me today!

Piran

Anybody ever heard of Piran?
Maybe not - it´s a small town/seaport in Slovenia, first mentioned in the 7th century.

Here´s a view from the ancient city walls:

One of the most famous houses of the town is the Venetian House - built in the middle of the 15th century - it was a present from a Venetian merchant to his beautiful mistress in Piran:

As you can imagine, this was a big scandal then and common talk of everybody! So the merchant installed an inscription on the wall, that says:" Let them talk."

In my imagination I can see this beautiful woman standing on her balcony ...

It was really nice strolling through this "steeped in history"-town.... but it wasn´t too warm, so hubby and I decided to warm up in a nice little tavern... we LOVE fish, so - being at the sea - we got fresh, unbelievably delicious fish dishes to eat ... just look at this fish soup:

... and can you imagine, that this was grilled seafood for ONE person?!

"Beam me up to Piran again, Scotty!!!" :-)

On the ground floor of the Venetian House we found a shop, that was selling sea salt for all purposes and table salt in several qualities. I bought some salt as souvenir and small present...

As we crafters never give away a gift unembellished and without a card, I used some leftover scraps to make a small card... the black patterned paper behind the Maya Road cardboard cameo is a leftover and also the grey strip at the bottom - there was a piece missing on one corner, but I hid this by adhering a rose...

Just in case you´re wondering why on earth I´m telling you this: there´s a challenge at the Cuttlebug spot :  Left Overs - use them!

... the stamps are from Waltzingmouse Stamps.

Thanks a lot for traveling with me today :-)