Stempel Spass

This totally sneaked up on me - all of a sudden I jumped my 200 followers barrier! I have been hovering in the high 190ies with some fluctuations and then - 202!!! I am speechless and elated! But I did not empty all those bottles on my celebration card (below) as you might have guessed :) But first I want to greet my new comers in the order of joining: Becca Cruger from The Damsel of Distress Dana Joy from Got Joy Creations Shawana Standish from The Grand Stampede  Hazel Kinvig-Paul from My Card Attic Ela G from  Ela est là  So happy you joined! Perhaps you'll stay on - I'll try to make it worthwhile for you! Easter is over, but its still  April and I choose this as my welcome picture for you: It is part of an installation by Michael Bishop and it is out side the Foothills Art Center in Golden, Colorado. I like those kind of grumpy looking bunnies....perhaps they lost some Easter eggs... So glad you joined and so happy that in thos...

Great idea to make tags - I love it when something comes in handy! The  Papertrey Blog Hop  task is to make at least five tags and I just managed to make my five.....Its actually the first time I made tags, so this was a new experience for me. They are kind of cute little things to make.... I discovered, that I really don't have a lot of holiday supplies from Papertrey, but enough to take part in the hop.... All the dies are Papertrey, so are the stamps. The Merry Christmas sentiment is from my favorite set called Mixed Messages. The "snowflakes" are from the  Iconic Images set and I put some Stickles on them. And of course I used Twine from the Twinery on my tags. The tag die is from Mama Elephant                                                                         ...

I like this color combination at Little Tangles  yellow, pink and grey First I thought the challenge was over, but that turned out to be not true. I wanted to use my brand new Christmas set- Merry and Bright  - a gift from my fried Ren-Yi - we finally managed to get together - more on that later.... Here is the card I made - had to be nontraditional colors, but I like how it turned out: I used silver metallic embossing powder for the sentiment and the rod - or however you call that long thingy. I used some Stickles on the ornament and the little star. It just fits well with the sentiment. I also used thin strips of silver metallic paper on the ides to "frame" it. I am also linking this up with this weeks  Simon Says challenge - Anything goes --X-- I met Ren-Yi through the Neat &Tangles Birthday bash. We discovered we both live in New Jersey - not too far apart and we finally got together for a lovely lunch an fun afternoon. --X...

I wrote this up on the weekend, but then decided to post another blog entry first, as the Merry Monday challenge was ending, so this is my Saturday write-up....I hope this is not too confusing... --X-- I really did not have time for crafting today - the weather is gorgeous and I had already made plans way in advance to continue my walking tour through Manhattan. The plan is to walk every street - at the rate we are going we'll still be hobbling around when we are in our 80ies...... So very quickly in the morning before I took the train in I whipped up this card - combining one of the color schemes with one of the sketches for the Stamp-a-faire Opening Ceremony and Breakfast Bake & Take I am also linking this with  Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge It came out okay - would have been better to have more time..... I combined two patterned papers (My Mind's Eye) and added the sentiment - Papertrey Mixed Messages. Since it look...

Oh, my goodness - I have 10, yes TEN new members on my blog - well the secret is they are all part of the fantastic Simply Create Too design team. But new members are new members and need to be greeted accordingly! Nana Connie Esperite - Lynne Lisa Grace Gale Knight Jackie D Mian Jackie Marjo Gerda Diane   - the owner and team leader Her is my welcome picture to all of you: This artwork is by Walton Ford,   an American artist born  1960, who makes paintings and prints in the style of Audubon's naturalist illustrations. A couple of years ago the Brooklyn Museum had an exhibit about him and this was my favorite picture. I hope you like it as much as I do. --X-- Embossing is the challenge at Catered Crops - and what theme is better than Mothers Day right now? I used a Sizzix embossing folder, sponged it with yellow ink, added some orange and went over the raised stripes with an orange Gelato stick. The die cut ...

I have several reasons to celebrate! My daughter turned 21! And I have 2 new members to welcome to my little blog Amy V. and Jenny  I hope you continue to like what you find here. And today you can celebrate with me. I don't have a piece of artwork for you as I showed in the past, but I will share our most loved cake recipe with you - its at the end of this post.....something to look forward to... --X-- After a couple of turbulent teenage years our daughter became a beautiful responsible young women,  who is finding her way in life. Recently she took a break from college and is doing an internship, which she absolutely loves. That is her birthday card. We got her a GPS - she guessed it after she looked at her card.  The labyrinth is downloaded from the Internet. All stamps are Papertrey as are the number dies. The arrow is Lifestyle crafts. We celebrated her birthday with a lovely dinner and cake. Here is a recent p...

Here is the sketch I used to make my first Easter card for the year. It is from Lucy's cards  sketch challenge #4. I am always a little hesitant entering sketch challenges - somehow find them too restrictive, but this one "spoke" to me immediately. I knew right away I wanted to use my cute little new Polaroid frame from Papertrey for this. Recently my blogging friend Kim sent me those cute little bunnies in a recent card exchange we participated and I thought they would be perfect for this card.  Embossing folder and sentiment are Papertrey as well. Hope you like it - have a great day! --X-- Lucy's Cards Sketch Challenge - Day 3 I am sticking with a CAS approach: Stamps are from Artemio, the sentiment is Hero Arts April (Cl051) --X- " Weather forecast for tonight: dark. " George Carlin

I thought long and hard about the "Up in the Air" challenge at Less is more  and really did not have any ideas. I did not want to repeat airplanes, birds or butterflies or anything else that is quite obvious. And finally I thought I would use this fun tightrope walker stamp. It is really not my original idea, I just played with it, using a card my sister made a little while ago, that I have posted on my blog here .  The tightrope walker is from Stampsmith, the skyline I have no idea. The sentiment is computer created and the sky is patterned paper. I used hemp cord for the tightrope. --X-- Not much time left, to play in this weeks Paper Players challenge - I thought I'll miss it, but I lucked out this time. I made the card a couple of days ago and then things got really busy and I never got around photographing it. I was not even sure if I should show it in public. Not one of my better cards. Neither bows nor butto...

RED is the theme at CASology this week - goes alog with Valentine's day. But since that is  in the past already I decided to make a general card, that can be used for just about any occasion. I could at first not make up my mind how to use that beautiful stamp from Judy Kins, which I got last year from my niece. So I made two cards. I like the first one better, my son and husband like the second one better.  I colored both cards with Copics. The stamp itself on the second card I clear embossed and made some accents with Prismacolor pencils. Sentiment: Hero Arts Sending Smiles Messages (Cl490) Sentiment: Papertrey Mixed Messages

I had a delightful weekend. A long time friend came to visit and we did all sorts of fun together. There was no time for card making, but here is one I mad a little while ago. using some glitter paper that I recently picked up at Michaels. I used an old cuttlebug die for the hearts, the sentiment is Papertrey. The solid heart is on pop dots to add some dimension.  I am entering this card at the Drunken Stampers challenge  - All that glitters. You gotta love the name of that blog! I'll post some pictures from my weekend in one of my upcoming posts - I ran out of battery with my camera - stupid, not to recharge  - oh well... Thanks for all your kind comments - so fun to read them! 

I could not resist and made more cards for both those challenges. The   CAS-ual Fridays  challenge is "long and short". The heart is Recollections, the sentiment is craftsmart, the little hearts are made with a Fiskars corner stamp and the pink strip is made with two different pink inks applied directly to the paper. --X-- CAS(E) this Sketch Challenge #11   has again a  fabulous  layout: The stripes on the left I made with my scoring board, the hearts are made with a Fiskars punch and the sentiment is Papertrey ( Mixed Messages). I mounted it on a red background card from Memory Box. And I put a generous layer of glossy accents on the red heart.

There are already so many gorgeous cards at the RIC#27 ......  Here is my take on it - quickly, before Linky closes. I used the Memory Box Bare Oak stamp for this card. The little blue leaves I found in my ancient Hero Arts Birds Branch alphabet set. I colored the leaves with my Marvy Markers, since I don't have such a vibrant blue ink pad. The sentiment is Papertrey (Mixed Messages)  --x-- Every once in a while I make those delicious breakfast cookies - they are pretty big and one of them is enough for breakfast, which I bring to work and have it with a cup of coffee. My hubby devours them for dessert after dinner - so they really do not last very long.  And that's how you make them: Breakfast Cookies 1 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup all-purpose flour     1 t baking soda ¼ t coarse salt 2 sticks butter – room temperature (I use about 2 T less) 1 ½ c...

My nephews are both teenagers and its is quite difficult to get them something they like. So I have reverted to giving money instead. This year I made them this money holder: So, first you need to slide over the red band  - and you see Merry Christmas  (from Papertrey - Mixed Messages) under a red, clear embossed bow from Prickly Pear) Then you pull out the ribbon labeled "2" - playing a little word game here with Ulysses S. Grant, who adorns the $50 bill. Once you pull ribbon labeled "3", you actually get the money. Here is a close-up. The scalloped oval is from Spellbinders, the grey oval a punch and the felt tree I picked up some years ago in Germany. The envelope is made out of patterned paper. I linked this up with the Anything goes challenge from Simon Says stamps .

I took part in a Christmas Card swap this year and I have received the most wonderful cards. Unfortunately my efforts got somewhat hampered by hurricane Sandy. I just could  not make any cards in the evening - it was too dark and candlelight is not enough. On the weekend it was simply too cold and we spent the day cleaning up the yard and our cluttered basement. As long as we were moving we were okay. But I did make a couple of different cards and here they are: This set I made with  a Memory Box die called "Modern Landscape". The snowflakes stamp is from Hero Arts, called "Stunning Snowflakes". I inked it up with Versamark and embossed it in white. The sentiment is Hero Arts as well (Merriest Wishes). To cause some more contrast I sponged with blue ink on the background before I glued the die cut on it. It does not show well, but I put some Stickles on the border of the die cut and put some Stickles on the stars next to the sentiment. The card on the...