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 :-)

"Snow" cute!

I needed  a cute wintry and "snowy" image lately and remembered that my dear friend Dorcas used a super cute image last winter... so I searched for it, found it and bought it instantly... Mo Manning´s images are so adorable!

By accident this week´s challenge at Mo´s Digital Challenge is "The Great Outdoors", so I think, my card fits in this challenge....

As I´m no natural talent in coloring and drawing, I colored the image partly with Photoshop and added glitter glue...

... a little stamping inside the card...

Just in case you´re wondering what´s inside...

And I think you agree, that a gift is twice as nice in a pretty gift bag!

 I bought new cutting dies from www.mariannedesign.nl and love them!

 

I´d also like to participate in the following challenges:

Delightful Inspiration : Snow

Di's DigiDesigns Challenge : all white except image

One Stop Craft Challenge : Let it snow

Sweet Stampin´Challenge : "snowmen, snowflakes, snow people or just snow"

THANKS for stopping by today!

PS: I enter this card also here: http://mosdigitalchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/12/challenge-115-favorite-2011-mo-project.html

Woodland Animals

Here it is again: my f a v o u r i t e stamp... don´t know why I love this owl so much!

Today´s card is for the challenges at Wee Memories : "Woodland Animals" and the CR84FN Color Challenge

It was inspired by the novel "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett - first published in 1910/1911, now a classic of English children´s literature.

I love the aura of this owl - it seems to hide a secret.... to confirm this impression I added a piece of a door lock, that I purchased a while ago at an antique flea market....

The second picture caught the sparkle on the owl´s feathering and around her eyes a bit better...

Have a nice weekend and thanks for stopping by today!

The giveaway goes to...

"Thank you for joining my Software Giveaway" to those 7 people, who commented!

I asked a random generator who the new owner of the My Memories Suite 2 Software will be... and it answered:

It´s you, dj1952! Congratulation!!!

An atmosphere of gloom

2 funerals in 1 day... this picture from our garden represents my mood today: grey in grey... with a bright hope in between... (Revelation 21:4) . . .. And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”

It was just a matter of minutes to create this album with "My Memories Suite 2" scrapbooking software:

One of you can get this fun software for free - join my giveaway HERE !
Hurry, it will end today... no, I suddenly changed my mind: I´ll extend it through the whole weekend!

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Now just a quick little something for the papercrafters amongst you:

The DYSU challenge this week is a "splash of blue"

Here´s my take on this challenge:

In addition I´d like to participate in these challenges, too:
"Embossing" at the Pink Elephant  (embossed lines on card)
"Lace and pearls" at Charismacardz  (crocheted lace and 1 pearl)
"Embellishment Bingo" at Southern Girls Challenge  (lace,gems,embossing)
"Cotton/Baumwolle" at Allways Something Creative ( Baumwollhäkelfaden)

Have a great weekend everybody!

Bling It Up!

MY FAVOURITE TECHNIQUE!!! So I HAVE to participate in HEROARTS November challenge!

Bling It Up! - Bring out the trimmings and make your projects shine! “Blinged” projects can be of ANY theme. 


I LOVE all things "blingy", shiny, glittery, sparkly... I can´t get enough of the stars at night or the sunshine on a water-surface or snowy landscape... or rhinestones or glitter.... or diamonds or zircons... or whatever sparkles in the light ! LOVE IT!

But there are also more decent ways to bling something up : PEARLS!! Love them, too!!

When I started working as a chemist 20 yrs. ago I gifted myself with a beautiful pearl necklace with a soft rose-colored shine... I adore it to this day!

So everytime I get the chance to bling something up - I will do it!

This HEROARTS stamp ("Peacock") my Mum gifted me with, is perfect for this purpose!

I stamped and embossed the image and colored it in with my Promarkers.

I´d also like to enter this in The Cuttlebug Spot Challenge "Anything goes"

Thanks so much for stopping in today!

PS: Please check out my software giveaway!

An owl for "Cutie"

"Celebration" is over - and I´m relieved - my friend (the medical assistant) liked her card I posted HERE :-)

But her sweet little daughter - I call her Cutie - should not come away empty-handed either - so I made her a cute little owl I saw on THIS BLOG POST  The (Austrian) author posted the instructions HERE

I filled it with chocolate-candies...

... and set it on her plate....

I guess, she liked it... at least the chocolate in it!

(This was, before we gave her some pillows on her chair!)

Just in case you wonder what we had for dinner on this festive evening: my hubby wished for a salmon-cream-tarte with caviar and crayfish...

... and I made an Indian dish as main course - yummy!

I hope you enjoyed my little report and don´t forget to checkout the software giveaway HERE!