One cable for the iPod, one cable for the mobile phone, another one for the laptop… sometimes it’s hard to tell all those cables apart.
When I came across some plastic plant markers which I had bought for my garden herbs, I had a lightbulb moment. The plastic can easily be cut with scissors, and a permanent fineliner was close at hand. Only the holes in the markers weren’t big enough for the cable ties, so the hole punch came in handy. Tadaaa, easy-peasy cable identification!
Look:
It isn’t easy for me to write this post. Last week, I lost a loved one to cancer, and I still can’t fathom how fast everything happened. The quote on the left says that death is an impossibility which turns into a reality.
I am grateful for the support of my friends and family who made it possible for me to be on hiatus “until further notice”.
My homepage will keep me busy during the next few weeks, there are some tutorials waiting to be published and shared with you.
Please: Take care of yourselves. Life is shorter than you might think.
Who would have thought that it’s almost impossible to find a nice and bright ceiling lamp for a kid’s room? Even the salesman told us to “look online” – well, thanks.
We chose a bright lamp which I decided to turn into one of my favorite children’s book characters, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Some scraps of wallpaper, cardboard, washi tape, acrylic paint and mod podge – voilà, before and after:
As I’m a huge Pinterest fan, I recently came across the project: “The Pinterest Project: A Calming Glitter Bottle”. Thanks for the inspiration, Jamie! Our junior loves playing with plastic water bottles, so I simply had to give this project a try. It’s easy-peasy and looks marvelous! Adding blue food coloring (well, I guess it would work just fine with ink) lets the glitter look like a swirling galaxy.
You want to try it, too?
You need:
I didn’t have any exact measures, it was an experiment after all. On the container, I marked the level of liquid I would need to fill the bottle.
First, I squeezed all the contents of two old glitter glue tubes (silver and gold) into my bowl, then half a tube of craft glue. It makes the liquid more viscid so the glitter won’t settle too quickly. You can add glycerin for that reason, but I didn’t have any. Jamie says that she prefers non-water soluble glue, but mine was water soluble – I didn’t have any problems with foam or suds, so I guess it’s just worth a try whichever brand you use.
Using boiling hot water, I filled the bowl up to the mark and mixed the “potion” thoroughly. It still looked a little lame, so I emptied two small tubes of holographic and gold glitter into the bowl. When some of the glitter clotted, I simply squeezed the clots with the back of a spoon.
In the end, I added a shot of blue food coloring which made the water dark blue. When the potion had cooled down to room temperature, I used a funnel to fill it into the bottle. I secured the cap with a strip of duct tape because I don’t want any dark blue surprises on our furniture :)
Anyway, the bottle is a hit! If you shake it and move it around, it sparkles like crazy!
As it’s not easy to capture the effect photographically, I made a short video for you:
Time flies, and it’s only a little more than a month until Christmas. If you need a last-minute advent calendar which is easy to make, looks great and doesn’t cost a fortune, go on reading:
You need:
The basis for each calendar is a simple 12×12 sheet of scrapbooking paper glued to a 12×12 piece of sturdy cardboard. I used a 3/4 inch circle punch to create numbers in matching colors. If you like, you can download my numbers-in-circles design, print and punch (3 color schemes on one sheet).
Beneath the numbers, I used my crop-a-dile to punch small holes through the calendar. If you don’t have a crop-a-dile, you can use an eyelet tool or a hole punch out of daddy’s toolbox. Punch two extra holes in the upper left and right corner, so the calendar can be hung to the wall.
As you can see, I chose to stamp the numbers directly on the dots of this beautiful paper.
I chose 24 short stories, poems, recipes etc. and printed them on high quality paper. I folded and/or rolled the sheets, tied them to a pretty ribbon and threaded the ribbons through the calendars’ holes. A square knot on the back – that’s it. I used a small IKEA Allen wrench to push the ribbons through the holes. If you give the calendar to a couple, you can use two different ribbon colors for them to take turns in opening the gifts.
Here’s another version …
… with a tinted mirror snowflake as an embellishment.
This tutorial was first published in 2009.
How is it possible that a new lamp including the lampshade is cheaper than a lampshade alone?
Anyway, I was glad that my parents gave me their old lampshade including a fully functional lamp. I needed a new one since my old lamp took a lethal flight onto our living room floor…
Ugly as the lampshade was, it needed a thorough makeover. I took some photos of the process. You can click on the images to enlarge them.
That’s what the thing looked before. What you can’t see is that the fabric was covered with yellowish stains – eeew!
I had the idea to use my collection of Washi Tape (aka Masking Tape) for the makeover. Full of confidence, I ripped off a strip of tape and attached it to the lampshade. The strip didn’t stick at all, it simply peeled off. Aaargh!
I needed a primer. My choice: Ordinary wood glue – it dries fast and works great on fabric. With a broad brush, applying the primer was a snap.
My idea was to attach the tape in the order of rainbow colors. But the bell-bottomed shape made it difficult to arrange them evenly – I always got a gap towards the bottom edge. A neutral tape with polka dots was the perfect solution as a fill-in between the colored tape strips.
After a while I had worked out how to get an even result.
Having covered the whole lampshade, I carefully lifted the first strip to tape it over the last strip. A first test with light: Yaaay!
To prevent the tape from peeling off again, I covered it with a thick coat of Mod Podge, carefully smoothing it with my fingers.
I trimmed the edges of the tape …
… and glued them around the lampshade’s edge with Mod Podge.
To give it a neat finish, I covered the inside of the edge with a simple cotton ribbon.
So this is the illuminated lamp <3 ...
… and again in daylight before a neutral background. Yippeeh!
Here’s the direct comparison:
How do you like it?
Back home from Austria!
The card I want to show you uses the German phrase “auf die Pauke hauen” which translates to “to hit the kettledrum” and means as much as partying wild and having a blast.
I made the following card for a musician’s 60th birthday:
The little guy has a crazy stare, don’t you think?
Yes, even though it’s August.
I’m scanning a large collection of vintage postcards, and you can’t start to think about Christmas soon enough.
Here are a few freebie cards for you! They are quite large, that’s why I’m showing you a preview first:
Those cards are my favorites. Cute but not too kitschy.
Isn’t he a charming salesman? These photographs were taken in studios, backed with detailed sceneries.
Most angel pics are extremely kitschy, but I have dozens of them in my collection.
What a cute little girl :)
A floating christmas tree? Hmmm, weird… it’s probably a huge branch hanging from the ceiling. What do you think?
Another angel. Alright.
Good old Santa must be part of the party as well.
A pretty kid. Above her head, there’s a Christmas sentiment in a language I don’t know.
This card looks a little spooky if you view it at full size. The b/w photography was colored, and it has a strange half tone look.
Please do not share the cards, but send others to my website. And even though I offer the cards for free, I’m very happy about a little thank you in the comments.
I made some more cards.
When I came across the current sketch at “retro sketches”, I knew it would be perfect for my vintage images. Thanks to the Retro Sketch team! And another Thanks to the ladies who provided me with a perfect color combination – although I’m not a huge fan of coral (but that’s why it’s called a challenge, right?):
Inspiration:
The next cards were made using some paper scraps I had left. And somehow it shows that I love Baker’s Twine… *g*.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi, I'm a German creativity addict who loves typography, art, crafts, music, literature, good food, and whatever makes life pleasant.
This site is a growing collection of my fonts, craft tutorials and stuff I made, so take a look around and grab some freebies, if you like.
Ask me anything :D
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