Paper Crafts Magazine Presents: 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop

Happy Friday and welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop! I am glad you are stopping by today! This will be another inspiring blog hop with fun giveaways! I can't wait to get my hands on my copy of this:

The projects on this cover are amazing, don't you think? This magazine can be purchased here. I can tell you, I have been stalking my mailbox all week long, because this is one of my very favorite Paper Crafts issues! As you can see, there are a lot of quick'n easy holiday cards in it. And this blog hop will provide you with even more ideas! I couldn't stop after I made one card, so I have a set of four cards for you today. Here they come:

When I am trying to mass-produce cards, my go-to-recipe is: coordinating patterned paper, some dies, sentiment stamps and a bit of bling. For these cards I worked with one 6x6 paper pad from the My Mind's Eye Collection Lost & Found Christmas. (You will have the chance to win the coordinating stamp set, but more about that later!!) So, let's look at the cards closer:

Here I just covered a card base with patterned paper, die-cut various shapes from patterned paper, adhered them to the card, stamped a sentiment and added the gemstone. I would have stitched the edges if it wasn't a quick'n easy card. Here is a closer look at the tree:

Although this is a quick card, I wanted to add a bit dimension and bended the edges of the tree pieces slightly. And they are adhered with foam tape. And because I used a die that cuts two trees at once, I already had another little tree to use on the next card:

The label is the other half of the label I used above. Pretty much the same design and even faster than the first card. And another one:

I didn't even stamp on this one. I just trimmed the pretty patterned paper, added some strips of other patterned paper and the three gemstones. Done. And the last one:

Like the one before, I let the pretty paper work on its own. A little gemstone, the ribbon and voilà. 


Now to more fun! Do you want to win a copy of the new special issue Holiday Cards & More? Just leave a comment on this post by Sunday, October 2. And I am quite sure you would love to win this:

Ha, I would want to! For your chance to win this amazing giveaway, be sure to leave a comment on the Paper Crafts Connection blog. Good luck!!


Now let's see what the other designers came up with! Can't wait to hop! Here is today's blog hop list:

• Julia Stainton
• Chan Vuong
• Teri Anderson
• Kelley Eubanks
• Maile Belles
• Vanessa Menhorn
• Amber Daigre
• Lorena Canto
• AJ Otto
• Windy Robinson
• Betsy Veldman
• Dawn Petrick

Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!

Hugs and Love,
Vanessa

Supplies:

Cardstock, Stamps, Dies, Ribbon: Papertrey Ink

Patterned Paper, Gemstones: My Mind's Eye

Ink: Tsukineko

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge 95

Happy Tuesday! It's time for my last card as a Guest Designer for Skipping Stones Design. I once again enjoyed playing with Heather's Stamp Tramps! Here is my card:

I used the cute set Uplifting for my card. The paper is from My Little Shoebox. Here is the close-up:

I hope you will show us your take of Amy's sketch this week! Just go here to find out everything about the challenge and see what the other girls came up with!


Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Cardstock, Cloud Dies: PTI
Patterned Paper: My Little Shoebox
Stamps: Skipping Stones Design
Ink: Tsukineko
Other: felt

Halloween Luminary

Happy Monday! Last night I played around with new Hero Arts stamps and came up with a project that I want to enter to their September challenge Everything Autumn. I was thinking about fall décor and made this Halloween luminary from Vellum:

The images from the So Scary set are heat-embossed with black embossing powder. I created this fence using the picket fence die from PTI with black cardstock and just cut out pieces here and there. The paper on top of the luminary is from the Echo Park Apothecary Emporium Collection. An easy and fun project! Here it is in daylight the light of my desk lamp:

I hope your day is beautiful! Thanks for visiting!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Tsukineko
Patterned Paper: Echo Park
Cardstock, Vellum, Picket Fence Die: Papertrey Ink
Other: black embossing powder, twine

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop Challenge

Happy Sunday! I hope you have been enjoying yours! Mine is great - compared to yesterday, everything is perfect! Want to know why? Because it was one of THESE days. I will tell you in the end of the post if you are interested (and just have a good laugh - I will have soon, too! No need to be sorry for me!). But first to my card for 

Here is the inspiration photo for September:

And here comes the card:

Pretty prominent what inspired me. I had started with nested squares, but then I experimented and cut them apart and ended up with the stripes. Love the happy colors! Can't wait to see what everybody came up with for this challenge! You will find the blog hop on Nichole's blog. Just go here.


Now, for those who would like to know about yesterday, here is the story. Be warned, this will be a bit gross. It all started ok. We went to a small street festival in the morning, enjoyed it a bit, got our little daughter a waffle and went home. After she woke up from her nap (which was quite short), Alyssa came to our bed to snuggle with me. Then I found out that the waffle was a bad idea. My poor little girl suddenly started throwing up the aforementioned. In our bed. Over the pillow, the sheet, the mattress. Yuck! She is not the type of child throwing up very often. And she hates it. As do I! So, after I had cleaned and calmed her, I started cleaning, washing, scrubbing our bed. Fortunately, it was ONLY the waffle and no infection and she felt well again. THEN in the evening I started cooking dinner. Cannelloni with a ricotta and spinach filling. First I burned myself in the hot steam when I took off the lid of the pot. Ouch! And then I wanted to fill the cannelloni. I use a pastry tube for this. It works really well. Usually. But yesterday something went wrong. I put the filling into the tube, closed the lid and started to press the handle down. No good. Everything exploded backwards and the whole thing flew onto the radiator. The filling INTO the radiator. That I can't open. Here is what it looked like:

Aw, isn't spinach the most beautiful thing to land on a white wall? At least the cannelloni were yummy. After I had filled them successfully with the remaining filling. So, today is perfect! How is your weekend?


Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day (and a hopefully more boring day than my yesterday)!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Everything Papertrey Ink, except for:
Ink: Colorbox
Square Dies: Spellbinders

Echo Park Projects - including a tutorial

Happy Friday! I worked on some more projects using Echo Park to try out for their Fresh Faces Designer Campaign. This is a long and photo-heavy post! But I hope you'll enjoy. Here are the projects:


1. Personalized Coffee Sleeve

I altered a Starbucks coffee sleeve using various papers from the For the Record Collection. The edges of the sleeve and the papers are inked with distress ink. The sentiment is cut from the Noteworthy sheet. 


2. Witches Brew Card

I couldn't resist using one of the new digital die-cuts from iDIECUT here. Isn't this witch silhouette the cutest? I had to stop myself from buying ALL of the files! The sentiment is stamped and heat-embossed with black embossing powder. The papers are from the Apothecary Emporium Collection paper pad.


3. Seed Packet Pocket Book (with tutorial)

Wouldn't this be a perfect gift for a friend with a garden? I used papers from the Victoria Gardens and Happy Days Collections here. The butterflies and flower images are stamped and colored with Copics. And I have a little tutorial for you about how to make this book. It is so versatile, you could make it a recipe book, a tag book, a coupon holder - it's up to you! Here comes the tutorial (just click onto the photos to enlarge) :


Cover

1. Trim cardboard as shown. 

2. Trim patterned paper to be about 1/2 inch larger than cardboard on every side. Adhere cardboard and trim edges as shown. 

 3. Apply adhesive to the cardboard edges and fold down patterned paper edges.

4. Trim patterned paper slightly smaller than the finished piece, adhere. 

 5. Gently fold your cover to create your book.

 6. Adhere either magnetic snaps or hook and loop fasteners to the lid.

7. Now your book is finished to be embellished and filled.




























Inside

1. For my pockets I used plain white paper bags. You can make your pockets from envelopes, too. Just seal the envelopes and trim as shown below. 

 2. Trim paper bags/envelopes to 4 1/4 length.

 3. Adhere adhesive to the middle of a bag/envelope.

 4. Adhere to another bag/envelope.

5. Repeat until you used all bags/envelopes and adhere to the inside of your book.






















I hope you liked the tutorial! Let me know in a comment if you'll give this a try, I would love to see the results! And if you have any questions, let me know, too!


Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:


Coffee Sleeve
Patterned Paper: (For the Record) Echo Park
Ink: (Walnut Stain, Antique Linen) Ranger Industries
Stamps: (label, Enjoy) PTI
Die: (tag) PTI
Other: (coffee sleeve, twine)


Witches Brew Card
Patterned Paper: (Apothecary Emporium) Echo Park
Cardstock: (black) Bazzill Basics
Stamp: (sentiment) Pink Paislee
Ink: (Watermark) Tsukineko, (Black Soot) Ranger Industries
Gemstone: (orange) Prima
Digital Die-Cut: (Witch Silhouette) iDIECUT.com


Seed Packet Pocket Book
Patterned Paper: (Victoria Gardens, Happy Days) Echo Park 
Cardstock: (white) PTI
Stamps: (Antique Engravings butterflies) Hero Arts, (Seed Packet Frame, Flowers) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Tuxedo Black, Bamboo Leaves, Angel Pink) Tsukineko
Marker: (pink, red) Copic
Sticker: (borders, label, ornament) Echo Park
Ribbon Flower: Webster's Pages
Dies: (seed packet, frame) Papertrey Ink
Other: (cardboard, white paper bags, Hook & Loop fasteners)

Make it Mondays - Frosted Images

Happy Wednesday! Today I played around creating some cards for a dear friend to give her for her birthday. On one I used this week's Make it Mondays technique. And here it is:

First I stamped the leaves like Lisa did in the video and afterwards I decided to add the subtle flourishes and the text. A great technique to create one layered cards (although mine isn't). You can find the video here.


I hope your day is beautiful! Thank you for visiting today!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Everything PTI, except for:
Ink: Ranger Industries (red, oranges, cream), Tukineko (brown)
Pearls: Prima

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge 94

Happy Tuesday! Phew, I am glad you liked my video! Thanks for your sweet comments! I decided to send a little something to a random commenter and the lucky one is Michelle!! I will try to contact you for your address. I think it will be nice to do surprise giveaways like this more often. Yes, I will do this. 


Now to today's card. It's time for a new Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge! Amy Sheffer gave us another great sketch to work with and here is my take:

I just love the Victorian Summer stamp set! That medallion! And it works really well with Webster's Pages patterned paper. What do you think about the floss embellishment? I am not sure about this, but I wanted to try something different. Here are more photos of the card:

See that background stamping? It's from the Heartsong set. So, I hope you will join us this week and show us your take on the sketch! Just go here for the challenge.


Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Cardstock: PTI
Patterned Paper, Lace, Sparkler: Webster's Pages
Stamps: Skipping Stones Design
Ink: Tsukineko, Ranger Industries
Gems: Prima Marketing
Border Punch: Martha Stewart
Other: floss

Bows - Here comes a video!

Happy Sunday! Ok, I can't believe it myself, but I made a video. With audio. Yes, you will hear me trying to explain how to make a double bow. I got some requests (a long time ago - and I am really sorry it took me so long. Please forgive me!) on how I make double bows like this one:

And here comes a tutorial. I hope you won't fall asleep watching it! I am talking really slowly, but I have to think too much about what I want to say and how to say it. And if I will ever make another video, I will have to work on where to place the camera, too. Ok. Here it comes:

Are you still awake? Like I said, I learned how to make a pretty single bow from sweet Aimes. Just go here to watch her video. 


And here is another project using a single bow:

I hope your weekend is beautiful! Thanks for visiting and have a great day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Card:
Everything October Afternoon, except for:
Cardstock, Stamp, Die: PTI
Ink: Tsukineko


Box:
Cardstock, Template, Ribbon: PTI
Patterned Paper: GCD Studios
Ink: Tsukineko 

Cute Wedding Wishes (und eine Frage)

Happy Thursday! How are you all doing? Do you feel fall coming in your part of the world? I do! We have been enjoying sunshine, but in the late afternoon it has been really cold. I cooked some pumpkin dishes already. Next I will try to make my own Pumpkin Spice Sirup. Can you believe that Starbucks here in Germany doesn't have this? They say that this market is too conservative for it. And I so wanted to try! But I found a recipe on Pinterest. I will tell you how good it is after I tried it. 


Now to a card. A colleague asked me to make another cute wedding card:

I combined Echo Park's Country Drive Collection with Hero Arts stamps. Here you can see it a little closer:

The sentiment banner is tied to the picket fence with twine. And the elements are all adhered using foam-tape for more dimension. On the inside of the card I adhered a little envelope for the money the couple will receive. I hope my colleague will like it!


Und jetzt noch eine Frage an eventuell vorhandene deutsche/deutschsprachige Leser! Gibt es Euch? Ich weiss natürlich von meiner Tina und Anke - aber gibt es noch einige mehr? Wenn ja - wäre es Euch wichtig, dass ich auch auf Deutsch schreibe? Für Info wäre ich sehr dankbar!


Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Paper: Echo Park
Stamps: Hero Arts (bees)
Ink: Tsukineko
Button, Dies: PTI
Other: twine, ric-rac

Make it Mondays - Argyle Christmas Card

Happy Wednesday! I made a card using this week's Make it Mondays technique "Stamping with acrylic paint". I wanted to use my iridescent, blue paint and thought that it would look festive on a christmas card. Here it is:

Haha, a perfect background for taking the photo of a christmas card! But I had to go outside, it is so difficult to get a good shot of this shiny card. Everything is stamped with acrylic paint. First I stamped the bold argyle with blue paint onto a piece of Ocean Tides cardstock, then the lined argyle with white paint. Here is a closer look where you can see the shimmer of the blue paint:

Here is the link to the video if you'd like to try this technique. 


I hope your day is beautiful! Thanks for visiting!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Everything Papertrey Ink, except for:
Acrylic Paint: Lascaux
Pearls: Prima Marketing

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge 93 Blog Hop

Happy Tuesday and welcome to the Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge 93 and the release of Holiday Cats! If you just came from Nicole's blog, you are in the right place. If you just happened along my blog today, start at the beginning of the hop at Skipping Stones Design. The entire hop order is there and you can hop from blog to blog with ease.


Be sure to hop along and leave comments on all the fabulous designers’ blogs!

Now let's get to my card! The new Holiday Cats set is really fun! I used the adorable cat in the pumpkin here:

I colored the cat with colored pencils and paper-pieced the pumpkin from Pink Paislee patterned paper. Here is a close-up of the cat:

I hope you like it!


Now, head over to Stephanie's blog for some more Skipping Stones Design inspiration!


Thanks for visiting and have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,


Vanessa


Supplies:
Cardstock: PTI
Patterned Paper: Pink Paislee
Stamps: Skipping Stones Design
Ink: Tsukineko
Pencils: Faber Castell
Other: ribbon, black marker

Red Bull District Ride and another mini album

Happy weekend! I hope yours is as exciting and spectacular as mine! As some of you already now, I am living in Nuremberg - a beautiful german city with many historical buildings and a medieval city center. And now it is the location of an amazing event again! 

The legendary Red Bull District Ride is back after five years! 25 of the world's best mountain bike freeriders are here to leave the spectators speechless! Yesterday we watched the Best Trick Contest that took place on the market place. And I have videos for you to show you what they did. Here is one:

And just because it is this incredible, here is another one:

Are you still breathing? They are crazy, aren't they? Today the "real" run will take place. First they'll have to drop from the wall of the imperial castle, then the race course will lead them through the medieval city (cobbles everywhere) over some boxes, stairs etc to the ramps and boxes they built on Sebaldus Square. Next they run/jump/fly over the dirt hills down to the marketplace. There they will take the elevator of the townhall to get up to the final ramp (that cute little one from the video) and finish their run. I so hope it won't rain today! There is no chance for this with the least bit of rain. The cobbles and the ramps are too dangerous then. If there is anyone out there who is interested in more videos (from today and yesterday), I will happily share them here. So just tell me if you are not bored by a non-crafty post. Ha, and now that I found out that my camera is making great videos that I do not have to convert to another format first, I will try to get tutorials done! Like the double bow! (so sorry that this took me so long)


But, this one is a crafty post, too! Last night I just wanted to play and have fun, so I made another mini album like the one about little me. Those of you who asked for a tutorial for the base of the mini - here is a link to a tutorial I found on a blog of a genius crafter! These little books are addicting. For mine, I left the piece that covers the front and back just a little longer on the back to create this flap. To embellish the inside, you have to keep everything quite flat. The spine doesn't allow bulky embellishments. That's why I used stickers only here. Here is the album:

It's about sweet little Alyssa. She loves watching the freeriders btw! But back to the album. I used various Crate papers and stickers (except for the letter stickers, they are Webster's Pages).

The first page:

Page two:

Page three:

And page four:

Haha, that's my favorite! She is such a fun-loving little thing. I got this mustache on a stick from GCD Studios and she loved playing around with it! I am glad she has a great sense of humor!


Long post. But I hope you enjoyed it a bit!


Thank you so much for visiting! Have a beautiful day!


Hugs and Love,
Vanessa


Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Crate
Stickers, Chipboard: Crate
Letter Stickers, Ribbon: Webster's Pages