Swap with Kerstin from Scrapbook Dreams

Servus!

Today I want to share with you some happy post I received due to a swap with lovely Kerstin from Scrapbook Dreams!

I have been adoring her unique style ever since I first saw it and am so glad that she said "yes" to being on the DT of SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges and now I am also the happy owner of three (!!!) amazing tags she made for our swap!

Aren't these just adorable? I love how Kerstin always creates loads of texture with her makes and has them blend into one delicate, shabby vintage goodness! There's so many detail to discover ....you actually can look at one of her tags for minutes and still find another spot that just looks wonderful!

But that's not all - I also received a wonderful Christmas/Birthday card from her:

It sits on my writing desk where I can look at it whenever I want to ....and sparks new Steampunk ideas! How lucky am I!

And the other side is just as beautiful! I love the colours, the beautiful icicles and all the yummy texture:

And the shabby and grunge looking "Steampunk" side is just so brilliant too! 

(Thank you so much for swapping with me, Kerstin, and for the wonderful card! I love them all! xxx)

If you don't know Kerstin's art by now I highly recommend you visit her blog! I promise you won't be disappointed! ;)

Hugs and happy crafting,
Claudia xxx

Steampunk Notes and a swap!

I had the great pleasure to do a swap with awesomely talented Candy Colwell lately and today is the day we both chose for showing to you what we swapped with each other.

 As you may well remember - if you have already visited my blog yesterday - she is our fabulous guest designer this month at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges! Yay!

All those who haven't already seen what she made for our August challenge "Matchbox Steampunk" - hop over to our challenge blog or to her blog to see the absolutely fantastic make of hers!!!

 She also created an awesome project for me! A truly terrific Steampunk note book!!!

It's soooo fantastafabuliciously great, isn't it? :)
The inside comes with beautiful papers and an envelope to store some tiny notes in too!!! I LOVE that! 

Loads of yummy texture and detail on the outside:

And the magnifying glass with the awesome portait of a gentleman wearing a top hat is the perfect eye-catcher! Yippeeh! And it's all MINE! *lol


But not enough - Candy also sent some wonderful goodies along with her fabulous note book:

Loads of great ephemera, ribbons, buttons and paper treasures AND also some fab metal embellishments. WOW!

It felt like Christmas (maybe even better!) when I unwrapped all the treasures she had sent me! What a terrific parcel to receive!! Thank you so much, Candy!!! (I already used some of the goodies you sent me *giggle...but I as I did use them on a DT project I cannot show you before 1st of September (yes, I am a well prepared crafting girl *lol).

I also had sent her an altered steampunk note book (but only about half the size of hers *lol). I really wanted to make something very special for her and when she told me that she liked it, I was very happy!  (I am still so very proud and happy that she wanted to do this swap with me as I am a great admirer of all of her work ;).

It took me some days to figure out what I wanted to create for our swap, but when I stumbled upon a little notebook (a free gift from my favourite "Schloss-Hotel", Burg Bernstein) and a folding yardstick from the 1Euro store, the project started to take shape in my imagination finally....

I cut the folding yardstick (with old large scissors) to pieces, alcohol inked them and  sanded them down afterwards for later use.

Then I covered the booklet with some papers from my Tim Holtz stash on the in- and outsides, leaving the paper with the inside of the booklet's back cover a little wider than the actual size of the cover so I could glue one of the yardstick pieces to it.

The edges of the front and back covers were distressed using a carpet knife. After that I blended the edges with DI "gathered twigs" and "rusty hinge".








  For the two "inventors" images behind the screens
on the front and back covers I first gessoed a page from an old book, then stamped the three inventors from the Artistic Outpost "French Flight" sheet onto it using Memento archival ink "rich cocoa" and tore them to three pieces, blending the edges with DI "gathered twigs" (one of my new favourites from the DI range).






I cut two screens from acetate (mostly packaging material from my Sizzix dies) and treated them with various alcohol inks. After they had dried I sanded the edges with a sanding tool and scratched the surface with the Tim Holtz "retractable scratching tool".



I mounted them together with the stamped images and some layers of heavily distressed ribbons to the booklet using brads and glue.


Both parts of the metal latch were glued to the cover and the yardstick using strong crafting glue made especially for use with wood, metal or plastic.

The gear and the yardstick piece on the front cover were also glued in place after
stamping and heat embossing the Paper Artsy "gears" image using Ranger "rust" embossing enamel and the heat tool.

The "notes" sticker is one of the Tim Holtz idea-ology chit chat stickers, blended with DI "rusty hinge" before adhering it to the cover.

I love the closing mechanism! I had been storing this one for a very long time and was so happy that it finally found its perfect "home" :)









For a finish I added some self adhesive ribbon on the back, covering the overlapping piece on the back of the paper where I glued the yardstick on. I added a tiny piece of a dictionary page for further embellishment and gave the edges of the pages a coating with copper rub on and  - done!

I hope you like it (and of course that Candy does as well ;)! I really enjoyed creating this booklet and using some of the stuff I love so much! Thank you for stopping by and staying with me this far. As usual I have added some more close-ups for you and hope you enjoy them as you enjoyed your visit here!

Hugs,

die amelie x

I enter this project into SimonSaysStamp's Wednesday Challenges "Anything Goes" and Fashionalbe Stamping Challenges' "Script/Book/Pages/Print" challenges

Another swap....

This time with wonderful Ellie Knol from "Paper-Stamps-Color"!
We already swapped some months ago, but we still keep finding more "treasures" with each other's blog that we would like to swap ;)

These three ATCs are what Ellie sent me in return for two tags she wanted to have.
Aren't they awesome? I know noone else who does flower themed ATCs and tags like she does. She definitely has developed her very own unique and artistic style, which I really love.

Along with this gorgeous trio she sent me this adorable ATC:

...and again a lot of yummy stuff to lay my crafting hands upon ;). Thank you so much, Ellie, for all the lovely printed paper backgrounds, tissue paper, cords, tags, lace and ribbons! They are fab, fab, fab!

Lucky me! Yay!

Hugs,
Claudia - die amelie x

Swap with Ana K.!

Great news today! I was so lucky to get wonderfully talented Ana K. to do a swap with me!!!!

We decided to create tags for each other and look what she sent me:

Unbelievable!!!! Loads of awesome goodies alongside her wonderful tiny handmade book (which I have been admiring since I first saw it!!!) and the gorgeous tag she made for our swap!

I haven't removed the package of the tag yet as she also did that in a wonderful way ;)

Isn't that a stunning make!? I love that tiny nest, the enameled mini tag and the lovely portait in the beautiful frame, the feather and the lace and the great background!!! It's a perfect treasure and it is mine!

To have a closer look at her stunning handmade book, click here. 

I sent her a tag that also has a portait in the centre. I stamped it on a gessoed bookpage scrap, sewed it to a piece of fabric and put it behind a piece of acetate that was treated with alcohol inks and sanded at the edges. All was fixed to the tag using tiny brads.

For the tag's background I created several layers that I blended with some DIs. Especially with the torn edges!
Before adding some spreckles of colour using Distress stains, a soft painting brush and my hands to flick droplets of colour onto the surface, I gave the surface some brushes with a wet painting brush, thus creating "traces" of watercolour alongside some brighter areas.

Then I stamped the Darkroom Door and the BoBunny image onto the tag using archival ink "rich cocoa".

I filled a bottle cap that I had rusted by leaving it on my balcony for some weeks in some vinegar and salt with some "treasures" and UTEE and heated it with my heat gun from below, holding the bottle cap with a pair of tongs.

The top of the tag was stamped with the lovely BoBunny stamp:

and the ribbon was sewn to the tag together with the vintage button.

I also die cut some "tattered florals" and a small banner from various ribbons and glued them to the tag with the bottle cap on top.

I sewed some ribbon and a strip of aged paper to the tag's bottom to create a lovely border. Done! I hope that Ana likes it too, as I sooo LOVE what she sent me!!! I put the treasures she sent me in my new display cabinet, so I can have a look at them every day!

Thank you so much, Ana, for doing this swap with me! It was so much fun and I really loved creating something for you and sending you some goodies along with it (to see what you will create with them ;)

Big hug,

Claudia - die amelie x

Wonderful events - Part II

I also had the lovely opportunity to recently swap some awesome ATCs with Ellie. I am sure, most of you know her and her great artwork, as she is a member of some very talented Design Teams in challenge-blog-land ! Have a look at her lovely blog here.

Here are the ATCs I got from her and now proudly call my own!

Thank you soo much, Ellie!!! And for the wonderful old bookpages too!!!! They are true treasures!!!!

I so enjoyed our wonderful swap!!!

Hugs,
die amelie xx

Wonderful events Part I

There are two wonderful events today I would like to have you participate in!

This is No. 1 - a "pre-X-mas Candy-Lottery" from wonderful SanDee, whose great ATCs you can admire here.

Look at all the wonderful things she sent me!!!

On the left you can see three of her gorgeous ATCs, which I had the great luck to swap with her too!
I am sure, you will see many of the things shown in the picture worked into some projects during the next weeks!! ;)

Thank you so much, SanDee!!!!! This really was like "Pre-X-mas"  to me.



*****



I also had the luck to get some lovely ATCs from Jeannette some weeks ago (which I forgot to share with you here. Sorry for that!). Love the colours, she used, so much!!!! 

The ATCs made on corrugated card backgrounds were an additional gift, which I am sooo happy about, because I had admired them in the forum FwATCs so much!!!! Thank you, Jeannette!!! I am so happy, I can call these my own!