Hot Chocolate Cuppa Swap - Part 1

Happy Halloween everybody :o)

OK this tin has nothing to do with the swap, but this is an heirloom - I know that it is 50+ years old and I persuaded my mom to let me have it when I moved away from home. Well was the only one drinking hot chocolate anyway.. and it is stil used for it's designed purpose :o) One of my favourite things.

This post is about a hot chocolate swap, organised by Josie over at PaperCraftPlanet, where I was to send hot chocolate enough for ..... tada.... two cups to Niamh. Just had to open my cupboard and pick my two favourites VanHouten Choco Drink (Fairtrade) and Nestlé Choco Hot Creamy.

That was the easy part, then on to create a homemade card, to send with the hot chocolate samples. Oh that caused a minor headache, as I discarded two ideas in the process and finally came up with this. 

Leafy background is a digi freebie from Spyder's Corner and the cuppa stamp is from Bugaboo Digi Stamps.

As I had already discarded an idea of creating a double card, I needed some kind of pouch for the samples. Had some handmade paper at hand with "scratched" edges, so decided that it was to be the main "ingredient" of the pouch decorated a bit with a scrap of the leafy paper and the cups again - merely downsized. That would create a rustic look.

Here is the pouch when opened.

The "ribbon" or the "string" used is actually made of paper, to the right is how it looked when I purchased it, at the left it is smoothed out.

By the way: added a chocolate bonus - not an eatable one but also a drinkable one without being hot chocolate: a bag of Choco tea from YogiTea.

Klee and Cobra

Paul Klee



Paul Klee




Eugene Brands

Went up to see the exhibit a few weeks ago was wonderfully surprised by the exhibit. Had a lot of outbursts when seeing the individual paintings to the amusement of others.... But "Hey!" was by far not the only one who did that.

I like the idea of reconnecting with your childhood way of depicting items, forgetting boundries and just express what is in your mind. The last photo (painting by Eugene Brands): What comes into your mind when seing it? Mine was "Look, Mr Potatohead"..... one the custodians addressed me with a smile saying, that I am capturing the essense of CobraArt - expressing what comes into mind without any kind of filter.

Could have shown you picture after picture after picture, since a lot of them spoke to the inner child and gave me a happy feeling.... might just revisit the exhibit while it is showing :o)

The Pursuit of Creative Inspiration

Guess that pursuit never end :o)

Went across the country today for a daytrip to the biggest creative fair - suppliers, bloggers, designers, various creative arts were gathered. I have returned home with a bag (both physically and mentally) of inspiration. Heard 3 lectures about creativity: about how to find, recognize, share(blogging) appreciate creativity

Looking back, it is the second time this month that I have travelled in that direction to find some new creative input - seems like IT is happening over there: courses, lectures etc. We might have some of the exhibitions around our capital city but when it comes to "ground level" art, opportunities to get inspiration are found elsewhere.



Meet Sheila the Paper Toy

Is she not adorable?

She comes from this set of paper toys created by Djeco - and as soon as I eyed this set, I had some ideas for birthday surprises for some friends that are very fond of these animals.They would have a great smile on their face receiving a paper toy like this, since I believe they would be reminded of some part of their child hood.

Also purchased a set of owl paper toys from Mibo, that just might get a permanent residence at my place :o) Feels great to connect with that inner child again.

Crazy Art

Was in a bookstore the other day when I passed this.... wait a minute.... my caught the title and I went back to pick it up. Within two splitseconds, I had written down the title, name of the author and the ISBN number.

Now you might be wondering "Why did she not buy the book when she saw it?" - well I have reached my booklimit for this month, but have already preordered for next month.

Believe the book cover pretty much gives you hint about the wonderful contents of this book, and my weird mind needs to see inspiration like this once in a while :o) Crazy art? For me it is cool art.

Happy Diwali

Earlier this year when travelling to India, I noticed this on a Coca-Cola bottle... followed by a "off course". Diwali is of great importance in India (if you go to Singapore, you will see it is called Deepawali there), so it is a natural choice to have it on their bottles. This label is now part of my India scrapbook pages :o)

In the western world, it is likely that you will soon find the 2011 holiday edition of the Coca-Cola bottle - for me that beverage have always had a special place in my heart, and I love Christmas. I have actually saved the labels from the past 10-15 years with different Santa pictures on them and always look forward to the one in the current year.....another sign, that "the holidays are coming".

Cheers and Happy Diwali

TLC - Tender Loving Care - Part 3

If I told you, that the deer on the picture below was made of chocolate, would you believe me???

 

Choccywoccydoodah

Name of a chocolateria in Brighton, England, and the series on TLC (also aired on FoodChannel, SkyChannel, Virgin Channel etc) takes you inside the world of chocolate and shows the skulpture-like pieces of art, all eatable, as they are made of the thing, that I rarely eat myself. Chocolate lover or not - you can not help falling in love with some of these wonderful creations, but I will take a bite of chocolate cake anytime.

Whenever I am in London, I check if the time is there to visit a city outside London by train - hopefully next time I will be able to go to Brighton just to catch a glimse of their window decoration, that is supposed to be a seight itself.

I Just Couldn't resist....

Could not resist a cupcake today from Agnes Cupcakes since it was time for the monthly treatment at the MS clinic - a HALLOWEEN cupcake with a nice cinnamon taste :o) You know what else I couldn't resist? .... Well, when I described Agnes Cupcakes delicious cakes after my first encounter, Claire bugged me for details to decide, if they were indeed scrumptious looking.... Well - here you are Claire :o) *LOL*

A Little Girls Dream

Think all girls at one point have had a moment, when they dream of the weddingdress they would wear on the big day, once they have grown up to be an adult woman. But I could not help myself laughing when I saw this online article about wedding dresses mad out of...... balloons :o) (My blogpost yesterday, that briefly mentioned a wedding dress made out of a cupcake, made me remember the article). If a child tells her parents, that she wants to get married in a wedding dress made out of balloons, do you think the mom's reply would be like this: "Honey. The dress is not made of balloons. It is the style or shape of the dress that is called a balloon dress" -just imagine her face, if her daughter presents a photo like the one below

Who gets an idea like this? How on earth can you mount that many balloons without busting them? Do you have to use a special type of balloons? As much as I am in awe of looking at creations like this one, I would not dare to put anything like that on my must-try-some-day-list

In my neighbourhood lives a party/event clown, and how cool would it be, if his clownsuit was made out of balloons?? Yes, Yes I know, my weird brain at work again, or maybe just my inner child shining through.

Seems like Westin Hotel and Resorts are dreaming about balloon beds - wow does that not look absolutely cozy and soft?? :o)

Witches Brew

Three things fuelled the idea for the 3rd card today: Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 140, the Opus Gluei Challenge: Something Wicked This Way Comes and this remarkable comment made by a little girl yesterday in the city: "Mum aren't the witches only working in the summer, because I can't see their bonfire anywhere?!" She was referring to our tradition Skt. Hans taking place every year on June 23rd.

Plenty of Pumkins design paper and black ribbon from Panduro Hobby, COPICS 100 + 04, punch from Martha Stewart, black Versa Color and witch stamp from Inca Stamp, stirred with scissors and double adhesive tape in a witches pot, and you might end up with something like this.

Let's Go Bowling

Needed a little help - had coloured Barb from InStyle stamps long ago (one of those unfinished card projects), but needed help on the card layout. CPS challenge 241 offered the needed inspiration with this sketch:

The receiver has her birthday coming up soon, and our friendship goes back to fun evenings at a previous employer's bowling club. Barb is just like her: always smiling and long hair - red is her favourite color (her lucky color) so figured Barb needed a lucky blouse.

I dreaded, that this would become a last minute project to finish the night before her birthday - but once again a sketch challenge saved me from that situation :o)

What's Bakin'?

Whoops!! I challenged Claire to do the Sketch Saturday Challenge, since it is sponsered by Mo's Digital Pencil - and I have seen her colourings of one of Mo's stamps for Christmas cards. She was not quite happy about the creative process (messages were going back and forth across the North Sea last night), but that card she made, gotta be a little girls dream :o)

This is the sketch that is challenging us this week:

I had purchased some digistamps at Mo's earlier this year, but had yet to use them. What's Coking'? ...... It suddenly occured to me, that the little stamp is also suitable for a What's Bakin'? theme, and then I could use something bought ages ago, and.....

TLC - Tender Loving Care - Part 2

CupCake Sisters

Onlike CakeBoss, I have read about these two baking sisters before watching the reality show on TLC. An online article described how they were making a cupcake wedding dress and I was intrigued. Untill then a cupcake was merely a cake and no hanky-panky about that.

The two sisters Katherine Kallinis (former eventplanner for Gucci) and Sopie LaMontagne (formerly employed in the finance sector) quit their jobs and opened DC Cupcakes in Georgetown, DC, USA. Well a cupcake is much more than a cupcake, and I can not wait to see the next episode :o)

Browsing though the October 2011 issue of Oprah Magazine, and I saw this little add - DC Cupcakes supporting the fight agains breastcancer:

TLC - Tender Loving Care - Part 1

TLC a new addtion to the tv-cable package. Did not think much about that news, but when flipping channels the other day I was immediately hooked. Normally I dislike reality tv due to all the drama, backstabbing, gossip etc. - only exception is Project Runway, do to the peak into creative peoples' minds and the process of creating something fabulous in a short period of time. But a reality show with a sceene like this photo, lured me into staying tuned at that channel - and they aired 3 reality shows in a row that caught my full attention.

Fascinated by scooters, and then to see a wedding cake, with the bride and groom riding a scooter in front of the wedding cake shaped like the Tower in Pisa ?!?! WOWZA!!

CakeBoss

Reality show about Buddy Valastro and his family/team from Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, creating the most elegant, creative, awesome etc. cakes to all sorts of occations/celebrations.

If I saw one of those cakes in real life, I would be busy photographing all the details to help me remember that creation in front of me, and most likely forget to taste the cake - bet there must be a wonderful display at their shop window too. Next time I visit NewYork a trip to that shop is a definate must-do.

Inspiration From Origami

As I have mentioned before, I can not resist picking up a free newspaper or magazine and get some kind of inspiration. Yesterday I discovered two adds, that were both inspired from origami:



The free newspaper URBAN




Free magazine from Magasin (department store)



The paper crane and the paper plane - both origami that are easy to fold, but look at the great effect. For instance it never occured to me, that one could fold a paper crane from a newspaper page, but that is the capture of a child's mind: anything goes or no boundries :o)

It is small details like this, that makes me want to pick up that free litterature, as I often find something catching my attention.

Everywhere I Go......

I see THE face of Halloween: Pumpkin Jack. Everytime I see one, my mind is humming some of the songs from "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

JUGS gave us some requirements in their 106th challenge: use the colors: black, orange, green and purple.

Thought it to be a perfect chance to use to Halloween'ish digis from Beccys Place.

Where's the green? You might ask. Well look at the stems of the pumpkins :o) Pumpkin design paper is Halloween from Panduro Hobby, stribed paper was a wrap on some double adhesive tape, maple leafs are from a craft store in Hamburg and the little Pumpkin Jack is actually from a cheap set of earrings from Søstrene Grene(when I purchased them, I had already eyed the possibility of altering their purpose).

October Tea Swap 2011 - Part 2

Time for me to show the card, that I sent to Colleen in this month's tea swap, since she has already received it. The optional card them this month was: Halloween or the colors of orange/purple/black. Locally we celebrate Halloween different than in the US, however our Tivoli garden will be dressed up for the American way during next week, since it is the school children's fall vacation.

What does a Halloween themed napkin......

...and a tea bag tray have in common??

They were inspiration for the Jack'O'Lantern teapot on my card - created a pouch to hold the two tea samples, that I sent Colleen (Earl Grey and African Rooibos)

 

Included a little ornament from Panduro Hobby with a black ribbon.

Hope I captured the spirit of Halloween



Bureaucrats

Just hearing/reading that word, and it seems awful...maybe that is because we associate it with something bad. This word is also the title of a photo exhibit with Jan Banning's photos - he was a winner at the 2004 World Press Photo - presenting some stong facts.

From Jan Banning's photo exhibit "Bureaucrats"

Jan shows us 50 bureaucrats from various countries (US, China, Russia, India, Yemen etc.) at their workspace - some workspaces are very spartan but that only reflects what one can "expect" of that person's salary... Still one get surprised when one reads the fact under each photo.

Imagine working more than 40 hours a week and get less than 25 USD in monthly salary. Or as a newly employed person not knowing what your salary is going to be. Maybe you have not seen your salary for months and still you keep working. 

It put things into perspective and makes you appreciate what you have.

Sunflowers

To brighten up my appartment, I occationally buy a bouquet of flowers. Only flower bouquets I receive from others go into one vase only - those I buy I divide into several bottles and mini-vases to spread the joy and colours a little more.

This time of season calls for sunflowers - I love them! They goes into bottles, that I find colourful and nice - the milk bottle is an heirloom that is 60+ years old.

One of the two shelves in my appartment that is not cramped with books.

The other shelf right above my computer corner.

When it is off season for sunflowers, I sometimes walk to a museum, where I can admire the Danish painter Michael Ancher's painting "Girl with Sunflowers"

To Sweeten A Day

The other day I went to see a photo exhibit, that had excellent reviews in various newspapers, but only to get really dissapointed. I am sure that those photos are great, but did not get to see them as the access to that "gallery" was an obstacle: Either a ladder or impropmtu stairs made by wodden pallets, each step 3 pallets high. Got halfway up when my newly operated knee refused to go any further :o(

On my way home, I passed a cupcake place, that I have wanted to try for a few weeks now - and since I did not get to spend entrance fee on the exhibit, I exhanged the ticketmoney with two cupcakes.... it was my vacation time, so a little extra would not hurt.

When you buy the cupcakes to-go, it is no problem as you get them in a box like this at Agnes.

There were two kinds of cupcakes, that caught my attention, so why settle with just one :o)



Liqurice




Italian Almond


Two cupcakes in my place last... two days :o) And they were scrumptious!! I do not usually treat myself with cakes, so not worried about my weight, and eventhough they were heavenly I will not stop by very often. By only doing it once in a while, they remain more special.

Treasure Chest

I have a treasure chest - well it is in my eyes, as it is both useful but also with some treasured memories.

It is a sewing box from the 1930s and it used to belong to my mother. My mother had not used it since she moved away from home, so when my grandmother passed away I inherited it.

It is being used to what it was originally intended for

It also contains items no longer used - this embroidery I made in school at the time I had horses on my brain. It hung on the door to my room.

I also inherited my grandmothers sewing box, but unfortunately it was in such a bad state, that it could not be rescued. Inside that box was this little box which is more than 50 years old - and my grandmother used it for needles and so do I.