Pompoms #2

Some weeks ago, I made three of those pompons and hung them up over our guest bed. Everybody adores them and a friend of mine decided to make some for her new room as well. Having all the silky paper out again, the idea formed that I should do some more as well. 

With my boyfriends nephews birthday coming up (the birthday of the nephew of my boyfriend / the nephew of my boyfriend`s birthday), I thought I will make some of a little bit more colour. Too bad I couldn`t unfold them (due to shipping) to show them here in their full glory but I might get a picuture of them hanging out in their new home. At least you know now how small they are unfolded, so very easy to send them to a lovely person.

I just want you to know that I'm happy.

So this my work space! We moved in almost a year ago, but this little corner with all those ribbons and tapes and pens and scissors was only finsihed some weeks ago. Well, its still not finished really, but its in a good state. Quite pathetic but I think I sat there one or twice during the last weeks. 

When I do stuff and its in any way possible, I do it on our couch. And that applies to everything. On the couch I do more stuff than anywhere else. Stupid, when all the things I need to cut, glue and paint are in another room. Also stupid because I leave quite some marks behind... glitter, scraps and threads which makes my boyfriend crazy. But still, it feels good to have a place where all the things have its place and on top of all look nice because its location is in the guest room. Or the guest bed is located in our study. Either way, that is how it looks.

And then I was hooked.

In our bathroom at home we had these two big rugs made out of this textile yarn. Before it was cool. My mum made them. From yarn she bought at a big textile factory for I believe a very low price. Which is what the price should be considering that it's a waste product. I think it was a a year ago that I found this ball of yarn in a little store in France and bought it for not such a low price but well. Not soon after I finished my first little basket. I made one for my sister as well and then some time later did a huge one for... storing all my textile yarn!

So when I went home (the rugs are don't exist anymore), my mum told me to go up to the attic because there should still be in some corner some of the textile yarn that she bought some ten, fifteen years ago. Well, there was not only a little, but masses of this yarn in several different colours! Awesome! <3 

DIY - Pompoms

A quick and easy way to bring some summer feeling into your home are these great pompoms. I stumbled across the tutorial on www.puppenzimmer.de and felt an instant itch in my finger tips. So the next day I ordered the silk paper on amazon and started folding. Its really easy and even if you don`t fold everything in a very exact and orderly fashion you will still get a great result. And as I could only order a 12-colour package, I will make several more in every colour of the rainbow. 

I am really not a hero on writing and documenting the process but on this website you will find a step-by-step tutorial for awesome pompoms! Sorry its in German but if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment (hahaha, nobody ever leaves comments). 

And if you lay beneath them they turn ever so slightly which is very calming. So its also a great idea to hang them over the bed of your kid (if you happen to have one).

This is our guest room by the way, and yes, our guests have all reported a deep and very restorative sleep so far.

Pop-Up Card

Special birthdays ask for special measures. Especially when you are not there to celebrate. So I made this little pop-up card which is a birthday card as well as a voucher for a nice weekend out and about. Making a pop-up card is not hard at all once you understood the concept. I used to do several some years ago but then kind of forgot about their wonderful effect and the endless possibilities that they offer. 

First I cut out little circles from different kinds of papers. Then I thought about where I want them to be on the card, which ones should be in the front, which in the back, which ones on the top and which ones more to the bottom. 

According to this plan I cut out paper stripes and folded them according to where I want them to be. The one you see below on the picure was one that was going towards the front and also quite high up. 

At last I put glue on both ends of the paper strip and glue it to the card while holding the both sides of it at a 90 degree angle. After putting all paper strips into place I attached the little circles with the choices for the weekend away.

Then I decorated it with some butterflies and the top with some white ribbon and some cardboard flowers. And yes, it turned out quite pinky and feminine, but also very happy and floral and this is what it is about on birthdays, right? 

I hope you suceed in creating your own pop-up card following this maybe not very thought-through instructions! :)

Preparations for a special birthday.

It's my god childs birthday next week and because I can't be there, I wanted to give her something extra special. When I asked her she said that she would either have MarioKart for her Nintendo or some colouring books from TopModel. And because I'm not such a big fan of supporting her playing with her Nintendo all day, I thought I will give her a little TopModel-Kit, because I guess that's what pre-teenage girls need to get through life.

The pink glittery explosion in our living room.

So I got her some nice pens, pencils, nail polish and two colouring books where she can create outfits and the make-up of models (which should make the dad happy, because then she doesn't have to try all the make-up on herself). I also got her a book which I heard from a colleague who has a daughter in the same age should be perfect for her. 

For the little artist. 

But besides I wanted to make her somethings special so I crafted a banner to say her "Happy Birthday". It took me quite some time but I could finally live out all my princess and barbie fantasies. The more pink and purple and glitter is involved, the better. Our coach is glittering a lot now, same as my clothes and my hair. 

Preparations for the banner.

It was a out of fun and totally worth it! Too bad I can't be there when she opens it... 

The girly box. 

DIY - Upcycle!

Two little projets that I did during the last weeks. The first one is a made from an old plastic jerrycan that once contained washing liquid. I saw this on another blog some time ago but had to wait patiently for the can to be empty so I could turn it into this:

We live in a rather old house and our sockets are at the most curious places resulting in some troubles to find a suitable place to recharge the cell phones without risking it falling down or one of us stepping on it. With this handy little container the phone can now hang right under the socket and recharge.  What I did is I cut off the top of the can and cut the rest into the shape you can see on the picture below. The hole was quite hard to make because it has to be big enough for the plug to fit through but also the left over plastic should not be too thin that it would rip easily. To make it a little pretty, I put a ribbon with polka dots around it. 

The second project is this fabric tube to collect old plastic bags. It was a Sunday and I woke up quite early with itchy fingers telling be that it's time for something creative. Getting annoyed by all the little plastic bags flying around in our flat and keeping the drawer where we decided to put them from closing, I remembered that we had such a thing in my student flat.

So I searched a bit on the internet, figured out how it could be done and half an hour later it was done. It was easy, really. And super handy! Every plastic bag is just crumbled up and stuffed in at the top. And if you need one, you just pull one out at the bottom.

It's an easy way to collect some plastic bags which then in a second step can be transformed into fabric. You might have seen this on other blogs: people that lay plastic bags on top of each other, put baking paper under and over it and iron that until they are sticking together. With the plastic you can do some cool things like little toilet bags or even big ones for shopping or the beach. I made some stuff out of ironed plastic bags, but I gave them away for christmas without taking pictures before :( 

Have fun upcycling your life! <3

Étagère

I got a hot glue gun for Christmas so yesterday I finally did what I wanted to do for years. Some months ago I bought everything I need for it in my favourite little second hand store around the corner and with the glue gun I was at last able to put them togther: a pretty, simple etagere. At first I wanted to make it one story higher but I liked the way it looked with just the two and I also didn't want it to be too high to put it on the middle of the table.

The only problem was to be quick enough to put the pieces together. Once the hot glue was on the bottom of the cup I only had some seconds before the hot glue had been cooled down by the cold of the porcelain. That's why it is not super duper straight but still for the first try I am pretty satisfied with the outcome.

The napkin holder next to it by the way was a present from my sister that I got for Christmas 

and I really love it! 

Advent, Advent, ein Päckchen bringt

And there is was.... the 1st of December. And every kid in the world knows what starts on this very day, starting the christmas marathon of christmas decoration, gift shopping and card wrtiting: the advent calendar! To start every day with a smile, I made one of my famous and proven to be fun calendars for my friends in Enschede, Laura and Frank.

I took some pictures that Frank shot when they where visiting me and Clément here in Ulm and turned them into a 100 piece puzzle. I wrapped some pieces in some paper and made 24 little parcels. I can say that this kind of advent calendar is fun, because I tried it last year with Clément, who was actually not able to keep himself from opening the parcels before the date that was written on it was reached!

One could say, it might even be too much fun.... Or that Cléments self-regulation is not very well developed. Either way, I sent a box with the 24 little parcels along with two jokers to them and yesterday and with a six day delay it finally arrived . Lucky for them, because they were allowed to open six parcels at once.

And I got this picture showing how far they have come.

Have fun guys, with your advent calendar!

And Clément got another one this year, again with a puzzle so he can work on his ability to delay gratification. And this year, I can keep an eye on him and make sure he stays on shedule.

Auf einem Blatt in meinem Herz, steht dein Name an der Wand und ich will, dass du es erfährst...

I didn't have the time but I did it anyway. Some of the many unfinished things hanging around in my room are finished now. They will be on their way to their new owners. Only the blue bag with the bow arrived already and spends its time from now on with my sister.  

A little bag for a wonderful friend...

One of my best friends just got her master in psychology! (Applause, please!!) Unfortunately I could not be there with her to support her like she did for me, so I wanted to send her a special present to make up for it. I went to a second hand store and bought some Old-Lady-Skirts. I cut one of them and brought it into the typical baggy shape by rounding the edges a bit and adding the handles. And to make it a bit more Laura-like I added some flower fabric and put it around the top like a little belt. 

I hope the bag will fulfill its duty and carries around all the things that are dear to her!

All the best to you, Laura, M. Sc.!! <3

DIY Actions

Before Christmas I had some time to be creative and the following pieces were brought to life. 

A new calendar for 2012 for my flat mate Theresa.

Two examples of the 1000 christmas cards that I made for family & friends.

A scarf for my good friend Julia to keep her warm and cute.