Tentacle note book...

...I nearly forgot to show you this one!

Of course, tentacles! It was a blank note book with a magnetic clasp. I just painted it black with acrylic paint. Over the black I added tentacles in white also with acrylic paint. I love the 3D texture you can get with acrylic paint! You can create effects although just working with one colour! I added some text with a white laquer pen. It says "TENCTALES... ...EVERYWHERE!!!"

Nothing surprising ^^

Afterwards it got a thick layer of high gloss varnish!

Sorry for the fotos... as you know, last minute shots with my digi just with electric light and no time to control ^^

Zebra cards...

After christmas you'll propably send some thank you cards. This cards I made with the cool zebra from Karen @ graphics fairy.

Seems that if I fell in love with a graphic I really have to use it for several projects before moving on ^^ But hey, this zebra is really special!

I printed it out and just put two-side adhesive tape on the back. Two-side or double-side adhesive tape is one of the best things ever for such projects!

And I just cut the zebra out.

I found these great papers at our chinese super market.

They are something called "Weihpapier" which I would translate as blessing paper. Aren't they beautiful?

I made one with the silver and one with the golden paper.

As background I used grey cardboard, black cardboard and an old bookpage.

Just look at the texture!

Mh.. have to think what else to make out of this paper! Any ideas? Want some too? :)

Mother-of-pearl earrings and pendant

This were presents for family members. Earrings and a pendant made with mother-of-pearl pieces which were collected from our family on the spanish island Formentera (THE island ^^).

For the ones combined with red beads I used gold-plated metal parts because the recipient is allergic against most other metals (or ingredients in the metalls...).

And the pendant to the earrings with the red beads :)

You see all the tiny holes I drilled through the scallops parts?

I used my dremel for this.

It is still not to easy because the little things are so fragile.

I drilled onto a layer of foamed rubber!

If you try to drill them on a harder surface they will break!

After that I just put a lot of beads next to them to decide which combination I would like.

Glas beads are just beautiful!

I love the silver layer inside!

Now I have to look for new things to drill hole into them ^^ I love that I can now make stuff out of all the little things I find and collect...

Like memory jewellery...

All the christmas sweets...!

Most of the time I don't like to show the things (even the sweets) before the arrived at the persons they are thought for. So here we go with my christmas sweets. But some of them are adaptable for other occasions.

Like my zebra brownie! Just a normale brownie with dark chocolate and a "brownie" with white chocolate baked in an open jar. After baking I instantly closed the lid (Yes, it is hot, be careful!) so it will be durable for a long time. Not that brownies are really durable... that is against their nature of being tasty ^^ The brownie will get a new consisty compared to a traditional one because most of the moisture stays in the jar. It is a little bit more creamy... don't know how to describe it better. But a little bit like a new kind of brownie.

The little zebra pictures I found at Karens graphics fairy. I printed them out the day she showed them on her blog. I didn't know what I wanted to do with them then but just starting to make the brownies all came together quite well. I put the zebras either on old book pages or black cardboard. Sometimes I went other with my sewing maschine with some red thread...

And the most important thing to add: Hot coffee! You can either eat the brownie like it is or warm it up in a water bath or the microwave (without lid!). And to a hot brownie... mh.. you could just add some vanilla ice cream, don't you think so? ^^

 The next sweet was an idea I had while talking with a friend. Snowball apples!

Just use organic apples which were grown without the use of pesticides. I mean you want to eat the apple skin! Wash the apples and put a wooden stick in them. Just cover them with melted white chocolate and cover it with desiccated coconut. All the little flakes...!

I love the look! A snowball!

In a nice wrapping... :)

And of course I had to make some melting snowmen! There were so many in the last linking parties that were so adorable and cute that I couldn't resist.

I just made cookies out of shortcrust (does it really say shortcrust in english for this kind of dough?). The icing is powedered sugar with lemon juice (I love that taste!). The heads were marshmellows which were for 15 to 18 seconds in the microwave at 600 W. The faces and co were painted with a sugar paste.

And now please forgive me... I just added too many fotos of the cookies here! ^^

The crow and all the colours!

My sister asked me whether I could make her pillows as christmas present(s). She know most of the pillows I already made as well as my love for making some (and having a lot of them on my bed!).

The first one is made with one of my crow stencils (have a look here or here). I cut the crow out of freezer paper, ironed this on the fabric and painted it over with fabric paint.

I made a pink crochet border... I like this border and thought it would be funny. A crochet border is a little bit old style but with the colours and the crow it has a more modern twist (at least I think so ^^).

It was hard work to sew with this wool because the needle was not really big enough. My fingertips are still hurting!

Afterwards I added a simple border of double crochet stiches (in german: Stäbchen) with my crochet hook (european size 4).

In made one double crochet stich in every needle stich. Only at the edges I put two double crochet stichtes in the needle stich sites. I just played a little bit until I found out which number of stichtes worked.

Yes, I had some problems catching the real colour... sighs. I haven't seen the sun now for some time and especially pink and violett are difficult to catch for my camera with artifical light. Just you know: The pink is a real pink! ^^

The next pillow was an easy one but I love the colours and the ornament! It was a textile bag I bought because I instantly feel in love with the fabric!

There was not enough green fabric for the back so I added some light blue which corresponds to the blue at the front. I am happy I had not enough green fabric because I love how this turned out! And I used red thread! Just a little touch of another contrasting colour but again: I love it!

And the third pillow: With a lot of circles made out of felt! I don't know how long this will last but I think the look of the pillow is worth a try ^^

I just cut out a lot of little circles, glued them on with fabric glue (never again, it will get a little bit to hard... they said it wouldn't get hard at the store.. sniff... quite happy that  didn't use much!) and afterwards stichted over them. Takes some time but won't be my last one!

It made a lot of fun to arrange all the circles on the fabric. :)

December cats...

...it is cold.

But my cats know how to use pillows and blankets. They really snuggle under a blanket and love to sleep this way ^^

You always have to be careful to look out for a cat before going into bed!

...sometimes being decorative is more important than being under the blanket...

...but is has to be very cold before Bisu wants to hide under a blanket. Most of the time he sleeps like this!

PS: The three first fotos are from Dean. My third cat Grusel tries to sleep on my lap when it is getting cold. Blankets are nice but why use a blanket if you can use a human insteadt? ^^

PPS: Although it looks like Dean is a short hair cat he really isn't. His hair is longer than 3 to 4 cm, it just lays flat on the body most of the time (same with grusel). But now with the winter coat / under coat the hair goes straight in all directions that is why he sometimes looks like a stuffed teddy ^^

Get your own tractor!

This shirts were for a little boy which is the nephew of a friend of me. You see what he likes ^^ The pictures were cut out of freezer paper to create stencils. The logo was relativ easy but the tractor had to be alterated so that most of the pieces were connected to each other.

After that I ironed the freezer paper onto the fabric and put black fabric paint over the stencil. Yes, I wore surgical gloves and painted with my fingers! I am wway more sensitive with my fingertips than with a bigger brush. With a brush I manage to bring paint under the ironed freezer paper but never with my fingers ;)