Inspirations: Critter (Formentera)

Fly.

Always a cat picture!

Fluffy ones.

Bed occupiers.

High reaching snails.

Giant ants.

At first I thought this young one (a gull in its first year / winter feathers) was a herring gull (in german - Silbermöwe, this would be translated as silver gull, much more beautiful than herring ^^). 

But no, the wrong place for living... and as well a changed knowledge about the heritage of the different gull families. The mediterranean or yellow-legged or western yellow-legged gull (Mittelmeermöwe) was thought to be a subspecies of the herring gull until some recent genetic studies reveals otherwise...

You see how sad the little one looks down? 

*sniff*

But hey...! Now you are a full species with your own name! 

Larus michahellis! 

And it is a really big bird! Between 52 and 58 cm high... 

.oO(Okay... enough fan fotos... can I go now?)

(And yes... before you may ask... I am already sitting to long at this computer today... ^^)

Raindrop cards

From a little leftover rubber I carved a raindrop stamp. 

I cut out some clouds from white and blue paper I had 

in my stash and glued them onto recycled cardboard. 

The I let the raindrops fall...

Simple.

Love it. :)

Alone - with pink fabric and a request

A friend asked me whether I could make some kind of hair accessory with a special fabric. His girl friend made a "Schultüte" which she covered with this fabric. The "Schultüte" was for his niece because she is starting school now and the official celebration with the school is today.

"Schultüte" is again a little bit of  difficulty to translate. Not because of the words but the meaning. It is (says leo dict) a large cornet of cardboard. It is filled with sweets and little gifts. In germany children gets them at their first day of school. Mostly one big one from the parents and from family and friends little ones... or everyone stuffs little presents in the big one from the parents :)

The request was just to make something for his niece hair. They didn't want to add more sweets ^^ So as you know me: I played. 

I'll show you my way of creating the hair clips because it is really easy. For this one I just cut out circles from the pink fabric and smaller circles of cord for the support of the fabric.

The hairpin already had the sparkling stones. I cut a little hole in one cord piece and put it in between the metal clips and the a larger cut (so the stones cut come through) to the other cord piece to put it on the top of the clip. I glued both pieces together. Then I cut the three pink fabric pieces (a long cut for the stones to go through). I just put them on top and added a little bit of glue between the single pieces. 

For the little rose I folded the fabric and sewed a large and narrow triangle with the wide side open. The fabric was turned and just rolled together to form a little rose. Some stitches and a lot of glue hold it together ^^

More glue hold the ribbon on the hair clip and the rose on top... That was all :)

For the last one just have a look here (or here for another one) :) 

This little heart I got from a granny swap as a little gift. I added some crochet strings and I hope it will make a little wristband for the girl.

By the way: If you like my hand carved stamps, have a look here to get some ^^ 

Dream - a lot of new stamps... and all for you!

You know, I take part in several linking parties (I think most of you know, that's how many of you stumbled over my blog... or I over yours! :) ). In the beginning of july Katie from Sew Woodsy (aka Mrs. Sew Woodsy) featured my hand carved stamps I made for Silke from "für große Mädchen".

Katie asked me whether I could think of having a giveaway together.

Hey, of course I said yes!

There are a lot of good reasons for...

• I just love to carve stamps!
• How can I say no to her while she loves my stamps? :)
• I am taking part in her linking party nearly every week
• She asked me at the right moment. Just a short time ago my blog reached the 100th follower... and I didn't even celebrate it somehow. I thought about a candy already for some time (Lachafa could tell you ^^) but let alone the decision about what... mh... 

So I failed to make one. Not so much because of the lack of ideas but more to the real lack of time and energy. I didn't have (and still don't have) the time because my computer time is mostly dedicated to make the last corrections for my thesis. I even cancelled an great event this weekend which dear friends hold around this time for some years now. It is a kind of summer ball and I am sniffing not to go and also feel bad to disappoint my friends (although they are understanding!).

Therefore the moment was more than perfect because all I had to do was to ask Katie what she thinks about this or that... and she managed all the work! She also has every week a linking party (which I think is so much work I never can believe someone is hosting one voluntary!). And she gave me weeks... months... to carve the stamps in my own time :)

So go over to her to have a closer view of the stamps (if you like them but I hope you do! :) ) and maybe let them be yours?

And if you go over to Katie... have also a look here! Because this is her working area which I am sooooo jealous of! :) I already asked whether she and her man could make some shelves for me! Hey... just across the ocean! ^^

Before I forget it... Did I already mention how much I love to carve stamps? ^^

And before you ask: Yes, if the mail delivery reaches you, I'll send it to you! Just don't forget that I am sending from germany so it may take some time until the mail reaches you :)

Giveaway will remain open until 11:59 pm EST on Thursday, August 25, 2011.
Which would be 05.59 am CEST on Friday, August 26, 2011 (for all the ones with central european summer time like germany) :)

Inspirations: On the streets (Formentera)

Sant Francesc - Formentera - Balearic Islands - Spain

Earbuds or plugs or whatever + yarn!

This was a cute Formentera-crafting-project of my sister Lachafa! She bought some yarn in different colours. Some of it we used to wrap a strand of her hair... 

...and then she though of using the same technique with her earbuds! This had two advantages: 

• First: The earbuds were cheap ones, so the yarn stabilized the cable that it wouldn't break too easily.
• Second: It looks just great!

But there were one big disadvantage... some thing she didn't think of...

Our brother!

Who asked her with his dark eyes and a sweet smile (and the argument that his birthday would be there soon) whether he could have the earbuds! 

Needless to say that she gave in ^^

Print with textures / structures...

I got mail from Michelle (Mich L in LA)! Real snail mail (did I ever say how much I love the english wordplay snail mail? :) ) There were two necklaces with jelly fishes inside: One for my little sister and one for me! I'll show you as soon as my sister comes for a visit :)

(this was already the second time Michelle send me jellies, because the first mail was lost :( It was so cool, generous and nice from Michelle to try the post another time and send me jellies again! Really, really thanks Michelle! :) )

In the envelope I found other goodies as well and of course I knew why they were there: Try and play! Oh, I just love to experiment with stuff!

So here is the first stuff I made with the "envelope-goodies"!

Michelle used some place mats to create jewelry out of them (have a look here and here) and gave me some pieces of them. Feeling the flowers in my hand while looking at them my first thought was: Could I use them as stamps?

So I cut them into smaller pieces, used some linolprint colour and... printed with them! I like the rough and non-perfect look they create!

But I have to say I was surprised that the print I loved the most was the one with the background structure which I expected to be the most boring one ^^ (the one on the picture below on the left side)

I'll make some cards the next days (but don't expect them too soon, I already got an answer for my thesis and have to work on some errors / changes / etc) :)

Formentera - some impressions

Formentera

Morning sun

From the punta rasa down to the cala saona

You can see Ibiza from there.

Evening sun - Es cap de barbaria

Cut the hair!

In this case: My hair!

This was the first step, just cutting the pony tail. You have to know that I already cut of about 25 cm some weeks ago! 

I went to italian hair cutters (on the spanish island Formentera in Sant Francesc). Although I don't like prejudices normally there is one which is more than true in this case: Italian hair cutters are really great ones! And they were really nice, sweet and comforting because I was so nervous cutting my long hair. My little sister said my hands were shaking (she took the pictures!). 

If you were ever on Formentera: Go to them! Even if it would be only for some styling. Both woman (and the trainee) are welcoming and you don't need a date: Just ask whether they have time. 

After the finished cut...

Yes, asymmetrical....!

On that day it was too late to get new red colour as well... but two days later my hair was a real red again!

Yes... after going by bike, being in the sun, swimming in the sea, being in the wind (behind me are the cliffs going down from cap de barbaria)... my hair is a little bit chaotic. But you can see the red in the evening sun :)

And... last but not least... my cut hair will go to locks of love as donation.  I had searched for a similar project in germany or europe but didn't found any so the hair will go all the way to canada. I am a little bit egoistic by taking part in this: I don't want to keep my hair but I also can't bear the thought of throwing it away! ;) Locks of love will take coloured hair as long as it is not bleached. 

Sparkling ones - earrings from ads

I am back home! :) I'll show you some stuff I made or found or imaged at Formentera over the next days starting with this sparkling ones!

There is an alcohol company (Yes, I drink alcohol, but no, not this one ^^) which really has beautiful adds in spanish magazines! They are so beautiful that most people never recognize the product they are for ;) (but that is perfect for me because although I am honest in this blog entry I would hate it if anyone could recognize the add from the earrings ^^)

Last year they had leaves and plants from an strange beauty. All the images turned to shades of blue. This year they had some nice ornaments painted / made with lots of tiny dots! On special sides they even were layered with glitter! 

My family is used to my "stuff" and as soon as they see something which I may use they save it for me. Like this add!

I cut the shapes out of the add, glued it on cardboard (with a water image, it was from the package of a razor blade ^^) and painted the sides black. 

This little detail like painting the edges makes all the difference if you make jewelery out of paper, cardboard, etc! 

I punched some holes in it with a needle (they are not really smooth, I would recommend not to use a needle but a normal paper hole puncher. But I didn't take one with me on the island ;)