Oh my – long time, no post. Part of the reason is that I just haven’t done any bookbinding so far since the new year started. I’ve been trying so many new crafts and it’s been exciting and fun to just try some new things: I crocheted a sunburst flower granny square blanket and created a photo-tutorial that I posted on my not-so-paper-related personal blog. The instructions are german, but the photos are quiet detailed and there’s also a link to the english instructions.

Besides that, I’ve started taking a weekly sewing class where I made a sweet little dress and learned how to shorten jeans. On the web I found this wonderful tutorial for sewing owls that also kept me busy several nights.

But slowly I’m starting to miss my papers, especially after yesterdays visit to Balloni – a quiet impressive shop here in Cologne. You can find a sneakpeak on flickr and some more photos hopefully here on the blog soon. Have a wonderful weekend!

Walking through Amsterdam we discovered this lovely shop called the Otherist, carrying many things from popular etsy-sellers like Ashley G.’s bearded guys but also lots wonderful (handmade) things I’ve never heard or seen before.

the Otherist
Leliegracht 6
1015 DE Amsterdam
Netherlands
On the Map

www.otherist.com/

Looks like I (re)discovered crocheting. After seeing all these amazing granny square blanket projects e.g. by Sandra Juto and Sarah Goldschadt
I decided to give it a try too.

My goal is to make at least 64 squares using this Sunburst Flower Granny Squares pattern and turn them into a tiny blanket (ca. 80 x 80 cm). I’ve been working on it a lot the first 2 weeks and finished 32 sqaures so far, but I notice how I’ve been slowing down since starting to sew the threads away (is that correct english?).

What crafts are you planning to (re)try this year?
Any big projects planned?

Guess who took this picture? Yes, it was me. And not with the auto-timer, but with my supercool new foot-operated wired camera remote controller thingy that the boyfriend build me. Yeay! (Some might note, that I am a huge Gilmore Girls fan ;-)).

Thank you Mr. S, you’re absolutely amazing! And I’m sure there are some people out there, who will really enjoy the instructable you’re working on. No pressure, though ;-)

I guess I still need some practice, holding things into the camera and getting them in focus. But I’m really excited and hope to be able to use this awesome new tool to take step-by-step craft-tutorial pictures all by myself with my hands “actively crafting” in the photos.

The wonderful anchor ribbon and the toadstool (parts) you can see in the pictures, are just a tiny selection of the many lovely things that the wonderful mlle. A. of handmade2.0 sent me in trade for some fabrics.

Plus: I’m very excited that she invited me to take part in her handmade.Interview series, you can find it here (german only).
Thank you, mlle. A.!

A few weeks back when I saw my grandparents for my grandma’s birthday I also visited their lovely neighbour. I call her “Tante Marie” but she’s not really my aunt, though as long as I can remember she has always lived next door to my grandparents. When I was little I used to play in her garden. She’s really nice and sweet with her long grey hair and I think her whole house is filled with sewing and knitting treasures, that she collected in her life. She insisted to give me some of her amazing fabric and ribbon treasures and also a hand full of beautiful buttons.

Last monday I had a day off and turned the living room into a sewing room to finally sew some gifts using her amazing materials. Sometimes I think I just have too many fabrics too. It’s giving me a hard time to decide what to actually make and which materials to use… Do you know what I mean?

So I’m very excited to start taking a weekly sewing class in January and hopefully convert the fabric piles into some nice things to wear…

I thought I could show and tell you some more things by now, but life’s keeping me busy – in a positive way: Making christmas presents, meeting friends, eating yummie cookies, crafting with the girls and enjoying some fabulous concerts.

Wishing you all a lovely week…

A few weeks ago I bought two awesome butterfly paper punches in different sizes.

So far I made some decoration by sewing the small butteflies together:

And I used some butterflies to decorate these two handbound journals

A few weeks back Sandrine put this idea in my head of making a do-it-yourself memo pockets craft kit.

We had some discussions about it on flickr, I thought it through, then started to write down instructions and started to do tons of illustrations and…

… finally this last weekend I put everything together – So I’m happy to say the memo pockets kit is (almost) finished – yeay!

This kit is for a small memo pocket with 5 pockets:
Outside: 5 3/4″ by 4 1/4″ (14.5 x 10.5 cm)
Pockets: 5.6″ by 4.05″ (14.2 x 10.3 cm)

Besides illustrated step-by-step instructions each kit includes:
> Cardstock sheets for 5 pockets
> Cardboard covers
> Decorative paper for the cover
> Ribbon
> Bookbinding glue
> Glueing template

BUT, there’s still one very import thing missing: it needs to be tested and as I would probaby not be the best candidate, i thought I’d post a fab little testing give away!

The first kit – of course – goes to Sandrine for giving me the idea and lots of helpful feedback – thanx so much Sandrine! BUT I wanna give away 3, so there are 2 more for you to get!

So for your chance to get one of these kits, please leave a comment answering these 3 little questions until Sunday, Dec 14th 9pm GMT (5pm EST):

1) What would you use your memo pockets for?
2) What are your top 3 colour combinations from the above image?
3) What would be a fair price to sell this kit for?

Important: Please only participate if you agree to test the kit and give me some feedback how it worked for you within 4 weeks after you received it!
I will randomly select 2 winners and post them here on Monday, Dec 15th.

I discovered Flying Pig who offer these awesome paper animation kits via BoingBoing a while back.

I finally found a way to put those cool edgar postcards to use that I have been collecting for more than 10 years. Edgar cards are free postcards that you can find in many bars and clubs in germany. Some have advertising on them, some are designed by the company who distributes them and some have art prints on them.

I cut them to form a kind of register and filled them with all kinds of papers – some blank, some lined, some checkered, some white and some colored – to make writing lots of fun.