Burlap and vintage post cards

I don't know about you, but I love things that have a vintage look and feel to them! I found the cutest holiday vintage post cards at an antique market in Paris and just had to use them for some Christmas cards! In order to be able to use the image multiple times, I scanned it and reprinted it in duplicate on cardstock. Here are the first two designs I made with them (I'm sure there will be more to come, too!).

 
I also made some burlap gift bags for my upcoming Christmas market using bits and pieces of fabric, velvet ribbon and vintage lace. I love how they turned out!! The big bags are about 9"w x 11"h and small ones are 4.5"w x 5"h.

Hope you are having a good start to the week!
J xx

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

...all around my desk! Since I had out the Christmas stamps to play with the tags I posted earlier today, I thought I would get busy making some cards for the upcoming Christmas market! AND....I made 30 cards - YIPPPPEEE!!

Here are a few of my favorites :-)!

     

      

         

... I even had to make some with my favorite bike stamp!

And this is what I get to wake up to in the morning as I am too tired to clean up tonight.... (actually it is what I wake up to every day since I am notoriously messy when working!).

And to all ... a good night!
J xx

Christmas Tag Kit Workshop

The fall holidays are over now and it's time to gear up for Christmas! I was playing around this morning with the new Christmas Tag Kit from Stampin' Up! and made some examples to show participants in the workshop I have planned for 27 November 2013. Each person receives the kit from Stampin' Up! and will also have access to my collection of papers, inks, stamps and a variety of embellishments. It should be a fun class and will make everyone feel like they've really accomplished something when they walk away with 24 tags!!

I'm also busy, busy, busy working on new stuff to sell at the Christmas "Around the World" Market that we have organized in Wädenswil on 23 November. Check out the link to find out more info about the event!

So, I'm off to stamp now before picking up the little one for lunch! Have a good week!

J xx

Cards, cards and more cards!

I'm (still) amazed at how quickly time passes... It seems like just yesterday that I posted pictures of my home decor fabric clutches, when in actuality I posted them three weeks ago! Life has a way of getting in the way sometimes, so I apologize for not posting as regularly as I would like to in my "ideal world". You know this world, don't you? It is the world where you can have cappuccino every morning, stamp or sew for 2 hours without interruptions, get a bit of exercise to work out the kinks from sitting at the desk, have a little nap followed by another coffee or tea in the afternoon, post some of the fun bits that were made in the morning... Aaaaahhh (sigh), if only!

Well, I have been busy in spite of not posting! After a long weekend in Paris last weekend to celebrate our 16th anniversary, I came back feeling inspired and ready to work. It is such an incredible city and would take weeks, not 4 days, to fully explore. One incredible find was a whole area devoted to fabric stores...amazing to see shop after shop stocked full of different fabrics, notions, ribbons and trims...heaven! Unfortunately, I only had a short time to look around and have to admit, I was overwhelmed with the selection, so I only came away with zippers and one piece of fabric.  Guess I'll have to go back again one day :-)! Here's a little collage I made of pics around the Champs-Elysee and Arc de Triomphe.

In honor of Paris, I've been making several cards this week with the Eiffel Tower, bicycles (they are everywhere in Paris) and some vintage, shabby chic ones. Thought I would share a few of my favorites with you.

 

Have a great week! I'll try to post pics of my recent cards and bags to my Flickr site soon.

J xx

Home Decor Fabric Clutches - first batch is done!

Hello!

Hope you are having a good start to the week! Yesterday was a holiday in Zurich and it turned out to be a spectacular day. The kiddos were off with friends so I had a nice day to myself to sew, stamp and go for a nice, long walk. I had to capture the magnificent view that I encountered on the trail at the end of my walk (this view is literally 2 minutes from our house...). We are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful country!

I was able to complete 4 of the home decor fabric clutches that I posted about here and wanted to share the results with you. The big ones in the back are about 10 in x 6 in while the fancy ones in the front are a bit smaller at 8 in x 6 in. All have a magnetic clasp to keep all the important bits inside the clutch. What do you think??

Home decor fabric clutch bags (size 8-10 inches wide by 6 inches high)

 

More to come soon! Have a great week!
J xx

Custom order baking kit

Hi there!

I just wanted to share with you a custom order I finally completed this week. It is a baking kit for an 11 year old girl who also loves horses. My dear friend, Barb, gave me permission to use a print of one of her incredible horse paintings and I love how well it goes with the colors I chose for the box. I hope the new owner of the box finds it as lovely as I do!

 

Enjoy your week!

J xx

Decor fabric clutches...the planning phase

Hello!!

It seems like I always start out my posts apologizing for being absent for a rather long period of time... So, today I'll just say "Hi there strangers!" instead :-)!

Life has been rather crazy lately with summer wrapping up, the kiddos starting back to school (yippppeee!), buying a holiday home in the mountains (double yippppeeeee!) and all the fun stuff that goes along with those things, so I do have to apologize for not posting for the past few weeks. We signed the papers for our new flat in Klosters on Monday and are going up tomorrow for our first weekend as "homeowners" in Switzerland! The kids have been so excited all week and keep asking if they can get sick so we can go up earlier and stay longer. Guess we should relish in their excitement as I doubt it will last when we are taking them on long hikes in the mountains or forcing them to go to ski school... I promise to do a post on our place once we get things set up (and maybe even include a tutorial on some of the things I want to do for it...)!

Anyway, I actually took some pictures tonight while I was playing with some home decor fabric I bought on my last trip to the US. I plan to make some cute little clutches using the fabrics and dressing them up with a variety of buttons, lace and trims from my stash of goodies. I loved looking through all my buttons again and had to get a pic of them on my table!

Here are a few pics showing my planning process of combining the fabrics with the liners and the various trims and buttons. I'll provide an update once I get them made. I keep wanting to do a tutorial at some point as well and maybe this will be it since I plan to keep these VERY SIMPLE!

Have a great weekend!
J xx