oooooooooh (hear me screaming), what a wonderful pre-birthday-present i got today!!:)))

in the mail was michelle´s package she sent me for winning crusade no.8! WOW, what a cram-full big fat envelope of such beautiful things, i´m totally blown away!
one thing is for sure: she is the queen of cram-packing!! i would never get all those things back into this one envelope LOL!! i made two pics to show you all the wonderful stuff (you can click for details)… even unpacking was a feast for the eyes with all that b/w wrapping papers in various patterns:)

oooooooooooooh, was für eine vorgeburtstags-überraschung!:))

heute kam michelles päckchen, das sie mir für die crusade no.8 geschickt hat! WOW, ein gigantisch fetter umschlag, zum bersten gefüllt mit lauter schönen dingen. ich bin von den socken! eins ist mal sicher: sie ist die königin des vollstopfens!! nie mehr würd ich all das zeug zurück in den umschlag kriegen LOL!! ich hab mal 2 fotos gemacht von all den tollen sachen (kann man auch anklicken um alles genau zu sehen)… schon das auspacken war ein fest für die augen mit all den geschenkpapierpäckchen in überwiegend s/w.

i love just everything!!!
michelle, the nice mousepad was a good stabilizor for the rest, very clever! never saw such “relief embossed” paper-tiles before, what a great texture! LOVE that punched cardstock for the coilbook (i think this will be my favorite because of the spraypainted cover)!!! great asian papers with gold & silver! can anybody ever have enough tags?? love these slide-booklets, too. and the turquoise notecards are marked with my monogramm… not to forget the rubber, brads, guitar-picks and egg-paints for coloring paper (including instruction; this will be fun!!). and – well, i do admit, i had hoped for *g*… yes!! a copy of HIM hits:))) playing in the background now that i´m typing… wait – another favorite: 2 sheets of “impress-on”-images from christine adolph… so cool!!
oh i wish i could start to play instantly… but there is the big 5 to be celebrated in 2 days… and some *minor* (or not so minor…) preparations are to be made…

anyway, you brought me lots of joy – thank you so much, michelle!!!!!!!

ich find alles klasse!!!
ein gemustertes mousepad (mal sehen, wozu ich das verwenden werde…) stabilisierte die anderen sachen. geprägte papierquadrate mit tollem muster (nie gesehen so was)! ich LIEBE die vorgelochten farbigen papiere für ein spiralbuch (ich glaub das wird mein liebling werden wegen dem cover mit den sprühmustern)!! asiatische papiere mit gold & silberauflagen, tags – von denen kann man ja wirklich nie genug haben!! mikroskopglas-büchlein und ein packen türkiser notecards mit meinem anfangsbuchstaben… und natürlich gummis, brads, gitarren-pleks und eierfarbe (find ich besonders witzig, sie hat eine anleitung dazu geschrieben, wie man damit papier einfärbt;). ha, und – wie ich gehofft hatte, eine cd von HIM hits:))) läuft gerade im hintergrund, während ich hier tippe… halt – noch ein super dingens: aufrubbel-motive von christine adolph… total cool (mag ja schon ihre stempel so gerne).
ich wünschte, ich könnte sofort los legen… aber da gibt´s ja übermorgen die große 5 zu feiern… und da muss ich noch ein paar kleinere (oder größere;) vorbereitungen machen…

auf jeden fall war das päckchen eine große freude – vielen herzlichen dank, michelle!!!!!

(well, a bit out of the season, but only found this scan for now to give you a sample… and i think you get the idea;)

another cheap trick i love is to make my own dymo labels – taking the cheap dymo-tool and running through cardstock i colored in myself.

this is not only a question of cheapness, but has the advantages that first, you can take the color which fits your project (so you are not limited to the standard colors you can buy) and second, you don´t have that shiny plastic touch, which sometimes doesn´t match (in my taste).

you only cut the cardbord in the width of the storebought rolls, color it in as you like and run it through. after that i thoroughly wipe with a black brilliance stamppad over the risen typing to make it better visible. that´s all!
if you want to see the whole x-mas book (with lots of michelles stamps, btw;), go here.

for more cheap tricks, visit crusade no. 8.

here i have two tips i frequently use. both are quite cheap, as you go a looooong way with the materials.

first: color your own tape (and stamp it, if you like)

i use the white tape that comes for stabilization if you hurt your joints at sports. there are several meters at one roll, so you go with this for years;) – well, except you are very sportive, too;))
i tear strips of it from the roll and put them onto a sheet of acetate (or something similar, where you can remove them later and the glue remains active). then i color them (dye inks from the refill work fine, take a brush) either with exactly the colors i need for my project – or randomly in various colors to have some in reserve. they stay on the acetate until i need them. you can use them to fix transparencies on your artwork &&&…

you can also stamp onto that stripes with brilliance or stazon stamppads, if you want more texture.

second tip: color cotton ribbons and print your own sayings

again i use the white material – now cotton, which you can buy as cheap household ribbon in various lengths and widths. cut off pieces which you color in with thinned dye-inks from the refill (normally i have some small jars with various colors standing around, so i need not mix them new every time). i take vivid mostly, but also adirondacks or other brands work well.
when the strips are dry, you can print on the words you need – either via t-shirt-transferpaper, or – cheaper, directly in your printer:
print the word you want first onto white paper, fix a piece of colored ribbon exactly over that printing with tesa-tape (leave a little space left and right) and run it through the printer again. voilà – the printing is on your ribbon. (do the coloring first, the ink from the printer will run otherwise!) fix that with brads on your card or glue it onto your artwork… have fun!!

go to michelle´s site to look for more cheap tricks:)