WOYWW, Autumn projects

Hello my dear friends!

How are you all doing?? Has the cold weather hit your area??? Not yet??? Well we were quite lucky, October was warmer then it was for ages - I think I haven't had the heating on for one single day but they say next week it will all change... Maybe that cool weather coming will give me more will to make Christmas cards....anyway I will show you my desk - it was my intention to make something christmasy so I pulled out one of my new dies ( Sizzixs) and it didn't cut very well - I ask Why do they make the dies so that you have to use shims even for their own cutting machine!!!??? It upsets me to think you have to keep on buying extra plates to be able to cut things! I know it is all a business but still isn't it enough that we buy the machine and the die ???? I just wonder....
Anyway here is my desk with the dies that didn't cut through....huh!!!

Next up is a birthday card I made recently.....the stamp and background paper is Crafty Individuals, the letters are TH Typset and the leaves were punched and then colored to suit the card!

Next another little autumn project....my daughter and I made some quitten jam and I gave the jars a bit of a makeover with dylusion stamps and some old material I found in the cupboard.....he, he if I am a crafter my jam jars should show that......

And here is an autumn leaves shoerenade........

Have a lovely day, enjoy snooping around peoples desks, check in at Julia's headquarters and have fun!
Lots of hugs to all of you....
Cardarian

WOYWW, Getting back into the crafty mood!

Hello my dear friends!

I hope you are all well and at least some of you are enjoying the lovely autumn weather. I was at a library conference last week - you can see the post about that here - and I must admit we had lovely weather and the colors of autumn were fantastic. Coming back home the weather is not so nice - mostly cloudy with rain every now and then! But I guess if I am at work all day it doesn't matter what the weather is like! 
So lets get up to the crafty stuff....I have been making cards mostly....but first up is my really messy desk it is a major push back situation, I will have to clean up because I think there is no room for crafting anymore...

I have all my washi tape out ( and I haven't even used it! ) inks, stamps, TH DIs, scissors, chomper etc... I just don't know how I manage to make such a mess making just one card! Huh!
And here is what I made....it is a card for a friend at my DBFs MG club, they will have a big party for his 70th but unfortunatly I won't be there - he, he but card will be! He is a big fan of cricket so as you can see the card has that theme! 

I also started making Christmas cards again....I said I was going to make 1 Christmas card a week and by the end of the year they would all be done - never happened - I did it for about 2 weeks and that was it!!!
So here is my Christmas card .....not in a festive mood at all yet but I really don't want to be making cards the last evening before Christmas.....

So there that is the story of today at Cardarian's happy place!
I hope you have a good snoop around. and enjoy the day!
I will be visiting!
Lots of hugs to all of you
CARDARIAN

Our library conference - nothing crafty but important!

Hello my dear friends!

I am back from the library conference - probably one of the last ones before I retire! We stayed in a lovely hotel and the conference with all its presentations and lectures was very interesting! 
What did we talk about?? 2 very important things: one is about the new mission of the librarian in a more and more digital world, where we are not "keepers" of documents anymore - if any of you out there are librarians please listen to the lecture of professor David Lankes - From Loaning to learning   (link to the video presentation) something really worth hearing! The other theme was how to convince the people who finance the libraries to keep on doing that - the budgets for libraries are getting smaller and smaller but knowledge and education is more and more important but that fact is not always recognized! I am hopeful that the young generations will be successful both on their mission as "new librarians" and getting money to support knowledge and education!
Here are a few photos from our conference....here is the conference center - it is also a big hotel....do you see that blue sky?? We had that all week!

 

Here is the big hall with 2 screens where the main presentations where held

this is the video presentation of prof. David Lankes...I like that he quoted Nietzsche - a very good quote!

there was a terrace outside the hotel by the river where we went for coffees....these were the views....

We also visited the local libraries....where we were met by a  15th century lady who used to live in the nearby castle and she gave us a  pleasant welcome...

we also did some dancing.....you have to have a bit of fun too!!

we had a very good tamburine orchestra playing for us....

We visited an amazing museum....where we were told all the history of the city CELJE

and the last evening we had a dinner party....the tables where set lovely....

and here I am with my dear friend Anna - we met in 1976 both studying librarianship and have been very good friends ever since...

So that is it - something different nothing to do with cards, tags, Tim Holtz or anything crafty just a little story about the life of a librarian - he, he cardarian!
Lots of hugs to all of you
CARDARIAN

WOYWW, what a mess!

Hello my dear bloggers!

I am very late forWOYWW but the reason is I  have been getting ready for a library conference which I am travelling to tomorrow and  of course I have been to work and I have just now come to have enough time to post a short post! 
My whole room, not just my desk is in a mess!I don't know how it happened but once you start taking stuff out it just piles up and this happens......

and this (by the way do you like my new cushion with the owles???

and this

Ohhh such a mess, but don't worry after I come back from the conference it will all be sorted!

I have to go now, I will get round to you in the next few days , they say we will have wifi in the hotel!
Lots of hugs to all of you,
Cardarian

A special card!

Good morning dear bloggers!


I am trying to be a good blogger again :-) so I am showing you a special card today - it might not look so special but it is! Now I have a question! Have any of you girls ever made a card for someone who is 106 years old???? I bet you haven't! Well I have had the honor to make a card for one of our professors who was a forester and has celebrated his 106th birthday! I kept it quite simple, the sentiment says poeticaly,
"he has been listening to the forests growing for 106 years"....

Here is my card....

Here is a close up! I used TH DI broken china, vintage photo and walnut stain, the stamp is TH fir trees and the letters are from a Decorative strip Typeset Alphabet! Sticking those letters on was a very looooong process! But I made it! The twine and deer is from my stash!

Ok thats my Monday episode - stay tuned for the Tuesday one - I will show our finished (painted) retaining wall outside the library !
Have a lovely Monday and a good week!
Lots of hugs to all of you,
Cardarian

WOYWW, I am back!

Hello my dear friends!

I have been away for a long time! I wasn't on holiday - well I was just for a week - spent it with my DBF in England and my lovely friend Jo (from Jozart ) and her husband Dave! I had to make some life decisions and also things were happening and although I could have posted I couldn't have commented so I thought I better give it a miss! Of course it doesn't mean that if I haven't been blogging that I haven't been making things! I have a few bits to show you - some of what I have been doing with Jo from Jozart you can see on her blog here. This will be a photo heavy post as I will try to cover all the time I haven't blogged, some will be crafty stuff some just photos from the last month or so.....
So here we go....
First up a card I made for my DBFs grandsons birthday!

When my DBF was here last month we went for a drive up the mountains! We stopped for a look around and my DBF was deciding which mountain to climb.....

in the end he just decided to take a photo :-))

One of me too...

And then I went on a course....Rayher ( a big craft shop here in Ljubljana) have started selling INDIGOBLU stuff so to promote the products they organised a course with KAY HALLIWELL - SUTTON! It was very interesting and here are a few photos from the event!

This is Kay demoing....

We had a translator which was not really fun for me but as so many of the ladies didn't understand English the young man was translating for them. He was good though! Helped with our projects too!

We learned how to use Flitter Glu and Mega flakes and also a product called Croma Crackle! 

Here is what I made.....

And here is a photo of Kay....

So there that was another event done....

Then I made a card for my sister in laws birthday....

And then I flew to England .....and met up with Jo....

here is a photo of Jo, my DBF and Jo's hubby Dave...

and here is one from the top of the funicular in Hastings... Jo and Dave...

and my DBF....we all went for some fish and chips - you have to go for some fish and chips in Hastings don't you????

And here is a card I have made for my friend, it was her birthday on Monday so it has been given to her...

The background was colored with Paperartsy Fresco finish acrylic paints, stamps are the feather - Art Journey, the lady Crafty individuals. I also used stencils and a Marianne design die for the fancy window! All embellishments are from my stash! I will enter this into our Slovene craft challenge Craftalnica - they want something to do with fashion and I think feathers are very fashionable at the moment and the lady on the card seems to be a fashionable lady!!!

There I am finally finished now....I hope I didn't bore you too much with all these photos! Thank you so much for your patience! Have a lovely day blog hopping - I will be around to see you!

I hope our Queen Julia will not tell me off!

Lots of hugs to all of you,

Cardarian

WOYWW, A card and a new art journal!

Good morning my dear bloggy friends!

I am not blogging much these days - I guess life is happening and I just don't have much time these days - honestly there isn't even much to show as I am not doing much crafting ! I will get back into the swing of it but it is happeneing in a very slow pace! 
I have started off with a card - I made it for my daughters boyfriend! He is into sailing so I thought I would make something with a boat....here is what I came up with....

The background was some DP I had in my stash from Kaiserkraft ( I think) but I didn't like the color of it so I changed it with dipping into distress stain broken china and peacock feathers! The stamp is from Inkadinkado and I colored it with distress markers - the rope and fish are from my stash!
This week I got a special package - it was from the newly wed Donna - from Doings of Doone! She sent me a lovely art journal from Dyan Reaveley - and Donna and Jo from Jozart each made a page for me inside....here are some photos of  my new journal....
Donna also did a bit of decorating on the outside....

here is proof that it is a genuine Dylusion thinge...

Here are the pages Donna made for me.....

and Jo.....

How can my humble knowledge of art journaling compete with this??? They are both true artist so these pages are just gorgeous!  I just started off with coloring the inside cover page using silks...gives the page a bit of a sheen.... I have an idea what my next move will be and I will reveal it later in the week....

And I shouldn't forget to mention that I  also got lots of other bits and bobs in that package amoung them was this lovely art journaling guide from Dina Wakley! I have already read through half of it - really amazing book - I recomend it! THANK YOU DONNA I AM REALLY HAPPY!!!!!!!

So there that is my desk this week....I have a few photos from my holiday but I downloaded them to my other computer so I can't get to them at the moment - I might put them on my next post!
We have some rainy days after all that sun and heat - we might be wishing those days back as the temperatures have certainly dropped! Hopefully there will be an Indian Summer! 
Have a nice week and a lovely WOYWW !
Lots of hugs to all of you
CARDARIAN







 

WOYWW , Just a card!

Hello my dear friends!

I keep on apologizing for not blogging but I will be honest with you - there is nothing to blog about - it was very hot - we broke the record last week - the temperature went over 40 deg C !!! It has eased off since but my mojo has gone on holiday (obviosly likes it a bit cooler) and I am stuck with lots of lovely stamps, new dies, paints and sprays but absolutly no idea what to do with them! I can't remember when I have been sooo completly out of  ideas - it is like my brain has been washed and there is nothing creative left there! 
I am off on a 4 day holiday from tomorrow at the seaside with my DBF who came back to Slovenia yesterday  so I hope that I will get some ideas there and start creating again!  Huh! 
I have made ONE card - I think it must have reached its destination so I am safe to show it! It is a bit of a mixture of techniques - I made the background with Fresco acrylic paints, bits of pages from an old dictionary and I went as far as using light molding paste on a stencil! I used some of my new dies from Sizzix (frame), Memory box (leaves) and Marianne( flowers)!  I also used some glass little flowers and a few blue pearls! The leaves were shaded with distress ink - as they are so small I dabbed them with a cotton bud!
It isn't much but it was all I was able to put together! 
Here is my card....

 
and some close ups....

So that is my bit for this week! Not much but at least I made an effort! 
I am not sure how many of you I will be able to visit but I will try my best! I hope you have a lovely rest of the week and hopefully my mojo will be back soon and I will be able to show you a more creative post - there will be a photo report from my holidays!
Lots of hugs to all of you,
CARDARIAN