Only three more days to stock up on your digital art from Polka Dot Potato. After the 25th of August the shop will be closed. So hurry on over there and buy everything at 60% off!
Only three more days – Art retirement sale at PDP
Aug 23rd, 2010 by Rikki
Art retirement sale at PDP
Aug 5th, 2010 by Rikki
Summer Celebration Sale at PDP
Jun 18th, 2010 by Rikki
Enjoy the SUMMER CELEBRATION SALE at Polkadot Potato with 35% off our newest and featured Summer products. Also, look for $2.99 12" x 12" prints and $1.75 for 8" x 8" prints! Have a big order? Use coupon code BONUS8 (8"x8" prints) or BONUS12 (12"x12" prints) to receive 20% off orders of 100 or more prints.
Laminated small basket
May 13th, 2010 by Rikki
Altered art meets Pokemon
May 9th, 2010 by Rikki
Yesterday Corin was in desperate need of a new storage box for his ever growing stack of Pokemon cards. So he cajoled his dad into giving him the collector’s box of the Blind Dead collection which happens to have just the right size and shape (coffin!). Of course the box is way too boring as is, so Corin decided to embellish it with images of his favourite Pokemon cards. Cover it with a protective self-adhesive plastic film and there you go, the perfect Pokemon box for a six year old.
New SE theme – Over the Rainbow
May 1st, 2010 by Rikki
I don’t know whether I’ll be doing SE themes much longer since I’m switching phones in a few days (hopefully the new one won’t get stolen on the way again). So, this is “Over the Rainbow”. Using it puts me in a really good mood.
The theme is available here at mobile9.com. You will also find more previews there.
Happy (inter-)national Scrapbooking Weekend!
May 1st, 2010 by Rikki
Shop this weekend at Polka Dot Potato and save 50% on all almost all art and 25% on prints. Also the Potato Bar will be open just a few more days. Don’t miss those great .99$ deals!
Handing down the taste
Apr 18th, 2010 by Rikki
CS5 launch
Apr 7th, 2010 by Rikki
Adobe Creative Suite 5 will be launched on April 12, 4pm GMT. You can register for the event here. You will need an Adobe ID to register which can be obtained while registering. The event will take about 30 minutes and they recommend you log in about 15 minute earlier to complete a system check. The latest version of Adobe Flash Player is required as well.
Wow, I scrapped today, I’m surprised. That layout has been sitting half finished on my HD for weeks, I just couldn’t do anything with it. Until today when I opened the Scrapbooks etc. newsletter from some weeks ago and saw an awesome layout by Ali Edwards. I so lifted it, it’s not funny. This also gave me the chance to dig out some supplies that I haven’t looked at in ages, like for example M. Fenwick’s Urban Colour Licenses Plates and Gina Cabrera’s Book bag essentials.
Credits:
Papers and ink stain: Gina Cabrera; license plate: Meredith Fenwick; date stamp: DebF; tattoo brush: Jason Gaylor; coffee stains brush: Adobe Studio Exchange, Font: CK Becky
Memory wire bracelet
Apr 2nd, 2010 by Rikki
21st of March is World Down Syndrome Day. Just a few days later we received a stack of the official German brochure from the DS-Info Center. Guess who the cutie on the cover is! It’s our little dude, Sean. We are so proud of him. The picture was taken last year by Conny Wenk at the Nuernberg zoo.
If you are interested in downloading the brochure as a .pdf file, you can do so on the page about World Down Syndrome Day. Just scroll down to “Ansicht Aktions-Flyer”.
Another necklace
Mar 29th, 2010 by Rikki
The Potato Bar is open!
Mar 23rd, 2010 by Rikki
Very PINK!
Mar 21st, 2010 by Rikki
Tomorrow I need to wear something pink to work. I haven’t got that many pink clothes, which is surprising seeing that I really love pink. Anyway, I need something pink and a necklace was the answer. The centerpiece is one of the little balls I made at the felting class the other day. If this won’t qualify tomorrow I don’t know what will.
Bracelet experiments
Mar 16th, 2010 by Rikki
I experimented with this one a bit. I wasn’t really sure how this would work out, but actually it did ok. I used tons of leftover beads and threaded them more or less randomly, always with a silver rocaille bead in between. The length is not 100% the same and the fastener is a bit impractical the way I did it. So next time I’ll have to do that a bit differently.
Necklace – perfect for Jeans
Mar 14th, 2010 by Rikki
When I saw those bead trays for the first time I wondered what they were good for. Very soon after I discovered that especially for people who need to remove all their supplies when they are done for the time being it can be extremely useful. With curious kids running around I can’t leave half finished projects lying around, so a bead tray seemed to be an ideal solution.
A couple of days ago I got this tray and am really happy with it. Trying out what works and what doesn’t was much easier and when I had to remove everything, the beads could stay on the tray until next time. Very convenient!
A short video on how to use a bead tray can be found on eHow.
Stretch Magic bracelet
Mar 11th, 2010 by Rikki
I wanted to try out bracelets with Stretch Magic, because I find those stretch bracelets quite nice and easy to use. No fiddling with a clasp etc. I was just a bit apprehensive about the knot, since I’m not sure that they wouldn’t open again. I got some Stretch Magic today and looked around on the net for some instructions. The shop I got it from says to knot and add a drop of glue to secure it. Didn’t like that idea. At byPatrice.com I found some instructions for Stretch Magic bracelets that presented another idea. Patrice uses a bigger bead at the end, threads both ends through it and finishes with a crimp bead. Good idea! I did the same with my first bracelet, only I used a crimp tube, since my crimp beads were too small, and added a crimp cover on top of it.
Patrice suggests to thread the beads without cutting off the string so the beads won’t get lost. Sensible advice, but I had some difficulty in visualizing how to thread them, since I need to end up with the middle bead at one end of the string. So, just in case there is someone else out there who is equally challenged I came up with this little threading instruction. I’m sure I will have to come back to it again, next time I want to create a bracelet.
In a book about jewellery making I saw that felt and beads go very well together. I had no idea what material to use to create felt balls or other shapes, how it’s done and how much work it requires. So yesterday a friend and I went to a felting class. I only was interested in knowing how to do things I could actually use for jewellery, so, whereas the other participants did intricate flower designs for a vase or a wall decoration, I was just happily sitting there creating little balls,
. I have no time for dust catchers. That teacher probably had never seen a least demanding student. Admittedly I didn’t get a lot done in three hours, but with all the chatting going on this is not surprising.
This is what I came up with:
I think I still need to considerably improve my shaping skills but for a first try I’m quite happy with them.
Basic Grey goes digital
Mar 8th, 2010 by Rikki
It’s not new, but I only discovered recently that Basic Grey went digital. If I was a paper scrapper I’m pretty sure that almost all my papers would be Basic Grey. So I was pretty excited to see that they are now selling digital kits as well.
So far they have seven collections available, the latest being the “Vagabond” collection. I find the way they sell their stuff very interesting. You can buy a starter kit of the collection, which is basically all you need to do a few pages without repeating yourself. You you can buy the set of patterned papers and a set of a variety of elements separately or you buy one paper at a time and element packs consisting of only textures, flourishes, journaling spots, trimmings etc. Nice idea, that way nobody is forced to pay for an alpha they don’t want or buy a full kit if they are only after one specific paper. The price for a starter kit is 8$. If you have always been a fan of Basic Grey and regretted that you couldn’t use their products, the times have changed.
Oh, and as a nice additional idea Basic Grey are also selling blog banners, blog backgrounds and wallpapers now. If you want to re-do your blog Basic Grey style, now this is as easy as can be.
New SE theme: Another Place
Mar 4th, 2010 by Rikki
“Another Place“ is a piece of art with 100 sculptures by artist Antony Gormley, which is situated at Crosby Beach, England, at the moment. It looks as if it might stay there for good. An absolutely lovely place. I’ve had those photos on my HD for a couple of years and wanted to do something with them, but never knew what. Now I turned them into a phone theme, which is available at mobile9.com.
For more previews and the free download, please go here at mobile9.com.
More jewelry
Mar 3rd, 2010 by Rikki
I was busy again. I made this green and black necklace for a colleague. I’m still only trying out stuff.
And while Corin was busy playing with wooden beads I made this cute little bracelet that matches the necklace from the other day.
Beading class v.2
Feb 28th, 2010 by Rikki
We went to another beading class where I made this necklace. It fits my hippie style perfectly.
On a German swap site I swapped a bunch of beads, it was just a large batch and I wasn’t sure what would be in it, except I knew there were a handful of large pink ones. After going through them all (I felt like Aschenbrödel who’s sorting out, what was it, peas?). One of the beads in there is this one:
Isn’t this the cutest little bead ever? Totally love it.
Picture organizing
Feb 27th, 2010 by Rikki
Lately my ACDSee has annoyed me quite a bit. It froze constantly, I had to restart it, froze again. Then, all of a sudden it stopped working altogether because of some error or other that I didn’t care to investigate. So I had a look around for another picture organizer to replace ACDSee, preferably cheap.
I’ve tried a lot of them before I bought ACDsee, so I knew that Picasa, Adobe photo album etc. are not for me. Eventually I found a program that had received very good reviews, called XN View. From what I can tell it can do lots of things that ACDSee can do and it is fast, too.
- It works with tons of file formats and displays .psd files much quicker than ACDSee.
- You can have a list of favourites folders to get to stuff quickly.
- You can determine in what program to open any file and assign a keyboard shortcut for it.
- You can assign categories to an image
- You can color code images
- You can rate pictures
- Batch processing
- Photo editing
- You can create contact sheets
- Create slide shows
- Send your pictures by email
- Convert images to various formats easily
So far I haven’t found anything that I did with ACDSee that XN View didn’t do, and sometimes even faster than ACDSee. XN View is available in German, English and French and – best of all – it’s free.
Practising
Feb 20th, 2010 by Rikki
Rico DIY jewellery kit
Feb 19th, 2010 by Rikki
Since this product is available in Germany – I assume Rico Design does not distribute this in other countries as well – I’m going to continue in German now, Hopefully for the benefit of potential buyers who, like me, thought that by buying a product of the popular Rico brand, they are getting a quality item to work with. This is not so.
Da ich annehme und hoffe, dass Rico diese “jewellery kits” nur in deutschsprachigen Ländern vertreibt, mache ich jetzt mal auf deutsch weiter….
Das design auf der Packung des kits “Sicily” sprach mich an, da ich die Farbkombination grün/braun sehr schön finde. Beim Auspacken wurde ich dann allerdings sehr schnell enttäuscht.
Die Perlen sind von schlechter Qualität, das fiel sogar mir als Anfänger auf. Bei manchen fehlten die Löcher, manche waren angeknackst etc. Das Herz, das mir auf dem Foto eher bräunlich vorkam, stellte sich in Wahrheit als das folgende heraus:
Ein Herz mit blauen und roten Einschlüssen wollte ich nicht. Die “Anleitung” ist dermassen dürftig, dass ein Anfänger damit nicht gut zurechtkommt. Das “Lederband” (laut Packungsrückseite – Anleitung) stellte sich als tatsächliches Veloursband heraus (laut Packungsrückseite – Materialliste). Für das Band fehlte ein passender Verschluss. Ich habe mir dann mit einem beweglichen Knoten geholfen.
Das Armband habe ich gar nicht mehr angerührt, sondern verwende jetzt die übrigen Perlen, soweit brauchbar, bei anderen Projekten.
Das kit ist nicht besonders teuer, was aber nicht heissen darf, dass bei
- Qualität
- Anleitung
- Material an sich und
- Verpackungsgenauigkeit
gespart werden darf. Ich kaufe schliesslich kein Produkt, das “der Abbildung ähnlich” ist, sondern das der Abbildung entspricht. Ich bin von dem kit sehr enttäuscht und überlege es mir sicher zweimal, bevor ich wieder etwas von Rico Design kaufen werde.
The start of a new craft – Beading
Feb 18th, 2010 by Rikki
I recently started to take an interest into making jewelry with beads. I once got two necklaces that a friend crocheted for me and thought I might like to try that out. However, it turned out to be way too delicate for me, so I gave it up again without even trying. I had a look around and found this book by Sarah Withers “The encyclopedia of Beading techniques” which turned my attention to wire jewelry.
My next step was to buy a little craft kit with all the materials to make your own necklace, which turned out to be a bad move (more about this in another post). So a friend and I decided to go to an evening class to learn how to do it properly. We went to the Perlenmarkt where Bianca showed us some techniques and everybody could choose the kind of necklace they wanted to create.
This is what I came up with:
I had a bit of time left, so I decided to make a second necklace which didn’t take a lot of time. I’m not altogether happy with the fasteners, but for the first couple of necklaces I suppose I don’t want to be too particular.
New look, new topics
Feb 18th, 2010 by Rikki
My interests have changed in the last few months. Well, not really changed, but they have extended to other areas than only scrapbooking. So I decided to extend the topics of the blog as well, give it a new name and change it looks.
I know, “teleidoscope” is not really a name that sticks or is suitable as a catching name, but if you have ever looked through one you will know how fascinating teleidoscopes are. I love them and I want this blog to be a sort of mirror of what I do in my leisure time. So I found it fit.
Mashed Potato Monday and a sale
Feb 15th, 2010 by Rikki







