Tips for Stamping with Foam Rubber

For my first home project for the new appartement I did some experiments in stamping with foam rubber. I really like this technique, because it’s easy and cheap.

Basically, you just cut out the desired shape from the foam rubber, glue it onto a piece of cardboard and use this as a stamp.
I printed quite big pieces of fabric with a bird pattern, so I had some time to practise and figure out what works and what doesn’t.Here are a few tips for stamping with foam rubber:

• Use a rather thick and sturdy kind of cardboard to glue the foam rubber on. It won’t bend as much and you will have less smudging.
• Carefully lay the stamp onto the fabric and roll over the cardboard with a roller. This way you can evenly apply pressure and the print will turn out more even, too.
• Take your time to find the perfect amount of colour to put on the stamp. If you apply to much it will smudge, if you take too little, your print won’t be bold.
• Clean the cardboard arround the foam rubber from time to time or let it dry to avoid smudging.
• You can always touch up the prints with a brush.
• Don’t be worked up if it doesn’t turn out perfect. An a little bit messy look makes half the charm of printing.

I will share the project I used the fabric for, soon. If you have any questions or tips, please let me know!

The Small Things: Bunch of Flowers

Since we moved, I like to have a bunch of flowers in the kitchen, I think it brightens up a room immediately.

So far I bought them at the weekly market. If you come rather late (like I usually do) you can buy them at a reduced price. I love that this one is a mixture of so many different kind of flowers and doesn’t look too polished, like picked from a garden. This is especially great since I never can decide which kind of flowers I like the most.Do you have a favourite flower?

Link Love #21

Image: jenni from the block

Hello there!

As you probably noticed, I have some troubles picking up my usual posting schedule again. There’s still a lot to do around the appartement and the weather has been so nice lately! Also I will be starting a new job at the beginning of August. I’m really excited about it, but I will work more hours than I do now, so it will take some time to adjust my daily life and time management. Since I’m blogging for fun, I don’t want to make any excuses. I just want to say that it will be a little bit slow around here for some more time.

Here are some links for the weekend. Enjoy!

• Elsie painted her patio tiles. It looks great!
• A clever way to make a beaded statement necklace. I love the idea of using safety pins.
• I never made flavoured water before, but I want to try one of these.
• You know how much I love birds. And I guess I told you there’s a little garden coming with the new appartement which we can use by next summer. And I’m totally doing this tea pot bird bath! It would be so great to sit there and watch the little birds taking a bath. I’m already getting excited.
• Want to know what’s in your average cup of coffee?
• Since we’re living a tiny little bit less central  than before, I reactivated my bicycle. Although these fabric bike baskets are for children, I would love to make one for my bike.

Have a great and sunny weekend!

Projects: Painted Mug

There’s still a lot to do around our new appartement, so I didn’t have much time for blogging this week. But at least I wanted to share a project from my archives.

This was a present for my Mum, too. I transferred the image to the mug by cutting the bird from paper and taping it to the mug, than I outlined it with pencil. The inner lines I drew freehand. Afterwards I dotted the lines with porcelain painter and burned it in the oven.

The hardest part was to transfer the picture, but all in all it was really easy! The idea was inspired by this Dot-Painted China. I also made one for my Dad, but since the motive refered to a family joke it doesn’t make sense to share it.

Since than I painted quite a lot of mugs, I think they make great presents since you can personalise them easily and everyone needs a favourite mug (in my opinion). The only problem is that the paint often doesn’t last as long as promised, especially if you put them into the dishwasher.

Have you painted mugs before? Have you any tips for a long-lasting porcelain paint?

Moving: New Chaos

Image by Moyan Brenn

Above you can see an image of our new appartement. We’re already finished decorating.
Just kidding, of course, but at the moment it feels as chaotic as in the pictures around here. At least the bedroom and the kitchen are only half cluttered.

The final house moving went quite well. A friend of ours came by with his bus and thanks to our great helpers everything arrived at the new appartement in under three hours. We were really lucky to get the keys two weeks before the final moving date, so we managed to bring everything but the furniture before. The only thing broken so far is my big mirror, but that’s ok. A new one goes on my list of things I want to have for the appartement. I guess I there are some trips to Ikea in the near future. I also finally want a good vacuum cleaner, which actually vacuums the dirt and not only moves it around.

And I already love our kitchen, finally I can spread as much red and white polka dots as I want to (luckily, my boyfriend is quite tolerant of it as long as it’s also functional). I only wish our living room was finished or there was some clear space on the couch at least. Concerning sleeping I’m still adjusting, so I’m really tired. There only are old window shutters (which I love otherwise) which don’t deter the light from outside properly, so I wake up at sunrise (and that’s not the time I usually get up if I can avoid it in any way). But I guess I will get used to it. Oh, and I already took a bath! It was dreamy!

And in case you’re wondering, the budgies survived the moving quite well. They were a little bit stressed because they had to change place a few times, but now they are back up on their bookshelf, so everything’s fine again. For me it’s just a little bit irritating not to have them arround all the time any more. In our shared appartement I only had one room so they were always near me when I was home. Now they are standing in the living room. The hardest part for me is that I can’t say good night to them any more just before shutting the light. But I do it anyway, although they can’t hear me (and I force my boyfriend to do it, too). Somehow it calms me.

Anyhow, as you can see in my free associations I’m really tired so I better go to bed now.

I guess it will take some more time until I’m back on my regular schedule, but I’ll keep you posted.

Have a good week!

Moving: Chaos

I’m sorry there was no link love this week, I just didn’t manage to put one together. I also won’t be able to post this week – the “big move” is scheduled for friday and until than I have a lot to do.

I hope the internet in our new appartement will be running soon, so I guess I will be back by the beginning of next week (and I will be posting from our new home for the first time, how exciting!), so please check in again at this time.

I wish you all a good time and see you soon!

Moving: Sneak Peek

On Monday we got the keys for our new appartement and yesterday evening we brought the first boxes over. Since it’s so hot at the moment we can’t do much during the days, so I plan to pack stuff by day and bring it over in the evenings.

Yesterday we also bought a washing machine and at the store I discovered a set of red and white polka dot dishes. It included cups, bottom plates, small plates, big plates and soup plates and was totally affordable so I had to have it! I’m really happy about this find, I wanted dishes with red and white polka dots for a long time but never could afford it and also didn’t want to buy it as long as I lived in a shared appartement (things tend to get broken around here).

But enough from the dishes, because actually I wanted to share some first pictures from the new appartement with you. My boyfriend made them with his phone when we first looked at the appartement, so they are a little bit blurry, but you can get an idea how it looks like.

Above you can see part of the kitchen with the red wall – isn’t it beautiful? There’s also another kitchen unit left to the window, so we have a lot of storage and work space.

Here you can see the bathroom, I’m really looking forward to it, as was also obvious in this post!And here’s a sneak peek into one of the rooms. I love the wooden floors and the big windows (you can’t really recognize in the pictures, but in reality they look much bigger).This is really what I hoped for – a properly renovated appartement in an old building.

Now I’m off to pack my kitchen stuff, hope you’re having a nice afternoon!

What do you like best about your home?

Projects: Fabric Baskets

While I was separating out my things during the last days, I thought a lot about ways to organise all the small stuff. What works best for me is gathering small things in boxes, baskets or else – so even if its chaos inside, at least  it looks tidy from the outside.

One of my favourites are these little fabric baskets. I made them for my mom some time ago, but will surely make some for myself as soon as we have moved.
I chose different patterned fabrics in red and white, alternating the patterns between the outside and the inside of one basket and between the baskets.
I sewed a big, a small and a little one, if they aren’t used they can be stacked inside each other or they can be folded together.

I found the pattern or more specifically instructions how to construct the pattern somewhere on the internet, but I just can’t remember where. But there are lots of tutorial on the internet for these.

How do you organize your small stuff to keep the room tidy?

Link Love #20

Image by Dan Queiroz

This week I started packing and sorting my stuff – I’m kind of proud because I managed to throw away quite a lot! On the other hand it makes me kind of anxious, because now my home doesn’t feel like home any more. I wonder how long it will take until our new appartement feels like home?
Anyway, here are a few links for you. Have fun!

• Awesome People Reading is a tumblr full of pictures of, well, awesome people reading. There’s always something very peaceful about people totally absorbed by their books.
• Did you know you can make your own watercolors?
• I guess it would be easy to find cheap vinyls on the flea market to make this Vintage Vinyl Dessert Stand.
• This is one of the best cat DIY’s I’ve seen so far.
• An original way to think of original ideas.
• How to make your own polka dot glasses. I’m going to ikea tomorrow and I will buy glasses. I wonder if the paint is dishwasher-proof, because, yes! we’re going to have a dishwasher.
• This is not only true, but also beautiful. It would look great framed.
• These fabric gift bags are really cute! I also like that they are reusable. You could make a bunch of them to keep on hand.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Home Inspiration Journal

Within the scope of my “moving-series” I’m showing you some pages from my home inspiration journal. I love to browse through magazines for inspiration, but since I will never find a particular image in the magazine again once I put it away, I started to rip out pages and organize them in different journals – DIY and recipes, for example, and, well, home inspiration.

Here I liked the black and white and slightly “used” look.

On this pages I gathered ideas for plants in windows. I also love the wall sticker with the birds.

Usually I’m not into pastels, but I like how it gives the whole room a vintage look.I started sorting out and packing my stuff this afternoon and I already feel kind of overwhelmed. I wonder how people who have a whole house manage to move….

Do you have any tips for house moving?