Today I went out..well…I went to see the Paperworld, a Frankfurt Expo with my friend Nicole of Der Scrapbookladen.
And you wouldn’t guess what happened to me when we walked through the pavilions looking at this and that…we suddenly saw Tim Holtz sitting there,  showcasing some of his products. “OMG” I thought, “this is real, HE is real!!” And so I went ahead to get through the crowd and into the first row right in front of him. You must know I own his fragments (among other little tidbits), those cute little acrylic tiles in different shapes and sizes. I had something special in mind when I bought them and I tried to stamp on them..but it wouldn’t work out the way I wanted it to, so I decided to ask “the master” himself, if there is a trick to stamping on them. (Poor guy had to explain the basics to me LOLOL) What can I say: there is a trick  (and a pretty simple one, I could have been thinking of it myself)LOL
And while chitchatting about german Wurstels and dutch potatoes, Mc Donald’s in Germany and the States he stamped, embossed, painted and talked, and in the end I was ready to go home with a Tim Holtz Original ! Stamped and painted by himself! YAY! LOL And to tell you the truth: he is as nice and easy going as everybody says.
You still don’t believe me? Then see yourself.

How cool is this?
I also had a chance to see his new paper collection and liked it..you know that I love everything altered and grungy…always did since I started designing. Should have asked him to do some papers with me! This certainly would be fun!
And who knows: maybe I will!
Driving back from the expo was no fun though as it started snowing like hell and all was snowed in within seconds. So when we finally made it back to Nicole’s to pick up my car all has gotten worse, and this half an hour drive back to my house took me more than 2 hours but I made it home safe and sound.

Have a wonderful evening now, it is pretty late here now and I will finally quit sitting in front of the screen.
Bye and take care wherever you are.
Sylvie

If you are in need some unique last minute decoration for your christmas tree or some table decoration for christmas dinner, here is some inspiration for you!

My sweet CTMember Pauline just used some of her paper scraps (mostly from Sausandesigns-Sing Spring) but you can use whatever you find in your stash..you could even use paper from old catalogues!

Now cut or punch out circles from your papers, Pauline also punched out some little stars inside of some of the paper circles. Let your imagination flow! Then get your or your friend’s (or neighbor’s) sewing machine and just sew all those circles together. If it seems to get complicated, just arrange them on a sheet of parchment paper and sew all together. Then, when you are done, just slowly tear off the parchment paper and voilà : you are owner of a cute little paper garland!

Now you can hang the garlands from your windows or decorate the tree or you can use them for a cute little dinner table decoration:
For this little tree you can or use a ready made tree from the thrift store or you decorate some styrofoam cones with glitter ribbons or whatever you can think of. I think you can find those cones in floral shops. When you decorated them, just wrap the paper garland around the tree. If you are doing more than one tree, it will make a wonderful and unique decoration for christmas dinner table.

Have fun creating!