16 loves {July 2016}

Welcome to the next in the series {16 loves} for 2016.

For the last few years, I've been sharing my loves each month - a little bit of everything that has caught my eye or been enjoyed over the last month. So, a new year and new inspiration. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. 

To see what's inspired me in the past, click to find all my {13 loves}, my {14 loves}, my {15 loves} and my {16 loves}.

I hope there's something in here to inspire you or maybe just make you smile.

one

My Counterfeit Kit Challenge July kit, Scooped, is one that I just love. I made a layout a few days ago that doesn't look anything like this photo (b-sides) but that's the joy of my kits. I hardly do any scrapbooking without a kit these days!

two

On 29th June, I travelled down to Cologne... THIS never fails to take my breath away. The Cologne Cathedral must be one of the most beautiful anywhere. Love it.

three

The reason I was in Cologne was to meet up with fellow Master Forger, Julene! What a thrill to get to know someone from the opposite corner of the world! We had a fun few hours together while I showed her and her friend around some of the main sights before before we had lunch, including a glass of the infamous Kölsch. So great to meet her.

four

She came bearing gifts. So sweet of her and that bright pink, butterfly printed scarf has my name all over it.

five

I have to get myself a jar of this. Just so delicious - pepper marinated in salt. 

AJ Schaub Spices here

six

There's a discussion going on in the Master Forger FB group about blogging and how it seems to be going out of fashion. For several of us, that seemed sad. I don't get around blogs as much as I'd like to recently and when I do, I tend to binge read and comment, but I do love seeing and reading a bit more in a blog post than over on Instagram (as much as I love IG!). 

S at Snaps and Snippets is one of my favourite stops when I have time, and she never fails to make me smile when I do. 

Snaps and Snippets here

seven

I spent a weekend in the German town of Worms (pronounced Vorms!) and it has an incredible Romanesque St Peter's Cathedral complete with later redesigned Baroque alter and choir. Impressive for such a small town. This is the site of the Edict of Worms - where Luther was declared a heretic. So much history, you could literally feel it when you walked in. 

eight

And the surrounding villages have pretty sights such as this. I'm planning to go down again to drive around to some of the many, many vineyards you can find in the area. 

nine

Another winning collection by Shimelle, Go Now Go. I love travel themed products - which is ironic now that I don't travel as much as I used to! - and this one looks like a great mix of designs, colours and elements. Everyone's going crazy for the puffy heart stickers but I just love the overall look and feel of this. I hope that I'll be able to get my hands on it when it comes out.

Shimelle for American Crafts - Go Now go

ten

This Moonlight collection by Kesi'Art was a no-brainer for me. I just had to order it. I love it. Look at those constellations and moon designs. 

eleven

Not really something that's inspiring me. Rather something that's making me mad. Brexit happened. Unexpected by all. The UK's future is somewhat uncertain. My response? A glass of wine and some time to reflect.

twelve

I have lovely students! At the end of a set of lessons, one group made the trek to the local English shop in Dortmund to pick up some British supplies for me - shortbread, orange marmalade, tea, a copy of OK! and of course, a Union Jack. The gesture touched me greatly.

thirteen

The Scrapbilly kit in July was full of Carta Bella Beach Day products and as soon as I saw the pineapple paper, brad and washi tape, I knew that I had to make this page at last for the Whimsical Musings WM#167 prompt. 

fourteen

I had some fun preparing a batch of flair for something special - and secret - ...

fifteen

... which then found their way into the post and across the miles...

sixteen

As I write this, it's the 15th, which marks my 15th anniversary of moving to Germany. A selfie was called for and the page to mark this milestone will be made. I feel like I've aged a 100 years since I first arrived but I am very much at home here and love it. 

I’d love you to share your own {16 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

{16 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 16th of the month

Mail Art Exchange

The delightful Ginger organised another Mail Art Exchange recently and I was happy to get involved again. It's something a bit different to the usual scrapping that I do and pushes me to try something a bit different.

This time around, the theme was words so I used a whole load of tissue paper, from Starbucks of all places, to cover the envelope I would be sending and then dotted it with words cut from a couple of second hand books as well as some rub ons. I included a butterfly banner made from book pages too which I was particularly delighted with and now need to make myself one too! Of course I forgot to take photos of it but the recipient, Alexa, wrote about it {here}. Alexa has such a wonderful minimal, clean and simple style that I was nervous to be sending her something in my busy, distressed, layered style but to be honest, that is part of what this Mail Art Exchange is all about - giving and receiving art in many different styles.

And then in the first week of May (yes, WAY behind on my posting here) I received my happy mail from Sandie over in the UK.

Now I'm not sure if Sandie knew that I am a Brit living over here with a penchant for a taste of home but her happy mail certainly hit the mark with me! Look what I got.

The set had the most lovely tape measure stamping on it, a really pretty card with such a lovely quote and a gorgeous book mark with a reminder to create. But on the other side, it had paper covered with stamps, the largest of which was a British stamp complete with the Queen. Love it!

With this year being the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, I'm all about the symbolism of home right now and this was just the most lovely gift that now has pride of place in the Queen's biography I'm in the middle of reading. Talk about the perfect combination :-)

Thanks Sandie for a wonderful Mail Art Exchange and once again, thanks too to Ginger for organising it. Looking forward to the next one.

Mail Art Exchange

Remember the gorgeous prize I won from Ginger's blog, The Spice of Life? With the wonderful stamps and mail art goodies?

Well, after receiving such delightful happy mail, I had to sign up for the Mail Art Exchange that she's organisied, didn't I?!?

This was definitely out of the box for me and I was really nervous to "do it right". But Ginger reassured me that everything would be ok and that I just need to create something that would be fun to receive through the letterbox.

Ginger set the theme of "Earth" for the exchange which could be interpreted in so many ways - colours, geography, green recycling etc - and I think I included a bit of each!

I am just posting a couple of sneak peeks here and fingers crossed that my mail reaches Texas in one piece!

I used each of the items in my prize - the stamps, the pen, the smiley face stamp and the envelopes. It was fun to work it all in and to work out when to stop!

Now I just have to get to the post office and send it on its way. The process was a lot of fun and I will definitely join in again.

What's the last new thing you tried out?

And finally, just a reminder to head over to this post (here) and leave me a comment to be entered into my celebratory draw. I'll pull a name at the end of the month! Good luck!