Ten years later ...

Nice to see you again dear reader. Let me ask you a question ... 

Do you know how, in musicals, when emotions become too big, the characters suddenly burst into song?

That's always been how blogging felt to me.

When I started this blog back in 2008, I never intended to become a consistent writer. I simply wrote whenever I felt the need to share whatever was going on inside my head.

And recently, after almost ten years since my last post, life became too intense to keep it all in.

So I dusted off the old blog... and here I am.

In the process, I felt like an archaeologist uncovering buried treasures. I got to rediscover an older version of myself and my crafting hobby. I had forgotten how resourceful that younger me was. She was crafty, creative, frugal, and ridiculously solution-oriented. Just have a look at some of the posts from 2015—I was even making my own stencils.

But that wasn't all.

The Wayback Machine had preserved a snapshot of an even older version of the blog, back when it was a strange mixture of Romanian and English, shortly after I moved to Denmark to study Innovation Management.

Reading those posts was like opening a real time capsule. I loved seeing how endlessly curious I was back then—a quality that, thankfully, hasn't changed much.

Along with the excitement of rediscovery came a little sadness.

The version of the blog that the Wayback Machine saved doesn't really exist anymore. Neither do the posts from the very beginning. I hope I backed them up onto some forgotten CD, but honestly, I have no idea.

At some point around 2013, I desperately wanted a clean slate. Instead of simply drafting the old posts, I deleted them all.

Looking back, I wish I hadn't.

Still, just like in that very first post all those years ago, this is my new Corners of My Reality—only now it looks like the old one again (trust me, I spent more than I want to admit on finding the old template and updating it with 2026 functionality - yes, the scrolling. Try it. It's so cooool :D). And this time, I'm keeping everything. Because the person writing these posts hasn't really changed all that much.

Not even age-wise.

I'm still 24 years old...

...just with 14 years of experience. 😄

I still love creating things, whether with paper, glue, code, or pixels. I love games, numbers, history, books, travelling and random rabbit holes that begin with a quick search on Google and end 3 hours later after a huge converation with ChatGPT. 

By day, I'm a Business Intelligence Analyst, so my obsession with numbers finally has a socially acceptable explanation. And I say that because there have been plenty of games where I spent more time building Google Sheets dashboards than actually playing them. :P

So yes ... life became loud enough that i finally felt like ranting again. 

See you in the next one, whenever it will be. 

Until then, have the most amazing day ...

Missing my family

Hi there,

It's been a while since i went to see my family back in Romania. And these days i was missing them more than normal. This pushed me into making a card for my mom out of a wonderful stamp set i have recently acquired, "Mom+Me" from Lawn Fawn.

When making this card I also got to use the large Wood Stamp from Hero arts with Designer Woodgrain which I would like to use on every single card if possible, that's how much I love it!

Other than that, here is the card. The sky background is made by painting distress inks on Neenah Solar White cardstock (I know, not the perfect water color medium, but it worked) through a small circle stencil I made using a circle cutter. The colors I used are Wilted Violet, Spun Sugar and Antique Linen. The inspiration for this card comes from an old card I saw Kristina Werner doing a while back to which I cannot find the link right now.

The background is embossed with white embossing powder and then I blend Vintage Photo distress ink all over.

I really love how this card came out and i everytime I miss my mom, I just look at this card and cannot wait to give it to her.

Have an awesome night guys,
Teo

Get well soon

Hello there,

Today I am sharing with you a number of cards that I made while I was trying to come up with the perfect "Get well" themed card for a colleague that is going through some tough moments.
It took me three tries to get to this card as you will see my trial and error journey below.

While I was browsing for ideas I noticed I didn't have any stamps with the "Get well soon" sentiment or anything similar. Of course, I had some alphabet stamps but I felt they were too blocky and wouldn't work for such a theme. Therefore I went online and bought the "Bouquet" stamp set from Hero Arts which I later on used to create a set of 6 cards using three sentiments from it.

I really enjoyed stamp layering the bouquet from this stamp set and I might create different cards in the future, maybe even using just the stamp with the big flowers to create a fun background or embossing the leaves to distress the corners. It is a really great stamp set with beautiful handwritten sentiments.  

Given that it was destined for a male colleague, I wasn't quite sure that the card above would be the best option to give to him. Therefore I kept trying and, in the same time, I was looking on Pinterest for ideas. And I found the following two ideas (here and here) which I mixed together and came up with the next card.

For this card, i embossed a tree that comes from the gift I got from the March edition of Papercraft magazine. It was the only tree I had in my stash in terms of stamps and I actually think it looks very elegant and can be the centerpiece of a card. Nevertheless, the red cardstock I went with wasn't quite what I was looking for when I took a second look at the finished card, therefore i tried again. 

You know what they say in fairy-tales ... three is a magic number and it was the lucky one too. For this last card, I wanted to use this green teal card base I got from Panduro one time when they were on sale and the scripty background stamp I got from HobbyBoden some time back.

 

First, I created the middle panel with the same idea from the previous card and then embossed with clear gloss embossing powder from WOW the front side of the card. Nevertheless, this wasn't enough to make the silver embossed panel to stand out, so I have decided to add some messy silver embossing on the sides. And I have to say that I simply love the way it turned out. The silver embossing looks as if the card is silver foiled on the margins and the previous clear embossing stands out beautifully through the silver. 

Additionally, I have also stamped the envelope with the same tree I used on the card both on the flap and on the inside, giving it a nice effect when you open it. 

I hope you enjoyed my journey towards the perfect card and hope I gave you some inspiration towards this sensitive theme of "Get well" when it comes to someone you are not normally very close to, that you could give them funny get well cards with cute critters or anything similar. 

Have a great week ahead,

Teo

My crafting space

Hello everyone :)

It's been many months since I last updated this blog and Facebook page but school and work came in the way and I had to put all my crafting on hold for a couple of months. It was hard not creating anything but time was limited and I didn't have how to dedicate not even an hour.

Nevertheless, autumn came and we got into some sort of a normality where I finally had time and I felt inspired to start stamping and coloring and ink blending and all the good stuff. :D Nevertheless, in order to keep my table clean, I bought a big storage plastic box and kind of churned everything in there at the end of the day. This was not working so well because as I started to figure out, I couldn't find anything anywhere and all my papers were all scattered in there, plus I was throwing stuff in the drawers of my small office as well - safe to say it was all a bit mess. 

I thought about how I was going to organize all my supplies (which are not a lot, compared to other crafters) for about 2 weeks. It could have taken less, but during this time, I was walking into various stores and supermarkets (Bilka, Tiger, Søstrene Grene, Jysk, etc) and I was getting inspired by different box sizes, and baskets and trying to imagine how can i make all these fit into my crafting corner as well as being as functional as possible. So I started buying plastic containers, open folder bins, small baskets and even a long flower planter to start organizing everything. At one point before that, I thought of organizing my few stamps in plastic sheets in a binder but I didn't like the bulkiness of it all, and that I had to take them all in order to choose one, so I had to find a different solution.

Given that I didn't  have many things to start with, it only took 2 days, but aside from the organizing part, it was also a discovery process, where I got excited for all the things I had bought a long time ago and didn't use for a very long time due to them being lost in drawers or that big box I was telling you about. 

In the photo below you can see how my corner looks like now and I am very happy with it, given that in order to actually start crafting, I can take everything to the table in front of my desk and then put them back in as they were very easily.

I don't have a lot of space for my not many supplies but I made them all fit nicely. On top I have my mostly used supplies like my acrylic blocks, mostly used inks, adhesives, tapes, glues, scissors, bone folders, wooden ink blending handles etc. I put all these into a small pieces box I got from Lidl from which I removed the lid to make it more practical. And when I craft, I usually move this box next to me on the stacked chairs you see there in the bottom left corner of the above photo. 

 

Next to those I have a jar with pencils and other pen supplies and a Pringles jar with pencils :D

Next to these you can see in the photo below I have my envelopes and card bases and most importantly my stamps which are stored in Avery Elle storage pockets I bought from Hobbyboden Scrapworld. These are amazing and to start with I have placed some cardstock just to be able to see the clear stamps when I was going to put them in. The black container they are all stored in is actually as I was saying before a long planter from Tiger. After I have placed all my stamps into these storage pockets I took one of them with me and went to shops to see where they would fit best. And when I got to Tiger, they were fitting perfectly in there so I had to buy it. 

Because the planter is a bit raised I was able to stack below my MISTI stamping tool and my Kuretake paints (you can't actually see these in the photo) and the Fiskars trimmer on top. In continuation of the planter, in the corner, i had bought 3 open document folders (not sure what the actual name for these are) where I arranged my papers in 3 categories - Essential Cardstock (Neenah Solar White, Neenah Desert Storm, Panduro Black, Panduro Grey and Vellum), Colored cardstock and Patterned Papers. As you can see from the photo, in front of these folders I have 3 containers with my mostly used embossing powders, as well as three Mini Distress Storage Tins. And this is what I have on top. 

In the drawers then, the 4 that this desk has (i don't know where it is from, it came with the apartment), it is a different story. I once bought a rather small basket from Jysk because I saw online a nice idea about how to store ribbons in a functional way. But while reorganizing I saw that this didn't work for me because my ribbons have different types of packaging. So I just decided to throw them in this basket and placed it in my drawer just to realize that it fits perfectly in there with another one exactly the same and with a little bit of space to space in order to be taken easily out. I went back and got 7 more and now my drawers are ordered by function and mostly used. And if I need something I just take the whole thing out and browse through and then put it back. 

Replacement adhesives and bits / Tools

 Stencils / Painting supplies

Ribbons / Embelishments

 

Shaker stuff / Label Maker

 

Finally, underneath the desk, i have the original big box filled with some magazines and bits of material I plan to use on future cards and two smaller boxes with unused containers and scrap paper that I usually take next to me in case I need them. I also have a smaller box where I keep my cards.

And this is my small crafty space which I love, but I do dream from time to time to have my own crafting room, but I try to keep it real and acknowledge that I do not have that many things yet to justify getting an entire room. 

Until then, I am so excited with this space and how easily it is maintained. After I make a project and have everything on my other table, it only takes 2 minutes to put everything back together.

Thank you for the patience to read this long post but I hope that it gave you some ideas for how to organize stuff when you do not have a lot of space and want to decrease clutter. 

Have an amazing weekend all,

Teo

Spring Wishes

Hello everybody,

I come today with another card i made using the same stamp-set from yesterday but this time with a more watercolor feel to it. The wait i did it was very chaotic, just jumping from idea to idea with no clear end in mind.

For the background i used mushed distress inks, on top of which i then embossed the poppies' outlines with white embossing powder. And because it felt like the poppies were getting lost too much in the background i decided to stamp the other pieces in the stamp-set as well with more intense colors in order to define them and make them stand out from the background. When everything was done i embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder on top of a vellum strip and added Wink of Stella to the flowers and the buds.

Finally, i rounded the corners of this watercolor piece and attached it to pretty green-teal(ish) card base using fun foam for support and dimension.

I really love how it turned out and i think i will be making at least 2 or three more cards like this. Would be nice to give them as birthday cards or just notes to friends and family.

As for the photos, i think i turned my entire house upside down looking for a good angle and lighting to catch best the feel and look of the card. And i think i finally got it. I really want to do my cards justice, because when they find a new owner, all i am left with are photos. And its also my only way of sharing my craft with you.

Additionally i would also like to enter this Spring card to the Color Throwdown challenge for this week. This challenge was perfect for me to play with my colors and invoke the warmth that Spring and Summer brings.


And given that i have finally found a good spot that i liked for the photos i decided to invite yesterday's card to the photo-shoot. I have to say that i like these photos more than the previous.
That's it ... on my list for tomorrow's shopping ... white and patterned paper for background. :D

I really hope you have enjoyed today's card and if you have any tips and tricks for me to take better pictures i am looking forward to reading them down in the comments.  

Have a great weekend,

Teodora

When 50 means Gold

Today i have for you a card i made with the Painted Poppy stamp-set from Altenew which i adore.
And the Altenew Crisp inks are not crispy just because it sounded great when they thought about them. They really stamp amazing and i can't get enough of them. I keep on finding new stuff to ink up and put on my cards. I just hope i didn't go too far with this card.

This card i made for a special couple that is turning 50 years of marriage around this date. I can't imagine such an amount of years spent with someone, but boy, it has to be great to look back and see all that you have accomplished together, how wonderful these years have been, not just counting the good memories, but also the bad and how working together made all those problems diminish or go away. I wish I will be able to find something like that as well. Or maybe i have ... only time will tell.

Being gold embossed it was so hard to catch the light and give you a best idea of how this card looks like. But i hope you get the idea. I stamped with different shades the poppies, as well as the leafs and the buds and for the flowers i gold embossed their outline. It gives such an elegant feel to the card, i love it.  Inside i have also stamped and gold embossed a bud with the stem as well just to tie it with the exterior of the card.

 

I hope you have enjoyed my card and i wish you all a great weekend.

Teodora

Happy Spring and Updates

Hello everybody,

I didn't even get a chance to say Happy New Year. And its already March. Ladies, happy Women's Day for yesterday. It seems i am late for everything this year! :D Nevertheless i made a couple of cards with new supplies i got either for Christmas from my awesome boyfriend or later, after i got greedy and having discovered this great shop online here in Denmark called Hobbyboden. 

However, after the beginning of the year it took me a while to start crafting again, due to some exams i still had to study for and take (2 or 5 days exams :D - isn't that a lot). But with the right motivation and willingness to bring some happiness to someone i finally got my creativity back. 

And this motivation was that i really wanted to cheer my two beautiful sisters on, with their amazing accomplishment to have been accepted to participate in X Factor Denmark. They are called Embrace and the show is every Friday at 20:00 on DR1. You should vote because they are wonderful, the way they sing and not even just that. They are warm, with big hearts and very funny. Just remember ... EMB to 1212 or on the DR App. :D

And for them, for finding the courage to do what they are now doing, and killin' it if it i might add, i made a couple of cards to congratulate them. ⇊

The next one is for their parents, just letting them know that they are in our hearts and that we wish them to win this competition, which i have no doubt that they will! :D With every week, they charm the entire Denmark with their amazing talent. ⇊

And a card i made for their little sister, because she needs to know how awesome she is and how talented as well and that she shouldn't give up on her dreams. ⇊

And this next card i made for when i went to see them live in Copenhagen. OMG, what an experience. How wonderful is to see it all in action, the magic behind the cameras hehe. ⇊

14th of February  ... just a note for my boyfriend to remind him that i love him ... if he, by any chance, forgot :P ⇊

And before i knew it was already the end of February, and remembering that March is coming. And in Romania, from the 1st of March to the 8th of March (when the International Women's Day is) these are sacred days of joy and flowers and everything that means spring. Which i don't feel as much here in Denmark, but i try to make my home here, as close as possible to what i used to feel when i was still living in Romania. Ok ok ... i miss it a lot. :D ⇊

I made the following cards for my mom, sister and grandma, and sent them as well. But until now, only one of them arrived. I really don't get how letters get lost in the mail or how should i even send them ... Same thing last year! :( How did people used to do it 50 years ago? Was sending mail by post more reliable then than now?

And these 2 cards i made for my 2 amazing friends and colleagues :D to wish them a Happy Spring on the 1st of March in the traditional Martisor colors ... red and white! :D 

And this is it ... for now at least! Wishing you all a Happy Spring and make sure to enjoy and celebrate every small thing that brings a smile to your face! :) 

Teodora

The most wonderful time of the year ...

... has arrived. It's the time when I discover that magic do exist. Christmas is my favorite time of the year because it reminds me of family, of love and kindness. And it makes me so happy that i get to create magic for others in the form of cards. And I have finally started to create my bundle for this year. 

The following card is a recreation of a card i did the previous year, when i was just starting with paper crafting. Then i had colored my snow-man with pencils and this year with watercolors. I finally got myself to buy the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors, which i absolutely adore and can't wait to get to experiment with them better! Additionally i also bought a set of clear stamps with the sentiment God Jul (danish for Merry Christmas) in different fonts, which you will get to see across these 2 months.

This next card started as an experiment. I have recently acquired a Versamark stamp pad and embossing powders from WOW and 2 stamp sets from Create a Smile (Smiling Snowflakes and Perfect Tune). Then i got to play a little with the distress inks on top of the embossing to see how it would look like. And i loved it so much that i just couldn't scrap it. It might not be that Christmasy but in my world, Christmas is all about colors and bringing happiness and joy. And making this certainly brought me joy. :) 

This last card is a recreation of Kristina Werner's Day 2 Christmas Card from her Christmas Series. I have to say that i love this card and i plan to do many similar cards to this one in the future. It is a bit time consuming but i have a steep learning curve and i hope it will take less and less. Anyway, the elegance and coziness of this plaid motif really reminds me of home and family. 

I hope you have all enjoyed my start into the Holiday Season. If you have any questions about the cards or the materials please leave a comment, i promise i will answer! :)

Have a great weekend everybody

Teo

Creative Little Holiday

We finally had our (little) holiday, after the exam and i felt really creative, where i should have started reading for school. But nevertheless in the last 2 days i have created a bunch of new cards, some inspired or recreated, and some completely new (that i know of!).

This beauty underneath is a take on a card made by Kristina Werner and of course i didn't have the stamp-set, but i made do with a ruler and several flower stamps! :D It can also be a spring sunset as well. ahaha

For this card i decided to do some repetitive stamping, after which i covered the background with a watercolor wash and then used my markers to color in the boxes and added glittery accents.

This card is also based on a card Kristina Werner made but i decided to take it a step further and make a shaker card out of it. And this is a very small card as well, maybe 7 by 7 cm.

For this card, i wanted to use my stencils, cause there has been a long time and i didn't want to feel guilty for purchasing them without a purpose. Also, i really wanted to use the girl stamp again, because i wanted to give them a longer life, for the same reason. After i had finished the card seemed a little dull, and the girl wasn't standing out, therefore i just colored in an oval with my black permanent marker and i think it worked. :) 

I made this card with an awesome friend/close relative in mind. As i said previously, i wanted to use the stencils i had, so i did the same thing, this time on normal card-stock, and alternated the 4 distress colors i have, using peacock feathers and picked raspberry together and then mustard seed and spiced marmalade to create somewhat of a dynamic background. I have to say that i really love this background and the feel of it is almost like a patterned paper. In the end i decided to add a bit of interest to a couple of the squares with glittery accents.

This card was also made with a special friend/family in mind, for this person's birthday. Here i used my home-made stencils and a couple of stamps from my girl stamps. It made sense for me to write instead of Happy Birthday, Enjoy your trip - Share your journey! It feels more involved. The 22 is hand written, but boy, do i need to buy some letter and number stamps.

This last piece is a bookmark that i made when i decided to test my Memento Tuxedo Black ink from Tsukineko. I repeated stamping 3 different flowers and then colored them with my Staedtler Triplus colors. Nothing fancy, can't even blend with them, but for a flat colored look, they do their job. I didn't want to waste that piece of paper where i had tested the ink, so i decided to do a bookmark instead :D It looks so pretty in my VBA programming book! :D

This was it for this week, and thank you all for getting here. Boy, was that a long post or what?! In the meantime i am waiting for 2 stamp-sets from Create a Smile, and then i need to buy some danish Christmas sentiments to get started on my Christmas production. :D Yuhuuuu!!!

Have a wonderful week all,

Teo

Last couple of weeks

During the last couple of weeks things have been a bit hectic so i didn't have time to be creative as much as i felt i could have been. Nevertheless i made a couple of cards that i am very proud of. This post will not be very long, but just wanted to let you know that i finally started "playing" with stamps and water-coloring.

Here goes, enjoy! :)

These last 2 cards bellow i made for 2 very special friends of mine!

I know i still have a long way to go in terms of watercoloring, nevertheless i love it and can't wait to start creating backgrounds and all. Got myself some masking gum paste so i hope to be playing with that too, soon, after my impending exam on Wednesday.

Have a wonderful week dear people,
Signing out,
Teo :)