nathalie-kalbach

Five Questions for….Carmen Sanchez aka Cuchy

Today my guest blogger is Cuchy.  I was happy to meet Cuchy during one of my workshops in Barcelona and I absolutely love her style and her curiosity for all kinds of technique. Her blog is a gorgeous source for all kinds of tutorials and is written in English and Spanish.

I’m looking forward to see her in June again- when we are having our Art Mesa Mixed Media Workshops in Spain together.

Without further ado – here are the questions for her :)

1.  What do you do to get into your creative zone?

This is the bridge to my creative zone :)

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Last year we made a big renovation at home. We literally pulled the house down and made a new distribution. Now my husband has his own place and I have a colourful creative zone

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There’re still unpacked boxes on the floor and the walls are almost empty, but I have my shelves prepared to be hung and filled with yummie goodies.
I love being here. Mostly in my pijamas. It’s a playground on the afternoons with my son and a relaxing place while chatting with cyber-friends. But it’s my realm on nights, when everything and everyone is calm and quiet. Creative time, good music and a cup of tea.

2. Do you ever create hidden meanings or messages in your work?

Almost always.
I love journaling and sometimes I write words that are only meaningful for me. Or sometimes I just need to vent and say what I want to shout and I’m “not allowed” to say. I usually hide my words under a coat of gesso or paint.

3. If your creative work were edible, what would it taste like?

First image that came to my mind when I read the question was my elder brother licking our walls when he was a child. After some research and visits to the doctors, my parents found out that he was lack of calcium! and that licking was more a necessity than my brother a naughty child.  I must admit that sometimes I did the same, just being influenced by my brother :)

Actually, I know how my creative work tastes. I recently made a card using condensed milk. It smelled like a cake in the oven. Yummie!. I had to taste it and yes, it had a far sweet flavour.
Last year, we went to a cookie’s workshop, with the kids. To decorate the cookies we used edible paint, glitter and brushes. So funny and creative.

April2_cuchycookies

Apart from that, if all my craft works were edible, they would be sweet and sour. Sweet when I’m happy and paint or scrap about my kids, my family, good times or just for fun. And sour when I only use my brushes as a scape from hard times. A clear example of what I mean is this page from my art journal. It started all black and became much brighter at the end to express a turning point in my life. Again, hidden meaning and hidden journaling with masking tape and gesso (link)

If I had to choose a food to illustrate my work, it would be a big, fresh and colourful salad, with redcurrants and Modena or Pedro Ximenez vinegar :)

4.  What is your favorite creation?

It’s this simple tag.

I love it because it is much “more than words”. Being married for almost 20 years, any gaze, a gesture or a little detail can mean much more than any talk. I wanted to tell that with my tag. And later I added it to a 12×12 layout, also one of my favourites.

5.  What is your biggest creative success so far and why?

My own and personal satisfaction.
I’ve been crafting since I was a child and I like it more and more each day.
That’s why I love to teach and learn from my students. Is my goal to feel and transmit my passion. And seeing the girls’ faces on my class and the feedback they give after that, proves that I succeed. This is a link to our video-review(mine is the second half of the video) of the first Mixed Media Workshops I taught with my friend Ana Manzana last year. Love our happy and “oh so tired” faces.

Thank you so much Nat, for letting me be part of your “guestblogger month”. You rock, my friend.

  • rachel carlson

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    hi cuchy, happy to meet you! thanks for the inspiration. love your style!

    Reply

  • Vicki Chrisman

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    Fun to learn more about Cuchy!

    Reply

  • Meritxell

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    I love her art. She is a real mixmedia ‘s girl!!!

    Reply

  • Cuchy

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    Thank you girls :)

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Cuchy…thanks for a look into your art. I must say that I usually get a chuckle when I read the comments that you post to Nat’s blog.

    Reply

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Five Questions for….Donna Kato

Along my creative way I was fortune enough to get introduced to Donna Kato, who is in a nutshell ” THE Queen of Polymer Clay”.

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Donna and her husband Vernell run CraftEdu an online craft and art faculty and I’m so thrilled that I’m part of this amazing and professional group of artists  and the outstanding platform.

During Winter CHA 2011 I was finally able to meet Donna in person and she is for sure a sweet and inspiring personality. I enjoyed the time with her lots and it was so fascinating to hear her experiences in the crafty world. She has been visiting CHA for 16 years and it was more than interesting to hear about the changes etc. Donna is an extremley supportive artist and I cherish her more than she probably knows :)

Donna has worked with just about every clay company, Cernit, Polyform, Fimo and, working with Van Aken International, has had her own brand of clay for almost 10 years, Kato Polyclay.

She wrote 3 books all beginning with “The Art of Polymer Clay”, shot videos and dvds, was a regular guest and became a galpal of the lovely Ms. Carol Duvall, went on some other shows and taught all over the world.
Donna and husband Vernon live in the Rocky Mountains outside of Colorado Springs, CO with their 6 horses , 2 dogs  and the sweetest black cat on the planet.

Here are the five questions :)

1.What do you do to get into your creative zone?

If I’m in a real creative slump, I look at books I like and ideas start popping!  I’m a visual thinker so my inspirations are generated by things I see.  It could be color, pattern, ancient artworks.  At other times, my creativity is spurred on by challenges – like movement.  The Spinner Rings started because I wanted my pieces to move so then it was solving the problems associated with that challenge.

What I don’t do is worry about it.  I know I haven’t reached the end of my creative output so no need to worry.  If I’m wrong about that, I still don’t worry because my creativity isn’t exclusive to polymer clay!  We’ve built our business, CraftEdu and it may seem to be as far from a creative endeavor as it can be but, it isn’t.  Designing the website, designing the content management.  Some of the challenges and decisions we’ve met and made have required the ultimate use of my creativity!  So, creativity extends to many parts of our lives.  If I never did polymer clay again, I would use my creativity in some other way.

2. Do you ever create hidden meanings or messages into your work?

My husband, Vernon owned the first alternative process photography gallery in Chicago, Gallery 954.  Vernon says, art is about the message or about the medium.  My work is definitely all about the medium, what it will do, what it is so you don’t see much in my work other than polymer clay and it is my message.

3. If your work were edible, what would it taste like?
April1_DonnaKato3

I’m a salt person – in other words, if I have my choice between a big bowl of chips or a big bowl of M & M’s, I’d head to the chips.  My work is more to the sweet, though, I think of marzipan!

4. What is your favorite creation?
April1_DonnaKato1

Hmmm, this week it would be my Springtime Heart.  This changes week to week, day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute!  Today, I love this heart.  Maybe I’m just wishing spring were here and that’s why it’s so appealing.  I see my work through the lens of what I’m feeling at the time so I don’t have any full on favorite piece.  I definitely have pieces that I don’t like and those end up in the trash.  For me, I just don’t think that way and I think that’s one of the reasons I just keep moving along. We can get caught up into how much we love one piece and then, everything after is affected by that feeling.  I make and I move on.

5. What is your biggest creative success so far and why?

I’ve been really lucky in my career.  I started at a time when it was much simpler to connect with manufacturers and get books published – it was less crowded than it is today.  My biggest creative success has to be my career in its entirety.  Let me say, luck has played a huge part in this, much of what happened to me was not part of any plan, but the result of being in the right place at the right time.

Being able to travel abroad and teach.  Writing books, having Kato Polyclay and now, CraftEdu.  The things I appreciate and enjoy the most are meeting new people, helping people along their creative journey and now, helping other artists spread the joy and passion they feel in their own media to others.  That would be the biggest creative success, I think, because it’s a growing thing with the capability of touching and connecting so many peopleAt heart, I am just an old hippie chick – it’s about the “we” not the “me”.  It’s about working with good, talented people and walking together to the same goal.  It’s about making the world a better place and being a content human being.  That, to me, is begin successful, obtaining success through creative pursuit is icing on the cake.

Thank you Donna !

Comments (2)

  • Karen

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    Wow. Gorgeous stuff. I see an opportunity to feature Donna on my site. Hmmm…..

    Reply

  • Martha Richardson

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    Hi Donna – It is a pleasure to meet you and get to connect the person behind CraftEdu. Thanks Nat for introducing Donna ;)

    Reply

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Free Your Creativity Mixed Media Canvas Online Class starts tomorrow

Many of you told me that they would so love to be able to take the Canvas Class “Free Your Creativity” which I’m going to teach in Greece, Australia and Spain the next two months. So I thought…well…you can…LOL – Online – and I worked really hard the last couple days to make it on time before I leave.

CraftEdu_CreativityOnlineClass

WHEN:

Starting tomorrow- Friday April 1st at noon MST (Germany 20.00 Uhr) – and no …it is not an april’s fool – you can sign up for my new class at Craft.Edu . Right now I have only the link to the side that shows all my classes, so if you do not see The Free Your Creativity Class yet…it is not published yet ;)

WHAT You get:

This class will use Spraypaints and other Paintmedia and much more. You will learn how to create dimension and texture with Gesso and other fun materials and add visible interesting details with metal Embellishments.

All the techniques can be easily applied to future projects and layouts.
This workshop is for everybody who wants to do something out of the box and loves to try something new and playful.

In over 30 minutes Videos, Photos, Narration and Annotation I will lead you through the class and give you the possibilty to work in your own pace and time table. On top of that you can join my personal classroom in the CraftEdu Community to ask questions, talk to other classmates and share your outcomes of the classes with me and the other students.

Once you signed up you will be able to access to the class for 365 days and you can watch it 12 times.

Costs:

The class will cost 21 Dollars – those that sign up the first 48 hours will get a discount of 25%- meaning you pay 16 Dollars. For the European Folks that are paying in EUR that means you will only pay round about 11 EUR.

Come and join me in this Class and free your Creativity.

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Watch out for *Five Questions for….*

GuestBloggerNatBanner

Stay tuned for my guestbloggers through out the month April! Starting April 1st with…mmmmh not telling yet ;)  So excited to have all those amazing girls lined up :)

Bleibt dran für mein Gast-Blogger während des kommenden Monats April! Fängt am 1. April an mit…mmhhh – erzähle ich noch nciht ;) Ich bin so aufgeregt, all diese wunderbaren Mädels zu haben :)

  • Sue Clarke

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    I’m sure you have some fun and creative bloggers set up…yeah!

    Reply

  • Sarale

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    Yepp, ich bleib dran und bin gespannt! ;)

    LG,

    Tanja

    Reply

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More Canvas Love *Tattered Angels*

Here is another canvas that I did as an assignment for Tattered Angels…it was hard to part with it- LOL – and it was pretty big :)

Hier noch eine Leinwand, die ich als Auftragsarbeit für Tattered Angels hergestellt habe..es war nicht leicht, sich davon zu trennen – LOL – und sie war ganz schön groß :)

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Have a wonderful day you all!!! Enjoy the spring
Euch allen einen wunderschönen Tag!!! Genießt den Frühling

  • Ronda P

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    OH MY GOSH!!!! this canvas is just amazing. I could get lots in it for hours. Pure Brilliance!!!

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  • Kim Sonksen

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    OMGosh I LOVE LOVE LOVE this colour explosion and how they all run into each other. Divine

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  • Debby

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    This canvas has incredible detail. That would be a class I would love to take. FYI: Thanks Nat for comment.

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  • Stine Maansen

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    Love the canvas! Like the colorcombos, the texture and the little pieces of enpheamea you’ve used. Great work! :) So inspiring – as always :D

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  • Sue Clarke

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    Can you say TEXTURE!

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  • finnabair

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    Nat, you are just the best – this is a MASTERPIECE!!!!!! Wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

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  • Felicitas

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    gooooorgeous! i have to lift this wonderful canvas. TFS
    hugs

    Reply

  • marie-anne raeman

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    this is so cool!
    Love this :-)

    Reply

  • JJ

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    I had to go over to Flickr and see the bigger versions of these photos. This is beautiful!! I adore all the texture you created.

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  • wendy senger

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    Nat you did an amazing job on this canvas. I personally am enjoying it so much and boy did I get a ton of complements on it in CT. Thank you again for 2 fabulous works of art.

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  • Helena Virpi

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    That is GORGEOUS, Nat!!! Love the colors and the texture! I’m intrigued by it.

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  • cuchy

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    ohhhhhhhhhhhh Love the colours and all that texture. Yummmmmmmy

    Reply

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Mixed Media Circus with Julie and Nat :)

Finally – we – as in Julie Fei Fan Balzer and I – can tell you what we two clowns have planned :)

Endlich können wir – also Julie Fei Fan Balzer und ich – Euch erzählen, was wir zwei Clowns geplannt haben :)

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Two days of Mixed Media Workshops with the two of us in Hamburg, Germany :)

Zwei Tage Mixed Media Workshops mit uns Beiden hier in Hamburg :)

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I’m so excited to have my friend from New York City over and do this creative event with her :) You can read more on our event blog here.

Ich bin so aufgeregt, dass meine Freundin aus New York City zu Besuch kommt, und wir dieses kreative Wochenende zusammen planen :) Ihr könnt mehr darüber auf unserem Event Blog hier lesen.

Wishing you an amazing weekend

Wünsche Euch ein tolles Wochenende

  • finnabair

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    oh, how cool idea is that!! this will be a wonderful event!!! Fingers crossed for you, ladies!!!

    Reply

  • Anne Höss

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    Ist das Cooooooooool. Einfach Genial. Drück Dich Anne

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  • Ronda P

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    Woo Hoo two of my favorite artists!!! Congrats Nat & Julie! You will ROCK!

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  • Kim Sonksen

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    What a wicked wicked idea! LOve it!

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  • Vicki Chrisman

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    OH.. HOW FUN! I’m SO stinking excited for you! Very cool!

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  • Sue Clarke

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    Just read this on Julie’s post…what fun! Congrats on this tag team event Nat!

    Reply

  • Anke

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    …wohhh!!! Hört sich genial an!!! und wie ich Euch beiden so kenne wird es super genial…;-))

    Reply

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Happily Ever After *Wedding Canvas*

I did this canvas as an assignment for Tattered Angels :)

Ich habe diese Leinwand als Auftragsarbeit für Tatterd Angels kreiert :)

*Happily Ever After*

Happily Ever After_01

Detail:

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And then….can you guess what I’m up too? Very busy right now :)

Und dann…könnt Ihr raten, was ich gerade so plane? Ganz schön beschäftigt, sag ich nur :)

NatClowFace-sm

A certain friend of mine and I are planning something big :)
Eine bestimmte Freundin und ich plannen was Großes :)

Wish you a wonderful sunny day!

Wünsche Euch einen tollen sonnigen Tag!

  • Kim Sonksen

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    Not sure what you are planning but clowns freak me out….LOL
    I am really curious to see what you gals are up to though

    Reply

  • Karen

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    Julie’s stuff is so cool. Your stuff is so cool. So whatever it is, it will be UBER Cool.

    Reply

  • Helena Virpi

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    What’s cookin’, Gal?? You and Julie together, hmmm! Must be something fun and creative!

    Reply

  • Martha Richardson

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    Love the canvas…can’t wait to see what you & Julie are up too!!!

    Reply

  • Jamie Dougherty

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    Girl!!!! That canvas of course is amazing!! I love the bold color and how you used the screens! and I can’t wait to find out what you girls are up to! Hugs!!!!

    Reply

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My Space :)

So today I show you mine – and I warn you…it is not the tidiest room but I refused to clean it more – cause…hey…that is how it looks like ;)
I have an L-Shaped working space in the middle of the room built with some fun kitchen counters available at a well known swedish furniture place. One of my loved possesses is an old typewriter I found at a fleamarket here in Hamburg.
On the back wall I have a huge shelf unit with different cubes which serves for storage for my workshop materials and my tools and supplies.

I love using my supplies as a decoration too – like here my stamps with my new child hood shrine I created and the flowers and laces in the deco glass.

My Glimmer Mist, Chalkboard Glimmer Mist, Glimmer Glam and Glimmer Glaze are sitting on a stand that I bought a couple months ago in a store in my neighborhood. I love how this gives me an easy access to all the colors.

I have my Tattered Angels Craft Mat out to cover part of my workspace- as I love working with messy media ;) I sourround my space with wonderful gifts I received from dear friends – it makes me happy to look at those projects.

and here is picture of my …not so pretty stored Tattered Angels Clear Stamps and Screens. Well – it is all for practical reason. I store them in bags that are sorted by workshops I’m teaching, so I can easily grab them when traveling to the different events where I teach my Tattered Angels Workshops.

I love that I have a skylight right above my working area- which gives lot’s of light. On the left you can see my chalkboard where I keep track of all the upcoming deadlines for the actual month.

So now you know where I create

  • Jamie Dougherty

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    I love your space!!! So much Painting artsy goodness!!! Hugs Jamie

    Reply

  • sylvia

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    Juhu, Enna Wand Sticker. Soo süß! Toller Space, einfach beneidenswert!

    Reply

  • Felicitas

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    awesome creative place :) love how you store in the shelf unit :)

    hugs

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    I like that the walls are white and the tattered angels stand is wonderful…quick access right at your fingertips. Your childhood shrine looks nice guarding your stamps. Thanks for showing us your creative space Nat.

    Reply

  • Tsila Sofer Elguez

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    This was one of the most interesting posts you wrote… and lovely to see everything

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  • Vicki Chrisman

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    I love your space! CREATIVE , ARTISTIC, REAL and totally YOU!

    Reply

  • Kim Sonksen

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    So, which room is this again? The one I slept in when I was over last, right?
    Anyway, I ADORE your space and how you stored the TA :)
    I wanna come play

    Reply

  • erin yamabe

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    i LOVE it…yes i agree with the genuis at work sign!

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  • Miranda

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    fantastic, feels like home

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  • Scrappi

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    Mir fällt nichts mehr ein! Einfach traumhaft!
    LG Hélène

    Reply

  • Janna

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    Scrapper´s paradise :)

    Reply

  • JJ

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    Looks great – I wish I had a place with a door I could close!

    Reply

  • Martha Richardson

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    You need a sign…”GENIUS AT WORK”. I love sing where everyone creates ;)

    Reply

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Creativa Convention in Germany

Right now I’m at the Creativa Convention in Germany- demonstrating for SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES by 3L at the wonderful Creavil booth. Daniela, Biene and Charly are absolutley wonderful- thank you girls! It is fun – but also …see how I feel – LOL

Zur Zeit bin ich bei der Creativa in Dortmund und demonstriere für SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES by 3L  am tollen Creavil Stand. Daniela, Biene und Charly sind wunderbar – danke Mädels! Die Es macht Spaß …aber schaut…wie ich mich fühle – LOL

*source pinterest*

I was happy to meet some online and other friends the last days – thanks for stopping by :) One more day of fun…hopefully I can purchase some fun stuff before the show starts tomorrow ;)

Ich hatte eine Menge Spaß einige online- und andere Freunde die letzten Tage zu treffen – danke, dass Ihr vorbeigekommen seid :) Noch ein Tag Spaß ….hoffentlich kann ich morgen ein paar coole Sachen vor der Show besorgen ;)

Have a great one :)

  • Bine

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    Hi Nathalie,
    auch ich kann sagen, dass wir viel Spass mit Dir hatten. Lol und es war nicht nur “nett” !

    Bis demnächst mal wieder
    die Sprüchetante aus Bärlin
    Bine

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Nat, don’t forget to get plenty of rest when you can so you don’t get sick. Have fun and great quote.

    Reply

  • Karen

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    That is so funny! I’m gonna have to steal that one.

    Reply

  • finnabair

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    oh, Natalie, you busy girl!
    I’ve got the same bags too ;)

    Reply

  • Mandy C

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    Way to go Nat, like the concept of designer bags, too funny

    Will you post photos from the show, would love to see the creative projects

    Reply

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