The Atelierul Spring Swap

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Cinnamon

I told you in a previous post that I am participating again in the spring swap organized by Revista Atelierul. This year all participants were paired and each pair exchanged swap gifts. My partner was Andreea from Chichiridiche Handmade, who is also behind the Skirt Bike project. Since both Andreea and I are big bicycle fans, we were something like the dream team of swapping :-)

My swap gifts arrived in a funny cat-themed package, and inside there were a lot of carefully wrapped goodies, polka dots and ribbons included:

Spring swap packaging

I was especially thrilled about one of the gifts: the Velo calendar Andreea illustrates in ccoperation with SimCute. I found out about this project while reading Andreea’s blog after we were paired for the swap, and I was thinking of buying one for myself…so this was the perfect swap item!

The calendar is perfect for my desk and every month is illustrated with a seasonal bike drawing. I love it so much! If you’re thinking of getting one for yourself or a biking friend, you can still order it here.

Spring Swap calendar

But that was not all! Since Andreea’s métier is illustration, I also got a hand-painted illustration with a french speaking birdie. At the moment, I am searching for the perfect frame for it and then it will go on my wall! The swap package also contained a home sweet home key charm and a very sweet & colorful matrioshka brooch that will for sure pimp my outfits:

Spring swap gifts

Thank you so much Andreea for the great swap experience! If you want to see the swap goodies I made for Andreea, check out this blog post.

I love swaps! What about you?

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Tutorial: how to sew a bike seat cover

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Cinnamon

Riding a bike is an important part of my everyday life and my bicycle is probably the thing I use most often beside my cell phone and my computer. I ride my bike everyday to work and now that the spring rains have started, I thought I’ll show you how to keep your bike seat dry with a self made bike seat cover. Of course you can use the cover not only to waterproof your seat, but also to embellish it and – with extra padding added – to make it more comfy.

tutorial how to sew a bike seat cover
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Swap goodies

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Cinnamon

Swaps are one of the wonderful things the combination of the internet and the craft movement have generated. I am a big fan of swaps because I love surprise gifts, I love the idea of creating something for a stranger and send it on a journey across the country or even the continent. And I love when I get a package from far away and can’t wait to tear it open and see what’s inside. It’s exactly like Christmas morning, except it happens more than once a year. That’s why I sign up for at least 3-4 swaps every year. You can read about my past experiences here.

Last winter I joined the (almost traditional) swap of Revista Atelierul. The swap is organized and supervised by my dear friend Anca from Bo3mia and must be a lot of work, since there are always over 100 participants who all have to be coordinated. This time I was paired with Cristina (formerly behind the k i t t n brand) and got to send a package to sunny Portugal. And Crisitna remembered how I loved the “Will work for hugs”- k i t t n T-shirt, so now I have my very own – awesome polka dots included:

swap handmade tshirt

Thank you so much Cri! Now I can’t wait for summer to come!

The second swap was organized by Nadine (Dreierlei Liebe). I signed up very last-minute and got to send my Wichtelpaket to Linda. Linda is not a crafter, but a journalism student and also a poetry writer. You can read more about her work here. Linda’s swap gift contained – very fittingly for a writer – a lovely nostalgic notebook. But the most awesome thing in the package was the music compilation. Without knowing anything about my music taste, Linda put together a mixtape-ish CD for me and really nailed it. I knew only one of the artists featured (Carla Bruni), but the compilation is perfectly balanced and really gets to me.

And did I mention how much I like the homemade greeting card I recieved? Thank you Linda for a very unique swap  - the chocolate was delicious too ;-)

I hope you enjoy reading about swaps, because there will be another swap post in the near future: I’ve signed up for Revista Atelierul’s spring swap and am really excited to see who’s going to be my partner this time!

What about you, do you enjoy swapping or gift exchanges? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!

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Latest handmade buys: lots of gifts!

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Cinnamon

It’s been a while since my last handmade buys post, so this time I will show you all the cute handmade stuff I bought as Christmas gifts. I’m posting in February about handmade Christmas presents because I wanted to make sure I don’t spoil any surprises. And also because I am a procrastinator… ;-)

For one of my friends I bought a set of hand-painted earrings with a matching brooch from Zuzulicea: a cat lover with a love for painting and big eyes:

Bohemian Sin Jewelry was on my gifts list this year too:

And I discovered my love for plexi with Attessoires. I loved their products so much I bought half of the items for myself :
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Supercraft: DIY kits for everone

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Cinnamon

I discovered Supercraft some time last year and I’ve been meaning to write about it since forever. The Supercraft Lab project is all about DIY and prmoting the handmade litestyle. Every other month, they create a DIY kit around a central theme which they send to everyone who signed up for it. You can order just a single kit to get the feel of it, or you can buy a yearly subscription – like I did – and receive all six kits they offer in one year. So, once in every two months, a cute package comes along including everything (yes, literally everything) you need for your DIY.

If you’re not convinced yet, let me show you the content of the last two kits. The fist thing you notice when you get it in the mail is the lovely printed box:


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Etsy Handmade Labs – Printing on Fabric

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Cinnamon

Lately I’ve been browsing through my photos and so I’ve found an unshared Etsy Lab that took place last summer here in Munich. It was the last Etsy Lab to take place here so far, because after the summer holidays Etsy decided they need to rethink the concept and we’re now on hiatus. I really hope they will come up with somethign doable soon, because I really enjoyed the handmade nights at HEI (Haus der Eigenerbeit).

In this workshop we’ve been printing shapes on fabric using stencils and sponges. You can also use this technique at home, becuse it doesn’t involve any advanced tools:


You need a block medium to prevent paint leaking on the back side of your shirt or tote – a think newspaper or cardboard will do. Then you pin or tape your stencil to the fabric, soak your  sponge in paint and begin dabbing color onto the stencil. The only thing that is somewhat tricky is to keep the color from leaking under the stencil and stainign whre it shouldn’t. Since it can get a bit messy we all wore aprons and rubber gloves.


Actually the most time-consuming part was leaving the printed stuff to dry on a washing line. As you can see, most people embellished tote bags, but there were also some aprons and even underwear who got stenciled! You can stencil-paint on any fabric that is light-colored. Organic fabrics such as cottons or linen work best.


And these are the two totes I made for my colleagues Nadine & Jasmin. For the teapot, cup and the fruits I used pre-made stencils. Because I wanted some customization I cut up a plastic sheet into my own stencil with the two names. I think they turned out pretty cute & functional ;-) .

You can see more Etsy Handmade Labs I’ve been to here. As soon as they’ll start with the new concept for the labs, I’ll post more about the Labs I attend!

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