Differences Between Inks

What I probably love most about scrapbooking are the gorgeous patterned papers and the beautifull flourish stamps. When I had a look at one of the online shop websites, I noticed the great variety of both stamps and ink pads. Up till now, all I knew were the good old wooden stamps and, well, an ink pad. But apparently, there's so much more to inks and stamps. Rather confusing, really. So I did some research on stamps and inks, and here's what I found about the differences between inks and which to use for what:

Inking Techniques

Difference between pigment ink and dye ink

Difference between dye-based and solvent based and pigment based inks

Video Dye Ink vs Solvent Ink

My new beautiful wooden flourish stamp. Love it with gold ink.

{Day 7} ~ Express Yourself

"Express Yourself" was  was the prompt for Day 7 for Picture the Holidays. How am I? How do I feel? How I was yesterday? I'm not so sure, it wasn't really such a good day. And I'm also not quite sure what exactly it is I wanted to express here. This is just what came out of trying to do a shot for the prompt. I took about 50 shots and wasn't happy with any one of them, when I finally had the idea to change the angle and shot from the left hand side, which gave a result I could live and work with. Sometimes, things are so simple... I'm a bit tired at the moment, and in need of a Christmas break. Some peace and quiet and sleep. Two more weeks to go...

I found this "änglaspel" (angel chimes) at a supermarket and couldn't resist it. They're quite popular here and most, like this one, come from Sweden. It looked so wonderfully simple and nostalgic, and the pictures on the box lookes as if they hadn't changed at all since the 1970s. I haven't found the box yet, but looking a the picture today, I have a strange feeling that it isn't all too different from the one on the box. Which would explain where the inspiration came from :-). Funny also to think that the girl with the pigtails on the box is now probably about my age :-).

{Day 6} ~ Every Little Thing

The prompt for Day 6 for Picture the Holidays was "Every Little Thing", to find a small delight on an ordinary day. I was spending the weekend in the mountains, so it wasn't really "ordinary days" and there were many small delights. This little Samichlaus was one of them and as the 6th of December is the feast of Saint Nicholas, I thought this would be very approbriate.

There was a small Christmas market in Davos and my friend and me went to have a look. At one of the stalls run by an organisation for integrating the unemployed, we found those sweet chaps. We just couldn't resist their charm and we both bought one. That dark thing on the right side is a wooden candle, made of a thick wooden branch or small trunk. The flame is also made of wood and painted. They're handmade by the husband of the lady at the stall, who gave them to us for a third of the price because it was closing time soon and she was happy to get back to a warm house after having been at the market all day (it was a good -10 degrees C that day). Me and my friend, we were so happy with our buys, because they are special and hand made rather than mass produced and because we had spent a great day together.

The Samichlaus (as he's called in my dialect of Swiss German) or Sankt/Heiliger Nikolaus in German, looks very similar like Santa Claus (Weihnachtsmann in German) but is actually not the same. He's based on Nicolaos of Myra (on which Santa Claus is modelled). He also brings presents to good children but not on Christmas but on the 6th of December, or the evening before. He doens't climb down the chimney during the night but knocks on the door and comes into the house to ask the children if they're been good. He brings nuts and oranges and children learn poems by heart to recite to him to earn them. Thankfully, my parents never booked a Samichlaus to come and visit me but I was frightend every year that he might come... The presents on Christmas Eve in Switzerland, and other (German speaking) countries are brought by the Christkind (christ-child). Sankt Nikolaus is usually accompanied  by his helper Schmutzli or Knecht Ruprecht. He's clad in brown and carries a rod to punish the bad children with. Often, they also have a donkey with them.

{Day 5} ~ The View From Here

As I've mentioned in my last post, I'm already behind with my photos for Picture the Holidays, as I didn't have internet access over the weekend. So I haven't come up with something for days 4 and 6, but at least I found something suitable for day 5's prompt "The View From Here". I spent the weekend up in the mountains, in the snow and on Friday and Saturday, it was blue sky, winter sun and all perfect winter wonder land. The temperatures went down to -10 degrees Celsius and lower, but really, it's so beautiful, you don't even feel it much :-). I love getting on top of a mountain, either by walking up or taking the easy way by cable car etc. There is something wonderfully freeing and mind-clearing about looking at the world from the top of a mountain. One just gets a different perspective, is able to look at things differently. And if the world is all covered in snow, it's simply marvellous. Mother Nature at her best :-)

I hope to be able to come up with something for today's prompt, which I find very difficult, and catch up soon with the missed days 4 and 6 :-).

{Day 3} ~ Love

I was off to the mountains on Friday morning for a long weekend and without internet, which really is quite a good think, once in a while. Unfortunately, it also meant that I was not able to get the prompts for Picture the Holidays for a few days, which means that I'm already behind (but trying to catch up :-) ). I got up extra early on Friday, though, before leaving for my train, to get at least Friday's prompt, which was "Love". As I was going to spend the weekend in the snow, and as I'm an absolute lover of snow, this was pretty easy. I simply love when the world is all white, it somehow soothes my senses, my mind, it just makes me happy, happy, happy :-).

{Day 2} ~ Reframe

Day two of Picture the Holidays and the prompt for today is "reframing", to find time in the hectic pre-Christmas time to enjoy it and calm down. I couldn't live without books and there's no day when I don't read but in winter, I especially love to get up really early on Sunday mornings, when the world around me is still asleep. I love that calming feeling of being the only person awake and having the world to myself. I love to spend the time reading one of my favourite books in those early wintry, snowy, calm mornings and drink a nice cup of tea.

It has also become a bit of a tradition for me to re-read a favourite book in the time before Christmas. This year, I'm re-reading Peter Hoeg's "Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow". For a winter and snow lover, the absolute perfect book! :-) I have three different copies of this book, all of which you can see in the picture. The one I'm reading at the moment is the one on top.

It's the last week of the Colour scrapbooking class and the colours are the neutrals, black and white and the shades in between. I think this and the snow outside has inspired me for the tones for this picture :-).

{Day 1} ~ Gratitude

Yesterday was the first day of Picture the Holidays, and the prompt was "Holding onto Gratitude". What am I grateful for? Lots of things, and 2010 so far has been an especially rotten year, giving even more cause to be grateful about different kinds of things. The idea for the picture for this day though came from the radio, to which I wake up every morning. This time of the year is also the time, when many companies announce their cutting and restructuring plans for the new year. On the news yesterday, yet another of these companies announced their planned job cuts, leaving a few hundred people with a letter of dismissal as a Christmas present and the prospect of facing redundancy in the year year. Some of them may find it especially hard to find a new job, as they never had a chance to get formal training and qualifications and have to put up with low paid jobs they don't enjoy.

I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to do all the trainings and qualifications I wanted to do, to chose where and what I wanted to study, to chose the profession and wanted to and which I love (I'm a librarian). I am grateful that I can fully enjoy the Christmas season  look forward to my Christmas break, knowing that I have a job to get back to in January after the holiday.

The portrait picture is the one I uploaded to the class gallery, the one below I wanted to upload on Flickr as well, but today, Flickr doesn't seem to want me to upload anything. I always get a failure notice and I don't even know why. So annoying. But I keep trying... :-)