Thinking of You

Last evening I visited the Dutch Dares site and when I read the new challenge Make something for someone I knew immediately I wanted to make a card for my friend Wendy and her family who can use some support at the moment.



Materials used: Basic Grey Infuse PP, Bazzill Kraft Cardstock, Prima Journaling Squares, Prima Flowers, Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps Flourishes V:2, MSE! Clear Stamps Multi Retro, O'Scrap! brads, lace, Versafine Onyx Black and Vintage Sepia ink and sewing machine.

Happy Birthday to Renee

Today our niece Renee is turning 4. Happy Birthday, sweet little girl. I read on your mummy's daily blog that she made you a delicious cake. Wish I was with you, so I could have a piece too. :-)) Unfortunately Melbourne, Australia is a bit too far away to come over for a cup of tea and cake. Wishing you a wonderful day!

More Christmas Cards

Yesterday I bought the wonderful Christmas papers 'Frost' by My Mind's Eye, and of course I had to scrap a card with it. Usually I am not a big fan of My Mind's Eye Bohemia papers, but I really love this line.



Materials used: Bazzill Kraft cardstock, My Mind's Eye 'Frost Signature Christmas' PP, Prima Journaling Squares, Maya Road Chipboard Scroll, Hero Arts Clear Stamps 'Laughter & Merriment', ribbon, Versafine 'Vintage Sepia' ink, Versacolor 'Pinecone' ink, Ranger Crackle Paint 'Old Paper' and Heidi Swapp Edge Distresser.

I also created a Christmas card for Nancy's challenge. I love her cards, and really like the fact that she shares her designs with us. It is so nice to see the 'look-a-like' cards all over the Internet. My mom is a frequent visitor of Nancy's blog too, so maybe she will also give it a try.



Materials used: Bazzill Kraft cardstock, Basic Grey 'Dasher' PP, Ellison Design Star Dies, Tulip Puffy Paint White, Hotfix Crystal rhinestones, Hero Arts Clear Stamps 'Laughter & Merriment', Fiskars punch, DMC embroidery floss, pin, safety pin, white tag, Versacolor 'Pinecone' ink, Versafine 'Onyx Black' ink and sewing machine.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and have a nice Sunday!

Contagious

My mom, the girls and I went shopping at Dolls & Decorations this morning. I got two gift coupons for my birthday, and of course they had to be spent. ;-) My mom wants to get creative too, and would like to make some Christmas cards for friends this year. She used to make 3D cards, but now she would like to scrap them. So we headed to the scrap walhalla in Almere at 9.30am. She was very surprised by all the gorgeous goodies, and I often heard her saying "oh, I like this" and "wow, this is beautiful". She felt like a little kid in a candy store and got hooked instantly. I knew that scrapbooking is contagious...and addictive. She now understands why I spent lots of money on scrapbooking. LOL! She bought a few sheets of Christmas papers and some matching ribbons and brads.
I didn't have a long wish list - I guess I already have too much stuff - but I absolutely wanted to have some papers, chipboard, ribbons and buttons from Creative Cafe. I just love the colors and the idea that you can buy the embellishments 'a la carte'. I think I will make a mini album with these goodies. I also bought the Love Elsie Noel line, some Sassafras Lass papers, a bottle of Ranger crackle paint, O'Scrap! brads, Prima journaling sheets and the gorgeous Frost Signature Christmas line by My Mind's Eye. Fleur and Sanne also picked 2 sheets each. They would love to scrapbook too. Fleur fell in love with Sassafras Lass (not a real surprise as I love Sassafras Lass too), and Sanne wanted to have a sheet of Amy Butler and Imaginisce (pink of course!). I behaved myself this time, and have 1 gift coupon left to spend next time. LOL!

On our way home we visited a craft store in Vianen to buy some extra ribbons for my mom. I bought 3 bottles of Ranger Stickles and a new Coluzzle cutting mat. I had one - or should I say have one - but I can't find it anywhere. I think I threw it away by accident when I cleaned my scraproom. At home we had lunch, and I gave my mom some buttons and flowers to go with her papers. So now she has all ingredients to start scrapping some cards.

39

This is me....39 years ago. Well, actually I am 11 days old in this picture. There aren't any pictures of me taken on the day I was born. On November 14th, 1968 it was very cold. My mom and dad told me they had frost flowers on the bedroom window. Today the sun is shining. A beautiful fall day.

I was woken up this morning at 6.45am by my beautiful girls and Eric who sang Happy Birthday to me. It is my day off and the girls are off from school, so we all could have slept a little longer, but I guess the girls were just too excited. Eric had an appointment at the dentist at 8am, so had to leave early. Fleur and Sanne both made me a drawing. Well, Sanne made me 3!! And Fleur made a beautiful heart of plastic beads. These hand-made gifts are the best. And I just love the girls' excitement. Whispering to each other, hiding their gift somewhere in their bedroom thinking that mommy doesn't know where it is hidden, and then the final revelation on the day itself. I also got a bottle of perfume (Style by Jill Sander) and Eric surprised me with a QuicKutz Silhouette. Some great gifts, don't you think? This birthday girl got really spoiled.




And what do you think of this???



My sweet SIL Lisette surprised me with a gorgeous layout. The envelope arrived about 2 weeks ago, and I wasn't allowed to open it until today. I was really surprised because I had no idea she had asked Eric for a picture. Lisette, thanks so much!! I really appreciate this. She also made me a beautiful card. Her card designs ROCK!

Speaking of cards....this is my birthday mail. Haven't received today's mail yet, but this is already a huge pile. Love it!!


Bye for now! I am going to make a birthday cake. Have a nice day, and thanks for stopping by.

Blog Make Over

One of my favorite blogs is Keeping it real by the wonderful Dawn Inskip from the UK. She creates gorgeous layouts, and I love her use of (hand-made) embellishments and digital elements on her pages. Did you ever check her blog? It is absolutely worth a visit, so go and check it out. Dawn also designs awesome digital kits. I really like her kits, but I am terrible at digital scrapping. I simply don't know how to work with digital kits in Photoshop Elements. This is a real pity, because I wanted to have a banner with elements from her digital kits to give my blog a make over. Dawn was so kind to make me one. Don't you just love her? Her kits can be bought at Art and Scrap Digital Designs, K-Joi Studios, and Treasures to Scrap. A new banner, a new font....just a little make over. Sometimes it is time for a change.

Dawn, thanks SO MUCH for my gift!! You are way too sweet.

A Christmas Card

I have so much fun creating cards at the moment. Here's another one I made this weekend. Again I used my Heidi Swapp edge distresser. A little tool that I have for quite a while, but hardly used. And then....all of a sudden....you realize that you have this tool....somewhere....and that distressed papers look great with the Kraft cardstock. Did I already tell you that Kraft cardstock is my latest addiction? LOL! The Maya Road chipboard scroll is painted with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint. Perfect for impatient people like me. LOL! No need to paint your chipboard first, and then use a separate crackle medium. This paint has it 'all-in-one'. And if the drying process takes too long....just use your heattool. ;-)

Do you send any handmade cards this year? Or do you buy your cards? I only make a few handmade cards. I don't want to make cards for each family member or friend, because I know there are people who don't appreciate the art of a handmade card.



Materials used: Bazzill cardstock Kraft & White, Basic Grey Dasher PP, QuicKutz Cookie Cutter dies Nesting Flowers, Hero Arts 'Laughter & Merriment' clear stamps, ribbon (Little Silver Hat), Maya Road Chipboard Scroll, Ranger Distress Paint 'Old Paper', Versafine Onyx Black ink, Versacolor 'Pinecone' ink, Heidi Swapp edge distresser and sewing machine.

It feels so good...

...to scrap with my own goodies again. :-) I just love the Rhonna Farrer French Twist papers. The colors make me feel happy, and I can use them over and over again. I created this card for my cousin and her family who moved into a new home this weekend.



Materials used: Bazzill Kraft cardstock, Rhonna Farrer French Twist papers, Prima Flowers 'Sprites' and 'Got Daisies', Rusty Pickle button, Ribbons (Little Silver Hat), Autumn Leaves clear stamps Swirls V:1, MSE! clear stamps Funtastic Multi Upper Lower, Tulip Puffy Paint Black, Versafine Onyx Black ink and sewing machine.

My last CJ entry.....

.....ever. Last year I decided to join a Circle Journal (CJ). It was the very first time for me, and I was quite enthusiastic in the beginning. During the period of this CJ a few things happened, and some members decided to quit. This all made it less fun for me. Today I finally finished my last entry. At the time I received the last CJ - end of August - I had a HUGE scrappers block, and I couldn't come up with something at all. It took me more than 2 months to finally create my entry. For this CJ you had to work with papers chosen by the owner. Not an easy task, because these K&Company papers are not my style......at all. I was the last person to work in this CJ and there were only 2 papers left to work with. Not much choice for me. LOL! This 'forced' me to scrap clean & simple, because there simply weren't enough papers to work with various layers. I usually don't scrap spreads, so making a 12x12" spread was another challenge. I guess you can tell that I didn't use a sketch (why do I think about this when the page is already finished?), because there is absolutely no match between the left and right page. Well, you can't always be 100% satisfied, and you also have to show your bad work from time to time. ;-) This CJ is all about Your secret ingredient. To me my secret ingredient is going away for a weekend with Eric without our girls, and spending quality time together. I think it is important to not only spend time as a family, but also as a couple. The picture quality isn't that good. It isn't easy to make pictures at this time of year when it is dark and cloudy outside. I did enjoy working on the CJ's, and I look forward to getting back my own CJ. Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!

Time flies....

.....when you're busy. LOL! It has been a week since my last post. I hardly had time to blog or to scrap. Of course I had to work on my normal working days (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday), but I also worked at the Dolls & Decorations booth at the Kreadoe (craft fair) on Friday and Sunday. We had lots of things to do on Saturday including a welcome party at the girls' after school care center, so very limited time to do anything else. Fortunately I had time to scrap a little in the evening. No big projects, but a few cards.

This one is a sneak peek of the birthday card for my niece Renee in Australia. She will turn 4 on November 20th. I think the SEI Ally's Wonderland papers are perfect for a girlie card.



I bought these Rusty Pickly Christmas papers last year and wanted to make a mini album with last year's Christmas pictures. Unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out well, so I never used the papers. I will now use them to make some cards. This is quite a simple card with some bling bling.



Materials used: Bazzill Kraft cardstock, Rusty Pickle papers and buttons, Hero Arts 'Laughter and Merriment' clear stamps, Versafine Onyx Black ink, VersaColor Pinecone ink, and Hotfix rhinestones.

I made the card below for Bastijn, my friend Vera's 6-year old son. I just love using the Scenic Route Cape Town papers for a boy/man.



Materials used: Bazzill Kraft cardstock, Scenic Route Cape Town, Technique Tuesday Big Timber Lower Case clear stamps, Close to my Heart clear stamps, Versafine Onyx Black ink, and Ellison Design Stars die.