Papertrey April Blog Hop Challenge

Yesterday I saw the challenge at the blog of Nichole Heady / Papertrey ink and I had to play with it. Nichole gave a picture and challenged us to find some inspiration in the picture (see the PTI blog). As I don't have any papers with the colour combination as shown in the pictures I found my inspiration in the patterns as polka dots, flowers and damask. And I'm sorry for my regular blog readers, but I used again Echo Park This & That - Graceful ( I promis next card is with other papers!) I used PTI Fillable frames #3.

So this is my card:

Thanks for hopping by and enjoy this PTI bloghop! 

Happy birthday to my mom!

Today it is my mother's birthday. Of course I made her a card! I used Echo Park This & That - graceful. I combined some papers, a journaling card and a rosette. The sentiment is a Papertrey Filiable stamp + frame. The edges are inked with Ditress 'vintage photo'.

This morning I ordered a couple of stamp sets from Papertrey Ink! As you will understand I'm looking forward to receiving them!! It was a hard choice to find out what sets I'd like to have, because they have so many gorgeous sets.  I ordered some older sets I fall in love with the very first moment they were released.  (Hanging out and Garden Variety) and some newer sets (Rosie Posie and Birthday tags 2012). Hopefully the order will be shipped soon! 

Thanks for hopping by!

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday with a 'Happy Birthday' card! I enjoy Saturdays so much! Without any time pressure doing your chorus... Sometimes it is still a busy day with cleaning (don't like) and cooking/baking (like it!), but you don't have to take into account the time (unless you've got appointments of course). When I finished this blog post I am going to bake an apple pie. You're very welcome to come over and have a coffee with warm pie. And otherwise it has to be a virtual one. Well, for me visiting your blogs it feel a bit like a coffee visit in your (craft) rooms and houses!
 The card is made with Basic Grey's Picadilly. The sentiment is from Paula Pascual.

Have a nice weekend!

P.s. The apple pie is finished! 

Just a note

I'm so proud of myself... smile! I cleaned this week my whole craftroom! It was just a mess and I noticed that I didn't like to sit down at my desk and produce something anymore. Time for work! I have thrown away many things I didn't use the last years and selected other stuff. I organised it in a better way and created some more storage room by using boxes more effectively. And now the room is almost empty and the cupboards organised. The room has to be painted somewhere in the coming months and it needs new curtains. After that I will decorate the room a bit more. Now it isn't the most cosy room. But empty spaces works so much better! Hopefully I can keep it this way... When it is finished I will make some pictures!

And yesterday afternoon the papers of EP This and That - Graceful were calling: please, use us! So, I made this card! I've made it for my ex-collegues at the school where I had a replacement job for a couple of months. I finished this job last month. I'd like to let them know I've got a new job as teacher of English! It will start in August at the beginning of the new school year. I'm looking forward to it! The coming months are hopefully a bit relaxed and I will study and do some painting and crafting and so on.

Now diving into my kitchen to prepare something for lunch! Thank you for hopping by! 

Bitty banners

Last week Marit offered some stamps for sale on her weblog, also WMS Bitty Banners. And I had to mail her immediately :) But as I told you in my previous post, I didn't have much inspiration this week, so I just stamped a banner because I had to play with this set. Well, the result isn't that bad, is it? 

I was playing a bit with photo editing. I really love all the beautiful, light pictures on blogs, but even when the sun is shining I get dark and a bit gloomy pictures. So I edited the picture a bit in Picasa and well, the colors now make me happy! There is a world to explore in photo editing and I don't want to dive in very deep because of the time, but having tools is great!

Going to finish my chorus list for today swiftly as we leave later this afternoon for a family visit till tomorrow!

Have a nice weekend!

Dance, love, sing, play

I really didn't have any inspiration for the last week. I lost it somewhere (the cards I showed you in the previous post were made before). So yesterday evening, I obliged myself to sit down in my little craft room and I just played a bit with the papers. And while playing I found the joy and inspiration a bit back. And I'm glad with the result. When I ordered the Echo Park Graceful papers, I ordered the sticker sheet and journaling cards as well. For me it is always a bit difficult how to use chipboards, journalings and stickers. But looking on other blogs will definitily help a lot! The left side was a bit empty, that's why I decided to stamp a couple of doilies.

I hope to find some more time today for paper crafting! Thanks for stopping here!

Happy Easter Monday!

It is rainy, chilly and I´m sitting on our couch, warmed by our stove... Not really a very spring feeling, but in a way I just like it. We don´t have a special programme for today as my husband had a night shift and is still sleeping. This morning I enjoyed  reading a book ('Het Pauperparadijs' by Suzanna Jansen - really grabbed by this story), listened some music and now surfing on Internet and reading some stunning blogs.
 I found this one by Elena  and I envy her development in cards and photography! The differences between American and Dutch cards still strikes me. I love the 'simple' cards of the Americans and their use of embellishments. I don't find it often in our own country and I'm wondering why not? However, I won't say I don't like the Dutch cards. Fortunately, we've got also many talented cardmakers!!! And I call it our own Dutch style (including my own creations)!
Do you recognize the differences? Or is it just my feeling?

For today, I've got a card to share with a banner of little hearts. These hearts want to say: 'thinking of you'. I used again Basic Grey's Picadilly. To fill up the cream part a bit I stamped postmarks in red onto it. Hope you like it!

Enjoy this Easter Monday and thanks for coming by! 

Papertrey's Make it Monday #60

The technique used by Ashley Cannon-Newell for the Make it Monday #60 isn't new to me and I like this technique. It is called generational stamping and in fact it is a perfect technique for Dutch people ;-). The stamp is inked and after the first stamping you stamp again without inking the stamp over. See this post for a tutorial.

I made a card with the PTI set 'Botanical Silhouettes' and for the background I used 'A little Argyle'. The sentiment is from the 'Up, up and away' set.

And this is the result!

It is nice seeing you here! I wish you a very nice Easter weekend!

Another picadilly with a tissue flower

I made this card last week, but haven't shown it yet. Again made with Basic Grey's Picadilly and a flower of tissue paper! This time not a zigzag or normal stitch, but a flanel stitch. It was a little experiment on my sewing machine, but it worked out well.
I hope the person who will receive this card will be cheered up!

Thanks for the lovely comments on my previous blogpost. I am flattered :) Welcome also to the new blog followers. I don't mention it often, but I really appreciate it!

Layered Flowers

As I don't have yet dies for a nice layered flower, I made a layered flower myself. I die cut a scalloped circle and a normal middle and small one. I cut the circles with my scissors to centre. The edges are inked with distress ink and in the middle a small button. The leaves are die cut with a die of Marianne design. I stamped a background with PTI polka dot. The design papers are Picadilly by Basic Grey. 

Love it to see you here! Thanks for stopping by!