Lovely, beautiful, darling

I'm so happy. I've just found out I have been selected randomly as the winner of the Papertrey ink's 'Make it Monday challenge' of last week. I couldn't believe my eyes. I've never seen a winner outside the USA (or I missed it) and now a 'Dutchie' got the price! Woohoo! Actually I've got lucky for a second time. I entered two cards into the challenge and the second one was highlighted on Facebook as a featured project!
The  challenge for this week seems to be a nice one as well. The example is made with the Rosie Posie set. This set is such a beautiful one! I saw it is out of stock again like a couple of weeks ago. I had to wait for this set as well. It is definitely one of the best sellers of PTI.

For today I've got a card to show which I made last week. As you will understand the last days I didn't stay regularly in my craft room. The weather outside is too beautiful. But sitting in the sun for hours don't work for me, so that 's why I'm inside for a while and do some things on the laptop (actually, I have to work on an assignment, but looking for some nice things on the www is much more interesting. LOL! In special when you find out something like the message of PTI)

I purchased the MME's Follow your heart - be happy and was looking for a way to work with the bigger patterns on some papers. I looked for the seizes and found that one of these designs could be used on a square card (13/13 cm). I matched it with three other patterned papers from the same series and punched out one border and cut two strips. Some stitching gave it a better look. The stars in the left upper corner are stamped and match perfectly with the stars which printed. The sentiment tag is from PTI 2012 Birthday tags (the stars as well). The seam binding, button and twine made the finishing touch. All edges were inked with vintage photo.

Later today a barbecue together with our family is on the programme ! The first one for this year and hopefully not the last one! Enjoy your day and the beautiful weather!

Thank you for your visit!

PTI Blog Hop May 2012

I can imagine that you don't believe this card is made by the same person as the one in my previous post! LOL
This is a totally different one, I admit! For the PTI blog hop this photo has been given to get inspired by.

When I first saw this picture I thought: okay, next time I'll participate again but not for this month. But this morning I was looking at the picture again and I thought let's give it a try. And the outcome is a bit more modern than the previous cards. After working on this card only one conclusion can be made: I'm not fixed into one style!!
For this project I used PTI's Little Argyle, Rosie Posie and Paper Tray Stamp set. The patterned papers are from October Afternoon. The flowers are embossed on kraft.

Thank you for hopping by! Enjoy the PTI blog hop and I wish you a lovely Whitsun weekend!

DCL #139 & Make it Monday #67

For today two challenges in one card! The team of DCL  has given a sketch as a challenge for this week. You can find the sketch here. Betsy Veldman of the Papertrey Ink team explained in a video how to mix patterned papers. The regular visitors of my blog know that I love mixing and matching, although I mostly mix and match with papers of the same brand. But lucky me, this was also allowed for the 'Make it Monday'-challenge of this week. If you struggle with mixing and matching you definitely have to go Nichole's blog and watch the video.

For this card I mixed the different papers of My Mind's Eye - Be Happy. It offers polka dots, gingham, hexagons, stripes and drawings. I mixed them all up and tried to find little drawings (like a bird and rose) for the small squares of the sketch in combination with less designed papers. I tried to find some contrast as well between the squares. For the border I mixed a gingham with a grid in the same colour scheme. Unfortunately the pattern of the square at the right upper side  is hardly visible, but it is a hexagon pattern in a very soft pink color.

The sentiment is from the 2012 Birthday Tags of PTI stamped with Tsukineko Brilliance Pearlescent Poppy. I did some stitching and inked the edges a bit with distress ink Vintage Photo. The ribbon is a nice addition to complete the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Thank heaven for little boys

As soon as the stamp set 'Hanging Out' was released by PTI I knew that someday I have to possess this stamp set. It took a while, but now I am the owner of a set and I'm in love with it. Do you know Debbie Olson? She has got a beautiful blog and shows every time gorgeous cards. One of her cards with 'Hanging out' is my favorite and this one inspired me for my own card. I had to make a card for a baby boy, but I did not like to use the traditional blue colours. That is why I chose the papers of October Afternoon's Sidewalks.

I hope you like the card!

This morning I was really surprised by the team of Lift Challenge! They have chosen my card as the winner of this challenge! Lucky me! Thank you, Lift Challenge Team!  They will offer a new challenge tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

I think I haven't posted so many posts like the last two weeks! My inspiration is huge at the moment ;-) I  promise not to continue in this pace for ever, but for the near future I've got some more cards to show! Hope to see you back soon! 

Wish big...

I've enjoyed a lovely day at home. No appointments or whatsoever ! This morning I got an urge to do some cleaning and as I don't have that spontaneous feeling very often I gave this urge a swing. Our kitchen and living is really nice and proper right now. And I enjoyed sunshine! Sitting in the sun and drinking a cup of coffee is so relaxed! Now a chicken stew is on the fire and in the meantime I can show you a card I made this week. I used three stamp sets of PTI: Polka Dots for the background, Garden Variety for the frame, flowers and watering can and the little sentiment on the label is from the Birthday Tags 2012.

Also for tonight no big plans. Just sitting on the couch and reading some books which are on my literature list for the Teachers Training course. And that's not really a punishment!

Have a nice weekend!

Have a sweet day

A very short post today! Last Monday I posted a card on this blog for two challenges (Dutch Card Lovers and Mi Cas es su Cas). It was my first attempt to get a CAS card and it was much harder than I thought. Many of you left me a very nice comment, but as I thought beforehand it wasn't actually CAS enough. So, I took the challenge again and made a second CAS card with the theme 'nature' for the MCSC challenge  In my opinion this one fits more in the CAS rules, although I'm not really sure if it fits into my own style :) I'd like to add many more things. But I'm sure I can learn it a bit!

Okay, that's it for today. Going swiftly to our nephew who celebrates his 5th birthday today! He is so excited about being the star for a day!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Welcome, little one

I think you will not be suprised when I tell you that I've played a lot with the PTI stamps. And I've got many more ideas :) For today I'd like to show you a card made with 'Hanging Out'. Actually, I didn't put a lot of things onto the card and didn't use any scrap paper, but I love this card! The centre is just kraft and I matted it onto a  kraft paper as well. I stitched around the center to make a frame. When I put the center on the natural card it was a bit boring. That's why I decided to stamp a background with WMS Off Beat in red. And that was the trick! The card came 'alive'. First, I wasn't really fond of the letter font used for this stamp set, but it works out perfectly!

A special welcome back to Judith! She lost her blog without any reason, but is fully back now with a great card!

Have a nice day! 

Two challenges

This is my second post for today! If you like to see the first with a gift card holder, scroll down or click here

I have seen the challenges from the Dutch Card Lovers many times and this afternoon I decided to join the challenge. And I was totally hooked to the challenge when I found out that the challenge at the Mi Cas es su CAS has something to do with 'nature' which is a very broad theme (like that!). The Dutch Card Lovers gave the following colours to work with: Orange - pink - green and it has to be a CAS card. This picture is given for inspiration at the DCL blog:

So both challenges are perfect for working with one of my new PTI stamp sets, Rosie Posie with its beautiful flowers. I inked the hexagons with orange and green. The flowers are in a light orange colour (unfortanutely it looks like yellow on the picture), pink and 'Dutch' orange. I matted the card on orange cardstock.

Hopefully it is CAS enough as I didn't measure the white spots. It was really fun to create this card. Thank you, both blogs, for offering these challenges!
Add: no, it isn't CAS enough (hard job :) ). So, I withdraw this one from the MCSC challenge and probably I'll try to make one more CAS! 
Add 2: Miranda told me this card is CAS! So still joining the MCSC! Smile!

And thank you for stopping by! It is a pleasure to see you here and reading your comments!

Gift card holder

A new week has started. Time flies!  The sun is shining brightly here and I'm looking forward to sitting in the sun for a few moments this afternoon! Need some vitamins sunshine...

Today I'd like to show you a gift card holder I made for my friend who celebrated her birthday on Saturday. I found a nice idea on the world wide web for making a holder and it worked out pretty well. I used This & That Graceful from Echo park. I've got many small buttons and that gave me the clever idea to use them the little flowers. Great effect. And she got also a bag with fudges.

And when we came home after the birthday party I found a package in my postbox filled with PTI goodies!! Guess what I will do the coming days... Show you  the first results soon!

Have a nice week!

You can find the tutorial here:  http://www.craftingwithamy.com/2012/05/birthday-gift-card-holder.html

Fudges for Mother's Day

In our families we are not used to give big presents to our mothers for Mother's Day. But I like to buy something  just to show our love, respect and appreciation. So I bought them 'fudges' in Cambridge. I don't have a sweeth tooth, but I can't resist these candies. They are delicious! They were packed in simple kraft bags, but I 'repacked' them. The idea for this bag is given in the first issue of a Dutch paper craft magazine: Cards and More. I used Basic Grey's Picallily and the sentiment stamp is from Paula Pascual. The first edition of the bag (the yellow and green version) is a bit too small. The red one is slightly bigger.

I hope they are going to like the fudges, but I guess they'll do! Have a nice weekend!

Lift Challenge #16

Yep, I'm still alive! I had been away for a week to Cambridge, England. We attended classes in a language institute with fellow students from the Teachers Training College (Lerarenopleiding Engels). Attending a language course is compulsory in the course, but it is not the worst part :) We had classes from 9 am- 3.30 pm and after  school we could visit the city centre, shopping and having fun with each other. Cambridge is lovely and I'm still a bit homesick although I missed my dear husband during the week.

Monday and yesterday I read most of the blog posts I missed last week and yesterday evening it was time for me sitting in my craft room and create a new card! I needed a card for a friend who will celebrate her birthday tomorrow. I decided to join the lift challenge as it has been a long time ago since my last attempt. You can find the challenge here. And this is my lift:

I didn't have any pin, so I made two myself with wooden sticks. On the circle I stamped a doily, but on the picture it is hardly visible. The flower is punched out of tissue paper. The labels are inked with Antique linen and I stamped a grid on it. The sentiment is from PTI and the papers from Basic Grey. 

It wasn't the most easiest challenge I've ever done, but as a Dutch saying says 'oefening kweekt kunst' - exercises create art.

Thanks for coming by!