Freezing Cold & Valentine Card

From the 26th of December the temperature was dropping and dropping and it started freezing a lot. Today is the coldest day/night until now. The temperature is minus 12 degrees!!!

Here I am sitting in my cold icy room to update the blog - probably the last time this year - and to send some emails. I have my coat on and my fingers are frozen already.At the same time it seems so ironic that today also the spring cataloque of H&M fell on my doormat. Strange feeling to go shopping for t shirts and shorts and skirts right now :)

This morning I went out to take some shots of frozen leaves and such. There is not a lot to photograph since there is no frozen water a lot, but I managed to get some nice shots.There will be coming fog and it will keep on freezing so maybe there will be more "winterwhite"- like landscapes to photograph.

I have made some Valentine Cards. One I can't show since I send it to possibly (hopefully - keeping my figners crossed) be published in a magazine, the other one I can show.

Since this is my last post; I want to wish everybody best wishes for 2009!

Layout & website update

It's about time I post some of my layouts. Here is on of the Autumn. I had those photo's lying about for very very long time and only when I bought the Ambrosia papers from Basic Grey I found inspiration to scrap them.

It is a rather simple layout with only some papers and some handmade paper piercings but I like it a lot.

The photo's are already from 2006 - I think... But don't you love the colors? It was the Autumn decoration of that year. Some of these shots I printed out in black and white and they are still hanging in the hall way all this time and I still cannot get enough of it.

Also yesterday I worked on improving the look of my blog; I added a third colum with the help of this site . It took quite some time to puzzle it out, but I did it!! Very proud of myself and also I made a new header and made my own scrapbackground with the help of this site.

It is quite some work so I think I will leave it like this for a while.

Have a nice sunday!

Soooo... the Christmas Day are over. I had a wonderful time first Christmas Day.

We had dinner @ home. Nothing fancy but the table was wonderfully decorated - as we always do and the food was nice even when it was relatively speaking simple.
I always like the ambiance. After dinner we went for a walk and you could already feel the cold in the air. After we returned home again it was time to open the presents :) Every year we see, we won't be buying presents but we always do. Nothing expensive because that's not the point and it takes the fun out of it.

But I was spoiled anyway; a scraf which fits to a jacket I have, a book, a daily planner for 2009 and a lovely showergel. And I also couldn't resist to buy myself the pearl earrings I wanted for so long (country & wishes) and a nice bling bling bracelet in black and silver color (Kruidvat). Love them and already were them every day :)

Second Christmas Day was totally different though, I was having a migraine attack and I wasn't feeling well at all. So I kept things slow. It really wasn't the nicest way to end the Holidays.

Merry Christmas

It's indeed the most wonderful time of the year!

Happy Holidays!

Scrapshopping

Some time ago, I placed a new order for some scrapsupplies with a shop I never had ordered before. They had some nice papers with - always nice - discount. Soooo.... I ordered some "old" lines and some new and some papers from lines I already have but miss some or need some extra to work with.

For the summerphoto's I have the fancy pants; Key Lime Pie series. Don't you just love the yummy colors. Wonderful also to play with scraps to use for cards.
Kaiser Craft with the Christmas Spirit line. Backside is also nice with snowflakes and stuff. Too bad it's too late for my X mas cards this year.

Scenic Route Papers; one of my old time favorites. The shop were I regular buy, don't have this brand - unfortunately. But don't you love these saturated colors?

Finally Sassafras Lass. I never used this brand before but am admiring layouts with these papers for so long now that I had to use this opportunity to buy some.

And some Basic Grey papers of LilyKate. I already have this line, but want to use it for making a small gift for a colleague who is pregnant. In the SBM I saw a egg carton scrapped as present filled with cute white baby socks!

Now, the only thing is; where to get the time from to start scrapping? Seems I always have shortage of time, with so much things I want to do and so much thing I *must* do, that there is hardly any scraptime left. Sound familiar?

X Mas Cards * X Mas tree * X Mas flower decorations

Today I will be posting my Christmas Cards of this year. As promised below some photo's. I did several versions, but these 3 versions have been chosen to be multiplied and to be send out.

Supplies: Bazzill Kraft; Making Memories Falala designpaper; ribbon; magnolia stamp and Bruynzeel coloring pencils.

Supplies; Bazzill Kraft; lace paper; Scenic Route Papers designpaper; Snowman stamp, ribbon.

Friday last I had the afternoon off and I put up our Christmas Tree. I always try to make the tree different from the year before with hardly any new items in it. This year only the roses are new but the look and feel of the tree is totally different from last year. I love it.

And don't you love the flower decoration??

After the high tea we had last time so many sweet stuff was left over and we bought some cookies and sweets for Christmas that we decided to do an X Mas High Tea. Seems a new Christmas tradition is born.

Next weekend the Charles Dickens Festival is taking place in Deventer. For years I have been willing to go there. I never did, but this year, I am *really* going (hoping so :)

Every year the festival is very busy with thousands of vistors, so keeping my fingers cross that I will be able to see the people dressed up in the old cloths of the Charles Dickens novels and to make pictures of course :)

A little snow * X Mas cards

Today there was again a little bit snow. It was wet snow this time so there was no big pile on the ground but some on the grass and cars and it was a beautiful sight. But I was also happy it wasn't any worse for the traffic and cars.

Last weekend I've been quite busy; I finished the last X Mas cards. I only have to add a small touch of bling bling by adding some hotfix stones :)
As soon as I can upload the photo's, I will put it up here.
I also had some time to make 3 scraplayouts on Saturday and Sunday. And it felt good to do some scrapping again. The last layout I made was over a month ago.
I sorted out some photographs to print. There was a special action at Schleckers. When you order over 100 photos in size 10x15 it's only 8 cts a photo; which is a bargain I have to use of course :) I ordered 125 photos, so I don't have to get bored at all! There are so many old paperlines in my stock which I want to use and make room for new paperlines. I already have fallen in love with the new basic grey line; bittersweet, go check it out here:
http://www.basicgrey.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=96

High Tea

Yesterday afternoon I had a hightea with my mom and aunt and we had a great time.
We did it at our place and I had bought a lot of yummy stuff; noga; chocolate, Twix, cakes, petit fours, indian cake and of course little sandwiches with jam. Hmmm...
We had a great afternoon; chatting and drinking tea and tasting all the delicious sweet candy.

Doens't it look great and don't you love the colorful blond dinnerset? Blond Amsterdam is a great hype in the Netherlands at this moment. I love the cheerful colors.

Today I was planning to do a lot of stuff; for one making x mas cards. However, it's already afternoon and I still have to start...

So better start working on the cards instead of blogging; I have bought Falala papers last week and am planning to use those.

Taste of Winter

It is not actually the first snow that has fallen, but it's the first time this winter I was able to take some photo's :) I just love the winter snow and the beautiful scenery it gives. Even when you are surrounded by almost nothing other than buildings and road and only some trees, it gives a special magic.During my half hour lunch break, I took a walk - together with my camera which I already had taken with me with this in mind. (I met some other people on the walk, also with camera :) Guess everybody wants to take an opportunately like this when they can)

They only downside is going through traffic with this weather. Almost always some accidents take place. However, I heard the weatherforecast; at the end of the week this tast of winter will be gone.

Within Temptation TheaterTour

Yesterday finally the moment was there that the concert of Within Temptation would take place.It is the first concert I have gone to from them, but it was simply great. At first, after I heard it would be accoustic, I was disappointed. However, the accoustic songs were simply wonderful and after that the sound am used to started. GREAT! What more can I say. Sharon sang beautifully and the muscicans were awesome. It was quit an experience, the only thing which was disappointing was that they only played 2 times 45 minutes. It was far too short.

Unfortunately the photo's turned out to be quit bad. (very bad to be honest). The ones I put up here were the best. I will try to scap a page with them, but of course I will always remember this concert, even without good photo's :)

Next year they won't be touring, but they will be working on a new album. Can't wait :) and when they will be touring again in this area I will for sure go again.

new colour pencils for my stamps

As promised below the photo of my new colour pencils for coloring stamps. They are from Bruynzeel for Sakura.


I am so happy with them. On the picture with the magnolia stamps you can see clearly the difference between the coloring with normal pencils (on the left) and the stamp colored with Bruynzeel. The result is amazing.



I have not yet had the chance to work with them anymore and don't think I will in this weekend because in only a few hours I will be going to a concert and have to finish some laundry and ironing as well. Really too bad because I have some great papers of Making Memories Falala and I was looking forward to making some X-Mas cards already. This year I was too late in getting Christmas papers, there were only 2 sheets of Falala still available. But since they are doublesided I think I still can make it work along with some cardstock. Of course I will show when they are ready.

Yesterday I had the day off, and I was planning to do some shopping. Unfotunately the weather was not so good, it was cold and raining and a lot of wind. Of course I let not that keep me from going :)

Finally, I have bought now a new set of colour pencils from Bruynzeel Sakura for coloring my stamps. They are much cheaper than the Derwent Colour pencils and according the sales lady even better, so... I bought a set of 24 colors along with "doezelaars" and odourless white spirit. Soooo happy with it. Will show a photo later today.



We also had the first snow of this winter. I was still in town for the shopping and all of a sudden it was snowing and the flakes became thicker and falling more quicker with every second. It was not cold enough for the snow to remain, it melted away almost instantly. But for a moment we had a fairytale like scenery. So amazingly beautiful. I love it, but only when don't have to go through traffice but can remain at home. Unfortunately a lot of accidents happen when it's snowing.

I had no camera so I have no photo's but maybe I will get my chance later this weekend because the weatherforecast says there might be more snow until coming Tuesday.

Cute Card Thursday

It is weekend, so finally time to make a card.
I just finished another Christmas Card. The Cute Card Thursday challenge was to use the colors Red and Green.
I used Basic Grey Dasher and Fruitcake papers, Bazzil Kraft, prima flowers, hotfix stones and some ribbon and safetypin.

High Hopes Challenge

I just finished my card for the High Hopes Challenge. The theme was Sparklemania and with the upcoming Christmas season I decided to make a Christmas card, what could be more suited for this theme?

I used Bazzil basics; Basic grey PP Dasher line and Figgy Pudding. I just love Basic Grey :), ribbon, pin and stickles for the spark and shiny rhinestone stars on top of my x- mas trees.

First post

This is my first blog post. I just started my blog today and hopefully I can show you some card creations soon.