Wish you a Merry Christmas !

This is Gouda, last saturday. We went there for our last Sinterklaas shopping. It started to snow. Lucky me I brought my little camera. So I took some photo's. What you see here is the town hall and behind it a church called "St.Jan" . It has very famous leaded light windows.

And isn't this beautiful......just like an "Anton Pieck"painting.

Here's one of the Christmas cards I made recently. Used the Waltzing Mouse "Basket Additions" for this; perfect for small cards.

Happy Thanksgiving for all who read this! Although we don't have a Thanksgiving day, it is good to be thankful. For me I feel blessed by all the good things given to me. My family, friends and my health. And not at least for all the beautiful things wich can be seen in nature; all awesome colors and shapes, wich are a great source of inspiration! This is a card I made with distress inks and some gold embossing powder. The stamp in the left upper corner is by BoBunny.The crown shape is by Maya Road and I embossed it also with gold embossing powder.

Made a photo of the card in the "Loetbos". The colors in the background coördinate beautifully with the colors of the card.

Just sharing a beautiful spot in our little forest. It's called "Loetbos". On a foggy november morning. I thought it would be nice to take some photo's of my cards there. So this is a photo made on a picknicktable in the "Loetbos".

This card is made with a "Walzing Mouse" stampset. It's called: "Basket Additions". The Walzing Mouse stamps are designed by Claire Brennan. You can find it here: www.waltzingmousestamps.com
Recently someone attended me to these stamps.Beautiful stamps I must say.
Tilda paper in the background. The flowers are made with Basic Grey paper. And I added some glitter at the hearts of the flowers with a "Spica pen".

I have to admit: This is not my own design. But it looked so nice that I wanted it to make myself such a card, but with other colors and a other finish. Used for this the "Circle Doily " by Hero Arts.
If you are interested in the original design you can take a look here:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1824291

For a while I wanted to use glossy accents by Ranger. I saw it on the Hero Arts blog and I liked it ! I wanted to try it myself on fruit. So thats the main reason why I made this card.On this card I used the Canvas stripes by Hero Arts. You can see it in the background.

The cupcake is made with paper by Inque boutique and a stamp from Hero Arts Happy Birthday Cupcakes.

During Autumnvacation we went to the "Loonse en Drunense duinen". It is a beautiful area with forests and sand drifts. The wether was nice as you can see! We all loved it , but because of different reasons. My son liked the pine trees with the low branches, because you can climb in it! And I liked it because of all the different toadstools we saw there.

We had a lovely time overthere, with warm chocolate milk afterwards!

I'm very inspired by seeing all the beautiful toadstools again this autumn.So thats why I added a few toadstools to the pumpkins on my card to give it a real autumn feeling.

This pumpkin stamps are by www.heroarts.com , so the left toadstool is. And the toadstools on the right are by www.kars.eu

I like to show you some more items made with Tilda paper. This I made after an example in one of the books by Tone Finnager. It was made with fabric in the book, but I used wood and glued paper on it. You can find the patterns in the back of the books, so that makes it easy. This item can be used to hang your necklaces on. The card says: "A lot of luck in your new home". The stamp of the house is by Hero Arts.

This week I was busy with Tilda paper again. But this time another line which is calles "Classic".
Different tones of pink with black and grey. Very beautiful! I had to think of the old days when rich ladies had a boudoir. So, what I have made is related to that idea.

Last saturday I went to a workshopday cardmaking in Papendrecht. I learnt some new techniques and used some materials I never used before. And besides that we had a lot of fun! This is one of the cards we made. Not my own design! Don't know were the stamp is from, sorry! But it was so much fun making it because of the panel, wich is made with alcohol inks. And the wings of the dragonfly are of acetate. I love it so thats why I want to share it with you! Thanks for looking!

August was incredible wet in the Netherlands. Last sunday we needed to switch on the light at the middle of the day because it was so dark!! You can understand that I need to focus on some happy, sunny moments! And this was such a moment. I took this picture just at the right moment. Isn't it beautiful?

Today I want to show you a card I made with "Tilda" paper and a "Magnolia" stamp.

You can see more of' "Tilda" here: www.tilda.no And here is another site were you can buy the "Tilda" products www.pandurohobby.com "Magnolia" products are to be seen here: www.magnolia.nu And the words are by Hero Arts: www.heroarts.com The little metal rose I bought at Xenos. I colored the image with Derwent Colorsoft Pencils.

Recently I got the opportunity to go to Zutphen with my husband. Zutphen is an old city along the river IJssel. Here are some pictures I took there.

Today I have to tell something really nice! Here in our village we have a store wich sells beautiful fabric for quilting. But recently they also sell some paper. When I bought that paper the lady of the store asked me if I want to make something of it for the store. Wich I did of course.I felt very honoured about it. And this is what I made. The paper is "Tilda"paper. You can find it here : www.tildasworld.com
And the stamps are by Hero Arts.
I enjoyed using the paper. It feels great when working with it. The sheets have two different sides. And all sheets of one line really coördinate well together.
The lady of the store accepted the things I made, and thats why I am very happy today!

Altough we loved France when we were there for vacation, we must say that we have some interesting and lovely places in our own country. For example Delft. We went there last week. We visited museum the "Prinsenhof" wich tells interesting things of the history of our royal family. After that we found this fun chair in the garden near the museum. Delft is wellknown by its Delfts blue pottery. This chair is a fine example of it.

And here is our son standing in a pair of giant wooden shoes. You can find them in the center of the city.

And this is a part of the "Prinsenhof "with a tower of a church behind it.In Delft you find a lot of old houses with those beautiful facades. You have to look up for it. And also you can find a lot of stores where you can buy Delfts blue pottery.

Isn't this beautiful?! Just in our backyard! There are a lot of beautiful things to see very nearby, if you got eyes for it!

Just back from our vacation in France. I want to share some pictures of an interesting little castle we visited : "Le Logis de la Chabotterie".
It has beautiful furnished rooms. As if someone in the old days just left the room.It offers insight into life in the countryside in the years before the Revolution.

There is a lovely garden.....

... and I espescially loved this well with the iron frame on it.

I can imagine the lady's in the old days walking here in the shadow.

Besides all the beautiful things you can see there, they also give a lot of information about the War of the Vendee and the arrest of General Charette in 1796. He was the leader of the farmers wich rebel against the rules of the new leaders of the Revolution. It costed a lot of lives. Knowing a tiny bit more about it is good and interesting, but also made me feeling sad. It can happen that you are at a lovely, lovely place, but in the same time feel grieve over things happened in history.

Made this card last week. With thanks to some lady's wich showed their creations in the Hero Arts Flickr group, using this technique : stamping and embossing on vellum! These beautiful cards made me longing to try it too. Used a Hero Arts flower. And also thanks to "Meet me in the Meadow" where I read the words.

Besides the fact that you can take a walk here, you also can rent a boat for an hour or so. I never get boared of this area. There's always something beautiful to see. And I like the peacefull silence. A little spot of calmt in the middle of the crowded Randstad.

Hoera, today summer starts!! We had a fresh day, later on got some more sun. I hope it will be warmer tomorrow!!

Because it is Fathers Day I want to show you the fence my father made for his garden. He designed and made it all by himself.

Today I went to Rotterdam with my brother to go to the "Maastoren". This is a tall new building wich is build in ! the river "Nieuwe Maas" in Rotterdam. We were able to visit that building because my "younger sister"works there. The building is 161 meter high and has 44 levels. I enjoyed it to visit the 42th level and made some beautiful photos.

Last days I was busy with all kind of things, and between all this , I tried to reach a goal I set myself to create a card wich has the same colorscheme, the same feeling as shown in the last edition of "Ariadne at Home". This is a dutch magazine for home styling and home decorating. I have it for years and it is always a source of inspiration.

May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen.......

....and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done! Then His mercy may give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at last.

"I will both lie down in peace and sleep: For You alone , O Lord, make me dwell in safety".Ps4:8

(from: Blessings and Prayers for Families by Dayspring)

Hi!! Just a couple of weeks and summervacation is here! Made this card with that in my thoughts. I think I will sent this to the children at the last school where I had a temporary job.Miss them!! Used a stamp by Imaginisce and a stamp by Hero Arts.