PTI December Blog Hop

I made this card for the December Papertrey Ink Blog Hop .
The Challenge is to create a card with all kind of whites.
I really love their inspirational photo's.
So, here is my card:



The background stamp is by Impression Obsession on PTI rustic Cream.
The frame is a little stamp set by PTI : Framed Out #1
And the little butterflies are by Stampers Anonymous.
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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all who live far away:


Merry Christmas to all who live nearby:



And here is the poem I insert in my Christmas cards:

"Wish for the world
A place where Christ can find a home
hearts that love each other.
Lives embraced by heaven's joy,
helping one another.
An end to terror, war and want,
forgiveness of the past.
Children safe from every harm...
and peace on earth at last!"
Rebecca Barlow Jordan

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The reason for the season

Jesus is the reason for the season, thats for sure!
When there was no reason, we had no celebration isn't it?!


So, thats why I made this card. Used the masking technique to make the ornament. Than stamped the stable on it. Doing so, there's some celebration in this card and the one and only reason!
The stamps are Hero Arts.

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Joy

I want to share another Christmas card. It was so fun and easy to make.




Used a Hero Arts stamp "Big Pine Bough" K5242 and a Maya Road stamp set with stars : SMP2232 "My Star Singleton Stamp".
On the left side some washi tape. A Hero Arts sentiment. And some little silver bows.
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Christmas cards

A while ago I bought a digikit by Hero Arts at Two peas in a bucket. At first I was experimentig with it of course. And when I was doing so, I printed one of the trees, but oooh, the black printerink was finished!
Yet, I used the printed tree anyhow, as you can see here




The reason why I bought this digikit, was that I was asked to make an example card wich was very easy to make for some woman in church. They wanted to make 375 ! Yes.... cards for the elderly people in our church community, for Christmas. Besides that it had to be very easy to make, the cards must have cut out elements on it, because it is so much fun to be busy with scissors all together, have some pleasant talk and a cup of coffee!
So, here is my example card.




We had a lovely time! And here are some of the finished cards.




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s'Hertogenbosch

We went to s'Hertogenbosch not so long ago, just for shopping. It was a day with typical dutch weather: grey with a little bit of rain, and at the end of the day a tiny bit of sun. But we had a lovely day and bought some nice things.
I give you a little peek at s'Hertogenbosch here.


And here the left side of this church.


And here a photo of my daughter and me made by my husband.


Fun, isn't it?!
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"Reach for the Sky"

I made this card for a young woman who passed an exam and reached a wonderful succes. The world is at her feet can one say. I wished to sent her my congratulations. And so I did with this card.

Isert this card in the "Journaling Card Challenge" on Moxie Fab World Blog. You can read all about it here:
http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/10/paper-crafting-tips-tricks-week_24.html
There is some journaling paper used on this card.
The paper is from My Minds Eye.
The butterfy stamp and the wish are by Inkadinkado.
The flowers are cut with my Cricut.
The little butterfy sticker is from a box with yummy stickers by Cavallini Papers & Co.Inc.
And than the background....



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Inspired by Nature

Now we see such wonderful autumn colors in nature, I felt inspired to make this card with autumn colored leaves.


First punche the squares and than embossed the leaves on it with gold embossingpowder.
Attatched in on a square of S.E.I.paper.
Made it for the "Square Punch Challege" on Moxie Fab World blog.
You can read all about it here:
http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/10/paper-crafting-tips-tricks-week-square.html
Thank you for visiting my blog!
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Autumn Colors

Love to show you some amazing things I saw in Nature! Considering my blogheader you can imagine that I love to see and photograph toadstools.
I think this scene is a little mysterious, isn't it?!


And look at these little ones.


And this one is gorgeous too.


The colors are wonderful these days.


The light sometimes is so beautiful.


And see the shine on these toadstools!


Hope you enjoyed to see a glimpse of how the Netherlands look like these days.
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Blue and green

I want to show you a fun card made with the "Fabulous Patterns" by Hero Arts and Basic Grey. For the background I used Shabby Shutters and Broken China Distress Inks, on wich I stamped with Versa Mark and than embossed it with a blue embossing powder.


Hope you like it!
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World Card Making Day

Yesterday was World Card Making Day. I joined the fun and made a card just as so many others did all around the world.
You can read more about it here:
http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/
And here is my card.


Last friday I was so lucky to find a new paper pad by Basic Grey "Aspen Frost". I loved the paper right from the start when I first saw it. The striped paper at the left is from that paper pad. The snowflake is a die cut by Provo Craft for Cuttlebug. The small heart is also a die cut by Joy Crafts. The stamps used are by Hero Arts S5069 Stunning Snowflakes and the sentiment C3159 Sending Love. To make this card I followed a sketch given by Hero Arts on their blog.
Hope you like it!
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Blog Header

This weeks Challenge of Cas-ual Fridays is to make a card inspired by your own Blog Header. ( CFC 72 Toot your own Horn)
So I thought, this card will be great for that!




I made it this week , using Hero Arts stamps.
And the finished card will be used in Church. Coming sunday every churchmember who like it can write his or her name on it, and than it will send to one of the elderly and ill people of our Churchcommunity.
This card has a big size , you can understand. And it has no greeting in English; the elderly can't read it , because I live in the Netherlands.
You can read all about the Challenge at Cas-ual Fridays here:
http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.nl/
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Tuesday Trigger

Last week I made a card for the Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World.
I really like their inspirational photo. Is that because I like shoes? No, it's more because I like the color combination. And how about the gorgeous satin bow?! Here is the inspirational photo:



Do you see what I mean? Is this beautiful or what?
And here is my card.



I first inked up two sheets of white paper. One with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and one with Broken China Distress Ink. After that I stamped all elements with Versamark and embossed it with WOW Blue Blast embossing powder. Glued it all together adding some Hero Arts flowers,gemstones and an Epoxy button by Artemio. Stamps are by Hero Arts.
You can read all about the Tuesday Trigger here:
http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/09/tuesday-trigger-envy-becomes-you.html

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Butterfly Ball

With a little bit imagination you can see the sun shining on the water of the lake, late in the afternoon. Butterflies dancing between the grasses at the shore.....Can you hear the sounds of the crickets?


Made with Hero Arts stamps

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Amsterdam, Taste of Summer, Part 2

When I prepaired for my visit to Amsterdam on the 15th of August, I discovered that there was an exhibition in the Palace on the Dam about the first king of the Netherlands: Lodewijk Napoleon.
He was the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte.
My daughter and I decided to go to the Palace and visit the exhibition. Here you see a part of the Palace on the Dam.



It was build between 1648 and 1665 and used as Town Hall.
But later on they offered it to Lodewijk Napoleon as a Palace.
He only was 4 years king of the Netherlands.
By the exhibition you get a sight on that period.



This floor is very beautiful. You are not allowed to walk over it. But this particular hall was open to the ordinary people in the old days. It was very bussy when it was raining outside :)


And I loved the furniture. In the periode of Lodewijk Napoleon a wooden frame of a bench is bought for 150 guilders and the fabric for that same bench was 350 guilders. Can you imagine?


And I especially loved the heavy fabric of the curtains. It wasn't the original furnishing we saw, but I really loved to see it. And sometimes some rooms are used by very special guest of our Queen Beatrix! The furnishing inspired me to make this card.

I used a Hero Arts sketch as a guide.I tried to find patterns that match the feel of that what I saw in the Palace.
And take a look at the left side of my card: this is a home made embellisment, made by me!
Hope you like it!

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Amsterdam, Taste of Summer, Part 1

The 15th of August. A very exciting day for me! I was going to meet two persons I have never met before.
Early in the morning I arrived at the Dam and went for coffee at restaurant Majestic. When I was there I already saw some fun things. One of it I show you here.


It definitely had something to do with the new Vogue magazine for september wich is in stores now.
After coffee I went to Central Station were I was going to meet Hilde and I got nerveus.


But when we met we both knew it was going to be a very nice day.
Hilde is such a wonderful person and it felt good right from the start!
We both went across the street to Hotel Victoria to meet Virginia.


She and her family visited Amsterdam for sight seeing. The moment we saw her we knew Yes, thats her!
She and her family were so very friendly and welcoming to us!



They made pictures of us and after that we went into the city.
We enjoyed a tasty lunch and being together. I have to tell how we "met". We met through Hero Arts flickr group. That name is on the board Virginia holds as you can see here. The tree of us, we are in love with stamping and we truly love the stamps of Hero Arts.
It was so much fun to meet each other!
Thank you Hilde and Virginia for a wonderful day!
I will never forget!

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Shells

Shells are like people: there's no one the same! I love shells. If you could take a look in our house you would see a lot of shells. I found them on a lot of different beaches in different countries. Now you know this you can imagine that I also love stamps of shells. I made several cards last weeks with shells and some very nice technique's. You can find the cards on my flickr stream. One of the cards I will show you here.





I made this card with the heat embossing technique.Used Wow "White Pearl" embossing powder.Than sponged it with "Aqua" and "Robin's Egg" Colorbox Ink. Added some Hero Arts pearls and ...finished!

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Oceans of Joy

Stamping for me means "Oceans of Joy". That way I can make nice cards. I am so happy that I discovered the art of stamping. It already brought me a lot! So, it is great to wish someone else oceans of joy with this cheerful summer card.





I had a so much fun making this. Especially the "waves" ! Find out how to make the waves was by accident! The blue paper is Hero Arts layering paper. It has a colored side and a white side. One day I scored it and went by the folded edge with the paper distresser,and it made me thinking of waves. Thats how I found out!
Wich can be seen here.





Hope you like this! Have fun trying this yourself!
-
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Memories of France

During some cloudy and rainy days it's so good to have sunny memories!
Today I want to share two places we've been in France. Actually, this are two statues we have visited. The first one you can find in La Roche sur Yon.
It's a statue to remember a well known man in history: Napoleon Bonaparte.
A genius in a way, I think, but I am not a great admirer, because of the wars he started.


The second statue is of a man wich did exactly THE opposite.
He signed the agreement wich made an end to World War 1. So I think he truly deserved this statue!


His name is Georges Clemenceau and he lived from 1841-1929. I had never heard of him before, but now I will never forget. Next to this simple statue you can find his summer home; a lovely cottage at the seaside of the Vendee.


Here he wrote his books, and maybe he saw this, like we saw it now.


One of his friends was Claude Monet, wich gave him good advice how to arrange his garden.


For me a lovely place to be, and now a wonderful memory!


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Happy Hello

Today I want to share a fun and sunny greeting card I made in France.


I used a postcard I bought in France and used only a little piece of it ; the sunflowers. I glued it on a tag from Hero Arts stamp set "Travel Journal". Behind the tag I stamped a Lattice background. Added some washi tape and a border made with a stamp by Watzing Mouse, on wich I stamped the greeting, also by HA.



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Flowers of the Vendee

Today I want to share some photo's of flowers of the Vendee.














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Apremont- France

I want to share something of our vacation in France.
First a photo of me and my son Casper.


No, this is not a bad hair day! But it is because of the WIND! Yes, it is!
By taking those photo's I discovered that we have some things in common in our faces....wich I never noticed before....:)



This is Apremont in the Vendee in France.


And this is Apremont seen through the eyes of an Artist.
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