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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