Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers!


I want to say thank you for your visit here, and your lovely comments! Thats so much appreciated!

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Snowflakes

For the "90 minute scramble 98" on Hero Arts blog I made a card with snowflakes. Wich you can see here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/26213001@N03/15665816428/in/pool-heroarts/

After that I read a blogpost on Wplus9 Blog by Maureen Merrit. She is very talented and I love her cards. You can find her own blog here:
http://www.mamamostamps.com/

On Wplus9 blog she showed how you can make different looking cards with the same stampset.
You can read it here:
http://www.stampawaywithme.blogspot.nl/

And off course I wanted to try it myself, and with the same stampset as I used at the 90 minute scramble. Here they come!


















All of these cards are made with a Hero Arts stampset: "Enjoy the seasons" CG210.
After stamping the snowflakes I added some other stamps and embellishments.
Very fun to do, I can recommand it!
Thanks for visiting,that is much appreciated!

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Joy to You

Like to show you a card I made for Virginia's Challenge of this month:"All things Distressed". You can find it here:
http://virginiasviewchallenge.blogspot.nl/

It is one of my Christmas cards. The background is colored and stamped with Distress Inks. Both stamps in the background are Hero Arts.Than stamped snowflakes on it, and embossed it with white embossing powder. And because the edges were a little wet, the embossing powder sticked on to it like snow. I like that!


The tree and the die cut snowflakes are cut with my Cricut Machine and covered with Stickles "Frosted Lace". The house stamp is "We R Memory Keepers". And finally the "Bramble Circle" is Memory Box.

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More than one tree

It is already a month ago since I last posted a blog post. More than time for a new post. Today a story about trees.
I can tell you: I love trees!
Thats one of the reasons that I often go to our little forest.


You can see my bike against the fence. Behind it an anouncement about our canoe center. You can rent a canoe and go through our forest and meadows by canoe!


And now on to my card.
You probably can understand that when I saw a Hero Arts stamp with a tree, I had to buy it!


When I first inked it up, I was excited, but after I stamped it, I was not satified at all. To be more precise: I made 25 impressions before I felt a little satisfied. Half way in the proces, I stamped 4 trees in a row. I liked the second and the last tree, but not the first and the third in the row. I was in doubt.....But one of those days, when I went on my bike through my village, I even saw those trees along the way, even the first, in a very special late afternoon light! It felt as if I got a present!



The final step was to make a card with these trees in a row. Embellished it with some autumn leaves. Added a sentiment. Love the result! Hope you do! I decided to enter this card in the "Less is more" Challenge # 198 : "More than one tree".
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Clean and Simple

If you are a card maker you probably know what it means: Clean and Simple. But if not, I have to explain a little. To say it very Simple: a card with a lot of unused withe space, and a very special eye catching element on it. There have to be less layers and less embellisments on it than you useually add.

I made a card for Virginia's Challenge. The Challenge is to make a Clean and Simple card. Here is my entry for the challenge.


There are only two stamps on this card. The star stamp is by " My Minds Eye" from the Laundry Line. And the sentiment is by "Studio G".
Now, is this simple or what?!


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Autumn in our little forest "Loetbos".

On this sunny Sunday, I like to show you some photo's made in our little forest with the name : " Loetbos". This forest is planted along a little river.....ehm...more like a ditch kind of river :) with the name: "Loet".
Don't ask me what that means, I don't know. I like to go there by bike, and than make a walk, and get my bike again back home. There's always something beautiful to see, and besides that: I like to be outside in the fresh air. Here is what I came across last week.


What is he seeing?


Dark clouds....will I be back home before it is starting to rain again?


And what is that little thing with orange drops? A toadstool...but what about the drops?


A little beast on a toadstool...a much more on my legs and arms..... :(





A liitle spider here....on eeh...some potatoes... :)


This is only a few precious things I saw. Hope you liked it to be here for a moment!

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Paint Sample Cards

In one of my former blog posts I promised to show you more of the "Paint Sample Cards" I use for making my own cards.
Here are a few photo's of such cards.


They have delicious names.



Front side of a card.


This is the backside of the card.


And here the brand of the paint.
And finally a card I made with one of those Paint Sample Cards.


Is this fun?!

The stamps I used here are all by Hero Arts.

Hope you liked this blog post!
Thanks for visiting!

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Finished Project

In my blog post for the "Creative Blog Hop" I told you about the unfinished projects wich are always around in my house :)
Today I finished a card wich was under construction than.
And I like to show it here.


I am happy with the result.
There are some stamps on it by Hero Arts, and a background stamp by Impression Obsession. The little shell is from Artemio. And the little flowers are cut with my Cricut machine. The girl image is a sticker.
Hope you liked your visit.

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Fiesta Latina

A quick post today, but with a fun card! Last month I found "Paint Chips" at one of our local home improvement stores. These paintchips come in a note card size and I found they had beautiful names on it. These names itself are an inspiration to make a fun card with it.



I made some lovely flowers with pattern paper, using my Cricut machine. The flowers are great with the title "Fiesta Latina" and with the "Happy birthday" sentiment. Flowers are always festive isn't it?!

I am going to insert this card in Virginia's Vieuw Challenge. Her challenge is to make a card with pattern paper.

Hope you like it!

If you like to read my Blog Post for "The creative blog hop", please scroll down. Your visit is much appreciated!

Addition: I thought about the word "Paint chips". This, what I used isn't actually a chip or strip! So, I was wondering if I could name it a "Paint sample card".Is that a correct word?
Those cards are from a paint "Flexa". And I found it at "Karwei".
In a next post I will show a photo of these cards.
Maybe this information is helpfull.

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"The Creative Blog Hop"

Today I participate in "The Creative Blog Hop". A while ago I was asked by Betty Keefe to follow her up in this blog hop, and I felt very honored about it!
Probably you came from her blog:
http://createdbybjk.blogspot.nl/

When you are in the blog hop you have to answer some questions about your work as a stamper. Before I do so, I like to tell something about myself, for those who never "met" me before.

My name is Leni den Oudsten. I live in Lekkerkerk, a village surrounded by meadows. I have a very supportive husband, Jan, and two children: Jessica, 19, studying at Erasmus Univerity in Rotterdam. And Casper, still in High School, HAVO, in Schoonhoven. Me, I am at home at the moment, but that can change quickly because I am a supply teacher.

Since I was a child I am crafting, sewing,knitting. About ten years ago, while visiting Amstrdam, I saw stamps at Posthumus Stampstore, and immediately I was "sold". You know, I always had a desire to be able to draw, make paintings, make "art", but I don't have that talent. So, stamps are just fine for me!

Now on to the questions:

1. What am I working on now?

Last week I was working on a card in the so cald "Shabby Chic style". I am not good at it, but I like it so much, that I challenged myself to make some of those cards, and as an inspiration I used a bought card.


The card I made is this one.



You can see I followed my inspiration closely :)

2. How does my work differ from others?

My work doesn't much differ from others. I am more a trend- follower. I look around on blogs of other stampers, and stamp companies, and by doing so I learn a lot about technique's. As I look back on my flickr stream I can see I have my own style, but I can hardly give it a name. I like to make cards with a soft but happy look!

And I like to use my Cricut machine to make shapes, wich I love to combine with stamped items or stamped backgrounds.



3. Why do I create what I do?

I think, just as I told before, that I like to express a kind of "art". Get a bit of satisfaction, by creating something and than probably make someone else happy with it!

4. How does my creative process work?

I am always working on several different projects at the same time......I start with something, let it rest, walk around it, start something else, try this, try that and finally, at the end of a week maybe, I finish a card or two cards.
As you can see here, there are some unfinished projects waiting.....





At last I want to show you what I am planning to be my next stamping project.


We have some beautiful summer days here in the Netherlands, but you can feel autumn is on its way, so I thought to get slowly into autumn mode, stamping these flowers would get me there.

I searched around and asked a lot of people to follow me up in the hop, but couldn't find someone. :( So, the best I can do is give a link to Hero Arts Blog, were I come so often and were I learned so much:
http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/

Feeling so thankfull for all my fellow stampers on Hero Arts flickr stream here:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/heroarts/

Hope you liked your visit here! Hope you will come back sometime.
I thank you for reading this post!

Just as I closed my post I came to know that Tone will follow me up next week!!!
I am so very very happy about it!
She is a Norwegian girl, living in the Netherlands.
Can you imagine! I feel so honored she will follow me up!
You can find her blog here:
http://smalltcreations.blogspot.com/2014/08/graphic-ombre-birthday-cards.html


Greetings from the Netherlands.
Hugs Leni

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John Steele

Have you ever heard of John Steele? I didn't until a month ago. We decided to go to Normandy- France for a week as our summer vacation. The name of the village where we rented our summer vacation house, was Quineville. That village was just next to another village with the name : Sainte-Maire-Eglise.
At the end of World War 2 American paratroopers jumped out of plaines to fight for freedom of Europe.
John Steele was one of them. He had the bad luck to came out just on the steeple of the church. He stayed a long while hanging there, finally got captured by German soldiers, but lucky John was able to escape.
I am still impressed by this story, and by the fact that he made four !!! Combat jumps: In Sicily, in Italy, in Normandy, and in Holland. He fought in Belgium, and in Germany.
What do you think of that!!!!
Here is a photo I took in Sainte-Maire-Eglise, were they keep the memory on John Steele alive.


Take a close look at the steeple....
It was good to be there and learn more about how things went in June 1944. That made me extremely thankfull for the man who gave their lives to free Europe!
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Shape cards

Mostly we, cardmakers, make rectangle or square cards. But this month we are challenged by Virginia to make a shape card. The first card I made was a Bee Hive. Cut with my Cricut. With the cartridge"Walk in my Garden". And than embellished with stamps from a stampset by Hero Arts. "Be Happy" CL377


After this was finished! I couldn't stop and made another shape card: A birdshouse. Seems to me it is spring there according the branch and the flowers.


For this card I cut a house with my Cricut, using the "Don Juan" cartridge. The house is stamped with a wood stamp by Hero Arts and Basic Grey. The birdie, flowers and the branch are also cut with the Cricut, using the "Straight from the Nest" cartridge. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts stampset "Sending Smiles Messages" CL 490. The oval is by "Scrapdelight". Thats a dutch scrapbook store in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands.
Hope you liked your visit!

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Thinking of you always

I like to share a card I originally made for the Hero Arts Challenge: "One layer cards". But I ran out of time. So, I am much too late to insert it in the Challenge, wich ended at the 10th of August.
But, I like to share it anyway. And that because of the fact I had so much fun making it.


Used for this Hero Arts stamps, and Colorbox Inks.
Thanks for visiting!
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Live for the moment

This card is made for the Hero Arts Challenge: "One layer cards".
It seems to be easy: making a one layer card. You don't need pattern paper, embellishments, ribbon and so on. But it isn't. You have to know how your ink reacts on this particular paper, wich ink is suitable to make a background, and wich ink you use for the stamps you would like as a focal point. The placement of your stamps is also important. And finally you get a result wich is what you wanted, what you like OR something totally different from what you had in mind :)


When I started this card, I had a card (a bought one) as inspiration. But while going on we discovered that it had a different look and a different feel. And that was OK! And while going on we found already a destination for this card, just by looking through my stamps.
Finally I want to say it is not a perfect card, but it was very rewarding and satisfying to make.
Hope you liked your visit!

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Yummy!

We just finished dinner after a very warm day, so you can probably understand that we choose ice cream for desert!
Here is a fun card with some different flavours of ice cream.


The cone is filled with three different favours. I've seen this idea on the blog of Jennifer Mcquire, but our family bought it this way a lot of times. Yummy!
The cone and the ice cream is from a stampset by Clearly Besotted, and the stencil used in the background is from a dutch company and it has the name Dutch Dubadoo.

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Last week we went to Vlissingen. A city with a harbour at the Dutch coast.


One of the most famous dutch persons in history is born in Vlissingen: Michiel de Ruyter. A welknown dutch admiral. Sailing over the seas of the world. Exploring new land. Born on the 24 of March in 1607.


This a a statue for this amazingly courages person. But you can also visit a museum where you can learn a lot about his live. Last months a filmcrew made a movie about the life of Michiel de Ruyter, and last sunday the funeral of Michiel de Ruyter was filmed in Amsterdam on the Dam. Hope to see this movie when it is ready.
The ships people use nowadays are completely different then De Ruyter saw during his life. What would he say when he saw this?


I think this was more familiar to him.


And a final photo. Beautiful isn't it?!


We had a great day.
Thank you for visiting!


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Inspired by...

Happy Friday!
Today I want to show you two cards I made after an example of Lucy,
here at Hero Arts Blog:
http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/2014/07/15/floral-thanks/
I loved the design, the flower, and the shine she added on her flower.
I very close followed her example as you can see here.


For my flower I cut some flowers with my Cricut, using the "Mothers Day" cartridge, out of water coloring paper. I colored it with Distress Ink and water, and than added shine with "Diamond" stickles.
And because it felt so rewarding I made another card, but in a different color.


For this card I also used a Hero Arts sentiment. The dotted paper I used for both cards is from Paper Trey Ink. This flower is also made with cut out flowers from my Cricut and colored with Distress Ink. And than added some "Star Dust" stickles. The "Leafy Flourish" is by "Die-Namics". The pearl brads I found at Xenos.
Hope you liked your visit!

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Fun with a kite

Here a card for Virginias Vieuw Challenge blog. The challenge is to make a card with dies. The card itself is inspired by a card I found on Pinterest.
I really love the summery look of this card.


The kite is cut with Die-namics dies and the clouds are cut with PapertreyInk dies. The dotted paper is Jilly Bean Soup and the paper I used for the kite is Bella BLVD "Sunshine and Happiness". The sentiment is put together with a stampset by SSS.
You can find Virginia's challenge blog here:
http://virginiasviewchallenge.blogspot.ca/

Hope you liked your visit here!

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So cool

As I promised before: here is another card using the stampset : " Super cool" from Clearly Besotted. This is what we did in Italy last year, when we had summer vacation; taste a lot of flavours of ice cream. Italians are THE best ice cream makers!


This card is for my niece. She is working super hard, even during summer. Taking extra math classes. She is cool! Hope she can find some time for ice cream!
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Ice cream!

Today I like to show you a card I made for the Challenge at Clearly Besotted blog: "Anything goes". I recently bought a stampset from Clearly Besotted were you can stamp a whole lot of different ice creams with. Now, we are ice cream lovers, we even have our own ice making machine! So, when I saw this stampset I immediately knew I wanted to buy it! At this moment I am still experimenting with it. But this is one of my first results.


I am sure there will follow some more ice cream cards!
Hope you like it. Thanks for visiting!
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So happy!

I like to shout it out: our daughter Jessica passed her exam VWO! We are so proud of her!



She AND we are so happy! When she got the news, she had to laugh and cry at the same moment. And I was almost crying with her :) I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in the Netherlands we put the bag on the flag and hang it out.



We had a little celebration. I backed her a cherry pie.



And we had Champagne.






On the left our son Casper and on the right Frank, her friend.
And finally the card I made her.


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