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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