Life and Scrapping

Summer vacation...

Can't believe that it's Summer vacation already... i still have a few days at work to go, but for Stach six weeks of fun began last Friday , after a very sweet farewell ceremony  from the second group...

He got a little speech from his teachers...
See the look on his face? He doesn't like to be in the center of the attention, with all the kids from his class and a bunch of (grand)parents looking at him... but he did great, stood very still and listened very well to what was said to him...

And then it was time to go outside for the end of the ceremony...

all the kids that go to the third group (which is in another building) literally part from their 'old school'  by sliding out of the building...

To me it seems only yesterday that he went to his class the first time...

 
 

The computer was already a favorite back then...

i hardly can't believe that his six years old now, and that he will be reading books soon...

Anyway... his teachers took really good care of him these last to years, so a farewell gift was in order... a nice box of handmade chocolates with a special note...

The Digital Chic Card Kit from HOF3 proved to be very handy when i had to make two of these...  it comes in PNG and in brushes, so you can use it in any program you want... i used the PNG file, and lightened the images after enlarging it!  Then i just hit print (after putting a printable sheet in my printer) eh voila... all i needed then was a nice yellow background stamped with a swirl image, some Heidi Swapp tape, staples from the tiny attacher,  a few flowers and a bling brad...

Oh, and did you notice it already on the right of the blog? You can follow me on Twitter now... since so many of you have joined, i thought it was fun to follow a few of those 'twitter pages'...

Have a great Sunday!

Stamping away...

A few weeks ago i was i need for a very special birthday gift for two of my dear friends... they were thinking of buying a super duper espresso machine, and i wanted to give a special set of espresso and cappuchino cups to match...

It so happened that i had a very cute set of clear chandelier stamps lying around from Inkadinkado...
Guess what i did...

I stamped a chandelier on a plain white cup with StazOn first, and then painted over the lines with black porcelain paint and a very small brush... and, let's be honest... with a very steady hand...

To finish it i painted a matching swirl (from the same stamp set) on the back...

Very fun project to make (if your lucky enough to be the patient kind of crafter...)!!!
I'm imagine all the possibilities now... can't wait to make some cute mugs for my morning coffee... maybe with a matching breakfast plate?

Still playing around with the House of 3 brushes... love this set... and making my own is fun and easy to!!!

Playing around...

Hi there, i finally figured out how to load brushes in my editing program...
So i thought that was a good reason to play around a bit on my blog with design, colors etc. I'm not completely happy with it, but it's oke for now...

Time for another episode of the West Wing...
See you tomorrow!

Reason for my absence...

Well, that says it all, doesn't it?
We're completely hooked, Gerard and i... every evening we take our seats in the front row on the couch and we'll watch a couple of episodes...this goes on for a few weeks now, and we still love every minute of it...

So you'll understand that there's not a lot going on in the studio...
But don't go away yet... i have a few things i can share...

Made another t-shirt for our neighbors baby daughter and i think this one is the cutest ever...

It's actually very simple... i buy a ready made t-shirt, dye a piece of plain white cotton by splashing on some fabric dies, heat set it after it has dried and then the fun part begins... decorating it with (hand made) stamps, buttons, etc.

On this one i used a felt star...

After the fabric is decorated, i attach it to the t-shirt with my sewing machine...
And the good news is that the whole thing is complete washable... so it's the perfect gift for a little baby boy or girl...

On another note... my own 'baby boy' turns 6 next Thursday!!! So this week the invitations for his party had to be sent...

After a lot of debating Stach chose 4 boys and 3 girls of his class, but he told me that i had to make one extra cards because he wanted to get one too!! And because i'm a sweet mum, i made 8 shaker cards, all with a picture of Stach inside. A lot of work, but always with the best results, cause kids totally love those shaker boxes!
There was actually one girl who carried the card with her al day long, and she had it still when i bumped into her and her mum in the super market late afternoon! Wow, is that a success or what?

Well, i think that's it for now...
I've got more things to share, but... it's West Wing time!
Have a good weekend!

Puppets and an invitation...

What do you get if you let your niece and son play in your studio with your buttons and sequins?

Aren't they super sweet?

Stach made the blue one and was very selective which button and sequins he wanted to use... Hasse (who started the whole adventure with bringing that red piece of fabric when she came to play) wanted to use almost the whole selection of pink, flower and shiny buttons... but since i was the one who had to sew them on, i convinced her that the poor little doll couldn't take so much stuff... and that he would not be soft and cuddly with so many hard embellishments on his body... and thank goodness, she brought it down to a very favorite and finest pile of 15 buttons...

Ah, always nice to have some little creative minds in the studio... (if you don't count in al the mess that has to be cleaned up when they are done!!)

Not much else to share at the moment... it's an average busy week with a lot of work at the office, laundry to do, calls to make, bills to pay (thanks dear, for taking that job done) and scheduling another holiday week with Stach... oh, and i got an haircut this morning...

So i leave you all with this very special invitation that we got in the mail...

Not your average kind of mail, isn't it?
Unfortunately, i could not join Gerard last Tuesday when the concert took place... pity!

Anyway, time to take that last load of laundry out of my washing machine!
See you soon!

More flower time and a great tool...

See this?

The tiny attacher is in the house!!! It's no secret that i love the products Tim makes, and this one... very nice!! The staples are really very tiny and the stapler works like magic!
So, if you like using staples, go get it!

Anyway, i haven't told you that a few weeks ago disaster struck me... remember that i got this one (scroll down to the end of the post) a year ago?? Well, it got stolen in front of my house, just as i turned my back on it after sweeping the pavement in front of my home!!! I had to unlock my bike to be able to sweep close to my house and forgot to put the extra chain lock back on immediately...
Well, and that was all it took... gone!!!
I was really shocked when i discovered it was stolen... couldn't believe my eyes... what kind of person steels a bike with a back seat for a child on it??? I mean, it's wrong to steal any bike, but a bike of a mom???? It makes me só mad!!!
And... i loved that bike... and i miss it!!

The day after i bought another one (i need one to get to work)... it's actually a better one (Gerard would not let me buy a less than decent bike) but it does not feel the same...
Ah, well... in the end it'll grow on me...

My parents were sweet to me and surprised me with a donation for the stole bike... so i made them a thank you card...

Yes, it's a similar flower i showed you earlier, but this time i used some yellow glimmer mist on the crepe paper...

It gave the paper a bit of a 'crumbled' effect, which i liked very much...

The yellow patterned paper is from the House of Three, and the black piece of ribbon, decorated with tiny beads, really finishes the project, don't you think?

Have a good week!

Time does fly...

Haven't seen you all for a while, so i thought it was a good time to blog today...
It seems like the time is flying past these days... Stach has been a lot at home the last few weeks, due to two week vacation, study days and camp for the older kids at his school... so taking care of him pretty filled up my days...

and i have been decorating my hall with making a similar 'organizing unit' like this:

 

I saw it on one of my favorite tv-shows 'Eigen huis en tuin' and got my immediate attention because it was made at the home of my former colleague at Piens Design Team, Wendy Star. Very funny to see her suddenly appearing in the show! Anyway, you can check the project out here, if you're interested in finding out what's hanging in my hall right now.
I'm searching for a few items yet to finish the whole thing, but when it's completely done i'll share a picture. okay?

On a fashion note, I bought the latest trend yesterday...

I'm very glad that being trendy is also being comfortable...

And on a creative note: i haven;t been much in my studio lately, but i'm still creative. Maybe you have noticed that my dear friend Mika has a beautiful daughter, Puck Pepper! So I'm busy making her something sweet! It's a most done, so Mika, i'm coming over soon!!!

That's all folks... have to get Stach now at his friends house!

Flower time...

Hi there...
I've been avoiding my computer at home as much as possible this last few weeks, and i'm happy to say my RSI symptoms have improved for the better...

And i took a few days off of work (Stach has a two week vacation) and that helped too...

Have been busy with a lot of different things, including some shopping, playing midget golf with Stach, celebrating Queens day (we took Stach to the 'Vrijmarkt' in Oog en Al, a neighborhood nearby, like we do every year, and we bought a pile of party games to play with Stach, a Remmington vintage typewriter, which unfortunately i cannot get to work... the thing seems to be 'locked'...) and various other things a mom has to do...
Yes, (where you all have been waiting for...) and i spent some creative time in the studio... i started on the covers of my Spring/Easter album...
I wanted a huge flower on the front, but i could not find one that i liked... so i bought this...

Yellow crepe paper... and i bought this die...

And i run i through my big shot a lot of times, until i had a pile of crepe flowers...
I glued them all together and attached another matching pair on top...

 
Nice, isn't it? Just what i wanted...

I'm usually not the flowery kind of girl, but i really like this... just a big bold happy statement...

Well, that's all for now... enough computer time for today, cause cause i'm still not completely out of the RSI woods...

Have a good week!

The new pink?

Hi there..

Have been a bit careful with being behind my laptop these last few days, cause my old RSI problems are bothering me again... blah...

But i'm still here, working a bit on my Easter album, standing at my ikea table... cause that's helps when my arms or shoulders hurt...

And i can share this, a new hand bag with matching shoes...

For you who now me... yes, i know... it's not pink, but it's looking good right?
I wasn't on the look out for purple stuff, but my eye suddenly fell on it... cause purple seems to be everywhere these days... and then it happened... my brain started to interfere and mentioned to me that it could be kind of cute having some purple accessories for Easter...

and so... after thinking about it for a week, i surrendered and bought the bag... and last weekend i found the matching shoes... and i like it... and a girl can be cute, even when she's 39, right?

On my desk ...

Ali asked today to share what's on our desk today...

I'm planning my Easter album right now as we speak, uploaded all my Easter weekend photo's and got a lot of yellow and B&W stuff out... i made a nice collection, ready to start the project...

And yes, the papers on top are from the House of 3, of the House warming Sunny papers, to be exact...

I even got myself the printable frame kit this evening to complete it all, only to discover (when i was ready to print) that i'm out of ink-jet transparencies... archhh... so that's on my to do list for tomorrow...

Anyway, i think all that lovely yellow will match my Easter pictures beautifully... there wasn't much sunshine when i took the annual egg-hunt photo's at grandma Annette, but the whole thing together will be bright anyway...

The Easter bunny always hides real hard-boiled and personally decorated eggs, and he did a very good job this year! See that Spider-man egg?? Wow... needless to say that that was Stach's favorite one...

Oh, and one funny thing to mention... there were 15 eggs hidden in grandma's back garden, 5 for each grandchild... (it's traditions that we celebrate together with my sister in laws family, and they have two kids...) within 15 minutes 14 eggs were found, and the last one was supposed to be for Stach...
But it was hidden very very well, and after a long search it still wasn't found... and all the grown-ups wanted to call it a day...
But Stach didn't... we tried to get him indoors, where a lovely brunch was served with hot buns from the oven... no chance... the egg had to be found first, and Stach searched and searched...
Hmmm, my little guy is just as stubborn as his mum, so there we were... the two of us out there and the rest of the family trying to get us at the table...
Then Stach's cousin Job decided that he had to help his buddy, and went out again to help the search of that last egg... (sweet guy, he was hungry and the buns smelled so good, but he felt bad for Stach that he only had 4 eggs instead of 5... i over heard him say "i won't let my best friend down..." isn't that the best??? He even offered Stach after a few minutes to taken one of his eggs, but no... Stach was very determent... the last was supposed to be his and it had to be found...)
Anyway... just as we were getting desperate and had seen every hiding place in that garden at least 4 times, grandma remembered where the last egg was hidden!!! In the ivy, next to the drainpipe... hurray hurray...
Stach was one happy trooper, and the search ended with 3 happy kids with 5 eggs each...
But at that time we were so hungry that i forgot to take a picture of Stach's basket with 5 eggs...