Sunday, November 18, 2012

not so happy...

It's been a while since my last post. Sorry for that. But I've had (and still am in) a tough period in my life. I won't tell everything about it, but I just thought you should know. I feel really lucky that I have my creativity to express my feelings.
In the last post I told you about a news paper bag I've made. Now I want to share you the pictures of it. I used it to hold gifts for the newborn baby of my collegue.



The brother of the baby thought the bag was amazing and used it to go on a holiday to Vlieland. ;) It was so cute.

A few weeks ago I also told you about the Kreadoe, a Dutch hobby convention. It was a lovely day with two of my best friends. Also a much needed day. Thanks girls!
I bought a lot of new things that day. I made a picture with my phone of all the stuff that evening. It's quite dark, but maybe you can see something.


We also did a lovely workshop @ Mjam Taart! We made a cookie on a stick. I still have it and I don't plan to eat it. I just like the look of it. :D Here is the result.


That was it for today. I've also created a new page in my art journal today, but it's too dark to take a good picture of it. You'll see it next time.
Take care.

Love,
Marjan

Friday, October 26, 2012

more projects

I've told you about it already, but didn't show you yet. I've created a new layout (like 2 weeks ago already) and finished a art journal page this week. Now I've photographed them and want to share them with you.
First up is the layout. It's a picture of a friend of mine. We went to the zoo together last summer. I love this picture of her with a sheep.
I used some modelling paste and mixed it with some grey paint. I smeared it on through a TCW mask. I love the texture! I kept the layout quite basic. I just sprayed some glimmer mist on it, added a sticker with date, some thickers for the title and wrote some journaling.



I saw some cool drawings/paintings by some great artists on YouTube and I thought: Let's try that some time. I wanted to start easily. So, I kind of copied the drawing by one of those artist. Now I feel so stupid, because I don't remember who it was. If anyone knows, please let me know.
One of the artists I adore is Leilani Joy. I absolutely adore her Alice in Wonderland paintings. I am going to try some of that to in the future.
But for now, this art journal page. I first drew the girl. Then I coloured it with some pencels (which are rather crappy I found out...) and then I used some water colour. I also used this for the background. Then I used some masks to give some interest to the hair and the background. For the background I also used some stamps and put some torn peaces of book paper on it with multi medium matte. I really loved making this!



I also wanted to share a picture of a news paper bag I made to put my gifts in for the baby I visited yesterday. But the sd card doesn't really do what I want it to do. So, I'll show you that some other time. Have a good weekend!

Love,
Marjan

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Octo the octopus

Before I'm going to show you my last art journal page and layout, I wanted to show you Octo. I just finished him and I'm already in love. :D Such a shame that I have to give him away tomorrow... But he'll be in good hands.
In one of the pictures you can already see him next to the birth announcement of his new friend: Abel. I'll be visiting my collegue to see her newborn baby and I also wanted to give them a homemade gift. So, Octo was born. ;)
He was so easy to make. All you need is a sock, some padding and some felt. I hope Abel will enjoy his new toy!

Love,
Marjan

Sunday, October 21, 2012

more cards

Last week I've made a few more cards. And I would like to share them with you. The first one is the card I made for my mother a few weeks ago. I forgot to take a picture of it before I sent it. But fortunately she saved the card and I had a chance to take a picture of it with my phone.
It's a quite simple card. I used paper by Pink Paislee from the London Market line. I added a doily and stamped 'happy birthday' on it. Finally I added some veneer butterflies to it and it was done.




The next card is the card for my collegue who recently gave birth to her second son. I picked up some grey cardstock and I'm in love with it already. So, I used the same base as for the two other birth cards. I love how the grey is warmer and lets the hexagons stand out more. This time I added birds instead of butterflies. I thought it was more boyish.




The next card is a card for Creabest. They celebrated their 10 year anniversary. They had several make and takes and demonstrations last Saturday. And when you gave them a birthday card, you would get a 10% discount. Of course, I still had many things on my wish list and I could use some discount. So, I made them this card (in my new favourite colour combination ;)).




And the last card I made for my sister and her husband. They got married half a year ago (wow, time flies!) and as a surprise I asked everybody at the wedding to bring a card. I would post these cards every day, so the newly weds would receive a card every single day to remind them of the special day. Unfortunately the post office messed up my plan... Although I did post a card every single day, they often received a few cards together and some days they didn't receive anything.
And I have to say I messed up my plan as well. As I noticed the cards didn't get to their home every day, I got sloppy. I usually posted two cards every other day (or even less ;)). But last week I got down to the last ones.
So now it was time for me to finish my card. I wanted them to receive my card last, so they would know it was over. I once again used the grey cardstock. I wanted to combine this with some pink colours, but my sister really hates pink. So I decided to use yellow again (just as the last card). Not so romantic in my eyes, but this suits my sister better. I did add some lace and veneer butterflies to get some of the romance in. ;)




That are all the cards for now. I finished a page in my art journal today, but I wasn't able to photograph it before the sun went down. So, you'll have to wait for that. I also have one more layout to share with you.
The upcoming week it's a school holiday over here in the Netherlands and I'm planning to create a lot of things. Of course I'll share that with you. Have a good week!

Love,
Marjan

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

two cards

It's quite remarkable: three of my colleagues have received a baby in the past two weeks! [And you have to know that I don't have many colleagues.] I made these two cards last weekend. And right after I had finished them, I received a text message from the third colleague that her son was born that morning! I still have to make that card.
This time both cards are quite similar (except for the names of course ;)). I just loved the way the first one turned out, so I duplicated it.
I used the hexagons from a patterned paper by BasicGrey and put them on the card with some 3d foam. The names I embossed with Zing! embossing powder and finally I glued two wooden butterflies down. I love the simplicity!
It's an amazing thing when babies are born! I hope they enjoy this wonderful moment.

Love,
Marjan

Saturday, October 6, 2012

beautiful

Wow, I'm really inspired today. :D I've finished a second layout for the competition. And I've almost finished two cards as well. Lovin' it!
I'll show you the layout first. The challenge called for the use of three different shapes (either rectangle, square, circle, oval, pentagon, hexagon, triangle or octagon). And we could use it in pieces of paper, embellishments or the photo itself.
So, in this layout I used hexagons from a patterned paper (BasicGrey), circular embellishments (metal tags with embossed words) and rectangular word stickers and photo.
I hope to show you more soon!

Love,
Marjan

putting on the dress

Because Creabest exists for ten years now, they're celebrating. One of the things they do is having a scrapbook challenge. The first 10 days of October, we get a challenge. We have to complete all the challenges before the 16th of October.
Now I'm not sure if I'll have enough time to finish that. But I always like to do some challenges. So, here is the first one. We had to make a layout with the numbers 1 to 10 on it.
In the picture you see me and my sister on her wedding day. I'm helping to put the wedding dress on. A special moment!
On this layout I used glimmer mist, masks, ink, paint, thickers and some wooden butterflies.
Let's start a new layout/challenge. Have a lovely weekend!

Love,
Marjan

Monday, September 24, 2012

Nominated for best blog! :D

Wow, I never expected to belong to the final 25 blogs on the Kreadoe website. But last weekend I did receive an e-mail confirming this. I was so excited!
Now, I have to wait how many people will vote for my blog. One of the prices I can win is 10 - 15 tickets for the Kreadoe convention. And I'm not going to keep them all for myself. I'll share them with you. So, if you vote for my blog and leave a message you will have a chance to win a ticket.
So, all you have to do is vote here and after that leave a message here with your e-mailaddress.
Thank you all very much. Even when you're not voting, thanks for visiting my blog!

Love,
Marjan

Dutch version:
Wauw, ik had nooit verwacht om bij de laatste 25 blogs op de Kreadoe website te horen. Maar afgelopen weekend stond dat toch echt in een e-mail. Ik was zo blij!
Nu moet ik afwachten hoeveel mensen er op mijn blog zullen stemmen. Eén van de prijzen is 10 tot 15 kaartjes voor de Kreadoe beurs. Natuurlijk hou ik die niet voor mezelf. Die deel ik met jullie. Dus, als je op mijn blog stemt en hier een berichtje achterlaat, maak je kans op een kaartje voor de beurs.
Dus het enige dat je moet doen is hier stemmen op mijn blog en vervolgens een berichtje op dit blogbericht achterlaten met jouw e-mailadres daarbij.
Allemaal heel erg bedankt. Ook als je niet op mij stemt, toch bedankt voor het bezoeken van mijn blog!

Liefs,
Marjan

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Thank you

In the upcoming week I'll be having two farewell parties (is that the right word?). Two of our managers are leaving us. Of course I also want to give something personal. To write down my thanks and wishes for them, I made them a card.
I've never made two cards that are the same. Now, these are not exactly the same, but very similar and based on the same idea. It was quicker to make them alike. And I think it's surprising that they still differ. I always want to try out something different. ;)
Another thing that I like is that I used one of my art journals as a inspiration for these cards. You can probably see which one I used. ;)
Next week will be very hectic. I hope I'll get through okay...

Love,
Marjan



Saturday, September 8, 2012

art journals

Lately I've been addicted to art journaling. And the best thing is that I can use the things that appear while I'm creating for my scrap pages. :D
So, when I'm creating these pages I just go with the flow. I throw on everything I feel like without wondering if it will look good. Like, for example, I would never scribble with charcoal like I did on one of the pages if it were a scrap page. I would be terrified not knowing what it would look like. But on this page, I don't care. It doens't have to be perfect. If it's not good, I just flip the page and start over. It's that easy. You should try it. :D Enjoy!

Love,
Marjan

Ps: our living room smells delicious 'cause I got some brownies in the oven. I can't wait for them to be done!!! :D


This is a new journal. It's way tinier, so I can bring it everywhere and pages don't take hours to create. This page is quite simple, but already one of my favourites.
All I used is several stamps and some glimmer glaze. I put the date stamp on the right lower corner and stamped it several times without reinking.


This next page is totally different. There's a lot going on. It's not really my favourite page of all time, but like I said before: that doesn't matter. I got to use a lot of my new stencils/masks and I love them. I loved the flowers that were in some magazine, so I tore the page out and stuck them on my page. Now you have to know that I rarely use purple. It's just not my favourite colour (although it used to be when I was little...). But I do have a distress inkpad in purple, so I used that together with some grey and blue. I also added some glimmer mist and some stamps. And then I thought it was done.


The last page I kind of like. It just might be a little too white... Anyway... I wanted this page to look like a smash book page. So I started with some watercolor in the background. Then I used a mask and some modeling paste. I mixed the modeling paste with some blue acrylic paint. I scraped it on with an old bank card and then pulled away the mask.
Then I put some random letter stickers on the right side. And then I did what was kind of scary. I just scribbled with a charcoal pencil. I thought this suited the quote I wanted to use very well. So I just did. And it was so much fun! And I actually like it. Although it looks a little weird. But I like weird. ;)
After that I put on some stamps and some masking tape. And then I wrote the quote down. I do regret that I hand wrote the entire quote. In respect I think it would've been better if I had stamped part of it. But then again, just work with it and learn from it. ;)

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Kreadoe

Every year in October/November there's a huge hobby convention in the Netherlands. It's called Kreadoe. It's not as big as CHA, but it's the largest hobby convention in the Netherlands.
I always love going there. I'm going with a friend of mine and we always try to be there at opening and usually we are the ones who close off (so to speak ;)). Somehow we always need more time.
Last year we decided to buy something that we could use the next day. Two other friends of ours came over and we wanted to do something creative together. Last year we bought some Decopatch stuff and we created some piggy banks. It was so much fun! Hopefully we can find something else to do with our friends this year. I'm looking forward to it!

Love,
Marjan

To see my latest creations click here.

birthday card

A penpal of mine has her birthday next Monday, so I made a birthday card for her. We've know each other for over 12 years at least (I really have to look up the first letters we ever wrote). Yes, that's right. We started writing each other old school letters. That was before the e-mail era. ;)
I'm really gratefull that we still e-mail each other every now and then. And I hope that we will stay penpals for a very long time.
On this card I used many products: paper, flowers, wooden embellishments, a brad, pearls, glossy accents, punches, ink, pen, perfect pearls mist. I love how they all come together in the pattern created by the circles. One nice detail is that the flower in the upper centre is a flower that I got from my penpal last birthday. So nice!
I still have some more cards to make. And I'm also trying to sew a baby bib. But, because I have never really sewn something, it is actually a little hard for me. I'll show you the result as soon as a finished a bib that is actually worth showing. ;)
Have a good week!

Love,
Marjan

Monday, August 20, 2012

YES i do

After a great vacation in France and Belgium, I've been scrapbooking again. Of course I couldn't live without scrapbooking/creating during the vacation so I made a special journal to write a bit about the vacation and create a sort of smash book. I'll show you this in a later post.
For now I want to show you the layout I made yesterday (with temperatures of 37/38 degrees Celius which is very uncommon here in the Netherlands) and finished today. It is my most favourite picture of my sister's wedding. This was right after they were married. Everybody stood outside and I had given them bubble solution (is that the right word?).
In this picture you can see the lovely reaction of the newly weds and you can see one of the guests really getting into making bubbles. ;) Also pay attention to the bubble that is just bursting right at the time this picture is taken (it is right between the newly weds).
For this layout I used paper by Pink Paislee I just bought last Saturday. I love it! I used some ink on it, but also left some blank (I love how you can see the glaze).
Behind the picture is an accolade shaped paper that I bought at Boekenvoordeel (a Dutch shop) and a label with two small roses on it.
Under the photo is a piece of lace my mum bought me (isn't it lovely!). On that are some chipboard letters by Basic Grey which I inked pink at the bottom and a few mini letter stickers by Jillibean Soup.
The round metal embellishment with vellum in it is by Making Memories. I stamped the words 'a love story' on it with Stazon ink. The stamp is by Prima.
The bubbles on the layout are there to resemble the bubbles in the picture. They are meant to use as decoration on a plate of candles for example. But I love to use them on layouts.
The last piece I added was the small banner that says 'just married'. This is a piece of the envelope the wedding card came in. I saved it to use on a layout and I thought it fitted on this one. The writing is done by hand.

Please leave your comments (I would really love to hear from everyone that is reading my blog!) and have a lovely week!

Love,
Marjan

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

VW Beetle

I'm back with the layout I told you I was working on. I love how it turned out!
In the picture you see my sister with her husband getting to the chappel in their wedding car. :D I really love this picture. It's their last moment as unmarried couple.
For this layout I used strips of paper of all kind of brands. There is also some vellum like paper in between. On the strips I painted with some glimmer mist and I also splashed some mist.
The flowers are by Prima. The butterflies are made of wood and I bought them in a Dutch shop (Xenos). I also painted these with some glimmer mist.
I've altered the AC thickers by painting crackle paint over them. Because they didn't stand out from the background enough, I also painted the sides of the letters with black paint.



That's it for today. I hope to make more tomorrow, because guess what? My holiday officially started just now!!!

Love,
Marjan