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