heart of strings

Hi everyone,

I'm back after a busy period. My sister married the love of her life last Friday. And I was the master of ceremonies, which meant that I had quite some things to arrange. Fortunately everything went well and it was a lovely day. :D The bride and groom looked amazing and the weather was great too.

The day before the wedding I created the wedding cake. It was my first tiered cake ever and I was quite tensed. But it turned out okay eventually.
I wanted to upload the picture of it, but then I realised it is not on my computer yet. So, I'll add that one later.

I also wanted to share with you the gift I made for them. I got the idea from Pinterest. It is a wooden board which I painted white. Then I drew a huge heart on a piece of paper. Then I traced this line with hammering in nails every inch or so. Once that was done, I pulled off the paper. After that I put the red string around all the nails randomly. Once I thought I had enough strings, I created an outline so the heart would pop even more.
And then it was time to decorate. You can put anything between the strings. Here I used pictures and an envelop to hold the gift. I will also show you a option without the strings. Then you can hang things from the nails. That also looks cute I think.

That's all for today. I'll show you more next time, but now I really have to go to bed.

I still believe that all you need is love...

love, Marjan

workshops

Hello everyone,

In the last couple of weeks I took some workshops. A few weeks ago I went to Creabest in Ommen. Here I did three lovely mini workshops. A friend of mine went with me and I guess she's really into stamping now too. ;)
The first label I made was created with the use of the new distress markers. It was fun to use these to stamp. And I used a color I rarely use: yellow. And to be honest: I love it! ;)



The next thing I made was this little card. We used a lot of tattered angels products. This time I used my regular color: pink. :D



And the last thing I made was another label. I've put this into my art journal already, so here is a picture of my art journal. Love this page despite the lack of color. :D



I've also created another page in my art journal. It's not one of my favourites, but it is okay. I think I'll redo it some day...



Yesterday, I was at Birgit Koopsen's studio for a full day workshop. It was so much fun. We really created a lot. And I love every bit of it. I'm still in awe when I think of all the bottles of glimmer mist and every color Stazon and Distress ink. It was like heaven. ;p
The best tip she gave was about the new use of black and white paper. When you mist it, you'll only see the mist on the white parts. Duh, I know. But I never really realised that. So, I'm totally gonna pull out all of my black and white paper now to mist it. ;) I'll show you some pictures of the album we created. It is not done yet, but I will finish it soon. Then I'll show you everything.
On the left pages there will be pictures. And I still have to put text and embellishments on the pages. But you'll get an idea of all the techniques we used.







That's all for now. I hope I'll be back soon to show some more. Take care!

Love,
Marjan

art journaling

Hey everyone,

I'm back with a kind of new hobby. ;) I recently discovered art journaling and I'm already in love. I foud out about it via Nathalie Kalbach's Creative Jumpstart.
My problem with scrapbooking is that I always think too much about what's the best way to put something. That's why it always takes me ages to finish one page...
But the cool thing about art journaling is that you can just do ANYTHING. And if it turns out awful, you just flip the page. ;)
So, I've created two pages so far. Not the best of art work, but it makes my creativity flow. It also gives me ideas for new pages in my Rome mini. :D I've finished one page of that as well.
So, first of all here are my two first pages in my art journal. Check the image transfer of the Collosseum of Rome on the second one (the first time I used gel medium).







Of course I've watched some videos on art journal on You Tube. But my very favourite blog is this one by Donna Downey. She is soooo creative and updates regularly. Love it!

I also wanted to show you another birthday card I've made. I just love my new brick template by TCW!



Well, that's all for today. I'm planning to do some more art journaling. Hopefully I can show you soon! Take care.

Love,
Marjan

A huge update

Wow! It has been such a long time. I am so sorry about that!
But on the other hand, I have created a lot in the last few weeks, which means a HUGE update with lots of pictures. ;)

First of all are some birthday cards.








Next up is an altered project. One of my collegues sadly decided to leave us. So, I baked her some cookies. Of course they had to go in a nice box. I didn't really like the plain white box, so I altered it. This is how it turned out.






I also worked on my Rome mini album. Yes, I know, it is still not finished... *sigh*. It will be soon though (although I still have to make a lot of cards...). Anyway, I created a new page and I really liked the background I created. I actually felt sorry to put something over it. ;) *lol* Of course I had to, 'cause it would realy look weird to have an empty page in my album. But I did make a picture of it first. ;) I would like to show that with you already. I think I'm in love with masks. ;)




At the moment I'm also really into art journaling. I love it! You can express your feelings and still keep them to yourself. And the best thing is: you can do whatever you want! Usually I'm thinking way too much about a layout. Now, I'm just doing whatever feels good. It's great! I don't have a picture of that yet, but I'll show you next time.

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully my next post won't take so long. Have a nice weekend!

Love,
Marjan

It feels like Christmas already...

Good afternoon everyone,

apparently Sunday is the best day for me to blog. I noticed that most of my blogs were written on an Sunday. ;) Not so surprising, 'cause it is the most convenient day to scrap (at least, when I'm home that is).
Today I have been busy working on my Christmas cards. I already did part of it during the week. That's because I wanted to incorporate some crochet work in my cards. And fortunately that turned out quite nice in my eyes. :D
Now I can crochet more snowflakes, so I can make loads of cards like this one. They won't be all the same, but the idea will be. To give you a sneak peek, here's a picture.



I didn't want to show it in whole, because some people who will receive a card like this, read this blog too. ;)

I've also created another card this afternoon. It is for a person I know who is very ill. She's been diagnosed with cancer. I wanted to make her a card that will cheer her up a little so she has the power to fight this awful disease.



Unfortunately I haven't been able to create another page in my Rome mini album... Maybe I can do something this evening.
Well, for now I wish you all a great evening with many lights, hot chocolate and maybe even some cream on top.

Love,
Marjan

a bunny, a workshop and a label

Hi,

I'm back with more crochet news. ;) Last post I told and showed you that I was working on an octopus. Well... that didn't quite work out the way I wanted... Instead of a ball form, I created a very stretched ball. Not good for an octopus. So, I decided to make another animal. I had very bright pink yarn and decided to make a pink bunny. ;)
It took me quite a few hours (although I have to say I had to start over several times, 'cause I was also interested in the television and then I lost count). But the result is quite nice. Here it is:



I didn't have any eye-shaped beads, so I used brads instead. ;) That's how crocheting and scrapbooking come together. ;)
I think I'll attempt to make a well-shaped octopus tonight. When it's done I'll show it here of course.

In the mean time I also finished one more page of my Rome mini album. That's 3 out of 8 already. ;) And I'm planning to make number 4 as well today.

Last Friday evening a had a workshop at Creabest in Ommen, the Netherlands. We made two Christmas cards in Tim Holtz's style. It was so much fun to do and the group of people were very nice and we had some laughs. Thanks to all the people that were there and to Creabest!
These are the cards I created during the workshop.





Of course I couldn't help myself and I bought some stuff in the shop they have at Creabest. I bought some masks, perfect pearls mist, resistant canvas, labels and clear stamps. To try some of the things, I created a label.
I used Tim Holtz's masks, then some distress ink and then some perfect pearls mist on top of that. I used some stamps by My Mind's Eye from the Lost and Found collection.
Although the colours are a bit more blue than purple (which the actual colour is) and you can't really see the copper mist, but I think this picture gives a bit of an impression of the label.




Thanks so much for looking. Please leave a comment if you have some suggestions to improve my work. I'm always interested in that!
Enjoy your Sunday!

Love,
Marjan

more crochet

Mmm... I think I'm really into crochet. I also managed to create some kind of small ball. It's not perfect, but I didn't think I would be able to do it.



Once I got that done, I thought I could try to make an animal too. So, I bought a book on crochet animals. And at this moment I'm trying to make an octopus. Although I have to say it looks much more like a small hat right now... I hope it will become an octopus eventually.



Besides all the crocheting, I'm also still working on my Rome mini album. Two pages are done now (of a total of 8 pages). I've got to keep working on it.

And last of all I wanted to make you all aware of the fact that Birgit Koopsen is giving away a HUGE box of goodies on her blog.

On her birthday she will announce who the winner is. Wow, isn't that much like Sinterklaas/Santa Claus?
Her blog is already in my list of favourites, but here you can also find it.
I'll keep my fingers crossed, 'cause my favourite products are in the huge box!

Have a lovely week,
Marjan