Sketchy Thursdays: February GDT Challenge

On the blog of Sketchy Thursdays is an extra challenge: the winner will be their guest designer in February! I love this blog, although I only was able to do only one challenge yet. They have great sketches and great sponsors! This is my second entry..for the GDT spot of course:

Except that you had to follow their sketch, your layout had also to be 'vintag-y'. The frequent readers of my blog know that I'm so NOT into vintage! It is just not my style. But hey, you know me...it is just an extra challenge for me!! So I collected all my vintage supplies and just started...

The green patchwork on the background is handstitched! It took me three evenings this week to get it done. I was afraid to use my sewing machine because that is not really my friend...After I finished the patchwork I had lots of fun layering the ribbon and the flowers and than...no inspiration! Couldn't think of a title, didn't know what story to tell...So I made the previous Icefun-layout first and than I looked at my unfinished one again...And I knew what to do. Today I finally finished my layout! But if this means that I will ever do another vintage one again...I think I just found one of my limits...Still, I'm more than satisfied with my layout! Especially because of the work that was in it...but there were just as much sighs and muttering....

Sandra

January challenge Scrappassion: IJspret

For the challenge at Scrappassion this month the theme was: Typical Dutch! To me one of the typical things here in The Netherlands is the ice-skating on lakes, canals, ponds, etc. as soon as they are frozen after some cold nights. In January 2009 we had a very cold period, which resulted in beautiful ice-tracks. It was for the first time in about 10 years that we could skate on the canal right behind our home. Mitchell and Danique had skated before on artificial ice but this was the first time on 'real' ice. They loved it!
Here is my layout:

(ICE-FUN)

I deciced to use a new technique on this layout, quilling. I had seen it in a swedish scrapbookmagazine last summer and now I read about it again in a dutch magazine. I like trying out new techniques.

The big snowflake on the right took me more than two hours and a lot of patience. The snowflake on the left and the red border also took me two hours. Of course, my layout is in the national colors of Holland: red, white and blue.

I love how it all turned out. I hope you do too!

Have a nice day.

Sandra

Sketchy Thursdays #1.07: What?!

Another sketchblog, another one with great sketches that can't be ignored ...Sketchy Thursdays!
It looks like my scrap-addiction is getting worse...I don't know if it is a good thing or not, but all these great sketchblogs have a new sketch every week...and I want to do them all!!! I don't want to think about the time, which will probably come soon, that I have to skip one because I just can't keep up with making three layouts a week and do other challenges and designteam layouts...I've never been addicted but now I realy start to feel it coming!
Something positive? Ok, I made my layout with Kaisercraft's Rewind papercollection. This is one of my favourites and I got it about two months ago...waiting for the right pictures and the right mood. As soon as I saw this collection I wanted to work with it and now I finally did!
Here is my layout:

I used a picture of my son. I made it during our early morning snowball fight, a couple of weeks ago. (Yes, I can throw snowballs and make great pictures at the same time!!) Mitchell never wants to pose for my camera and now I sort of surprised him.

I like this layout very much. That is also why I like to use sketches so much more lately. Otherwise I would have never been able to make a layout like this one. It probably would have become a very dull and overloaded one...

So...let's start on the next one!

Sandra

In memoriam: Mickey (1992-2010)

After almost 18 years our sweetest little furry friend Mickey has passed away.
Yesterday afternoon he started complaining and wasn't able to walk any more. He hadn't been eating or drinking for about two days so we knew he wasn't ok. Since we put down his 14 year old friend about 4 months ago he hasn't left his cattoilet, only to eat or drink and a quick stroll around the house. Now he wasn't eating and drinking any more we felt that his time had come. As always Mickey chose to do things like this on a Sunday...so we had to go to a vet who worked in the weekends. Two years ago we had to go to the vets on Sunday because Mickey broke his leg. That was the first time that we thought we had to say goodbye to Mickey forever. But later that week the vet did an operation and put a metal pin in his leg and Mickey recovered again, being 16 years old! (The vet told me that cats mostly don't get older than 14 years..)
Last summer we found Mickey in the garden on a sunny afternoon, complaining and he couldn't stand on his legs any more. Again, we thought: this is it! And went to the vets again. This time it was a nerve in his back that was irritating because of a little infection in his back. The vet managed to help him again and Mickey could go home with us. But yesterday was final: his kidneys were almost shriveled, he had a very low temperature and he was very weak. This time we couldn't help Mickey any more and we decided to put him down. With his 18 years he was just too old to live on.
So it was strange this morning...no cat walking in front of your feet, asking for food... An empty space on the spot where his toilet was....He has been with us since he was only 10 weeks old. We moved several times and he was always with us, we got three kids who all grew op with him. We remember him as a little kitten crawling through the sleeve of Michael's bathrobe. He was just such a sweet and loveable cat!
Although we know it was the best decision to put him down, we will miss him. So here is a layout about him, which I made last spring, to remember him:

Sandra

Creative Scrappers #85: You color my world

My second layout for a sketchblog this week..this time for Creative Scrappers. And if I may say so, I have been SO creative it scares me!
The frequent followers of my blog know that I'm a big fan of mixed media artist Traci Bautista and that I bought her book 'Collage Unleashed' recently. I read the book from the front to the back and the other way round. There was so much inspiration in it! Of course, I simply don't have the talents and the possibilities to even come close to Traci with my artwork, but I just started and let the paint flow....
Where Traci has a big studio for herself where she can create without being disturbed or without any fear of splashing paint on an expensive floor or dinnertable, I have certain limits unfortunately. (Hey, everybody needs to have dreams, right? One of mine is such a studio! My own tiny scraproom here in the house will do also...) I took al the acrylic paint I had, about four white pieces of paper and dripped three different colors of paint on them. Then I started scraping the paint with an old creditcard. After that I stamped with bubble wrap in other contrasting colors. I also made a stamp by using some textured wallpaper. At the end I tried to doodle some words but that didn't turn out the way I wanted. Guess I still need some practice on that part...
The great thing is that you just cut up your painted papers (after drying of course) and you can just use the pieces you like! And that is what I did with the colored papers on this layout:

I stitched all the pieces on white cardstock and I cut out the letters for the title from other pieces of my painted papers.

This is only one technique I used after reading Traci's book. I'm still collecting stamps, textured papers and everything that might help me! I also love her technique with dyed paper towels and I so love her doodles!!

So that is for another time..but I'm so happy about how my layout has turned out.

I hope you like it too!

Sandra

I won!!

Guess what? This morning I started my computer, went to the AAM-blog and found out that I won the prize in the December challenges!! What a great way to start my day!
The winner was chosen via the Random Number Generator and it chose me. I'm so happy! Of course, it is easy to say now, but I don't do these AAM-challenges only to win a prize. I think it is important to scrap about myself. Their challenges force me to think more about how I am, what I want and how I see life. I got to know myself  much better since I participate in these challenges.
Their latest challenge is: What makes you angry? I'm thinking about it for days now. There a lot of things that make me angry but what is the thing that realy makes me jump and scream? I hope to show you my layout soon...
This is the prize I won:

Funny detail: there are also some Kaisercraft papers in this kit, some of the Loire Valley collection. I worked with the digital version of this collection, a few weeks ago. (Look here to see the layouts I made with this digital kit.) But I have never had the chance to work with the real papercollection, so here is my chance! Maybe I will do some hybrid scrapping with it...

Have a nice day!

Sandra

Pencil Lines sketch #168: Look daddy!

There were three sketch blogs having a new sketch this week and I planned to do them all. I don't know if I will succeed but here is the first one, the one from Pencil Lines, because that is the one I liked the most!
Here is the sketch:

And here is my layout:

I just love these pictures of Laura's second birthday!

I used Kaisercraft's newest digital kit Candyshop.

Have a nice day!

Sandra

Simply delicious!

Kaisercraft released a new digital kit this week: Candyshop! Here is the layout I made with it:

Don't you wish it was summer again? Look here on the Kaisercraft blog to see some more Candyshop layouts. I got also some great comments on my layout so I'm very happy now!

Sandra

Lots of layouts...

In the past weeks I made a lot of layouts which I couldn't show at the time. Now I can so here are some layouts and hybrid projects.

This is a layout I made for the DT call at Pencil Lines. Unfortunately I didn't make it to the team but that is ok by me. There are so much great scrappers out there and only the best make it to the team, right? Maybe next time. I have still so much to learn!
I used the digital kit Elegance from Kaisercraft for this one:

The journaling is on the part of the circle on the left.

Some time ago I combined my CT work for Kaisercraft with a request from my brother. He wanted me to scrap a picture of his stepdaughter. He wanted to print the layout on canvas an give it as a present to her grandparents. I used the Grunge digital kit this time:

I have seen the result after it was printed on canvas and it was gorgeous!!

A few days before Christmas Kaisercraft released the digital version of the Penny Royale papercollection.

I made a layout and I did some hybrid scrapping too with this kit. Here is my layout:

The ribbon with the eyelets on the bottom was a try-out. I found a tutorial on the internet how to shrink the ribbon at the places where it goes through the eyelets. I think it worked out pretty well.

I needed this because my approach of digital scrapping is the same as when I do traditional scrapping. I just layer papers and elements. The fun thing about digital scrapping is that you can resize as much as you like, delete or re-do things etc. But for some effects like this ribbon you realy have to know your way in Photoshop.

I made some cards too with this kit. I felt like doing some hybrid scrapping on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Because I knew that another CT member was making some cards too (and I knew she is good at it!!) I thought of a different approach. I was inspired by a simple Christmas card my son got at school. I decided to make some cards, using only the brush-sets in the kit. I printed these on white cards, pimped them with some rhinestones et voilà. The card on the left is stitched with some golden thread around the hearts.

By the way, the quotes came from the Friendship brushset.

It is an easy way to make cards and it has endless possibilities. You can change the colors of the brush and the cards, pimp the cards with flowers, embellishments, ribbon, etc. Your fantasy is the limit!

And last but not least, I made a digital layout for sketch #167 at Pencil Lines today. I had a bit of crazy week with unexpected and unpleasant things that happened. Two people, from who I thought they were my friends managed to hurt me so much with their words that I didn't feel like scrapping. I missed two days because of this. After these days I decided to block it and try to scrap again. I'm not completely satisfied, but it is a start, right?

This is the sketch which I had to use:

A picture with a lot of elements around it... I didn't feel like using flowers so I made this:

I used the digital kits Grunge and Rough & Tough.

I finish with some great news: Kaisercraft is releasing two new papercollections this week: 'Shaken not stirred' and 'Made with Love'. I can't wait to get my hands on these! They will also release a complete new digital kit this week, called Candyshop. I had the chance to work with this kit already and it is yummie!!

So keep an eye on their blog ! You won't be dissappointed!

Sandra

Creative Scrappers sketch #84: I love your smile

Just in time..I hope...my take on sketch #84 at Creative Scrappers. Tomorrow is already a new one!
This time it is a digital layout again. I used a mix of the papers I collected with free downloadable kits and some Kaisercraft things.

The first blogpost in 2010..Wishing you all the best and that nothing but good things will happen!

I don't have any New Years resolutions..just enjoy every day, stay healthy and laugh much!

Sandra