Scrap now, clean later.

I love that quote and I love a lot more quotes about cleaning, or do I have to say about not cleaning ;-)
I'm really in a scrapping mood this week. I've made this card all by myself.



And in the middle of the night, when the house is so very quiet, I scraplifted two cards and one layout. No, not all in one night but in two. Yawn, yes, I do feel a little tired. Tonight I will go to bed at a more normal time...........I think.






That's it for now. I'm gonna clean the house. Have a nice weekend.
I'll be back on monday with my new 2sketches4you card and I have to say I like that one.

Today......

Today is Laura's birthday. Laura is one of the owners and designers of the 2sketches4you sketch blog. Oh, do I love that blog. In the past I didn't use any sketches, but since I discovered 2sketches4you I love sketches.
I've made this card after Laura's sketch 7. If you visit the 2sketches4you blog you can play along. There is a gorgeous kit to win from My Creative Scrapbook.
I hope you will have a very happy day Laura!

My 2sketches4you card for this week....

.....is a bit simple this time. For a few moments I thought I'd lost my "mojo", but fortunately that didn't last long.
This is Laura's sketch 7 and my take of the sketch. I'm looking forward to see what the rest of the world will do with the sketch. I think the first takes will appear in only a few hours. So keep checking the 2sketches4you blog.





I've made a very quick card from some scraps too. I think I was done in 10 minutes.


Michelle showed me the way to a new sketchblog called Pink Sketches and I've used their first sketch. I'm totally in love with sketches at the moment.
At the market I bought me some ribbon with little balls and used it on this layout. I know there are smaller balls, but I haven't found them yet.



But how will this layout fitt in an album? NOT, I think.

A lot to share.

Let me first thank you all for your wunderful birthdaywishes and the lovely quotes. You'll have till the end of the month to submit your favorite quote. My lovely funny daughters, or should I call them "little thiefs", will draw a winner for the RAK.
I know I have to change the banner, but I'm so happy with it, so I'll leave it this way for a while.

A lot to share. Let me begin with my take on Ingrid's sketch she made for the 2sketches4you blog. Such a lovely sketch and her own card is also very nice.



A few posts ago I showed a sneak peek from my card made for a TwinSwap. Made this card with one of my favorite paper lines from Creative Café.



Two weeks ago I went to Apeldoorn for a workshop. When I saw we were going to use Creative Café papers I entered immediately. We've made and finished a single layout, a spread and a minialbum and we even had time for a good lunchbreak.



I had some problems with all the green, because green simply is not my colour!
But in the end it was oké.



After lunch we've made a lovely minialbum. I'll show you a few pages.





That's it for now. I'll be back on monday with Laura's sketch 7 from 2sketches4you. I promiss you it's a great one!

Happy Birthday Mom! And a RAK!

If you're wondering why this blog looks so colourful today, you're too late to send her a birthday card, because today Joke is celebrating her birthday!

And that's one of the reasons she won't be blogging today. She's busy eating cake, unwrapping her presents and all those other things that come with parties.
So we thought we give her a hand today. We've not only made her a banner, we're even going to give away a RAK! Who is celebrating her birthday gives away presents, right?

Unfortunately we've spend all our money on her present, so we had to take some of her own stuff to create a fabulous RAK! Don't feel troubled by that, she might not even miss it. Sometimes she even buys the same things twice, simply because she'd forgotten she already owned it. And see it this way, in a few weeks you might be the owner of some great products, touched by Joke! ;-)

Here is the RAK:



What you have to do is easy: leave a comment on this blog in which you tell us what your favourite quote is. You will have time to think about it until the end of the month. On Monday September 1st we will pronounce the winner here.

We wish our Mother a beautiful birthday and are looking forward to hear all your great quotes!

Mom, we love you!

xoxo Eline & Nienke

And again, only cards.

Let me first thank you all for your nice comments on my cards. I really appreciate them.
Monday means time for the new 2sketches4you card. Kazan made the sketch and this time I used those lovely October Afternoon papers. Only looking at those papers makes me happy. I really love those flowers and I embroidered on them. Again, I used some Hambly transparent, love it these days. I'm going to mail this card tomorrow. It has a long way to go and the receiver reads my blog, so I changed her age, just for being it a surprice;)




The other card is made after a sketch on the Sheetload of cards blog. I cut out some felt flowers and embroidered them. Together with some Hambly transparent, crocheting, a stamp and some brads even my husband liked the result. There are some great prizes for the most beautiful cards, so you really should have a look.

Card "from your closed" theme Caardvarks.

I've looked many many times on the Caardvarks blog. Caardvarks is a card challenge site and I've seen the most wunderful challenges came by. This week I made some time to participate. When I saw the theme "from my closed", I was at first a bit disappointed. I thought I couldn't do this challange. But after a bit thinking and searching through my stash I found some "baby clothes". And than the light went on!
I've made this card using a Hambly transparent, crocheted around and made a clothesline. The words are in Dutch, it says "a sweet little child".




I've made another card using a coaster. I've covered it with American Craft paper and KI lace cardstock and sewed it together with lace sticking out. And of course a butterfly on top, I love those elegant little animals.

Yes, monday again.

And monday means a new sketch from 2sketches4you. This weeks sketch is made by Laura.



I didn't want to make just a card, but wanted to make something different. I decided to use a transparent and made a card for my good "old" friend Ciska, who is celebrating her 50th. birthday on september 5th. Used KI memories papers and crocheted around, which is one of my favorite techniques at the moment.
I didn't excactly copy the sketch, but hé that's allowed. So feel free to give a sketch your own turn.





And now a little funny story.
Last week when I'd just finished Ciska's card, the backdoor opened and she came in. She was about to leave for her vacation in Greece and came to bring something for my upcoming birthday. She wanted to give that to one of my daughters. Than suddenly I realised her birthdaycard was standing just beside her and with a little panic I told her she had to close her eyes, right now.
Of course she didn't understand why and when I told her there was something in the room she wasn't supposed to see, she closed her eyes and I could hide the card. LOL. Besides, I used this weeks sketch for her card and no one was allowed to see it. So Ciska, when you read my blog, forget about the card and let it be a surprise on your birthday!

A new card and a sneak for Wendy.

Last week I ordered some October Afternoon papers and I'm very happy with them. The colours are gorgeous and so are the patterns. I already know I didn't order enough.
Last night, after finishing work, I created this card. It's a simple one, but I love the flowers and the bright colors.



I'm participating in a Twin-swap. Never done that before, but it's fun. In a Twin-swap you have to make a card for someone else and when you sent it, you have to add all the materials you've used. The receiver makes a card for you using the same materials. My swapmate is Wendy. Wendy, here's your sneak.



And look what my youngest daughter made? She's so funny. I didn't know she made a photo of the omelet with ham, chees and ketchup, LOL.



Mmmmmmmmmmm, I'm getting hungry.

My first card made as a design team member

I just saw Kazan posted the new sketch and all the cards of the Design Team and I think all cards look awesome. So I can show you my card now.

One week ago I received this sketch from Kazan.



I was very excited when I took some time to make the card, because this was going to be my first card as a design team member for 2sketches4you. I'm still feeling a little confused that Laura and Kazan choose me.
This card is made of the beautiful Noteworthy papers from Making Memories. I made the butterfly from chipboard, put it into Versamark and used clear embossingpowder and my heattool. I sewed a lot with my machine and a bit by hand, love to do that.
I can say I'm pretty pleased with the result and I hope you like my card too.





And oh, before I forget, I have been tagged by Kath. When I started blogging I promised myself not to answer all those lists of questions or tag anyone else. But all right, sometimes you have to surprise yourself and I'm doing this right now. Kath, I do it for you, but won't be tagging other people, I'm sorry for that.

I have to write six random things about myself and I guess it should be things you don't know about me. Well, let's see......

1. I work at a gym and teach 12 classes a week. I teach Les Mills BodyPump and BodySTEP, Fatburn and Freestyle Step, and I love it!
2. I hardly watch tv. Most of the time I fall asleep.
3. I don't like cleaning the house. What you clean today is dirty again within a few days, or even hours.
4. I love to entertain the people in my classes, but actually I'm a quiet person.
5. I love to be home alone.
6. I don't drink alcohol. I simply don't like it, but I love to eat milk chocolate.

Thanks for thinking of me Kath. It wasn't that horrible at all. I'm looking forward to see your next card.

Another card.

I so loved to crochet around paper flowers, that I made another card with that technique.



I sewed a piece of cardboard on a normal card, used some gorgeous stuff from Creative Café and of course American Craft Thickers, love them.

Tomorrow you can see my first contribution as a Design Team Member of 2sketches4you. I'm feeling a little excited, hoping they like my card. Please check that great sketch blog and participate.

Daytrip to Amsterdam

Yesterday we visited Amsterdam. We went to the Amsterdam Dungeon and we made a canal cruise. I will write the rest of the story in Dutch, because that it much easier for me, LOL. But we had a great time, the weather was good and so was our mood.

Via AH hadden we kaartjes gespaard voor de musical Tarzan. Gisteren was het zover. Aangezien we de hele dag vrij hadden besloten we overdag nog iets leuks te doen. Helaas waren de weersvoorspellingen erg slecht, dus we wilden het liefst iets binnen doen. Via het Dolls forum had ik een oproepje gedaan voor leuke dingen in de buurt van Scheveningen en Den Haag. Er kwamen veel ideetjes, variërend tussen ritten met gouden koetsjes tot klimmen en raften. Nadat we er nog niet echt uit kwamen met z'n vieren hebben de meiden nog gezocht op internet en kwamen toen in Amsterdam de Dungeon tegen.
In de Dungeon beleef je een stuk geschiedenis van Amsterdam. Acteurs spelen in diverse kamers vroegere tijden na en proberen ons bang te maken, wat soms nog lukte ook. Eline werd nog uitverkoren en sloeg zich er gelukkig goed doorheen. Er was een spiegellabyrint en een kleine achtbaan in het donker. Al met al vonden we het erg leuk.
Daarna hebben we met een rondvaartboot door de grachten en de haven gevaren. Jaren geleden hebben wij dat al eens samen gedaan, maar we vonden het weer leuk. We hadden mooie plaatsen en hebben veel foto's gemaakt.



Aan het eind van de middag zijn we naar Scheveningen gereden, hebben daar bij "Het Rosarium" gewokt en zijn naar de musical Tarzan geweest.
Tarzan was erg leuk. Ik was in eerste instantie een beetje teleurgesteld dat we Ron Link niet als Tarzan hadden, maar John Vooijs. Maar eerlijk is eerlijk, John was fantastisch. Hij speelde z'n rol atletisch en vol overtuiging. Van Chantal Janzen ben ik nooit zo gecharmeerd geweest en ik vond het dan ook niet erg dat we Bente van den Brand als Jane hadden.
Er werd super gedanst en gezongen en de special effects waren echt gaaf. Kortom, Tarzan is een aanrader, (vooral als elk tweede kaartje gratis is).