Party at Label Tulip... and my photo RAK

..are you enjoying the warm weather as much as I am? The only problem with good weather is that you get less time to scrapbook or do computer related stuff, which might explane why my blog has been quite quiet lately. I was however lucky to have a babysitter yesterday, and managed to do a few pages (after a loooong period of no scrapbooking at all). It felt GOOD! What got me going was the day 2 challenge at Label Tulips 2 year celebration party; the Tulip girl lift challenge. I found 2 layouts that I wanted to lift right away, and there is a chance that I will be doing more lifts. So much "goodness" and inspiring stuff.

The first lift is of Anabelle O'Malley's layout "Candy man" from the June gallery and is about my beautiful niece Mercedes. I used stuff and papers from the May kit (the 2009 stamp is from an older kit), the big circle is just a normal cup cake liner.


And my second lift is of Danielle Flanders' "the 4 of us" layout from the May gallery. I loved the setup of that layout and the use of the little sassafraslass chipboard frames. I used products from the May kit for this layout as well.


And now to the photo-RAK. I promised a RAK for one of the commenters on my new photoblog, and I have had a little drawing today (sorry for the delay). And the winner is............


....Lucia M!!!!!! Congrats! I was SO happy to draw your little name out of my box. It so happens that Lucy is my dear cousine and a very talented photographer as well, and just as busy with "creativelyness" (yes, I made that word up) as I am. Must be the genes.... So dear Lucy, send me your picture, and I will turn it into something cool.

Have a great sunday everyone!!!! and thank you for stopping by.

Hipp hipp hurra! For Lotte har bursdag i dag!

Happy birthday to my little "baby" who turned 3 today! Can't believe that four years ago, I wasn't even thinking about having another baby, or that she three years ago was this tiny little "raisin" making an entrance in quite a sudden, surprising but good way, or that two years ago she was running around like crazy driving her parents crazy, or that one year ago she finally got the concept of having a birthday and getting presents and how great it was. Well, today was another day in Lottes history, knowing the moment she woke up that today is her birtday. She knew she would get presents and that mommy had made her cakes and that she would be the princess of the day. And what a day it was! The weather was definitely smiling to us so we could enjoy the garden at it's best. Lots of yummi food and cake.....So here are some images:

How old are you?

Lotte and the birthday train:

just a natural pose....(very Lotte)

some of the most popular presents:Here's our little princess of the day. This is the princessy tulle skirt that I made her, together with her pyjama and her new swim shoes and princess crown. What a match!

Todays Pavlova. Mmmmmm!
here's another favorite present; hello kitty
blowing out the candles...

All in all a great day with good friends. Thank you for making the day extra special!

Lottes "traktatie"

Here in the Netherlands, it is a custom to serve something at school when you have a birthday, or when you get a baby brother or sister or when you leave the class. We call it "traktatie" (bithday treat). Today was Lottes day, celebrating her upcomming 3rd birthday (which really is on sunday), and I made her little hearty toasties to share with her class mates. And boy, where they a hit. They went down like sweets, and even though I brought an extra box, I had nothing left after a few minutes. The teachers had to hold some of the boys back, so that everybody would get their share. Ha, ha. So, if you ever look for a good "traktatie", this might be the way to go...

Here's what you need:

toast bread (I used white bread, but of course you could use brown as well)
Cream cheese with herbes and garlic
grapes
cookie cutters (I used the shape of a little heart)
some tooth pickers or little flags

Make sandwiches with two slices of toast and cheese in between. Cut out as many shapes as you can manage of each sandwich (I got 3 hearts per sandw.). You can make little squares if you dont want to waist any bread or if you don't have the cookie cutter. I ate the leftovers for breakfast. Add the flagg and the grape and voila. C'est tout.


Here is Lotte while serving..... so proud....
And here's another little proud Lotte, with her 3 year old hat...
Have a great weekend. I will be quite busy baking cakes and wrapping presents.

Shhhhh! Please don't tell, but I made her a cute little tulle princess skirt, that I am quite sure will be a huge hit. Can't wait to give it to her...

Goodie bag tutorial

Like I promised yesterday, (and, yes! I did find that cable) here is my little tutorial. I have to get used to the bad quality of these pics compared to what I usually get with my 5d. It's just not the same...





Anyway, here is what I used:

The Sweet Tweet paper from the Singspring collection, Sausandesigns, flowers and borders stamps from Sausandesigns, colorbox stamp pad; color scarlet, red maya mist, black archival ink, some old book papers, glue dots, a stapler and some transparent foil (cellophane) - not sure about the English word there.

First I cut out a piece of the paper, 3,5'x4' or 9x10 cm and folded it in half. And I went around the edges with the red ink. I also sprayed some maya mist on the old bookpaper and let it dry.Then I stamped some borders on the front and some flowers and leaves on the book paper with the black ink, and cut out the flowers and leaves by hand.
I addhered the flowers and leaves with gluedots, just one dot in the middle, and bent the edge of the flowers to create some dimension. This looks ten times better than just leaving them flat.

It then looked like this:

I wrapped some nougat squares (if there is any Italians reading this, and you have the recipe for Italian nougat, I would LOVE to have it) in the foil and fastened it with the stapler. Last step was to attach the paper tag to the bag with the stapler as well.

And here is the finished product, ready and steady for todays party (picture taken with the good camera this time. What a difference....) Have a great day!!!

What we did today....

These are just a few of the things we did today. I finished this gift for Lottes teacher, who is retiring this year. I made the tag with Sausandesigns papers and stamps (SingSpring, sweet tweet paper and flowers and borduere stamps)
Lotte found some hidden treasures in the staircase (stuff I had found around the house and was suppose to bring upstairs). I love my new hallway and staircase, btw. We just renovated it and painted the steps white and the walls sort of warm beige. I just finished the gallery last weekend and finally got some of the kids' art up on the wall. Makes me happy...

I finished editing the pictures of Silvia and her gorgeous belly. The rest can be seen here.
We had one of my favorite soups for dinner; potato soup with bacon, fish and olive oil, mmmm. Best thing with this soup, is that it fills you up for the rest of the evening. No looking around for sweets or other unhealthy temptations an hour after dinner..:)Jonas wrote greetings for his teachers, as they are celebrating a joint birthday tomorrow (like we didn't have enough other things going on at the moment....)
...and I made the gifts; goodie bags with Italian nougat (it's SOOOO yummi). Used all sausandesigns products again (same as above). Me still like! I'll have a little tutorial on how to make these goodie bags tomorrow, if I manage to find a missing cable for transferring the pictures from my little minicamera - don't use it to often....)

And my dh spent the evening working outside, but not getting his hands dirty - AND while enjoying a glass of wine. Oh, don't we like the modern world....?

These eyes....

Click here to read more about this picture and another photo tips... Have a great weekend!

Skissedilla #12

I did my first Skissedilla layout! It´s a fantastic new Norwegian challenge blog based on sketches, with a great design team and cool new sketches every week. So, since I am having trouble finding inspiration at the moment, I decided to have a go this week. I am also still working on my "all time favorite summer memories"- album, so this goes straight into that one. In the summer we love to buy vegetables and fruits on the farmers market nearby, and one of the favorites are the green peas. The kids love taking the peas out of the pod; lets just say they enjoy this more than eating them:). I used an older basic grey paper as background, some blue paint, a Jenni Bowlin sticker, some sassafraslass chipboard sticker and boarder and a Sausandesigns stamp (Zeit set) around the chipboard circle. It's very ME isn't it? :) :) :)

Looking for some inspiration?? Something different?

Then you might be interested in this cool blog; GermanArtStamps, a blog about all the different and very artsy ways too use clear stamps. This time Sylvie also used food for her stamping projects. I love that idea, and am sure I will try it out in the nearest future.

Some photo tips...

Hi, there! Just stopping by to say that I will be posting tips about photography every once in a while on my photo blog. I posted my first tip just now with some cute pics of Lotte and the strawberry harvest of the day:) Aren´t those strawberries just SO much tastier when they come from your own garden? A result of your own "sweat and labor"? We are having a very social weekend, barbecuing with friends both today and tomorrow. Good food, happy children, happy parents....Have a great weekend!

For a good cause..

This digital kit is designed by Sausandesigns for Songbird avenue, a digital kit club that gives all the proceeds of the monthly exclusive kit for a good cause. This month Sylvie from Sausandesigns is guest designing and offering this cool kit, giving all the proceeds to Doctors without borders.


And I had a go at a digital layout, made with this kit. Although my heart definitely belongs to hands-on scrapbooking, it was fun playing around with the cool items. And the best thing: no mess:). I love the cute little owl and the funky flower and the frames and the butterflies and the papers and......