Guess what????

... I made the finalist list at "My Scrapbook Nook"!!!

Leah had 119 applicants for her Design Team call!! Can you believe it?
She has narrowed down this list to 25 finalists and one of them is ME!! And if you see who is on this list!! It's so intimidating (and unbelievable that I'm on it!)!!

Over the next 10 days or so Leah is going to decide who will stay and who will go....!!! There will be some challenges in which we'll all have to participate and .... ? well, I don't know, but I do know it's going to be so much fun!!

I'll keep you posted!!

Trip down memory lane!

At Sketchy Thursdays I found such a fun sketch I just had to use it!! and because my January Nook kit was still on the table I started straight away:

The photo shows Anita, one of my bff's, and I on a Solex (a very old moped, the same as I had when I was about 16 years old). We have this little tradition: once a year we have a day out with 7 friends and one person of this group organizes the day without the others knowing what is going to happen. The day before we get directions where we're supposed to meet and the rest of the day we just do as we're told!! This is so much fun!! The ride on the Solex was my favorite part of this day!! (And now I sooooo regret selling my old Solex 20 some years ago!)

Here are some details of my layout:

And in case you're wondering, I'm the one who has to organize the next day-out, but luckily I get to do it together with my SIL!!! (who's part of the group of friends too!).

So, if you have any suggestions feel free to part with them!!!

Have a wonderful Sunday and see you soon!

Hugs, Monique

TOOOOT!!

Last Tuesday I got an e-mail from Liz Chidester telling me I made it into the Design Team of THE SCRAPPIEST!!!!


Wohoo, I'm so happy!!

And these are my fellow Design Team members (you'll find a link to their blog in the side bar):

• Arlene Camacho


• Gail Knowles


• Grace Lauer


• Kim Tupponce


• Kylie Symons


• Laurel Seabrook


• Pearl Liu


• Susan Bourgeois


• Lisa Hidy

Love it to be on the same team as Pearl once again!!

Hope you'll have to play too!! The sketches are truly magnificent!!

Hugs, Monique

Good morning everyone!!

Today is my day off and normally that means Scrapping!! but as I have one little sick boy here today is a bit different. Mats has a bit of a fever, coughs (a lot!), has watery eyes and a runny nose and is feeling very sorry for himself..... so that means mom has to read stories, provide drinks and food (which he doesn't eat because everything tastes funny) and well, generally, has to be there. So okay, that's what I do. (Yesterday and the day before I told him to be quiet and to watch tv because I had to work - from home luckily!).

I do have time however to show you this layout I made with Nikki Sivils' papers "Victoria's Street". I really love these papers!

and some details (which you've seen earlier post)

do you see that crocheted flower??? I made it myself!! (with some explanation from my sis!).

This is it, off to make hot chocolate for one really sad looking kid!

TFL!!

Hugs, Monique

Another winter layout

I've been scrapping a lot lately and totally forgot to show you this layout! This one using OA Very Merry, based on a sketch from Twisted Sketches.

Of course I used my sewing machine (it didn't get stuck all the time then...) and my Slice (am so happy with it!)!! Used it to cut the bird, the snowflakes and the title.

Thanks for your visit and hope you'll be back soon!
Hugs, Monique

Just a short post

To let you know that of the 49 layouts my ""Winter Fun" layout was chosen as one of the four favorites at Sketchy Thursdays!! I'm happy!!

Goede voornemen 2010!?

Voor deze nieuwe Nederlandse challenge site "Scrappers-Challenge-Blog" moest je voor hun allereerste challenge een layout maken over je goede voornemen voor 2010. Nou heb ik eigenlijk geen "echte" voornemens gemaakt voor het nieuwe jaar, maar wat ik me sowieso vaak voorneem is meer van het leven te genieten, van de alledaagse dingen en me niet steeds zoveel zorgen te maken over dingen die je vaak toch niet veranderen kan. Dus daar gaat deze layout over... gewoon een foto van de 3 - zorgeloze, gezonde, prachtige kinderen .... als je die ziet dan doet de rest er toch niet meer toe? Weg met die zorgen! Live a little!

This weekend I found a new Dutch challenge blog, called "Scrappers-Challenge-Blog". For their first challenge you had to create a layout about your resolutions for 2010.... to be honest, I don't really have New Year's Resolutions.... I decided to scrap about my "general" resolution, which is to just "live" and enjoy the little things in live and not to worry so much all the time. I mean, look at these kids, they are happy and healthy.... (aren't they amazing?)!! How can anything be more important?! So no more worries! Live a little!!

and again some details:
and a close up of the journaling ....
Been using my January kit from the Nook again... can't get enough of it!!

And you know what I loved most about this challenge??? No sketch!!!

En weet je wat ik zo fijn vond aan deze challenge??? Eindelijk eens géén schets!!

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Hugs, Monique

Wohoo!!

Did you see this??? I'm the first follower featured on Slushie Saturday on "What's the Scoop" at Paper Popsicles!!! I'm so proud!!

Eskimo Kisses

Last year I bought lots of Christmas papers, but this line was definitely one of my favorites: BG Eskimo Kisses! Here's a layout I made with a sketch from PageMaps. I just love Becky Fleck's sketches!

And this is my layout. I used the same photo of Mats in the snow 3 times. Of course I used the sewing machine to sew the edges of the paper (although not as much as I wanted because it got stuck all the time and I honestly don't know why) and I inked them too. Furthermore I hand cut the flower on the left side of the page and used the woolies and chip stickers from BG Eskimo Kisses. I also used journaling clear cuts from LYB, Thickers from AC and mini shimmer alpha's from MM and some bling.

And here are some details:

This is it. Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs, Monique

Why is it that....

..... some layouts take hours to finish and others only half an hour??

I think it has something to do with this fabulous January kit from the Nook I'm using for this layout!

The kit is filled with Pink Paislee & lots of embelishments and the colors were just perfect for this photo of my DS Timothy. The layout is based on sketch 170 from Pencil Lines.

And here's the card with the journaling which I've put in the envelope:

Thanks for visiting my blog! Hope to see you again sometime!

Hugs, Monique

Feeling good!

Good morning to all of you!! Today is Wednesday and that means my day off!!! I've been a SAHM for 5 years and had 5 x 365 days off, but now that I'm working again I appreciate my one day off a 1000 times more!! And a day off means ..... SCRAPPING!!

But first I want to show you this photo of Mats' birthday party... It's his very first birthday party and he was so terribly excited!! He almost couldn't sleep the night before! The kids all got a new, very white t-shirt, which they had to change into a pirate t-shirt, an eye patch and an earring. Don't they look scarry? And of course we went looking for a treasure!!

And there's this photo of Manon I want to show you too. Yesterday she joined me when I took Jippie to the park. Of course I took my camera along! Don't they look cute together?

And then finally here's the layout I did yesterday. The sketch is from Sketchy Thursdays:

And this is the layout I created with it:

And some details:

I created this layout with both the sketch from "Sketchy Thursdays" and the "photo inspiration" challenge from Basic Grey in mind (even though these are in principal meant for cards...). As I couldn't choose between the two (and my days off are limited, LOL) and decided to combine the two (which I normally never do!).

I used the BG Eskimo Kisses line (papers, chip stickers and woolies), Bazzill, stamps from Creative Café/Autumn Leaves and HS, clear swirls from My Little Shoebox, bling from the local bead shop, felt stars, ribbon, cat's eye ink and border punches and my Slice!

This is it for now! I'm off to scrap some more!

Thanks for looking and hope you'll leave me a comment!

Hugs, Monique

Cherish

This morning I f elt like scrapping! (when not?) So I sat down and created this layout with my left over scraps from Nikki Sivils papers Sweet Cherry Pie. The layout is based on sketch #47 from Liz (The Scrappiest).

And this my take on it:

What I love about Nikki's papers are the bright colors and the sheet with cut outs!

And now I'm off to the library! Have a wonderful weekend everyone and hope to see you back soon!

Hugs, Monique

What's the scoop at Paper Popsicles?

Paper Popsicles just announced their new blog "What's the Scoop?", filled with inspiration and activities.... make sure you hop over and check them out!

Just an update...and some sneak peaks

Another cold weekend in The Netherlands!! It seems like our winters keep getting colder and colder... and we love it! (I sooooo regret throwing away my old ice skates! every store is now sold out!!). Here are some photos of the time we went to the Beestenmarkt in the center of Delft, but as of yesterday we also skate on ditches and ponds here in the neighbourhood.....

Look what I bought yesterday! I've had my eye on this paper tagger kit for months now, but couldn't decided whether it was worth approx. 30 euros.... Saturday I couldn't resist it any longer and now I finally got it! and I'm so happy with it!! I used it on a layout I made with Nikki Sivils papers, see photo at the bottom of this post....

And here are two sneak peaks of the layout I made for the Nikki Sivils' DT call. I made a layout using her Victoria's Street line. I really love working with her designs! They fit my style perfectly! (hope she thinks so too!) I even crocheted some flowers for this page!

Do you notice how I attached the orange flower to my green (self crocheted) flower? It's done with the paper tagger shown above! Isn't it fun?

TFL and hope to see you soon!

Hugs, Monique

My Scrapbook Nook Bloghop!

Did you know that over at the Nook they are having a bloghop??? It gives you the possibility to admire all the DT's amazing work and there are fabulous kits to win!!! You start at Leah's blog and go from there!!

What do you do when no one is looking??

That's the new challenge at the Spunky Scrappers site....

And this is one of the things I do when (almost) no one is looking: swimming! And the reason is that I look like a huge whale in my bathing suite!

The Cosmo Cricket line "Snorkel" was just perfect for this challenge. The photos are made while on holiday in the south of France. My friend Yvonne and I are jumping in the river from the rocks, just like our kids.... I guess the last time I did that must be some 20 years ago!! We had such fun!!!

My Sweet Cherry Pie

Yes!! Have you seen this??? I'm featured on Nikki Sivils' blog!! Yahoo! I'm soooo glad!! My dear friend Mieke is on her DT and she used one of my layouts to show to you today. Thanks Miek, you're the best!

I made this layout with Nikki's papers "My Sweet Cherry Pie". I had just the right photos for these papers: of Manon eating "marsepein" cherries we bought at the bakery sometime in July (normally we only have marsepein in December). Nikki's papers and cut-ups are so wonderful to work with! I handcut the border of the background paper and machine stitched all the other papers, the ribbon and the tree. I used an old secondhand typewriter for the journaling. Furthermore I used Autum Leaves stamps, some bling and flowers from Prima, circle rims from MM, floss, buttons and felt (word and swirl) from Creative Café, an owl from Maya Road, a metal bird, a zig writer and some staples.

TFL and hope you'll be back!! Hugs, Monique

2010