Best Creation Sewn Together Blog Hop!!!!

Hi everyone!! Welcome to Best Creation's Stitched Creations Blog Hop!!!!

If you arrived here from the amazingly talented Julie Walton, you're in the right place!!

Today we have a fun blog hop with projects using thread!

Here's my layout "Back 2 School", using Best Creation's "Back 2 School"-line.

And a few details: Mats' first very first word was "sun", so when he came home with his schoolwork I cut out this sun he colored and his very first attempt at writing.

And a close-up of my stitching:

Now visit each blog listed below to find the secret FALL words! Once you have found the FALL words, email them to mel@bestcreation.us for a chance to win this new 12x12 Hello Fall collection kit!

Good luck everyone! and just in case, here's the hop order again:

Jodi
Rebecca
Karen
Nicole
Keely
Julie
Monique (you're here!!)
Debbie

If you get lost, just be sure to go to Best Creation's blog page!"

But WAIT it's not over yet!!! I have one of the secret words for you: "PIE"!!

Winners will be announced Tuesday, September 6th!

Thanks everyone for joining us and we hope you have fun!!

Now hop on to Debbie's blog!!

Hugs,
Monique

Farm Life

Going through my stash of papers I found these farm papers from Doodlebug and I suddenly remembered the photos I had bought them for .... way back in 2008 we visited a farm from one of Timothy's soccer mates and the kids were allowed to drive a little bit on the tractor.

Look:

Mats, only 4 years old, is sooooo excited!!
Some close-ups:

These papers came with a diecut sheet, which I used for 75%! LOL!

So how are you spending your free weekend??? Scrapping like me?? What else would you do in weather like ours; can you hear the thunder?!

Despite the awful weather I hope you're enjoying your Saturday and thanks for stopping by!!
Hugs,
Monique

1st walk in the park & a card

Here's a layout I made for Inkido. I used the very last scraps of their spring/summer papers and I don't know why, but I find it much easier to scrap with a pile of scraps then with a pile of untouched, pristine papers ... I'm always afraid of making that very first cut in my paper, especially when I like the paper very much!! So, here it is:

The photos were taken some 12 years ago, but I never got round to scrap them. Of course the other embellishments I used such as the flowers, leaves, ribbon, butterfly, pearls and stamp are also from Inkido. The alpha stickers are from Basic Grey.

Then I have a card for you, made for the VC crop at MyScrapbookNook this weekend. I planned to do a lot more, but I don't know what got into me, but I've been (spring) cleaning like a madlady!! I got rid of all the little childrens' stuff I still had: books, puzzles, games, clothes, comic books, etc. I just couldn't stop! I went from the top of the house to the bottom and back and I've never seen the house so tidy!!! Don't know how long the tidiness will last as my hubby and kids are returning from their vacation this night but for now: Yeah!!!

Here's the card:

For this challenge you had to incorporate a woman's image. Used Graphic45 from one of the previous Nook kits.

This is it, I'm off to bed!! Good night and hope to see you back soon!
Hugs,
Monique

Adorable OWL and "Best of the Web"

Al heel lang verzamel ik stofjes; overal waar ik kom en waar ik stofjes zie moet ik er gewoon een paar meenemen. Maaaaaarrrrr ... ik deed er verder niks mee! Tot nu! Gisteren ben ik eindelijk gaan zitten met al die stofjes op schoot, heb er een paar uitgekozen en heb deze uil gemaakt! Is-ie niet schattig???

For quite a while now I'm a collector of cute fabrics. Everywhere I see them I just have to buy them; I have a box full!! BUT.... I didn't do anything with them! Until now that is. Yesterday evening I sat down, took the box and just got started!! And here's the result: an adorable owl!!

Beetje overdreven hè 4 foto's? maar ik vind m zo leuk! Ik ga er gauw nog een maken!!
Overigens zijn de ogen gemaakt met de tools van Epiphany Crafts: Button Studio Tool Round 20.

Okay, maybe 4 photos are a bit much, but I'm really proud of him (or her?). Btw, have you seen that the eyes are made with my fav tool the Epiphany Crafts Button Studio Tool Round 20?

En verder kreeg  ik van de week een leuk emailtje van Kim. Wie is Kim??? Zij verzorgt de blogposts op "Best of the Web" en vroeg of ze mijn blog er mochten noemen. Nou, natuurlijk!!! HIER is de link naar hun site. Leuk hè

Another fun thing happened last week, I got this email from Kim:

"Dear Monique,

I found your blog and think your scrapbooks are so cute! I contribute to a blog called “Be @ Home” (http://pocketchange.become.com/category/home-and-garden) and we’d love to recommend you to our readers via our column “Best of the Web.”

This weekly column aims to connect our users to neat and interesting blogs that expand the reader experience. Your blog is perfect for this. And as Be @ Home averages about 3.3k unique visitors per day to the homepage, it’s a great way to get more publicity for your blog.

See examples of Best of the Web here: ..........

It would be great if you were interested in the feature, and could spread the word about Be @ Home too. Please let me know if you’d like to be part of Best of the Web, and have a great weekend!

Best,

Kim F.

www.become.com

kim@become-inc.com "

How about that???? Of course I said yes and yesterday my blog featured on their website. HERE's the link if you want to see it yourself!!

That's it! Off to buy some Pokemon cards for my 6 year old (I have to spoil him a bit now that his dad, sis and bro are off "holidaying" in Greece!!! lol!)

Hugs and have a wonderful weekend!
Monique

Buddies :-)

It's time for the new sketch at the Dutch Dares challenge blog!! This time it's made by me!

Here it is:

(simply made in Word)

And here's my take on my own sketch :-)

Last week I found this fabulous line "Mr Boy" by Bella Blvd .... isn't it just perfect?!!

So .... if you feel like trying my sketch too, don't forget to link it to the original blogpost on the Dutch Dares blog and you might win the monthly RAK or be our next guest designer!! While you're there check out the other design team members' layouts! They're gorgeous!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs,
Monique

Brag Book & Published!

I have so much fun creating my Fancy Pants "Brag Book" that I thought I would show you the front (haven't finished the rest yet, so can't show you!)

I used Webster's Pages "Yacht Club" which is just perfect for the cruise the album is about!!

And then last Saturday this scrapbooking magazine from the UK arrived and guess who's on page 68? Me!! Look:

Still not used to seeing my own layouts in a magazine!

Off to scrap some more!
Thanks for stopping by and see you next time!!

Hugs,
Monique

Silly, Sweet & Eight!

Right now Sassafras is having a challenge to create a page using at least 3 different alphabets on your page. As I have tons of Sassafras papers, embellies and letters (because I LOVE Sassafras!) I decided to join in!!

Here's what I made last night:

And lots of close-ups:

I mixed several different lines, used 4 different alphabets, lots of stickers, chipboard, banners and flowers. I also used some non-Sassafras products like MME journaling stickers, baker's twine and of course my Epiphany Crafts shapes (11 in total! can you spot them all?).

And now we're off!! It's our 15th wedding anniversary today and we've something fun planned!

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you soon!
Hugs,
Monique

Imaginisce August Blog Challenge!

Imaginisce has a fun sketch challenge for the month of August. And because I still had "Splash Dance" in my stash from last year (and wanted to use it very much) I decided to play along.

There were several fun photos from our vacation in France last July that fitted this line perfectly. So .... I decided to create 2 (!) pages with this sketch: one for Timothy's album and one for Mats' album.

Here they are:

 

Here's Mats' page in detail:

And Timothy's page in detail:

And this is the sketch:

Materials used: pp: Imaginisce "Splash Dance", cardstock: Bazzill & Core'dinations, Sticker Puffs: Imaginisce, Sticker Stackers: Imaginisce, letters: Thickers AC and mini's from MLS, journaling sprouts from Jillibean Soup. Furthermore I used the Slice card "Summer" to cut out several words (summer, swim & beach) and images (umbrella, palm trees & the sand castle).
Thanks for stopping by & hope to see you back soon!

Monique

INKIDO's - Tourist in my own country

Yesterday it was my turn again to show my layout on the Inkido blog.

For this page I used some of Inkido's older lines: Autumn Wardrobe (Tailored Stripes), Apples (Astrakan and Cox Orange) and Gammaldags Jul (Julhjartan), furthermore I used Inkido's flowers, leaves, charms, stamps and pearls:

The photos were made a few months ago when I had a day out with friends and we visited Volendam. Here we're dressed in the local attire :-).

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Have a great weekend,

Monique

 

Nieuwe Dutch Dares dare "Varen"

Het is de eerste woensdag van de maand dus de nieuwe dare bij de Dutch Dares staat er weer op! Deze maand is de dare "Varen".

The first Wednesday of the month, so that means a new dare at the "Dutch Dares" challenge blog! This time the challenge is to create a project about "sailing". Here's my take ... after our cruise in May no shortage of sailings pics here!!

En hier is mijn "vertaling":

Een layout over onze cruise afgelopen mei.... bij mij geen tekort aan foto's met het onderwerp "varen", LOL!!

Gebruikt/Used: Paper: BoBunny "Sun Kissed", chipboard: Cosmo Cricket, letters: BoBunny & American Crafts and of course lots of epoxy shapes from Epiphany Crafts (round 25 and hearts 14).

Als je ook leuke foto's hebt over "Varen" doe met ons mee en wie weet win jij de RAK of word je onze volgende gastdesigner!! HIER is de link naar het blog, waar je ook de overige creaties van het team kan vinden!!

If you want to join us this month you can find the Dutch Dares blog post HERE and who knows .... maybe you'll be the one to win the RAK or become our next guestdesigner!!

Bedankt voor het langskomen en geniet nog even van de vakantie!
Hugs,
Monique