This is Magical

Here's a layout I couldn't show you before as it was going to be published, but as it was in UK's Scrapbook Magazine last month I'm now allowed to put it on my blog.

A layout about my husband and me: I made it with the American Crafts papers I won with their challenge sometime last year.

And some close-ups: - love that key - !!

Thanks for letting me share my projects with you!

Hugs,
Monique

Jillibean Soup April Challenge

You know what I bought last week??? A paper rack! and I'm so happy with it! I started organizing my paper straight away and surprise, surprise ... I found lots of untouched packages of paper I completely forgot I had!

One of those packages contained the "Chilled Strawberry Soup" line from Jillibean. I decided to enter their April challenge I had just seen on their blog. The challenge this month is to use Jillibean buttons, including the die-cut and sticker buttons that are included in the "Chilled Strawberry Soup"-line I had.

This is what I made:

A page about my daughter reading her latest best book.

Here are a few close-ups. First this one where you can see where and how I used the buttons:

And I used the buttons on the journaling card as well: 

The journaling is hidden under the photo:

HERE's the link to Jillibean's blogpost about the challenge. In case you want to play too, you have until April 30th.

And then some other happy, scrappy news: next month I'll be guest designing at "Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge". I was so happy & honored when Anne Pennington asked me! If you haven't seen this blog yet, you sure should visit it. It's a great place to be!

And last but not least .... I got a little present in the mail today from Practical Publishing International, thanking me for being in UK's Scrapbook Magazine number 63! BUT I didn't know I was going to be published in it! How's that for a surprise? Cool huh? Of course I was the one who sent in a few of my layouts for consideration, but I didn't know one of them was chosen! I think I'm gonna ask Jules if she has the magazine and if she can send me a scan. To be continued, LOL!

That's it for now. Hope you have a great weekend, with much better weather than we have (rain, rain, lots of rain)! Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,
Monique

Handed in my first "My Little Shoebox" projects!!

Yesterday, I e-mailed my very first "My Little Shoebox" projects to Pattie. They will be on the MLS blog sometime in May. I've been using the "Keepsake" line, which I really love! and now I would love nothing more then to show you what I made, but I can't! I have to wait until after the 15th!

BUT I can show you a sneak of what I made! Maybe a corner of the cover of my mini?

And because I can't get enough of this line and because I have soooooo much left, I'm going to create something else, just because I can, LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!!
Hugs,
Monique

Free ONLINE Crop: Doodlebug + Stacy Julian!!

On May 5th, National Scrapbook Day in the US, Doodlebug and Stacy Julian host a big party!!

 Click HERE for the details!!

Hugs,
Monique

Finally!! December Daily - Finished!

A long, long time ago .... on December 27, 2011 (!) I showed you pages 1 - 10 of my December Daily and promised to be back soon to show you the rest of the album .... okay, forget about the "be back soon"-part, but here are the other pages of my December mini! 

And this is how the cover looks (I showed it before, but for those of you who didn't see it):

During the crop at Scrapbook Nederland on Saturday a week ago I got to finish it and I'm so glad I did! (I have a tendency to start mini albums, but not finishing them!).

I'm so sorry for the harsh shadows on some of the photos. It seemed like a good idea to photograph my album in the sun, but now I see the result I'm not really happy with it. They are bright enough, but I hate the shadows. So back to indoor photography ..... Btw, how do YOU photograph your project? Indoors/outdoors? Morning/afternoon? I would love to know!

Thanks for stopping by, your visits mean a lot!
Hugs,
Monique

Introduced at My Little Shoebox blog!!!

Who cares to leave me a comment there??? Thank you so much in advance!! HERE is the link.

Btw, did you receive their latest newsletter? and did you see this new line "Happy Go Lucky"? It's GORGEOUS! with bicycles and lanterns! Can't wait to start working with it!!! Have al look:

Thanks girls for stopping by! Have a fab weekend!
Hugs,
Monique

Snips & Snails layout - Doodlebug

Yay! Yesterday my layout was up on Doodlebug's blog! If you want to have a look or leave a comment, here's the LINK. And if you don't feel like hopping over,  I'll show you what I made here, on my blog, too.

It's "Snips & Snails" week and I had so much fun creating this layout! The papers, the embellishments ... they are all so very cute and beautiful I almost couldn't decide what to use and just kept adding to my page!

Here's the page I created. I used a 7 year old photo of my dd with her baby brother, then 3 weeks old.

The banner is made from an old jeans I cut up for this purpose :)

and a few details:

Supply List: Patterned Paper, Cute Cuts, Cardstock Stickes: Snips and Snails; Mini Pearls & Star Brads: Snips and Snails, Baby Boy Assortment; Doodle Twine: Boys Only; Letter Stickers: Jack & Jill.
 Don't you just LOVE these papers and embellishments? and those owls! sigh! Going to scrap some more!!

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

TEA FOR TWO!!

Wow, 2 blog posts in one day!! :):):) (have some catching up to do, LOL).

Last Saturday I attended the SBN crop marathon in Voorburg (finally finished my December album, yay!) and although I swore to myself NOT to buy any more papers, I just couldn't resist this line: Tea for Two from Cosmo Cricket. It was love at first sight! I mean, look at all those chipboard shapes ... teacups, a teapot, flowers, hearts .... sigh! LOVE them!! And because I had these photos from an English Tea my friend Anita organised for me, I knew I just had to have this line!!

Of course I wanted to use it straight away .... and the first layout I had make was for the Dutch Dares sketch challenge, so here's what I made:

Hope you  like it! Here are a few close-ups:

If you feel as inspired by it as I was, why not give it a try too? Place a link to your project on the Dutch Dares' blog and who knows, maybe you'll win this month's RAK or be our next guest designer!! And if you want to see what the other designers made, hop on over to the Dutch Dares' blog!!

And now I'm going to try something the mailman (uh, I mean mailperson) just delivered .... this:

Doesn't this look like fun??? I never ever order something from a shopping chanel on tv, but when I saw this I relented .... I love baking muffins and cakes, but I'm an "easy" kind of person and don't want to bother too much and this looked  sooooo simple on tv. Can't wait to see if it's really as simple as it looked (probably not, LOL).

This is it for now! Thanks for visiting my blog and would love to read your comments!!
Hugs,
Monique

Guest Designer "The Studio Challenges" part II

I really don't know where the time went!! My last blogpost is from 12 days ago! So sorry! I'll try and catch up in the next few days or so....

Let me start with this layout I created for the 2nd challenge of "The Studio Challenges" for which I'm the Guest Designer this month.

The challenge is "create a layout using a song". As I have so many photos of New York AND this song is my favorite song right now, I chose "Empire State of Mind" from Alicia Keys.

Here's what I made:

I decided to use some of my old October Afternoon stash (Road Map) for this page. As I really loved that line (and still do) I bought way too much of it .... feels good to finally use it!
Here are some close-ups:

Thanks Jules for letting me be this month's Guest Designer! I loved it!!!

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

Doodlebug Button Home Decor!

Last Tuesday it was my turn for Doodlebug's "Tuesday Tutorial" and I chose to do this fun home decor project. 

People who know me, know I love buttons! And Doodlebug has buttons …. LOTS of buttons! In all shapes & sizes & colors! To avoid hoarding them (that’s what I do when I love something really bad) I decided to create a tutorial around them. So, here’s what I made: a button heart frame!

Here’s how I did it:

1. Gather your supplies: lots and lots of those fun, brightly colored Doodlebug buttons, a piece of fabric, an embroidery ring, a heart shaped template, a pencil and a photo frame.

2. Place your fabric between the two embroidery rings (using an embroidery ring ensures that the fabric stays even and flat and won’t pull to one side because you sew on it). Make sure you leave enough fabric on all the sides, because you’ll need enough fabric later, to fold around the insert of the photo frame.

3. Take your heart shaped template, place it on the fabric and use a (fabric) pencil to draw around (or on the inside of) the template.

4. Start sewing you buttons on the fabric. I used short threads to adhere only 3 or 4 buttons with one thread, so if ever the thread breaks not ALL buttons will fall off!

5.  Once you’re done sewing all the buttons on your fabric, remove the embroidery ring, place the fabric upside down on your work area and place the insert of the photo frame on the back. Fold the excess fabric over back of the insert, add glue to make sure the fabric won’t shift and place inside the frame.

6. Turn the frame around to add a title. I used Doodlebug’s Shin-Dig alpha stickers, which adhere perfectly to the fabric. To decide where to place the title, I stuck the letter stickers on my see-through ruler, which I then held over my work to see how it looked.

7. And this is how the frame looks in my living room!

Hope you like it! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

You know what I would really LOVE? That, if you like this project, you hop over to my blogpost on Doodlebug's blog and tell them! (so they know they haven't made a "mistake" by choosing me for their team ... :) ).

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and I hope you have a happy Easter!

Hugs,

Monique