You Are So Precious To Me - Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop plus GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to the Scrapping Our Stash Blog Hop

Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog! I hope you're enjoying the hop so far! If you've arrived here from the very talented Wendi you're in the right place! If not, you may want to go to the start of the hop: Juliana Michaels.

This is only the second time I'm joining in the "Scrapping Our Stash" blog hop and I really love it! I'm finally getting to use some of that huge stash of mine!

Here's what I created for today's hop, using the Cienna collection from Elle's Studio. When I bought this collection I loved it so much that I didn't want to use it, but now I've finally taken the step and pulled it out I kind of went overboard, lol. But, hey if I have to use my stash then nothing will stop me! Let me show you what I'm talking about ....

I love the result, but have to admit that because of all the cards/tickets/die-cuts etc. I used, I wouldn't be suprised if you can't find the photos anymore!

Here are a few close-ups:

GIVEAWAY!!

And just because I love giveaways I'm giving away the Echo Park Designer Die & Stamp Set "Little Lady":

To enter just leave a comment and become a follower of my blog, or let me know that you are already following.

This giveaway will remain open until 11:59 pm Wednesday May 4th!  I will announce one lucky winner on Thursday May 5. Open to everyone everywhere!

You've just reached the end of the hop and I hope you had fun hopping along! In case you're in doubt whether or not you've visited everyone's blogs, here's the entire blog hop list once more:

Juliana - start of the hop!
Katrina
Alison
Majken
Christine
Wendi
Monique - you're here!

Thank you so much for joining us this month and don't forget to check in again Thursday next week to see if you're the winner of my little giveaway!
 
xoxo
Monique

Scraptastic Club Sketchy Thursday!

Hi everyone! It's time for another Sketchy Thursday at Scraptastic Club! I used the March kit "Sweet Child O' Mine" (as my April kit is probably stuck in customs, sigh), but luckily I just love the March kit and as I ordered the extra add-on (both the boy and the girl add-on) I still have enough left for another couple of layouts! Here's what I did for the sketch today:

The kit is filled with Crate Paper's "Little You" collection and I adore all the die-cuts from the ephemera pack ... so I used as much as possible! Of course the kit also contains many Scraptastic Club exclusives like the background paper I used and the acrylic heart you see below: 

And here's the sketch we used:

If you want to see what the other design team members did with the sketch then just over to the Scraptastic Club blog! We would love for you to play along with the sketch, please tag us on social media so we can see how you use the sketch!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Be sure to stop by again tomorrow for the "Scrapping Our Stash" blog hop! 

xoxo

Monique

@ The Beach - Doodlebug

Good morning everyone and happy Kings Day to all the Dutchies! Today I want to share the layout that was up on Doodlebug's blog yesterday, created with their "Under The Sea" collection. What I adore most in this collection (apart from the papers of course) are the super fun enamel shape sprinkles! I wanted to use lots of them on my page and decided to start my page with this hearts cut file (from The Cut Shoppe) as my background so I could fill the hearts with lots of little embellishments, like the enamel shape sprinkles and the (word) stickers.

Next I chose this photo of my daughter on a Greek beach, just because I love the red sun beds next to her so much! I had to use PhotoShop to get rid of the dark shadows on her face, but I think I managed that quite well. At the time when I took this photo my photography skills were seriously lacking. 

Now about those enamel shape sprinkles I love so much! How about this pink whale?! Isn't she adorable?!

Or how about Mr Krabs? and that little green fish? So cute!!

I also love this sweet mermaid doodle-pop and decided she needed a place on my layout too. 

For the title I used Doodlebug's bubblegum "Skinny" alphabet stickers (Bubblegum being my favorite Doodlebug color!): 

I finished my page with some drops of white color mist and some machine stitching.

Supplies:
Under The Sea Shape Sprinkles
Under The Sea This & That Sticker
Under The Sea Icons Sticker
Under The Sea Fancy Frills Sticker
Pretty Polka Dots Washi Tape
Girl Assortment Matte Sprinkles
Mini Mermaid Doodle-Pops
Under The Sea Swiss Dot Petite Print Assortment Pack
Under The Sea Patterned Paper Beach Treasures
Under The Sea Patterned Paper Whales Tales
Under The Sea Patterned Paper Magical Things
Bubblegum Skinny CS Stickers

Hope you like it! Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! 

Monique

Sweet Little Baby - Scraptastic Club

Hey everyone! Last week with had the monthly subscriber challenge on Scraptastic Club's blog, in which the Scraptastic Club subscribers issue a challenge to the design team members.

This month, the design team was challenged to use and/or highlight the acrylic shapes in their projects. I used the March Sweet Child O’ Mine kit and the Boys Add-On. The acrylic hearts on my layout are from the Sweet Child O’ Mine main kit as well as from previous kits.

The acrylics give a fun extra dimension to all kinds of projects and are easily adhered with i.e. Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue.

Really loving all the papers, stickers and other embellishments from Crate Paper's "Little You" collection!

For more Scraptastic Club projects using acrylics, just hop over to the blog!

Thank you so much for stopping by!! Have a great weekend!
xoxo
Monique

Winter - Pretty Little Studio

Hey everyone! I've got a Pretty Little Studio layout to show you I almost forgot to share here. It's a layout with photos of all three of my kids. The last time it was possible for us to ice skate on the ponds & ditches in our neighbourhood was 4 years ago and every Winter the kids are wishing for another cold spell so they can do it again. As it didn’t happen this Winter either I’m still scrapping photos from 2012. I adore the Wonderland collection with it’s soft colors and didn’t mind to scrap these old photos at all!!

I love the die-cuts of the little houses as they resemble the houses in our city center to a tee!

One of my very favorite embellishments: flair buttons! and the flairs from Pretty Little Studio are the best of all!

Aren’t the clear words in this collection fabulous?! I could use these on every single project of mine!

PLS Products Used: Wonderland collection: paper: Wonderland 8 x 8 pack, Frosty, Fireplace, Let It Snow Gray; clear: Snow Cream Word Art; cut-aparts; mini word First Snow; die-cuts: Sparkle City, ; flair: Hot Cocoa; Journaling Cards: Winter Song; Tabs: Frosty; Vellum; vellum tape: Snow Angel.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!!  Have a great day!

xoxo

Monique

Summer Love - Imaginisce

For today's blog post on Imaginisce's blog I created another layout using the "Sunny" collection. I just can't get enough of the colors and fun elements of this collection.

I started my page with a huge background cut file (from The Cut Shoppe) and arranged my photos in a way I could still see some of the text of the cut file. It wasn't necessary to see everything but I definitely wanted the first and last word to show.

Next I chose a patterned paper for the background and thought this yellow/white striped paper was just perfect for a Summers page. I cut off half an inch on two sides and glued it on white cardstock.  I chose some pink watercolor paint and painted a strip right in the middle and added some drops of paint as well. Once that had dried I adhered the cut file and two strips of patterned paper at the top en bottom of my page and machine stitched everything.

I proceeded by matting my photos and adhering them the way I liked. I added die-cuts, stickers and wood veneers and a date stamp and was done!

I adore the flamingo die-cut and thought it was fun to give him a hat, lol!

I used some of the wood veneers from Imaginisce's Happy Traveler collection.

Love the clear die-cuts in the ephemera pack. I adhered them with little staples.

Supplies:
Imaginisce: patterned papers, die-cut shapes, word strip stickers, sticker stacker (Sunny collection), wood veneers (Happy Traveler). American Crafts: cardstock. Other: cut file: The Cut Shoppe.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by my blog today!
xoxo
Monique

Stuck?! Sketches - Mid Month Sketch Challenge

It's mid April and that means time for the mid month challenge at Stuck?! Sketches!! I used Pebbles' Everyday collection and a photo of my three kids, taken on the Steamboat Natchez in New Orleans last May: 

This is the sketch Laura designed for us: 

As you can see I stayed close to the sketch when I created my page as I really liked the design of this one. 

What I love about this sketch that I could use so many different patterned papers from the Pebbles 12x12 paper pad I bought. I love all of the papers in this collection and had a hard time choosing although any combination would have been fine. 

  

I also really love the die-cuts and tags that belong to this collection like the gold branch with little leaves and the gold butterflies. 

I've also used a few bits and pieces that were lying on my desk and didn't belong to this collection, like the, huge brad and the chipboard pieces..... 

The watercolor die-cut I used for my title is from Dear Lizzy's Happy Place: 

Once I had adhered everything I added some machine stitching and a few drops of Prima's gold Color Bloom and some enamel dots and I was done!

If you like the sketch too, then maybe you could join us at Stuck?! Sketches and give it a try too. We're having two fun sponsors offering prizes to two lucky scrappers!

Lindy's Stamp Gang

ScrapMatts

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and don't forget to check out the gorgeous pages from the other design team members on the Stuck?! Sketches blog! 

xoxo

Monique

LOVE YOU - Doodlebug

TGIF! I love that I have Friday's off, so my weekend starts early. I start the day aqua jogging with two of my friends who happen to live in the same street and since the pool is at the end of our street we walk there. After aqua jogging we usually have coffee together for about an hour. Next I clean my house a bit and at 12.00 hr I collect my youngest from school so we can have lunch together instead of him staying at school during lunch hour. The afternoon I usually spend scrapbooking or reading, my favorite pastime, until 3 pm when the kids start arriving home again. Then we have afternoon tea (or hot chocolate) and I've got to start thinking about grocery shopping and what we'll eat in the evening and if maybe there's time for me to hop over to a LSS to do some scrapbook shopping as well (the store's open on Friday evening). All in all, my favorite day of the week!

And now I thought I'd share this Doodlebug layout I created using their "Anchors Aweigh" collection. It featured on Doodlebug's blog earlier this week so it's entirely possible you've already seen it.

Once in a while I love using watercolor paints on my projects and so it happened that when I started on this page I pulled out my children's watercolor paint box and got messy. Once the paper had dried (and I had tried to flatten it again) I began thinking about what next. I had this adorable photo of my hubby and our oldest son which I definitely wanted to use. As I love large titles on my layouts I decided to go look for one and found this "love you" cut file, which I really liked.

I loved the colors of the "New Adventure" paper and decided to use it to cut the title from. The angle of the title determined the design of the rest of my page and I just went with it. I matted the photo, added some stickers and flags and placed the lot in the corner of the title. 

Next I added the three squares with the little ships which I cut from the "Buoy O' Buoy" paper and I added the sticker of the sea gull on top of the title. Isn't he adorable?

Last but not least I added the fancy frills and the names & date and I was done!

Supplies:

Anchors Aweigh Icons Sticker

Anchors Aweigh Fancy Frills Sticker

Anchors Aweigh This and That Sticker

Anchors Aweigh Patterned Paper New Adventure

Anchors Aweigh Patterned Paper Buoy O' Buoy

Anchors Aweigh Patterned Paper Ships Ahoy

Anchors Aweigh Patterned Paper Nautical Plaid

Other: cut file: Silhouette Store, Corner Phrase #7453

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! Wishing you a wonderful day! 

Monique

Imaginisce Travel Journal & Planner Pages

Hi everyone! Today I thought I would share my Imaginisce travel journal. A few weeks ago I created a travel clipboard (which you can find on Imaginisce's blog here). While I was busy decorating that clipboard, I thought it would be really nice to have a travel journal as well, which I could then bring with me when we go on vacation. As I really adore Imaginisce's Sunny collection I decided to use it to decorate a plain kraft notebook I had lying on my desk and turn it into this fun & bright travel journal:

Isn't it awesome? The happy colors and pretty designs are just so perfect to use for a travel journal, like for example these die-cuts:

I used Imaginisce's I-Rock tool to add some beautiful pink metallic glam rock hearts:

And I also used Imaginisce's I-Magicut Ribbon Cutter & Sealer to cut and secure the ribbons I used to decorate the wire on the side of my journal, so they wouldn't start fraying while traveling.

And now I can't wait to go on vacation and use this journal every day to write down all of our adventures!

Supplies:
Imaginisce: patterned papers, die-cut shapes, alphabet stickers, word strip stickers (Sunny collection). glam rocks. Tools: Imaginisce I-Magicut Ribbon Cutter & Sealer, Imaginisce's I-Rock tool.

And next I've got another little project I would really like to share. It's a week in my planner which I decorated with little bits and pieces from the Sunny collection as well. Even though I decorated the first week of March and used a summer (!) collection, I'm really happy with the result.

It so happens that after weeks of grey and cold weather here in The Netherlands, the sun was finally peeking through the clouds and all of a sudden I only wanted to use summer scrapbook items for my planner!

The stamps in this collection are SO fun for decorating your planner pages. Where I live everyone uses his/her bike every day, so the bike stamp had to be included!! But also the camera and the sentiment stamp are just great! 

And what I also love to use for my planner pages are those strips of paper you find at the bottom of each of the patterned papers in this collection. I think my favorite is the strip of paper with the row of camera's! 

Supplies:
Imaginisce: patterned papers, die-cut shapes, word strip stickers, stamps (Sunny collection).

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by my blog today! Hope you enjoyed my projects.
xoxo
Monique