Dream - The Cut Shoppe

Yesterday, my summer layout featuring the "Rosey Posey" cut file was up on The Cut Shoppe's blog. In case you missed it, I'm sharing it here too. I adore the warm summer days we're having right now. Not because I love the high temperatures (not at all!), but because of the fun summer photos I can finally take! The Netherlands are famous for their grey skies and that doesn't make for great photos. Having said that, I have to admit that this photo was taken in Greece, lol.

I adore the Rosey Posey cut file I used for this page! I cut it from a sheet of white cardstock and added a bit of light pink Gelatos mixed with water. 

For my layout I used the "Shine" collection from Maggie Holmes. I love the colors and all the embellishments in this collection. The "open" flower, leaves & heart die-cuts match this cut file to a tee! 

With some machine stitching and a few color shine drops my page was done!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope I gave you a bit of inspiration to scrap those summer photos! For more awesome cut files, please hop over to The Cut Shoppe Etsy Store! 

Wishing you a fab week! 

xxx

Monique

& Here Comes The Sun - Pretty Little Studio

Hi everyone, a few days ago I shared this summer layout created with the fabulous new collection “Here Comes The Sun“ on Pretty Little Studio's blog and I thought I'd share it here as well.

I adore the soft water colors in this collection and decided to give them a try myself! I started with a sheet of white cardstock and pink and yellow gelatos. I rubbed them both on a craft sheet, added a bit of water and using a plastic bag I transferred it onto my cardstock. My kids watched in wonder at what I was doing (I was a bit apprehensive too, as I had never done it this way) but we all loved the result! Definitely worth repeating!

The Pinterest photo for today was PERFECT for the “Here Comes The Sun” collection: the summer feeling, the colors and of course, the flamingo!

I used a photo of my daughter on a Greek beach from our last vacation last month:

And here are a few close-ups: I just love all the Pretty Little Studio gold die-cuts, like this mini ampersand:

Flair buttons are still one of my favorite embellishments! (but I find it hard to photograph them) … and look at that fun little ice cream die-cut! Isn’t it cute?! And because Greece was definitely one of our “dream vacations” I picked this 3×4 card.

Also love the little word stickers belonging to this collection!

And a close-up of the flamingo die-cut. I used the smaller size, but the large flamingo is adorable too!

PLS Products Used:

• Pretty Please, Here Comes The Sun collection: Patterned Paper:  Paper Pack Summer Party 8×8, Tiny Hearts Gold Metallic, Yummy Medley, Miss You Much, Sunrise, Higher; Die-Cuts: Here Comes The Sun, Ampersand Gold Mini; Flair: Heart You; Stickers: Here Comes The Sun – Clear, Think Positive; Journaling: High 5 – 3×4.

Thank you so much for stopping by our blog to take a peek at my project!

Have a great day!
Monique

Scraptastic Sketchy Thursday!

Yes, it's that time again ... Sketchy Thursday at Scraptastic Club!! And a fun sketch we had!! Look:

Not your average sketch, right?! I chose to use the June Wipeout kit and add-on once more as I still had so many tickets, stickers etc. left and those were just what I needed! Here's my take: 

I grouped the colors together, which resulted in a kind of a rainbow effect. Here are a few close-ups:

Can't wait to hear what you think! Thanks for stopping by and have a fab day! 

xxx

Monique

Doodlebug Kids Craft Challenge

Hello friends!! Today I'm sharing a fun "back to school" Kids Craft project on Doodlebug's blog. In about 2 weeks time the summer vacation will be over and my youngest will have to go back to school. Luckily he loves school and he can't wait to see all his friends again so he has no problem with that! When I suggested that maybe we could decorate some of his school stuff he happily agreed.

Here's what we did: we decorated a little notebook, a few of his pencils & the pencil pot and we created a key hanger for his bicycle key. 

What we mostly used were the super fun washi tapes. We had a bunch of white pencils & a glass (milk) jar we wanted to brighten up. We covered the pencils with washi tapes (some completely, some partly). The glass jar got only a few strips of washi tape and a tag with my son's initials, which we adhered with a piece of chunky twine. 

To create the key ring we crocheted a little chain using chunky twine and adhered a button and a brad (the pins on the back of the brad are easily folded inwards). On another piece of (thin) Doodle twine we threaded a piece of a pixie and again some beautiful boutique buttons:

Last but not least we decorated a little notebook, again with the use of the colorful washi tapes:

I thought that it would be fun to show you how we created the washi heart for the front of the notebook: 

1. Fold a piece of white printer paper in two and cut out half a heart. 

2. Fold the heart open, place on a cutting mat and randomly adhere strips of washi tape over it. 

3. Lift the heart of the cutting mat, turn around and cut around the paper heart using a pair of scissors. 

4. Here's your washi heart! Adhere to notebook! 

Decorate the rest of the cover of the notebook with twine, buttons, die-cuts, sprinkles and stickers and you're done! I hope I gave you some inspiration for a (rainy) afternoon crafting with the kids! 

Thank you so much for stopping by and happy crafting!

xoxo

Monique

Geometric Shaped Gift Boxes - Pebbles

Hi everyone, today I thought I would share my Pebbles “Warm & Cozy” gift box set with you. I don’t know about you, but I never have enough gift boxes (even as I’m writing this blog post I’ve already given two of the three away!). When I saw the new “Warm & Cozy” collection, I couldn’t wait to dig in! I found the warm colors and all the different patterns so very beautiful! And because I quickly needed two thank you gifts for neighbors who had looked after my house when we were on vacation, I decided to create these quick, yet beautiful gift boxes.

As we’re featuring “geometric” shapes on the blog this week I decided to create the boxes in three different geometric shapes: a triangle (yellow), a septagon (red) and a octagon (blue) shaped box. I chose three different colors cardstock, three different sheets of patterned paper (two of them are double-sided that’s why you see five in the photo), a few chipboard leaves, some die-cut flowers, stickers, Thickers and some twine to the embellish the boxes:

For the base of the boxes I chose a digital cut file from the Silhouette store and used my Silhouette Cameo to cut them (bottom right photo). Before assembling the boxes I adhered all the little pieces of paper for the sides and top of the boxes first as this is much easier to do this when the boxes are still lying flat on the table! In case you’re wondering what the sizes of the boxes are, the cut file of the bottom of the blue box fitted exactly on a 12″x 12″ cardstock sheet as did the bottom of the yellow box. The red one is a bit smaller and was cut from a 11″x 11″cardstock sheet.

Next I folded and glued the boxes together and when I was finished they looked like this:

Then came the fun part: the embellishing of the boxes. The “Warm & Cozy” collection has so many beautiful chipboards and die-cuts I had a hard time choosing just a few. I decided on a uniform look and chose mainly leaves and flowers and a bit of twine for the top of all three boxes. Each “pile” of embellishments consists of: two chipboard leaves with a colored die-cut leave on top, then a piece of twine and right on top a large flower die-cut.

Last but not least came the choosing of the sentiment. Because I wasn’t quite sure which box I was going to give to whom I decided on “neutral” sentiments. For the triangle shaped box I chose a round “hi” sticker from the cardstock sticker pack:

For the octagon shaped box a “congrats” cardstock sticker:

For the septagon shaped box I used gold foil foam Thickers to add “Hi!”:

The last part was fun too: giving away two of the boxes! I filled the boxes with a typical Dutch treat: a bag of “stroopwafels” and brought them over to two of my neighbors. I don’t know what they liked best: the stroopwafels or the boxes, lol!

Supplies:
Warm & Cozy Arrows (733399)
Warm & Cozy Sprigs (733401)
Warm & Cozy Rose Gold Foiled Paper (733394)
Warm & Cozy Cardstock Stickers (733395)
Warm & Cozy Ephemera (733389)
Warm & Cozy Printed Chipboard Shapes (733393)
Baker’s Twine (732897)
American Crafts Gold Foil Foam Letter Stickers (733390)

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Wishing you happy crafting!
xoxo
Monique

Love The Beach - The Cut Shoppe

Hello everyone, today I wanted to share a layout I created for The Cut Shoppe! For this page I chose the "Everyday Essentials" cut file which I adore! Not only because there are so many different images included in this one cut file, but also because the cut file is so versatile! For my layout I only used the word "love" and a photo from out summer vacation last month. The word "love" became part of my layout title: "love the beach".

Here's what I created: 

Here's the "Everyday Essentials" cut file I used: 

I adhered different sheets of patterned paper behind every letter of the cut file and next I embellished the letters as well. Love those puffy sun glasses from Elle's Studio. (All the papers and embellishments I used are from the Scraptastic Club June Wipeout kit and add-on.)

Thanks so much for taking a peek at my project! And if you love this cut file then please hop over to The Cut Shoppe Etsy Store for many more amazing cut files! 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Until next time!

Stuck?! Sketches August 15 Sketch Reveal

It's mid August and that means time for a new sketch challenge on the Stuck?! Sketches blog! I've used the June Wipeout kit and add-on from Scraptastic Club to create this page of my daughter and youngest son in the pool in Greece last month:

And this is the sketch Laura designed: 

and a few close-ups:

And these are the sponsors for this sketch's prizes: 

If you decide to join in then please link up your layouts over in the sidebar on the Stuck?! Sketches blog by August 29th 2016 at midnight EST to be in the running for one of our prizes!   All prizes will be drawn randomly using Random.org to pick a number. 

By the way, did you see Laura is having a Design Team call?? For more details look HERE!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a happy day!

xxx

Monique

Doodlebug Smash-Up Challenge

Hi everyone! For Doodlebug I created this layout for the "Smash-Up" challenge. I really love this challenge, where we combine a "color" challenge with an "inspired by" challenge!

Ever since I can remember red has been my favorite color, so the choice for the "color" part of this challenge was easy, Doodlebug's "Ladybug" it would be! As for the other part of this challenge, the "inspired by" part, that turned out to be a lot harder. I have so many favorite Doodlebug projects that I had a hard time choosing just one, but in the end I decided on Kathy Skou's fabulous "2 Cute 2 Be Spooky" layout.

Here's what I created: a layout about my youngest son meeting his soccer idols. The colors of the soccer team are red/white: perfect for my Ladybug colors!

And this is the layout I chose from Kathy Skou (which I found here): 

I'm a huge fan of Kathy's work and this layout is no exception. I totally love the little squares with the fun embellishments and felt inspired straight away! I decided to flip the page, use a few more squares and (because I had so many photos I wanted to incorporate) to add a couple of photos to the squares. Here are a few close-ups:

And here's a close-up of the title using the "Simply Sweet" and the "Teensy Type" alphabet stickers.

For my layout I mostly used the "Sweet Things" collection, some "Kraft in Color", a bit of "Sprinkles Vellum" and lots of the "Petite Prints" papers. Last but not least I added some machine stitching and journaling and I was done!

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by my blog today! Wishing you a great day!

xoxo
Monique

Pebbles Birthday Cards

Hello everyone! Today my very first blog post as a DT member of Pebbles Inc. is up on their blog! I would love if you'd pop over and let me know what you think!

For today's blog post I created a set of three 4"x 6" birthday cards (birthday cards being the cards I use the very most) using the Birthday Wishes collection. I only had three 12x12 sheets of patterned paper left, but as they were all double sided and sported that extra strip of paper at the bottom of the sheet, I had more than enough. 

Here's what I created:

The cards are all very similar in design, yet I tried to give them all a little something the other cards don't have.

What they all have in common is the large sentiments adhered on a strip of paper. For the sentiment I used American Crafts Thickers (gold "Imprint"). What is different is for example the ladybug die-cut on the first card I made:

The second card I made has a piece of twine that the others don't have: 

And the third card has a little bow as opposed to the other two. 

I love creating cards and luckily the persons I send them to love getting handmade cards!

In the photo collage below I'm showing you how to create the little bow I made for the third card.
1.: I used a set of dies from American Crafts and a few leftover pieces of paper. Using the Big Shot machine I cut out all the parts and started assembling.
2.: For the top of the bow you need the largest piece of paper (left in photo 1.) and - with the right side up - fold both the left and right sides inwards and adhere in the middle with a glue dot or a bit of foam adhesive.
3.: Next you wind the little strip of paper (right in photo 1.) around the middle.
4.: Layer every item on top of each other and staple together and you're done! 

Super easy and really fun for a bit of extra dimension on your card!

Supplies:
Birthday Wishes Single-Sided Paper Pad 12"x12" (732581)
Birthday Wishes Happy Birthday Gold Rub Ons
Fun In The Sun Chips Die-Cut Shapes (732835)
Fun In The Sun Enamel Dots (732834)
Baker's Twine 50yd spool (BT36-6508)
American Crafts Thickers Gold Imprint
American Crafts Styleboard Bow Die Set

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Wishing you a great week!
Monique