Sharing

This bird called a 'Hop' in Dutch (anybody help me with its name in English?) was walking around in our garden while the cat was just watching it from the window sill! It is a beautiful bird with a lovely calling voice.



As soon as the sun comes out these little lizards are crawling all the outside walls. They are very quick in their movements!




I will be away for a week in the Netherlands with DH. Thanks Sue for asking about our son Joël - he is still doing very well. He was home last week for half term and this weekend he will be baptized. DH René will be baptizing him together with his Bible teacher from the Church. It is going to be a big event as we have invited lots of friends who we haven't seen for years. See you again soon.

New Christmas Basic grey papers

A Christmas card I made with the new papers from Basic grey called WASSAIL. Actually, I think these are gorgeous papers for Christmas and was so glad that the French on-line stores had them in stock already!!



I have been looking in our home for these buttons for ages - as you know we have a handicapped son (Down's syndroom) and at the moment he has a manic behavior of tidying up - everything thats laying around gets stuffed into and behind cupboards, in drawers, under and behind the sofa etc. etc. We are always looking everywhere for our things at the moment and it can be very annoying!!
I found these buttons, which are very old, in a rusty old tin at a garage sale. I asked the lady if she had some lace but apparantly that was sold earlier in the morning - a whole box full for five euros - oh well - can't have it all!!

A couple of grid cards

It's not a secret that I love this type of creative work and as it is the most relaxing for me to do, together with collage, I really love experimenting when I can and especially with new stamps or when the scrap basket needs a good sort out!

RAK and challenge

The theme at 'This Thursday, its all about' is Thrown a curve - you can use that as a title or you can use anything that curves eg arches, arcs, circles, ovals, waves, even squiggles.
For my card I used some stamps I received as a RAK from Sue at Suzz'z Stamping spot from Inkadinkado! Thanks once again Sue - they are fabulous stamps!
The PP is a gift-page from a Take Ten magazine.

J'adore!

My brother-in-law and family are over for a week as it's half term for the kids and they brought me a lovely card mag from Holland. Such an inspiring mag that I got lots of lovely ideas from. Here is one idea I got for a layout. It fits the challenge this week on the blog at Hero Arts where you have to make cards with 'three's' - three inks, three stamps, three colours etc. etc.
I also got lucky and found a SU polka dot stamp on ebay - I was the only bidder so got it for a couple of dollars (postage was cheap too!!).



This picture shows the design block from Hero Arts which I chose as part of my prize I won for an earlier challenge. It is absolutely fantastic - great to work with. I have lots of ideas with this one!
You can also see the polka dot stamp - it is from 1997, but is as new!

Art from your heart

I saw this challenge announcement on the blog 'This thursday' over on Barbara's blog (Suncatcher) and knew which card I would enter for this as it really came from my heart as it is my favourite style of cardmaking - collage.

Here is the blog where the challenge is featured.

Some vintage cards

A couple of vintage cards which I enjoyed making. I really went to town with the ink pad and a sponge on the top card. I am always too careful but I thought, well what the heck for once and actually it went o.k. If I look at the second card, the lace looks so bare. The green holly image was not intentional, it was on the scrap piece I just happened to pull out and I thought it fitted - not going to be too perfect on my next vintage cards... lol.



Actually I never plan my cards - all I have is the image to start with and then I start building around it with anything my eye catches... if it doesn't fit, I take another piece etc.
Thanks to Nancy Dooren from The Vintage Stamper for her generous free images!

Basic Grey

The Hero Arts blog has a great theme this week of featuring a different patterned paper company every day. Yesterday it was Basic Grey paper; one of my all-time faves! BUT, recently I have not been so inspired with a couple of pads I bought, namely 'Sugered' and 'Sultan'. But I thought I would give them another try with the theme 'Christmas'. I am so glad I held on to the little snowflake embellishments I've used on these cards, because I couldn't seem to find any use for them last year!

The Vintage Veranda & Hero Arts Masculine challenge

Via Louise I heard about this new site and as I love vintage I will pop over now and again when time allows! Go have a look!
This is a card I posted on there, with an ATC.



These cards I posted for the challenge on making a masculine card on the Hero Arts website for this week. I NEVER make these but now I rather like too! I think I believed that men didn't like receiving cards but my DH told me I was completely wrong and that men DO like receiving cards!! Actually they can be made in a real rough and tumble way..

I just stapled the corrugated paper to the card stock after I had sewn the button over the tag to keep it in place on the second card. For the first card I just happened to have blue corrugated paper stacked away as I didn't think it would ever come in handy, but it has.

Have a great weekend!

Grid cards

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments on my grid cards! If you decide to make one please send me a link, I would love to see your recycled cards!

Could not resist trying a vintage one... as I got a 'coup d'inspiration'! I have lots of loose papers in my craft basket with stamp images that didn't get a place on a project for one reason or another - so glad I don't throw anything away, and I just stamped on part of the image and pulled them together in a grid. I just love doing this!

Another project is:

A set of Christmas tags, reserved for special parcels.

More recycled cards

Back again with more ideas. The card above is a scrap card, probably the easiest and quickest I have done and suitable for Christmas with a very strong message. These cards are quick and easy to make! It is about 5x5 inches, as are the cards below.

But first I have to share something that always impresses me about God. At the end of June I sent a package to Andi (RrlScrapGal) as I was having a clear out of my craft supplies. The package didn't arrive. I was disappointed as I had done everything possible (even filled in a custom's form which I often forget and the package arrives anyway) to make sure she got it. Three months had passed and just recently I perceived a heart voice questioning me if I had prayed for the package to arrive. I love the fact that God always prods me in the direction of exercizing my faith! So I prayed! Just yesterday I heard that the package had arrived - all in one piece too! I am awesomely amazed at how delicate prayer is. I have at times lost my faith in prayer and God has never forced or disciplined me about it - look how the Father pulls His children in love to pick up prayer issues and really believe Him for them. OK this is a small detail in life, but I believe God wants us to pray for EVERYTHING! OK point made.
Another testimony, I just have to tell you this - a while ago I had lost my camera and felt sure I had left it in the last hotel we were at. Three days passed and I was whining about my beloved camera.... until my DH says 'Have you prayed for it' - well - no, in fact I hadn't.... just 20 minutes later I was rummaging in a craft box and my eye fell on it just sitting there on the shelf - I must have walked past several hundred times... YES I BELIEVE IN PRAYER - all sorts - for everything in life, things that surround me, things that don't surround me directly but need it! What a challenge awaits us daily to trust the heavenly Father and to pray in Jesus Name!

So here are two more cards which have been recycled from last years Christmas cards. I stamped on them with a Joy for you definition stamp from Hero Arts.






Just rememberd these little Christmas tags that I recycled last year too.

Getting low on nice cards to recycle though - I will probably be attacking my birthday cards soon.... not the nice ones though!! LOL

Recycling idea!

I'm passing this idea on to you as it is early October and there is still time to make your Christmas cards.

This card is made by recycling the cards I received last year. These are the bought version from the shops which I always keep because there are loads of things that one can create with them!
I just stamp squares on the cards and cut them out - even better would be to punch out your squares (unfortunately I don't have a big square paper pucher yet).. ink up the edges and then make a puzzle with them to create your card front.

I will probably be adding to this post this week as I go along with other ideas.

SOF on Two Peas

Must be about two years now that I decided to decline the number of sites I posted on and just kept my blog and since recently the Hero Arts gallery. I love this gallery because it inspires me. Also, Hero Arts come out top of my list with their stamps ... they are the ones I choose again and again and feel a sense of achieving the results I wanted with them.


But, because of Suzz's blog and her advertising one of her challenges I couldn't resist joining in the SOF card making day on Two Peas. The top card is the one I made for her challenge which was to use a piece of jewelry or a special embellishment on your card. I found this flower in my jewelry box.


The above card is for Nancy's challenge to use lace on a holiday card.


This one is for the challenge of cutting out a stamped image for your card.


And the last one is for Deborah's challenge to make a card with a face.