Creative scrappers

I was so excited when I was picked to be a guest designer on the creative scrappers blogspot. Check out their blog for all the wonderful interpretations of the sketch!

here's mine..



Thanks for looking and have a merry christmas,

Merel

Finally..

Finally I finished my summer vacation mini album. The idea was to finish it during my vacation... I started and never finished ;) .
The idea for the album came from a Rusty Pickle class I took at Scrapaganza this year. The book has little flaps that open for journaling or more pictures.

Last week I finally had the last of the summer pictures develloped and here's the finished album..

Thanks for looking,





Merel

clean cut....for a change

Thomas loves his capri-sonne drink! I finally made some time last week to order some pictures. I didn't have any developped since our summer vacation! This picture of Thomas was in the bunch aswell.

Lately my lay outs have been a ton of work. I finished this one in about 5 minutes! It felt wonderful! I love how fresh and clean cut it looks.

Thanks for looking!

Merel

'T is the season...

Finally some time to post on my blog...

In between Sinterklaas ( a dutch celebration somewhat like christmas) and a huge stomach flu I've had no time to scrap or post..

I've been working on some christmas stuff. I just love all the christmas papers this year! The hanging cones will be teachers pressents filled with chocolate for christmas (only 4 more to go...). I pimped my christmas standard to a new bling level. I found this cute reindeer set bu K@company co cute!! I'll be adding decorations to it as soon as all the boxes come out with the christmas decorations.

I was also picked to be a guest designer on the creative scrappers blog. I got a beautiful sketch to work with and started my project (enter stomach bug and my project came to a halt..) It will be another two weeks before you can find my lay out there!

Thanks for looking, as always..

Merel

It's been a while

Nothing scrappy to show you yet.. everything is drying now so I will try to make pictures during the weekend.

Last week I worked at the crea weekend in Rijswijk (a scrapbooking and crafts convention). Friday was soooo cold that Anne and I actually used our heatguns to warm ourselves!!! Sunday was bussy and warm! It was so much fun talking and seeing so many people and the workshops that we gave were a hit aswell!

Here are some pictures!

Nothing much has come out of my hands since the weekend as I'm completely nackered and have had a migraine for three days. I did finish some christmas stuff though which I will be posting over the weekend!

Merel

Elburg 08

Finally some time for a lay out...

I did a ton of distressing on this lo! I stamped, embossed, snowed, distressed, pearled, crackled.. (it took a while...;))
I've been wanting to do some lacing on a lo, so I finally did it on this one..

The flower at the bottom is a regular flower, on which I smeared some Aleens real snow.

Some details..







Thanks for looking!

Merel

mini canvas

I made this cute little mini canvas album for the Scrapangels workshops. I just love that velvet paper! It makes me want to pet the album all day!! :lol:


I keep wanting to do a lay out, but I've been bussy cutting the workshops for the crea weekend in Rijswijk next week ( a pretty big scrapbooking convention). Anne and I will be teaching three different workshops during three fun filled days for Scrapangels. I'm so looking foreward to it, but it's also a ton of work!
Hoping to get a lay out done during the weekend!



Have a great weekend!

Merel

2009

We made this calenderbook (agenda) for next year.. 40 people took this workshop class, so now that we're finished teaching it, I can finally show it a bit more.

I'll add pictures to the pages as the year goes along, so I'll always have recent pictures of the boys..

Thanks for looking,

Merel

An award!

I'm so excited my bloggie friend (and kiwi in excile... ) Ruth a.k.a. altered geisha gave me the Artey Pico award! Ruth makes wonderful lay outs and altered projects (check out her advent calender..) >


The RULES for presenting this sought after Award are:


1. Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.
3. Each award winner (upon acceptance) should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4. Link to the Arte y pico blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. Show these rules.



The five winners I have chosen are:



1) Paulien (paulienvandenbosch), she makes amazing cards and is a true inspiration.
2) Tracey (running with scissors) tracey makes gorgeous lay outs at a speedy pace, so there's always something new to look for.
3) Beate (beatesverden) I always love to visit her blog and find some new inspiration
4) Ingvild (spinnvild) she just makes jaw dropping gorgeous lay outs.
5) Irene (scrapperlicious), I think Irene is a ranger pioneer!! She gives wonderful tutorials and makes gorgeous lay outs using beautiful techniques. (it's because of her that I now actually use my distress inks...)

So check out these wonderful artists at there blogs... I don't think that I ever succeeded in using links in my blog so if there are no links please check out my fave blogs and you will find them all there!

Merel

Babe watch

I love this action shot of Wouter on our vacation!!! He looks like he belongs in Baywatch (except for th efact that he can't swim) Watch out David Hasselhoff!

I used tons of ranger distressing inks, and crackle accents from Ranger, flowers are storebrand, prima say it with swirl bling (cut in pieces) design paper is by K&comp. UTE gold embossing powder.

Thanks for looking!

Merel

a little sneakpeak

Ok.. so I couldn't hold myself back and I ended up finishing the candle box, that gave me the eye splinter... I just LOVE how it came out! It's gonna be a day workshop in the new year, since we're booked up for this year. Looking foreward to it already though!

Thanks for looking!


Merel

a dangerous hobby

Nothing to share today...picturewise or scrapwise... I was working on a new workshop yesterday when I rubbed a splinter in my eye... That hurts!!!! It sure loved my eye because it didn't want to come out!!
The neighbour was kind enough to drive me to the docter. She told me not to be scared but (!@#!*) she was going to turn my eyelid inside out! Yikes, forget the eye, I nearly suffered a heart attaque right there..

It wasn't that bad and she sedaded (is that the word?) my eye which felt really good! I spend the night in a darkroom with my eye closed!

Now I can see but the eye is still very irritated (so is the rest of my personality)

Earlier this week I put a crafters knife in my finger... They say bad things come in three, so I'm wondering what the third scrapping injury will be.... Please let it be a papercut! (lol)

Merel

Is anyone going to listen to my story

I was blog-hopping the other day (I always love the places I end up) when I found a new challenge blog called scrapping across the universe (see my link list) they have a wonderful challenge up that seemed to fit a picture of Max perfectly.

Max always has a story to tell... He wakes up in the morning talking and he even talks himself to sleep at night...

The pp is Basic Grey, scribble scrabble, rub ons are basic grey, the lower letters are by Thickers, the other ones are storebrand, the butterfly is heidi swapp.


Thanks for looking!

Merel

Fristi

Thomas LOVES Fristi! (a yoghurt drink) I lovethis picture of him drinking it straight out of the bottle!

The cut out figures are made with the cricut (home decoration cart) The flowers are prima. Stickles are by ranger. Paper is by making memories.

Thanks for looking!

Merel

a card..

I made this card with the left-overs from my last lay out.

I've been so bussy with non-scrapbooking stuff the last week, so the card was a welcome project. I'm not really a card maker, but the papers were perfect for a card.




I've been teaching quite a few workshops for scrapangels and we've got a big one comming up, so we're bussy preparing for those aswell! My scraproom looks like a warehouse.. workshop packages everywhere.. I think I have well over a hundred workshop packages in my scraproom... Yikes! We haven't even started on the christmas workshop yet.... (got a little time before then...lol)



Thanks for looking!

Merel

My boys

Still working away those summervacation pics...

I saw this beautiful sketch on creative scrappers blog, made by Liz Weber.

Here's my take..



The design paper is by Jenni Bowlin, grungeboard swirl by Tim Holz.

Check out the www.creativescrappers.blogspot.com blogspot. They have beautiful work there!

Thanks for looking!

Merel

Ella

I usually don't get to play with pink and purple lay outs. That's what I get for having three boys! Luckily I have a few nieces that I can "borrow". When I saw this beautiful Basic grey paper I just had to get it!

The chipboard border was made with the cuttlebug, the clock is Heidi Swapp, copper stickles and the paper is by Basic Grey (eva)

Thanls for looking!

Merel

so this is christmas....

Ok.. so the temperature today has been pretty wonderful here, sunshine all day long! Great weather to concentrate on a christmas workshop!!!!

My friend Anne and I had a pretty good idea of what we were going to make and we are just thrilled with the outcome! Little bits and pieces will still be added, so we won't give it all away!

We're teaching this workshop in a huge workshoproom, all day long! We've done these big workshops there before and it's always so much fun. If you would like to register for this workshop just hope on over to our scrapangels site and send us an email.

Thanks for looking!

Merel

Sweet @ 6

I've been completely caught up in preparing workshop packages! At the moment I think I have about a hundred ready to go.. and still more to do! It's all fun though. I hurt my back in the beginning of the week while walking with my grandmother who's in a wheelchair. Sidewalks are much higher than you would think! It's staring to feel a little better now, so I'm hopeful!
Eventhough I'm up to my ears in our Christmas workshop I have a lay out to share.

My oldest son (6) refuses to look normal in a picture. I've now started to bribe him, to smile normal just for a few shots. Too bad for him he had to be born in a scrappy family!
This shot was taken in the beginning of summer and I've used it before, but I love that missing tooth smile!

I was inspired by Tracey's lay out (RUNNING WITH SCISSORS) and used a die cut paper I had to make a new one that fitted my pages.
The paper is SEI, loads of Ranger distress ink and check out the gorgeous pin I found!

Thanks for looking and have a fabulous weekend!

Merel

Artist

These pictures were taken on Thomas' first day of pre-school.

He loves to paint and color there (for some reason not at home??). His teacher was kind enough to pass these pics on to me..

The papers are from dreamstreet, I thought the green color was a nice change. The flowers are from petaloo, The swirl was made out of foam with a sizzix swirl. The envelope was also cut with the sissix, inside is a little note I wrote for Thomas, I won't embarress him (or me) by sharing it with the world!!

Thanks for looking!

Merel

New Room...new inspiration!

I'm so happy in my new scrap room... I know where everything is and I can reach it.. (I used to just pick from the top of the pile...)

So...no pre-cutting workshops today..instead I finaly scrapped a lay out of my ds with his little friend. Look at those cute little chubby cheeks!

So for this lay out I used Bo Bunny paper, from the beautiful life collection, thickers for the title, pearl ex, loads of ranger distress inks, heidi swapp mask, rub ons from me and my big ideas, die cuts are also from bo bunny. I made the scalloped edge using my fiskars punch (whoohoo I finaly have one!)

Thanks for looking!

canvas in vintage style

I've moved out of my old scrap domain and into a new one this week. Which translates in to me wallpapering and rearanging Thomas' furniture in to my old office and I now have a room with more storage.
I've accumulated so much stuff with all the workshops that I'm teaching for scrapangels, that the room was about to burst!

Yesterday was spend mostly with pre cutting a huge workshop we're giving on lacation.
So I haven't been doing any scrapping this week. But I can show you (a part) of a vintage canvas I made, that we'll also be giving as a workshop.

Thanks for looking,

Merel

Award

Thanks to my friend Arlene (a.k.a. Precious Angels) from Hawaï for giving me the I heart your Blog award! Please go ahead and check out her blog!




I'm going to follow the example of Tracey (a.k.a. running with scissors) and give this award to all who read this post! It's always good to award your self every now and then! Just copy the logo and pay it foreward!

Enjoy this beautiful summer day! (well the weather is gorgeous over here anyway...)

Merel

DREAM

I made this lay out from a sketch from my sb.com neighbour q-diggity, check out her blog, my little sketchblook! I used the beautiful prima papers. The swirls are from prima aswell, I used versamark ink and embossing powder to make them stand out. I also used the versamark marker to outline the bird and embossed that aswell. Loads of distressing with my new distressing tool from making memories (which is making my life so much easier) The bling swirl and flowers are from prima aswell!

The clear flower is from maya road, I embossed it aswell and heat-curled the petals a bit!


Thanks for looking!

Merel

How mommy keeps her figure....

How come kids always know when to find you, come dessert time??? Thomas pretty much finished the dessert for me... At least I get to order dessert and keep my figure!

Thanks for looking!

Merel

Back from our vacation

We came back from our two week vacation this weekend! We had such a great time. The weather was pretty good but not steaming hot! They had entertainment for the kids, toys in the restaurant and a turtle named 'Mondy! What else can a family of five ask for?

I'm working on my vacation album which I'll post when it's finished. I actually took supplies with me on vacation, but I ended up not working on it as much as I thought I would.

Thanks for all your comments while I was away!

Merel

My first card

Here it is.... my first card!!! Quite happy with the outcome (even if I say so my self). I used scraps for this one, so my drawer is a little lighter!


Thanks for looking!

Merel

New lay out...

Finally, something I can post here. I've been so bussy the last two weeks with designing new workshops along with Anne. We want to introduce some new workshops to our selection and take some of the old ones out. We'll be posting the new workshops on our scrapangels site http://www.scrapangels.mysites.nl at the beginning of september.

But the good news is that I also managed to complete a lay out that I can post. Blue, red and black always work for me. I love this "Wouter look" he was just gone, in to his own little world, like he always does.

I used a ton of stamps on this lay out. I painted the chipboard flower cirle red and then stamped some images on it with antoher color paint, I got out the old paperglaze again and glazed in the corner stamps, and chipboard flower.


As always, thanks for looking!

Merel

Good times

I just love these dreamstreet papers! I used a ton of stickles on this lay out. And created some ghost shapes with the cuttlebug, some embossing and stazz on ink. ( and stickles of course!!)
The bling swirl is from prima.

Thanks for looking!


Merel