Happy Birthday Dutch Dares!

1 year ago... we started the Dutch Dare blog and although I am currently no longer a part of the DT, I am still sooo proud that our challenge blog is now celebrating their first anniversary :-).

For this 1st anniversary the challenge was to be creative with the number "1". And so I took this opportunity to celebrate my 1st pregnancy ever!

EDITED:
The photo effect was done like this:
In photoshop I turned the photo's to black & white and played a bit with the exposure levels. Then I copied the layer and with this copy I started to play a little with different filters until I found one that I really liked. To finish I changed the opacity to see just enough of the underlying 1st layer.
I printed the photo's on a transparency and attached them to the BG paper.
Of course I could have also printed them directly on the PP... but when I started printing I had a different idea of how the layout would be.

Maternity Leave = Scrap Time

Yep.....my maternity leave started this week.... I have not yet done a lot of scrapping but I intend to do so... as soon as we have more or less cleaned/tidied our appartment.......

Anyway...I had some time to make a Dutch Dare. This time the challenge was to use 9! pictures on your layout. Luckily I now found a great way to get rid of a lot of the soccer photo's I took during a match we saw in Stuttgart, Germany during the World Championships in 2006. The weekend we spend there was fantastic, with a visit to the Porsche museum, the Stuttgart Zoo (Wilhelma)....which is definetely the best zoo I have ever been to...and perfect weather! Nice beer there too :-)

Surprise, surprise....

...for the first time in weeks...ahum...months.... I finished a Dutch Dare on time!
So check out the Dutch Dare blog tomorrow for the latest dare!

Dutch Dare #19.....

.... better late than never.
I am a little behind on all the dares as you may have noticed...but I'm getting there :-).
This layout shows me at 16 with a typical hairdo of the time.
I used the latest series from Basic Grey "Infuse".
Another series of papers that you must have if you are a real BG-lover!

Wanna have a laugh? Then check out the Dutch Dare blog and scroll down to see Dutch Dare 19.... and enjoy all the hairdo's of the rest of DT girls. that is..if you haven't seen them already.
















Stay tuned for Dutch Dare 20 (it is already online on the dare blog of course)and the results of last weeks Studio DaphNat

Dutch Dare inspiration...

.... found in the sixties..

Check out the Dutch Dare blog tomorrow to see my first lo in weeks :-)

Are you ready....

....for a brand new Dutch Dare?
Check out the Dutch Dare blog tomorrow to see what the new challenge is.

Here's a little sneak peek already

A new day... A new dare

Check out the Dutch Dare blog.......NOW!
We have a guest designer this week :)

Sneak Peek Dutch Dare # 10

Quite a big sneak this time :).
Have a look at the picture and take your time to read this little piece of Dutch history before you go over to the Dutch Dare blog to see the new dare, which will be posted on Wednesday morning.

BTW....the girl on the picture....
is my mother in law.

Sneak Peeks Dutch Dare # 9

Ingredients for this weeks Dare:

Hambly rub ons
Ranger Distress Ink
Ranger Perfect Pearls
Ecoline
Glossy Paper
Purple Onion Stamps
Journaling Stamp Provocraft
A quote
2 photos

Check out the Dutch Dare blog tomorrow for a new dare!

I'm back...

......and ready to start scrapping again after more than a week of not being near to glue, paper and scissors :)

I've got nothing new to share yet so I thought I'd explain a little more about the canvas I made for the latest Dutch Dare.
On the Dutch Dare blog it isn't really clear that it is actually a canvas so I post it here again so you can see all the details. I stamped the title "Great Catch" with Stazon on the sides of the canvas and with Versamark I also stamped fishes which I colored with Perfect Pearls (not visible here).

I started by painting the canvas, then glueing some pages from the Yellow Pages to it; the pages with the addresses of the shops for musical instruments :)
I covered them with gel medium en when it dried I added vaseline on some places and painted over it again. When the paint dries you can wipe away the parts where the vaseline is and you will have a peeled paint look.

The reviews were first scanned, and then printed on thin photopaper which I distressed with Ranger distress ink and water. After ironing the paper you can easily print on it, just make sure they are really dry before you start printing :S.
The big photo was scanned from from an interview in a newspaper and then printed onto a transparency.


As a resource to make this canvas I used Claudine Hellmuts collage books...must haves!!

Early Sneak Peek Dutch Dare # 7

Lots and lots of Hambly on this one..... just wait and see for yourself on the Dutch Dare blog this coming Wednesday.
I'm off to London for a few days.......working :(.

And in case you're wondering... the next dare is NOT about music ;).

Dutch Dare # 6

Dare #6 already... wow!
When we started these dares I would never have thought that I would enjoy them this much as I do now! Some are more difficult than others.. and this is one that was difficult for me because I have a hard time scrapping a "concept"... instead of a more practical dare like Dare #5.

The subject of this weeks dare is "Say Cheese", and all I could come up with was the following:
1) scrap about cheese..... a typical Dutch product
2) scrap a picture with people smiling from ear to ear

I chose the 2nd option.... and gave it a little "Daphne" twist......
The picture was taken at the Zaanse Schans , a typical Dutch place with mills, wooden shoes etcetera. If you want to have a laugh and see me in a big wooden shoe...click HERE.
The journaling is about the reflex that follows when someone behind a camera says "Cheese".
Read the following quote on Classical Conditioning that I found on Wikipedia.

Classical conditioning (also Pavlovian conditioning,
respondent conditioning or alpha-conditioning) is a type of associative learning. Ivan
Pavlov described the learning of conditioned behavior as being formed by
pairing stimuli to condition an animal into
giving a certain response. The simplest form of classical conditioning is
reminiscent of what Aristotle would have called
the law of contiguity, which states that: "When two things commonly occur
together, the appearance of one will bring the other to mind." Classical
conditioning originally focused on reflexive behavior or involuntary behavior.
Any reflex can be conditioned to respond to a formerly neutral stimulus. A view
of classical conditioning restricted to reflexes has been abandoned in recent
years, and voluntary responses to conditioned stimuli have made important
contributions to the field[1]

The combination of the picture and the journaling... well..I thought it is quite funny and it speaks for itself :)
Anyway... Enjoy the dare!

Sneak Peek Dutch Dare # 6

Dutch Dare # 5 is online

For this weeks Dare we had to make a LO based on the cover of a Dutch non-scrapbooking magazine. Check out the Dutch Dare blog to see what we all made.

Hope you'll join us with the challenges. If you don't live in Holland and still want to play just choose a magazine from your country.. as long as it is not a scrapbooking magazine everything is allowed.

Sneak Peek Dutch Dare # 5

Just one more night and you can see my complete LO on the Dutch Dare blog.
This weeks Dare will be brought to you by Francine and it will be great again. I am soooo loving these dares

Sneak Peek

of the new Dutch Dare...which will be posted on the Dutch Dare blog tomorrow.

Hope everybody has enjoyed Christmas....I know I have.....went to sleep at 3.30 AM after having a really nice Japanese sushi dinner at my place with some friends and a lot of sake :)

Will take a nap now.....hihi.

Time flies....

... when you are not having fun at work :).

Anyway... besides working I have been busy working on some stuff for the Memory Lane Design Team; the monthly DT challenge... an altered block.
These can be seen soon on the Memory Lane website.
And of course I have also been working on Dutch Dare #3... which will be posted on the Dutch Dare blog tomorrow morning! Just click on the Dutch Dare blinkie on the right and you will see the latest Dutch Dare LO's!

To make you all a little bit curious...my LO for this weeks Dutch Dare was inspired by this painting:

Retrospective #5 & Dutch Dare #2

What a busy week I've had.... but not busy with work thank god!
Last Sunday we had the first DT meeting of Memory Lane. It was so fun to meet all the girls in real life.. also a bit strange because you already have the feeling you know them because we had some online meetings on MSN before.

Anyway for the DT meeting we agreed to make a circle journal; we had to make 8 introduction pages about ourselves to give to the other DT members on Sunday... Well.. what can I say. There were only 3 girls who finished them all...and surprise suprise.. I wasn't one of them hihi!
When everybody is done we will all have a book with different pages from all the DT members. A fun idea!

I have also been working on the 2nd Dutch Dare! Also a last minute project of course.. but with a great outcome. Check out www.dutchdares.blogspot.com or click on the blinkie in my sidebar to see what this weeks dare is about and all the LO's of the other DT members. Feel free to play along with these dares. Everyone can play and there is a RAK involved!

For the Retrospective Challenge #5 I made the following LO:



Check out the website of Nat to see all the beautiful interpretations of this challenge. And if you are not already playing along, you should definitely do so. These challenges are such a great way to use your old pictures.. and they also give the opportunity for some reflection haha...I mean.. I feel really good looking at this LO... wow.. these summers in Playa d'Aro were GREAT!

THE SECRET....

..... is online!!!!

Go check it out! HURRY!!!