CPS #4 & Deck of Me #9

A new Dutch Dare is online; CLICK HERE to see all the new creations for this weeks dare!


This is the card I made for this weeks CPS sketch.
Used some Basic Grey, KI, paintdabber and 2 of my new stamps:
The stitched frame is from Hero Arts.
The dancing hula chick is from Inkadinkado.
I coloured her bikini and body with some cool pens I got from Charlotte last Friday :))).
"Celebrate" is a Brenda Walton clearstamp.
The wooden fence is made from wooden ice sticks, broken in half






The prompt for this weeks Art Journal from Emily Falconbridge was "Inspiration". Where do you find it? For me the answer to that question must be the internet. I always find things that inspire me on the web... no matter the subject.
The web is like an endless bucket of inspiration and new things to discover every day!
Love surfing. Love "communicating" and sharing with other people through blogs and messageboards. The last year the internet has also brought me many new friendships.....
which is great!

I already prepared the backsides of my 4 Deck of Me cards for March. As you might have noticed I have more or less the same design on the back for one month.
For March I stamped my favorite floral Hero Arts stamps with Rusty Brown Stazon on the card. Added some scraps of Cherry Arte. Stamped a Purple Onion frame & "Observation".
The date stamp is a Heidi Swapp rolling stamp :(..... not my favourite -LOL

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!

Lots and Lots to share.....

....starting last Friday....

Charlotte came to visit me...or actually she just wanted to go to the Posthumuswinkel and I live nearby ;).

We didn't have much time because we stayed in the stampshop toooooo long but at my place we played around a little with our new stamps, Ranger Distress Inks (which totally rule!) and Shrink Plastic (which also rules!).

Saturday was.... well.... Saturday.. quite boring; cleaning the house, doing some grocery shopping and visit my inlaws where we had dinner.

And then it was Sunday: WACKY WORKSHOP WEEKEND.

I went to 2 workshops from Celine Navarro, which were great. Just love the way she teaches ; she first takes her time to explain step by step what you can do with certain products... she doesn't just tell you what to do, she really shows it you in a patient and relaxing way. Love this!

The first class i took from her was "Mixed Media Art Journal" (not finished yet, will show it later..if I ever finish it - LOL)

The second was a "Collage Class" where she taught us how to use gesso to create texture on your paper / canvas. You can see the result above :).

That really smart literature lover who can tell me the title of the book from which I used the quote "I just noticed what a stupid haircut somebody gave her" on my collage :) will receive a big RAK from me

I will give a hint... a famous murderer had this book in his hand while shooting someone...

Actually the murderer became famous because he killed someone famous......

I need the title and the writer of the book and that RAK will be yours!

This RAK will include 1 of my Marbled Frida ATC's....

And no girls...if you took one of Celines classes at the WWW... you cannot play - LOL!

CPS blog - #1, #2 & #3

I recently discovered a new blog for cardmakers.
It is called Card Positioning Systems and you can find a new sketch there every week.
Since making cards is an excellent way to get rid of your stash of little scraps I decided to join these challenges.

STUDIO DAPHNAT # 1 - THE RESULTS - Marbled Frida

A few weeks ago Nat and I tried the Marbling technique with shaving foam and here is what I made with it:
My first ATC... which I definitely will not trade because I love them tooo much!

For the top line I just used the marbled paper as a background to stamp on and I inked the edges with gold ink.
The cards on the bottom are a little bit different. I stamped Frida on the marbled background, cut her out and heatembossed her twice with UTEE. I stamped a background with my Hero Arts flower stamp.. which I love... and glued Frida on top of it! The UTEE effect is really cool!

The photo edge I used for this collage is downloaded from 2peas; flourish edges digital set by Rhonna Farrer.

Deck of Me # 7 & # 8

Studio DaphNat #2 - Rinse Aid Resist

It's raining.
It's weekend.
It's the perfect time for another experiment from Studio DaphNat!

The ingredients for this week:
- canvas / canvas paper
- acrylic paint; 2 or 3 colours
- water
- brushes
- Dishwasher Rinse Aid
- Paper towels
- Heat Gun

With these products we tried the RINSE AID RESIST technique, as explained in the 2nd book of Claudine Hellmuth.

What to do?
1) Add a layer of really thinned paint to your canvas(paper).
I sprayed my canvas with the spray I use for my plants so that is was very wet so the paint was really thin when you brush it on the canvas.
Then hold up your canvas and drop the rinse aid right out from the bottle onto the background.
It will run down and create some nice looking streakes.
2) WAIT until this layer is completely dry (I write it capitals because it is important and I made a mistake here LOL, which was to be expected if you are as impatient as I am ;).
3) Get a damp paper towel and rub over your canvas. At this moment you SHOULD be able to see the space where the surface resisted the paint because of the rinse aid.

4) When you are done rubbing off all of the excess paint, add a second colour by repeating step 1-3.

In the end this is the result:







Both Nat and I were a bit dissapointed about our results, which speaking for me only had to do with:
1)impatience
2)the colours I chose
3)expectations: I expected more contrast between the colours I used.

If you want to try this technique as well please keep the following in mind:

- Take your time. And work on some other project on the same time as well; this means leavind enough space open on your worktable instead of having to move wet papers.
- Choose 2 good contrasting colours; keep in mind that colours are a lot lighter when they are thinned with water.
- Try different brands of Rinse Aid; I didn't do this but it wouldn't surprise if one brand is better for this technique than the other one.
- Do not try this technique with Ecoline (liquid watercolours): it just doesn't work.
- Wear an apron.
- If you plan to use this technique over an existing collage, make sure you seal the papers with (Golden) gel medium.
- You can add a third colour as well.. at least I did :)

For the rest... GO AND EXPERIMENT!
Don't forget to stop by at Nat's blog as well to have a look at her results :)

Love Life :)

Except for the cardstock, the paint & the ribbon, this LO is entirely made of products that are now for sale at Memory Lane Scrapbooking.
I used 4 different papers, black snaps and paperjoy weave words.
The weave words (bottom left) are really cool I think, I painted it with paintdabber and then put some versamark on it and heat embossed with UTEE...which gives a really cool effect.

The picture was taken on a cemetery in Curacao, while I was visiting my dad who was still in the hospital at that time ( 2 months before he died) and when I saw it again yesterday I thought:

You have 1 life. Live it as if it were your last.

Journalers Junction # 7

For this weeks Journalers Junction you had to use a list of verbs for your journaling... so I checked out this website to find some synonyms for the word LOVE...and I came up with these words.









The paper is the new Basic Grey Line Stella Ruby.
For this lo I used 3 tags and the matching alpha stickers.

The DT meeting last Sunday was great.....we didn't even unpack our scrap goodies... all we did was talk talk talk. Please have a look HERE & HERE, to see some pictures from this day.

A new Dutch Dare tomorrow morning... no sneak peeks this time...my dare is too tiny......... a sneak peek would give it away.... Just check out the Dutch Dare blog tomorrow to find out what the new dare (nr 8 already!) is all about.

Deck of Me # 6 - Love

The quote I used is from the following song:

MLS Circle Journal

Tomorrow is the 2nd DT meeting of the Memory Lane Designteam and I finally finished the last pages of the 8" x 8" circlejournal we all agreed to make.
For each of the DT members you had to make a page about yourself, answering some questions.

Journalers Junction # 5 & # 6

I finally found the time to scan and post my last 2 lo's for the Journalers Junction.
For the 5th challenge you had journal about something / things that make you cry.
I guess for me a better question is: "What does NOT make you cry?".
Seriously....I can cry about everything... on this lo you see only a few keywords....

The 6th layout had to contain journaling in 3 places on the page.

Deck of Me # 4 & # 5

For the 4th deck of me card you had to choose a symbol that you love.
I chose this CLADDAGH symbol:
It is an old Irish symbol and there are some different interpretations on the meaning but I love this one the best:



the heart stands for love
the crown stands for loyalty
the hands symbolize friendship.

Click on the claddagh link above to find out more about the history of this symbol.

For Card # 5 you had to use some ephemera from that week; I used my boarding pass from the flight back home from London after spending 5 on a trade fair, working.

Meet....

my secret love....

Keep your eye on the Monthly Challenge on the Memory Lane website to see him completely :)

Happy Valentines Day

Studio DaphNat 1 - Marbling Techniques

Nat and I are very proud to present the first technique we tried together:
Marbling with Shaving Cream.

Products I used:
- Shaving Cream (the foam...not the gel)
- Acrylic Paints
- Alcohol Inks (Ranger)
- Liquid Watercolour ( Ecoline )
- Watercolour paper or any other thick paper, I guess Bazill will do the trick too.
- Fork
- Glass bowl I normally use to make a Quiche Lorraine
- Thick piece of cardboard or a putty knife
- Toothpicks

To start: fill your glass bowl or whatever you decide to use (just make sure it is big enough for the paper you want to marble) with a thick layer of shaving foam and straight it with the putty knife. Then add 2 or 3 colours acrylic paint, alcohol ink or watercolours on the top of the shaving cream. Do NOT touch it yet.
When you are done adding colours, you can start stirring the colours with a toothpick, a fork or whatever into a nice design that you like.
Softly layer your piece of paper on top of the foam. Do NOT press it in really deep, just rub it slowly, there is no need to hurry...When you think that all parts off your paper are covered gently pick it up and lay it on a flat surface.
With your thick piece of cardboard scrape / putty knife of the remains of the shaving cream and.... TAD DAH!
It dries really fast. And you can use the foam again..
I made up to 4 cards with 1 bowl of shaving foam before the colours started to get too mixed up. One advice: try this technique in the kitchen because it can turn out to be very messy.
Also be sure to buy some nice smelling shaving foam...I now have a stack of cards that smell really awful - LOL!
What worked best for me were the liquid watercolours; they are easy to mix and the colours are really bright! You can also use the shaving foam longer than with the acrylic paints; they tend to get messy really soon.
Maybe liquid acrylic paints work better for this technique.
The Alcohol Inks are really beautiful too and also easy to mix.

Have fun trying this technique and make sure to check out Nat's blog as well and to share your try with us. On her blog you can also see step by step photo's and she used some different materials than me :).
Enjoy!

Something German, Something Dutch, Something Creative....

Businesspeople and politicians have online meetings, so why shouldn't we, creative girls, use the internet to work together on our creative skills?
The idea of a joint venture between Germany and Holland was born from this idea:

I hereby proudly announce the birth of

STUDIO DAPHNAT

Studio DaphNat is a cooperation between myself and Nathalie and we will present a new technique every now and then with detailed instructions and pics... so if you are interested in learning some cool techniques that you can use with scrapping, cardmaking or whatever it is you do with paper, paint, inks, glue and scissors stay tuned on our websites!

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 ;).

Journalers Junction # 4

This is the LO I made for this weeks Journalers Junction; this week you had to journal about scrapbooking, why you do it, how long you do you it...whatever...as long as the journaling is about scrapbooking.

I am not to happy about it...might do a new one later on. It might have to do with the topic... I just had a hard time finding reasons why I scrapbook... apart from that it it just fun to do!

Deck of Me # 3

That's it...."I AM"

Happy Birthday Nicole!

I made the background of this card using a technique I learned on the Mixed Media workshop last Saturday.
All you need is: a craft sheet, Ranger Distress Inks and water.
This is a really fun technique and it will give you different results every time you do it!
If you use a lot of water you may have to iron your paper to flatten it again. For this background I used 2 different colours of the distress inks.

"Tick Tock" was stamped with the Brushed Alpabet from Autumn Leaves which just arrived at MLS, along with some other great Autumn Leaves products.

After I stamped the text, I coloured the letters with Ranger Perfect Pearls. A must have :)
The chipboard frame was painted with a paintdabber and then I stamped on the clock before finishing it with 2 layers of UTEE.

Bokkie.....

This is the very first page I did about Bokkie, my first Persian love :)
Used only new scrapsupplies on this page; I actually started making this layout and later looked for a picture to combine with the LO.

I've never worked in that order before, but it was kind of fun... just making the design..not worrying about pictures fitting on the page or not.

I punched squares from my new Autumn Leaves paper, which I picked up at Danielle's place yesterday. Glued to them to the brown Bazzil and cut out the 3 squares on the bottom.
I then glued the whole mosaique to the black background and got my Perfect Pearls goodies to add some colour to the black squares. I also added Perfect Pearls to the stamped curls on the brown bar.
The lettering is dymo and Quickutz Vixen.

MIXED MEDIA workshop

Yesterday I went to a Mixed Media Workshop; my 2nd workshop ever! The first one I attended was the Elsie workshop last year; and I still haven't finished this project (doubt I ever will).
I had no idea what to expect; the only thing I knew was that we would use acrylic paints and collagesheets.
Turned out we had to make a canvas with the topic "Home Sweet Home" and here is the result; I LOVE the rubberstamp I used on the side of the canvas...and those (postal) stamps on top are my favorite part of the canvas :)







The workshop was hosted by Mieke Smetsers; check out her blog for a fun technique using eggshells and Ranger alcoholink

KRAFT

You might have noticed that all the lo's I have done so far for the Journalers Junction Challenge are made on Kraft Cardstock from Bazzill.
I consider this one of the best "discoveries" since I started scrapping.
As far as I know, the only place to buy it in Holland is HERE, haven't seen it elsewhere yet. It is so versatile, you can use it with all colours, and I think every colour combines great with Kraft.
Kraft is really starting to get hot in the scrapscene; Making Memories now has a whole line of kraft patterned papers (look HERE) and also Hambly has printed some patterns on kraft (check these out HERE).

So what are you waiting for?.. go over to the shop and order some kraft paper, whether it be Bazzill, Hambly or Making Memories.... I am sure you will get hooked on Kraft too :)!

Enjoy your weekend everyone...I know I will; I'm going to a Mixed Media workshop tomorrow...Can't wait!

Journalers Junction # 3

This weeks challenge on the journalers blog is to journal in the form of instructions. So I thought of some instructions that will make me feel better/happier. There a lot of easy things I can change in my life like going to bed on time..... everyday. I am sure that if I stop feeling exhausted... I will be a much more happy girl :). The instructions are quite simple...now I just have to follow them :S.

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

Daffies Deck

Inspired by Nathalie, who always knows where to look for fun challenges, I decided to join the Deck of Me art journal journey over at the blog of Emily Falconbridge. The idea is to make a card each week with a prompt she gives us every Monday.
So check out her blog today to see what the prompt for week 3 is.
These are the first 2 cards I made:




I used my "Hambly" stamp from Purple Onion Designs on the back of the cards... and if you are a stamplover.... go over to their website NOW and order some stampies!
These are really the best stamps ever; I love their designs.. and the rubber is sooo good..the stamped images are really clean and crisp!No messy, inky mess on your page... just the stamped image as you want it to be!
I also used them on the LO's I posted yesterday for the journalers junction challenge

Journalers Junction #1 & #2

In the beginning of January I came upon a journaling Challenge Blog: Journalers Junction.
They wanted to start the new year with a challenge that lasts 12 weeks.
I decided to jump in because I am not really a journaler..always save that for last, wanting to do it with handwriting, but then always making mistakes...aahrhghgh.

If you check out their blog you can already see what the 12 challenges will be.
Each week they will post the challenge so that you can post your layout or project there.

This is my try for the 2nd challenge: journaling on strips.

Happy Birthday TO ME

New Books!!

You might have noticed that I have posted new books in my sidebar.
Claudine Hellmuth had to make room for 2 wonderful books which I just received yesterday.
For Dutch readers: I ordered them at www.bol.com and they arrived within a week.

If you click on the books you can find more information about the content.
I did not have a lot of time yet to study them carefully. But I can already tell you tell you that I will enjoy them a lot.
Both of them contain a lot of detailed step by step instructions. I really love this in creativity books, because I am not really the workshop type kind of girl, and I love to learn from books and try things at home.

From Visual Chronicles I have only read the first chapter, which is about creating your "personal palette". This means that you make your own (tag)book with pictures of your family, yourself etcetera and put some corresponding colors next to the pictures. This way if you are making a layout or an art journal page you will instantly know which colors to use for this person.
You are also advised to do the same for feelings... and their corresponding colors; but all according to you. For instance, if the corresponding color for Love is green for you.. that's ok: you are making a PERSONAL PALETTE!
So I might give this a try... It is something what you can do in between doing other things.

I have not yet read in the Altered Books Workshop, but it looks very very promising :.

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

ABC Tag

A while ago I was tagged by Charlotte, Marianne & Mandy.
It took me while to come up with the answers but here it is;

A - Available or single: Married
B - Best Friend: Me
C - Cake or Pie:Cake
D - Drink of choice: Champagne
E - Essential Item you use everyday: Mascara
F - Favorite color: Red
G - Gummy Bears or worms: Gummy Bears
H - Hometown: Amsterdam
I - Indulgence: buying REALLY expensive shoes/bags/underwear/make-up
J - January or February: January
K - Kids & Names: Nutella & Tinus; my cats
L - Life is Incomplete Without: Michiel, books, music, cats
M - Marriage Date: May 9, 2005
N - Number of Siblings: 2 older sisters; Muriel & Juliette
O - Oranges or Apples: oranges
P - Phobias or Fears: dying in a car accident ALONE
Q - Fav Quote: “Everything will be OK” (Juliette)
R - Reason to Smile: Seeing / Reading / Doing / Eating / Smelling something that makes me feel all warm and tingly inside
S - Season: Spring
T - Tag 3 or 4 people: Malou & Nicole
U - Unknown Fact about Me: The prints on the toilet paper must be facing me, instead of facing the wall.
V- Vegetable You Don't Like: Green Peas
W - Worst Habit: I am ALWAYS right :)
X - Xrays: Not as xciting as stingrays
Y - Your Fave Food: Sushi
Z - Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

One Little Word

In response to Ali Edwards challenge on her blog, where she tells us about her tradition to choose 1 word every year in January " to reflect on, to mediate on... 1 word that sums up what you want for yourself..." in the new year, I decided to play along and choose a word for myself which will be with me all year long.

weekly challenge

"This week your challenge is to
create something, anything, that celebrates your chosen word for 2007. Maybe a layout. Maybe a blog posting or a journal entry or a simple post-it note that
you put somewhere you can see it each day. Make sure to journal about why you
chose your word and what it means for you - the more you let yourself explore the more benefit you will receive in the end."

The word I have chosen for myself this year is PATIENCE

In the last couple of years I have grown to be more and more impatient. I want instant succes, instant happines, instant answers etcetera.
I am now facing the consequences of my attitude; I am constantly fighting with familymembers, I am not happy with my job, the fact that I am still not pregnant after having unsafe sex ( :)!)for nearly 19 months is putting me down more and more each day and I know that especially with this part of my life I might have to face some big challenges this coming year. My patience will be put to the test big time this year!

For Ali's Challenge I made the following LO:
























The journaling is a quote from the "I Ching; The Book of Changes"

"When clouds form in the skies we know that rain will follow but we must not wait for it. Nothing will be achieved by attempting to interfere with the future before the time is ripe. Patience is needed"

Supplies for this LO:
Hambly Screenprints Patterned Paper "Bohemian" - Available HERE
Bazzil cardstock (I love their Kraft cardstock - also available @ MLS