Sweets For My Sweet ;o)

Seriously though, this "mojo on vacation" thing is starting to get ridiculous! I had a three day weekend, and although I'm taking it easy because of some RSI symptoms in my right hand and wrist (it sucks big time, but after 16 years of being a secretary I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner!) I only made this box...nothing else! I sat and stared at my stamps, paper and whatnot, and nothing came, no lightbulb moments for me this weekend ;o) Oh well, better luck next week!


I made this cute box for the new challenge on Double Dutch, which is "Be My Valentine". Go check it out, there's a great Magnolia prize to be won :D!

Materials used:
Little Yellow Bicycle paper, QuicKutz heart, buttons, Doodlebug rub-on text, string

Hope you all have a lovely week, thank you for stopping by and until next time!

Hugs,
Erica

Inspiration, Where Art Thou?

Don't you just know it...I had a lovely long weekend with nothing planned so I was all set to do some serious card-making and...I made precisely nothing! Everything went wrong, didn't come together, looked plain ridiculous etc. etc., you know what I'm talking about right ;o) So in the end I gave up and lazed around a lot, which was also nice but not as nice as looking at a row of cards, feeling the satisfaction of a weekend well spent!

Anyway, best forgotten about that, here's some I made earlier for the challenges on Double Dutch ;o)

This was for the previous challenge, a sketch

And this is for the new challenge, make something frozen or frosty...brrrr

I received this award from José a while ago, thank you José! I'm supposed to list five things I love with this award...now let me think...

1. My family
2. My friends

3. My cats (not so much at five this morning when they were scratching at my bedroom door, but still ;o))

4. My hobbies: crafting, reading, blogging and vandalizing motorbikes (just kidding, still learning ;o))

5. Chocolate...and lots of it! Really this should be at number one, but I'd get some angry phone calls then ;o)

I'm passing this award on to the Double Dutch DT!

Materials used:

CC Designs stamp, Three Bugs in A Rug paper and sentiment, EK Success Retro Flower Punches, brads, Joy! Crafts pearls

Whiff of Joy stamp, October Afternoon rub-on sentiment, BoBunny paper, kraft bag, Joy! Crafts pearls

Well folks, that's all she wrote for now :D. Hope to be back next week with something new to show you! Thank you for stopping by, have a lovely week :D!

Hugs,
Erica

Happy New Year!!

I wish you all a happy, healthy and creative 2010, and want to thank you for all your visits and kind comments over the past year, they mean so much! I have a looooooong list of New Year's resolutions, and among the items on the list are starting my Christmas cards early ;o) and making more visits to all your blogs, I was such a bad blogger in 2009, it's embarrassing...



Here's the first card for 2010, not a Christmas one yet but I'm working on that ;o) I'm actually in the mood to make Christmas cards now, as it is I just took down the tree and decorations today, but the weather (snowy) is just right for those kinds of cards :D. So watch this space...

Materials used:
Mo Manning digi stamp, Papertrey Ink sentiment, BoBunny paper "Love Bandit", EK Success Retro Flower punches, Doodlebug brads, Joy! Crafts pearls

That's all from me for now, have a lovely weekend, thank you for stopping by and see you soon :D!

Hugs,
Erica

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you, hope you have a lovely day with friends and family and get spoiled rotten ;o) We are celebrating Christmas on Boxing Day, so I'm taking it easy today, a little crafting, a little TV watching (some nice Christmas films on, and some great specials :D) and a lovely Christmas dinner later ;D! In the meantime I made a last-minute card this week and some cute labels for my pressies, we did a Christmas swap with some of the Double Dutch DT members and I actually managed to keep the presents wrapped until this morning, when I just had to open them (before I'd even had breakfast) and see what I got...I tell ya, I'm like a little kid sometimes ;o)

Here's the card I made, no idea why the picture is so yellow, must have been the snow ;o) Papers are from Kaisercraft, flowers are made with the EK Success retro punches and the text is Hero Arts, the image is Whiff of Joy.

Here's my present, I made four of these with BoBunny papers and embellishments, some ribbon and some cute stamped images inside. The lollipop is chocolate and I'm kicking myself that I didn't get one for myself, they look yummy...what was I thinking!

And here's what I got from Moon, Martine, Janneke and Joan! Some lovely goodies inside, thanks girls :D!



Have a lovely day, enjoy and have fun and think of me tomorrow when I'll be sitting in a train for four hours on my way to visit the family...



Hugs,
Erica

Baby It's Cold Outside ;o)

There's about ten inches of snow over where I live, and in a country that's used to that amount of snow it might not seem much, but everything's ground to a halt here. Yesterday those of us who did not live in the city were sent home after lunch because the forecast was for even more snow, so I spent the afternoon on the couch, watching TV, drinking tea and generally being very happy I didn't need to go outside!

Just woke up to check if the trains are running again, otherwise it won't be worth it to get ready for work. I'll call my manager in an hour or so and see if he expects me to come in today, hope he says no ;o)

Anyway, I promised you some Christmas cards so here they are. Made about twenty of these, and although they are definitely not my style they were very easy to make and a good solution to the oh-no-is-it-Christmas-again-already-I-don't-have-any-cards-yet problem ;o)

The top one was copied straight out of a magazine, nice 'n' easy ;o)

Materials used:

Kraft cardstock, Jillibean Soup and Basic Grey paper, string, Papertrey Ink stamps, Joy! Crafts pearls, Fiskars Border Punch

Right, must go see if I can wangle the day off ;o), have a nice day and a great weekend and thank you for stopping by!

Hugs,
Erica

Last "normal" cards ;o)

Well, for a while anyway. As it's 18 days and counting till Christmas I reckon it might just be time to start on my Christmas cards... I can't send out bought ones, well, not to everyone anyway, because the peeps who know I make cards expect a homemade one. So I'll do the clever thing (yes, I have my moments :-p) and pick one or two designs and just start cranking them out (I hope ;o))

Anyway, I got these lovely images in a swap the other day and just had to use them right away! They're digistamps by Mo Manning from Mo's Digital Pencil. Luckily these images are also available as good old rubber stamps, because I do like to stamp them myself, easy though digistamps are :D.

This is an easel card, I just love these and want to thank whoever thought of this concept!

List Of Ingredients:

Mo Manning digistamp, Three Bugs in a Rug paper and sticker, EK Success Retro Flower punches, McGill twig punch, Joy! Crafts pearls, string

Mo Manning digistamp, Elzybells Art Stamps text, BoBunny paper, EK Success Retro Flower punches, string, buttons, Joy! Crafts pearls

That's it for this week, see you next week with some Christmas cards (I hope...), thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,
Erica

Busy Bunny ;o)

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger recently, I've just been so busy with work (did I tell you I got a year contract? Yay me!) and other stuff that it's all I can do to drag myself home at the end of the day (or night) and lie on the couch...I know right, how old am I again? ;o) Never mind, just need to find a rhythm and then I'll be fine again :D, the good news is from now on I'll have a three-day weekend every other week...aaah heaven!

Anyway, onto today's project: I finally finished my Belgium project! I went to Belgium at the end of October for a day of fun and crafting with about 40 other card-mad chicks! I rented a car, got a little lost (hey, it was 300-odd kilometres, it's a miracle I only got lost ONCE! I have such a bad sense of direction it's amazing I make it home every night ;o)) and had a great day making this box:

Please excuse the awful pictures, the weather is quite gloomy over here so taking a good picture was next to impossible today.

Materials used:
Magnolia stamps, Graphic45 paper, ribbon, lace, glitter stones, leaves, flowers, Martha Stewart border punch, EK Success Retro Flower Punches, matchboxes

Thank you for stopping by, have a great week and see you soon!

Hugs,
Erica

Happy Birthday To Me, A Card And An Award :D

It was my birthday last Saturday, I turned 39...so from now on I'll start counting down, next year I'll be 38 again and so on until I reach an age I can live with :-p Seriously though, I had a lovely day at the craft fair, bought some great goodies and got spoiled the night before as well by my family (I live 200 km away from them, so on my rare visits I always get spoiled ;o)).

I will be posting some blog candy in the next week or so, a belated birthday candy and also for 75,000 hits on my blog, so watch this space!

Made this card for the new challenge over on Double Dutch Challenges, which is a sketch :D. Can't remember who the paper is by (it's my age you see, the memory is the first thing to go ;o)) but the stamp is by Sugar Nellie and the flowers were of course made with EK Success Retro Flower punches :D!

Also got an award from Janneke, thanks Janneke :D! It's another "revealing" award, so here goes:

The rules are:
I need to pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know I left this award, and then I need to answer a list of questions in ONE word.

Where is your cell phone? Recharging on the kitchen counter
Your hair? Red
Your mother? Nel
Your father? Wim
Your favorite food? Mexican
Your dream last night? I had one, just can't remember it
Your favorite drink? Dry white wine
Your dream/goal? To be happy
What room are you in? Living room
Your hobby? Crafting
Your fear? Mice
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Not where I am now
Where were you last night? At a friend's house
Something that you aren’t? Stick thin ;o)
Wish list item? Car
Where did you grow up? Rotterdam
Last thing you did? Cook dinner
What are you wearing? Sweats
Your TV? NCIS
Your pets? Minou and Kyra, my cats
Friends? To be treasured
Your life? I'm content
Your mood? Right now? Good
Missing someone? Yes
Vehicle? My multicoloured bike ;o)
Something you are not wearing? Earrings
Your favourite store? All craft stores
Your favourite colour? Red
When was the last time you laughed? Today
Last time you cried? Last night
Your best friend? Monique
One place that I go to over and over? Work...and my craft room ;o)
Facebook? No
Favourite place to eat? El Pacho

Phew, that wasn't too much "soul searching" ;o) Didn't stick to one-word answers though...it's been confirmed, I talk too much! Anyway, I'm passing this award on to the Double Dutch DT, come and get it girls :D!

That's all she wrote :D, thank you for stopping by and your much appreciated comments, see you soon!

Hugs,
Erica

Notebook Purse

I went to Belgium over the weekend (more about that next week) so haven't really got a lot to show you, apart from this notebook purse that I made for the new challenge over on Double Dutch, which is to alter or make a purse :D I got the notebook a few years ago from a friend and finally made use of it...I'm a bit slow sometimes ;o)

Materials used:
Magnolia stamp, Papertrey Ink text stamp, MME paper Pretty Please, Prima Marketing flowers, Joy! Crafts pearls, brads, McGill twig punch

That's all from me this week, hope to have something more to show you next week! Thank you for stopping by and your lovely comments, they're much appreciated :D

Hugs,
Erica

Fright Night!

It's such a shame we don't have Halloween in the Netherlands, I love it: the dressing up and begging for sweeties is right up my alley ;o) We do have "Sint Maarten" in certain parts of Holland, also where I live, when children make a lantern and go round all the houses singing a special song and they are awarded treats. I didn't know this when I first moved here twelve years ago, so when loads of kids showed up on 11 November I didn't have anything to give them but biscuits...I'm surprised they didn't egg my house ;o). Anyway, I do celebrate Halloween with a few friends in that we make Halloween cards for each other, here are some of my spooky creations:

List of Ingredients:
Magnolia stamps and paper, Papertrey Ink text stamps and ribbon

SCACD stamp, Papertrey Ink text stamp, MME paper, brads, QuicKutz star die

Have a good week all, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!

Hugs,
Erica

More Of The Same...And An Award :D

Sorry I've been MIA, I've been busybusybusy with work stuff, but also found some time to make some long overdue gifts :D. I've used the same paper again, because it was still on my desk and because it's just so darn cute, but I promise I'll put it away now and use something else, so you can finally take off your sunglasses!

This one was made using the packaging of a Papertrey Ink stamp set, and is absolutely stuffed to the brim with Merci chocolates...seemed appropriate, as it's a "thank you" gift ;o)

And these two were made using a Timeless Template by the very talented Lauren Meader. The templates are sold via Papertrey Ink and are only five dollars for the pattern, instructions and a boatload of ideas! You can download the whole file straight away after you pay, and start crafting :D. The bottom one is the original pattern, with two pockets, the top one I altered so it can fit through a letterbox.

Ingredients used:

Magnolia and Sugar Nellie stamps, Papertrey Ink text stamps and ribbon, Hero Arts text stamp, Three Bugs in a Rug paper and text sticker, EK Success Retro Flower Punches, McGill branch punch, Queen & Co. pearls, brads, spacers

Now onto this lovely award I got from Coby, Femke and Janneke, thank you ladies!

It's another "tell all" award, you have to tell ten things about yourself and be completely honest...here goes:

1. Because I don't have a husband and children like most of my friends, I sometimes don't feel as "grown up" as I should, there's still a bit of a kid in me. Then I get to pay my mortgage and some bills and hey presto, all grown up again ;o)

2. When I was little I wanted to be a ballerina (didn't get into ballet college because of my back), a stewardess (not tall enough), a kindergarten teacher (don't know what happened there, that would have been fun! Kids love me, see 1 ;o)) and a hairdresser (my sister put paid to that, one hairdresser in the family was enough she said). Never ever ever did I say I wanted to be a secretary, yet that is what I am...

3. I suffer from foot-in-mouth disease: first I say what's on my mind, then I engage my brain. I'm working on improving that, but it's a hard habit to break after 38 years ;o)

4. I'm very impulsive, also not always a good quality...

5. I have a white streak in my hair, it's been there since my early twenties. My dad has exactly the same streak in exactly the same spot. Guess I'm not the milkman's after all eh ;o)

6. I've been dying my hair since my early twenties... ;o)

7. I wear contact lenses because I'm too vain to wear glasses. I only wear those when I'm home alone and the curtains are drawn!

8. I have an excellent memory for license plate numbers (picked that up when I was little, playing the license plate game while on the road with my dad, who was a truck driver) and telephone numbers, which is useful, but other than that my memory sucks and I'm the queen of the yellow post-its ;o)

9. I am the world's biggest procrastinator, and often have to finish stuff up in a hurry. I work even better under pressure though ;o)

10. I love to go to an online store, throw all sorts of lovely goodies in my basket (really fill it up, not with cheap stuff either!) and after half an hour or so just empty the basket and go to another site. It's a great kind of retail therapy as it doesn't cost anything and it really does help with the blues!

Right, that's enough honesty from me, reading back I see how vain I really am! Must do something about that too...;o) I won't pass this on to anyone as I think most people have the award already (yes, I know, I'm late again...) but if you don't, please feel free to take it and be totally honest, it's very therapeutic!

Have a lovely evening, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!

Hugs,
Erica

Get Your Sunglasses Out ;o)

I got a bit carried away with these cards, they are a little "loud" for my taste, but the paper was so lovely I couldn't stop piling it on! On the bright side (okay, the even brighter side) my cold is much better, cough is nearly gone and I don't sound like I'm at death's door anymore...when I was just a tiny wee thing I used to have terrible asthma, so now when I have a cold it really sounds more life-threatening than it actually is ;o) Serves me right for smoking I suppose...

Anyway, onto today's cards, the top one is for the Sugar Bowl Challenge, the other one is just because and the third is a tin, which I made to house my new Miss Anya stamps.

List of Ingredients:
Sugar Nellie stamp, Magnolia Stamp, The Greeting Farm stamp, Papertrey Ink sentiment and ribbon, Three Bugs in a Rug paper "Spread Your Wings", EK Success Retro Flower punches, Joy! Craft pearls, Doodlebug brads, CD tin

That's all she wrote for now, thank you for stopping by and your lovely comments (and get well wishes from last week!), have a great week!

Hugs,
Erica

Mission Impossible ;o)

The new challenge over on Double Dutch is to make a shape card. My intention was to make a heart card, but as I left it till the last minute (again!), and had the mother of all hangovers (I know, my own fault but totally worth it, it was a great party...I think ;o)) combined with the mother of all colds (some serious self-pitying going on here! On the plus side, I now have a very sexy voice ;o)) I made this hanger instead. I think it's cute, and hey, it is a different-from-normal shape, so that qualifies right? ;o)

Materials used:
Magnolia stamp, Hero Arts sentiment, MME paper, Papertrey Ink ribbon, Queen & Co pearls, EK Success Retro Flower punches, Nestabilities

That's it from me, the light from the monitor is hurting my eyes and I'm going to snuggle on the couch and feel very sorry for myself...bloomin' common cold! Thanks for stopping by, have a lovely week!

Hugs,
Erica

Oops...

Wanna know how long my resolution lasted? Three days...you can stop laughing now ;o) I'm actually blushing as I sit here typing this, it's just too pathetic for words isn't it! But on Friday one of my colleagues asked me where she could buy a 3D frame, and I knew just the place: my favourite scrap store! So as she didn't have the minimum amount needed for free shipping I offered to order a little something as well so she wouldn't have to pay the EUR 6,75. Ended up costing me a lot more though ;o) As my friend Monique pointed out: it was an impossible resolution, like not eating chocolate for six months...after I'd made her wash her mouth out with soap, I had to agree with her, so I'm just going to try and cut back, instead of stopping altogether...more realistic, no?

Anyway, remember me telling you about my colleague who has worked for the company for 40 years, the one I made the gift card envelope for? Well, I made an album for her with the pictures from the celebration dinner, and here's an impression of it (this is not the whole album, my colleague asked me to show only group layouts on my blog, and of course I respect her wishes).

The labels contain personal messages from all the colleagues who attended the dinner

Now who is that hiding behind her hands...yes, that would be me! I need bigger hands I guess ;o)

Spot the obvious mistake...I corrected it before I gave her the album ;o)

Materials used:
BoBunny Flutter Butter papers and buttons, QuicKutz dies, Basic Grey pearls, Papertrey Ink ribbon, Martha Stewart and Fiskars punches

Hope you have a lovely week, we're enjoying an Indian summer over here, very nice :D. Thanks for stopping by and see you next week!

Hugs,
Erica

Insomni-Card...

I've been having a little trouble sleeping these past few days, and have tried everything I could think of to just nod off already: drinking warm milk (yeugh!), counting sheep (that bleating really gets on your nerves after 45 sheep or so ;o)), vigorous excercise (has the opposite effect, wakes me up even more!), taking a hot bath...nothing works! So after several frustrating hours I just get up again and go make a card! This one is for the anniversary challenge over on Double Dutch, it's a fab challenge set by DT member Marja and I made not one, but four versions of it, none of them entirely to my liking...this one was made the day before the challenge and it's my favourite one of all. I'll tweak the other four during the sleepless nights to come (no doubt), and show them to you next week ;o)




Materials used:
Magnolia stamp, Papertrey Ink sentiments, Dream Street papers, EK Success Retro Flower punches, McGill leaf punch, Martha Stewart punch, Joy! craft pearls, buttons, scrapper's floss

Have a great week everyone, thanks for stopping by and for your lovely comments and see you next week!

Hugs,
Erica