Welcome Baby!

A baby boy card, with retired SU paper, a sentiment from Verve and the image, no clue...lost the package.
We are welcoming lots of babies here at home too.......it's lambing season, and the babies are cute, baby lambs. So there are baby bottles on my counter, nights are broken.......LOL!
All so worth it!
If you are here for the blog hop, please read the post below and leave a comment, the winner of the candy will be announced tomorrow on the store's blog.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by, Anja

WELCOME TO SGD'S BLOGHOP!!

Good morning Ladies, welcome to my blog! If you are a regular visitor, you might think, what is going on.....well, today we are having a BLOGHOP!! Starting at the blog from the wonderful store from Sheila, SCRAPPINGREATDEALS!! Start here and learn all about Sheila and you are at the start of the bloghop.

If you are on your way of this bloghop, you should have come from Andrea's blog. I am sure you had a wonderful time there, she is such a talented lady and sooooooo much fun to be around!

Please, make sure you start HERE and leave a comment at each blog in order to have a change to win some CANDY!!

Your next stop should be Carol's blog, go visit her, leave a comment and check out her creativity!

If you click HERE, you will arrive there!

Why we do a blog hop, we (Sheila's Diva's) would like to (re-) introduce ourselves with either a layout or card about ourselves. I do love to scrapbook, but stamping has pushed scrapbooking to a second place, so I made a card and I am posting a picture of myself and my husband.

An Anja card, as I like to call it, flowers, bling and ribbon, love the elegant cards.

A few things about myself.......I love to stamp, spending time with my family, shop, create.

I immigrated to Canada in 1999, we have 4 boys, I live on a farm.

I am absolutely thrilled to be a diva for SGD.

I don't like to be in a picture, I usually am the one who takes them.

I talk way toooooooooo much............

So there you have it, have fun BLOGHOPPING, your next stop should be Carol's blog!

Good luck on winning the CANDY and thanks for stopping by, Anja

Elegant Happy Anniversary!

I have been going through my stamp collection.....finding lots of good things, LOL!
Things I completely forgot about, do you ever have that happen?
This stamp set is from Impression Obsession, love how elegant the flowers are!
The sentiment is from Hero Arts, pearls and ribbon from Michaels, some Nestabilities and a Martha Stewart border punch, the dp is from Paperloft, I have also added some liquid pearls.
Hope you are having a great day, thanks for stopping by, Anja

An Award!

I got an award from Gloria ! Thank you so much, Gloria!

So with the award I am supposed to do a few things, how fun:

1 Thank the person who gave this award to me and link it back to their blog

2 Share 8 things about myself

3 Pass this award to 8 other people that I have (recently) discovered

4 Leave a comment on their blogs so that they can pass along the recognition!





Here are 8 things about myself:



1 I am married to my best friend for 22 years and we have 4 boys

2 I live on a farm with chickens, lama's, sheep, horses, 2 cows, a dog and some cats

3 We immigrated to Canada in 1999 and became Canadian in 2007

4 I love to spend time with my family, stamp, scrapbook, read

5 I am a designer for Scrappingreatdeals

6 I am the youngest of 3 girls, and both of my sisters live in Holland

7 I love to shop for craft supplies, but hate to shop for clothes

8 I talk too much...



Here are the 8 people I am giving this award to, please go visit their blogs!

1 JOYCE

2 ANKIE

3 MARISKA

4 ANDREA

5 ANGIE

6 ELLY

7 COLIEN

8 JANNETTE



If you click on the names, you should get to their blog, have fun!

Thanks again, Gloria, this was fun, Anja

Think spring and one happy mom!

A Spring card from one happy Mom!!! All 4 of my boys are home, the last time we were all together was Christmas time 2009! So life is good!

About the card....I have inked up an old SU favourite, just cause I like you. Pretty simple layout, I like how it turned out.

Don't know if there will be much stamping time,but I will certainly be back on Saturday, please come and check!

Now I am off to make a good home cooked meal, time to enjoy my boys, Anja

Happy Birthday, Maarten!

Our third son is a leap year baby! So since there is no 29th of February this year, we celebrated his 15th birthday yesterday. This is the card I made for him. All stamps are from Clear Dollar stamps, flying by and birthday wishes.

And I did some sewing on the top, with embroidery floss, the border along the bottom is from Martha Stewart.

I like how this card turned out, hope you like it too, have a great day, Anja

On your special day...

This card didn't turn out as I had planned....it happens. But I wanted to finish it and this is the result. There is some crystal effects on the flowers of the frame, hard to see. The sentiment is from Heartfelt Creations. I kept thinking that I should fill up the "white space" but nothing worked, so I left it. When I took a picture this morning, I decided to post it and try again,LOL!
The dp is from Serendipity. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day, Anja

Something old, something new...

Whenever my inspiration is nowhere to be found, I go back to a real
"Anja" card, pink, green, flowers and bling, no surprises here, LOL!
I had a package of doilies on my desk and I think they work great on an elegant card.
The stampset is an old favourite from Stamping Up, the Art of Life.
The sentiment is from Clear Dollar Stamps.
Nothing really more to say about this card, hope you have a great day, Anja

Long time, not much stamping....

Since I don't seem to have any inspiration, deep sigh, I am showing you a card we are gonna make in the class on Wednesday at SGD.

Today I sat in my room, wasted a lot of paper and couldn't come up with anything, grrrrrrrr.

I do have to say that I am completeley ready for the class, and have 3 clean bathrooms!

See, there is always something positive!

I need a masculine card for this week so I "borrowed"this one for the class.

The sentiment is from Just Rite and the other stamps are Stampscapes.

Hope you all get to enjoy Family Day!

If you find my inspiration, please send it back quickly,LOL!

Thanks for stopping by, Anja

Masculine again.....

Another masculine card...that will be it for a while. I have used a new to me embossing folder from Sizzix and various stamps from my collection.
There isn't much else to say about this card. This card is not my favourite but well, that happens sometimes....
Have a great day, Anja

More distressed backgrounds..

This picture doesn't do this card justice, just saying, it looks way better IRL.

It's a masculine get well card, as we all know masculine cards are not that easy to make.

Background is made again with Tim Holtz distress inks and the flowers and sentiment stamped in versafine brown. Nothing too complicated just another card for my box.

Thanks for stopping by, Anja

Baby boy card with charm

Walking through some aisles at Michaels the other day while the boys were in a store next door, I really didn't need anything, I found those cute baby charms. Immediateley I was making a card in my head, LOL!

So here is the "hard copy"!

Some stickles on the little feet and a sentiment from Verve, all done.

Hope you are having a great day, thanks for looking, Anja

Distress inks...

So here I am, haven't posted a card in almost a week and now I am showing you a card very similar to the one from 2 posts before.

Anyhow.....I sold that card and I needed a masculine birthday card yesterday and since we are going scrapbooking this weekend, I didn't have much time.

I have had some distress inks from Tim Holtz for a while but really didn't do anything with them, then I looked it up....and fell in love with those inks. They are so easy to play with, making backgrounds with the blending tool, love it!

Hope you have some time to craft today, thanks for stopping by, Anja

Happy 50th Birthday!

I am getting ahead of myself, posting a card for my sister who hasn't had her birthday yet, but I don't think she is checking my blog so keep your fingers crossed.
The stamps I have used are from Clear Dollar Stamps and the numbers from Just Rite, dp from my stash and of course ribbon, bling, stickles and Nestabilities. Did you see all the new Spellbinders coming out?? Way to dangerous, LOL!
Love the Spring feeling of this card, in the real world, it is still winter, cold and snow.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by, Anja

Brayered background

I have never felt like I have mastered the art of brayering....but today after I had talked to a friend about the wonderful things you can do with a brayer...I did ink mine up. Especially the Stampscapes stamps look wonderful on a brayered background, I think. So I guess this one isn't perfect either but I do like the card, it was hard to take a good picture of it, in the phototent the flash kept going off so I took it to the window. We survived another snowstorm today, we got lots of the white stuff again and another snowday for the kids.
It wasn't as bad here as they said it was gonna be, hopefully Spring is around the corner, let's hope the groundhog Willy thinks so too. Happy Ground Hog's Day! Take care, Anja

Going with the ribbon...

For this card I went with the ribbon, love this colour combo and since there were some scraps on my desk.....As much as I like to colour with Tombo's or prismacolour pencils, I do enjoy making cards that don't require colouring.
I guess it all depends on the mood you are in....
Nothing more to say about this card, I am also getting ready for another scrapbooking weekend so I have lots of organizing to do.
Thanks for stopping by, Anja

A beautiful piece of tatting

This card has a beautiful piece of tatting from my friend, Ingrid, check out her blog http://www.tattingrid.blogspot.com/

She did sent me another package with lots of pieces of tatting!

I feel like the cards have to be very special with those pieces...but she is encouring me to use them or throw them out!!! Now that's not gonna happen, LOL!

For this card I have used some paper out of my bin, a MS border punch, ribbon, stickles and a new Sizzix embossing folder and the sentiment is from Just Rite.

Hope you have some time to craft today, thanks for visiting, Anja

P.S. Click on the picture to see it way better!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yesterday I played with the new heart punch from Martha Stewart, I think she would be proud of me, I did use 3 of her punches to make this card, LOL!
A couple of weeks ago my son who is in collega, asked me to make a few Valentine's card....he sold them to the girls, not very romantic, but it made me smile.
Today would be a good day for some cleaning, but I am not motivited at all, so I sit here at the computer, looking at blogs, sipping my coffee and tonight.........we are going to see Brad Paisley!!!
So of course, I need to be all ready for that!!! Have a great day, Anja

A productive day...........

Today was a very fun day!! I got to stamp at a friends house all day! She took really good care of us, serving food and feeding me lunch and we both made quite some cards. I am not gonna share them all at once so please come back to check for more.
This stamp is from my friend and it's from SU, sentiment from CDS. Love this colour combo and I am planning to add some Crystal effects to the flowers.
Hope you had a good day too, thanks for visiting, Anja

More Just Rite

I seem to be on a Just Rite roll, but what's not to love about those lovely stamps?

This one has flowers from the Heartfelt creations line, dp (designer paper) is from my stash and the ribbon....not exactly the colour I wanted it but it looks better in real life.

All the flowers are cut out and some of them are popped up.

I have been putting on the wood stove in the basement and since it is so freezing cold out here, it is the perfect place to be and you just want to stay there, and since all of my stamping stuff is down there....

Have a great day and thanks for looking, Anja

Just Rite cards

Last night I had my Just Rite class at SGD.

As always, it was a lot of fun, a big thank you from me to all the ladies who came out!!

I really appreciate all of you!!

Today I cleaned up my mess, and I had some much needed craft time with the left overs.

Those two cards are very similar to the one we made in the class. The big, turqoise squares are made with Martha Stewart punches and the rest with Spellbinders.

The white background piece is Cuttlebugged with the Swiss Dots and then sprayed with pearl glimmermist, love this effect. You need to do this ahead of time since it needs some time to dry but it will give you a nice, shiny background. I usually dry my pieces between a big fat book.

The silver accents are from the jewelry departmant, they are called spacers, you get lots in a bag and with some bling, they make a nice accent.

Hope you will have some time today too to do something you really like!

Thanks for stopping by, Anja

Sarah Kay card

A very quick post today, I need to leave to pick up the boys.
You would think I did a lot of dreaming this week since I didn`t post anything, not really, just busy.
I started this card last Sunday, it`s been on my desk all this time so today I had to finish it and post it. So here it is, hope you like it, thanks for looking, take care, Anja

Dreaming about Paris..

A couple of years ago my oldest sister and I talked about going to Paris together, how nice would that be. We never went, kids, work, farming , family, distance, she is in Holland and I am here, but that is about to change!!!!
This year she is turning 50 and we are going to Paris!! My ticket is booked and put in the safe for now, first I will fly to Holland, spend some time with family and friends and then we will take the fast train to Paris. So till that time, it's not till the end of March, we can DREAM about Paris.
This card is for her, when I saw this small Paris stamp set from Hot off the press for $1.50, I had to have it. The Eiffel tower is cut out and popped up with antique Crystal clear over it. I don't really make vintage cards, I am not very good at it, but I do like how this turned out.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by, Anja

While I was working on my cards for the upcoming Just Rite class
at SGD on Wednesday, January 19, I also made another card with the Soloz flower.
The flower is again coloured with Prisma's and Gamsol, the sentiment is from Hannah stamps.
The flower is cut out and popped up, the center even twice.
My cards for the class are done, and the mess on my desk is cleaned up, ready for another project. I can't believe the messes I make and how little space is left to make a card...
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by, Anja

Soloz flower and a crooked picture...

Oops, I took the picture on an angel... not so good, will try better next time.
I had some time to play this weekend and found some unused stamps, LOL!
This cute flower is from Michaels, you know the bins by the registers...with all cute, cheap stamps, well, I have a few of those. I have coloured the flower with Prismacolour pencils and Gamsol, cut it out, the centre twice, stickled it up and popped it up.
The dp is all retired SU paper, I bought this at the garage sale. The sentiment is from Verve, fits perfect with the SU slot punch.
I really like this card myself, hope you do too, take care and thanks for stopping by, Anja

Happy New Year and a card!

Happy New Year to all of you!!
Today I had some time to turn this previous watercoloured image into a card. I wasn't sure at first, but after I finished it, I have to say, it's growing on me. The main image is from Stampabilities and the sentiment is from Verve. The size of this card is 51/4 x 51/4, the bigger image really needed to be on a bigger card. Love all the space you get.
The dp is from My Mind's Eye and the rest is pretty basic, some punches, and Nestabilities.
Have a great evening and thanks for stopping by, Anja

Another MFT card......

Hope you all had a good Christmas! We did, it was just our family minus our oldest son who is in Australia but he called on Christmas morning which was a great gift!
All of us got presents we really liked, surprise, surprise.
I walk around in this messy house this morning and I am wondering how quickly it can go from tidy to a huge mess, I know, it's not important, we had a great time as a family!! None of us will remember the mess but hopefully the good times we had.
I did sit down yesterday, not really sure what to do, found this stamp from MTF on my desk and played with it again. The image is coloured with Prisma's and Gamsol, paper is from My Mind's Eye. There are different colours of stickles on it.
Hope your day is going great, I am off to do some housework, take care, Anja

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! With love, Anja

Elegant card in white.

Grrr, can't get a good picture to show off my elegant card.
It's hard to see in the picture that there is one layer of acetate and what is popped up and not.
The sentiment says :Get well, in Dutch and I would like to submit this card for the challenge I found here: www.eenhoopinspiratiechallenge.blogspot.com
A Dutch site with lots of inspiration, all the good things you can find while blogsurfing,LOL!
I love making all kind of cards although I have to say, making an elegant card is sometimes easier for me than a cute one.
If you click on the picture you might be able to see all the layers better.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by, Anja

Bright and sunshiney day!

How about a bright and sunshiney day?? How nice would that be, instead of all this snow and cold weather!
This cute stampset is from My Favorite Things and I got it from SGD.
The image is coloured with Prisma's and Gamsol then cut out and popped up.
The paper comes from a 6x6 pad of My Mind's Eye, fine and dandy.
Hope you are having a good day, thanks for stopping by, Anja

CIC#20. one more Christmas card!

I haven't done any challlenges for a while from Clear Dollar stamps but I did play for this one.

You can find all the info here: www.clearlyistamp.typepad.com

The challenge is to use 3 different shades of blue with black or white as your neutral.

Hmmm, it wasn't easy to match up 3 shades but this is what I came up with, I found this glitter paper in my stack and paired it up with caribbean an pacific blue.

The ornaments are from a little set called Ornament accents, I have coloured them with twinkling H2O's, then I cut out 3 of them and popped them up and I also set them off a little bit.

Don't know from which company the little sentiment is, had it forever, it's just the right size for the tag.

I had to add the pink....it didn't say I couldn't add another colour,LOL!

Have a great day and thanks for looking, Anja

Spring anyone?

Do you think it would stop snowing if I post a Spring card? It is still snowing, blowing and cold. The kids are home again today, last week they also had 3 snowdays!
They are hoping that they can go to school tomorrow....
So today I am posting a card in Spring colours, the flowers are from Clear Dollar stamps and the sentiment from Stampendous, I think.
My Christmas cards are all done for this year, if I only could get to town to mail them....
Have a great day, thanks for stopping by, Anja

High flyin' mouse

Isn't this mouse cute? It's a stamp from High Hopes and I like it!
I have watercoloured the image with Tombo's, trying to match the papers from the Mini Deck Joy Ride (Cosmo Cricket). The sentiment is from Clear Dollar stamps. The balloon is cut out twice, popped up, and has some Crystal effect over it. The buttons on the mouse' pants and the two little dots beside the sentiment are done with Pewter Liquid pearls. Some Nestabilities and a MS border punch along the bottom.
I really like this card, hope you do too, have a great day, Anja

Sweet Lili

It stopped snowing and the roads are getting cleared up, don't know for how long, it looks like more snow is on it's way, I better stock up on some groceries and we'll wait and see.
The sun was shining in my basement, I am done with Christmas cards and pulled out this High Hopes stamp, I was in a "soft" mood, lots of pink and soft colours.
The sentiment is from CTMH, the frame around Lili is made with the Cricut, Lacy Labels, love that cartridge.
I pulled out my Tombo's and since it has been a while...I am not sure, this is my best colouring.
Thanks for stopping by, take care, Anja

A Chrismas card

Here is the card I made, had to use some snowflakes on it, LOL!

The sentiment is from Clear Dollar stamps, the embossing folder from Sizzix, lots of different Nestabilities, MS punches and some snowflake punches.

I wanted to try to put an MS border along my oval, it took some practicing but it worked, I think it is a nice effect.

I am ready to be done with Christmas cards, I am gonna play with some other stamps today.

Have a great day, Anja

Snow, snow, and a card......

We are snowed in!!! Can't believe how much snow we are having and it keeps coming down!

The boys are home, and my husband spends a lot of time on the snow blower trying to keep up.

I am thankful that we are all safe and sound at home, we are getting the generator ready, just in case....

So I got to make a card but blogger wouldn't let me upload more than 5 pictures so I'll make another post for the card.

Thanks for stopping by, take care, Anja

Sharing my recipe....

No card today....yet, hope to make one later after we put up some decorations. The kids are home, we have so much snow, and it keeps coming down!!!
On Saturday we had an awesome day at SCRAPPINGREATDEALS!!
If you were there, you know what I am talking about, if you didn't have a change to come out, there is always next time.
I brought a boterkoek on Saturday and many ladies asked for the recipe....so here we go:

1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup of margarine
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp of almond flavouring

Mix very well, I mix it for about 5 minutes , then add:
2 1/2 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder

Put into 2 buttered 9 inch pie plates or in one 9 x 13 dish, brush with beaten egg, bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

It is such an easy recipe, now you can make it too, it also freezes really well.
I got this particular recipe from a Dutch lady from Alberta a couple of years ago, I have tried different variations but this is my favourite.
The special thing about this recipe......on certain days there are no calories in it,LOL!!
They will go straight to your hips or somewhere else, LOL!!
Have a great day, thanks for stopping by, Anja

Winter wedding wishes

It's snowing pretty hard here, you can't see the grass anymore, perfect stamping weather, I think. This card is for a wedding and I have had some fun with Flowersoft,
had it for a while but I really didn't do much with it, love this effect around the oval.
I have used the colours that were in the invitation, the corners are from Sizzix, as is the embossed background.
Don't forget to check out the website from SCRAPPINGREATDEALS!
Tomorrow is the big day, the 2nd Anniversary from the store, with awesome DEALS AND PRIZES!!! And did I mention the FREE MAKE AND TAKES???
Hope to see you there, thanks for stopping by, Anja

Making up for more than a week....

It's been too long......so I better try to make up some of that. It's not that I have nothing to show, these are 3 of the 4 cards of a class I did for Scrappingreatdeals.

And I am happy to announce that I have finished all my Christmas cards, about 55!!

I will post one soon, they are mostly all the same and a few different ones.

I am also all prepared for the big Anniversare Fun Day at Scrappingreatdeals this Saturday!!!

There will be free Make and Takes, lots of awesome prizes, food and refreshments....check it out on the website www.scrappingreatdeals.com

The fun will start at 10 AM and the make and takes will run till 3 PM!!!

So now you know what I have been doing, getting ready for Christmas and do lots of stuff in my craft room, oh , and I also did some shopping,to get the creative juices going, LOL!

Have a great night and thanks for stopping by, Anja

Hope you like pink......lots of pink...

Hope you like pink and flowers, lots of them,LOL!
I had a plan in my head, didn't exactly come out as I thought. So now I have a card with lots of pink, green, flowers and bling! The sentiment is from Clear Dollar Stamps, the flowers are made with dies from Crealies and for the center I used a little punch. The leaf die is from Quick cut.
French script from SU is stamped in the background and the embossed panel is a folder from Sizzix.
Hope to get some time to stamp today, enjoy your day and thanks for looking, Anja

Just a simple card.....

A very, simple card for today, since I had no time and no inspiration at all.
By the way, it looks better IRL.
The dp is from Linen Closet, beautiful papers, perfect for elegant cards.
Today I have some organizing to do in my craft room, the mess is unbelievable, it's no wonder I can't do much.
So I am off to do some much needed work, take care, Anja

Happy Birthday, son!

Yesterday our second oldest son had a birthday and we drove all the way up north to visit him! We had a lovely visit and went out for dinner, we had a great time.
Here is the card I made for him, a while ago I saw those tool embellishments at the Dollar store and thought they would look great on a masculine card, well, here they are. They go perfect with this new embossing folder from Crafts too. I embossed it and then sanded it lightly. Stamps are from Just Rite, ribbon from SU and the scraps of paper from Basic Grey.
Later on I thought, that maybe the 2 little brads should have been a different colour....
It can't always be perfect, LOL!
Thanks for stopping by, Anja

Remembrance Day card? CC296

On Remembrance Day I started to colour this image of poppies, didn't go very well so I left it and last night I tried again, This time it's much better, red is a bit challenging for watercolouring with Tombo's. The background is a Crafts too folder, the sentiment from Verve stamps, some Nestabilities, ribbon and SU punches.

The colour challenge on splitcoast this week is poppy red, tempting turqoise, white and a neutral of your choice, so this card is right on, I think.

Hope you are having a great day, thanks for looking, Anja

Elegant card for your special day

So many things going on, so little time to stamp.....but I am not complaining, it's all good! After a productive scrapbookweekend with lots of fun and 33 pages done, getting ready for a workshop and having our oldest son home after being gone for 8 months.....I am really enjoying this time, and tomorrow we are driving up north to celebrate the birthday of the one that is not home at the moment. Love my family!
It's also such nice weather, way too nice not to spend time outside before Mr. Winter comes with all it's glory. But today I did make a card....an elegant one with Just Rite stamps and some border and corner punches. The dp is from Basic Grey, flowers out of my box, pearls to finish off this project.
Hope you like it, have a great day and thanks for stopping by, Anja