December Daily 2012 - Day 31

Two weeks ago, 2 of my colleagues went to the recording of a New Year's tv show. It was broadcasted tonight, and lo and behold, there they were on air! The host even asked one of my colleagues a question, and I used a screen shot of that moment as today's picture.

And we're done! Woohoo!
This format was much more doable than last year's album (that still isn't finished...), a definite improvement!

December Daily 2012 | Day 30

A common occurence these past few weeks: taking my vitamin D supplement...

December Daily 2012 | Day 29

One of my December traditions: buying a ticket for the New Year's lottery. Who knows, I might start 2013 off as a millionaire! ;-) 

December Daily 2012 | Day 28

Another quiz on TV (a review of 2012 this time), so another pocket in my album containing the sheets of notebook paper I used to write down the answers.

December Daily 2012 | Day 27

Watching TV and cuddling with one of my guinea pig girls.

December Daily 2012 | Day 26

My friend Alexandra and I went to the theater for a ballet performance of Tchaikovky's Sleeping Beauty.

December Daily 2012 | Day 25

Christmas dinner with the 'rents.

December Daily 2012 | Day 24

In previous years, my parents and I would exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. We agreed not to get each other gifts this year, but I did buy myself a new e-reader ;-)

December Daily 2012 | Day 23

Visit to the movie theater to see Koning van Katoren, a movie adaptation of one of my favourite books as a child. I took a photo of the movie poster ;-)

December Daily 2012 | Day 22

All the vegan cookbooks I bought the last 1,5 months or so...

December Daily 2012 | Day 21

Annual Christmas party at work.

December Daily 2012 | Day 20

I texted my parents exactly at 20.12hrs, but due to the time difference they didn't get it...

December Daily 2012 | Day 19

A busy day running around and getting to the hairdressers just before closing time.

December Daily 2012 | Day 18

The restaurant at work was closed, so I busted out one of my bento boxes for a simple homemade lunch.

December Daily 2012 | Day 17

The Christmas tree at work, with some of the gifts bought for the Food Bank Project.

December Daily 2012 | Day 16

The gifts I bought this year for the Food Bank Project at work.

December Daily 2012 | Day 15

A day trip to Holland's largest Christmas Fair in Dordrecht with my aunt.

December Daily 2012 | Day 14

My folks went on holiday today, and forgot to give their house keys to the neighbours - they asked me to give them my set ;-)

December Daily 2012 | Day 13

I ordered a bunch of stuff at 2Peas awhile ago and it got delivered today.

December Daily 2012 | Day 12

No photo, but the sheets I used to write on for a quiz on TV tucked into a little envelope.
I tied it in with the rest of the album by repeating the felt tree and baker's twine.

December Daily 2012 | Day 11

My personal First Aid kit these past few days.

December Daily 2012 | Day 10

Taking it easy at home, and putting up the Christmas tree a bit at a time throughout the day.

December Daily 2012 | Day 9

I've been feeling a bit icky lately, and today it became clear why: I have a fever.

December Daily 2012 | Day 8

One of my must-have dishes in December - cooking pears. YUM!

December Daily 2012 | Day 8

One of my must-have dishes in December: cooking pears - YUM!

December Daily 2012 | Day 7

This morning I woke up to an all-white world!

December Daily 2012 | Day 6

A page about my Christmas cards, that were delivered earlier this week.

December Daily 2012 | Day 5

Another photo-less page. I used the packaging from the chocolate letter we each got at work for St. Nicholas.

December Daily 2012 | Day 4

No photo, but a copy of an email announcing the birth of the daughter of one of my friends (the official birth announcement will probably be in my mailbox later this week)

December Daily 2012 | Day 3

I spend most of yesterday afternoon baking so I could treat my colleagues for my birthday today.

December Daily 2012 | Day 2

I treated my parents to dinner for my birthday. It was delicious!

December Daily 2012 | Day 1

I wasn't sure whether I would do another December Daily album this year, considering that I never finished last year's... One thing was certain: I had to simplify the process to ensure I kept up with it for the entire month.

Ali Edwards herself used a 4x6 album from Studio Calico for this year's album, but the kit it came with sold out in no-time and I couldn't find a decent substitute. However, I did have an old linen album that I bought at HEMA ages ago (that they no longer sell). It was meant as a storage album for cd's, but Moniek used it for a mini-album in the past, and I liked that idea so much that I bought a couple to use in due time. And it appears that time has now come ;-)

It doesn't quite fit 4x6 pageprotectors, so I has to improvise. I gathered several sheets of Basic Grey double sided paper from different winter collections and cut them to 13,3cmx15cm. Instead of buying ready-made digital templates, I made my own photo template (for just 1 photo) and journaling templates (1 red, 1 green) in Photoshop.

Ali used wood veneer trees in her album, and I had some felt ones laying around - perfect!
I added green felt letter stickers on the cover and a bit of red baker's twine to finish it off.

The first page has a bingo card from a Simple Stories sheet, another felt tree and some baker's twine.

The dates were added using my extensive collection of letter stickers...

 

This first day of December, my friend Alexandra and I visited the zoo.

Christmas card 2012

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted! Not that I haven't done anything creative that long, it's just that all these projects are in various stages of completion. (I'm very good at starting something - finishing it is where it gets a bit hard...)

Anyways, for the 3rd consecutive year, I've had my own Christmas cards printed featuring a wintery photo I took myself. This year's photo was taken last winter, when we had a bunch of snow and I went to the local park to take photos. This heron was posing perfectly :-)

Here's the SOOC:

And here's the result after I applied some actions:

I know I've pimped them before, but I really love Pioneer Woman's free actions for Photoshop or PS Elements!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge | PLOAW Week 10

There are lots of scrapbooking kit clubs out there - I´ve even subscribed to a few in the past. The problem is, most scrappers already have enough ´stuff´ to last them a lifetime. Not to mention it can get a bit pricy to subscribe, especially if you live overseas.

Enter the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog.
Their goal: to encourage you shop your own scrapbook stash to mimic a pretty club kit.
The benefits: you save money and also put a dent in your existing pile of supplies. In addition, you´re challenged to think outside the box to come up with substitutes for items you don´t have, sparking a whole new wave of creativity plus you most likely come across items you forgot you had in the first place.

This idea inspired me when I posted the PLOAW challenge for week 10, which was to create your own scrapbook kit. For weeks I´ve been thinking about how to go about this challenge. Then, when I was surfing the web recently, I came across CKCB again and noticed their challenge for June: instead of picking a specific kit, create your own kit with a select number of items.
The list of items to include was taken form the Two Peas National Scrapbook Day video by Shimelle Laine and consisted of:

10 sheets patterned paper

8 sheets cardstock

2 alphabet sets

2 stamp sets

4 journaling spots

3 types of "choose your own" style embellishments (flowers, border strips, ribbon, anything you like)

1 roll washi tape

1 "old" embellishment

1 messy item (paint, embossing, mists, etc)

1 other item of your choice 

While checking out past challenges on the blog, I found the challenge for March in which a kit from Birds of a Feather was picked as inspiration. The main colours were yellow and blue, and I decided to make my own kit based on this one too, but using the list above a guideline.

Here´s my kit:

I used:

10 sheets of different patterned paper in blue, yellow and neutral tones

8 sheets cardstock in a total of 7 colours

2 alphabet sets - a large script one in blue (Websters) en a small one in cream (Making Memories)

2 stamp sets - different backgrounds from 1 set (unknown brand) and chevrons (Lawn Fawn)

4 journaling spots - by Tim Holtz, Making Memories, from a random paper sheet and from a set by Every Jot and Tittle at Etsy.   

3 types of "choose your own" style embellishments (flowers, border strips, ribbon, anything you like) - blue baker´s twine, ornate brads (old ones from making Memories) and a selection of stickers in blue and yellow tones.

1 roll washi tape - grey grid

1 "old" embellishment - dismantled silk flowers 

1 messy item (paint, embossing, mists, etc) - clear embossing powder and 2 colours stamping ink (Distress in Scattered Straw and Faded Jeans)

1 other item of your choice - glassine envelopes

ETA - and here are 4 pages that I made (so far):

You Story Matters

The person behind the Layout A Day challenge (a.k.a. LOAD), Lain Ehmann, has a new class: Your Story Matters.

Most scrappers take photos and make pages about pretty much anything - except themselves! The idea of this class is to get the scrapper into their scrapbooks. And the best part? You get to pick how much (or how little, as the case may be) you are willing to spend to participate!

I signed up for last year's YSM class but ended up not making any pages. Let's see how I'll fare this time around...

PLOAW Week 24

I posted the challenge for week 24 yesterday, a few days into EURO 2012. Needless to say I took my inspiration from the tournament: make a page about football and/or using the colour orange.

A few years ago, I participated in Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life class at BPC. All of the pages were either in 12x12 or 8,5x11 format, while I normally scrapbook on A4-format.
Because I still love the topics I scrapped about during the class, I've slowly but surely started to re-do them on A4-format. That way I could keep my Design Your Life album intact, but also include these stories into my 'regular' A4 albums.

You can see some of those pages here, here, here, here, here and here.

Here's another one I've redone just yesterday, and since I've used orange accents I'd say it meets the challenge ;-)

The original at 8,5x11:

The A4-version:

Granny Square throw

With all the scrapbooking I've done lately, you'd almost forget there are lots of other crafts out there as well ;-)

When crocheting became "hip" again last year, I set my mind to making my own granny square throw. Once I'd found some yarn that I liked, I looked for a nice pattern to make a red polka-dot throw.

The nice thing about granny squares: they're managable. You can make as few or as many as you want in an evening. If you'd wanted, you could even bring some yarn and a hook with you and do some crocheting when having coffee with a friend, while waiting at City Hall or during a subway ride...

Having said that, I made a start but am nowhere near finished:

Nine down, approximately 141 left to go...

Free Photoshop Class

Been wanting to learn more about how to use Photoshop and/or Photoshop Elements?
JessicaSprague.com is currently offering a free online class: The Photoshop Top 5: Five Techniques Everyone Should Know.

The class runs from 18-23 June, and you will need to register to participate.

PLOAW mini album

With LOAD 512 under my belt, I'm taking a bit of a crafting break - it's cost me a lot of energy, so I need some time to regroup...
This means that I'm a bit behind on my PLOAW pages. To make up for it, I borrowed an idea from my scrapbook friend and fellow PLOAW-ster A., who's collected all the challenges so far in an art journal.

Instead of only journaling about the challenges, I wanted to include the final result as well. Since I scan in all my pages anyway, it was quite easy to print them out to include in my mini-album.

I used a small A6-size Hema slip-in photo-album, printed out the challenges on craft cardstock and added the printed LO on the other side of the page. I used some Thickers letter stickers on the spine and ta dá,  there you go: a cute little PLOAW mini album!