Have to take priorities..

Hi girls!

I know you guys already  noticed some quiet times here on my blog and I just have to tell you that I had to stop designing for my DT teams. I really am so sad about it, but I have to take responsibilities and make priorities and I have to pick school before hobbies.

I will keep on scrapping, just not as frequent as I wish I could!

xo Danielle

Once upon a sketch

Yourscrapbookstash is sponsering Once Upon a sketch! The talented Nadia just recently started the sketch blog and she is ROCKING it!!!

This is the sketch we had to work with:

Just love how the sketches look. So different and FUN!

And here is the layout I created using mostly products from my YSS monthly kit

Some Theresa Collins Timeless papers and Jenni Bowlin bingo cards... Also curio chipboard shapes from Basic Grey, Crate paper sticker and Jenni Bowlin ticket.

Go check out all the other work, it's AMAZING!!

Happy creating!

xo Danielle

Time to see...

Well, getting a new kit from Yourscrapbookstash every month is a true pleasure.. Erica always picks the most gorgeous products. this month we were challenged to use paper for embellishments too.. and gosh.. well I have a HARD time doing that for sure! it's almost impossible! LOL i just love the embellishments out there way too much to skip them.

BUT I tried.

I received the beautiful Timeless papers from Theresa Collins and the Country Estate papers from websters pages. i know there are so many cut out possibilities, I just really suck at it! LOL

This time i also used the new sketch from sketchabilities. Sketch 46 is up and again Karan has outdone herself.. her sketches are the best and I love working with them!

This is the sketch:

Here is my layout:

It truly is a challenge to use paper as embellishments. You should try it! I hope you will play along with the sketch! 

See you soon!

xo Danielle

Who you are.

Just a little reminder to remember who I am. To not pretend I am better or less then the person I am, because I am good enough to be me...

Again using the gorgeous papers from Websters pages Country Estate and some cut outs from Theresa Collins Timeless that was in my YSS kit this month. Also a Gypsy 45 card, Maya road chipboard butterflies, a doily, Echo park For the record sticker and Basic Grey Basics paper. I also used some yellow mist to represent the sun... and ofcourse some stickles to finish it off.

Hope you have a great day!!

xo Danielle

Sketchabilities.. first layout!

Whooohooo! I am still so excited to be on the sketchabilities design team!! Our first month started and I can finally show you my very first layout using sketch nr 45. Karan is such an amazing sketch creator. I LOVE the layouts I create with them.

This is the sketch that is up right now:

And here is my layout:

I used the gorgeous papers from Websters pages Country Estate I got in my kit this month from yourscrapbookstash.com. LOVE them!! I also created this leaf swirl using my moms die cut machine. I think it turned out pretty cute!!

Go check out what the other talented DT members created with this sketch.. they are all so gorgeous!

Thank you so much for coming by!

xo Danielle

Guest designer at Creative Scrappers!

YIHAAAAA! I am back!

Spring days are here and I am enjoying my days with the boys outside and with Summer coming up I am spending nights in the gym and doing school work.. well I just really didn't had the energy and inspiration to scrap.. but I think I found my mojo back!!

I am a guest designer over at creative scrappers! I am SO honored and excited to be a guest designer. Thank you so much for having me over girls!!

This is the sketch we had to work with:

And this is the layout I created:

(sorry for the very bad photo)

I used the new Country Estate papers from Websters pages and actually did a cut out! whoohoo! LOL I just really am not good at cutting things out of paper.. give me some ready to go embellishments and I am good, but cutting out.. well not my thing I guess! 

I absolutely loved working with the sketch and the CS design team did some amazing work as always!

Thanks for taking a peek!!

Again, thank you SO much Kristine for having me!!

xo Danielle

How to - create a dress form without sewing

Hi guys!

Well.. I can't sew.. let's just cut it short and be honest here... I have a really cute sewing machine standing on my desk here.. but all it does is collecting dust.. I tried! I tried really hard to make it work, it just doesn't.. The thread keeps breaking, I get frustrated, the thread disappears.. well just everything that can go wrong goes wrong and at the end I am left with what once was a beautiful layout, but now is pierced with holes that should be filled with thread. 

When we received our monthly scrapbook kit from Erica at yourscrapbookstash.com, there were 2 Maya Road mini spools in it and we had a special assignment to do something fun with them.. since I am not the very best at creating altered project I wanted to have this done before starting on layouts so i thought and searched hard to get an idea of what to do with them.

I always LOVE the dress form people create out of fabric and was instantly surprised that this cute idea popped into my head. Why not make an altered dress form and use the mini spools as a stand for it. Why not make this dress form out of polystyrene?! YES! Well.. we just bought a new tv, so there was MORE THEN ENOUGH polystyrene.. LOL I could have made 100! ;)

So after searching for a dressform silhouette in google images I found a cute one and resized it into 5 inches high and 2.5 inches wide.

After that I put the print on some polystyrene and cut it out with a craft knife. It does make a huge mess, so it is best to do it over some garbage can or something similar. 

Here is how it looks.

After that cut two of the same silhouettes out of your favorite paper. I used the Pink Paislee sweetness paper that was in my kit this month.

Glue these on both sides of the polystyrene dressform and voila. no sewing needed and a great base for your pins! LOL

To cover the polystyrene sides I added some gorgeous May arts lace.

So then all we need is something to have it stand on. A wooden craft stick is a great solution AND it fits perfectly in the wooden spools we will be using for the base.

Now lets concentrate on making it prettttty! Use some of your favorite embellishments to create a nice look for her. 

I used some Websters pages bloomers trim, some more May arts lace to create a bow, a vintage Jenni Bowlin button and some different pins from Maya Road to stuck in the sides of the dress form.

And ofcourse we need to embellish the other side too!

Also a vintage Jenni Bowlin button and some Jillibean Soup twine.

I also added 2 prima flowers to create a little extra dimension on the side. Stuck in some more pins... and called it done.

It was time to concentrate on the base.

I cut out a large circle (3.5 inches to be exactly) and a small circle (1.5 inch). On there I glued my 2 wooden spools and embellished them with the border stickers from the sweetness collection from Pink Paislee. I also added some sequin trim. On top of the wooden spools I glued a little netting from Websters Pages and the base I embellished using another vintage Jenni Bowlin button, some Jillibean Soup twine, a Bo Bunny flower and a Prima flower. I also loved these Prima crystals, so I added 2 of these too.

after that it is just a matter of putting some glue on the wooden craft stick on the bottom and stick it in. I am thinking of making a polystyrene base so it stands more secure, but it works fine without it too.

and here is the result:

It's super easy and FUN! And I  totally like how it looks on my desk. I am sticking in all the pins I have for some easy access and it makes me happy every time I look at it.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please let me know if you have any comments or questions and if you have made a dressform, please show me!! I would love to see it!

Happy creating!!

xo Danielle

Confession..

Ugh... I am stuck.. I feel not too well, being sick and all.. and my creativity is nowhere to be found. My head is overflowing with things I like, things I want to do and things I would love to include in my scrapping journey, but it is just not working out.. there is nothing coming out of my hands and I feel like my brain is so overflowing with ideas that I am just stuck in what to do. I would love to create an art journal, but I just really suck at painting and all.. I just can't do it.. then I would really love to scrap my boys and show them online which is no option because my husband doesn't want to have them published online.. and then there is doing the AAM pages which I LOVE but there are days that I just don't feel comfortable to take photos of myself.. and well, these AAM photos are all scrapped... I just started a page which I was so unsure about.. it is just not something I see as a perfect art journaling or layout.. it's somewhere in between or.. well I just don't know. I am probably thinking too much about all of this, which is not a good thing to do, obviously.

Anyway.. it is not helping that I feel so bad about not getting the deadlines and I am so sorry about that. I just can't commit and submit layouts that I know are not what I am capable of.

So I finally finished this art journal/feeling/quote layout and it took me 3 days of staring and walking away and finally 2 hours to finish. I am done with thinking.. I just want to do it and well.. I try not to care about it too much..

Here is my layout using the springtime papers and stickers from Echo Park which was in my YSS kit this month.

thank you so much for all the comments you leave me.. they are really appreciated!!

xo Danielle

OMG!!

Look at me!! well.. I still cant believe it, but looking at Donna Salazar's blog it is true for sure! She just announced her guest Design Team and I am on there as well!

---------------

And here are my guest designers for the 2011 - 2012 Design Team

USA Guest Designers (listed alphabetically)

Gini Williams - North Carolina 

Jan Hennings, Iowa 

Lynn Forsythe - New Hampshire 

Mandy Harrel - Oregon 

Rhonda Van Ginkel - Minnesota 

Terre Fry - Arizona 

International Guest Designers (listed alphabetically)

Beverly Cunningham, New Zealand 

Danielle Aubroeck - The Netherlands 

Erika Taylor - Canada 

Leticia Seki - Brazil 

Sandi Smith - Canada 

Wendela Lam - The Netherlands 

-----------------------

I am super excited and happy for all the other girls.. this is SO exciting!!

Lets go shopping!

Your Scrapbook Stash

Just some info for Your Scrapbook Stash: 

YSS Updates:

1) Sketch Contest

There is a Sketch contest going on at the YSS blog. Deadline to enter is March 31st, 2011. Click HERE for more info!

2) One Day Specials

March 17th, EVERYONE is Irish! We have a few special one day savings events just for YOU!

First, take 17% off your entire order with us today. Only on orders placed on March 17th. Discount is taken off the final total of your order. Includes, Pre-Order, In Stock and SALE items.

What else are we offering? How about DOUBLE Frequent Shopper Points. Spend $50, get 100 points! More savings on your next order with us!

(All other promotions apply ie: free shipping, Stash Cash etc)

Valid only until March 17th, 2011

Welcome spring!

When I received my monthly yourscrapbookstash kit I was SUPER excited to get the Springtime collection from Echo Park. I LOVE their products and the colors of this line are so fresh and happy! It totally got me in the mood for spring... too bad it is still way too cold over here for spring... BUT we finally have some rays of sun during the day.. these totally make me happy!

Butterfly crafts is having their first sketch on the blog with the new design team entries. All the girls are so creative! I love watching the different takes using the sketch..

This is the sketch I am talking about:

And this is the layout I made using Echo Park Springtime and the sketch above:

Hop over to the butterfly crafts blog and also to the yourscrapbookstash store for some AMAZING deals on scrapbook supplies.. they are truly one of the cheapest stores I found online!

Happy creating!

Danielle

Trying something new..

Hello sweet people!

One of my secrets is that I adore art journaling and always envy the persons who are so good at it. I bought paints, pens, special stamps, inks etc to start art journaling but I never had the courage or thought I was good enough.. Thinking of what kind of layout I wanted to make for the scrap yourself blog made me think of this little secret of mine. Yesterday night I just wanted to get messy with paint so I tried my hand at doing a page.

I bought the Pink Paislee parisian album and some refills and I just want to make the jump into doing a combination of scrapbooking and art journaling. Why not? Can I make mistakes? sure! Will that matter? no way.. so I challenge you to just take a jump at whatever you have as a little secret and just do it!!

Here is the 5x7 art journal layout I created using the art supplies I bought for art journaling.

It includes some Basic Grey paper from the basics collection, MME lost and found sticker, Tim holtz stamps, October afternoon seaside paper and a Echo Park pink heart. I also had to include some Studio Calico sunshine misting and some Ranger stickles!

It might not be as artsy as some of the art journaling out there, but I learned there is no right or wrong and.. well I totally like it.. so it makes me happy. Thats the point right?!

Now go think of a little secret and take a chance at it! 

Happy creating!

xo Danielle

Updates!

Aloha!

Yes I have some updates to do... I got accepted on 2 more design teams.. I am SUPER excited to create for the following 2 sites:

and

WHOHOOOOO!!! Sketchabilities will be perfect for me since I love to create with sketches and be inspired by them. I hope you will follow me there because Karan makes the BEST sketches for us!! You will love them for sure!

Butterfly Crafts is a fun website that creates 2 challenges a month using visual inspiration for all of us.. it is going to be FUN FUN FUN!

ALSO..

I have received my monthly kit from yourscrapbookstash.com and we had a fun challenge to use 2 mini spools from Maya Road.

This is what I created using the Pink Paislee sweetness papers and borders (thanks Erica for sending me some Pink Paislee too.. SO in love with that line!!!) sequin ribbon, lace, Maya Road ticket and pins, Jillibean Soup twine, Websters Pages bloomers and netting, Jenni Bowlin vintage buttons, Prima flowers and and ofcourse the wooden spools from Maya road.

It was SO much fun creating this dressform and also SO easy!! I didn't do ANY sewing (I found out I just really suck at doing anything with my sewing machine) and it was finished in half a day! I will create a tutorial for the YSS blog and will post it here too when I finish it..

There is a fun new store opening soon and Lisa, the owner is giving away some great candy on her blog HERE, so join in for a chance to win some copics!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at my blog ladies, your comments make my day!!

xo Danielle

Back home..

So yes, we are back home and we had a wonderful silly and most of all fun kids vacation! We went to a CenterParcs vacation park that had SO much fun activities for the boys.. I can say we never had a more unselfish vacation until now.. we did the most fun and silly things for these 2 happy boys that totally enjoyed them selfs being kids... Well see results below...

I have been working on a really cool project this weekend including 2 mini wooden spools from Maya Road.. I will finish all off today and will be back sharing it tomorrow!

Hope to comment around my favorite blogs today! 

xo Danielle

Bird House

So I was going through some of my scrap files and found the photos of the bird house I created for the yourscrapbookstash DT call.

I LOVE birdhouses and I always wanted to make one since I saw them showing up in the galleries so often.

Today I just wanted to show you my version using mostly the Conservatory line from 7Gypsies available at yourscrapbookstash.com

Hope you like it!!

Happy creating!

xo Danielle

Smell the flowers

Thats right! You've got to smell the flowers!!

Flowers is my first subject at the scrap yourself blog. A perfect place to get inspiration to scrap about YOU! Because YOU are important too! YES! 

You may notice that I scrap a lot about myself, while I still have two children. One is that my husband is not very into publishing photos online from them.. a bit protective I guess, but ofcourse I accept his thoughts and feelings (although I will sneak one in once in a while LOL).. another factor is that I DO love to scrap about myself. Not only because I am important too, but to self reflect, to learn, to accept. 

They don't have to be all deep and meaningful, they can be about everyday life and still be treasured in further generations! I know I would LOVE to have a scrap album about my mom or grandma.. how fun would that be?! So I just assume that my kids, grandkids and further generations would love to read and get to know me through my own words, thoughts, feelings and art.

Here is my layout:

I used the gorgeous chipboard from Basic Grey's Curio collection available at yourscrapbookstash.com for a REALLY great price with 25% off!!! They have the perfect price for everything, really.. and there is always some brand at sale! Go check the blog for announcements and special coupons!

They also have a DT spot left!!! So if you're from the US or Canada, go grab your chance! Erica is the sweetest to work with and she selects the prettiest things!

Good luck and happy creating!

xo Danielle

Sketch Challenge

Hi guys!

I created a fun sketch for the sketch challenge at the yourscrapbookstash blog.

Here is my first ever sketch:

and here is my layout:

I thought all the strips of paper/ribbon where such a fun element. I also bought these fun paper spools at a local store and used it to attach the banner to.

This sketch is a perfect way to use up some scraps of paper! Come over at the blog, create a page using my sketch and have a chance on winning some great prizes from yourscrapbookstash.com! Hope to see you there!

Happy creating!

xo Danielle

Leaving for vacation!

Yay! We're leaving for a week to Belgium with our family so I won't be around much.. I will have some pre-scheduled posts though! see you next Friday! 

xo Danielle

Scrap Yourself

YAY!! I am finally allowed to tell you all about a little secret I've been having.... 

I'm on the Scrap Yourself Design Team!!

I am so happy to be creating along all the new amazing talented ladies over there!! you can see the announcement HERE. A very special thanks to Chalese for inviting me on the team, I absolutely love it! I love to scrap  my own life and thoughts so this will be a incredibly fun journey! 

And to start this journey here is the layout I submitted to the Scrap Yourself DT call

Hope to inspire you to scrap not only kids, pets, husbands, friends and surroundings, but also YOU! because we can tell a very important story to all of them who love us.

Happy creating!

Danielle

Hello all!

I hope everyone of you had a great Valentines day!! I know I did!! I got some gorgeous flowers from my sweet husband AND a new car! YES!! a real car that is.. I am SOOO happy. It's a black Peugeot 107 and I love how tough it looks.. It's a sweet, small, cool car!

Last weekend we also celebrated our oldest sons birthday, so that was hectic! He had his birthday party for his friends yesterday which was exhausting but fun! And now I am totally back and ready again to do some creative work! I already missed it after a couple of days no scrapping.

Here is my valentines layout. I know it's a bit late, I wish I posted it Monday, but hey.. life gets in the way sometimes right?!

I used products from Yourscrapbookstash.com. the perfect online store to grab your products for amazing prices! I used the sweetness line from Pink Paislee.Clear doilies, ribbon, envelope, chipboard heart and pins from Maya Road. Cardstock stickers from Glitz Designs. Bakerstwine from Jillibean soup and paper from Restoration by Crate Paper.

Check out Yourscrapbookstash.com for all the newest products from CHA 2011.  There is a lot in stock already!!

Happy creating!

Danielle

Two Peas top 3 by views!

YAY! Look at me! That never happened before.. :)

 makes me happy today!

xo

Sweetness mini album

Since we had to create our very own kit for February I picked these sweetness flip notes and created a small mini book with them using my other supplies from yourscrapbookstash.com. 

I took out all the double notes (there are 3 notes of each design) that are included and will use these on a separate project. 

Great value for money!

I will take photos of the inside when I completed it with photos.

TFL...

Happy Wednesday!

Danielle