Lace love

Hello dear friends,

It's Tuesday again, so today is City Crafter day!

Ros is hosting this week. She has a colour challenge for us. I so much wanted to do some needlework, so I made a little giftbag.

With some of the yummie laces Ros gave me. And some other laces, ribbon and seambinding I had in my stash.

Beads in a colour combo I love. Reminds me of patina or rust, of which I have some gorgeous photos (by others) on my pinterest board "photography inspiration".

I got three huge bags full with fabrics - both leftovers and new - from a sweet grandma of very good friends of mine. There was also a dress which she once started but never finished. The grey fabric comes from this dress.

Did you know I loooove lace? Probably not :)

There's also a little pocket on the back of the bag, but I still have to make a photo of that. May be I'll add it later.

This sweet little bag with goodies goes to a friend of mine, which she doesn't know yet. Oh how I love sharing surprises!

And here's the inspiration photo which Ros chose for you:

Source

Theme of this challenge: Colour challenge - Create a project using the colours from the picture.


Of course there's more inspiration projects for you by the DT at City Crafter. And Elma is our guest designer this week. We love to have you with us Elma!

More bookmarks

A while ago I did a swap with Sanne and made her bookmarks. (You can find the bookmarks she made in my previous blog post.) One of my bookmarks I already showed (the lace and fabric shabby French one). I thought I share the other ones with you today as well, because they kind of fit in the colour challenge. Well, two of them.

Painted and stamped background on thin cardboard.

Pieces of lace fabric surrounding a vintage child photo. You can find the photo on my pinterest board "Cabinet cards and vintage photos".

Sanne is a music lover, so I gave it some musical extras.

And two digitally made bookmarks. If you'd like you can print them for yourself too.

Oh how much I love the look and colour of this dress...

The second one doesn't fit in the colour theme, but hey.

Hope you're having a sweet day filled with love. And time for your arts and crafts. Which sometimes is a big challenge to fit in, isn't it?

A big hug to you,

Wendy

Fabric and garden love

Sunny greetings from under the Wisteria,

What a beautiful day! The sun is shining, some flowers in the garden are in bloom, butterflies and bright blue sky. What else does one need?

Fabric, doilies and laces! That's what makes a day even more beautiful :)

Yep, I'm busy with needlework again. I abandoned the purple journal for a while, because I didn't have the inspiration to get it going. But when I was going through my stash, I found these gorgeous fabrics and decided to start a new one.

Such a delight to work with!

And where else would be a better place to do so than under the Wisteria? It smells so delicious!

The best days of the Wisteria are over this year, but it's still a happy sight. I just love that plant!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend, and wishing you a happy one!

Hugs,

Wendy

Mail love

Hello dear friends,

Most of the times I don't particularly like the sight of my mailman, for he means trouble. Bills and the like.

But sometimes he brings me sweet and lovely packages from all over the world. Heaven!

It's about time I'm sharing with you the ones I received a while ago.

~

A gorgeous ATC from Kimberly of ArtJoyStuff. She makes the most wonderful and inspiring art and has delightful swaps.

Thank you for swapping with me Kimberly!!

Delicious embellishments from Evgenia.

I'm ashamed to tell you how long ago I received Evgenia's package, so I won't tell you. But it was given me as a prize for winning a challenge at CCCB - loooooooong time ago. I've already used some of her beautiful gifts in several projects.

Thank you so much Evgenia!!

And oohh the yummie-ness of the laces dear Ros sent me.

Ros was so sweet to send me this package along with some beautiful work of hers, because she knew I needed a cheer-up. Ros, you're the sweetest!!

Here's the gorgeous card and notebook she sent me.

I'm in love with this little notebook. The sweet birds, beautiful ephemera and the luxeous bow. Just what I love!

And so beautiful the clouds with the silver lining, and the pink flowers on the card, with the raindrops. Like a spring shower. I actually had tears in my eyes when I received this sweet card of Ros, so thoughtful of her. Thank you dear!

So true...

Not only did she spoil me, but also my 6 year old son Sam. She made him this beautiful and very cute bookmark and notebook. He was thrilled!

Thank you sweetie!!!

A bookmark swap a while ago at the Nederlandse Swappers. My swap friend was Sanne.

She made me this gorgeous dress bookmark, which fits a thick book perfectly.

I'm using it at present, reading "Sarum - The Novel of England" by Edward Rutherfurd. A must read if you're an England lover!

Sanne also sent me two paperclip bookmarks, so cute!! (One of which I'm using in my diary.) And a pompon bookmark and also a lot of yummie craft supplies.

Thank you dear Sanne, I enjoyed swapping with you!

And now - after all the presents I received - it's time for me to share a little something with you.

How about two beautiful images you could use for your own work?

Two antique fashion plates from 1823 (above) and 1782.

Don't you just love being part of the blog world? Meeting new friends from all over the world, being inspired by each other and sharing with each other. I truly feel blessed!

Enjoy your weekend sweet friends. Thank you for all the dear messages you leave me.

Hugs,

Wendy

Blessed by an Angel

Hello lovelies,

'If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.'

- Poem by Emily Dickinson

Isn't that what angels are to us, helping hands?

Anyway, back in town, back to business. We had a sweet and sunny time in the south. Today two projects for City Crafter. A card and an altered chocolate box.

With yummie laces and sweet angels. The box I covered with an very old doily which belonged to my great-great-grandmother (is that English?), the grandmother of my grandfather so to speak.

And added some other laces and embellishments, and some small beads. I wanted the old doily to show, so I didn't want too much embellishing going on. One of the laces on the outside of the box (along the edge) is a present I got from dear Ros. She has spoilt me with a sweet and beautiful card plus a lot of extras, which I will show you another time. Thank you sweetie!!

Inside the box I covered with lace fabric, laces, an angel stamp of La Blanche and music. For angels sing, don't they.

The photos are not of the best quality, I'm sorry, it was getting late and dark and even with photoshop I can't properly fix that :-)

The challenge

The challenge this week at CCCB is "One stamp two ways" - create two projects with the same stamp (an image stamp, not a sentiment stamp). Be sure to check the CCCB website for further details on this! And for more inspiration projects by our DT.

The card I made is on watercolour paper by the way (both the image as the card itself), which I distressed and stamped.

Our guest designer this week is Colleen Dietrich. We love to have you with us Colleen!

Thank you for your sweet visit, I'm happy to see you. And after my absence I'm dying to make my journey in Blogland again this week, for curiousity is killing the cat :-) See you!

Hugs,

Wendy

The Beheaded Queen and other Royal Gossip

Hello dears,

****** This is a pre-scheduled post (but to be honest, all my CCCB posts actually are), because I'm out of town for a little while when this post pops up. It may take a while before I can reply to you, for chances are I don't have internet access. ******

Here's my project for this week at CCCB, the theme is Royal. It's the first challenge theme I'm hosting at City Crafter.

A new King and Queen

My home is in The Netherlands, a small kingdom in Europe. Our kingdom is 200 years old coming November. When Napoleon was defeated in 1813, The Netherlands got a King, Willem I.

In this special celebration year our Queen decided to step back. Last week we got a new King and Queen - Willem Alexander and Maxima. Here's a picture of the great day, which we celebrated of course.

The CCCB challenge

Theme for the challenge: Royal. Make a project or card which has something to do with royalty. For example queen, king, prince(ss), carriage, crown, castle, palace. And here's my inspiration photo to work from if you'd like to join our challenge:

The inspiration photo shows Cinderella fleeing the palace of her future prince, for fairytales contain a lot of kings and queens and prince(sse)s, don't they. Annie Leibovitz took this and other photos for a dream portraits production of Disney.

My project, featuring Anne Boleyn

For my project I chose a beheaded Queen who's been portraited in several movies: Anne Boleyn.

Second wive of King Henry VIII of England and mother of Queen Elizabeth I. She lived in The Netherlands for a couple of years.

Anne was Queen from 1533 to 1536. Accused of adultery, witchcraft and incest, and brought to the infamous Tower of London where she was beheaded the 19th of May 1536. As were her five so called lovers.

I went to see the Tower of London a few years ago.

Not a place you'd particular like to stay overnight. Or would you?

Anne wouldn't be the last one to be beheaded in this cruel era or place either.

The King immediately went off to marry his mistress Jane Seymour. Who wouldn't be his last wive though, for Jane died only a year later.

And I have another project, also with Anne Boleyn, so I thought it would fit in. It's an ATC I recently made for Kimberly of ArtJoyStuff.

I've done some sewing work on this one.

The adorable chair charm is a present I got from Lisette. Isn't it cute?

Diane is our talented guest designer this week at City Crafter. Click her name to see her beautiful work. And then hop over to CCCB for more inspiration delight from our DT members and to link your work.

Hope you enjoyed this royal post.

Hugs and happy crafting,

Wendy

Shabby chic ... book page? And a secret revealed

Hello dears,

*** Note: From Friday 3rd I'll be out of town for a while and won't be able to comment, reply or vote. I'm sorry. Wishing you a wonderful week! ***

Hope you had a beautiful weekend!

I have a new project for City Crafter to show you. I'm sure you all know Sissi, the Austrian Empress, and her story. Did you see the movie with Romy Schneider? I was such a big fan of Romy.

Here's the glorious looking Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria. I love this portrait, painted by Franz Schrotzberg. It's said to be painted around 1855, so never mind the 1872. I just found that beautifully decorated number on an old catalogue on pinterest. It's on my pinboard "printables" if you like.

When I saw the piece of lace that's now bordering her image, I immediately fell in love with it. By the way, I shared with you this painting of Sissi in my previous post if you'd like to use it yourself too.

I love the photo above of the bow and key. I'm not one to say something like that very easily, but somehow this photo appeals to me very much.

As a background I distressed and stamped water colour paper. The flower pattern and the image of Sissi are printed on fabric, which gives a soft look to it.

And I took the photo below to show you some of the lovely laces I found on a market besides the one I mentioned earlier. I layered three different ones here.

This project could be used as a card, but I'm actually thinking it might be a book page as well. Which means making more pages. May be. I've got other projects waiting for me to be finished though. But you never know.

Not that I've got a clue about book binding by the way, but that's just adding to the adventure and the fun.

Back to business. This is my project for this week's challenge over at CCCB: Spring Has Sprung, which dear Charlene has come up with. She has a wonderful inspiration photo for you to work from, so hop over to City Crafter if you're up to another fun and happy challenge!

And be sure to check out the beautiful work of our guest designer Bligu and our sweet DT. The winner gets a guest design spot at CCCB!

A secret revealed

Now do let me come back to the little secret concerning my collage with the sad little girl.  I do have to admit I've been having so much fun with reading your guesses. Here's the secret... the collage is a digital one. Yep. Every bit of it. Can't touch it, for it doesn't really exist. It exists only in the computer :) The upper left corner reveals the secret I think. Especially the bow.

Here she is again. Click to enlarge if you would like to see it more closely.

Wishing you a wonderful week with lots of love and time to create! I'm off, for we get a new King today here in The Netherlands and I don't want to miss anything!!!

Hugs,

Wendy