Outdoors

There truly is something magical about the forest. The silence and the timelesness, the sound of crunching leaves beneath your feet, sunlight peaking through trees and branches, the smell of pine trees, berries, dried leaves and all things woodsy, especially in the fall season, are comforting to the soul and bring peace to your heart. Woodland Walks is a beautiful woodland themed collection, with a hint of autumn, and it is perfect for scrapping all your woodland pictures, for fall layouts and for documenting outdoor activities in general. You will love the warm and rich colour scheme, reminiscent of autumn leaves, berries, fruits and mushrooms, the textures and patterns, the vintage accents, the many woodsy embellishments, and the gorgeous papers.

‘Woodland Walks’ is now available at Oscraps and 25% off for a limited time. Click on the images below to go straight to my store at Oscraps:

Or buy this pack in my Etsy shop.

Or buy this pack in my Etsy shop.

Or buy this pack in my Etsy shop.

Or buy this pack in my Etsy shop.

Or buy this pack in my Etsy shop.

Or buy this pack in my Etsy shop.

Need some inspiration? Go check out this photo album on my Facebook fanpage!

I’ve also added this ‘oldie but goodie’ to my Oscraps shop…

These papers were among the first papers I ever designed, but I still love them. They’re 25% off for a limited time, grab them now!

And if you want to save really big, Woodland Walks and Autumn Memories Papers are both included in the Value Pack No1 ‘A Fabulous Fall’, that you can grab at Oscraps or in my Etsy shop.

Have a great day!

Anja

With the end of June fast approaching and the long summer ahead of us, I wanted to bring back my Wanderlust collection at Sweet Shoppe. I am so looking forward to my own vacation - two weeks from now we’ll be on our way to our summer destination in France! We are going to be staying in Chauvirey-le-Vieil, a small village in the Haute-Saône Department (East of France).

Wanderlust is perfect for documenting your travel memories. The muted color scheme of lilacs, greens and neutrals will allow your pictures and stories to shine. The colors will look especially great with pictures of lavender fields, woods and mountains. Old maps, vintage lavender, handdrawn illustrations and damask were used to create the patterns. Wooden embellishments like arrows and word art, vintage ephemera, stamps and transfers, lots of travel themed illustrations, journal cards and a gorgeous set of layered frames are the icing on the cake. Bon voyage!

Wanderlust Bundle

Grabbing the bundle is always a good idea: all Wanderlust packs in one permanently discounted bundle. And, during the new release sale at Sweet Shoppe extra discounted! Included in the bundle are the kit, the artsy papers, the journal cards, the flairs (new!), the transfers and the layered frames.

Available only at Sweet Shoppe.

Wanderlust Kit

This must be the biggest kit I’ve ever made… You will get 18 patterns, 16 solids, 3 alphas and 102 elements, including 3 wooden arrows, 1 wooden bicycle, 1 vintage binoculars (in a plain, sticker and stamp version), 1 wooden bird, 3 brads, 1 paper butterfly, 3 buttons, 1 Eiffel Tower Charm, 3 paper clouds, 3 stitched clouds, 1 clouds doodle, 1 filmstrip frame (+ 4 photo masks), 1 dried flower, 1 wildflower, 1 lavender flower, 2 vintage flowers, 2 vintage flower stamps, 4 fabric flowers, 1 paper flower, 1 slide frame, 1 postage stamp frame, 1 gemstone, 1 vintage globe stamp, 1 journaling lines stamp, 5 paper labels with a heart, a car, a plane, a pedestrian and a bicycle, and 1 blank label, 1 piece of lace, 1 vintage leaf, 1 real leaf, 1 paper leaf, 1 fabric leaf, 1 mixed media branch, 1 square magnet with plane, 1 paint stroke, 5 leather pins, 1 ribbon, 1 wooden road sign, 2 postage stamps, 1 staple (in a shadowed and non-shadowed version), 1 messy stitching, 2 blank tickets, 1 vintage stamp with a tourist couple, 1 twine, 1 vintage boy on a bicycle, 1 vintage girl on a bicycle, 1 vintage French label, 1 vintage Eiffel Tower postcard, 2 vintage postcard stamps, 1 vintage Jules Verne book stamp, 3 vintage dictionary stamps, 1 vintage dictionary cut out, 2 vintage Paris words stamps, 9 pieces of chunky wooden word art, 3 poem stamps.

Available only at Sweet Shoppe.

Alphas, Patterns, Solids and Elements are also separately available (but not at Sweet Shoppe):

Wanderlust Alpha * NEW *

3 alphas, designed to coordinate with the Wanderlust collection, each containing all letters of the alphabet, all numbers and a selection of symbols. Each alpha is made up of 64 PNG files.

Available as a separate pack only in my Etsy shop.

Wanderlust Elements

102 PNG files (see detailed description above) - that is a huge elements pack!

Available as a separate pack only in my Etsy shop.

Wanderlust Patterns

Available here: Etsy | Creative Market

Wanderlust Solids

Available here: Etsy | Creative Market

ADD-ON PACKS

Wanderlust Artsy Papers

This amazing artsy paper pack was designed to coordinate with the ‘Wanderlust’ digital scrapbooking collection. You will love the shabby floral textures, with hints of lavender and clouds. These papers also look fabulous printed and used as backgrounds in your own visual art journals, in paper crafts and gift cards etc, as well as in wall art for your home and gifts, for the creation of ATC cards and tags.

Available here: Etsy | Sweet Shoppe | Creative Market

Wanderlust Journal Cards

2 x 8 journal cards, designed to coordinate with the Wanderlust collection. You will receive 5 journal cards 3 x 4 in, and 3 journal cards 4 x 6 in. Each card is available in both orientations, and I’ve included sheets in JPG and PDF for easy printing.

Available here: Etsy | Sweet Shoppe

Wanderlust Flairs * NEW *

New to the Wanderlust collection are these gorgeous travel flair buttons. Use them for an interesting detail on your pages or to ‘attach’ papers, photos and other elements. You will receive 15 PNG files.

Available here: Etsy | Sweet Shoppe

Wanderlust Transfers

Included in this pack are 10 travel themed digital overlays designed to coordinate with the ‘Wanderlust’ digital scrapbooking collection. You will receive 5 vintage landscape transfers and 5 floral transfers.

Available here: Etsy | Sweet Shoppe | Creative Market

Use these for an artsy touch to your layouts, or use them as masks, to blend pictures and papers, or use them as paint layers (just recolor them). Play with Photoshops Blend Modes and Opacity for surprising results!

Whimsical Frames Vol04 ‘Wanderlust’

This set of Whimsical Frames was designed to coordinate with the Wanderlust Collection. Included are 5 multilayered templates in PNG, PSD and TIF format that will allow you to make your own frames… choose what layers you want to use or keep, mix and match, recolor, use only the clipping mask… Create your own unique frames over and over again!

Available here: Etsy | Sweet Shoppe | Creative Market

And here’s some awesome layout inspiration!

by Carina (also used: Whimsical Templates Vol05)

by Aly

by Sylvia

three pages from Lisa

by Barbara

three pages from Ange

a hybrid project from Theresa

two pages from Jana

by Ona

by Bryony

by Alina

by Diane

and three pages from me

I am taking a little break from designing for the summer. But I’ll be back mid July, so stay tuned!

 

When I got the idea for this planner, the weather was quite nice here in Belgium… Now it feels more like autumn. But maybe it is a wonderful spring weather in the part of the world where you live! And maybe you feel like doing some work in your garden… Well, if you are looking for a fun way to organize and keep track of your gardening chores, then you will love this printable garden planner that I have created for you! It will help you design, plan, harvest and maintain the garden of your dreams.

You will receive 24 pages, all in printable sheets (in both JPG and PDF), in three different sizes: A4, A5 an US Letter size (8,5 x 11 in). It has been designed as a booklet (with extra space to punch the holes), but you can print the pages separately and add them to your regular planner.

The following pages are included:

• Page 1 - Cover
• Page 2 - Quote
• Page 3 - Garden Dreams & Wishes
  A page where you can put down your thoughts and dreams for (future) garden projects.
• Page 4-5 - Garden Budget Planner
  A page to calculate the cost of your investments, tools and other things for your garden, or to keep track of your garden expenses.
• Page 6 - Garden Layout
  Use the grid to help you plan specific borders, or the whole garden, to scale.
• Page 7 - Notes
  A page where you can simply write down your thoughts or observations.
• Page 8-9 - Seed Starter Log
  Keep track of the seeds you planted, date of planting, germination date, transplant date etc. and room for notes.
• Page 10-11 - Weekly Perpetual Planner
  Plan your daily garden tasks and check the checkbox when complete; print again next year.
• Page 12-14 - Monthly Perpetual Planner
  Plan and organise monthly jobs that need to be done around the garden and check the checkbox when complete; print again next year.
• Page 15 - Seasonal Perpetual Planner
  Plan your seasonal garden tasks and check the checkbox when complete.
• Page 16-17 - Pest Information Sheet
  Record problems, keep track of treatments and their effectiveness.
• Page 18-19 - Harvest Record
  Record the yields and harvests. See the result of your hard work for use as a reference in the future.
• Page 20-21 - Plant Profile Sheet
  A sheet that you can use to record the details of every plant in your garden; I’ve provided only two, but you can print as many as you like (left and right side provided).
• Page 22-23 - Useful contacts
  Write down interesting sites or garden shops that you love.
• Page 24 - Back

Did you recognize the papers and elements? This garden planner was designed by using papers and elements from my ‘Things To Do In The Garden’ collection! More information in this post.

The Garden Planner is available at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market.

Important note to Etsy customers: due to the limited upload size on Etsy I could not include all the formats and sizes. The following sizes/formats are not included in the download: A5 in PDF, US Letter in PDF and A4 in both JPG and PDF. If you need these formats/sizes, then please contact me and I will send them to you, they are all available within the one price.

Let’s have a look at the preview and some detailed images:

You can make new prints of this planner every year, you can print as many of the individual pages as you need… And keep track of all your garden adventures over the years.

The Garden Planner is discounted for a week in all my shops, so grab it before it goes back to it’s normal price!

 

I also have two new commercial use packs for you:

Greenery Vol. 01 - Grass Blades

A pack of 7 fresh random sprigs of spring grass blades, in their original color. These elements were scanned at 600 dpi, and meticulously extracted by me to ensure best quality.

You will receive 7 hi res PNG files. Available in my shops at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market (discounted for a week).

Wood Pieces Vol.01

A fun set of 12 mini wood veneer embellishments that would make a great addition to your garden/farm themed kits. They were scanned at 600 dpi, and meticulously extracted by me to ensure best quality. Maximum size is 1.5 x 1.5 inch (4 x 4 cm), which is their real size.

You will receive 12 hi res PNG files, including:
- 1 spade
- 1 watering can
- 1 bird house
- 2 birds
- 4 flowers
- 1 chicken
- 1 butterfly
- 1 rabbit

Available in my shops at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market (and discounted for a week).

Commercial Use Deal Of The Day

My ‘A Moment Captured Brushes I CU’ are Deal Of The Day at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, you can grab them at 60% off, only today!

Whimsical Challenge at The Digichick

Challenges at The Digichick have to start on the 1st of the month and end at the last day of the month. And I started a little late with my first Whimsical Challenge there, but as from next month, you will have a whole month to participate! BUT you still have two days to tell me what you favourite TV-show is and why, you will all the information you need in this thread.

There will be a new Whimsical Challenge on Sunday, at The Digichick ànd at The Studio (Whimsical Challenge No2 at The Studio will run until the 15th of May).

 

Digiscrapparade

If you are reading this post before Sunday, then I can tell you that I will be joining the Digiscrapparade on Sunday - for the first time as a designer (really really excited about that!). If you are following the blog hop, you will come back here… Make sure you download my part, there’s a little surprise for you in the zip file 🙂

In the mean time, you can follow the countdown (and see some sneak peeks) on the official Digiscrapparade blog!

Have a wonderful day, hope to see you on Sunday!

Anja

Spring is finally here in Belgium, we’ve had some very beautiful days with soft temperatures and a lot of sun. When I look out of the window, I see trees blooming everywhere and I see the colour green coming back in our garden… I do not have a green thumb, in fact, I do not like to work in the garden, and I do not have the ambition to ever do so. But I could not imagine living in a house without one. I’m very lucky, my husband has the green thumb here in our family. He takes care of all the greenery in and around our house. I just have to enjoy it 🙂

All that has brought me the inspiration to design a garden themed kit. It took me like forever to finish it, and it was not for lack of inspiration. I just reworked it and reworked it, changed the colours, added things, removed things… Then I had the idea of adding illustrations that I made myself, with a pen from a Zentangle pen set that I accidently ordered (and decided to keep - maybe it was saying to me, “start drawing again”?)… and so ‘Things to do in the garden’ has become a whimsical digital scrapbooking collection with fantastic vintage and artsy patterns and mixed media designs that will make you wish you had a garden, whether you like gardening or not. The papers and elements are a delightful mix of vintage, realistic, mixed media and handdrawn illustrations. Colours are ranging from brown, clay and blue over fresh green, peach and golden yellow. The textures are rich and distressed, and you will surely love all the stamps, the floral illustrations, the scribbles, the transfers and the word art.

This garden themed collection will help you show off your love of all things green, and will help you create unique and gorgeous pages about your garden adventures and all sorts of other nature and outdoor themed memories.

Curious? Let’s go see some previews!

The Bundle

As always, the bundle is your best deal. Papers and elements in one package, permanently discounted. The bundle is available at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick and Creative Market.

I don’t offer bundles on Etsy for the simple reason that the file size is too large. But, if you are an Etsy customer, check out my coupon codes. Discounts start from $10 ; if you grab all the packs, your order will be larger than $10 and you’ll be able to use a discount coupon.

The Fantasy Papers

Included in this paperpack are 12 hi res JPG files. You will receive 1 paper with a vintage flower basket pattern, 1 paper with a collage of vintage garden themed ads, 2 papers with an etched vintage rose pattern, 1 paper with a striped pattern, 1 paper with a plaid pattern, 1 paper with a wooden texture, 3 mixed media papers, 1 paper with a patterned burlap texture, 1 paper with a handdrawn dots pattern.

Discounted for a week and available at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market.

The Solid Papers

Designed to coordinate with the rest of the collection… You will receive 9 hi res JPG files.

Discounted for a week and available at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market.

The Elements

A delightful mix of vintage ephemera, realistic elements and handdrawn illustrations… 60 PNG files in total, including: 3 brads, 3 buttons, 1 bird charm, 1 butterfly, 3 mini clothespins, 2 stitched brackets, 1 chicken wire, 1 doily, 1 doily flower, 1 vintage postcard, 3 flowers, 1 wooden flower scatter, 2 leaves, 1 mixed media leaf, 1 paper leaf scatter, 2 frames, 1 cluster of grass blades in a shadowed and non-shadowed version, 1 vintage mini tag, 1 twine ribbon, 1 stitched cluster of messy rectangles, shadowed and non-shadowed, 1 seed spill, 2 round photo masks, 2 splashes of watercolour, 2 paint splatters, 2 sponge painted circle clusters, 3 handdrawn floral elements, 3 handdrawn leafy elements/clusters, 1 stamped ephemera flower, 1 handdrawn grass scribble, 2 handdrawn clusters of little stripes, 1 handdrawn cluster of messy rectangles, 4 floral scribbles, 4 vintage ephemera garden themed ad stamps, 1 vintage ephemera garden plan stamp.

Discounted for a week and available at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market.

The Kit

The kit contains the Elements, the Fantasy papers and the Solid papers. It is discounted for a week and available only at Digital Scrapbooking Studio and The Digichick.

Additional packs:

Mixed Media Clusters

I had so much fun making these and customers like them! Included in this charming pack are 6 mixed media clusters. You will receive 12 PNG files (6 non-shadowed, 6 shadowed). They are discounted for a week and available at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market.

Word Art

Included in this pack are 12 garden themed word art elements. You will receive 24 PNG files (a coloured and decorated version, and a plain black version). Discounted for a week and available at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market.

Are you ready to be inspired?

Then check out these layouts from my amazing Creative Team:

And two pages from me:

Ready to grow your own garden? Then grab this collection while it’s discounted, in my shop at Digital Scrapbooking Studio, in my shop at The Digichick, in my Etsy shop, or in my shop at Creative Market!

Are you a newsletter subscriber? Then a small sampler of this collection is on its way to you. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do so here.

 

While you are here, just a few reminders:

Spring Fever Collection

The Spring Fever Collection is still heavily discounted. It will remain so until the 28th of April. Separate packs are just $1 each, the bundle is available for just $6. As from the 29th, all the packs will go back to their normal prices and I will offer them in all my shops.

 

Whimsical Challenges

Whimsical Challenge No1 is now closed. All the participants have received their discount coupons and one winner has been chosen by random drawing. A huge thank you goes out to all those who played with me!

A new Whimsical Challenge has been posted in this thread. Are you joining me? This time I want you to tell me what your favourite TV show is and - if you can - why.

There are quite a few shows I like, but The Walking Dead is definitely still my top favourite TV show, even after 6 seasons it still has me nailed down to my seat. Here’s the page I made:

I used the following On A Whimsical Adventure packs: A Moment Captured, Among The Shadows, Bubbles And Splatters, Blue Skies Painted Papers.

Maybe next time you’ll be the winner of a $10 coupon?

 

Whimsical Challenges are now hosted at The Digichick as well!

The lovely Beatrice is hosting the Whimsical Challenges at The Digichick for me, so if you’re a Digichick girl and you feel like playing, then you definitely want to go to this thread! The same rules apply as the ones at The Studio, but the coupons will be for my shop at The Digichick.

 

And with that being said, I think I’m at the end of my post for this week! Have a wonderful week and see you next time!

Anja

 

Next to the release of my Spring Fever Collection at Digital Scrapbooking Studio (read all about it in this post), I have two more packs that are available in all my shops today:

 

Vintage Herbarium Papers

According to Wikipedia, a herbarium is a “collection of preserved plant specimens, sometimes with associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper.”

A few months ago I found an old herbarium, made by my husband, about 40 years ago. It immediately brought back memories of my childhood. We probably all made one in school, and some of you (including me) made one just for fun, to preserve sweet memories of beautiful summers or memorable moments. Pressing flowers is not only a wonderful way to preserve their beauty, they can also be used for a variety of purposes: you can use them to decorate cards, embellish candles, frame them and use them to create wall art, make paper… or you can use them on a scrapbook page!

These herbarium papers were created from my husbands herbarium. I carefully scanned them (they were so fragile) and edited them with a soft matte filter to turn them into unique backgrounds. Don’t you just love the incredibly real texture, the aged and yellowed tape, the faded colours?

You will receive 13 hi res 12×12 in JPG files, including 10 papers with dried flowers and plants, 1 back, 1 pink slip sheet and - as a bonus - the cover of the herbarium itself.

The Vintage Herbarium Papers are available in all my shops - and discounted for a week:
Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy and Creative Market.

* NOTE TO CREATIVE MARKET SHOPPERS - Last week I told you that I was going to offer a new release discount in my Etsy shop (the Etsy system does not allow to set discounts electronically, but I can set the reduced price manually). And I thought, why not do the same on Creative Market? The Creative Market system does not allow to set discounts either, as on Etsy, but I CAN adjust the price manually. So from now on I will be offering new releases with an introductory sale on Creative Market as well, as in all my other shops. After a week the price will go back to normal (that is usually the day after a new release).
Please note that the discount may not always be the same as in my other shops, as I cannot add decimals to my prices (the price always has to be a round number).

 

Whimsical Frames Vol.01

Perhaps keep just the stitched frame? Or maybe the mask and the frame, and no stitches? Or maybe keep the stitches and the mask, but not the frame? Anything is possible with these layered photo frame templates. You can clip papers or photos to each mask, turn off layers or turn them back on, and create unique accents to your pages over and over again. You will receive 4 large layered frame templates in TIFF, PSD, PNG and PAGE format.

Whimsical Frames Vol.01 is available in all my shops - and discounted for a week:
Digital Scrapbooking Studio, The Digichick, Etsy, part 1 and part 2, and Creative Market.

* NOTE TO ETSY BUYERS - Because of the limited file size that sellers are allowed to upload to their shops, and because I always strive to offer instant download, I split this pack up in two packs. The price has been split up in two as well, so if you buy both packs, you will still pay the same price as if you would buy the complete pack.

 

Be inspired

Look at the wonderful pages from my creative team. Some of them have combined the Whimsical Frames Vol.01 with the Vintage Herbarium Papers:

 

A dreamy, almost monochromatic page from Ange, using nothing but the Vintage Herbarium Papers and the Whimsical Frames Vol.01. Sometimes less is more.

Same goes for this vintage page by Ange… She has used one of the Vintage Herbarium Papers and has added some things from my Castles & Princesses Collection. Everything has been toned down to some golden sepia, this could be hanged up on a wall!

 

Barbara has used one of my favourite Vintage Herbarium Papers. She used the April Fool Mini Kit as well and added some word art from my A Moment Captured Collection. Simply gorgeous! And it shows how you can use an April Fool themed pack for something totally non-related.

 

Em has outdone herself here! She has used the Vintage Herbarium Papers as a backdrop for her pictures (framed with Whimsical Frames Vol.01) but look at all the blending and the work she has done, wow! Em has used the Spring Fever Collection in the background.

 

Erin has used one of the two solid papers from the Vintage Herbarium Papers and two frames from the Whimsical Frames Vol.01. She has added triangles from the Stitched Shapes Vol.01 and some things from my Easter Morning Collection.

 

Look at this - holy moly - so creative! I wish I could take a look in Eszters head sometimes LOL. Eszter used one of the Vintage Herbarium papers as a background for this stunning composition.

 

I totally love the idea of Judith of using the Vintage Herbarium Papers on a heritage layout! Judith also used Cosy Christmas Kit, Wonderland Elements, Wonderland Charms and the Castles & Princesses Collection. This has definitely got me inspired to scrap those old family pictures of mine.

 

A beautiful ‘greenery’ page from Ona, using the Vintage Herbarium Papers, some bits and pieces of one of the templates from my Whimsical Templates Vol.02, some cut-outs from the Vintage Mushroom ATC, some papers of the Watercolour Textures Vol.01 and a quote from my Edgar Allan Poe Quotes Pack.

What is not to love about this super cute layout from Ona! Ona has combined one of the Whimsical Frames Vol.01 with a paper and some elements from the My One True Love Collection and word art from my A Moment Captured Collection.

I’ve said it before, I always love to see my ‘older’ packs in use, I think Ona has done a great job here doing so, in her two layouts.

 

And finally, a page by me :

I have used my favourite Vintage Herbarium Paper combined with one of the Whimsical Frames Vol.01. I especially love the delicate pink/lilac of the flowers of the paper and I found a picture on Pixabay that had just the right colour tone for this layout. I also used A Touch Of Paint Vol.01, a bit of Wonderland and a bit of Easter Morning, and - like Ona - a quote from my Edgar Allan Poe Quotes Pack. Well, actually Ona said she was inspired by me to use one of the Edgar Allan Poe Quotes 🙂

 

Hehe, that’s it for today, there was a lot to talk about, right?

Have a wonderful shopping and have a wonderful week!

Anja

Last week has been busy and lots of things have happened. My card designs have been activated at Kaartje2Go (and I’ve had sales already - yeah!), I created new designs for my Etsy store and I’ve finally registered for Design Star, a self-paced workshop with Traci Reed at Scrapaneers.

Kaartje2Go

Having my card designs at Kaartje2Go is great! I design, upload, and Kaartje2Go does all the rest: selling, printing, shipping… It took me some time though to adjust my existing designs to the new templates and sizes and I had to provide extra designs for the inside of the cards (people can choose to order a double folded or single card). But I think they look great in my gallery!

My cards are just in Dutch for now, but I’m thinking of offering an English version as well. Maybe not through Kaartje2Go though.

New designs for my Etsy store

I’ve been making some coordinating supplies to existing paperpacks in my Etsy store last week. Creating artsy transfers and word art to complement my Castles & Princesses Paperpack was so much fun, and I’ve also created some artsy transfers for my Mermaid Paperpack. I’ll be offering the transfers with and without the wordart.

They will be added to my store soon, watch out for my next newsletter! In the mean time, here’s a little sneak peek:

Design Star

As for Design Star, it was something I’ve been wanting to do for so long and I’m really happy I finally did. I’ve learnt heaps already. The workshop includes hours and hours of live recorded webinars, informative video-tutorials and PDF handouts. At the end of class, I’ll sit down with Traci virtually in a one-on-one session identifying my strengths and skills, an opportunity that I don’t want to miss. Although this workshop is aimed at scrapbook designers, I’ve learnt so many new things that will definitely improve my regular design work as well.

Enyoing the summer

I know that in many countries schools are starting again, or have started already. But for Belgian students school doesn’t start until September 1. My daughter is going to be 13 in October and she will start her second year in first grade then. My husband is a teacher, and so he’s home a lot as well. We enjoy the extra time that we have together, especially the weekends (my husband works weekends during the school year). I love having them both at home, but at the same time I’m finding it harder to focus on my design work. So I’m also looking forward to having more routine in my daily activities 🙂

On Saturday we had an amazing trip to Pairi Daiza, an animal park. But it’s much more than that. As the ancient Persian name ‘Pairi Daiza’ (‘Enclosed Garden’) would suggest, it really is a paradise! The park flourishes on what were once the grounds of a Cistercian monastery, Cambron Abbey. 135 acres of garden, centuries-old trees, intriguing plants and exquisite flowers from all over the world, architectural treasures (all authentic!) created by artisans from China, Indonesia, Thailand… and finally, 5,000 animals that live and thrive there. Let me share some pictures I made:

The Andalusian Garden

The Karibuni restaurant at the Oasis, surrounded by exotic animals, bamboos, lianas, banana trees, hibiscus, waterfalls, giant turtles, otters, mongooses, hornbills and beos.

The Buddhist temple in the City of Immortals; everything here is authentic and was manufactured in China, by skilled artisans.

And yes, we got to see the giant pandas! To give Hao Hao and Xing Hui a home, Pairi Daiza built a Sichuan mountain, a bamboo forest and a cave with amethysts. The image quality is not so good, but we could only see them behind glass.

Amazing views everywhere you go…

An impressive cascade at the Flower Temple, dedicated to the universe of flowers, in accordance with the animistic principles in Balinese Hinduism that every form of life is of divine origin, worthy of a temple. The water, the cradle of all life, flows along its flank, accompanied by 2 small dragon snakes.

Authentic Thai house (even the columns are original, taken from a house destroyed in a fire).

And then an elephant passed by 🙂

Still impressed with this monumental staircase, even if it was our third visit in 10 years. In 1776 it inspired Jozef II, Emperor of Austria, to the following statement: “This staircase is perhaps one of the most beautiful in Europe, but I doubt if it leads to heaven”. Legend says that the monks took revenge by burning a portrait of the emperor at the foot of the tower. That only brought them misery and 13 years later the Emperor classified Cambron as a useless abbey. The French Revolution did the rest. Now the patrimony of the monks of Cambron is listed as national heritage.

Ah, the raptor show… Eagles, buzzards, falcons, vultures and condors fly over the arena from one falconer to another, right past our heads. With the impressive backdrop of church, nave and abbey towers, this is one of my favourite events at Pairi Daiza.

And finally… trying to make some great pictures of the fascinating jelly fish in The Nautilus. Not easy, because they are moving around constantly!

But I think this one is not so bad:

Okay, time for me to go. See you next time!

Anja

Last week we spent our yearly vacation in the UK. We rented a cottage in Hunton, Maidstone. First time ever we’ve rented a house in the UK by the way! 16 years ago we saw London, but that was just three days in a hotel. Hotels however are not really my thing, they make me feel somewhat claustrophobic 🙂

It wasn’t easy to find a holiday home in the UK… at least not as easy as it is to find a gîte in France. But I did manage to find a cottage that fitted within our budget. Our trip didn’t go smoothly though. Our ferry was delayed with two hours, on Sunday I was sick from a cold that I had caught on the ferry and on Tuesday we had a car accident.

The Silver Cottage in Hunton was a lovely retreat. Very quiet, at the end of a no way through street, with a gorgeous view on the meadows. The house itself was not big, but big enough for the three of us. We didn’t really sleep very well though… we slept under the roof and there was a window right above us. The curtain didn’t make the room dark enough and so we were always woken up by the (early) sunlight. I mentioned this to the house owners, and they said they would see if they could change that.

Driving left was quite a challenge as well. On Tuesday we were driving on a road with many cars and traffic lights and it was so confusing. One moment I saw red lights, so I told my husband to stop, which he did, immediately… the following moment we were hit by the car behind us - because the lights were not red for us, but green (so we heard after the accident). The fourth car behind us (a lorry) couldn’t stop, so he hit the van, and the van hit the red car behind us, and the red car hit us… It all happened so fast… The man in the van had a head wound and was bleeding (but otherwise he was fine), and the man in the red car behind us was in shock… His car looked awful. I think we got off quite good. There is damage to the trunk, but it still closes and our car is still driving and the lights are okay.

Having an accident is always awful, but having it abroad is even more unsettling. The police came to the scene and they were very friendly, but it was a hell of a job to get hold of all the information we needed for the insurance.

That was the bad news 🙂 The good news is that the trip to Kent was really nice. We enjoyed the lush green landscapes of ‘The Gardens of Kent’ and we have seen some beautiful places.

Leeds Castle (Monday 13th July)

Leeds Castle is 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Maidstone (where we stayed). It was once owned by the legendary King Henry VIII. The last owner was Olive Paget, the daughter of Almeric Paget, later Lord Queenborough, and his wealthy American wife Pauline Whitney. In 1931 Olive became Lady Baillie, through her third marriage to Sir Adrian Baillie. She transformed Leeds Castle into a luxury retreat, with no expense spared. The couple divorced in 1944. Olive died in 1974 and she wanted the castle to be open for the public after her death. Leeds Castle now belongs to the Leeds Castle Foundation. It’s a 15 minutes walk through the park before you get to the castle, but there is so much to see on The Woodland Walk. Some pictures:

The Queen’s Bathroom - how romantic is this!
The Maze - a difficult one! We couldn’t find the entrance to the center and the mysterious grotto, so we cheated and went in through another passage, but sshhtt don’t tell anyone 🙂
The lovely flower garden

A view of the castle on our way back to the entrance.

Hever Castle (Wednesday 15th July)

Ah … Hever Castle … Definitely my favourite of the whole week! Anna Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, grew up here. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside. But you can see pictures on their website. The castle was impressive, but the gardens were even more impressive! We simply didn’t want to leave… Let me show you why!

The entrance to the castle

The entrance to the Italian Garden - my absolute favourite! It was created between 1904 and 1908 by Joseph Cheal & Son, turning marshland into this spectacular garden. It was designed to display William Waldorf Astor’s collection of sculpture and statuary.

See-through ‘windows’ to other parts of the garden.

The walk through the Italian Garden leads to the lake where you can take a boat.

Tangerines!

Flowers everywhere

The romantic stairs that lead to the Anna Boleyn Walk around the park.

My daughter taking a selfie…

Whitstable (Thursday 16th July)

On Thursday we went to Whitstable, a charming town by the sea. We loved walking through it’s streets full of independent craft and gift shops, galleries, delicatessens and fashion shops. Some pictures!

We parked our car at about 20 minutes from the center but we enjoyed the walk along the the “Tankerton Slopes”. First thing we saw were these colourful beach houses.

The center has some really cute shops… Like this charming bookstore, with three storages of cards and books. I came home with lots of inspiration!

Quite expensive, but totally irresistible: The Clothes Horse. In addition to Noa Noa, the shop sells clothing brands such as Sandwich, Bohemia,Darling, and the Scandinavian clothing brand Cream as well as many jewellery lines and homeware. I was tempted, but didn’t buy anything by the way.

The Tankerton Slopes - the rough ground between Marine Parade and the sea. It is home to one of Britain’s rarest plants, Hog’s Fennel.

The water was quite cold and there was a strong wind, but she insisted on bathing her feet 🙂

Canterbury (Friday 17th July)

We finished our week with a visit to Canterbury. We were impressed by the cathedral, had fun at Canterbury Tales and we ate Fish & Chips on the Butter Market.

The very impressive ceiling of the cathedral

The stairs are leading to the Trinity Chapel

The Cloister connected the different parts of the monastery when the Cathedral was home to a community of monks.

The Canterbury Pilgrim’s Hospital of Saint-Thomas dates from the 12th century

Impressive, this shop of vintage clothes!

Canterbury Tales - A visitor attraction that brings Chaucer’s famous tales of medieval misadventures to life through sound, smell and sight. This was great and we even had a Dutch audio guide.

Ending our day at The Old Butter Market with Fish & Chips 🙂

Despite the difficulties we had, I feel refreshed and I’ve found so much inspiration in the things we’ve seen. I have some great ideas for my Etsy store, so stay tuned!