Summer

The sweet fragrance of honeysuckle on a warm summer evening, the smell of freshly cut grass, the distinct ‘earthy’ scent of summer rains… Our senses come alive in the summer. And smells in particular are stronger in warm weather, due to the higher levels of moisture in the air, so smells are carried further. Bumblebee and sugar cookie, pink and fuchsia, pine and grey make a strong and contrasting color scheme in ‘The Sweet Smell Of Summer’, a summery collection inspired by the sweet smells of summer and the nostalgic feelings that they evoke - designed with the new Mini O color scheme!

The Sweet Smell Of Summer Embellishments

32 PNG files: 1 vintage bee, 1 bow, 1 brad, 1 vintage butterfly, 1 button, 4 flowers, 2 vintage flowers (each in a plain and in a sticker version), 2 pieces of foliage, 1 frame, 1 vintage fruit sticker, 1 crochet strawberry, 3 stamps, 1 stitching, 1 wooden tag, 1 twine, 3 pieces of vintage ephemera, 5 word art files.

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

The Sweet Smell Of Summer Patterned and Artsy Papers

includes 9 JPG files, 12 x 12 in

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

The Sweet Smell Of Summer Solid Papers

9 JPG files, 12 x 12 in

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

The Sweet Smell Of Summer Transfers

6 artsy PNG files, for a finishing touch!

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

Creative Team Inspiration

At Oscraps, all packs are 44% off thru Monday!

Have a great day,

Anja

If you are an Oscraps fan, then you will definitely know the Mini O’s! Mini O’s are a collaboration project where the designers work with one color scheme, like in many other stores that have monthly or quarterly releases. They are released the 4th Friday of every month, and they are for 44% off for 4 days (Thursday night to Monday at midnight.)

I had so much fun with the color scheme for August, and I’m proud to present my very first Mini O collection ‘Catching Waves’! Relive your ocean-side vacation, those wonderful summer days on the beach, the walks along the coastline and the reflective moments spent watching waves crash onto the shore… ‘Catching Waves’ is full of whimsical bits and pieces in soft and beachy tones, from sandy beige over coral pink to navy blue and khaki, with delicious ombre papers, lots of mixed media goodies, a gorgeous set of photo masks and some amazing poems about the sea and the ocean from classic masters such as Henry David Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, Anaïs Nin. The whole collection is a must have for your stash!

Let me show you what I made:

Catching Waves Elements

Included in this pack are 30 PNG files: 1 arrow, 2 brads, 1 branch, 1 button, 1 vintage coral image, 4 flowers, 1 crochet flower, 3 foliage, 1 frame, 1 vintage label, 1 net, 2 paint splats, 1 piece of rope, 1 sand splat, 1 real shell, 1 shell charm, 1 vintage shell, 1 starfish, 1 starfish charm, 1 vintage ticket, 3 large words (sea, summer, beach).

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

Catching Waves Gradients

A gorgeous set of ombre papers with a watery texture… You will receive 9 JPG files, 12 x 12 in, 300 DPI.

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

Catching Waves Photo Masks

I created these photo masks with Chinese ink. I thought the texture was perfect for a beachy theme! You will receive 6 PNG files.

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

Catching Waves Poems

7 beautiful poems about the sea and the ocean, from Virginia Woolf to Vincent Van Gogh. Dream away!

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

Catching Waves Solids

7 shabby solids, solids always come in handy.

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

Catching Waves Transfers

This irresistible pack of transfers will add some extra oomph to your pages! Included are 7 PNG files.

Available here: Etsy | Oscraps

My creative team created stunning layouts with this Mini O Collection, take a look:

two pages from Aly

two pages from Andrea

two pages from Ange

by Barbara

by Carina

by Carrie

by Danica

 

by Diane

by Francine

two pages from Jana

two pages from Lisa

two pages from Ona

by Rachel

by Sylvia

a hybrid project from Theresa

and two pages from me

The whole collection is 44% off at Oscraps, and I’m doing something extra in my Etsy shop: all packs are 50% off in my Etsy shop; both sales are valid from today thru Monday 28th.

Stay tuned, I have ANOTHER new pack for you on Monday, here’s a little sneak peek

Until then, have a great weekend!

Anja

Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying your summer (or winter, if you’re in that part of the world). Maybe you are spending some time on the beach? Well, in that case my new packs will be perfect for you if you are planning on scrapping those beachy pictures:

Scenic Papers Vol01 - Beach

These dreamy, shabby and textured beach and sea backgrounds were created from my own library of photographs. You will receive 9 hi res 12×12 in JPG files.

Scenic Papers Vol01 ‘Beach’ are discounted for a week.
BUY THIS PACK NOW

 

Sea Creatures Flairs

A cute set of 15 vintage sea creatures flairs in a gorgeous soft colour scheme. You will receive 15 hi res PNG files.

Sea Creatures Flairs are discounted for a week.
BUY THIS PACK NOW

Mermaids & Nymphs Printable Tags

A set of 6 gorgeous shabby, vintage and textured mermaid and nymphs tags, created with images from old paintings.

Mermaids are legendary aquatic creatures with the head and upper body of a woman and the tail of a fish. Sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings… In other traditions they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans. Mermaids have been a popular subject of art and literature and they have subsequently been depicted in operas, paintings, books, films and comics.

Nymphs are a numerous class of lesser deities of mythology, conceived of as beautiful maidens inhabiting the sea, rivers, woods, trees, mountains, meadows, etc., and frequently mentioned as attending a superior deity.

Use these tags in your digital scrapbooking or art journaling layouts, or print them for your hybrid projects, for art journaling, for gift tags and so on. I have included a sheet for easy printing. Each tag measures 2.4 x 4.09 in, or 6 x 10,3 cm. You will receive 6 hi res PNG files and a printable sheet in JPG and PDF.

Mermaids & Nymphs Printable Tags are discounted for a week.
BUY THIS PACK NOW

 

Some inspiration for you from my creative team

First up is this fantastic page from Barbara. She combined one of the Scenic Papers Vol01 with two of the Sea Creatures Flairs. She also used one of my Whimsical Templates Vol03, and bits and pieces from various On A Whimsical Adventure packs (Wonderland, Things To Do In The Garden).

Next page is from Jen Maddocks. She used one of the Scenic Papers Vol01 with some of the Sea Creatures Flairs and then some things from Mermaids (and a few things of her own packs).

Ona combined all three packs in this artsy layout. She also used some things from Mermaids.

Zeneva used a gorgeous picture from her kids on this layout - I love the light! She combined all three packs on her layout and she added a few things from Number One Dad, Wanderlust and Hippie Spirit.

And two pages from me…

On this page I used one of the Scenic Papers Vol01 Beach, one of the Sea Creatures Flairs, and a bit of Easter Morning and Hippie Spirit.

On this second page I combined one of the Scenic Papers Vol01, three of the Sea Creatures Flairs and one of the Mermaids & Nymphs Printable Tags with a (recoloured) wire from Mermaids. I took some layers from one of Heartstrings Scrap Arts ‘The Bigger Picture #4’ to blend it all together. The picture is from Unsplash.

 

Awesome Digichick Deals are coming next week

The Digichick is celebrating its 11th birthday in August. There will be a storewide sale ànd a $2 Chick Blitz sale (on selected items, both CU and PU) from August 4-8. More news about that next week!

The Crazy Deals at The Studio are coming to an end…

Today is the last day for:

The promotion on The Studio’s new Coordinated Collection ‘Wanderlust‘ - just $1 per pack

The Commercial Use Grab Bag Gala Deal- just $1 per pack

 

And you have until July 31st to take advantage of the Christmas In July Sale, all Christmas themed packs are 50% off.

Don’t miss these deals!

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!