Rory's Bachelorette Party

Can you figure out when Rory's bachelorette party is??? (Dutch)

Love,
Sadie x

Artsy Wednesday T.7

Interview Anneke


We have seen a lot of creative card making ladies  in blogworld but today we are introducing Anneke. We just love the things she makes! The combination of stamps and recycling make her cards so unique. 

Thank you Anneke!

Name: Anneke
Country: Belgium

Blog: www.somefiddlingonthekitchentable.blogspot.com

1. Tell us why, how and when you started crafting?

I’m fond of crafts for as long as I can remember. My mother was always busy sewing, knitting…. In fact I was brought up with it.  I really don’t know why I always want to make things, it is so ‘normal’ to me,  just like breathing is.

In the past I needed fabric and yarn for my hobby, nowadays I more often use paper and stamps.

2. Why do you love crafting?

Because I can totally express my creativity in it.

3. What is your favourite type of craft?

I love card making and bookbinding….Now and then I make a mixed media piece too.

The flower is made of scraps. Used gesso and acrylic paint for the background.

I’m fond of green too :)

Fabric Flowers made of scraps of ribbon

Book made of an egg-carton

Altered book: stamps ‘Art Journey’

Canvas: stamps ‘Art Journey’

I have a blog for 2 years now. Along the way I became more interested in photography and photo editing. Another hobby of mine. Never a dull moment in my life :)

4. What is the most pretty thing you have made?

Hard to make a choice. I recently joined a stamp carving class by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Never made stamps by my own before. So I’m proud of some of the stamps I made during that online workshop.

5. Tell us what makes your crafts special?

On most of my projects I use stamps and most of my  work is very colourful . And I love perfection :)

I’m fond of recycling too.

Tags made of scraps, corrugated cardboard…the flowers are made of candy wrappers.

6. What do you use for inspiration?

Inspiration is everywhere. Recently I looked at the towels in my bathroom and I used the color combination on one of my cards.

I read books on bookbinding and sometimes I buy a magazine.  Visiting blogs gives me a drive to be more creative.

7. Would you like to show us were you do your craft magic?

I have a workspace of my own since last summer. Before I “fiddled”  at the kitchen table, litteraly :)

8. Would you like to share/include a fun craft tutorial with us?

There are a few tutorials on my blog. I explain here on how I made this canvas:

9. What sort of crafting would you still love to try out?

 I’ll join a writing class  in the near future and I have the intention to start an Art Journal once.  I also want to improve my photography skills…

10. Have you got any advice for those who would love to start crafting?

 Try to find your own style,  follow your heart and never give up! A blog is a good way to ‘meet’ soulmates and to keep going…

Home Sweet Home

The ultimate Home Sweet Home feeling: Is coming home to a house filled with fresh flowers Husband takes home for me every week!!!!!

Rory's Fabulous Friday Picnic

After being ill last week and having to catch up on a load of work it was nice to get a break. Lucky for me the weather was perfect, so what could be better than a nice picnic in the park with my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, some friends and of course my son Marijn.

The recipe is from a cookbook I found during one of my rummages at a second hand book shop. It’s called Cookies Galore  by Jaqueline Bellefontaine. For everyone who would also like to have a picnic with some delicious Chocolate Chips Cookies, here is the recipe:

Rory’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 300 gram chocolate chips (various flavours)
• 140 gram butter
• 150 gram sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200 gram plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Appliances

• Wooden spoon
• Small sauce pan
• Bowl
• Oven tray
• 2 sheets of baking paper

Preheat the oven to 175 °C or 350°F.

Melt the butter and stir it together with the sugar in a bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and give it a good stir. Now add in the chocolate chips and stir well.

Take a spoonful of the mixture, make it into a ball and press it down on the baking paper. You should be able to make more or less 12 cookies.

Bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes (soft centered) or 12 minutes (crunchy).

Voila! The result is a happy picnic!!! XD

Rory xoxo

Artsy Wednesday T.6

Interview Karen

This wonderful creative lady makes stamps! How cool is that! And that is not the only thing she does! She is multitalented and we are proud to  introduce Karen on todays Artsy Wednesday!

Thanks Karen!!

Name: Karen Vandelaer
Age: 24
Occupation: Art (drawing) Teacher, Illustrator and Stamp maker

Country: Belgium

Blog: karenvandelaer.blogspot.com 

1. Tell us why, how and when you started crafting?

I have been brought up with a pencil and brush in my hand. Back then my father taught children himself. I was his guinea pig and tried everything out. Later on, I took drawing lessons myself and registered myself in to art school. A few years later I graduated as a art (drawing) teacher. In the following year my friends and I took sewing lessons and I started  -coincidently- carving stamps. I love being busy and learning new techniques. I wish there were more hours in a day…..  

2. Why do you love crafting?

It’s fun to just do your own thing. Without thinking and without someone telling you how to do it. Whilst forgetting the rest around you for a little! It’s also lovely to show the creations you have made to others and to provoke reactions. I love to make others happy with my handmade stuff.

3. What is your favourite type of craft?

Making stamps is my number one favorite type of craft. A year ago, in February, I cut my first stamp. I saw it on a blog and thought that would be fun to do. The stamp became a bird. This inspired me to make birds with my class. There were so many positive reactions and even someone that wanted to trade a stamp. Sometime later a colleague of mine wanted to order a stamp. That set everything in motion.

Besides that I love to illustrate children books, birth announcements, posters and I also like to sew. I also enjoy crafting with the students at school.

4. What is the most pretty thing you have made?

My first stamp. When I stamped this one for the first time, the result was really astonishing! Just because I did not expect that.

I love the skirts I make. Each of them are unique.

5. Tell us what makes your crafts special?

My stamps are created without an existing image. My work as illustrator helps me to create a personal design that suits the customer. This makes my stamps so very unique.

6. What do you use for inspiration?

I actually sit behind my laptop a lot. I follow several blogs and have a Pinterest page. Etsy is also something I enjoy looking at and to find inspiration! My students also create inspirational drawings. They draw in such a different way I do. If I really don’t have any inspiration I look through my collection of children’s books. Sometimes you need some patience, but eventually it will bubble up by itself.

7. Would you like to show us were you do your craft magic?

When I tell my students that my company is also my bedroom they look at me with wide big eyes and with little understanding. Within a year my boyfriend and I will live together and then I hope I will have a room that I can use as a small atelier.

8. Would you like to share/include a fun craft tutorial with us?

I would if could but at the moment I don’t have one.

9. What sort of crafting would you still love to try out?

Decorating cake and cupcakes, papermaking, hand puppets like at theater FroeFroe, sculpture, molding fimo beads….so many things!

10. Have you got any advice for those who would love to start crafting?

Don’t give up after the first try! There are a lot of things you can make where you won’t succeed the first time.

Always believe in yourself! When someone doesn’t like it, there will always be others that will share your passion!

Painting Clay Pots

Painting is the perfect activity for a {rainy} afternoon. So we decided to paint with the children. We had the older children painting by them self and creating paper flowers while allowing their creativity and imagination to run wild. The younger children had to be wrapped in painting aprons and needed some assistance while painting their pots. Some even got excited and started to paint the inside of the pots as well. The flower pots brightened up our classroom immediately.

This is such an easy craft. It makes a lovely mother’s day gift, it spices up a dull windowsill, sweet pots for your balcony, a creative penholder for a teens room, and it such nice idea to take home after a creative birthday party.

Anyhow it makes a lovely crafty afternoon with the Children …

Love,
Sadie x

Home Sweet Home

I love houses that ooze personality and have idiosyncratic charm.  I don’t mean where it slaps you in the face and leaves you gob smacked not knowing where to look. But more those personal touches hidden or in sight. That surprised feeling of discovering something every time you come around. Those little (or big) things that say so much about the people living in that house.

I have a friend that walked past a shop window and bought the entire living room set in one go. It does say so much about her. She is easy going, a no fuss, straightforward kind of girl. We have a saying in Holland:  “Just act normal, then you’re acting crazy enough as it is”!. (“doe maar normal dan doe je al gek genoeg”) And this applies wonderfully to my dear friend.

And even though  this says a lot about her, I do prefer a house where you discover something about someone, you did or did not know. A house that represents the people that live in it. People that let you in a little and allow you to peek in their personality.

I am sure that taste is something personal. And I am glad that we can express this in our own way.

And we also express ourselves in our own way. It took us quite a long time to make this house our own. This being a modern house and I actually don’t like modern living. But we are making it our home. It’s a mix of country, vintage, crafty and modern. With a few hidden treasures throughout the house. I am curious to know if the readers from our blog will be able to tell something about us just by looking at our Home Sweet Home pictures…..

So today a few more corners, walls and hidden treasures in and of our living room.



Our tv corner



We love books. I collect children's books. And I love the FLOW magazine.
You can also see Alana's (our Cat) basket and play/scratching post/tree.



Our Wedding Suitcase



All our lovely keepsakes from our Wedding Day

Love,
Sadie xx

Rory and Sadie's Teatime

We had such a lovely time together. Rory and her baby boy came to visit for a Rory and Sadie’s Teatime. And while mummy Rory was fiddling with paper and Aunty Sadie was cutting sticks from the neighborhood hedges, he was playing on the floor with his toys.
Such a cozy afternoon.

Rory and I were invited to a housewarming. She and her boyfriend celebrated the fact they live together and wished a voucher from a garden center to spice up their garden.

So we decided to make a lovely garden gift.

"The garden gift "

I had a lovely time painting pots with children at work. It gave me an idea for “the garden gift” we wanted to make. First we thought of painting the pots with lovely colors like the children did. But then we thought of blackboard paint. Rory and I bought it for our teapot sign we use for our Rory and Sadie’s Teatime posts.

I am so in love with this paint. I have to control myself that I don’t apply it to everything!

Rory came with the sweet idea to paint hearts. We used masking tapes to create a heart. When the first layer dried we removed the tape and added a second layer more neatly to create a softer shape we wanted.

We bought seeds but made our own seed bags and labels.

For the seed bags we used some lovely (garden) wrapping paper that we folded in little bags. We glued it together. Then we just poured the seeds in our handmade bags and ceiled it with a cute “with love” sticker.

Because the printer ran out of ink we had to make the labels by hand. We just traced some labels from our computer screens and typed the words we needed and copied them on our labels. We then traced the pencil lines with black fine liners. We then added some sticks for decoration.

To stabilize the pots we wrapped some cardboard paper in the same wrapping paper and used some sticky gum to ensure the pots on their place.

For wrapping we used cellophane sheet and finished the gift of with some more branch sticks and off course a crayon so she can write the content of the pots.

A cute and super easy idea to go with a garden voucher.

We even had enough time to enjoy a lunch we enjoyed together with Husband.

Yummy.

Lots of love,

Rory and Sadie x