Holiday Extravaganza

This past weekend I took part in The Holiday Extravaganza over on rukristin.com.

Now you have to know that the whole christmas-thing doesn't start really start here in Holland until "Sinterklaas" leaves on the 6th of December. So we are not exactly in christmas-mode yet.
But this was just too much fun to miss!

There where guest-posts, DIY's, games and a total of 10 challenges.
Because of the time difference I missed the live blog Party chat. But thankfully they recorded it.
I stil need to watch it though XD

I went on a major craft-binge and had a go at ALL of the 10 challenges. And I proud to announce that I finished every one of them! Which is a big thing for someone who isn't very good at finishing things.

 I'll show you what I made:

 Challenge no.1 : Holiday Storytelling.

 The challenge was to create a project that tells of one of your holiday stories.
I picked our tradition to buy a tree. We always do this right after "Sinterklaas". I made these pictures last year for my december daily. I love how they tell a little story together.

Challenge no.2 : Holiday Cards

The challenge was to create a hand-made card to give to a friend.

Now I write a lot of christmas-cards. But never tried to make any of my own. So I wasn't really shure where to begin. I folded a regular white correspondece-card in half. then used my calligraphy-skills and wrote on it.

it still felt a bit bar after that. So I stamped some gold stars on it and glued some gold star-sequins on.
I really like how it turned out. Maybe next year I will make my own christmas-cards...

Challenge no.3 : Document the right now.

The challenge was to document the right now.
I still had a big currentl-card lying around. So I filled it out and glued it on some christmas-paper.
Taadaahh!

Challenge no4. A few of my favorite things..

The challenge was to make a project based on a given mood-board. It included hot pink and gold stationary , hand lettering and gold stars.. I knew instantly I wantend to make these hot pink note cards with some gold stars on the bottom. After a lengthy search of my stash I couldn't find any paper in the right kind of pink. 

The shops had already closed. And wouldn't be open on sunday... Thankfully a phone-call by my mother-in-law reveald that the shops would be open!! Yay! So after our monthly walk on the beach with some dogs I had to do some shopping. I found the perfect pink cards.

I made the "notes"-stamp myself and stamped the gold stars on. ( I am very much in love with the cheap HEMA star-stamp and Hero Arts gold ink)

 Challenge no.5 : Prepairing a holiday album

That was an easy challenge. I already started on putting together my December Daily album. And because I did some work on it fridaynight I got to use it for this challenge =)

More on my december daily album HERE

Challenge no. 6. Color challenge

The challenge was to use a certain colorscheme in a project. It didn't scream "holiday" to me but I knew this picture of Abby would be perfect. I used some of my christmas paper and added some stickers ("cut & paste" I believe)  I bought at the scrapbook-fair this summer.

Next up is to find a frame for it..

Challenge no.7 Get messy.

The challenge was to get messy and use paints, sprays, mists or any messy products on the next project.

So I pulled out my acryllic paints and painted a christmas tree on a small postcard-size canvas. I stuck some sparkles and a gold star in the wet paint.

As usual when I use paints I was coverd in it.. messy indeed..

Challenge no. 8 Minimalist style.

The challenge was to embrace minimalism and create a project that speaks volumes without shoving it in your face.

I had a really hard time with this one..
I combined this challenge with a project I had already in the planning. For my intuïtive developement course I need to make/buy a smal present for the last day. I knew instantly I wanted to make a stamp. But all the designs I could think of where to difficult. And then.. this one came to mind. Simple yet meaningfull.

Challenge no.9 DIY gift-wrap and Tags

The challenge was to create your own gift wrapping, tags of other gifwrapping embellishments.

This matched up very well with my stamp for my course. I found small kraft box in my stash just big enough for the stamp and a small inkpad. I stamped it with gold stars (there is that HEMA stamp and Hero ink again).
I cut a little tag with the stamps desing on it and wrapped it all up with a white and yellow ribbon.
Done!

Challenge no 10. Holiday Extravaganza Inspiration.

The challenge was to use one of the holiday extravaganza projects as inspiration.

One of the gustposts was a DIY to upcycle a moleksine. I am a big fan of notebooks and decided this was it. I have a "small" stash of empty notebooks inculding some faux-moleskines. I love the kraft covers. They are easily decorated for specific occasions.
I took some papers from my december daily stash and stuck them on. Trimmed the edges and added a label on the front. When the glue is totally dry I will add a layer of clear adhiesive plastic.
I'll use the little cutie to help me record my december stories for my december daily album.

And with that cute little notebook I finished all the holiday extravaganza challenges! 

I really enjoyed all the challenges and getting to do so much crafting.
Did you take part in the holiday extravaganza? 

Fold it in Mini-Album

With Nico of to the “zwarte cross” festival ( a mix between a music festival and dirtbike races)  last weekend I had the whole weekend to myself. Of course I had way to many things I wanted to do..
One of those things was to finally make a fold it in mini-album.
I won the workshop, made by Kristin from http://rukristin.com/blog/, in a give-away on the nerd nest blog some time ago. But as usual Life got in the way of crafting.

But with all my "free" time I had this weekend I finally got round to making  one.
As I commented in the give-away I wanted to make my first one about the dogtraining we are doing with our deaf Bull terriër; Abby.
So I had Nico take some pictures during training. I had them printed out  few weeks ago.
The next step was “shopping” in my scrap-material stash. I’m a bit new to the whole scrapbooking-thing. I discovered a desperate shortage in embellishments and not even that much cute papers.
( I have to say the stuff you can easily get here in Holland isn’t that cute). So some supply-shopping will have to be done..soon..
But I did manage to get some stuff together.

With the instructions right there on my computer screen it was quite easy to do.
I can defently reccomend this workshop!!
 I worked untill late in the night to get the basic structure done.**Not that it really took that long. I just started really late in the evening** And saved the embellishing for the next day.
The finished product came out like this:

I used pictures taken during the course and made copies of the doggie-handsign book we have.

These show what handsignal we use for which command. And also tells a bit how we tought it to her.

What I’ve learned for next time:
* expand my stash!!!
* use a paper without structure for the binding.
* don’t forget a damp towel for whiping of the glue on the binding
*use a thicker paper for the back and front cover..

But I’m still very happy with how it came out.