Worm problem.

I'm having some trouble with my computer! The virusscanner has detected a worm and it has already infected 2 files. This worm (W32/stration.EYV) is put in quarantaine but I'm not sure what I should be doing now. I'm not sending out any e-mails anymore so it can't be spread but I'm not sure if visiting my weblog is of any risk to you too. I hope not! I'm going to get some help on Monday with this problem. This isn't funny and I hope that spreading virusses on purpose to computers will be punished severely all over the world.

There wasn't much time to scrap the last couple of days. I made one layout though. It's a challenge for The Dutch Dares. You have to make a layout about something what your country has achieved that your proud of.
The Dutch social services is still one of the best and having a son with autism I'm really proud of the PGB, this is a personal budget provided by social services (health insurance). The past years I got a considerable amount of money so that I was able to pay my son's homeschool teachers, therapists etc..
On the pictures you can see Zander and me in the middle and around us are pictures of Zander and his teachers and companions.
Maybe you wonder why I doodled some bees on this layout. Bees look nice but they can't be trusted. They give us honey but they can also hurt you. The last couple of years a lot is changing in the Netherlands and life is getting more and more expensive and the government is cutting out a lot of benefits. In the past it was allowed to pay Dolphintherapy and Neurofeedback with the PGB. Last year they made that impossible. I don't understand why because these therapies can really help kids with autism and it's much better than all the farmaceutical drugs!
So I'm glad and proud of the existance of the PGB but it has it's stings!

Today (April 1st) I received the first assignment from Corinne Delis. I signed up for her online workshop Finding You!

I'm in the Dutch group! I'm not sure if I can tell you about the assignments on my weblog, so for now I'm keeping it a secret. But I can tell you that it's a real challenge for me! Pffffff.

Supplies: pp (American Crafts, Scenic Route Paper Co.), cardstock (Bazzill, Pipoos), ribbon (market), white acrylic paint, embroidering thread, sewing thread, distressink, small letterstamps typewriter (Image tree), big letterstamps (Sirius Hobby), black and yellow pen.
Techniques: machine stitching, hand sewing, stamping, doodling, masking, distressing.

Another today!

After posting the previous post I took another picture of the fog. This time there were sitting a bunch of birds in the top of the trees behind my house. They were making a lot of noise!

When I went to ask my neighbourfriend Esther if she would like to contact one of her friends in de USA to make it possible for me to donate some money to Autism Speaks, she told me about some very cheap bags with a lot of buttons on them. They only cost one Euro! Like me, she has a scrapeye, if you know what I mean! So off I went to the store and bought 4 bags. There was only one bag left with all the buttons (lucky me!), but I also saw these other bags with white flower buttons and metal decorations. My neighbour missed that one. There were 3 of them and I bought them all, also one for my neighbour who was very pleased!

For the ones who aren't aware yet about Autism Speaks and the competition that is going on, go to Ali's weblog and donate some money (at least 10 dollars) for this good cause! You have to be an American citizen though, that's why I asked Esther to contact her friends in the USA so that they can make a donation on my behalf! Tomorrow (saturday) is the last day! She has already raised over 30.000 dollars and is in lead of this competition. Also ask your friends to make a contribution because it's not about the amount of money that is raised but about the amount of people who have donated!

My son saw 2 frogs making love in our backyard. He came running in the house, very excited and told me what he had just seen. So I took the camera and luckily they were still there.

In the mean time the fog has dissapeared and the sun is shining brightly!
Have a nice day!

Today.

At this very moment this is what I see outside. Fog!

Father son moment

Finished this layout today. It's a challenge for HMITM. You had to use at least 30 different ribbons. I used about 40! The colours of this picture are slightly different from the original layout!

This is a nice picture of Zander and his dad.

Supplies: cardstock (Pipoos = Dutch store), patterned paper (My Minds Eye), ribbons (American Craft, Action (D. store), market, ?), flower brads and red holder (Oriental Trading Company), black velvet lettering (Zeeman = D. store), chipboard letters (Scenic Route Paper Co.), red and black acrylic paint, embroidering thread, black pen.

November 11.

Finished this layout yesterday. It's about November 11 or Sint Maarten (Saint Martin). This is an important day for most of the kids in the Netherlands! With a lantern (selfmade at school) they go by the houses and sing a song for the people who are willing to open the door. And then they get a treat (candy, fruit, chips and even money). So, I suppose it's a bit like Tric or treat in the USA, but without all the scary things and the costumes.

The pictures aren't great but I love the expressions on Zander's face!

I'm not sure if I also should make some embroidering lines on the pictures. I think it would look a little bit messy, overdone. What do you think?

By the way: this isn't a great picture of the layout. You can hardly see the embroidery lines. In real it's more present.

Translation of the Dutch line: November 11 is the day that my light may shine. It's one of the songs the children sing.

Supplies: pp (BG), black sticker letters (market), embroidering thread, sewing-thread, black DVD-writer (Pilot: love these to write with, esp. on pictures).

'Sun'day.

This morning when I woke up (an hour earlier because of the start of daylight saving) and opened the curtain of my bedroomwindow I saw this clear blue sky! The sun is still shining! Spring is in the air, finally!

Check out my Slide Show!

Hide & seek

Finished this layout about 10 minutes ago. Started it yesterday evening but was to tired to pick up the sewing-machine. I wanted to finish it this morning before my Nordic walking, but had a bit of a crisis with my son and worked on a solution all morning. Everything is cool now! It was just his autism that got in the way! All misunderstanding and misinterpretation (?). He wouldn't leave his bed and because he has to go school by cab he missed school today. He had to work at home though!

Okay, the layout. I bought this paper a long time ago and never knew what to do with it and then suddenly last night I had this idea. I used the sewing-machine a lot because this paper looks like fabric.

I loved making this one. Also did some embroidering on the felt flowers.

Supplies: pp (BG), felt flowers (Action), felt branch with birds (Xenos), flowerbrads (OTC and Junkitz), rub-on (SR), letterstickers (market), embroidering thread, sewing-thread.

Love this.

Yesterday evening I was looking through my bedroom window when I saw this. I love the blue sky after sunset with the black trees in front!

Some new stuff.

Bought some new stuff today!

I finally bought an external harddisc for all my pictures. Our computer was getting a little bit slow lately and somebody told me yesterday that at Kruidvat (Dutch store) they were selling these for a very low price.

I also went to the scrapbookstore in a village nearby for some shopping. It's the biggest scrapbookstore in the north of the Netherlands. Just 9 km. from my village. I have never been to another scrapbookstore in the Netherlands because they are all so far away. I think I'm lucky to have this shop so close by!

The owner of the shop had some new papers and new stamps. And I also bought the latest of CK.

I love the stamps! They were not cheap but I think I'm going to use them a lot.

Young artist at work

The next layout is a challenge from HMITM . You had to use 10 different kinds of paper, 10 buttons and 10 stickers. Well, I used 11 stickers because I couldn't find a sticker with @ in my stock. I'm not sending it in anyway, I just find it fun to do.

Supplies: pp (BG, SR), cardstock (Bazzill, Action), some wallpaper, buttons (Hubinont Hobby), letterstickers (market), rub-on letters (MM), letterstamps (MM), acrylic paint Christmas red (Folkart), staples, embroidering thread, white pen.

Your last baby smile.

A layout of Zander the day before his first birthday.

I used a square foamstamp of Making Memories to make the background. Saw this idea in CK.

Supplies: pp SR, square flowerstamp (MM), letterstamps (MM), acrylic paint, blue letterstickers (MM), white rub-on letters (MM), blue foam dots (selfmade), white souffle pen.

So proud!

I'm so proud of my son! He has his first job as a newspaper and folder deliveryboy! Every wednesdayafternoon he has to deliver 137 local newspapers and folders!
In the past he helped his older cousin Niek with his folders and about one and a half year ago his friend Manuel also got his first job as a newspaper deliveryboy and he asked Zander to help him. So he knows what is expected of him. But most important, he is really motivated to do this work!

Just before his 13th birthday on march 5 (you have to be 13 for this kind of work) he heard about the vacancy for this job. Only one phonecall and he got the job! This week he can earn about 8 euro! He gets payed by the amount of different folders he has to deliver. This week there are only 4 different folders. But sometimes he has 8 or 10 folders and can he earn about 12 euro a week! Not bad for a boy of his age!

Today was the first time he had to make his round. I took some pictures of him with his bike and the huge bags! The sun was shining and he thought it was warm enough to do his round without his coat. I told him to put his coat on but ofcourse he wouldn't listen to me. But within 2 minutes he had left, he returned home to get his coat. That's why there are 2 pictures of him seen from his back.

You 100%.

This time I made a scraplift from Ali's first book. I really love this LO and knew rightaway which picture I wanted to use for my own LO! I even went back to the scrapbookstore on saturdaymorning to get some more pp, but in the end I also used some wallpaper because I liked it better! I just added some journaling: in an Ali-manner, ofcourse!

I also made some stuff myself (white sticker letters on the left and black squares with 95), because I couldn't find it in the store in that size. I made the squares with cardstock, stamps and acrylic paint and covered it with relief gloss laquer. I used the cover of a small pin-box to make the white square on the left.

Supplies: pp (BG, SR, Bo-Bunny Press, wallpaper and the pink background ???), cardstock (Bazzill, Action), acrylic paint, black letters and rub-ons (market), foam letter stamps (MM), children's stamps, staples, dvd writer, relief gloss laquer (Kars).

Play.

Bought Ali Edwards first book yesterday and got inspired by her style for my latest layout! Used the sewing-machine this time.

The pictures of Zander are taken in the same month as the pictures I used for my previous layouts. I love these pictures of him! He was such a busy boy that day and had lots of fun with the sand and the water. On one picture there's this boy sitting behind him: that's his cousin Niek! They get along very well.

Supplies: pp Polkadots (K&Company), Pheobe (Basic Grey), cardstock (Pipoos), rub-on words (Scenic Route), letterstamps (Sirius hobby), letter Z rub-0n (One heart one mind), circle stamp (by Danell Johnson), distressink, acrylic paint burnt carmine (Folkarts), letter stickers (market).

Xplore.

Am I a busy scrapper or what! Finished yet another LO of Zander on the beach when he was 18 months old.

I used his ball as a guideline for this LO (circle, colours, stripes).

Supplies: pp (MME, BG), cardstock (Bazzill, Action), letter X is a copy of SR chipboard letters (selfmade), thicker letters (American Crafts), rub-on and sticker letters (market), embroidering thread, black DVD pen, wooden bird (Zeeman), buttons (market and OTC), distress ink.

1 time on the beach

Finished this LO this morning. Well, I think it's finished, but I still find it difficult to see when a LO is really finished! Do you understand what I mean? There's always this voice in my head that says: maybe you should add more stuff to this page, or maybe you have put to many stuff on this page.

For now I'm content with this LO but if you have another great idea just let me know!

Supplies: pp (MME), cardstock (Bazzill, Action), letter beads (Action), letter rub-ons (MM and market), letter stickers (market), number 1 (selfmade), ribbon (Action, market), embroidering thread, distress ink, acrylic paint, staples, black DVD pen.

Pals.

Made my second LO today in my new scraproom! The idea of using ribbons I saw in CK of march and is from Ali Edwards.

On the picture you can see Zander with Johnny, the Swiss dog I told you about some weeks ago. It's not a great picture but they looked so cute! And you can see that Johnny really was a very kind dog.

Supplies: cardstock (Action), ribbons (all kind of different retailers, market, stores), foam letters and flower (American Crafts), staples, dymotape, black pen.

New scraproom!

Okay, like I promised earlier this week here some pictures of my new bedroom/scraproom! And also some pictures of my son's new bedroom.

I still have to make a lot of a adjustments to my room (like painting the walls and the furniture, get rid of the broken computer and the small wooden table) but I'm so happy with my new scraproom (especially all the space I have now) that I want to share it with you anyway.

My son is also very happy with his new room and he doesn't mind that his room is much smaller now. I think it's much cosier!

You're cousins.

Pfffff, finally found some time to scrap and update my blog. I have been very busy redoing our bedrooms. Zander is now sleeping in my old bedroom and I am sleeping in his. For about 10 years ago I gave him the master bedroom, thinking small children need a lot of space! I was content with the smallest bedroom for a long time but since I have this scrapfever it wasn't feeling wright anymore. I was lacking space!

I'll show you some pictures of our new rooms later on. I haven't quite finished the job yet.

Last night I made this LO of Zander and his cousin Steffanie when they were almost 5.

It's a scraplift of Rachel Cohara. She made it for Revlie.

I love it! Rachel's and mine.

Supplies: black cardstock (bazzill), white cardstock (Action), fibres (market and Action), white letters (market), red velvet letters (Zeeman), black letters (market), dymotape, red rubber star (homemade), blingbling stickers (Chrystal stickers), white acrylic paint.