Foto album

Het is dat ik geen naturel linnen had, anders had ik precies gemaakt met de stempels wat ik voor ogen had. Maar zo vind ik het ook mooi!



Een foto albumpje met losse bladen, waar je zoveel pagina's aan kunt toevoegen als je wilt. Of af en toe een gekleurde pagina er tussen.



Door de extra reepjes karton is er genoeg ruimte voor de foto's, zodat het niet snel open gaat staan.



Binnenkort in de shop!

Ik heb er trouwens nog meer in gedachten... Wacht maar eens af...

Stempels

Over vier weken is de dame jarig. Ze wil graag een prinsessenfeest. Aangezien ik niet zo dol ben op die vreselijke Disney prinsessen heb ik zelf maar een prinses bedacht. Gelukkig vindt de dame 'm mooi.



Ik kocht laatst een boek over "Dessert Tables". Daar gaat deze stempel zeker voor gebruikt worden. Ik ga me eens lekker uitleven op allerlei zoetigheden.

En toen ik toch bezig was... Dit had ik al heel lang in mijn hoofd. Ik zie dat zo voor me op een mooi handgebonden boek, bekleed met naturel linnen en in wit gestempeld...



En deze had ik al een tijdje liggen, maar gelukkig ontving ik eergisteren de houten blokjes om de stempel af te maken!



Volgende keer weer koekjes. Maar nu eens zonder glazuur!

Zomer in Holland

Nou vooruit, nog maar eens een dan. Het is tenslotte zomer. En de langste dag zit er alweer op, helaas. Vanaf nu wordt het alleen maar weer donkerder. Om te janken.



Ik heb nog meer stempels gemaakt, maar ik denk dat ik die eens bewaar voor als ik weer eens weinig tijd heb en me schuldig voel dat ik te weinig blog.

Ik heb intussen wel een enorm beginners-recept gemaakt voor zelfbedachte jam. De aardbeien waren namelijk in de aanbieding van de week, en de kersen ook. Dus we kunnen er weer even tegen. Haal maar vast wat aardbeien, kristalsuiker, citroenen en sinaasappels in huis!

"Another one" or "nog één"?

Lately I have been thinking... Do I continue writing in English, or should I just go Dutch? That would be far easier for me... But then again, I know that there are quite a few non-Dutch people reading my blog... But then, my most-read post was in Dutch... You know what, I am just going to give it a go and we'll see.

Maar goed, nu verder in het Nederlands. Dus.

Wat is dat toch met die stempels! Ik kan er nooit eens gewoon één maken. Dus de komende dagen ga ik jullie vervelen met handgesneden spulsels. Haak gerust af hoor, over een paar dagen heb ik het weer uit mijn systeem en dan gaan we jam maken! Hoera!

Carving again

Since I got a message last week saying that one of the pics on my blog, a handcarved stamp of a bee, will be in a school book in Belgium, it seems that my stampcarving bug has been reanimated. I have been carving quite a lot lately. This one is ne of my favorites!



I have been thinking about listing them in teh Etsy shop, but for some reason I find it hard to see them go.

What to do?

New books

In one of my last swaps on Swap Bot, I made a couple of notebooks. In a current swap you are supposed to send somethingbthat you have already made. So I'm sending another ntebook. And suddenly, I am all inspired again. So I am making some new small notebooks with 40 pages. Zakka style. And in true Mjammie, Koekjes style, you can send them to someone instead of a card. They come with a matching envelope!





By the way, the ladybug cookies are done! I will send them to the first one of the three who guessed 15 that will email me at maaike@mjammiekoekjes.nl!

Stamp cutting tutorial

A nice tutorial for a rainy sunday afternoon! You can carve your stamps, but when you want to make something larger, its way easier to cut them!

You will need:

A sharp knife or scissors
A sheet of craft foam
A piece of wood
Double sided tape
Inkpads.



Draw your picture on the foam sheet and cut out the individual pieces.



Stick the double sided tape to the wood or MDF board.



Stick the picture to the double sided tape. Ink the foam picture.



Stamp your picture to paper.



And voilà! A home made stamp!

This craft is very suitable for children, since there are no messy or difficult steps. The foam is so easy to cut that even small children can do it!

If you want to make a large ink pad, you could take an old piece of felt or even quilt batting, lay it on a sheet of glass or perspex and pour some Talens Ecoline or stamp in on it.

Have fun!

Apple mania

No, I'm not talking about my Ipad this time. ;-)

Some time ago, I bought some more craft books. I love those Japanese books, with all things zakka and with those cute dolly figures and stuff. This time I bought a crochet book. I loved this cute crochet apple! So that was one of the first things I made.



I thought the fabric was really zakka too... Ikea has such great fabrics!



The combo inspired me to carve a matching stamp and print my own fabric... For the first time ever!



As soon as I find the time (and my constant headache decides to take a vacation) this will be a library bag for the munchkin!

For anyone interested in Japanese craft books and Zakka: I buy my books here.

A lovely afternoon

I have been busy today. The munchkin decided not to need a nap, instead we sat at the dining room table and did some nice crafts together. She played with her Barbapapa stamp kit while I carved some new ones. A great afternoon.






Which reminds me, I need to mount some stamps and put them in the Etsy shop... More room in my Crafting cabinet usually means more room in my head...

My new car

For some time now, I wanted to make a stamp with a recurrent pattern. So I made myself a car. That you Can use over and over and over! Especially with this tree and these houses, and a sun... I could stamp myself an entire street!!! How cool would that be to wrap your gift!!!

And the winners are...

The bird on the branch of flowers! Judith, congratulations on the winning idea!

After random picking(I asked my husband to give me a number) the winning voter is Suus Geniet!

To the winners: congratulations! Please send me an e-mail at maaikee@yahoo.com! And to the dear readers who didn't win: the stamps will be in my Etsy shop tomorrow. And just for the Blog readers: a free shipping coupon code! When checking out, use inspiration2011 for your discount! Free shipping will be available until May, 15 2011.

I will be launching something new soon, with another giveaway. So stay tuned!

The inspiration giveaway finale!!!

Now that the stamps are carved, all we have to do is choose a winner and pick a lucky voter!

But first, the fine print...

Please let me know in the comments of this message which stamp you like best. Just by voting you are entering the goodiebag giveaway!!!
You can't vote for your own suggestion. It's just bad sportsmanship. ;-)
The stamps are carved with the ideas in the comments of this message. The person who had the winning suggestion will receive a goody bag!
You can vote until friday, on saturday I will choose two winners: the winning suggestion and the winning voter!

These are your options:

The birdie


The little lamb


The kokeshi doll


The sun


The froggie


Let the voting begin!!!

The inspiration giveaway: birdie and flowers

The last one in the inspiration giveaway... The bird on a branch with flowers. I hope you like it! I will post a message on sunday with all the stamps so you can choose a winner...




I mounted some of my stamps yesterday. Now all I need to do is make more mdf blocks, so I can mount all the others as well!

The Inspiration Giveaway (5)

Today I would like to show you the little lamb stamp. Thanks for that great idea! I do think there might be another lamb in the future, I have another idea of what a lamb could look like.




I was planning to make some cookies today, but the munchkin passed her stomach flu on to me... So the cookies will have to wait...

I keep hearing requests for a stamp carving tutorial. As soon as I feel better I'll make one!

The Inspiration Giveaway (4)

You made such nice suggestions that I needed to figure out what stams I should carve and how I should draw the pictures. The next one in the list, after the frog and the sun, is the kokeshi doll. Thank you for that suggestion!!! This is what it turned out like:




I've also been experimenting with sending cookies in the mail, so I can use them as a pick-me-up for friends who need one. Once I have found the right way to send them, so they'll arrive in one piece, I might just put them in my Etsy shop...

The Inspiration Giveaway (3)

Spring at last!!! I did think the sun itself wasn't enough so I made a rainbow to accompany it. I used them to box up some cookies (rainbow colored cookies!) for friends.









Too many pics? Is there such a thing?

I am considering selling my cookies on Etsy, but only in The Netherlands... Would that be a good idea? Hmmmmm... Time for a cookie post...

The Inspiration giveaway (2)

The frog is finished! I actually carved more stamps yesterday, I needed some for the label of a box of cookies that I made for friends, I'll show you that tomorrow.




Tomorrow: here comes the sun!!!

The inspiration giveaway (1)

Another stamp!!!




My inspiration is gone now... So... Any suggestions? How's that for interactive!

So you just name it, and I'll carve it! Maybe we can make it a little contest, you make suggestions, I'll carve a stamp and we'll have the readers of the blog vote... The winner gets a goody bag incluiding the carved stamp!!!

So, shout!

Another stamp...

Oh yes! I'm on a roll! Could this be... Stamp week? Hahahahahaha!

Anyway, I made this for a friend who is pregnant after miscarrying twice. I know that this time it will be fine, I had a dream that she carried to term and had a girl. So she can start painting the nursery pink. I used the stamp to gioftwrap a small gift for her.

Mayke, this one is for you!!!






Next week I'll show you how to re-use your favorite magazine pages by making them into gift bags like this one...