Try out

Hi there! It's been a while, I know. We've been on vacation in Italy and a lot has happened on the business side. Our Eco popupstore is still alive and kicking in the Zwanestraat in Groningen city! After the over-successful first few months we decided to prolong the opening of the shop till now. We have prodcuts of several Dutch designers like Elke van den Berg's wonderful pastel porcelain ceramics and the new Story Tiles which are a new and nostalgic tile concept. So please come and have a look!

I took me a while to understand and fully comprehend that my cell phone is actually more like a computer. I finally realized, just this instant that I could use my -still a bit of a stranger  - smartphone for publishing on my blog! ... Duh!
So this post is a try out. How do the pictures of my latest creative outburst look?

Hope to post more frequently from now on! See ya!
Xsan

DIY angel

Today I bought a fantastic vintage book full of Christmas do it yourself (DIY) paper crafts. I cannot NOT share them with you. So here is my favourite one, the angel. Description in Dutch only, sorry! If you need help, just email me.

1. Click on the pictures with the angel parts and save them in your computer. 
2. Print the 2 pictures with the angel parts, preferably on somewhat thicker paper so the angel will get a bit more solid.
3. You can read the instructions when you click on each picture, as it will pop up and the descriptions become larger. 
4. Remember you can print as many angels you like.
5. Send it to someone you love and tell him/her that he/she is your angel.
6. Enjoy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY !

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practice for fun

Although I'm almost completely fed up with those retro vintage prints I used to work with when I started my business, there's one I still like. I bought a piece of turquoise curtain years and years ago in a thriftstore in Belgium or Maastricht, I can't remember exactly. In it was a rather goofy looking dog, but the rest of the animals looked so sweet; a goat, a cat and my favorite this lovely little deer.
Last night I was fooling around in Photoshop (read: practice, practice, practice) and I created this birthday card just for fun. Even the pattern background I designed myself.


I'll soon post some pictures of new fabric stuff (prints and products) I designed last week.

handmade birthday party inviation for my girl

new cabinet from the thriftstore

a stranger in the kitchen

wall paper

How I love this wallpaper from Minakani.
But the fact is that I much too cowardice to apply this in my house as I tend to get bored quite quickly. I like to to repaint my wall every two years or so and doing so over this precious wallpaper is a bit like throwing money down the drain.
My living room wall has had many colours already; starting with ordinary white, then mustard, dusty pink and the present dark greenish grey lasts the longest time. The 2nd picture is from Dos Family (nice blog!)

my favorite color

free Christmas cards

I've been working hard (but with pleasure) creating these Christmas cards and I'm happy to share these with you as a free download. And please forward the message.
So if you could use some greetings cards for the coming holidays, click on the PDF button (pink square) to download a printable PDF.

If you prefer ready-made printed cards for which you pay €1,95 for two (shipping included till 6 cards, for more than 6 you'll pay actual shipping costs by TNT), please contact me by mail.

 
I'm going to switch gears now... Merry Christmas everybody!

alphabet

in the stars

Deze kaarten zijn gratis te downloaden. Ik heb ze met plezier en noeste arbeid voor je gemaakt. En zegt het voort!
Druk op het roze vierkantje om de PDF van de kaarten te downloaden.
Als je deze kaarten liever kant-en-klaar wilt ontvangen, mail me gerust, dan stuur ik je ze. Ze kosten €1,95 per twee en tot 6 kaarten zijn de verzendkosten gratis. Bij meer dan 6 betaal je het TNT tarief. 
Fijne kerstdagen!

Please respect my copyrights and use the cards for private use only.
Deze kaarten zijn alleen voor privegebruik bedoeld, niet voor (door)verkoop, dank!

alphabet

'Geeske'

Here's my newest prototype; a personal alphabet with the letters of your name - or any name or word you like - in colour. I really appreciate your frank opinion on this: what do you think of the alphabet poster, do you like or not? And do you like the thing that you can decide what name or word you want?

Secondly I need some help on the decision whether I should produce the wide or the more dense alphabet poster, see the last 2 pictures (with the word 'bird').

here is mine - 'Sandra'

'bird' wide

'bird'  more dense

 So please express your choises and opinions frankly... I appreciate your help. Thank you!
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paperworks

I know it's quite simple -  and I like to keep it simple, there's no fun in hard work for me now- but it gives me so much joy working with these colorful paper dots. 

bunting

New paper garland; I unsolicited cut his 40 year old comic book into flags, he was even very happy with it! Small paper flags like these are now for sale in my shop. They are very nice to hang in the window or to decorate a chair for a birthday boy.

And don't forget the give away! You can still sign in until December 1. More information here.

booklets

 

I found some card stock and paper which I store in one huge drawer ( a feast to skim through). Yesterday evening I made these hand stitched notebooks with some plain white and brown paper, squared and tracing-paper.

paper

Result...