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Thursday May 24, 2007

Photo Hunt 59 Theme: Colorful

Hey All,

This weeks Photo Hunt Theme is Colorful. There are different ways you can see this theme. I decided to take a few very colorful things from my Scrap Studio that inspire me every time I'm working there.


The M & M 's are my treat for when I've finished a page. The jar with Foam has lots of different shaped foam pieces in a great variety of colors. Now that I can actually see everything, I'm slowly starting to really use it.
When I first started filling the jars with fibers, I wasn't concerned by selecting them on color. I just wanted everything cleaned and so I put everything in the jars. Later on I was looking for a matching fiber / ribbon. At first I thought I should have divided everything by their colors, but as I continued looking I found several fibers and ribbons from different colors that I could use. And I found them because I had to go through all the jars to find something matching with the layout. And that's a very fun thing. So I decided to keep all the fibers and ribbons mixed up. The fun way, I think, is that it does look more colorful compared to putting everything from one color in one jar. When Is tarted collecting the eyelets, I started with them all sorted by color. But since I have those little jars especially for all the small embellishments, I knew I had to mix them. Looking at them gives me so much pleasure. It's so fun to look at!

Have Fun and thanks for looking!

If you want to know who participates in this hunt, have a look here. If you'd like to participate, please go here.

Talk to you later!

Sunday May 20, 2007

What did I scrap Sunday (#4)

Hey all,

I haven't done much scrapping this week. I've been working on getting things printed with the Creative Lettering Delights companion. However, I'm having troubles with that. Either the transparent alphabets are not printed correctly or the transparent Journaling Delights are not printed correctly. With this I mean that when printed (if printed at all), I get a print like I've zoomed in too much, so it's not looking sharped, but rather pixelled. And that's of course not what I want. I've contacted technical support about this already. I hope they'll have a solution for me, cause I'm all out of ideas......

I've been working a little bit on the SAG album again. I've gone shopping for bigger screws. I've found something in the hardware store. I'll show you that later. And last but not least I've been working on a new layout again, but that's not ready to show yet.

I'm going to ask James if he can take a few pictures of me, so that I can finish the Forum Friendship cards. After that I'll order those online and also photos from my scrapstudio. I already have a rough idea for the album. But before I begin with that album, I want my SAG album to be finished. Once that's done, I'll work on my Scrap Studio album.......

Talk to you later!

Friday May 18, 2007

Do you have a holiday in Europe?

Hey all,

Do you happen to have a holiday in Europe and are you looking for a hotel? I've found a great site where you can pick the right hotel for you: Eurobookings. I found this site while looking for hotels for someone else. I think it's a wonderful opportunity to book a hotel without to much hassle! You can book immediately on the website and you don't have to pay a reservation fee. And they have a lot of other benefits!

Easy booking
You can easily book from the homepage. Just fill in your destination or choose one from the list. Once that's done, choose the check-in and check-out date and hit the search button. You'll be presented with several hotels to choose from. And you can immediately book a hotel by clicking the Book Now button. What more can you want?

Hotel Guide
As I told you, Eurobookings has more benefits besides the No Reservation Fee. You can also find an extented Hotel Guide. This your place to read reviews about hotels in several countries. You're not only getting the basic information about a hotel, but also more information of the surroundings and places to visit. That way you can start planning your vacation easily. Especially if you're like James and me, trying to find fun things to do and visit during our holiday. And we're taking the "The Pleasure starts when your start planning" part serious! This site is ideal for these extra tidbits!

More features
I guess you don't want to go without a car. I know James and I don't. If we can't take our own car, we'll rent one. It so happens that you can book a rental car through Eurobookings too! As with booking a hotel, booking a rental car is as easy as 1-2-3. And this helps planning your holiday so much! If you know you have a rental car at your disposal, you know can afford to go sightseeing a town or castle (yes, there are still several castles in Europe!) or something else which is not in the place where you are staying. And it's all because you have the luxury of a car!
And to top it all, those of you who want to book all activities in advance, you can do do that too through the Things to do feature. You'll have an extended list to choose from!

Go and have fun and don't forget to let me know how it turned out!

Talk to you later!

Thursday May 17, 2007

15 day's till Scrap-a-Ganza

Hey all,

It's only fifteen days till Scrap-a-Ganza!!! I'm so looking forward to it! This does remind me that I have to ork really fast now. I still have my SAG album to finish and I want to make my Scrap studio album, so that I can participate in the contest. It would be fun!

In the meantime I'm going to pack everything I don't need until SAG, so that I'll have everything ready. And I'm going to make a shopping list of things I want to buy at Scrap-a-Ganza. I know the Crop-a-Dile will be for sale. Although I have a very good eyelet setter, it is my understanding that the Crop-a-dile will cut through chipboard and several layers of cardstock like cut through butter. That does come in handy! You can do this with the Silent Setter too, but it does take more power and a bit longer.

So, here's my Scrap-a-Ganza Shoppinglist:


  • Crop-a-Dile
  • Book Binding Tape
  • Chipboard figures
  • Chipboard Alphabet letters
  • At least two pizzaboxes filled to the brim with Scrapbooking stuff (maybe even more......).

I am going to give myself a strict budget, otherwise I'll be spending and spending and spending...... And we can't have that, can we?
Oh, for those of you who haven't / couldn't read my post about last year, the pizzaboxes are something special. Scrapbookmate (a distributor of scrapbook supplies) is the big sponsor of Scrap-a-Ganza. They'll have (older) supplies with them that we can buy. BUT we don't have to pay for them by item. No, we can buy a pizzabox and go into the room where all the supplies are and fill the pizzaboxes ourself to the brim. As long as the pizzabox can close normally, it's okay. The pizzabox costs about 25 euros. But it's very well possible you'll have supplies in it which are worth a lot more! And this I like!!!

Do you happen to have any suggestions of scrap supplies to buy? Things you think are great and at least worth to have a look at? Let me know!

I'll keep you informed about the progress I'm making with the mini albums :) I might break the night tonight and just keep on working at the SAG mini album. I really want to have it finished this week! Luckily I have a few days this week, so I have four days to work on it. Should be enough, shouldn't it?

Talk to you later!

Photo Hunt 58 Theme: Cooked or Cooking

Hey All,

This weeks Photo Hunt Theme is Cooked / Cooking. I always intended to make a recipe Scrapbook album. However, it has not yet come to that. I have made one recipe mini album, though. It's about Chocolate Mousse (Or as we in the family like to call it: Heavenly Mud). In the mini album I've covered every step you have to take to make this Heavenly mud. This is one of the steps:


Here I've mixed the melted chocolate with the egg yogurt on the right page of the layout. This is really a fun and very addictive desert to make. If you want to view the entire process, start here for all the images!

Have Fun and thanks for looking!

If you want to know who participates in this hunt, have a look here. If you'd like to participate, please go here.

Talk to you later!

Wednesday May 16, 2007

Looking for recipes

Hey all,

As I told you before I want to make a cooking scrapbook, or better, probably multiple scrapbooks :). I was surfing the web for interesting recipes (as James and I are regularly looking for new things) and I found a great website for free recipes.

The Site
Their site is looking very attractive to me. They have nice colors and all the most important parts are easily reachable from the menu. You are greeted with a photo with a nice meal (in my case I saw the meal from the Japanese Cuisine), they have a weekly poll and you can choose from a great variety of categories to search for free recipes.

Your account
You can register at the site to get a free account. If you want, you can also subscribe to their newsletter, so that you recieve recipes on a daily basis. One of the big advantages is that you can add every recipe you find to your own recipe box. That way you don't have to go looking between the thousands of recipes they have. Instead you can immediately access the recipe again.
You can also add your own recipe, which I think is great! This could be your online recipe box. And for those who don't want a mess in their house (like I have right now......), this is a wonderful way to keep your house clean and your recipes in order.

The recipes
With every recipe you'll get the following information (where necessary of course!):


  • Servings
  • Preparation time
  • Cooking time (yes, there is a difference between the two :) )
  • A list of ingredients
  • Instructions

Added to this list, you'll notice at the bottom of the recipe that you can change the recipe to fit for more or less people for you want to make the meal. This is great way to get a list of ingredients of what YOU need, instead of the standard.
And for me as an added bonus, after all I am from the Netherlands, I can convert everything to metric scale, so that I don't have to wonder about the US Standard scales.

Extra features
The above is not all. What to think of a shopping list? For people like James and me, this is ideal. We usually do our grocery shopping in the weekend for the entire week. By adding the recipes to the shopping list, you'll have a complete list ready. How handy is that?
And one of the things I also really like is the forum. You can exchange experiences and ideas and much more. What's better than that?
And to top it all, you can also look for coupons. This always comes in handy!

Conclusion
I think this is a very neat website which I will visit frequently! I think this site will be a wonderful resource for all the recipes I'm going to use in my cooking scrapbook(s) Let me know what your experiences are! I'm always curious!

Monday May 14, 2007

Mother's Day Wrap up

Hey all,

Although I'm not a mother, we were still busy with Mother's Day. After all, James and I both still have our mothers (we're so lucky with that!!!!), so that deserves some attention, doesn't it? Although James is not used to doing anything with Mother's day (it wasn't that important to his mother), I AM used to doing things and I know mom would be disappointed if we wouldn't have done anything. So, together with dad and Mark I prepared a few things and now I can finally tell you all about it!

André Rieu Tickets
My mom and dad already had tickets for BZN (a famous dutch band). When dad gave the tickets to mom, she said, she'd even more like it to go to André Rieu. Little did she know that we were giving her tickets to one his concerts too. Now they're going together to both concerts.

Scrapbook supplies
Mom has become an avid scrapbooker, just like me. Although she know how to find things on the web, she's not used to look for digital things you can also use in your "normal" scrapbooks. Personally I don't scrap digital either, but I've found several marvelous digital things to use in my scrapbooks. I thought I could let mom enjoy these things too. James and I gave here 5 printed alphabets from Lettering Delights (Ahoy, At the Beach, Compass, Dockside and Seashells). She got these specifically because she's working on a scrapbook for dad about our boats and more currently the boat dad and James are working on right now. These alphabets are perfect for that particular scrapbook!
On top of that we gave her a scrapbooking stack about dogs. I believe it was from Dejaviews, but I'm not sure. And we gave her dog tabs from Making Memories. So she can scrap again :)

Weekend in a hotel
Mark (my brother) and his girlfriend Kim gave mom and dad (for father's day already and for thanking for keeping their dog, Tess, for two weeks while Mark and Kim have a holiday in Portugal) a weekend away in a hotel of their choice where dogs are allowed (after all, mom and dad have a dog too, he's called Mick). I think that was a really nice present. Mom and dad were very happy with it!

Diner
Instead of my mom cooking a large diner we had a gourmet diner. I'm not sure what it's called in English. It's like where you are all cooking in these little pans on a grill instead of in a fondue. Am I making any sense here? We had a very good meal!

My mom was very happy with everything she had gotten. And that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Talk to you later!

Sunday May 13, 2007

What did I scrap this week (#3)?

Hey all,

No, you haven't missed a thing. It's just been several weeks since I last posted the "What did I scrap this week?"-list. I've been quite busy, but also with a lot of other things. I thought I'd pick it up again. I won't go into the last three weeks, but I will list what I did this last week.


  • I've been jotting down ideas for my Scrap studio mini album. Okay, I still have to finish the Scrap-a-Ganza mini album, but for my Scrap studio mini album I already have photos, so it's really tempting to start with that one. That's why I try to limit myself to only jot down ideas and nothing more.
  • I've been searching for and downloading alphabets and journaling delights from Lettering Delights. For myself I've specifically searched for things to use in my Scrap-a-Ganza mini album and in my Scrap studio Mini album (yes, I confess.....). And let's not forget everything for the zoo albums. I've seen so many wonderful things!
  • I've downloaded 5 alphabets especially for mom for mother's day, as well as bought her a dog scrap pack.
  • I bought myself the Grommet Tool set from Making Memories. Now I have to start using it!

I confess, it's not a long list and it's nothing that I actually scrapped, but it's something. I hope I can work on the Scrap-a-Ganza mini album the coming evenings. Maybe I'll get a few extra pages finished. And I'm free this Thursday and Friday. I hope I'll be finally able to finish the Scrap-a-Ganza mini album........

Talk to you later!

Looking for new scrapsupplies

Hey all,

As usual in the weekends, I've been surfing around for new scrap ideas and new scrap supplies. I decided to check with CouponChief.com to see if they had interesting coupons for me. After all, you never know what you may find there! And given my previous experience with my greeting cards it was certainly worth the time to check out the site again.

Joann.com
I'm on several mailinglists and there I've read about a store called Joann. It seems they have a lot of scrapbooking supplies for an interesting price. Of course I can't let such an opportunity go by, so I searched on the CouponChief site for Joann.com coupons and boy did I find some interesting coupons! What do you think about Free shipping? Or 60 % off holiday items? And they have a lot on sale for which you can use coupons! So it's definitely worth checking.
I saw several very interesting items for a very nice price, like glue (you can never have enough of those!), the Crop-a-Dile (I've been told this is really easy if you want to make wholes in a stack of cardstock) and cardstock stacks. I love the Die Cuts with a View stacks!
Just to make sure I decided to check if they indeed ship to the Netherlands. After all, I've seen shops that don't ship to the Netherlands. And as it turned out, so doesn't Joann. Too bad...... I'd be happy to buy there. But for those of you living in the United States: Go shopping there!!!

Coupon Chief
When I told you about the Greeting Cards I ordered I haven't told you a lot about Coupon Chief, so I decided to tell you a bit more now. Coupon Chief gives you the online coupons and coupon codes for lots of stores, like Amazon, Target, eBags and lots more! You can easily find your favorite store, by simply clicking the link all stores link. Then click on the link of the begin letter of your favorite store and you'll get the list of the stores Coupon Chief has a coupon or coupon code for. It's easy as 1-2-3. Once you click on the store link you're looking for, you'll get the coupons / codes. Once clicked on the coupon link, you'll be led to the store and a pop-up window from Coupon Chief will come up, guiding you through the process of the ordering with your coupon.
And last but not least, Coupon Chief has added a neat new feature for several stores. For Joann, in example, you can now watch an instruction video on how to use the coupons. This new feature makes it even more attractive, at least for me, to use the Coupon Chief site.

Conclusion
Although I couldn't use the Joann coupons now, I'll be sure to check back into Coupon Chief, because I'm sure there'll be new things to check out and try. And seen the wonderful experience I had with my greeting cards, I'm not at all disappointed. I'm happy with this site!

Talk to you later!

Saturday May 12, 2007

Recent Scrap supplies: Fun Alphabets & More & The Grommet Tool Set

Hey all,

I was looking for a few new scrap supplies again. I'm always on the look out for new alphabets (cause I can really use them!) and I was thinking about a new tool. As for the rest, I wasn't really looking for something new like needing it, but seeing new things may inspire me too :).

Lettering Delights Alphabets & More
With thanks to Dawn from Keeping it Real I've decided to start using things from Lettering Delights. These layouts are projects where Dawn used several lettering delights products. And when I saw these I finally decided to use their products. I've bought several of their alphabets and Journaling Delights packages. I found several I could use in my zoo albums. I'm going to have to make at least three zoo albums (The Emmen Zoo, the Dolfinarium and Diergaarde Blijdorp). Some things were so exactly fitting for the pictures I've taken, I couldn't resist buying them, although I'm not going to use them yet.
I'm not going to make digital layouts, but I'm going to print everything and use it all in my "normal" layouts. That's why I love computers. You can do so many things nowadays!

Grommet Tool
I was rummaging through all my scrap supplies a little while ago and I found a few big eyelets / grommets which I had gotten from Club Scrap. I was wondering how to fix these, so I decided to go looking for a tool. I went to The Scrapheap and found the Grommet tool set. All though the grommets didn't look like the things I had gotten from clubscrap, I decided to buy the tool anyway. I did it because I found a great advantage with this tool: I could make big wholes! I had been looking for a tool to do that, but hadn't found it, but now I had. So, even though I might not be able to use it for the Club Scrap things, I can use it here. This is the grommet tool:

Experiences
Do you happen to have experiences with this tool, or with other tools (good or bad). Let me know! I'm always looking for new ideas and experiences!

Friday May 11, 2007

Dreaming of ultimate Clubscrap Pizza box

Hey all,

As I said before I'm dreaming about the "Ultimate Club Scrap Hearty Appetite kit". Okay, it's not officially called this name, but that's what I call it! I've been a member of Club Scrap before (April 2004 - June 2005), but due to my RSI problems, I had hardly used the Club Scrap Kits. Then there came a time when I wanted to make scrapbook examples for my shop, so I mainly used supplies I had in my shop. Now I'm starting to use Club Scrap kits again. And I love it.

the Ultimate Club Scrap Hearty Appetite kit
Club Scrap has such a high quality for their kits, that it's hard to not love their supplies! I have several scrapbook projects in my head right now and since I'm scrapping more and more I think there comes time that I don't have any Club Scrap Supplies anymore. Of course I can buy supplies from other brands (I do that now too), but I still LOVE Club Scrap. So now I'm dreaming about a kit with the following supplies {Source: Club Scrap}:


  • Main Entree:

    • Papers — A healthy blend of at least sixteen 12x12s, and ten 8.5x11s of premium quality textured card stock and translucent sheets, perfect for both scrapbooking and cardmaking.
    • Goodies — We shop and create for you! Expect a discriminating and coordinated selection of fresh and innovative craft products to enhance your projects.
    • Sticker or Stencil — On alternating months you'll receive either a sheet of original Stickers or a 5.5x8.5 Stencil template, both exceptional methods of page embellishing.
    • Idea Recipe Cards — An indispensable tool for the perfect craft seasoning . . . a brand new FONT Card for you to trace and copy onto your projects, a BORDERS & BACKGROUNDS Card that offers coordinated images for unlimited uses, and a LAYOUT Card that hands you ideas on a silver platter!
    • Scrap Rap™ — A robust and colorful 8-page newsletter that's jam-packed with priceless ideas, techniques and projects from the CS® Design Team and our talented Members.

  • The Three Side orders

    • Wood Mounted Stamp(s) — Superbly artistic and perfectly coordinated original stamps . . . you'll receive one large or two smaller stamps in each kit.
    • Embellishment Pack — A delightful mix to your craft collection . . .:

      • One portion of hand selectedbeads, brads, charms, nail heads, eyelets and more
      • A set of perfectly matched fibers for each kit — 6-8 yards of 4 different styles
      • Twelve Photo Mattes at 6.25x4.25 that make matting and layering a piece of cake
      • Two 8.5x11 Tag Sheets that include combinations of printed and plain options
      • PaperCuts that equal two 8.5x11 sheets — exclusive CS® diecuts, both printed and plain

    • Greetings to Go — an exquisite variety and a cardmakers dream . . . :

      • Fifteen Scored Sheets for ready-to-make cards in an assortment of sizes
      • Fifteen Kindred Panels that are poised for accessorizing
      • Fifteen Coordinated Envelopes for instant in-the-mail capabilities
      • A portion of adhesive or a coordinated ink for on-the-go handiwork


  • Extra's from the à La Carte Menu:

    • Extra CS Paper Helping — A second helping of CS® paper
    • POP's — A luscious "pound of CS® paper" cut down to bite-size servings for easy crafting
    • StampXtras — Greeting {a touch of life's occasions} & Art Nouveau {a glimpse of life and art}
    • The Swatch Card — A catalog of your kit's paper swatches, designs and ingredients — a must for any future cravings
    • The Unmounted Rubber Set — Images right from the Idea Recipe Cards — Fonts and Backgrounds & Borders


This is indeed a huge kit! I know. But still......... Unfortunately the costs are a bit too high for me now. It all comes down to $110.- per month {It does have a retail value of $147.-, though!}. So, while I'm still scrapping with previous Club Scrap Supplies, I wish I could simply have the Ultimate Kit send to me every month. This would be so wonderful! Can you imagine this being delivered in, I guess, multiple pizza boxes {otherwise it won't all fit}? Imagine the mailman delivers this package to you every month! Right now I can only dream about it.

The reasons
And why do I want all those things? Let's see about each part, shall we?
The Main Entree
This is the best package you can get. There's also a junior package, but you won't have as much in it. Although granted, it does costs less also :). Anyway, the cardstock is from a highly quality. It's really thick. This makes it possible to have it as the main background and put it in a page protector when the entire page is finished. And that's what I like. I don't like these thin background papers with which you still need cardstock to give it the sufficient protection. And on top of it, the designs are all from Club Scrap! It's all original, unlike with in kits from other manufacturers! The goodies are always matching perfectly with the cardstock. Several of them are specially selected for Club Scrap and you can't always get your hand on it! The stickers are always great. Sometimes you get alphabet stickers and other times you'll get stickers with a certain design. The stencils are also very useful. With my previous subscription, I've already had a few envelop templates, drawings to fill with chalk or paint and much more! The Idea recipe cards give you layout sketches, and prints of the fonts and Borders & Backgrounds. So, if you're looking for ideas for your layout, these cards are excellent to use. And as a great bonus you'll get the Scrap Rap. You can see this as the Club Scrap Newsletter with examples for that month's kit, work from other members from previous months and sometimes a project description. This has given me inspiration for my SAG album already!
Three side orders
I love the quality of these side orders. The wood mounted stamps are coordinating with the kits perfectly. Several of them are unique for Club Scrap and come in limited editions. Can you imagine that? The Embellishments pack has everything you need. In my case I love the tags you get. In the past I've especially ordered sheets of tags, just because I liked the designs and because I knew I could use them somewhere. The photo mats have come in handy very much already in the past! And talk about the fibers. These are usually things I can't find in my local stores. That's why I always had these ordered too! The rest of the pack is as good too! The Greetings to go is something new for me. I understand that crafters in America have only recently started making cards. Here in the Netherlands this is something we've been doing for ages. As I see the description, I think this will be a wonderful pack for card making.
Extra's
The Extra helping of papers have already come in very handy for me with regards to a few projects. In the past I've ordered these separately when I found papers I really liked. It's just so easy to work with. The POP's are so great to work. Not only can you use them for photo mats, but you can also use them for journaling blocks, die cuts and much more! These weren't part of my standard package in the past, but I did order several POP's in addition to the kits I already had. What was standard in my order, were the StampXtra's. These were also specially designed for Clubscrap. Up until now I've only used a few of them, but I do see where I can use others already :). Another thing that's really good is the swatch card. This gives you a sample of the cardstock and the designs. This way you'll always know which cardstock belongs to which kit. And if you happen to run out of the cardstock, you can easily order it {assuming Club Scrap still has the necessary supplies}. One last thing I hadn't in my orders in the past was the Unmounted stamp set. However, in the future I would consider having this in my standard order. These are so beautiful!!!

Well this is about all I can say. Oh, one last addition: It's all such a high quality! Of course you'll "pay" for that, but if I compare it to other companies, I think this is great and you're not paying anything extra for the quality. Better yet, all taken together, I think Club Scrap is even better with their pricing!

Keep on dreaming
However, although I'm only dreaming about it right now, this maybe achievable in the future if I receive enough money from Pay-per-post programs and ad incomes. That would be funny, wouldn't it? Until then..... I keep on dreaming!

Blogging & Money = Pay Per Post

Hey all,

It's Friday again and as usual I'm surfing the net and searching for things for my hobbies {especially scrapbooking}. It's always so fun to search for new things, but it's even more fun to actually buy new things. And that's why I love Blogging & Money, as I call it. Writing posts for money gives me the opportunity to earn a little bit extra cash to support my Scrapbook projects! And don't get me wrong, I love my blog and I'll always continue to write here for myself {as in not paid!}. But making a few extra bucks to support my hobby is something I can't say no to, could you? So let's talk a bit about earning this little extra cash!

Pay Per Post
Usually I check the web about once a week for opportunities on Blogging & Money. As I told you before I'm using multiple companies for this. One of those companies is Pay per Post. This company's specialty is blog advertising. I can hear you thinking: "Why did you choose for this company?". Well, if you haven't read any of my previous posts, here's why {and in a way it's simple}: This was the second company that accepted my blog for ads on blogs and the first company where I had several posting opportunities almost instantly. With Pay per Post I also get more opportunities available when my stats {visitors and other sites who link to mine} are improving, which is of course very fun!
And although Pay Per Post has it's basis in the United States, bloggers from all over the world can participate here, as long as you have a Paypal account. And that's the beauty of it. Nowadays it's very easy to get a Paypal account. I have an account for several years now, so participating with Pay Per Post is no problem for me!

Posting for Pay per Post
Pay per PostI've been writing for Pay per Post since March 3, 2007, so it has been about 10 weeks ago that I started. In that time I've taken 5 opportunities {6 with this one included} and earned $35.50 with those opportunities! That makes an average of one opportunity per two weeks and $7.- per opportunity. This might not seem that much to you {at least if you're looking for a way to earn a lot of money with your blog} but I see it as a start. When you start a new job in an area of expertise where you haven't worked before, you don't get paid the highest salary from the beginning either.
Although it doesn't seem like much at the moment, things are changing. Granted, they change slowly..... Since my stats have improved I'm seeing more opportunities with higher payouts available. In fact, I've found about 5 possible opportunities yesterday. I'll have to dig into them a bit deeper, so that I know what to write about, but it's a good thing.

Meeting new people
One of the fun things is that I've gotten to know a few new people too. Pay per Post has a Blog of the Day and I regularly check those blogs, just to see what these posties are writing about. It's fun to see the sites and I happen to come across some scrapbooking sites as well. That's what I really like a lot! Another way of meeting fellow posties is through the forum from Pay per Post. We're all exchanging ideas and learning from each other. That way you can really lift your blog to a higher level. And not necessarily for more posting opportunities, but also just for in example improving your writing skills.

What I've learned since blogging for money
As I said before, I'm not only blogging for money. I'm blogging for me. That's my starting point. Many people use their blog as an online diary, as do I. That's why I'm always using opportunities that actually mean something to me. I've learned very soon not to take each opportunity I see. The best way for me to write about something, is when I'm really connected to the subject, one way or the other.
While writing about those subjects and visiting other peoples blog, I'm also learning to improve my writing skills. That's something which will always come in handy. For instance, I have a job where I have to write several big and small texts / plans and I have to make sure it's something everybody can read and understand. Writing in my blog and improving my writing skills helps me to make me better in my job.
One last thing I'm beginning to learn is how others blog for money. Some just take every opportunity they see. Others really only take the opportunities they have "something" with, like me. I think the latter is the best way. It makes it possible for you to really write a post "from the heart".

Downsides
And of course, it's not always "Rozengeur & Maneschijn" (the icing on the cake). The fact that you'll get paid only 30 days after you've written the posts is a downside for me. I have to wait a full 30 days before I get paid! On the other hand, this is not something I do for a living, so it's not THAT big of a deal. I hope I'll be able to pay for my scrapbooking hobby in the future. For instance, if I would make enough money per month to pay for one of the big kits at Club Scrap. I'm dreaming about the A la Carte Club Scrap Hearty Appetite. Granted, it costs about $110.- per month {excluding shipping costs to Europe} but it has sooooo much!!!!!!! I just love it!!!!! Anyway, that would mean I have to make about $150,- per month, if I want to have shipping included. I can dream, can't I? :) Until then...... I'll just dream, and finish the stack I still have from the time I was a member, but hardly could use it, due to my RSI problems.
Okay, back to the downsides. One more downside is that it takes a few days before your posts get approved. I'm alway curious if I've done the right thing and in those cases I'm not that good in waiting for approval. On the other hand I do understand they have a lot of entries to check, so they don't have the time to finish everything in a day. And another plus on this subject is the fact that {like I said above}, once your post has been approved, you'll get paid 30 days after you've submitted your post and NOT 30 days after your post has been approved. That makes a huge difference!
One other downside is the fact that I have the idea the actual advertisers are hardly reading the blog entries we write. I've hardly heard of any comment advertises actually made on an entry. It would be good to know what they think of your entry. At the same time I know this is also a tough job for advertisers because it's possible they'd have to check dozens or hundreds of blog entries. So the time to check them all........................

Goals
As I told you before, one of my dreams is to be able to pay for my hobby entirely with earnings from blog. I think I'll reach my goal some time in the future. I know several Pay per Post members are making quite a lot of money with their blog and they all manage to seamlessly integrate all their posts for Pay per Post into their blog. The top posters even make between $500.- and $ 900.- per month. So I know it's doable! I'm really looking forward to a bit more money then $30.-!

Having fun!
The most important thing for me is that I still have fun in writing those post. Having these opportunities does encourage me to write more about everything that's going on in my daily life, by the way. I get inspired by other peoples blogs, I get inspired by the subjects from the opportunities and much more! That is why I love to do this!

If you want to experience the fun as much as I do, use this sign up form to sign up instantly!

Have fun and as always, thanks for your comments!

Thursday May 10, 2007

Photo Hunt 57 theme: Five

Hey All,

This weeks Photo Hunt Theme is Five. Of course you have a great variety of ways to see this theme. This week I've chosen for a photo that obviously doesn't contain 5 things:


Why did I pick this photo for the theme 5? It's about the idea behind this photo, so let me explain. I've been looking for an ideal way to have my embellishments orderly stashed and yet still visible. During one of my lunch breaks I head to a shop near my job and found these cute jars. I though they would be perfect for all my embellishments. I did want all three sorts, so I started with five of each. I'm not sure what the cashier was thinking when I told her I wanted them all, but her look was telling something :) I though these fifteen jars would do the job. Well, as you can see here and here this fifteen jars were not enough at all!!!! So, I started with five jars from each model and ended with a whole lot more!

Have Fun and thanks for looking!

If you want to know who participates in this hunt, have a look here. If you'd like to participate, please go here.

Talk to you later!

Friday May 4, 2007

Photo Hunt Theme 56: Childhood

Hey all,

This weeks theme for Photo Hunt is Childhood. I'm not into scanning my old childhood photos, so I thought I'd do something different with this.


This is a photo of the "frog eggs" (it's called "kikkerdril" here in the Netherlands) we had last year in our pond. This is where their childhood starts, doesn't it?! Unfortunately we had some freezing several days later, so we haven't little frogs ("kikkervisjes") after that, but it's still a very funny idea.
This year we do small frogs in our pond. I'm not sure how they got here. Maybe some of the eggs did hatch, but we didn't see it. Since we both work during the day, it's a possibility of course :) I still think it's a little miracle to have these in our pond!

Have Fun and thanks for looking!

If you want to know who participates in this hunt, have a look here. If you'd like to participate, please go here.

And before I forget, please support TnChick, cause she's really ill at the moment!

Talk to you later!

Sneak-peeks for SAG album again

Hey all,

I've been working on my Scrap-a-Ganza album again! I've scraplifted a few ideas from Club Scrap Raps which I thingk were wonderful interactive ideas. And I've scraplifted a few other projects I saw in magazines as well :)

Departure
First let me show you a little something I made for our departure:
As you can see I've made something with a lot of wholes in it. Can you guess what it is? And I've included two things of which each contains one list of things I need to pack. If I don't make these lists, I'll be sure to forget something. I haven't told you about a nightmare I had this week, have I? I dreamed I was at Scrap-a-Ganza and somehow I was part of the organization crew (sounds fun, doesn't it?). We were at some bar in the hotel (it didn't look like any bar I've seen there, but never mind that....!) and I looked in my suitcase and my backpack to grab something out of there. I had my big suitcase with me, which was the one I AM going to take with me, and I have my backpack with me. At that point I noticed I hadn't packed several things, like my nightgown, my toothbrush, my medicine..... Well, just go back and get them, right? At least that was what I thought in my dream and what I told other crew members. But I was told I couldn't leave at that moment to get them, I just had to wait. I checked some more and for my horror I discovered I had forgotten my Scrap-a-Ganza album, the one I've been working on for weeks. And somehow, at that, moment I realized I couldn't go back to get all my things, because I wouldn't be back in time for my first workshop. Can you imagine my panic? Luckily I woke up and found myself lying in bed with a little bit more then a month to go before our departure for Scrap-a-Ganza!!!!

Arrival
Anyway, let's have a look at the next Sneak-peek. I think you all can see what this is. I had four brown shipping tags attached to each other and I used these to make this little tag accordion booklet. The cardstock is from the Friendship kit from Club Scrap. The fibers are from knitting wool I have at home. I just love fibers! You'll find more of them in upcoming scrap projects! And I need to thank the inventors of double sided tape. This tape is really coming to my rescue for this album. Since I'm using envelopes instead of page protectors, I need to tape all the pages to the envelopes. It's not good enough to do this with my Pritt tape runner. It just won't hold good enough. Especially seen the fact I'm using so much interactive things on my pages, which makes quite heavy......

Here's another look on the tag accordion booklet. This sticker represents the suitcase I'm taking with me. To be honest, it doesn't like it will be enough, but does anyone care :) I'm not sure what I'm going to include in the booklet. I'm thinking about some small photos of our hotel room. And some journaling Or maybe one big photo. The fun thing with this booklet is that I can use both sides, which makes it easier for me to include more photos. Knowing me, that might come in pretty handy :) Once it's all finished I'll show you the complete picture, but that's something for when SAG is finished..........

Speed Scrapping
This is something for my first workshop, Speed Scrapping. I won't tell you exactly what it is. I will tell you that this holds several things. This is one project I scraplifted from Club Scrap. I've used the Time & Space kit from Club Scrap, that's all I'll tell you about it :) I know I've been busy with it quite some time to get it all the way I wanted it to be. I had never made this project before. Since it didn't seem that hard to make, I just took measurements from my page, after all I need to know that the project I made will fit on the page. Once that was done I could make everything. It DID mean, however, that I had to make a few things myself, for which the people from Club Scrap used standard things, but that was okay. I like to make things myself! This project will hold at least one photo, one supply list and the description of the workshop. It's so fun to make these interactive things! And here's another sneak-peek of the same project. I liked the way I could use the hour-glass. I just hope the ribbon will hold. I've first stitched the whole, before I used matches to finish it. As it seems now, it will be enough. I can only hope it won't wear out through the years, but we'll see about that:) I've used embroidery threads to attach the hour-glass. I've attached it slightly turned. This way it's also turned in the whole, so that it won't go out of it, until I actually turn the hour glass. At first I wanted to use a button, because that would be so much easier, but when I came up with the idea of the slightly turned hour glass, I thought that was much better. This hour-glass emphasizes the idea of speed scrapping. After all, with this workshop we're going to scrap four pages in one hour. Can you believe that? I think we'll be using a lot of pre-cut things, like borders and photo mats. That's really a way to save time. However, I usually like to think of things myself and adjust everything to fit with my photos (at least as much as possible). Although I do have an idea of how this could be done I am curious to see how Jodi Holbrook (who's giving this workshop) is actually doing it. Maybe she has certain techniques that come in really handy! I'm looking forward to it!

Okay, this is the last sneak-peek I can give you at the moment. This is also for the workshop Speed Scrapping. The four little square wholes do mean something. You'll get to see that later on, once the album is really finished with the photos. This project is also a scraplift from Club Scrap. I've used a translucent cardstock. I really had to be careful or the cardstock would really tear. I teared it alright, but the place where I teared it, isn't in plain view, so that's not a problem. I just hope it won't tear any further in the future....... I already have an idea of what to include in this particular project. I just hope I really have a chance to "make that".........

More?
This is it for today. I have made more pages, but I can't show you them yet. These are pages you should see once the photos are included and not any time sooner. Maybe I'll show more sneak-peeks of new projects in this album tonight or tomorrow! Thanks for looking!

Making the album
While making this album, I'm glad I sketched all the pages when I started with this gigantic project! Now I don't have to think about the layout anymore. All I need to think about it is whether I want to include an interactive element and if so, which element I want to include. It does make it a lot easier, or at least less time consuming as I'm used to thinking about a layout sketch for quite some time. Sometimes I'll browse for an hour or more through a magazine or a book, just to see if I can find something to fit my needs. Scrapbooking is not always easy and it's certainly time consuming, but I love it!

This is it for now. Talk to you later!

Photo Hunt Theme 55: Rare

Hey all,

I'm a little bit with posting last weeks photos, but I wanted to do it anyway! Las week's theme was Rare. Of course this can be anything. I decided to choose this photo:


So, why is this is a photo of something rare? Well, simply because this is a huge spider (and NO, it's a not a fake one!!!), which usually doesn't come in your room, accept under special circumstances. It was a really hairy spider. Eventually we managed to capture it and bring it outside. I'm not really into killing spiders just because they're somewhere we don't want them to be. I'll try to get them outside. If that's not possible, I'll kill them, but that's only when I'm out of options!

Have Fun and thanks for looking!

If you want to know who participates in this hunt, have a look here. If you'd like to participate, please go here.

And before I forget, please support TnChick, cause she's really ill at the moment!

Talk to you later!

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