Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today I am sharing two Happy Mail in Holland cards, one uses Posted for You and the other uses Free as a Bird. Posted for You is on my wish list and Free as a Bird was and still is one of my favourite stamp sets. Let’s take a look!

Posted for You by Jean Saunders

Jean Saunders is one of the most wonderful people I know and is very dear to my heart. She is on my team and would make a fantastic demonstrator but she has a busy enough world as a very active mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Shis has many talents including sewing, knitting, painting, cooking, baking, gardening. If there is a craft then Jean can excel at it. She is also a lot of fun!! Jean lives in Chatham, just five minutes away from me.

Jean stamped this great sentiment, which is also from Posted for You, on the back of the envelope. Feeling the love!! Postage for You has a coordinating

Free as a Bird by Shelley Merkin

I love Shelly’s card, especially the way she stamped on the designer series paper and used a no line stamping technique. In this technique you stamp with a very light colour so that you can barely see the lines. It makes it look like you drew the image yourself!! I love that idea but it is more difficult than you might think. You have to colour very carefully, so I am quite impressed with Shelley’s card. She nailed it!

Shelley was so kind as to include the details about her card. She used the following markers to colour the birds:  calypso coral, pear pizzazz, taupe, chocolate chip, dapper denim and pacific point. She added wink of stella to the birds for some subtle bling. The envelope and the inside of the card also had flowers stamped in flirty flamingo. So pretty!! Thank you Shelly for this lovely card. If you want to see more Free as a Bird cards check out this blog post.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana

Shelley’s card is postmarked as Lawrenceburg, Indiana, so let’s take a look at what this place is all about. It is a small town located on the Ohio river and is also known as Whiskey Town since Seagram’s has a distillery there. Sounds like it is also a great place for winter sports with the Perfect North Slopes located there.

Judging by the location on the map, I have driven very close by in the past on my way to Tennessee. Small world indeed!

Some Photos of Holland

These three pictures just summarize a few of my favourite things while I am here. Eating good food. Seeing beautiful art. Enjoying the expansive outdoors.

Tasting platter at my favourite local restaurant, de Jutter in Hoek van Holland.

This painting is from the 1500s. I know that is rather vague, but I don’t know which painting it is! It is a Winter Scene, but I will have to research which one it is, my photos are not clear. See the photo below and you will know it is either one or the other! I love the winter scenes and the age of this masterpiece is just staggering to me.

Ok, I decided not to be lazy and I did my homework. It turns out that the painting is indeed Winter Landscape by Hendrik Avercamp.

This is an Impressionist painting from 1879 by Auguste Renoir called Banks of the Seine at Ruiel.

We walk the beach every day with Bailey the dog and almost every time I feel compelled to take a picture. The beach is usually deserted unless it is above 26C. There are usually some kite surfers, dog walkers and a few fisherman but as you can see it is an expansive beach. This photo makes the dunes look flatter than they are. I will miss this happy place.

Thanks!

Thanks for joining me today, there will be one more blog post on Friday finishing up the Happy Mail in Holland contest as well as my stay here in the Netherlands. I have loved getting your feedback on my travel stories and of course all the cards. If you haven’t left a comment yet, I would love to hear from you! If you live in Canada you can shop with me by simply clicking the pictures of the supplies below. Everyone who places an online order using the host code will get a paper sampler in the mail from me in September.

I hope you have a super day.

Product List