Hello stampers and happy Friday to you. Today’s post features two great cards that use the host stamp set Summer Days. Thanks to Hannie Van der Zanden and Ingrid Vos for these great cards from my Happy Mail in Holland contest. Summer Days is a 9 piece cling stamp set that you can get for free when you host a qualifying workshop.
Summer Days Card by Ingrid Vos
I am starting with Ingrid’s card first because I received it first. Ingrid is a member of my Pampered Stamper Training Group and I meet her every time there is a Stampin’Up! event in Ontario. Ingrid comes from Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton is a city that I didn’t appreciate until two of my children lived there for a while. The downtown has some great little shops, but my favourite thing is all the amazing nature hikes within the city! Hamilton is located right on the Niagara Escarpment so there are lots of waterfalls and ravines that make for beautiful hiking paths.
I love how Ingrid used the stitched rectangle dies to make her layers. It looks to me like she used watercolour pencils, markers and Blends to colour her scene. If you look closely at the card you will also notice that she used the Subtles embossing folder for the base of the card. Well done!
Summer Days Card by Hannie van der Zanden
Hannie is a dear friend and team member who is also a Dutch immigrant! She lives in Highgate, Ontario where she runs a large pig farm with her husband and family. Hannie travels to Holland even more often than I do since she still has lots of relatives there. I love the way Hannie used a light pool party Blend to colour around the trees for a great effect.
I love how Hannie used the butterflies for a touch of whimsy. Perhaps I vaguely recognize the patterned paper, I think it was from last year and that it was in the Tropical Oasis suite. Your card reminds me of Holland where you often see rows of trees planted beside the roads.
Host Sets
I am curious how you feel about host sets? Are they an incentive for you? You do know that they are only available as a host item, but did you know that if you place your own $200 order, that also qualifies for host products? Here is another blog post that features a great host set from the past. Be sure to check out the back of every catalog, you will find the host sets right before the index pages.
A Funny Travel Story
I just noticed that this post accidentally got published two days too soon, and that means that two blog posts were published in one day! Not good. So I went “backstage” and changed the status of this post so that I could edit it and publish it on Friday as originally planned. It seems that I have a penchant for getting my days and dates mixed up!!
Here is the story. I booked an Airbnb in Cologne for three nights. We had the entire apartment to ourselves and it had a rooftop patio! The plan was to go to Dusseldorf on Monday to do some shopping and have supper there and then go on to Cologne and sleep there for three nights. Well, let me tell you what really happened. On Wednesday afternoon after a long, late and leisurely breakfast we did some shopping and then went to an art museum. As it was a hot day, we decided to stop at a “terrasje” for some German beer.
I do not have internet on my phone, so I either use wifi or Gerard’s hotspot on his phone. Thankfully I took this time to check in and I noticed a message from our Airbnb host asking us to come asap to remove our clothes from the apartment. I messaged back saying that we had another night booked. Apparently not! I had booked three days, but they started on Sunday not Monday. The only explanation I have for my error is that the calendars here in Holland start with Monday as the first day, not Sunday.
Either way we were in a sticky wicket! Rather than staying a third day in Cologne, we drove home late at night, so no 4911 Cologne museum tour for us. We did have a fantastic photo shoot with a local through Airbnb experiences, so I am excited to share some of those photos when they are ready.
Do you ever have a hard time deciding what to get? I do!! That is why we splurged on this fancy breakfast. Scrambled eggs, an assortment of meats and cheeses, croissants, rye bread and some different rolls as well as fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee and sparkling wine. The little jams were also homemade. What a great way to start the morning!
The Köln Cathedral is so huge that you can’t get a good picture of it closeup. In the picture above you can see the incredible detail, and this is just the door!!!
Here is a view of another cathedral from the harbour front along the Rhine. Seventy percent of this city was flattened by bombs in World War 2. Apparently there was an agreement that the Allies spare the cathedral. I am certainly thankful for that. Our local guide mentioned that only industrial cities were hard hit during the war. Thankfully many old German cities and towns survived so that not all old architecture was lost. War is an awful thing!
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me on my blog today, my traveling days are now numbered. A week from Saturday I will be flying home and then quarantining for 14 days. That will enable me to catch up on my stamping and hopefully create another tutorial. A special thanks to everyone who has purchased a tutorial from me, I am so thankful. If you have missed them, or don’t know where to find them, they are at the top of my blog’s home page. Here is a link to make it super easy for you!
On Monday I will be sharing more Happy Mail in Holland contest cards as well as a video. I hope you have a super weekend.
Product List
| ||||
|
