Sara's Blog

Our shipment from the States arrived this week—all the things I packed away forever ago! Since our apartment is furnished, it’s mostly clothes (like, one box for Keith and six for me) and my art supplies. Well, some of them. After I excitedly unboxed my stamps, papers, beads and tools I realized I couldn’t find my ink pads…my StazOns, my VersaMarks, and my beloved collection of all of the Tim Holtz Distress Inks! Also missing is my paper trimmer (which I desperately need) and the heartbreaker…a box filled with collage pieces I’ve collected over the years, like vintage lace, fabric, old book pages, sheet music and a French letter from 1856. This is a BIG problem and clearly bears investigating, so onto the phone I go with the shipping company. Oh, please let them find it!!!

On the plus side, because I really do desperately need my paper trimmer, I went to Vlieger, an art and paper store just a few minutes away from our apartment. It was the first time I’d ever been inside, and oh, my—imagine floor-to-ceiling shelves of handmade and Italian print paper, textured cardstock, specialty papers and vellum. Up the stairs (more like up the ladder, the stairs here in Holland are super-steep and very narrow—these Dutch people must be very flexible) to the art room, which has stacks of watercolor paper, sketch pads, canvases, paints, charcoal sticks that turn your hands black, brushes, palettes and pencils. Plus a wiggly little dog that lives in the shop. It was heaven!!!! After an hour or so in Vlieger and a chocolate croissant, I still really want my collage stuff back but at least I’m feeling a little better.

Have you seen the cover of Paper Wishes? With that super-cool pink tin? Designer extraordinaire Laura Nicholas made that, and I think it’s amazing and beautiful. This week’s Webisode has step-by-step instructions for making it. I’m thinking of doing something similar for my mom when I go back to the States next month—July 9, I can’t wait!

This weekend Keith and I took the train to Haarlem, which is only a 20-minute ride from Amsterdam. We rode our bikes to Centraal Station, where we parked them on the top floor of a 3-story parking garage filled with bikes. As you search for an empty spot, you’ll see people wandering along, trying to remember where they parked!

The minute we got to Haarlem it began to pour so we sought shelter in the Franz Hals museum, which has a fantastic collection of 16th and 17th century Dutch paintings. The paintings are phenomenal and the exhibition about life in 17th century Haarlem was really well done: They enlarge a painting so it covers the whole wall. Arrows point to the various “everyday” elements in the picture, like the food or the scenery or what the people are wearing and give a historical explanation. It was a really cool way to look at paintings from a different perspective. The originals of the paintings were in the main gallery, which is around a beautiful square courtyard garden.

The buckets of rain have finally stopped coming down and we’ve now had two full days of summer weather. Amsterdam is gorgeous in the sunshine, with everyone out at the sidewalk cafes and riding their bikes and boating along the canals. The one thing I’m getting used to? Mosquitoes! Unfortunately we left the window open yesterday and now I’m absolutely riddled with mosquito bites. Keith was chasing them around the apartment last night with a rolled-up magazine but I think there’s still one or two lurking around.

PS. I’ve put some new pics in the Gallery, including a photo of my bike…no, it’s not the one dangling over the canal!

PPS. Thanks Denise, for the dishwashing soap translation. I might need to consult with you and Belinda-Joan before my appointment with the hair stylist in a few weeks!

Looking for a great gift idea? Laura designed the absolute cutest pail I’ve ever seen—if you love shoes (like me!) you’ll appreciate this sweet little pail. And if you’re not a shoe fanatic, just imagine the other uses for a “fund” pail: A vacation, new car…or of course, scrapbooking supplies! (Some of us would need the gallon-size pail, though!) Complete instructions and supplies are given here.

Laura’s pail, plus a quick and cute card design from Paris, are both part of a GiftMaker magazine giveaway. Want to win $1,000 of HOTP product? (Yeah, I thought so!) Well, GiftMaker is doing a special promotion in their August issue. Check out the projects on our website, then just follow the link to enter to win a $1,000 HOTP product giveaway. Good luck!

Amsterdam is in bloom—and the flowers are really inspiring me! You can find them everywhere…at the Blumenmarkt, which is filled with little stalls selling tulip bulbs. There are the roses that someone’s coaxed to grow around the iron railing of an apartment down the street. There are wildflowers growing around the bank of the pond in the Vondelpark. And there are the fresh-cut hydrangeas I bought at the outdoor market on Sunday.

One thing I love to do is stamp on silk flowers and use them as the focal on a card or an accent on a page. My favorite is to stamp this French Script on a lavender silk flower. I use StazOn ink so the text doesn’t bleed or feather. Just punch out a piece of patterned paper with a 3/4" circle punch, ink the edges and put it on a white Great Big Brad™. Then pop that on the front of your card and you’ve got old-world elegance, Amsterdam-style! Check out the Photo Gallery for even more ideas for stamping on silk flowers.

And Debbie…I’d love to meet up with other scrappers in the area! My email addy is snaumann@hotp so drop me a line.

PS. My package came—yay! I’m so excited for that Swirly Doodles template, I can’t even tell you!

I am anxiously awaiting my package from HOTP…inside are the new templates and I’m dying to get my hands on them, especially the Swirly Doodles template! Just look how fun this template is! I can’t wait to use those swirls on a layout. I have it all planned out in my head. (Which is rarely how it turns out in real life.) Here’s a page Paris did. I love how she used a swirl for the “c” in her title.

I’ve also discovered the two scrapbooking magazines published here in Holland. The layouts are really sophisticated and although I can’t read the instructions (since they’re in Dutch!) I can pick out a few words and the pages are still inspiring. And I’ve found the stamp store (“stempelwinkel”) that’s just a 10-minute bike ride from our apartment. We also came upon a market last weekend where a man was selling vintage postcards…they’re gorgeous and I can’t wait to play with them. Plus there’s a stamping and scrapbooking event on this weekend; their National Scrapbook Day is June 2. I guess I won’t be starved for art supplies—whew!

For Doris, who asked me to post photos of Amsterdam, check out the gallery! Lots of canal photos, since you really can’t take a photo around here without getting a canal or a bicycle. I’ll have more soon and would have included a pic of our building but they’re doing construction on the sidewalk out front.

(And yes, I did figure out the washing machine eventually!)