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A long time ago I needed graphics with a Dutch feel, so I could scrap pics of my meeting with Caroline – a Dutchie, living in the UK – and I always planned to add some more and offer it as a freebie. But – as always – I procrastinated and in the end forgot my plans completely.

Until… a few weeks ago when Kristie from DSP mentioned in our weekly Sunday Scrappers Chat, that she was scrapping the Dutch holiday pics of her sister. Suddenly I remembered the kit I once started and offered it to her, with the promise to make some additions. I’ve been happily designing ever since and I had to stop myself or this kit would’ve been 30 MB :p

I proudly present: HOLLAND

I had to split the kit in two, you can download them both here:

Holland I – 7.4 MB

Holland II – 7.7 MB

Yes, I know I’m late but I just couldn’t find the time (and patience) to sit down and write something.
December seems to have flown by, with St. Nicholas, our trip to Disneyland Paris and the holidays it was over before I knew it.

And I HATE January! No decorations, nothing to look forward to, money is tight and my leg is still bothering me, so yeah, really good subjects for a blog post :p

Our trip to Disneyland was okay. The kids had a blast, so that’s a good thing. The weather was frightful, cold, cold and cold. First day was sunny, 2nd day was full of snow, 3rd day was cold with flurries and the last day was cold and grey, but dry. For the first two days the parades were cancelled because of the weather, and while Rink and Sabine opt for the excitement, I go to Disney for the parades and the characters (haven’t seen many of those either), so that was a big disappointment for me.

I managed to stumble around without crutches the first day, but needed them for the remaining days. The planned wheelchair wasn’t an option because the ground was either full of snow or the dirty mess you get when lots of people walk on the snow, which made it impossible to push a wheelchair.

The hotel – Sequoia Lodge – was awesome, we had breakfast and dinner there, highly recommend it!

We’ll skip the Christmas period at Disney in the future, that’s for sure. Still, Disney keeps its magic, and the snow added something special to it. Managed to take lots of pics, so there’s a scrap-job waiting for me 🙂

Here are some of the pics:

Disneyland Paris 2009

And a layout I made with part of the graphics I created for Saturday Night Live #58 at Digital Scrapbook Place 🙂

While cleaning up my files I found this WordArt I meant to use for a kit, but as I don’t see that kit being completed any time soon, I decided to just upload the WA 🙂

Please don’t download the above image. It’s a small jpg, where the zipped image is a .png file at 300 dpi.

Download link: Snowmen WordArt 263 KB

Enjoy!

As big as this world may be, the Internet sure has made it a lot smaller. You can ‘talk’ to people all over the world, and it’s like you are sharing stories at the kitchen table, while having coffee (hmm… considering the different time zones, some coffees will get cold while waiting for a reply, but still, you get the meaning).

A few years ago I met Karen from Scraps of Mind at the Digital Scrapbook Place forum and felt a connection right from the start. I’m a regular visitor of her blog and always loved reading her posts about Digital Scrapbooking, collecting stuff, ballet, holidays and Hybrid Cardmaking.

When she told me she was planning on visiting Holland, we just HAD to meet! And so we did… Monday, November 16th. Unfortunately I was late for our meeting as I managed to get on to the wrong train which didn’t stop at Amsterdam Central Station but went to Utrecht instead *sigh* I just ‘followed the herd’ when a train stopped and everyone else got in, without checking which train it was. So utterly stupid! Fortunately I got a train back to Amsterdam almost immediately.

Karen and her friend Yvonne (who was just as sweet) waited for me at the station and when I finally got there we had a looong chat hopping from subject to subject, it was great fun – I felt like we could have talked for hours more, but before I knew it, it was time to get home again.
The least fun part was the ‘photo-moment’ as I HATE posing for pictures :p

It is strange how meeting someone you’ve never met in person before, can feel so comfortable, so familiar. I only wish we could’ve talked longer! So I told Karen: next time you come to Holland, you’ll have to visit Leiden and I’ll be your tour guide! – And make it a day-meeting, in stead of a ‘coffee’ meeting 🙂

Yes, that’s right, two blog trains starting today. If you’re looking for Digital Scrapbooking freebies, you’ve come to the right place!

First of all: Worldwide Christmas Scrapbooking Freebies!

Once you’ve finished reading this post and downloaded all the freebies 🙂 please click the above link to go to the WWCSF Blog where you’ll find the links (and previews) of all participants!

This Kit includes: (contents in 2 zip files)

3 Background papers
1 Decorated Tag
2 Elements
1 Folded Ribbon
1 Round Frame
2 Gold Snowflakes
2 Gold Snowflakes with element
2 Knotted Ribbons
1 Transparent Ribbon
1 Jeweled Pin
1 Tag
1 Christmas Eve WordArt

Download Papers 6.5 MB

Download Elements 3.7 MB

And the second one is the Winter Magic Blog Train (I just loooove the colors!)

This one works differently. Right under the download links, you’ll find a list of participants, so you can click and go 🙂

This Kit includes: (contents in 2 zip files)

5 Background papers
1 Snowball tag
1 element
1 Frame
1 Jeweled Pin
1 Knotted Ribbon
1 Snowstar element
2 Xmas trees elements

Download Papers 8 MB

Download Elements 1.9 MB

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS:
http://atsparkys.com/wordpress/ You are at this station 😀
http://sgrowedesigns.blogspot.com/
http://mischiefdesignz.blogspot.com/
http://deceptions82.blogspot.com/
http://jaleerenee.blogspot.com/
http://www.charlieonline.it/WinterMagicBlogTrain.htm
http://sugarkissedscraps.blogspot.com/
http://www.ziggyfanscraps.blogspot.com/

Eventhough it was a hectic time, I enjoyed creating these freebies and I hope you will enjoy using them! If you create a layout with one of my kits, please let me know, I’d love to see the kits in action 🙂

If by chance you can’t get to the files right away, try again in a few hours. If you still can’t download them, let me know! It’s most likely that I’ll exceed my bandwith limit, and  I will try to move them to another free host 🙂

Happy Holidays!