Biking in The Netherlands

Hello! Or hallo as they say in Dutch. This year the Tour de France has started the long journey in The Netherlands. And I am loving it! I've heard there are about four times as many bicycles as there are people in Holland. I don't know if it's true, but I really do believe it! They certainly love their bikes! And I think I've figured out my own bike obsession - genetics! I'm Dutch on my mom's side, and it's the heritage I most identify with for sure. So today I had to stamp a sweet little Dutch girl.

I've had this stamp in my stash for a while now, but I've never used it. What a crime!! She's called Anika from Holland, and she's from Your Next Stamp. It looks like she's been retired, but if you'd like to make her your next stamp, she seems to be half-off on their site, nice! I had to color her in a blue dress and hat, because one of the many things I love about Holland is Delft blue. My grandma collects Delft pottery, and I own a couple small pieces myself. I love it. I added a little Wink of Stella shimmer to this blue outfit, because this girl may be traditional, but she still loves a bit of bling. :)

I played along with my friend Leslie's The Crooked Stamper sketch challenge. I went through the trouble of drawing diagonal lines in pencil on the bottom of the card to follow the sketch and try to line my stamping all up nicely, and added bikes and words in those stripes, but then, because one of my biggest stamping flaws is that I can never leave well enough alone, I felt the need to go in and add yellow hearts at random and botch is all up. Hope this still counts, Leslie!

I don't have any Dutch sentiment stamps, so this little Dutch girl is speaking French today. She's saying both Bonjour and Bon Voyage as the cyclists make their way through her beautiful country!

Yesterday's stage got off to an exciting start with the individual time trial. Rohan Dennis from Team BMC won the day. Just look at this happy smile - I'm not necessarily a Rohan Dennis fan but his massive smile sure made me smile. And he completely kicked butt in the TT!

Thanks for stopping by,