Crafty Card Crafts

Christmas Greenery #2

2012-03-09T09:02:00.000+01:00

Good morning everyone!

This my second Christmas card for the Green Challenge at CCAYR, you still have the rest of the month to participate. And there has been a change is challenge rules; you don't have to make 5 cards anymore to qualify for the prize, one will do just fine! :) Good news, right? I think I will keep it up though, so there will be a lovely big pile of Christmas cards ready to send come December. maybe you'd like to do that too, so a green challenge might be just the ticket to start you off :)

I love combining red and green on Christmas cards, it's a classic combination for a reason, right?

Materials:
* Studio Light decoupage image & sentiment, also green DP
* Marianne Design Scandinavian Christmas red DP (edged inked with black ink)
* SEI Christmas Mint Collection: Vanilla Icing Accents
* White and green ribbon from stash

Challenges:
* Christmas Card Challenges (Christmas with optional Embossing)
* Crafty Hazelnut (Seeing Red)
* ABC Christmas Challenge (Evergreen)
* Perfect Sentiments (Christmas Trimmings)
* Inky Impressions (Luck of the Irish....Use Green)
* DYSU (Go Green)
* Papertake Weekly (Anything Goes)
* Divas by Design (Favourite things - Using Traditional Colours for Christmas Cards)
* Digistamps 4 Joy (Green)
* Scrapalicious USA (Anything Goes)
* Whimsical Designs (Green)

Patrick's Green

2012-03-07T09:16:00.000+01:00

UPDATE 8th of March ---------
Unfortunately, when I posted this message I didn't yet know that Friendship's Garden is closing its doors. This challenge won't be opened and no new challenges will start. You can read our head Garden Girl Becky's farewell message here. On a personal note, I want to thank all of you who have participated in the challenges or commented on my DT cards for Friendship's Garden. It's a shame to see it go, but as Becky says: Nothing lasts Forever. Thank you all.
-----------------------------------------------------

Hi Everyone,

Yet another challenge at Friendship's Garden is starting today, the theme is "ST. PATRICK's DAY"! We don't celebrate that in the Netherlands (funny how a lot of holidays aren't really celebrated here, I can assure you we are not all work and no play!), so I decided to go with a Green & Lucky theme. I thought a tag would be just the ticket for a colleague leaving or someone moving away, so that's what I did. Here's the tag:

Materials:
* K&Co Roam Tag Pad, edges distressed with my new TH tool and inked with green ink
* Studio Light Clover image
* Sentiment and horseshoes from Word Clip Art
* Ribbon and gems from my stash

Challenges:
* My Grafico (St Patrick's Day)
* Paper Pretties (Going Green)
* Incy Wincy (Something Old, Something New; Old = All of it, but especially my ribbon and gems, New = My Tim Holtz Distress Tool that I bought on Monday!)
* Creative Mondays (Anything Goes)
* Craft Your Passion (Anything Goes)
* There She Goes (Tag It)
* Stamps & Fun = Creativity (One Bow)
* Catered Crop (Ribbon)
* Paper SUndaes (Green or Good Luck)
* The Hybrid Chick (Lucky & Green)

I hope you can join us once again at Friendship's Garden, hope to see you there!

Anniversary Mini Album

2012-03-06T09:17:00.000+01:00

Good morning everyone!

I'd thought I'd share with you a little tip I've recently discovered trying to make a mini album without any real specialist equipment. Bear with me, I have never done this before and I unfortunately forgot to take any pictures of all the differences stages. If there's any detail that you've missed or I haven't explained enough in detail, drop me a line and I will try and fix it for you!

If you're like me, you have plenty of paper lying around,so.........

* Try and find a 12x12 scrapbook page paper with a design that you really like and one 12x12 plain page.

* Fold both pages in half.

* Fold them both in half again so you have a roughly square shape. Make sure you make you scores really sharp!

* Fold both pages all the way open again

* Take your patterned page and put glue on the back of one half of the page, then fold over the other half of the page to glue together. You now have a page half the original height with your desired design on both sides.

* Take your plain page and cut a little strip off the side of the paper. Then do the same to your plain page as you did with your patterned paper, or cut the page in half (you will then have more pages inside the album, 8 instead of 4).

<The reason I folded both papers double is so the album was quite a lot more sturdy than just plain paper>

* Sit your plain folded paper inside the patterned paper and you see your album coming together!

* Take some twine or ribbon and thread it through a large needle, I used one that my mum used to use to repair our socks :) Use the needle to make two holes in the fold of the plain paper and the patterned paper, this will hold your little album together.

* Thread the ribbon or twine through the holes starting on the outside of the album, so that when you've threaded the twine/ribbon through both holes, you can tie the ends together on the outside of the album.

* You can fasten the other side any which way you like, I have used a regular office punch and am going to thread ribbon through it so it will stay nice and compact. You can of course also leave it as is.

Your basic mini album is now ready and you can start decorating both inside and outside! Here's my attempt:

I decorated the inside with pictures of my parents throughout the year, starting with their wedding picture and finishing with a picture taken last Christmas. I've already given the album and they really loved it :)

Materials:

* Me & My Big ideas Fashion District 12x12 paper and some plain 12x12 cardstock from my stash
* Hunkydory Classic Cameo oval cut out and cameo couple
* Inkssentials Crackle accents on the couple
* Making Memories Vintage Findings Trims Cool
* Holographic dots on the flower centres on the outside of the album

Challenges:
* 4 Crafty Chicks (Anything but a Card)
* Papercrafting Journey (Anything Goes)
* I Brake for Challenges (Love)
* Amusing Challenges (Use a Die-Cut)
* That Craft Place (Anything Goes)
* Catch the Bug (Anything Goes)
* Little Claire's (Romance)
* Stamp, Scrap & Doodle (Use Your Stash)
* Crafty Creations (Vintage Fashion)
* Little Red Wagon (Vintage Item)

Hope you liked my little idea, I'll be back tomorrow with my Friendship's Garden project, see you then :)

Seeing Green

2012-03-02T08:15:00.000+01:00

Good morning all my crafty friends,

Nice of you to stop by :) It's time for another Card Makin' Mamas challenge and this time the theme is "GREEN"! Seems to be going round a lot doesn't it (if you read my post from yesterday, you'll understand)! I've opted for another birthday card, this one's for my aunt who had been complaining that she hadn't received a handmade card from me yet. So here it is, I hope she likes it. I like like this card, it's so girly! :)

Why don't you join in the challenge? Have a look at the challenge blog to read the rules (cards only!), you will also find more details on the challenge there. Hope you all will have a great weekend, I will be visiting my parents and do a spot of shopping with an old friend :) See you next week!

Materials
* Champagne base card, gatefold
* Crissy's Digis "Birdie Friend" (a digi I won from Whimsey Stamps), coloured with Promarkers
* First Edition Hideaway DP
* Flower from stash, coloured with Promarkers
* My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow paper flower
* Flower punch
* Brad & gems from my stash

Challenges:
* Joanna Sheen (Spring is in the Air)
* Celebrate the Occasion (Birthday, Must Use Bling)
* Clear It Out (Birthday + Use Up Your Bling)
* Deep Ocean Challenge (Spring)
* Passion for Promarkers (Pastel Colours)
* Crafty Bloggers Network (Spring Time)
* My Grafico (Flowers)
* Nettie G's Gems (Show Your Best)
* Cutie Pie (Flowers)
* Cute Card Thursday (Signs of Spring)
* Scrapbook Sisters (Spring Flowers)

Christmas Greenery #1

2012-03-01T11:17:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone!

March already, my goodness, how time is flying by! A new month also means a new challenge over at Christmas Cards All Year Round, the theme this time in "GREEN". I am sure we all use a lot of green in our Christmas cards, so just up the dose and play along with our challenge. After all, you have all month! If you make 5 cards for our challenge, you get included in the draw for the prize, which this time is I have decided to attempt making 5 cards for each challenge too, so that I have a varied stash of Crimbo cards at the end of the year. I will be showing them throughout the month, the full set will be posted on the challenge blog!

Here's the first of my cards, I've been rummaging in the scraps box again to try and use up some of the lovely papers bits that are in there. I have been focusing on diminishing the scrappy pile for a while now, unfortunately I haven't really made a dent in it yet but will continue with my mission regardless :)

I'm loving distressing papers with distress ink at the moment, I really like the grungy look although I admit I sometimes take it a little too far, don't really know if it happened here too. You be the judge :)

Materials used:
* Champagne base card
* Paper scraps from my stash, most notably from Basic Grey (Jovial) & Marianne Design (Winter)
* Sarah Kay decoupage image
* Sentiment stamps for Daisy & Dandelion All Wrapped up Stamp set
* SEI Vanilla Icing Chipboard
* White gel pen to trace the poinsettia
* Vintage Photo Distress Ink
* Flatback pearls from my stash

Challenges:
* ABC Christmas Challenge (Distress It)
* Pixie Cottage (Anything Goes)
* Perfect Sentiment (Anything Goes + Die Cut)
* Allsorts (Anything Goes)
* Shopping Our Stash (Sentiments required OR use a Bugaboo image)
* Whoopsi Daisy (Spots/Dots)
* Partytime Tuesdays (Anything Goes)
* Sassy Cheryl (Are You Seeing Spots?)
* Christmas Card Challenges (Music or Anything Christmassy Goes)
* Crimbo Crackers (Female)

Inspirational Birthday

2012-02-22T09:05:00.000+01:00

Good morning everybody!

Today I am sharing my card with you for the new Friendship's Garden Challenge. This time around we have a colour challenge with the additional theme of Birthday. It's a really vibrant colour palette for this challenge, it was lovely to start working with such fresh colours again. Have a look on the challenge blog website to see the colour scheme and all the DT girls' makes!

I decided to make a birthday card for a young boy or girl, I was running low on those in my card stash.

The card came together pretty easily, I love the gorgeous orange paper against the green!

Materials:
* Champagne base card
* Echo Park A Walk in the Park DP
* Studio Light Decoupage image
* Border star punch
* My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow Flower Decoupage pad
* Eline Vintage Sentiment stamp
* Brad and some paper scraps from my stash

Challenges:
* Paper Cupcakes (Critters)
* Lollipop Crafts (Anything Goes)
* Bunny Zoe (Celebrations)
* Creative Mondays (Anything Goes)
* Incy Wincy (Birthday)
* Crazy Challenge (Use a die or punch)
* Sassy Cheryl (No Embossing)
* Crafty Sentiments (Two different designer papers)
* Ooh La La (Inspiration photo; I've used the orange colour and the flowers)
* Crafty Ann's (Bold & Bright)

It's your Birthday, Cupcake!

2012-02-17T09:00:00.000+01:00

Good morning everyone!

I haven't been around much this week, the entire house was having consecutive stomach flu's so that was a lot of fun as you can image :s But thankfully everyone is more or less on the mend and I can blog again!

Today starts a new challenge at Card Makin' Mamas, our theme this time is "BIRTHDAY"! My teamie Lizzie's been pretty busy again and made a whole new range of birthday digis that are really too cute! I am using Tea Cup Cupcake in my card:

Do you like? Well, perhaps you should play along in our challenge this fortnight then, because they are up for grabs as a prize! We would love to see your cards, so let's get the birthday images out! You can use anything you like but remember: Cards only! See you soon :)

Materials:
* Lizzie's Tea Cup Cupcake digi, coloured with Promarkers and a little Spectrum Noir Cool Greys
* Dovecraft Piece of Cake DP
* Freebie sentiment from Birdscards, cut with a scalloped circle punch
* Inside frame from the Internet (I can't remember where) + Kars birthday sentiment stamp
* Colour box silver ink around most of the edges
* Cosmic Shimmer Red Fire Twinkles for the candle flames
* Lilac ribbon and glitter for the sprinkles from my stash

Challenges:
* Sundays with Chrissy (Birthday)
* Inky Impressions (Use a punch or die)
* Fab 'n Funky (Try something new; using off cut ribbon to create a rosette behind the sentiment)
* ABC Challenge (Jazz it Up)
* Birthday Sundaes (Inspiration photo + Hearts)
* Crafty Pad (Letter B; Birthday)
* My Time to Craft (Bring on the Cake)
* Digital Tuesday Challenge (Use Your Stash; DP & Ribbon)
* Stamp 'n Doodle (Food & Drink)
* Use it Tuesdays (Birthday)

Have a Christmas Heart

2012-02-09T09:39:00.000+01:00

Good morning everyone! Once again I am a little late with one of my challenge cards, this entire month of February you can play along with our Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge which has the theme of "Hearts". Some changes are being made to the challenge blog, so pop over to have a look. Make sure your card is Christmas or winter related to be eligible to win a lovely stamp set!

I am trying to scale down my scrap pile considerably, so once again I delved into my scraps and found some really beautiful cutoffs to use in my card. The peach card is so shiny and beautiful, perhaps the colour theme is a little unusual for a Christmas card but I think it turned out nice anyway.

How did I create those hearts? Fairly easy: I had a look through the junk mail :) There were some heart-shaped sticker coupons there, all I did was stick them to the back of the DP and cut around them. Works really well and you get a very sturdy embellishment :)

Materials:
* Champagne Crafter's Companion Pearl base card
* Studio Light Decoupage image
* K&Co Earth Tones Solid Mat DP & Crafter's Companion Pearl card
* Orange ink
* Scalloped circle punch (I've used what was left once I punched out the circle, cut it in half and used it to decorate behind the image)
* Brads and scraps of assorted card and papers from stash

Challenges:
* Crimbo Crackers (No people or animals - I hope snow men don't count as people!)
* Papercraft Star (Hearts)
* Sparkles Christmas (Anything Goes + Blog Hop!)
* Christmas Inspirations (Anything Goes)
* Pollycraft (Chill Out, I'd say snow men are pretty chilled!)
* Craft Your Passion (Anything Goes, but no patterned paper)
* There She Goes (Use a Negative Die Cut, hope my card qualifies!)
* Scrapbook Sisters (Anything Goes)
* Papertake Weekly (Anything Goes)
* Shopping Our Stash (Hearts, Valentines and/or Lace)

Hope you like my little Crimbo card, why don't you participate in the challenge, you still have a couple of weeks :)

Valentine Sweetie Sleeve & Friendship's Garden Blog Hop

2012-02-08T10:02:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody,

In addition to our challenge (with the same theme), we are doing a blog hop at Friendship's Garden people! Our hop is sponsored by Designs on Cloud Nine, we're calling it "ITS A LOVE THING"! You can win a 20 dollar gift certificate to their shop! Awesome, right? PLUS, some of my teamies are having their own little giveaways during the hop, so look out for those extra opportunities to win!

If you're hopping along with us, you should have arrived from Dena's blog, if you want to start the hop, please visit the challenge blog first! Chana is the next stop on this hop, tell her I said hello :)

Before you leave, here's my make. I made a gift sleeve for a box of heart chocolates I will be giving to my hubby. He deserves it, because he always does the photography and photo shopping for this blog AND I forgot to make him a Christmas card last December.....naughty me! We will be having some lovely tapas on Valentine's Day after work and I will take this prezzie along with me. It's a really easy project to do, especially if you have a scoring board.

Materials:
* Design on Cloud Nine Bee Mine images
* Me and My Big Ideas Fashion District Striped DP (which incidentally was a gift from my husband for our first wedding anniversary last year!) & Dovecraft Piece of Cake DP
* Sentiment stamp from Eline Vintage stamp set
* Clear Stickles on the bees' wings
* Brads and border peeloffs from my stash

Challenges:
* Moving Along with the Times (Have a Heart)
* Little Miss Muffet (Valentine/Love)
* Sassy Studio (Love is in the Air)
* By the Cute and Girly (Love is in the Air)
* ABC (In pairs; my bees and two pairs of brads)
* More than Favours (Love)
* Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge (Love is in the Air)
* Truly Scrumptious (Love & Hearts)
* Ladybug Ink (Loves me, Loves me not)
* Creative Belli (Valentine/Hearts)

Right, that's it from me, hope to see you during the hop and at the challenge (which has a Love Theme as well, plus use at least 3 types of embellishments)!

Moving House

2012-02-06T08:57:00.001+01:00

Hello everyone!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, it was pretty cold here so snuggled in front of the radiator in my crafty room just about the entire weekend :) They're even talking about organizing an Eleven-town natural ice skating marathon, an event that hasn't been organised since the early nineties (not enough natural ice)! So that's pretty exciting, even though I won't be skating it but might be watching it on the telly.

Today I have another Moving House card to share, I hadn't posted it yet. I won't show you the inside, as the only thing there is our new address:

Just a simple card this time, but I really love the decoupage image and the lovely spring colours and flowers. Hope you guys like it too!

Materials:
* Champagne base card
* Studio Light 3D image, sentiment and DPs
* Prima Daisy Doodles flowers
* Gems from stash

Challenges:
* Lily Pad (Patterned Paper)
* Divas by Design (Anything Goes)
* Crafty Creations (Home Sweet Home)
* DYSU (Anything Goes)
* Craft Us Crazy (Anything Goes)
* Hotshot Craft (Anything Goes)
* Poodles Parlour (Anything Goes)
* The Stamp Man (Embellish It)
* Cupcake Craftroom (New Beginnings)
* Crafty Pad (Spring Colours)

Well, I'd better be off, busy day at work today, I am definately looking forward to making my deadline this Thursday and have a little breather :) See you all Wednesday for another Friendship's Garden challenge! We are doing a special blog hop too with lots of goodies to win, so stay tuned :)

Bunny Valentine

2012-02-03T08:46:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

Owwww, what a busy week, I can't believe it's Friday again! I am very sorry for not being around very much, hope this improves in a week or so when one of my deadlines has passed....

Are you ready for another Card Makin' Mamas Challenge? Yes? Well, what a coincidence, today starts our new challenge and guess what.....the theme is "VALENTINE".

We are sponsored by Meljen's Design for this challenge and if you win, you get some Meljen's Goodies as a prize! Check out all the details on the Challenge Blog! I personally love Meljen's, such cute and fun images, so I was pretty happy I got to work with one of their digis for my inspiration card :)

I made my hubby's Valentine's card for this challenge, which you can notice straight away as the photography is abysmal and let's not even talk about the shoddy photo shopping. Let's just say I'm glad he will be taking the reins again for the next card...........With this in mind, have a look at my photos:

I know, I know.....not quite straight and such......but I think you can still see the card well enough, right? What do you think of the sentiment? I thought it was very appropriate for this card, but maybe a little silly? Oh well, I like silly sometimes :)

Materials
* White scalloped base card
* Meljen's Design Cuddle Bun Love, coloured with Promarkers and faux stitching
* Dovecraft Piece of Cake DP, edged with Dovecraft Cocoa Brown ink
* K&Co Smitten Icons, Dollhouse Sweet Things and Dollhouse Alphabet Chipboard
* Banner using Crafter's Companion embossing board with computer-generated sentiment (it says: My Bunny Valentine)
* Stars border punch, matted with holographic mirror card
* Heart gems from stash

Challenges:
* Meljen's Design (Loving You)
* Simon Says Stamp (Animal Antics)
* Joanna Sheen (Love is in the Air)
* Paper Shelter (Love is in the Air)
* Fab 'n Funky (Use a Digi)
* Cooking It Up With Katie (Heart, Punch, Embossing)
* Crafty Pad (Valentine/Anniversary)
* Bling it On (Love is All Around)
* Elke Kaart een Feestje (For Someone Special)
* Emerald Fairies (Be My Valentine)
* My Time to Craft (Adorable)

Hope you like my card and it inspires you to participate in our challenge. You have two weeks to link up, so I am hoping to see all your beautiful makes over there :)

Finally, Mary Poppins!

2012-01-27T07:10:00.002+01:00

Good morning everyone! I promised I'd be back with my Card Makin' Mamas Inspiration card so without further ado, here it is!

After the first two disasters I had with colouring the image and the ink bleeding outside the lines, I decided to paper pie Mary and I have to say, I really love the final result! I had the perfect paper pad for vintage clothes and as the sheet was double sided I really didn't waste much paper. All materials except the image came from the old stash pile. I hope you like the card, let me know! The CMM challenge theme is 'USE SOMETHING OLD" this time, so dive in your stash and play along, you still have a week to enter! The prize up for grabs is 4 digis of your choice from the Sassy Studio Catalogue; they also provided the DT with their digis to work with.

Materials:
* White Scalloped base card
* Sassy Studio Mary Poppins digi, paper pieced and coloured with Promarkers
* K&Co Ancestry.com Mat Pad and DP from my scrap stash
* Vintage Photo Distress Ink
* RicRac ribbon, pearls and corner peeloffs from my stash
* Computer-generated sentiments

Challenges:
* Fairytale Challenges (The Cinema - Mary Poppins)
* Paper Sundaes (Paper Piecing)
* Simon Says Stamp (Anything Goes)
* My Time to Craft (Favourite Embellishment - Pearls)
* Sassy Cheryl's (Light Blue and Brown)
* Critter Sketch (Use 3 embellishments)
* Mark Finest Papers (Birthday)
* Daisy Doodles (Anything Goes)
* One Stop Craft (Under the Weather - Clouds DP and umbrella)
* Stamp & Create (Anything Goes)

Right, one more busy day at work and then it's the weekend! I will be visiting one of my oldest friends, she has moved into a new house ages ago and we haven't been round to have a look yet! I guess that's what you get when you like so far apart like we do, we live in opposite ends of the Netherlands. But it will be great fun to see them and their little girl. I hope you all enjoy your weekend too! :)

Hearty Sketch

2012-01-25T09:28:00.001+01:00

Good Morning Crafty Friends!

Did you have a good weekend or can't you quite remember anymore? ;) We went out for dinner and saw a movie, something we hadn't done it aaaages! We saw Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I thought was a pretty good film. How dishy is that Daniel Craig, even with the dodgy glasses! :) But I am digressing......

Anyway, it's time for another Challenge at Friendship's Garden, we are providing you with a sketch to work with. This is my card:

I had a bit of a crafty block this week, so I am really happy that I've created anything at all. Nevertheless, I am pretty happy with this card. When I saw the image I kept hearing Tom Jones in my head and thought that would be the perfect sentiment.............................I've just realised I quoted my song wrongly. What a pumpkin.....;) Hope it still counts!

Anyway, I hope you can join us for our SKETCH challenge!

Materials:
* Scalloped white base card
* Hunkydory Cat's Meow Die-Cut
* Echo Park For the Record & Dovecraft Piece of Cake DPs and red paper from my scrap pile, some of the edges smeared with some red ink (I drew the inside heart myself and inked it to match it to the theme on the front of the card)
* Gems from stash
* Computer-generated sentiments

Challenges:
* Crafty Boots (Inspired by a Songtile - What's New Pussycat by Tom Jones)
* Oldie but a Goodie (Have a Heart - All except the cat is more than 6 months old)
* Get Hippity with Ippity (Hearts)
* Corrosive Challenge (I {heart} you)
* Crafty Ribbons (Love is Red & Black)
* Dream Valley (Animals)
* ABC Challenge (Happy Birthday)
* Cutie Pie Challenge (Favourite Song -What's New Pussycat by Tom Jones)
* Stamp, Scrap & Doodle (Have a Heart)
* Crafty Ann's (What's New Pussycat - The cat die-cut)

Before I go, I stumbled across this website today and thought it would be fun to share it with you all. Just to be clear, it's not about the guy, it's about the quotes! If only men would say those things! ;) http://handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com/

Have a good day!

Card Making Mamas Challenge and Moving House

2012-01-20T10:45:00.001+01:00

Good morning all!

Card Making Mamas' new challenge starts today and the theme this time is "USE SOMETHING OLD". Yes, dive into your old stash (it should be older than 6 months) and start creating! We are being sponsored by Sassy Studios this time around, and the DT received wonderful digi images to work with, have a look on the challenge blog later today!

Now, I wish I had an example card to show you today, but to be honest I started twice this week and both attempts ended up in the bin. So I will (hopefully!) show you my card for the challenges next week....I will be using Mary Poppins, so stay tuned.....:)

In the mean time, I though I would share a card I made a while back, when we were moving house, but never got around to posting it:

Materials:
* Scalloped white base card
* Studio Light decoupage sheet
* Gems and blue DP from stash

Challenges:
* Marianne Design Divas (In with the New)
* Crafty Purple Frog (Anything Goes)
* Little Miss Muffet (Blues and Creams)
* Shelley's Images (Anything Goes)
* Diva's by Design (New Beginnings and/or Thanks)
* Whimsical Designs (Anything Goes)
* City Crafter (Pretty Inside and Out)
* Crafty Sentiments (Anything Goes)
* Creative Craft Challenge (Use the Colour Blue)
* Paperminutes (Anything Goes)

Hope I will be back with a new card soon, but my inspiration seems to have flown out of the window recently and I can't quite get it back :( But don't worry, I'll keep trying ;) Enjoy your weekend, weather permitting of course :)

Christmas in Unusual Colours

2012-01-13T11:25:00.002+01:00

Good morning everyone!

Told you I'd be back ;) It's about halfway through the month of January (Where does the time go? Honestly!), perfect time to share my card with you for the January challenge at Christmas Cards All Year Round, which has the theme NON-TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS COLOURS. I've chosen pink and brown, because I just love the combination of the two colours, and used it to make an easel card:

You can still join us for this challenge for another two weeks, so hope to see you there!

Just wondering, has any of you girls have any experience with colouring on Neenah card? I was driven to despair with my current colouring medium (I think it's Magnolia paper), it keeps running! I've ordered some, but am just curious to know what any of you think of the product. Thanks!

Materials:
* Champagne base card
* Studio Light image as well as the polka dot paper and pink sentiment
* Rozette and torn paper from ?
* Making Memories Rouge Button
* Round sentiment, pearl, purple mirror card from stash

Challenges:
* Christmas Crafting (Easel Card)
* Heart Song Inspirations (Border Punch or Torn Paper)
* Lexi's Creations (Anything Goes)
* DYSU (Pink)
* Hanna & Friends (Easel Card)
* Bunny Zoe (Inspiration Photo)
* Crafts & Me (Christmas)
* Truly Madly Crafty (Anything Goes)
* Ge-We (Square Card)
* Moving Along with the Times (Spots and/or Stripes)

Christmas Stockings

2012-01-12T22:13:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

The weekend is near, are you looking forward to it? I know I am! We'll be up to see my mum and dad this weekend, it's my mum who's turning 75 this time around! I hope the train ride is going to be smooth, I hate delays as it's such a long trip.

Anyway, I've got a Christmas card to show you today. Yes, I know, a bit early perhaps, but better to start now and have plenty of cards come December! Anyway, I love making Christmas cards, so it suits me fine :). For this card I've tried to use up some of the scraps I had lying around, I'm sure you all have plenty of little leftover that get dumped into the scrap pile too. It's actually worthwhile to have a little rummage in there once in a while, there's so much gorgeous stuff in my pile too good not to use. Besides, I need to make room for new stash, right? I actually went to a hobby store today for the first time in months, as to be honest with you I don't really need anything new. But they were having a sale on and I came away with a Basic Grey paper pad, some chipboard and a SMIRK decoupage pad for a grand total of 10 euros! Had I bought these items earlier on, I would have had to spend 18 euros more than I did! Now you can't really argue with a bargain like that, right? Anyway, here's the card:

I'm pretty happy with, not in the least because my scraps pile is a little less high now :) Although the bow I made really turned out lovely in my opinion, it's not often that those work out for me. Hope you all enjoy your upcoming weekend, I might be back tomorrow or it will be Monday. See you all then!

Materials:
* Champagne base card
* Studio Light Sarah Kay image & sentiment
* DPs from scrap box: Basic Grey Jovial, Echo Park For the Record, Marianne Design Old-Fashioned Christmas, all sides inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink
* KARS X-mas Collection Ribbon
* Pearls, gem, peel offs and stocking from stash

Challenges:
* Sparkles Christmas (Christmas Stockings)
* Incy Wincy (Vintage)
* Gingersnap (Ribbon)
* For Fun (Anything Goes)
* ABC Christmas (Anything Christmas)
* Crazy Challenge (Lace and/or Pearls)
* My Mum's Craft Shop (Here Come the Girls)
* One Stitch at a Time (Lots of Embellishments)
* Creations by Gill M (3D Decoupage)
* Top Tip Tuesday (Anything Goes)

CAS Baby

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000+01:00

Good morning everyone!

Did you all manage to play along with the latest challenge at Friendship's Garden? Well, there's a new challenge starting today, so you might want to add your cards or other projects! The theme this time around is CAS (CLEAN AND SIMPLE). You can use and make anything, except stamping your main image (or using a digi that is not pre-coloured. Now, I do simple, but not clean, so it was mighty hard to make this card and not stick a million different things on or use lots of backing papers! It really felt like the card wasn't finished, but then again, this is CAS....you be the judge:

I made this card for a colleague of mine who just had her first child. There were some complications during the pregnancy, but thankfully both mother and daughter are completely healthy. Since she has quite a modern taste, I think she might like this style of card. We'll shall see!

Materials:
* White Scalloped Base Card
* Studio Light DP (I used a Crafter's Companion embossing board)
* K&Company Dollhouse Alphabet Chipboard
* Spellbinders shape
* Karen Foster Baby Words Rub-on sentiments

Challenges:
* Get Creative (CAS)
* Crafty Boots (New Beginnings)
* Crafty Ribbons (New Beginnings)
* Bling It On (New Beginnings)
* By the Cute & Girly (New Beginnings)
* Craft Your Days Away (New Beginnings)
* Ooh La La (New Beginnings)
* Dream Valley (Anything Goes)
* Unstampabelles (Anything Goes but no Stamps!)
* Papertake Weekly (Die Cute)

Hope you like my card, maybe I'll see all your lovely creations at the Challenge Blog!

Kitty Cat Birthday

2012-01-10T13:46:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!

Well, I'm back at work.........so less time to craft. But on the other hand it's good to get into a little routine again, I was all over the shop in the last week! However, I was glad to be off for a little longer, because now we have most boxes unpacked and our bikes can now comfortably stand in the garage! It was such a mess before....

Anyway, I have a birthday card to show you, this time it's for my Mother-in-Law. She has her birthday on the 13th, but because she doesn't know about this blog I think I can get away with showing it to you now. I made the card with another so far unopened Hunkydory card kit that my OH bought me for my birthday a while back, I think it's just so gorgeous that I was a little overwhelmed as to how to use it. And to be honest, I've stuck with what was in the card kit, because it all complements each other so well.

My hubby, who makes all my pictures for this blog, said this card was so difficult to photograph because all the foiling is so shiny. It's really in your face in real life, you only get a bit of it on the photo. You can barely see the sentiment, as that's covered in foiling too. Another first again, making a stepper card. It was really easy, as these come with the card kit, already scored:

Don't you love the little cat on the right, stretching? How do you guys work with card kits, do you manage to combine it with other stash you might have? I'm very curious to see how you guys do it.

Materials: Hunkydory Cat's Meow Card Kit & some DP scraps (Docraft Country Companions) from my scrap box.

Challenges:
* Crafty Cardmakers (No Floral Embellishments)
* Anything Goes Challenge (Anything Goes)
* CES (Anything Goes)
* Cupcake Craft (Something New) -> New Card Kit/Stepper Card
* Cupcake Craftroom (Anything Goes)
* Cute Card Thursday (What's New) -> New Card Kit/Stepper Card
* Delicious Doodles (All Things New) -> New Card Kit/Stepper Card
* Make My Monday (Animals)
* Fairy Tale Challenge (Something New) -> New Card Kit/Stepper Card
* Little Miss Muffet (Something New) -> New Card Kit/Stepper Card

That's it from me, see you all later!

Motor Bike Birthday

2012-01-08T16:30:00.000+01:00

Morning everyone!

Tomorrow is my first day at work again and I'm really lucky because the first day is going to consist of one long meeting.....sigh......oh well, I have to get back to work sometime right? Today I have another card to share with you that I made for a family friend's birthday. He is crazy about motor sports, so I thought this card would be very suitable for him. He must have received it by now, fingers crossed, so I hope he likes it:

Materials:
* Champagne base card, gatefold
* Studio Light image, most DPs and sentiments
* Border punch starts cut-outs (frugal or what?)
* Some blue scraps from my scraps pile

Challenges:
* DYSU (Let it Snow) -> Tyres in the Snow
* Aud Sentiments (Any sentiment & Using Scraps)
* Creative Card Crew (Snow) -> Tyres in the Snow
* Pollycraft (Punch it)
* Simply Create Too (Layers)
* The Paper Shelter (Anything Goes)
* Sentimental Sundays (Snow, Blue and/or Glitter)
* Paper Sundaes (Saturated Colours)
* Dream Valley (Anything Goes)
* Birthday Sundaes (Birthday Card)

This is my last day off, tomorrow I will be starting work again, just when I got used to sleeping in and playing around in my crafty room :( I still have a couple more cards to show you, I will post them during the following weeks. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and good luck come Monday morning........;)

New Year Challenge

2012-01-06T10:53:00.001+01:00

Hello Everyone,

Jeez, how bad can the weather be? It's been raining cats & dogs and gale force winds are blowing around the house (well, maybe I'm exaggerating just a teensy bit) throughout the week. However, that does give me every excuse to stay in and craft, right? ;)

This is a birthday card I made for my mum, hope she won't have a look on my blog before her birthday (no chance!). Oh well :) My card coincides well with the new Card Makin' Mamas Challenge: NEW YEAR! Use something that is new to you, whether it's a new technique, new stash you received over the festive period or anything else new! I've used the Hunkydory Classic Cameo card kit, my hubby gave it to me for my birthday, but since then it has been sitting quietly in its wrapper waiting to be used. Not anymore I say, time to break open the new stash :) Hope you like the card, it's one of those accordion cards (is that the official term for it? I don't know), I think it looks pretty classy and vintage. What do you guys think?

Materials: Hunkydory Classic Cameo card kit

Challenges:
* Fussy & Fancy (Animal Print OR Birthday)
* Incy Wincy (Anything Goes)
* Paper Creations (Die-Cuts and/or Punches)
* Papertake Weekly (Anything Goes)
* Polka Doodles (Through the Window)
* Sentimental Sundays (Anything Goes)
* Simon Says (Use Something New)
* Tuesday Throwdown (Shiny New Year)
* Sparkle Creations (Something New)
* Joanna Sheen (Celebrations)

Come on and join us for this challenge, we would love to see you makes! Well, I better get into the town, I am due at work on Monday and I need to pick up a few things and go to the hairdressers. Yuk, I hate shopping, but it has to be done sometime, better now than after work later on.....wish me luck! :)

First ATC ever - Friendship's Garden Bonus Week

2012-01-04T11:11:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone,

Did you enjoy the New Year's Celebrations? We certainly did, I cooked a great meal, we drank some lovely wine and around 12 there was an absolutely spectacular firework show courtesy of our neighbours. Since we had to stay up for another hour so that we could also ring in the new year with my parent's in law, I was absolutely exhausted on the 1st and we just vegetated on the couch for the day.

But now I'm back in business and here's my first project to share with you! Friendship's Garden is challenging you to make an ATC with a vintage children theme! I had never made an ATC before, so first had to look up what it was, but I think it worked out pretty well. I even managed to rip the paper a little bit!

I hope you can find the time to join us this time around, it's great to see more and more participants in our challenges! Just remember, we don't "do" stamps/digis for the main image, unless they are pre-coloured! For more information, just visit our challenge blog. Hope to see you there!

Materials:
* White base card, cut to ATC size
* Studio Light image
* Marianne Design Paper Pad (Eline's Vintage Blue & Green)
* Scalloped circle punch, smeared with Distress Ink and Clear Stickles
* Vintage Photo Distress Ink, smeared on just about every element
* Studio G sentiment stamp
* Flat-backed pearls from my stash

Challenges:
* Craft Your Passion (Anything Goes + Distressing)
* Heart Song Inspirations (Anything Goes)
* Ooh La La Creations (Anything But a Card)
* Cutie Pie Challenge (Use a Sentiment)
* Let's Craft & Create (Anything Goes)
* Hiding in My Craft Room (Freestyle)
* Robin's Fetish (Anything Goes)
* Pecreativ (Anything Goes)
* The Pink Elephant (Anything Goes)
* Stamp & Create (Vintage)

Christmas Birthday

2011-12-29T20:37:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!

Ooh, I have been very lazy the last few days! Sleeping in, vegging on the sofa, not going out and no energy to do anything as a result! Bad me! So I locked myself up in my crafty room and managed to finish a couple of DT assignments which is great because everything will be kicking off next week. But first I wanted to share my dad's birthday card, his birthday is on Boxing Day and he turned 75 this year. Still going strong, my dad :)

A few days ago I shared my father-in-law's birthday card and as you can see this card looks fairly similar. I decorated the inside of the card with some paper scraps and a snowflake sentiment, I forgot to take a picture of it though.

Materials:
* Champagne base card, gateway folded
* Dovecraft Let it Snow & Studio Light DPs
* Studio Light 3d image
* Spellbinders shape, used a seal for the card

Challenges:
* Bearly Mine (Anything Goes)
* City Crafter (Make the Cut)
* Crafty Calendar (Cold & Frosty)
* Fairytale Challenge (Something Simple)
* Little Darlings (Cold)
* Little Miss Muffet (Anything Goes)
* One Stop Craft (Winter Wishes)
* Secret Crafter (Anything Goes)
* Scrap it With a Song (A Christmas Carol - Walking in a Winter Wonderland)
* ABC Challenge (Frost)

That's it from me today, hope you are all having a wonderful New Year's Eve (or Hogmanay as we call it at home)! Thank you for all your visits, comments and inspiration over the year, much appreciated :)

December Birthday

2011-12-27T09:44:00.002+01:00

Hello everyone,

How was your Christmas, did you enjoy yourself? We had a lovely Christmas at my parents, lovely food and Dickens on telly :) I made a little Christmas hamper for them to thank them for helping us with moving house, I made Chocolate & pistachio fudge, Guinness Ginger Bread, Christmas Chutney and Sultanas on spiced rum. I added some shop-bought goodies, like a little bottle of bubbly and some nibbles and the basket was full! I also made Rocky Road, so we had a little festive treat when we came back home last night.

Anyway, now that I'm back I have some more cards to show you. My FIL's birthday is on the 28th and as he lives in Scotland I had to send his birthday card early. I liked using the Spellbinders shape to keep the card closed, I think it also looks a little like a belt with a buckle :)

Materials:
* Champagne base card, gateway folded
* Making Memories Rouge & Mocha DPs
* Studio Light 3D image and inside DP
* Spellbinders shape, used as a seal for the card
* Rouge de Garance AOF Icons and Tags Chipboard
* Sentiment circle from the Internet

Challenges:
* Bunny Zoe Craft (Unusual shape or fold)
* Crafty Boots (Celebrations)
* Paper Sundaes (Celebrate)
* Sparkles Forum (Anything but a Christmas Card)
* Crafty Pad (Anything but Christmas)
* Tip Top Tuesday (Anything Goes)
* Charizma Cards (Anything Goes)
* Aud Sentiments (Anything Goes)
* Delicious Doodles (Anything Goes)
* Let's Craft and Create (Anything Goes)

I'll be back in a few days with my dad's birthday card, can't get over the fact he turned 75! Way to go dad :)

Another Christmas Card

2011-12-15T07:42:00.001+01:00

Hi all,

Only 10 days until Christmas, can you believe it? It has really snuck up on me this year, we don't even have the tree up, not all cards are on their way and I still have to start baking and cooking for a great idea for a Christmas present (even if I do say myself). If I will have time to take some pictures I will post them. However, now I have another Christmas card to share with you. We at Friendship's Garden are challenging you to make a Christmas card without using stamps! Check out the challenge blog for more details, we'd love to see your makes!

I probably will not be posting much until the New Year, need to get all the pressies shopped and wrapped and focus on the cooking for now. So if I don't see you before then, have a great Christmas and a very happy 2012!

Materials:
* Scalloped white base card
* Marianne Design Scandinavian Christmas DPs
* Studio Light image
* Gems and silver peel offs from stash

Challenges
* Crafting for All Seasons (Christmas)
* Divas by Design (Christmas)
* Joanna Sheen Challenge Blog (Christmas Wishes)
* Little Darlings (Christmas)
* For Fun Challenges (Christmas)
* Papertake Weekly (Christmas)
* Christmas Crafting (Santa Claus is coming to Town)
* Crafty Hazelnut (Traditional Christmas)
* Winter Wonderland (Let it Snow)
* By the Cute and Girly (Let it Snow)

It's Christmas! Almost........

2011-12-09T09:34:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone, I'm back! Finally we managed to set up the crafty table in my new crafty room so I could start creating again. We are really settling in to our new home, it's already so familiar even though there is still a ton of boxes to unpack. How much stuff can a person collect, honestly!

I have a Christmas card to share with you on my comeback (it's feels a bit like that!). I thought I was completely covered as far as Christmas cards were concerned, but of course when I started making the list I was a few short! So back to the Crimbo drawing board I went, happily coinciding with Card Makin' Mamas new challenge, we want to see CHRISTMAS CARDS. Not so hard right? Our teamie Lizzie provided the lovely digi images, have a look on the challenge blog to see more of her creations and of course how all the teamies used them on their cards!

This is my make:

Not bad for a first outing, huh? I'm pretty happy with it to be honest. Hope to see you at the challenge!

Materials:
* Scalloped white base card, folded to make an easel card
* Giftful Lilly digi, coloured with Promarkers
* Basic Grey Jovial DPs
* Pearls from stash
* Stickles on the Poinsettia of the stopper (I liked leaving the flower whole, so that it pops up a little)
* Sentiment from Studio Light
* Rounded corner punch

Challenges:
* Aud Sentiments (Winter Holiday sentiment)
* Moving Along with the Times (Last Minute Christmas)
* Meljen's Design (Use Green)
* Paper Crafting Journey (Christmas)
* Sarah Hurley (Christmas)
* ABC Christmas Challenge (Christmas)
* My Mum's Craftshop (Traditional Christmas Colours)
* Stampavie (Easel card)
* Christmas Inspirations (Unusual Folds)
* Cute Card Thursday (Anything Goes)

Just a little note...............

2011-11-23T10:05:00.003+01:00

Hi all,

Just a little not to say I am still here, but due to the move haven't been able to make new cards, everything is in boxes and I don't even know where half of my stash is ;) Of course we don't have internet either yet, so it's a mess all round! :) Hopefully all will be better in a few weeks!

Ciska

Thank You!

2011-11-11T17:44:00.000+01:00

Good morning everyone!

Another week has flown by, I don't know where all the days went so quickly! I'm guessing between moving house and a full-time job, I really don't have that much spare time at the moment. For a good cause though, our new house is coming along beautifully, yesterday evening we spent a few hours trailing through wallpaper books and finally found the lovely coffee & cream colour we wanted for our bedrooms :)

I've got another card to share with you all, this time for the Card Makin' Mamas Challenge, which is 'GIVING THANKS'. I am expecting a lot of Thanksgiving entries, but because we don't celebrate it in the Netherlands, I chose to make a more general Thank You card:

The DP behind the turtle is so gorgeously sparkly IRL, wonderful! Of course the photos don't do it justice :) Come and join us if you can! We are being sponsored by SOME ODD GIRL this time, they will be giving away digis to the challenge winner! You can have a look on their website here.

Materials:
* White base card
* Studio Light 3D image and sentiments
* First Edition Hideaway DPs
* Flowers by Papermania
* Flower. scalloped circle and corner rounding punches
* Gems from stash

Challenges:
* Aud Sentiments (Thank you/Thanksgiving)
* CEE Stampers (3 different shapes on your card; scalloped circle, rectangle, flower)
* City Crafter (Thank you/Homemade gift)
* Creative Card Crew (Thankful)
* Delightful Inspiration (Thank you card or gift)
* DYSU (Inspired by a song: Thank you by Alanis Morissette)
* Fussy and Fancy (Thank you and a sentiment)
* Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge (Give Thanks)
* Sisterhood of Crafters (Giving Thanks)
* Forever Friends (Something Old, Something New; Old = 3D image, New = DP)

15 mins of crafting

2011-11-09T07:44:00.002+01:00

Good morning everyone,

How have all you lovely followers and visitors been this week? I'd like to thank you all for your lovely comments over the past months and welcome my new followers at the same time :)

I haven't been crafting much this week, as we are in the process of moving house, but some of my earlier cards got picked for different challenges this week, all lovely surprises! I've won a number of digis that I will be using as soon as I have more time to craft in a leisurely fashion, instead of just managing my DT cards by the skin of my teeth while packing stuff in boxes :)

Talking about DTs, it's time for another challenge over at Friendship's Garden! If you've participated in our Autumn and Leaves Challenges, have a look at the blog to see our winner and top 3! This challenge is a little unusual, well, at least I have never come across it. We are challenging you to make a card in under 15 mins! Everybody needs a quick card or two, so a great challenge to ease yourself into making a card without stamps as the main feature :)

This is my card, I unfortunately forgot to set a timer, but it was definitely made under 15 minutes:

My trick to make this card so quickly? Two words: Card sheet. I've used a sheet that included image, DPs and embellishments, only a matter of cutting the elements out and combining them. Saves having to think about what goes well with what. Only added some blue gems and a couple of additional DPs and hey presto! Hope you can play along, we'd love to see your quick makes! Show us how quick you can be :)

Challenges:
* Catch the Bug (Anything Goes)
* Stampavie and More (Anything Goes)
* Southern Girls Challenge (Can You Hear the Music?: Our House by Madness)
* ColourQ (Colour Challenge)
* Heart Song Inspirations (Anything Goes)
* Ellephantastic Challenges (Weather-related)
* Dream Valley (Anything Goes)
* Crafty Catz Challenge (Anything Goes)
* Charisma Cardz Challenge (Cutesy)
* CES (Inspired by a Song or a Film: Our House by Madness)

Autumnal Colours & Leaves

2011-11-02T09:27:00.000+01:00

Good morning everyone!

It's time for another challenge at Friendship's Garden, the theme this time is AUTUMN COLOURS AND LEAVES. We would thus like to see some leaves on your project and you making use of autumnal colours, such as orange, yellow and red. Remember, our challenges focus on projects made WITHOUT stamps. You can however enter any paper craft project. Why don't you give it a try?

Here is my card:

I think it turned out quite nice, the cardstock is so lovely that I decided to show some of it on the front. Hope to see you all joining the challenge!

That's it from me for now, I am off to our new house to start the cleaning :( Oh well, it's for a good cause :) See you later!

Materials:
* Cream and coated base card
* 3D image & additonal images, sentiment, and DPs on the front of the card: Studio Light
* Echo Park For the Record DP
* Scalloped circle punch
* Silver border peeloffs from stash

Challenges:
* Birthday Sundaes (Happy Birthday)
* Celebrate the Occasion (Fall + pumpkin)
* Craft Your Days Away (Autumn/Fall)
* Cupcake Craft (Take a Leaf Out of My Book)
* Paper Cutz (Turning Over a New Leaf)
* Make My Monday (Autumn Leaves)
* Unstampables (Autumn/Fall)
* Lollipop Crafts (Anything Goes)
* Papertake Weekly (Anything Goes)
* Through the Craftroom Door (Fall + Leaves)

A Christmas Sketch

2011-11-01T10:14:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone!

Wow, November already, not long now until Christmas! Scary huh.......Anyway, since it's a new month, it's a new challenge over at Christmas Cards All Year Round, we are challenging you to make a card following this sketch:

Now, I don't usually do sketches, I don't like them at all. Guess it makes me feel restricted somehow, so I avoid them. But I did like using this sketch, once I got started it went really well to be honest! Here's my make:

It is a fairly challenging sketch, but have a go, you might like it too! See you there, you've got all month! :)

Materials
* Champagne base card
* Studio Light 3D image and sentiments
* Marianne Design Old Fashioned Christmas, Basic Grey Jovial and Echo Park For the Record DP (all edges inked with Vintage Photo distress ink)
* Scalloped circle and rounded corner punches
* Star brads & gems from stash

Challenges
* Crimbo Crackers (Anything Goes) NEW CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE BLOG!
* ABC Christmas Challenge (Vintage Christmas)
* Jingle Belles (Not a Creature was Stirring: Use a creature somewhere on your card; doggie in my case!)
* Basic Grey (Anything Goes)
* Dream Valley (Anything Goes)
* Cupcake Craftroom (Sweet Christmas, the image is sooooo sweet!)
* Christmas Card Challenge (Liquid Applique or any Christmas card)
* Forever Friends (Use a Sentiment)
* Emerald Faerie Garden (Christmas Red)
* One Stitch at a Time (Christmas)

Use a Die Cut!

2011-10-28T09:44:00.005+02:00

Good morning everyone!

The new challenge over at Card Makin' Mamas has started, this time we would like to see your creativity using "DIE-CUTS"! You can interpret this any which way suits you best, but your card needs to include a die-cut somewhere! We are sponsored by Saturated Canary this time (don't you just love the name?), the lucky winner can get their hands on 2 digis of their choice, and there is a LOT of choice :)

Here's my make:

Isn't she a little cutie? I made it difficult for myself to colour, since I printed the image out fairly small and the image is so intricate, that in order to get a nice colour on the apples I decided to 3D them. They look pretty tasty to me, don't you think? Perfect for when you're a little under the weather I'd say!

Materials:
* White base card
* Saturated Canary Digi (Snow White - A Princess), coloured with Promarkers
* Prima Marketing Jack and Jill DP
* Cream die cut, inked with blue ink
* Sentiment stamp, gems and bow from stash

Challenges:
* Crafts and Me (Use Blue on Your Card)
* Crafts 4 Eternity (Magical Mystical)
* Polka Doodles (Magical & Mystical)
* Scrapbook Sisters (Anything Goes)
* Stampin' B's (Use Items Starting with P: Princess)
* The Kraft Journal (Anything Goes)
* Delicious Doodles (Good vs Evil)
* CCEE Stampers (Funny Get Well Soon Card)
* Paper Crafting Yourney (Use a Digi)
* Sassy Studio (Favourite Film --> Snow White when I was a kid)

I am hoping to see you all participating in the challenge, check out the challenge blog if you would like some more inspiration!

Only a few more days until we get the keys to the new house, I am so excited! Have a lovely weekend :)

Snowmen Carols

2011-10-27T15:30:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone!

I have another card to show you, especially created for the Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge. I have participated in every single challenge so far, but it seemed that I was going to miss this one out due to time constraints Hah, I laugh in the face of deadlines :) So I literally squeezed this one out, but I still love how it came out:

Materials
* Bauble shaped base card
* Meljen's Designs Caroling Snowmen (I won this image in a challenge recently and was itching to work with it, it's so cute!), coloured with Promarkers and Stickled
* Marianne Design Old Fashioned Christmas DP (Gorgeous paper, isn't it?)
* Sentiments from Studio Light
* Scalloped punch
* Ribbon and snow flake brads from stash

Challenges:
* Sparkles Forum (Christmas Songs)
* Christmas Stampin' (Sparkles)
* Charisma Cardz (Anything Goes)
* Christmas Card Challenge (Christmas Card)
* Ribbon Girl (Jingle All the Way to Christmas)
* The Paper Shelter (Anything Goes)
* Simon Says Stamp (Anything Goes)
* Saturday Challenge (Wrap Up Warm)
* Paper Pretties (Embellish It)
* Meljen's Designs (Christmas)

Hope you like it, see you tomorrow! :)

Halloween Tag

2011-10-26T10:08:00.001+02:00

Hello all!

Today we have a little in-between challenge for you over at Friendship's garden, we are challenging you to make a HALLOWEEN TAG! Use 1 image, 2 ricrac bits and 3 blingy embellishments, you can interpret that however you want. Just make sure that you don't use a stamp or digi for your main image and you're good to go! Here's my make:

Materials
* K&Co Christmas Cheer Tag Pad
* Image from the Internet (http://vintageholidaycrafts.com has it, among others)
* K&Co Halloween Paper Pad
* White pieces of ricrac from my stash, coloured with a little Vintage Photo Distress ink (love the duo tone it created!)
* Orange gems from my stash

Hope you like my tag, as we aren't celebrating Halloween over here, I am currently using it as a book tag :)

Challenges
* 2 Sisters (Pumpkin Patch)
* Allsorts (Halloween)
* Bearly Mine (Anything but a Card)
* Crafting for All Seasons (Halloween or Halloween colours)
* Divas by Design (Something Spooky)
* Fab 'n Funky (Hubble Bubble Toil and Trouble)
* For Fun (Halloween)
* Hooked on Craft (Something Spooky)
* Little Darlings (Not square)
* Lollypop Crafts (At least 3 embellishments)

See you on Friday with my Card Makin' Mamas DT card, all I can say is that it's fit for a princess ;)

Card Makin' Mamas Blog Hop Winners!!!

2011-10-25T06:25:00.001+02:00

Good morning everyone,

Our first ever Blog Hop at Card Makin' Mamas was a great success, check out if you've won at the main challenge blog! Thanks for playing, everyone, we've had some new additions to the challenge blog followers as well, hope you all participate in the next challenge!

The winner of the exclusive Franken Lily digi on my blog is.......JULIE HOFFMAN! Congratulations Julie, check the challenge blog for Lizzie's contact information to receive your very own Lily :)

Thanks again for all your lovely commments and a big welcome to my new followers :)

CMM Halloween Blog Hop!

2011-10-21T17:00:00.001+02:00

Good morning everyone, it is finally here; the Card Makin' Mamas Blog Hop!

You should have arrived here from Dee's lovely blog. If you came by this post by accident, you can start hopping at our Challenge Blog! We are all using our own Lizzie's digi's, I believe it's her first attempt and they are gorgeous! Well done honey :)

Here's my card, using Franken Lily:

All Lizzie's digis this time around have to do with Halloween and all things spooky and autumny. And if you join us in our blog hop, you can win these digis! If you leave a comment here, you're in with a chance to win Franken Lily! She's actually a full-size character, I liked her face so much that I zoomed in and only printed some of the digi. Just showing you what a versatile prize this could be! There are several more Lizzie digi's to won along the hop, so really worth participating!

Next stop on the hop is Sara's blog, go and check out her make! Below are all the stops on the hop in the right order. Thanks for visiting my little blog!

Blog hop order
Card Makin Mamas Challenge Blog
Jess
Penny
Dee
Ciska (that's me!)
Sara
Lizzie
Card Makin Mamas Challenge Blog

Materials
* White base card
* Lizzie original digi Franken Lily
* Studio Light DPs, vellum, cauldrom and sentiments
* Skeleton foam stickers and orange ribbon from stash

Challenges
* Bows & Berries (Colour Challenge)
* Craft Your Days Away (Halloween colours)
* Crafty Calender (Spooky)
* Creative Card Crew (Spooky Fun)
* Creative Card Challenges (Congratulations)
* Paper Creations (Halloween)
* Paper Sundaes (Halloween)
* Sparkles Forum (Halloween)
* ABC (Boo)
* Kraft Journal (Spooky Stuff)

Another Halloween Christmas

2011-10-21T06:22:00.002+02:00

Good morning everyone,

I have another Halloween Christmas card to share with you, hoping to give you some inspiration for the Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge of Oktober; Use Halloween colours for your Christmas Card. You still have another week or so to enter, the deadline is the 31st of Oktober.

This time around I used a purple base and kept it fairly simple:

The image originally came with DPs in traditional colours, but I think this works well too!

Materials
* Champagne base card
* Studio Light 3D image, purple DP and sentiment
* SEI Vanilla Icing Accents
* Prima Daisy Doodles Flower
* Stickles on the wreath
* Gold peel offs and gem from stash

Challenges
* Aud Sentiments (Winter)
* Bling It On (No Patterned Paper)
* Crafting When We Can (Christmas)
* Ooh La La (Let It Snow)
* Emerald Fairy (Flowers)
* Christmas Inspirations (Punches/Die-cuts)
* Christmas Card Challenge (Christmas Card)
* Heart Song Inspirations (Flowers/Felt)
* Stamps R Us (Nature's Gifts)
* Top Tip Tuesday (Layer It Up)

Hope you like, see you a little later today for the first ever Card Makin' Mamas bloghop!!!! :)

Vintage Halloween

2011-10-19T09:00:00.009+02:00

Good morning everyone!

It's time for our second challenge over at Friendship's Garden, we are challenging you to make a "VINTAGE HALLOWEEN" themed card. The winner can get her/his hands on a 10 dollar gift certificate for

as well as a guest designer spot with us. Hope you can play along this time around, we'd love to see your makes! Just make sure you don't use a stamped image!

This is my take on the challenge:

I am definitely enjoying making these Halloween-inspired cards, although it's a pity I won't be able to send them.

Materials
* Champagne base card, gatefold
* Image from the Internet (http://vintageholidaycrafts.com/ has it but I used one that isolated the image and not included the background, can't find that link anymore though)
* My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy True Blue DP
* Sew Easy Floss Light Brown
* Flower Punch
* Computer-generated sentiment
* Lace, Button & gems from stash

Challenges:
* CES (Forever Autumn)
* Crafty Boots (Autumn/Halloween)
* Deep Ocean (Fall Colours)
* Designed 2 Delight/Delightful Inspiration (Halloween)
* Dream Valley (Halloween)
* I Did It (Animals)
* One Stop Craft (Halloween)
* Really Reasonable Ribbon (Fun 4 Fall)
* Saturday Challenge (White + 1 other colour)
* Sentimental Sundays (Fancy Folds)

Thanks for looking, hope to see you all at the challenge!

Halloween birthday

2011-10-14T09:52:00.001+02:00

Good morning everyone!

It's time for another Card Makin' Mamas Challenge and you will not be surprised to learn that our theme this time around is "HALLOWEEN"! Always a difficult topic for me, as we don't really celebrate Halloween in the Netherlands. So I decided to make a birthday card, but with the Halloween colours and image! We are being sponsored by Bugaboo, they are offering 7 digis to the lucky winner! Great prize, no?

For your inspiration, they gave use some great images to work with. I've used Hween Brat Pumpkin, isn't she cute?

Materials
* Champagne base card
* Studio Light & K&C Halloween DPs (I am not even sure they're still making it, I picked it up from a craft fair about a year ago)
* Image Bugaboo Hween Brat Pumpkin (paper pieced with K&C Halloween DP), coloured with Promarkers
* Recollections Flower
* Sentiment from the internet (I can't remember where unfortunately)
* Peel-offs from stash

Challenges
* 2 Sisters Challenge (Halloween)
* Birthday Sundays (Fall Colours Birthday)
* ABC (Pumpkin)
* Crafting for All Seasons (Fall or Pumpkins)
* Crafts and Me (Orange)
* Cupcake Craft (Halloween)
* Fab 'n Funky (Fall Colours)
* For Fun (Pumpkins without Faces, I hope I qualify)
* Fussy and Fancy (Fall or Halloween)
* I Love Promarkers (Autumnal Colours)

Well, that's it from me so far. Stay tuned for our CMM blog hop, starting next week! Have a great weekend and stay warm :)

Ye Olde Dutch Birthday

2011-10-11T10:44:00.000+02:00

Good Morning Everyone!

Well, hasn't the weather changed! Last weekend, I was almost fainting because of the heat, this weekend I nearly froze to death! Well, that might be a 'slight' exaggeration, but you know what I mean :) I had a lovely girly shopping trip with one of my best friends yesterday, no crafty goodies sadly but I did manage to find a nice pair of winter shoes!

Anyway, on to my card, I made this card for my uncle who will celebrate his birthday next week. I hope the card is 'male' enough, I find it pretty difficult to make a card for someone who doesn't have an outspoken hobby or interest (well, he likes hunting, but funny enough I don't have any such images in my stash ;))

So I came across this decoupage sheet and thought that it might work for a birthday card. And although it's not the most intricate one I've ever made, I am still pretty happy with it:

Materials used:
* Cream base card
* Studio Light 3D decoupage, sentiments, flowers and windmill & red DPs
* MS Doily Lace border punch
* Blue card, blue gems and silver peel offs from stash

Challenges:
* One Stop Craft (Anything Goes)
* C.R.A.F.T. (Bright Colours)
* Anything Goes (Die-Cut or Punches or both)
* By the Cute and Girly (Anything Goes and Bloghop)
* Delightful Sketches (Make it Dimensional)
* Fab 'n Funky (Die-Cuts or Punches)
* I Did It Creations (Anything Goes)
* Paper Sundaes (Favourite Colour Combination; Red and Blue)
* Pollycraft Monday (Boys, Boys, Boys)
* Sentimental Sundays (Anything Goes + a sentiment)

Hope you enjoy my card!

New Beginnings: Friendship's Garden Bloghop!

2011-10-05T10:00:00.014+02:00

Hello everyone,

Yes, it's time for the first Friendship's Garden Challenge to start and we have appropriately chosen "NEW BEGINNINGS" as our first theme! The additional twist is including a window/aperture on your card as well.

Anyone with a new project that falls within that theme can participate. We welcome any type of paper craft, there is a catch however, no stamps! You can stamp your sentiment if you like, but the main image shouldn't be a stamp or digi. There are plenty of great websites around that list free images, or maybe you have some images at home you'd like to use, or photo's, or......well, you get the gist ;)

To make our first challenge as festive and memorable as possible, we are also hosting a BLOGHOP!!! And there's prizes to win as well! We will be giving away a $20 certificate to Designs on Cloud 9 and a $10 gift certificate to Altered Angel! How generous is that! To get the skinny on how you can increase your chances to win these fabulous prizes, check out the post on the main challenge blog!

If all is well, you should have arrived on my blog from Dena Jones' blog. If you get lost, go back to the Friendship's Garden Main Blog to get back on track, the blog hop starts and ends there! The next teamie to visit is Carolyn LaBille, go forth and give her some love :)

On to my project. For this first challenge I've made a baby card, can't get any newer than that now can you? I made it for a colleague of mine who just gave birth to her first child, a girl. I wanted to make a card that wasn't that obviously girly girly, as the mother isn't like that either.

Materials
* White base card
* Studio Light 3D image and sentiment
* First Edition Hideaway DPs
* Ivory ribbon from stash

Challenges
* Craft Your Passion (Anything Goes + Ribbon)

* Crafty Card Makers (Anything Goes)

* The Kraft Journal (Lavish Layers)

* Paper Creations (Black and/or Orange)

* CES Challenge (Totally Gurjuss/Pretty Girls)

* City Crafter (3D)

* Heart Song Inspirations (Anything Goes)

* Jen's Digi Stamps (Let's Hear it For the Girls)

* My Time To Craft (Nursery Necessities)

* Crazy Amigo (Animals)

Hope you like my card, maybe it inspires some of you to join our first challenge and bloghop!

Birthday Frog

2011-10-02T21:15:00.000+02:00

Good evening everyone,

The beginning of another week and I have another card to share with you. A good friend of the family is celebrating her birthday on the 4th of October and she loves frogs. I personally can't stand the things, but as she likes them I almost always make a 'froggy' card for her. This is the one for this year:

I punched the holes with a normal office punch, the holes are then big enough to thread ribbon through.

Materials used:

* Silver base card

* Studio Light 3D image, sentiments and DPs

* Silver matt mirror board

* MS Doily Lace border punch

* Silver corner peel offs, ribbon and gems from my stash

Challenges

* Birthday Sundaes (Ribbon)
* Aud Sentiments (Birthday)
* Celebrate the Occasion (Anything Goes, Must Use Ribbon)
* Cute Card Tuesday (Animal Crackers)
* Little Miss Muffet (Animals or Monsters)
* Our Creative Corner (Inspiration from another country (Ireland: green and shamrocks))
* Emerald Fairies (Punches and Dies)
* Creatalicious Challenges (Anything Goes)
* 4 Crafty Chicks (Anything Goes)
* Daring Cardmakers (Use a foreign language, Dutch)

I will be back on Wednesday with my first card for the Friendship's Garden, we will be doing a bloghop and have some great prizes for you to win, so stay tuned and check back in a few days!

Have a great week!

Halloween Christmas

2011-10-02T14:39:00.001+02:00

Good afternoon,

Hope you all are having a great weekend? My parents were at ours for the weekend, we just put them back on the train so now I have some time to update my blog.

The October Christmas Cards All Year Round (CCAYR) Challenge is up again, this time we are challenging you to use Halloween colours as well as a die-cut or punch. We don't really celebrate Halloween in the Netherlands, so I don't really have that much of those colours in my stash, but I eventually managed to fine some:

Materials
* White scalopped base card
* Studio Light 3D image and sentiment
* My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy True Blue DP
* SEI Christmas Mint Chiplets Die-cut
* Gold peel-offs, gem and pearl from my stash

Challenges
* Christmas Stampin' All Year Long (No Stamps)
* Crafty Creations (CAS)
* Crafty Purple Frog (Lots of Layers)
* Crafty Hazelnut (For a man)
* Paper Sundaes (Lots of Layers)
* Scrap Card Challenge (Anything Goes)
* ABC Challenge (Anything Goes)
* Crafts 4 Eternity (Anything Goes)
* Christmas Card Challenge (Christmas Card)
* Just Some Lines (Fall Colours)

I will be back with a birthday card tomorrow, as promised! Hope you all have a great weekend, enjoy the good weather while you can!

Fancy Folds

2011-09-30T10:07:00.000+02:00

Good morning everyone! Goodness me, I haven't been posting for two entire weeks! I'm doing a grueling teaching schedule at work at the moment, so didn't have that much time to craft. I have however been keeping track of all the wonderful comments I received on some of my previous cards, thank you very much for taking the time to let me know what you think of my little creations! :)

Anyway, enough babbling, it's that time again: a new Card Makin' Mamas Challenge! This time we are challenging you to do some FANCY FOLDING. We'd love to see you participating! We are being sponsored by Crafty Sentiment Designs, they have some gorgeous images and we were lucky enough to be able to work with some of them for the DT examples.

I took the opportunity to get started on our moving house cards, we are moving in a couple of months and I thought it would be nice to make real cards to send our new address out instead of the boring standard ones:

This type of card is called a spring card, my first one ever! It was great fun to do a slightly different card, although because I stuck the spring on the base card the finished card has a slightly unusual shape and it would be difficult to find a good envelope for it. Never mind, my parents will be at our place this weekend, I'm thinking of giving it to them :)

Materials
* Champagne coloured base card
* Crafty Sentiment design digi ('Bird House')
* Home-made computer generated sentiment
* First Edition Up Up and Away Glittery DPs
* Flora Doodles Primary Colours Flowers
* Silver peeloffs from my stash

Challenges
* 4 Crafty Chicks (Anything Goes)
* Anything Goes (Anything Goes)
* Bows and Berries (Glitter)
* City Crafter Challenge (Scraplift the card; I've used the bird theme)
* Crafty Boots (Things with Wings)
* Ladybug Crafts (Fancy Folds and/or Fall)
* Cute Card Tuesday (Animal Crackers)
* For Fun Challenge (Show us warmth; To me a bird house spells spring!)
* Fussy and Fancy (Try a new technique; Spring card)
* Incy Wincy (Fancy Folds)

I'm putting the finishing touches on a birthday card at the moment, I will probably be able to post that come Sunday, so see you then!

I'm a Garden Girl

2011-09-16T11:53:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

I've got a bit of good news to share with you: I have been asked to become one of the DT member of the Friendship's Garden Challenge Blog! I love the idea behind the Challenge, you can't use any stamps apart from sentiment stamps. So maybe you have been doing 3D, quilling or another technique in the past and you haven't done it in ages or you want to try something new, come and join us! Our first challenge launches on the 5th of October, so stay tuned!

Punch Away

2011-09-16T11:20:00.002+02:00

Good morning everyone, time for another Card Makin' Mamas Challenge. We had a record number of entries for our last challenge, we were absolutely gobsmacked! Let's hope you all come back to join us :)

This time, we would like to see "PUNCHES" on your cards. Remember, it's a card-only challenge, so please don't submit any other projects, that would be such a pity! This is my card:

I made this card for my parents-in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. We usually don't send cards, but when I was doing a bit of family tree research we found out the date was in September and that it was the big 50. So I thought it would be great to make a card and send it to them as a surprise. I was pretty happy with this card and the only thing I needed to do is to find out what the exact date was..............it was the 2nd of September.........ouch. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right? ;)

Materials:
* Cream base card
* Gold mirror paper
* Kars Paperpad Wedding DP
* Studio Light image
* ? Diecut shape
* ? Sentiment stamp
* ? Flowers
* MS Doily Lace punch
* Lace, brads, peel offs and mosaic stones from stash

Challenges:
* 2 Sisters Challenge (Black and White and one other colour, gold in my case)
* Anything Goes Challenge (Vintage/Shabby Chic)
* Craft Your Passion (Use items beginning with F; Flowers)
* Deep Ocean (Lace)
* Shopping Our Stash (Vintage)
* Fab 'n Funky (Bingo; I've used Flower, sentiment and Die-cut)
* Kelly's Kid Challenges (For Someone Special)
* Totally Ladybug (Flowers)
* Lollipop Crafts (Use eyelets or brads; I've used brads to secure the flowers)
* Scrappy Frogs (Vintage)

Well, I'd better be off, see you later!

Santa Baby

2011-09-10T20:18:00.000+02:00

Good evening everyone!

Today I wanted to share a Christmas card with a slightly different shape. I was playing along with my scoring board and thought it might be nice to make a card with several little compartments and this is what I came up with:

Materials:
* White base card
* Studio Light 3D images and sentiment
* Basic Grey Jovial and Studio Light DPs
* Golden peel off bell from stash

Challenges:
* Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge (Santa)
* Crafter's Companion (Christmas Wishes)
* Basic Grey Challenges (Celebration)
* Charizma Cards (Inspired by a song: Santa Baby)
* Crafty Creations (Anything but a Square)
* Scrap Cards Challenge (Christmas)
* Scrap Creations (Winter Wishes)
* Scrapbook Sisters (Ho Ho Ho)
* Winter Wonderland (Santa)
* Christmas Card Challenges (Christmas)

I think it really works, I will be making more of these cards soon! Have a good weekend!

More Stashshopping

2011-09-09T10:25:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone!

Told you I had more cards up my sleeve ;) This is another card I made for the Christmas Cards All Year Round Challenge to use only crafty stuff that has been in your possession for longer than a year. Why don't you join in too, you have the entire month of September to come up with a gorgeous project. Have a look to see what my teamies have done and also what other crafters have already submitted, you might get inspired!

Here is my card, I've used an embossing board to create the DP shape, I think it came out really nice :) I've smeared glitter glue all over the edge of the embossed shape and on the inside sentiment too, you can't really see it very well in the photo but it's definitely there!

Materials:
* Gold base card
* Studio Light Decoupage image, stuck on a mat made out of a piece of bronze envelope
* Basic Grey Jovial DP
* Crafter's Companion embossing board
* Scalloped circle punch
* Clear Stickles
* Christmas Die-Cut, white paper and sentiment inside from stash

Challenges:
* Crafter's Companion (Christmas Wishes) 30/9
* Christmas Inspirations (Glitter) 15/9
* Basic Grey Challenges (Celebration) 17/9
* Charizma Cards (Inspired by a song: Frosty the Snowman) 15/9
* Lil Red Wagon (Die-Cuts) 13/9
* Scrap Cards Challenge (Christmas) 12/9
* Scrap Creations (Winter Wishes) 13/9
* Delightful Challenges (Bling It) 15/9
* Christmas Card Challenges (Christmas) 10/9
* All That Scraps (Anything Goes) 13/9

Right, I better get back to work, busy and long day ahead of me I'm afraid :( I hope you all have a great weekend!

Like a Train in the Night

2011-09-08T20:25:00.000+02:00

Good evening everyone,

When you read the title, what's the first thing that comes to mind? For me it's Father Ted's 'My Lovely Horse' and I have been singing it in my head every since......... Guess that's a crafty risk you have to be willing to take ;)

The card I have to show you today is meant for my uncle, who is celebrating his birthday soon. We don't know each other so well, so I asked my mum what kind of thinks he likes. Turns out he likes miniature trains, so thought this image would suit him perfectly:

Materials:
* Gold base card
* Studio Light DPs, sentiment on the front and main image
* Brown Flatback pearls and ribbon from stash
* Inside decorations from my scrap pile
* Sentiment stamped with Eline Vintage Stamp Set

Challenges:
* Crafty Purple Frog (Birthday)
* Just For Fun (Vintage)
* Crafting for all Seasons (Birthday)
* Paper Creations (Vintage or Distressed)
* Anything Goes (Vintage/Shabby Chic)
* Crafting When We Can (Anything Goes)
* Crafty Boots (Anything Goes)
* Papertake Weekly (Anything Goes)
* Ladybug Challenges (Anything Goes)
* Make it Monday (Anything Goes)

That's it from me, I have some more makes to show you over the next week so stay tuned!

Dr. Fashion

2011-09-03T09:16:00.002+02:00

Good morning everyone,

Goodness me, another post from me, the third in three days! This is getting very addictive :) Today I have a different kind of project to share with you. When one of my colleagues receives their PhD, the whole team does something crafty to make a keepsake for that person. Time around, the theme was fashion, as the person is question is always so immaculately dressed. We were handed a paper dress up doll and asked to make an A4 page that reflects the theme and congratulates the PhD student with her achievement. This is what I came up with, I tried to make it look like she was in a clothes' shop:

Materials:
* Dress up doll, coloured in with Promarkers
* Dotty DP (Papermania Summer Bloom)
* Red glittery peeloff stickers and see-through sticker from stash
* Ricrac Ribbon, flowers and pearls from stash
* SEI Christmas Mint Vanilla Icing Shimmer Accents frame
* Cosmic Shimmer Red Fire Twinkles

Challenges:
* Stamps R Us (Anything Goes)
* Paper Shelter (Anything Goes)
* Totally Papercrafts (Not a card)
* Wags 'n Whiskers (Anything but a card)
* Creative Card Crew (Anything Goes)
* Polka Doodles (Spots and Dots)
* 4 Crafty Chicks (Celebrate)
* Art Impressions (Lots of Dots)
* Paper Pretties (Anything but a card)
* Party Time Tuesdays (Anything Goes)

I hope she likes it! Well, that's it from me for now, I think I will be having a quiet weekend, except for trying to clear out a few things. See you next week!

Vintage Lady

2011-09-02T08:20:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone, it's that time again: a new Card Makin' Mamas Challenge starts today! It's a fairly easy one, all we ask is that you USE A DIGI IMAGE on your card. I am sure you girls can come up with some gorgeous creations! Just to give you a little inspiration, here is my card:

Don't you just love the DP? I think it's absolutely gorgeous! :) I loved this image so much when we got to play with it for a previous challenge. I used it for a second time now, see this post for the original card.

Materials:
* Scalloped white base card
* Tickled Pink Stamps Lil Victorian Steampunkt Lolita Evie, coloured with Promarkers
* Cameo from Hunkydory Classic Cameo card kit, covered with Crackle Accents
* K&Co Ancestry.com mat pad
* Black ink for inking around the edges
* Small leaves punch
* Gold ribbon, gold peel-off, brown pearl, gold star brads and flowers from stash

Challenges:
* Bearly Mine (Flowers)
* City Crafter (All Dressed Up)
* I Love Promarkers (Anything Goes)
* Let's Craft and Create (Blast From the Past; Say It With Flowers)
* Passion for Promarkers (Anything Goes)
* Scrap Creations (Decorate the Inside Your Card)
* Southern Girls Challenge (Through the Decades)
* Sparkles Forum (Punch It)
* Stamptacular Sundays (Divatacular)
* Sisterhood of Crafters (Flower Power)

Hope to see you at the Challenge!

Shopping My Stash!

2011-09-01T10:19:00.007+02:00

Good Morning everyone! Wow, hasn't this month just flown by? But it's September and that means a new challenge over at Christmas Cards All Year Round! This month, we are challenging you to dig up your oldest or most forgotten stash items and use them up! Make sure everything on the card is at least one year old.

Now, unfortunately, I don't have a really good filing system when it comes to my crafty stuff, so I am not 100% sure that everyone on this card is old, but at least everything comes from the bottom of a stash pile ;)

I love this Christmas paper, it's so beautiful! Can you tell I'm a DP freak ;) If you like more inspiration, have a look at our challenge post and see what my lovely teamies have come up with!

Materials
* White base card
* Basic Grey Jovial DP, using a Crafters Companion Embossing Board to make the wavy lines
* Black ink for inking around the DPs edges
* Studio Light image (I actually used an image of the back of a crafty magazine!)
* Small flower and scalloped circle punches
* MS Doily Lace Border punch
* Glitter glue and Gems from stash
* Circle sentiment from the Internet

Challenges
* ABC Christmas Challenge (Recycled and Use Ribbon or Rhinestones)
* Charisma Cardz (Anything Goes)
* Crafty Creations (Use 3 or more different dies/punches)
* Divas By Design (Christmas in August)
* For Fun Challenges (Christmas)
* Sarah Hurley Challenge (Bling & Sparkle)
* Scrap Cards Challenge (Christmas)
* Sparkles Forum (Punch It)
* Little Red Wagon (Border Punches)
* Stampavie and more (Christmas in Summer)

I will be back tomorrow with my CMM Challenge card!

Second Birthday Card

2011-08-21T10:37:00.001+02:00

SCROLL DOWN FOR MY CARD MAKIN' MAMAS DT CARD!

Good morning everyone!

My friend's daughter is turning 2 at the end of the month, so a little card was in order. We don't get to see each other that often because we live on opposite sides of the country, but we regularly go shopping together somewhere......well, I say shopping, it's more of a natter and eating expedition ;) Anyway, yesterday we had another one of our expeditions and I brought the card and a few little gifts for Rhode's birthday.

I decided to make an aperture card, I think it works really well. This is my first attempt at making a rosette and it was so easy to make! I saw someone do it on Create and Craft and thought: I could do that. Turns out that I can :) I know it's a blue card for a girl, but sometimes you just have to go where inspiration takes you ;)

Materials:
* White base card
* StudioLight 3D images and inside sentiment
* Eline's Vintage Blue and Green and My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy True Blue DP
* Black ink
* Flower and scalloped circle punch
* Gems, pearl, letters and number & line peel off from stash

Challenges:
* Totally Gorjuss (Cute and Cuddly)
* Crafts and Me (Blue or Bluegreens)
* Scrapbook Sisters (Blue)
* Deep Ocean (Light Blue)
* Allsorts (You've been framed)
* Pixie Cottage (Big on Birthday)
* Divas by Design (Birthday)
* A Spoon Full of Sugar (Birthday)
* Anything Goes (Birthday/Celebration)
* Emerald Fairies (Birthday)

I will probably be having a little play in the crafty room today as well, football on telly is the perfect excuse :)

Pink Christmas

2011-08-19T22:06:00.001+02:00

Good evening everyone!

I'm back with my Card Makin' Mamas DT card. This time our challenge theme is "PINK". That's not too hard, right? I am sure we can expect some gorgeous creations, so come and play along! We are once again sponsored by Tickled Pink Stamps, to challenge myself I've chosen a Christmas image and create a Pink Christmas card with it:

Initially, I glittered the snowman, but it made the ink run and I ended up with a blue snow man, not the best of looks! So I decided to leave it plain the third time round. Crafting can be such a hardship sometimes ;)

Materials:
* Pink Base card
* Tickled Pink Stamps image (Lil' Christmas Lad Frankie),coloured with Promarkers
* SMIRK Christmas DP
* Star was rescued from a chocolate box
* Base pink card, snowflake brads, sentiment and flower from stash

Challenges:
* Aud Sentiments (Anything Goes)
* Bah Humbug (Something New; the image is brand new to me!)
* Christmas Card Challenge (Christmas Cheer)
* Christmas Stampin' All Year Round (Non-traditional Christmas card)
* Fussy and Fancy (3 or more of your favourite embellishments; snowflake brads)
* Incy Wincy (1 image, 2 papers, 3 embellishments)
* Nadia's Challenge (Anything Goes)
* Ooh La La (Christmas)
* Craft Us Crazy (Anything Goes)
* Totally Papercraft (Christmas in August)

That's it from me so far, I am working on a few other projects that I will be sharing with you guys very soon! Catch you later! :)

Winter Robin

2011-08-16T09:26:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

Long time no see, it has been a little quiet at my end here, I have a number of projects I am working on but nothing finished so far. Thankfully I finally managed to finish this Christmas card, as inspiration for our Christmas Cards All Year Round August challenge. We are challenging you to use 4 or more the following items:

Chipboard
Hand Stitching
Ribbon
Inking
Stamping
Textured paper (embossed is good!)
Metal embelishments
Alphabet stickers or rubons for the sentiment
Stripes

Here is my card, I've used Chipboard, Inking, Metal Embellishments and Stripes. You have until the end of the month to come and play along with us, so plenty of time still for some more lovely creations!

Materials used:
* White base card
* Image and sentiment inside Studio Light
* Basic Grey Jovial DPs
* Crafters Companion embossing board
* Vintage Photo Distress Ink
* SEI Christmas Mint Chiplets
* Brad and peeloff stickers from stash

Challenges:
* Sparkles Christmas Forum (Robins)
* Bling it On (ABC, Animal, Brad, Christmas Scene)
* Heart Song Inspirations (Animal image or use Pleated Ribbon)
* OLLCB (Christmas)
* Paper Playtime (Anything Goes)
* Aud Sentiments (Merry Christmas)
* Christmas Card Challenges (Christmas)
* Ellephantastic Challenges (Add Layers; image is in 3D)
* Fab 'n Funky (Christmas)
* Cute Daisy May (Anything Goes)

Hope you like the card, I will be back on Friday with my Card Makin' Mamas DT card! It's going to be an excellent challenge, so stay tuned :)

DT Call at Card Makin' Mamas!

2011-08-11T21:59:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

Just to let you know we are looking for 3 additions to our DT at Card Makin' Mamas! You will find more information on the CMM website, you can apply until 31st of August. Hope you will consider being part of our team, so show us your best work :)

Lilac Lady

2011-08-05T06:56:00.000+02:00

Good morning everyone!

Is it just as humid where you are? Today I have a card to share with you that is a little different, it's my first easel fold card! I know, I am not really cutting edge since this fold has been around for such a long time, but I had never actually tried it. I don't know why not, because it's so incredibly easy! The only drawback is that the card is much heavier due to the extra card panel, but it's nice to do something different!

This card really links up well with our latest challenge over at Card Makin' Mamas, we would like to see "BIRTHDAY" cards! I am sure you all need birthday cards, so why not join us? We are being sponsored by Tickled Pink Stamps; they are offering the winner of the challenge their choice of 2 digis or one rubber stamp from their Lil Lad, Lil Lolita or Lil Pinkette ranges. The image I have used is from the Lil Lolita range, called Lil Victorian Steampunk Lolita Evie. I think she is just gorgeous and just so versatile. I've used this to make a card for one of my 'aunts' birthday, I think she will really appreciate it. Well, let's hope so! I'd better include instructions how the card works ;)

Materials used
* White base card
* Tickled Pick Stamps Lil Victorian Steampunk Lolita Evie, coloured with Promarkers
* StudioLight sentiment
* Docraft Country Companions DP
* Lace, pearl, ribbons, holographic paper, gems from stash

Challenges
* Scrap Creations (Buttons and/or bows)
* Shopping Our Stash (Vellum, Violet or Violins)
* Emerald Fairies (Lace)
* NettieG's Digital Gems (Fancy Folds)
* Stamps R Us (Birthdays)
* Incy Wincy (Monochromatic)
* Let's Craft and Create (Use a digi)
* Little Darlings (Girly)
* Lollipop Crafts (Celebrations)
* Sparkles Forum (For the Girls)

Hope you like it, come and join us if you have the time!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2011-08-01T09:45:00.001+02:00

Good morning everyone! It's my first day back at work again since the holiday, of course there was tons of work waiting for me on my desk this morning, so no easing back into it for me but full steam ahead! Today I have my first Christmas Cards All Year Round DT card to show you. The theme is a little different than usual, we want you to use at least 4 of the following:

Chipboard
Hand Stitching
Ribbon
Inking
Stamping
Textured papers
Metal embellishments
Alphabet stickers or rubons for the sentiment
Stripes

Here is my take on the challenge:

Can you tell which elements I've used? If you manage to make five Christmas cards following our theme this month, you will be eligible for the monthly prize draw. I would love to see what you come up with! Have a look at the challenge blog to see what my talented DT buddies have made!

Materials used:
* Cream card base
* Studio Light image
* Dovecraft Noel DP
* Kars Xmas Collection Ribbon
* Making Memories Trims Cool Twine
* SEI Vanilla Icing Accents Chipboard
* K&Co Glitter rubon sentiment
* Peel-offs and glittered paper from stash

Challenges:
* Sassy Studio (Christmas in July)
* Crafty Creations (Christmas in July)
* Scrap Creations (Favourite Holiday, Christmas of course!)
* Crafty Your Passion (Anything Goes)
* Use It Tuesday (It's a two-fer; use two hoarded items (all items are stash-shopped)
* Totally Gorjuss (Christmas in July)
* Fussy & Fancy (Christmas in July)
* Crafty Catz (Christmas in July)
* Allsorts (Anything Goes)
* Creative Belli (Christmas in July)

That's it from my so far, I will be back on Friday with a new Card Makin' Mamas card!

Sweets for my Sweet

2011-07-29T13:25:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone, I'm back! We had a lovely holiday in Scotland, saw lots of great places. We even were lucky with the weather, even though on the first night in Edinburgh we almost drowned ;). Here are some lovely shots we made along the way.

Loch Ness

Portree, Skye

Glencoe

Gorgeous, no? Now that's we're back home I have another week off work, so plenty of time to get a little crafty ;) Due to the holidays I missed the Card Makin' Mamas challenge of "FOOD OR DRINK", but just got about in time for the inspiration post. Our sponsor this time around is Karber Digital Images, they are offering 2 digital stamps for the challenge winner. The image here is called Cupcake Denny, I had just the right backing paper and stamps to go with this one :) I had coloured the cupcakes ages ago, and I noticed that the Karber image also had cupcakes with little hearts on them so decided to colour them more or less the same. I think it looks really matchy :) You still have about a week to enter the challenge, so come on and join the fun!

Materials used:
* Dovecraft Piece of Cake backing papers
* Karber Digital Image Cupcake Denny, coloured with Promarkers
* Kars Cupcake and sentiment stamps
* Cosmic Shimmer Red Fire Twinkles
* Gems, ribbon, peeloff, paper roses and pink Nestability shape from stash
* Sentiment on the front: coloured it with Promarkers (I can't remember where I got it from, if you recognise it let me know)

I am submitting to these challenges:
* Totally Papercrafts (Bling It Up)
* Stampin' B's (Ribbon)
* Crafts and Me (Ribbon)
* Little Darlings (Girly)
* Scrapbook Sisters (Happy Birthday)
* Deep Ocean Challenges (Ribbon)
* LadyBug (Summer Birthdays)
* Top Tip Tuesday (Make it Girly)
* KB Cute Monday (Food and Beverages)
* Stamps R Us (Happy Birthday)

Nice to be back in my crafty room :)

PS A warm welcome to my new followers, wow, 25 people! Hope you like what you read/see here :)

Summertime Fun

2011-07-08T09:21:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone,

Well, this is my last crafty project before we go on holiday. Two weeks traipsing around Scotland, we're going to visit so many gorgeous places! Anyway, this is my DT card for Card Makin' Mamas, our theme this time is "SUMMER FUN". I think my card is matching perfectly in the theme, this definitely is summer fun! You have two weeks to play along, it would be great if you could make it! Why don't you check out what my fellow DT members have come up with! Some Odd Girl is our sponsor this time; they are offering up a generous prize of 3 FREE images to our random winner, so it's well worth entering.

Materials used:

* White A5-ish base card

* Studio Light 3D image and DP

* Sew Easy Floss

* Raindrop Echo Designs Collection sentiment (which I won recently over at Sentimental Sundays, thanks girls!)

* Gems from stash

Challenges:

* Allsorts (Free and Easy)

* Anything Goes Challenge (Letter D, Drink)

* Bling it On (Anything Goes)

* Craft Your Passion (Anything Goes)

* Sentimental Sundays (Anything Goes)

* Crafty Croppers (Green, Orange and Yellow)

* Reasonable Ribbon (Picnic/Summer Fun)

* Crafty Inspirations (To the Seaside)

* KB Challenge (Anything Goes)

* Bearly Mine (Anything Goes)

Right, I will be catching up with you guys in the last week of July, hope you all have excellent holidays or at least some quality crafty time planned ;) See you all later!

Sympathy Card

2011-07-06T11:48:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

Here is the third card for this week, wow, I'm on a roll! Unfortunately, the making of this card didn't have a very happy reason. Our cleaning lady at work lost her husband this week. I wanted to send her my own card as she is such a nice person. Here is my card:

Materials used:
* Studio Light DP, 3D image and sentiments
* Pearls and blue paper from my stash

Submitted to these challenges:
* Poodles Parlour (Come Fly with Me; the Dandelion seeds are flying through the air, hope that counts)
* Allsorts (Anything Goes)
* Anything Goes Challenge (Letter D -> Dandelion)
* Bling it On (Anything Goes)
* Craft Your Passion (Anything Goes)
* Sentimental Sundays (Anything Goes)
* Ooh La La (Summer Flowers)
* KB Cute Monday Challenge (Anything Goes)
* Bearly Mine (Anything Goes)
* Deep Ocean Challenge (Any card)

Hope she likes the card, it's not very traditional but I think it's a great sympathy image.

Christmas Flowers

2011-07-05T20:44:00.000+02:00

Good evening everyone,

Wow, what great comments I received on my card yesterday, I was really happy reading them all! Tonight I have another Christmas card for you. This time around it's a card using a Poinsettia die-cut, how huge is that flower? I wasn't quite sure how to use it, but I actually like it on its own.

Materials used:

* White A5 card

* Anna Griffin Die-cut layered with 3D glue

* Marianne Design Scandinavian Christmas DP

* Studio Light sentiment

* Gems and peel-offs from stash

Challenges I am submitting to:

* Bling it On (Anything Goes)

* Christmas Card Challenge (Christmas Card)

* Craft Your Passion (Anything Goes)

* For Fun Challenge (Christmas)

* Hooked on Craft (Show Us Your Flowers)

* Creative Corner (Christmas in July)

* Sentimental Sundays (Anything Goes)

* The Paper Shelter (Anything Goes)

* Totally Papercraft (Bingo, I've used Die-Cut, Flowers, gems)

* Allsorts (Free and Easy)

Tomorrow I will be sharing a Sympathy card, sad to make of course but usually very much appreciated. Enjoy your evening!

Pink Rudolph

2011-07-04T20:39:00.000+02:00

Good evening everyone,

As promised, here is the first of at least 4 cards, I am starting off with a Christmas card. A bit of an usual card for me, since I've never done a pink Christmas card before, but it was a good challenge. Difficult to make it really Christmassy, but in the end I think I've pulled it off:

Materials used:
* White square base card
* Marianne Design Eline's Old-Fashioned Christmas backing paper
* Pink paper crumpled and inked with Vintage Photo distress ink
* Nellie Snellen Ollie's Chrismas stamp set, coloured in with Promarkers
* Red Fire Cosmic Twinkles
* Ribbon, gem flowers and sentiment stamp from my stash

I am submitting to these challenges:
* Christmas Challenges with Sketches (Sketch)
* Christmas Card Challenges (Christmas Card)
* Crafty Sentiments (Christmas in June)
* Crafty Hazelnut (Pink and/or Purple)
* DCD (3 shapes, 2 colours, 1 ribbon/bow)
* DYSU (Squares)
* For Fun (Christmas)
* Little Claire's (Pink and Brown)
* Sparkle's Forum Christmas (Glitter)
* There She Goes (Glitter, Glitz and Bling)

Let me know what you think! Have a great evening, see you tomorrow!

DT news!

2011-07-04T15:12:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone,

I am awfully sorry that I haven't been blogging for more than a week, stressed out students and their theses are taking up most of my time I'm afraid :(

However, this week I will probably have to show you quite a few cards, as I have been working on 4 but not finishing them until now. I will probably be back tonight with my first card!

Also, I have some great news, to those of you who are eagle-eyed you might have already spotted it, I've been asked to join the Christmas Card All Year Round DT! What a great opportunity, I wanted to join a Christmas-themed DT for quite a while and finally bagged it :) I will start on the August challenge, so keep your eye out for it!

Ciska

Red, White and Blue

2011-06-24T11:26:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone!

How has your week been? It's so busy at my end right now; I had a work conference in the beginning of the week and my students are now scrambling to finish their thesis on time so that means a lot of paper grading! Oh well, in a few weeks we will be on holiday, I'm just holding on to that thought :)

It's time for another challenge over at Card Makin' Mams. So many beautiful entries again for last challenge, so if you have a suitable card please join the fun!

Our challenge this time around is "RED, WHITE AND BLUE"

We are sponsored by Robyn's Fetish, they are offering the winner either 5 digital stamps or 4 digital stamps and 1 paper set. Have a look at their website to see the collection: http://robynsfetish.com/shop/. They also provided us with some images to give you some inspiration, I used SS Hoppity, great name huh? It was such an easy image to colour as well, as some of the shading is already indicated, so you know where to colour in a bit darker. Great help for a colouring/shading newbie like me!

Materials used:
* White A6 base card
* Robyn's Fetish SS Hoppity image, coloured with Promarkers
* Studio Light DPs & borders inside (It's usually used with more traditional/vintage images, but I think it works great here as well)
* Create and Craft white ribbon
* Scalloped circle punch
* Sentiment, red gems from stash

I am submitting to these challenges:
* Craft Us Crazy (Red,White and Blue/Summer)
* A Spoonful of Sugar (Use Ribbon and at least one Bow)
* DieCutDreams (Red, White and Blue)
* I Love Promarkers (Anything Goes)
* Ladybug Crafts (Use Red)
* Passion for Promarkers (Park Life)
* Scrapbook Sisters (Anything Goes)
* Southern Girls Challenge (Anything Goes)
* Hooked on Craft (Anything Goes)
* Polka Doodles (Stashbox stamps & colour theme)

Right, that's it from me, one last day of work at it's the weekend! Woohoo! I am planning to spend much of it sleeping and catching up my buddies' blogs :) Enjoy your weekend as well, whatever you will be doing!

Snowman Surprise

2011-06-16T20:22:00.000+02:00

Good evening everyone!

Wow, some rain today here, it was literally pouring down! And here I was thinking it was nearly summer :(

Today I've got another Christmas card for you:

It was murder to get a good photograph, that mirror board was just so shiny!

Materials used:
* Snowman 3D image from Studio Light
* Pretty Paper Bloc Scandinavian Christmas backing paper
* Co'ordinations paper (red)
* Silver mirror board embossed with a Crafter's Companion embossing board (stars) and cut out
* Ribbon, snowflake brad, gems, peeloffs from stash

I am submitting to these challenges:
* Sparkle Forum Christmas Challenge (Snowmen)
* Christmas Card Challenge (Sketch)
* Bling it On (Embossing)
* DYSU (Use a Star)
* Let's Craft and Create (Four Seasons, Winter)
* Top Tip Tuesday (Anything Goes)
* CES (Inspired by a film, The Snowman)
* Crafts & Me (Bling it On)
* Creative Card Crew (Ribbon & brads)
* Moving Along With The Times (Inspired by a song: Frosty the Snowman)

I think this is one of the first times that I am submitting to a sketch challenge. I always find them so hard, even though this was a fairly simple sketch.

Right, that's it from me. I will be away for most of the week next week for a conference, so I will try and share something with you later in the week. At the very least a Card Makin' Mamas DT card, our next challenge starts on the 24th! Have a great weekend :)

Father's Day NL

2011-06-11T20:18:00.000+02:00

Good evening all,

Well, yesterday turned out to be a quite nice outing, we started the day with Flamengo dancing classes! It was actually good fun, although I am no dancer. The afternoon was spent inside dark caves, I didn't go in, but co-workers said it was quite nice. Rather them than me! We ended the day at one of my colleagues' house to have a BBQ in the back garden. Unfortunately by then it had started to rain, but we had a huge party tent so we all stayed dry and so did our hamburgers and chicken legs :)

As promised, here is my father's day card for my own dad. He used to be a farmer so it could very well be him on the tractor :)

Materials used:
* 3d image and backing papers: Studio Light
* Flowers and buttons by Papermania
* Co'ordinations inside paper
* Eline Vintage Stamp Set
* Brad, letters, ribbon from stash. I've used bit from an old shiny envelope to matt the image.

Challenges to be submitted to:
* Simply Create (All about you dad)
* Creative Inspirations (Card for dad)
* Sisterhood of Crafters (Celebrating dad)
* Bows and Berries (Masculine)
* Craft Your Passionm (Anything Goes)
* Delightful Sketches (Father's Day)
* Lexi's Creations (Father's Day)
* Sparkles Forum (Father's Day)
* Craft Us Crazy (Father's Day)
* Crafting for All Seasons (Father)

Today we went out and bought another laptop, I have now one all to myself :) Can use if for work, but more importantly for crafting, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Have a great (long?) weekend, hopefully the weather is a bit better over where you are!

Birthday Boy

2011-06-10T22:17:00.000+02:00

Good morning all!

Woohoo, almost weekend! Are you all off on Monday like me? A lovely long weekend. Today we are having a teambuilding day from work, I usually don't like that kind of thing, except for the dinner and drinks after ;) Oh well, let's see what they have in store for us this year.

Ok, enough jibber jabber, on to my card. This time, the Card Makin' Mamas Challenge is to

"MAKE A CARD WITH OR FOR A CHILD"

Now, we don't have any children as well as no children to speak of in the family (at least not one that knows who I am LOL), so I decided to be a bit cheeky and make a card for my hubby. Well, he can be a big child sometimes ;) This time we are being sponsored by 2 Cute Rubber Stamps, and yes, the name really says it all. We were generously given several digis to work with, the winner will be walking away with 2 rubber stamps or 3 digi stamps, is that a good prize or what? They also have a couple of freebies on their website, so if you like the images that we have been working with you might want to check that out too.

Here is my card, I've used "To the Moon"

I know, what's up with the space theme again, can't I make any other cards? Well, no, I guess I can't ;)

Materials used:
* 2 Cute 'To the Moon', coloured with Promarkers
* Crafters Companion cream cardstock (leftovers from my wedding invitations)
* DP from the Natural Stack, DCVW
* Sentiments, aliens, robot border and robot inside from Papercraft Inspirations (Freebies)
* Black glitter on the image, letters inside, starry brad, orange mirror board behind the main image and orange ribbon (which is horribly skewed inside, but I had stuck it on already and couldn't get if off, story of my crafty life) from my stash

Do you have the same thing, that half of the stuff you own you have no idea where it came from, who bought it and what you were thinking when you thought 'that might come in handy'? Huh, only me then ;) I never thought I was going to use up those letters, but they actually look pretty cool on this card. I am thinking about using it for my dad's father's day card too, which I will probably be showing you in the weekend.

Challenges to submit to:
* Bearly-Mine (Anything Goes)
* DYSU (Birthday)
* Fussy & Fancy (Card for a Man or Boy)
* Incy Wincy (Tic-Tac-Toe, I've used a brad, ribbon and a green sentiment)
* Lady Bug (Male Theme)
* Ooh La La (Birthday)
* Paper Sundaes (Let's Get Sentimental)
* Paper Shelter (Celebrations)
* Sentimental Sundays (Inspired by song: Fly me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra)
* Fab 'n Funky (Magnificent Men)

Well, what do you think? I would love to hear your feedback, also on how I can get a more even cover with my Promarkers, to me it still looks a bit blotchy (especially on the rocket). Have a great weekend and I'll see you a little later! Thanks for stopping by :)

Ciska

PS My hubby gave me these gorgeous crafty papers for our anniversary, aren't they beautiful?

The big pad has flocked papers, so beautiful, nice to stroke as well :)

Blue and White Christmas

2011-06-06T21:11:00.000+02:00

Good evening everyone!

As promised, I have a Christmas card to share with you. I think I made this for a challenge for Christmas cards in blue and white, but I have missed the deadline by miles. Oh well, I still like it:

I just love those ye olde images for Christmas cards, don't you?

Materials used:
* Studio Light Image and sentiment
* Pretty Papers Winter and Scandinavian Christmas paper pads
* Gems, ribbon, peel off inside and snowflake brads from my stash

I am submitting to these challenges:
* Christmas Cards All Year Round (Anything Goes)
* Wee Memories (Anything Goes)
* A la Card Monkey (Vintage)
* Charisma Cardz (Something that flies, well it IS an angel!)
* Crafty Calendar (Things with Wings)
* Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas (Wintertime Blues)
* OneStop Craft Challenge (Add Texture)
* Paper Sundaes (Let's get Sentimental)
* Southern Girls Challenge (Start of Winter Christmas)
* ABC Challenge (Variety; Use at least three types of embellishments --> Ribbon, Gems & Brads)

How is the weather at your end? We are experiencing some showers, but it is still very warm, incredible! See you later this week with my Card Makin' Mamas DT card!

Ciska

Lovely Weekend

2011-06-06T06:52:00.003+02:00

Hi all,

It's been a bit quiet this week on my blog, but rest assured I will be posting another card tonight and one on Friday! We have just come back from a lovely celebration weekend for our 'paper' wedding in Apeldoorn (NL), it was lovely. We had the greatest weather, we were very lucky with that. On Friday, we had a walk in the gardens of the royal palace and on Saturday, we visited the Airborne Museum near Arnhem, which was really interesting. All in all a great weekend, such a shame we had to come back ;)

Right, I will be seeing you tonight with a Christmas card, stay tuned!

Ciska

Father's Day UK version

2011-05-29T11:23:00.000+02:00

Hiya all!

Well, Father's day is just around the corner and because I am lucky enough to be able to make two cards, both for my dad and my father-in-law, I thought I'd get started with the first one. This one is for my father-in-law, he's an avid golfer so a golf theme seemed perfect. I often make a gold-themed card for him, this is in all likelyhood about the last golf image in my entire stash! I am actually pretty happy with this card, although it wasn't that hard to make. The grass papers on the front took a bit of measuring, but it now looks perfectly measured up. Well, perhaps not perfectly, but close enough :)

Materials used:
* Studio Light 3D image, sentiment and golf green vellum
* Grass paper and peel off sentiment inside from stash

I am submitting into the following challenges:
* Easy Craft Projects (For Dad)
* CYDA (Father's Day/Special Man)
* 2 Sisters (Anything Goes)
* Aud Sentiments (Card/Sentiment for a man)
* Charisma Cardz (Boy oh Boy!)
* Creative Card Crew (Anything Goes)
* The Paper Shelter (Anything Goes)
* Here Come The Boys (Father's Day)
* A La Card Monkey (Man Card)
* Samuel Taylor's Crafts Challenge (Male Theme), prize is a lovely Scrapbook kit!

Hope you guys like it, let me know!

Ciska

Paper Anniversary

2011-05-27T09:27:00.000+02:00

Good morning all!

Our challenge theme this time at Card Makin' Mamas is "USE YOUR SCRAPS".

Now, I have tons of scraps, I am pretty sure every crafter has. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to use up some of those bits and bobs, some of the papers I found aren't even in production anymore! Why don't you give it a go too and join us at CMM! The challenge is sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps this time and they are giving away 7 digis to the winner! They have got some great digi's, so that's a wonderful prize.

On to my card. As promised, here is the anniversary card I made for my hubby. One year gone already, how does time fly! As you can tell, I went a little mental with my scraps on the inside......I am not quite sure if I like that bit, but I started off with a few scraps and kept adding and then it turned out like this. Oh well, perhaps I should really try to see what it looks like before I stick everything on with supersticky glue ;)

Materials used:
* Bugaboo image and matching sentiment (Angels: Love You)
* Promarkers to colour in the image (Cardinal Red, Pear, Sunflower and Olive if I remember correctly)
* Lots of scrap backing paper, at least some are from the Pretty Papers Vintage Green & Blue and one of the Pretty Papers Christmas paper pads
* Papermania Flowers and Buttons
* Clear Stickles on the angel's wings
* Rounded corner and scalloped circle punches
* Pearls, green glitter (on heart inside and on the angel's hat) and heart ribbon from my stash

I am submitting to these challenges:
* 2 Sisters (Use a Digi)
* A Spoonfull of Sugar (Things with Wings)
* CES (3 types of embellishments: flowers, buttons and ribbon)
* Creative Card Crew (Anything Goes)
* Dream Valley (Dig out the old (paper scraps) to use with the new (flowers and buttons))
* I Love Promarkers (Pearls)
* Secret Crafter (Wedding Anniversary)
* Simply Create (Special Day/Event)
* Paper Shelter (Anything Goes)
* Sisterhood of Crafters (Use Buttons)

Hope you like it and our new challenge!

Ciska

PS My recent Christmas Card was in the spotlight over at Jingle Belles, how nice is that? Thanks girls!

Bookmark

2011-05-25T07:43:00.000+02:00

Good Morning everyone,

I have not been posting for the last week, I was busy working on a card that I will be showing you on Friday for the new CMM Challenge, but today I can already share a little side project I made as well. It's a bookmark for my husband, we will celebrate our first anniversary next week and since this is traditionally a paper anniversary, I thought I would give him a little home made gift along that theme. I am actually pretty happy with the way it turned out, I'd never done it before but this one was SOOOOO easy! There's a little candle holder behind it to prop it up for the picture, the bookmark itself is the tag.

Materials used:
* Orange card stock from my stash to strenghten it and the greens gems, both from my stash.
* Silver peeloff letters
* Baker's twine and green ribbon from Making Memories (Trims cool)
* Green tag from K&Company Hopskotch Girl Tag Pad
* Brown tag from SEI Christmas Mint chiplets

Funny how you can use things that are meant to use for certain cards in other ways that work as well! Girly paper en Christmas Chipboard for a male project, who would have thunk it ;)

I've left the back completely plain, I didn't want to inflict any more bling on him, he has to use it in public places after all :) It's simple, but I still like it.

Well, that's it from me for today, I will be back on Friday with my card. I will be trying a little blofsurfing later on!

Ciska

Christmas Puzzle

2011-05-17T19:53:00.000+02:00

Good evening everyone!

Tonight I've got a Crimbo card to share:

Don't you just love the puzzle pieces? 'The original design used it as little doors revealing the Santa image, but I thought it would work just as well as a background. I guess this design is also more "mantelpiece-friendly", as it stands on its own.

Materials used:
* Image, sentiments and puzzle pieces background: Studio Light
* Inside paper: Marianne Design Scandinavian Christmas (stitched with a little golden thread) and a little bit of scrap paper that I had left over from my last card
* Gems and silver base card from stash
* Flora Doodles Primary Colours flowers

I am submitting to the following challenges:
* Winter Wonderland (Christmas Presents)
* Jingle Belles (Santa Claus)
* Bah Humbug (Snow Flakes, on the backing paper)
* Creative Inspirations (Glitzy & Bling)
* By the Cute and Girly (Anything Goes)
* CES (Holidays, Christmas in my case)
* Craft us Crazy (Use Your Fave Embellishments or Use Something New: Gems are my favourite)
* Sisterhood of Crafters (Let it Shine)
* Reasonable Ribbon (Anything Goes)
* Paperplay Challenges (Anything Goes)

Hope you like it, see you later!

DT Call at TTT!

2011-05-17T14:54:00.000+02:00

Thought you might like to know, I am certainly having a go! Oh yeah, and candy too! :)

"Easy" as 1-2-3

2011-05-13T19:02:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone!

Hurray, Blogger is back in working order! Let's hope it stays that way, I had withdrawal symptoms ;)

This time, our challenge at Card Makin' Mamas is 1-2-3: 1 image, 2 different backing papers and 3 types of embellishments. I planned to make a card for our nephew who is turning 15 at the end of the month. The image selection was easy enough, but of course then I couldn't find two matchting backing papers in the colours that I wanted and after that I couldn't for the life of me come up with 3 embellishments that would suit a boy card. But finally I managed it:

The image is 3D, using 3D glue for the first time. Man, that stuff stinks! I might have to switch brands, I've heard really good things about Pinflair glue, might have to give that a go. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with the end result, as I think boy cards are the most difficult to make. And, a first for me, I managed to make myself tear backing paper! Granted, it wasn't the fancy stuff, but a girl has to start somewhere right? ;)

Materials used:

* Cars backing paper (free @ Printable Heaven: http://www.printableheaven.com/index.php)

* Artstamps "Big Sentiments" stamp (inside)

* Peel off numbers, striped backing paper, button, ribbon and black square embellishments from stash

I am submitting to these challenges:

* Pollycraft (Boyz to Men)

* The Ribbon Reel (Colour Combo)
* Stamps R Us (For the Men in Our Lives)
* Here Come The Boys (Anything Goes, but needs to be a card for a man)
* Cards For Men (Someone Special)
* Crafty Ann's Challenge Blog (Happy Birthday)
* Sparkles Forum Challenge (2 papers, 1 ribbon or bow, 2 embellishments)
* Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge (Dust off your stash; I've had this image for AAAAAGES!)
* Sentimental Sundays (Anything Goes)

The challenge will run for two weeks, so plenty of time for you to participate if you'd like. We are being sponsored by Some Odd Girl this time. Hope to see you there!

For Mum

2011-05-08T14:48:00.000+02:00

Good afternoon all!

Hope you're having a great weekend? Today it is Mother's Day in the Netherlands, so I've made this card for my mum. If all has gone well, she has received it in the mail, so it's 'safe' to show it on the blog now:

I've kept it fairly simple, but very girly.

Materials used:

* Studiolight image and backing paper at the front

* Eline's huis papers ('In the Meadow)

* Ribbon, brads, heart and flowers all from stash

I am submitting this card to these challenges:

* Aud Sentiments (Happy Mother's Day)

* Crafty Sentiments (Flowers)

* Nadia's Challenge (Mother's Day)

* Paper Cutz (Mother's Day)

* Fairy Tale Challenges (Mother's Day)

* Sisterhood of Crafters (Mother's Day)

* Tuesdays Throwdown (Mother's Day)

* Partytime Tuesdays (Mother's Day)

* For Fun Challenges (Mother's Day/Flowers)

* Creative Card Crew (For Mom)

Hope you like it, let me know!

Ciska

Christmas bird

2011-05-06T20:52:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

Today I have a Christmas card to share with you. The Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge is holly or ivy this month, and my card has both! This image has been lying around on my crafty table for ages, but I hadn't had any inspiration on how to use it. Very satisfying that I got there in the end!

Materials used:
* Metallic-coloured card, gems and peeloff sticker from stash
* 3D image and backing paper from Studio Light
* Die-cut frame from SEI (Christmas Mint: Vanilla Icing)
* Martha Stewart Doily Lace border punch and rounded corner punch
* Inside vellum sentiment from Anna Griffin Holiday Traditions Vellum Quotes

I am submitting to these challenges:
* Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge (Holly or Ivy)
* Christmas Card Challenge (Metal)
* Crafty Hazelnut Christmas Challenge (Use a die-cut)
* Winter Wonderland (The Colours of Christmas)
* By the Cute and Girly (Anything Goes)
* Craft Your Passion (Anything Goes)
* Cupcake Craft Challenges (Something beginning with C, well, Christmas of course!)
* Paperplay Challenges (Show Us Your Style)
* Papertake Weekly (Anything Goes)
* Pollycraft Challenge (Anything Goes)

I made a bit of a booboo with the sentiment inside, you can clearly see the glue behind the vellum. Have any of you got any tips as how to avoid this? I know you can try and place the glue behind something coloured, but is this case that would only be possible on one side. Let me know!

Have you guys booked your holidays yet or will it be gardenia or balconia? We just booked a lovely trip traveling the north of Scotland, I am SO looking forward to that! Unfortunately I have to wait a bit longer:(

BTW, thanks for stopping by and leaving me such nice comments, very much appreciated!

Ciska

I'm baaaaaaack.......with some excellent news!

2011-04-29T23:51:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

Yes, I am back! I've been AWOL for a little bit, so many things to do other than crafting that I unfortunately didn't get round to updating my blog. Thankfully, I have more time to craft from now on, so will try and be a better blogger.

So....about this excellent news.........I've been asked to join a DT! Finally I've found some girls crazy enough to let me in their team, from this week onward I am a Card Craftin' Mama! ***doing a little celebratory dance*** ahem, yes.....moving on.....

Our new challenge was put online today, we are challenging you to make a card

"FOR A LOVED ONE"

This time around we are sponsored by Meljen's Designs, this is my card. It's the first time I've tried paperpiecing, it was good fun! My husband's a big space fan, so this bear was just perfect for his birthday card:

And the inside:

Materials used:
* Meljen's Designs Astronaut Bear digi
* Matt silver cardstock & light brown glitter paper
* DCWV Natural stack backing paper
* Sentiment is a freebie from Papercraft Inspirations
* Orange ribbon, little gems and copper peeloffs from my stash

I know the ribbon looks a little skewed in the photo, but it is not noticable on the card itself, funny how photo's sometimes play tricks on you :)

I am submitting to:
* Bling It On (Use a Digi and some Bling)
* Creative Inspirations (Use a Digi)
* Moving Along With The Times (Anything Goes)
* Simon Says Stamps (Anything Goes + Bloghop!)

Why don't you join us at Card Makin' Mamas? As long as it's a card and adheres to the challenge theme, you are in for a chance to win 4 images from Meljen's Designs! The challenge will run for two weeks, so get cracking ;)

Ciska

Spring Basket

2011-04-17T17:37:00.000+02:00

Hello all,

How has your weekend been? Mine has been spent mostly in the garden. Not that I'm a avid (or even knowledgable!) gardener, but it was that time of year again (i.e. "We really need to do something now" time). It wasn't actually that bad and the garden is looking peachy :). Spent the rest of the weekend in the kitchen baking (Irish soda bread and chocolate-orange cake, mmmmmm!), so not much crafting is being done right now. However, I do had a little time to make a little easter basket. It's really basic, but cheerful, and that's the main thing:

I've used a Martha Stewart punch (Doily Lace) for the nice lacy borders, some Flora Doodles Primary Colours flowers and a little souffle the duck image I had lying about. Of course I filled it with little chocolate eggs, I am afraid they won't stay part of the design very long!

Hope you like my first Easter basket, enjoy the last snippets of the weekend!

Ciska

A Fairy Doodles Christmas

2011-04-12T09:49:00.000+02:00

Good Morning all! Hasn't the weather just been great last weekend? We had some great days and went for a little bike ride on Sunday. It was great and lot's of people were about with dogs and kids.

It's been a bit quiet at my end this last week, I didn't really have that much time and inspiration to craft. But eventually I started again and made this Christmas card:

Materials used:
* Basic Grey Jovial Backing paper
* Buzzcraft Fairy Doodle decoupage sheet
* Kars ribbon
* Gems and Merry Christmas stamp from my stash
* Stickles around the fairy image

I am pretty happy with this card, a very satisfying feeling to be able to use up some of my bits and bobs that were lying about on the crafty table!

Submitted to:
* Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge (Ribbon and Gems)
* Allsorts (Anything but a square)
* Christmas Card Challenge (Bows)
* Crafty Sentiments (Glitter it up)
* Papertake Weekly (Anything Goes)
* The Paper Shelter (Anything Goes)
* Winter Wonderland (Photo inspiration, I've used the colour scheme and the baubles)
Thanks for having a look!

Enjoy your week

Ciska

Another Christmas Card

2011-03-31T11:23:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

Well, when I was saying last week that a lot of work was waiting for me, I wasn't kidding! I've spent all this week trying to catch up, meaning little time for making cards. But I finally have something to show you again, a Christmas card this time.

I haven't even had time to finish decorating the inside yet!

Materials used:
* Studio Light image and red basic backing paper
* Bauble stamp on the red backing paper from Ollie stamp set Christmas
* Music backing paper from Dovecraft Tis the Season
* Red ribbon from stash
* Flora Doodles Primary Colours flowers
* Little peel off gems in the baubles

I know, the flowers aren't that Christmassy, but the colours combine great with traditional Christmas colours.

I am submitting to these challenges:
* Winter Wonderland (Baubles)
* Christmas Stampin' (Make it Yours)
* Crafty Hazelnut (Square card)
* Charizma Cards (Bling & Sparkles, it was so sparkly that I had trouble getting a decent photo, as the photo's above can attest.......)
* Delightful Sketches (Flowers)
* Incy Wincy (Sparkle & Shine)
* Paper Pretties (Bring on the Bling)
* Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge (Christmas in Spring)
* For Fun Challenges (Christmas)

I heard on the news that this Saturday is going to be glorious in the Netherlands, they are promising at least 21 degrees! Woohoo, finally! I think a little picnic is in order.....:) Have a great rest of the week and of course a lovely weekend!

Ciska

Happy Mother's Day

2011-03-24T22:25:00.000+01:00

Hello all,

If all goes well, I will be back at work tomorrow. Thank you for all the well-wishes, it definately cheered me up! I'm still not a 100%, but the show must go one or something like that :)

On the 3rd of March is UK Mother's Day, so I've made a card for my mother-in-law Mary. Dutch Mother's Day is in May, so I have a little time left to work on my mum's card.

It's a fairly simple card, but still nice I think. I wouldn't have chosen the yellow, but it was requested by my husband and why would I want to argue with that?

Materials used:
* Studio Light image & backing paper
* Eline Vintage stamp set
* Flower punch
* Pink ribbon & Diamonds from stash

I am submitting to:
* CYDA (For Mum)
* Papertake Weekly (It's a Mum's Thing)
* Nadia's Challenge (Flowers)
* Ooh la la (Mother's Day)
* DCD (Mother's Day)
* Easy Craft (Mother's Day)
* Bearly Mine (Mother's Day)
* Simon Says Stamp (Mother's Day)
* The Paper Shelter (Flower Power)
* Let's Craft and Create (Mum's the Word)

Well, this is definately it from me for this week. I will have a ton of work waiting for me, I'm afraid, so no time for crafting. Hope to see you then!

Ciska

One for the boys

2011-03-24T12:06:00.000+01:00

Hello all! I am staying home for a couple of days to recover from this cold and now that I'm feeling a bit better I can craft again without having to grab a hanky every 5 seconds! Today I have a male birthday card to show you. I always have trouble making cards for guys. I think it works best if the image is either linked with their interests or cartoony.

Materials used:
* Dovecraft SMIRK Him & DCWV Mango Frost backing papers
* Studiolight Decoupage images
* Making Memories Poolside Bows & Buttons button
* Personal Impressions and Eline Vintage Stamp Sets
* Elastic string from my stash
* Corner rounding punch

I am submitting to the following challenges:
* Creatalicious Challenge (Two-toned)
* Cupcake craft (Monochrome)
* CES (Inspired by a song: Please Mr Postman)
* Charisma Cards (Birthday for a Teen)
* Crafts and Me (Anything Goes)
* Southern Girls Challenge (Add an animal)
* Totally Gorjuss (Button it)
* Totally Papercraft (Add buttons)
* Papercutz (Your Choice)
* Clear It Out (Buttons)

Hope you like the card, I will be back later this week with a Mother's Day card. Have a great day!
Ciska

P.S. I can welcome my 10th follower today, welcome Chris_P!

Happy Birthday Friend

2011-03-17T21:43:00.000+01:00

Good evening all! Hope this post finds you all well! I'm feeling a bit under the weather, I guess it's all those temperature fluctuations that got me a little too optimistic about taking my gloves and scarf off on the bike in the mornings! Oh well, what better excuse to stay indoors and do a bit of crafting?

By the way, I won my first challenge ever (ok, it was picked at random, nevertheless though) at Paper Play Challenges and won a lovely stamp (a good luck gnome, see picture on the side bar)! Great huh, I will show it off once I receive it and get to play :)

Here's my card for tonight, it will be a birthday card for one of my best friends:

I'm pretty chuffed with this card, I love this contemporary clean look!

Materials used:
* Basic card from Craft UK
* Studio Light image
* MME Bloom & Grow backing paper (Double sided, I've used only one 6x6 sheet! Magic stuff, so nice)
* Eline Vintage Stamp Set
* Flora Doodles Primary Colours flowers
* Flower gems from stash
* Round corner punch

I am submitting to:
* ABC (Birthday)
* Little Miss Muffet (Brads, gems or pearls)
* Paper Sundaes (Keep it simple)
* Papertake Weekly (Trio Tastic, I've used three flowers)
* Crafty Calendar Challenge (Spring)
* Tip Top Tuesday (Happy Birthday)
* Bling It On (Anything Goes)
* Shelly's Images (Show Us What You've Got)
* One Stop Craft Challenge (Clean and Simple)
* Craft Us Crazy (Cupcakes or celebration)

That all for now, thanks for looking! I think I am crawling back under my blanket and snuggle on the couch, see you later!

Ciska

Anniversary card

2011-03-12T12:39:00.000+01:00

Good morning all,

Hope the weather at your bit is as good as it is here, a beautiful blue sky! We will be going to the market later for some fresh veggies, I really enjoy that if the weather is good. Last week at my parents was a lot of fun, it was also their anniversary so I gave them this card (couldn't show you it before, because my mum occasionally checks my blog):

Materials used:
* Studio light image sheet
* Eline Vintage Stamp Set
* Flora Doodles Primary Colours flowers
* Giant pearls and brown pearls, ribbon, backing papers and peel offs from my stash

I would like to submit this card to the following challenges:
* DYSU (Layers)
* Southern Girls (Flowers)
* ABC (Pearls)
* Paper Pretties (Ribbon)
* Really Reasonable Ribbon (Green)
* Ladybug crafts ink (Spring Colours)
* By the cute and girly (Spring Time)
* Paper Play (Shades of Green)

Let me know what you think, my parents certainly liked it. Have a great day!

Ciska

Less than perfect

2011-03-05T15:42:00.000+01:00

Good afternoon! Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. This weekend and the beginning of next week are important holidays in the south of the Netherlands, called "Carnaval".Basically grown people are dressing up and getting enormously drunk. It's not for me, so I will be "fleeing" to see my parents in the North. Looking forward to see them, because of the distance we don't see each other all that much and it has been about two months so a good opportunity to go and see them.

I've got some great news: I won my first prize for one of my cards! It's a new challenge blog called Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge and I won third prize! I was incredibly surprised of course.

Anyway, I was trying to make another card to submit to the next challenge, this time the theme was red and green. Easy, right? However, I found it so difficult to find my mojo and am not really happy with my card but wanted to share it nonetheless. To me, it doesn't "gel", but of course I am my own worst critic. So happy to hear from you!

This is my card, front and back:

Materials used:
* Studio light image sheet
* Eline Vintage Stamp Set (so versatile and lovely fonts!)
* Marianne Design Scandinavion Christmas backing paper
* Green paper & ribbon from stash
* Flora Doodles Primary Colours flowers

I would like to submit this card to the following challenges:
* Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge (Red & Green)
* Winter Wonderland (Snowflakes)
* Papertake Weekly (Anything Goes)
* Little Miss Muffet Challenge (Designer Papers)

That's it from me. Thank you all for all the lovely comments I have been receiving of late, it's really appreciated. Welcome to another two followers, Angel and Elizabeth!

Have a great weekend, Ciska

Double trouble Christmas Card

2011-02-27T19:58:00.000+01:00

Good evening all! Is the weather around your bit as bad as here? We were planning to go to the cinema tonight, be the rain has kept us indoors instead. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday evening either of course, but at times I am starting to feel like a hermit, only coming out for work and supermarket runs. It really must soon be better weather, let's keep our fingers crossed!

Here is another Christmas card I have been working on today, using two images (as inspired by the Double Trouble Challenge by ABC Christmas Challenge). I hadn't tried it before, but it looks ok as I think only the Fairy image might be a little lost on a square card.

I haven't decorated the inside yet, as I didn't have time, but wanted to share the card with you nonetheless.

Materials used:
* Background paper: Dovecraft Tis the Season
* MS Doily Lace punch & corner punch on the paper
* Nellie Snellen Reindeer stamp from the Santa Claus set (coloured it with Promarkers)
* Fairy Doodles die-cut topper sheet
* Mirror board and giant pearls from my stash

I would like to submit this card to the following challenges:
* ABC Christmas Challenge (Double Trouble, use two images on your card)
* Bah Humbug (Things that Fly --> Fairy)
* Winter Wonderland (Animals --> Reindeer)
* Craft us Crazy (Winter)
* Sparkles forum Christmas Challenge (Christmas Tree)
* Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge (Sentiment)
* Christmas Card Challenges ( Use punches)
* Jingle Belles (Text me)

Let me know what you think, good or bad! That's it from me for now, have a good week and catch up with you all later!

Love, Ciska

PS A warm welcome to Liz, my 7th follower!

Another award and two new cards

2011-02-24T20:38:00.000+01:00

Good evening all, hope you are all having a good week. Hubby was away for the weekend to take in a football game in Scotland, but is now back. Always weird to have a few days to myself, but of course I then don't have to feel guilty of spending all day crafting!

I received another top three award, this time from Cupcake Inspirations for my spring card! I can get used to this, great! :)

I also have another two cards to share with you. The first one uses a Sarah Kay image, I remember receiving birthday cards with these cute images on them when I was a child, soooooo cute. Here is the front:

And the inside:

Materials used:
* Studiolight image sheet (including sentiment, backing paper and inside border)
* Pale Yellow Nestability shape
* Brown pearls and ribbon from stash

I would like to submit this card to the following challenges:
* Polka Doodles (Chocolate)
* Southern Girls Challenge (Brads, gems and dew drops)
* DYSU (Anything goes)

My second card is an anniversary card, again with a nostalgic image. I really like that style of image and even though I like all those distressed nostalgic cards out there, I can never bring myself to purposefully tear backing paper. Silly, I know, but I guess backing papers are my crafty weakness.

Here is the front and the inside:

Materials used:
* Image and sentiment inside: Studio Light
* Backing paper: Blue Eline Old-fashioned Christmas (yes, really) paper, Pink Making Memories paper (can't tell you the extact range)
* Sentiment on the front: Eline Vintage Stamp Set
* Punch: MS Doily Lace
* Pearls from stash

I really like the little bird on the inside of the card, it was on the paper already but really finishes the inside off.

I would like to submit this card to the following challenges:
* Incy Wincy (Use punch or die)
* Cupcake Inspirations (Inspiration, I've used the blue tones and the swirls)
* Paperplay Challenge (Sentiments)
* DYSU (Anything goes)

Hope you like the cards, enjoy your weekend!

Love, Ciska

Spring is here!!!...................or is it?

2011-02-17T22:00:00.000+01:00

Good evening all. First of all, I would like to thank you all for the great comments I received on my cards recently, I've even got six people following my ramblings! I have to be careful not to let it go to my head ;)

Yesterday I had a litte time to craft and came up with this birthday card:

Here's the inside:

I've been making some cards for my mum, who has 'commissioned' some female-friendly birthday cards, that's why most of my recent cards have had dutch sentiments on. This week I have just received my first MS punch in the post and just had to use it on the card, those punches are really easy to work with! I really like the image, it is so springlike, if only the weather outside was giving me the same vibe! Oh well, it's only February, so as long as I am not snowed in I really shouldn't be complaining. But I am looking forward to Spring and Summer!

Materials used:
Paper: LaCreaDesign lilac
Image & sentiment: Studio Light
Punch: MS Doily Lace
Pearls & ribbon: stash

I want to submit this card to the following challenges:
* Charisma Challenges (Spring has sprung)
* Creative Inspirations (Plain and Simple)
* DYSU Challenge (Dots --> Do pearls count?)
* Paperplay Challenge (Add Shine --> Again, do pearls count?)
* Cupcake Inspiration (Photo Inspiration --> I've used lilac as in the icing)

Hope you like the card, let me know!

Ciska

Top Three award at Winter Wonderland

2011-02-13T17:40:00.000+01:00

Another of my cards was picked for the top three, this time at Winter Wonderland! Very nice to know that others appreciate my cards as well, even though there is still plenty to learn and improve! Thanks, Winter Wonderland :)

A Green Merry Christmas (3 of 3)

2011-02-13T17:35:00.000+01:00

Right, this is probably the last of cards I have to show to you. I've made this especially for the DCD Christmas Challenge, but now I'm not so sure that it fits the challenge. We will just have to wait and see.

Here is the card:

And here is the inside:

I've used Dovecraft Jolly Happy Christmas and Noel papers. All the other bits came from my stash.

I've submitted this card to the following challenges:
* ABC Christmas Challenge (Clean & Simple)
* Allsorts Challenge (It's All About the Sentiment)
* DCD Christmas Challenge (I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas)