Christmas Birthday

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 :)

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December Birthday

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 :)

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Another Christmas Card

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)

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

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)

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

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

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Thank You!

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)

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15 mins of crafting

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)

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Autumnal Colours & Leaves

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)

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A Christmas Sketch

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)

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Use a Die Cut!

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 :)

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Snowmen Carols

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! :)

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Halloween Tag

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 ;)

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Card Makin' Mamas Blog Hop Winners!!!

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 :)

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CMM Halloween Blog Hop!

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)

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Another Halloween Christmas

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!!!! :)

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Vintage Halloween

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!

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Halloween birthday

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 :)

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Ye Olde Dutch Birthday

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!

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New Beginnings: Friendship's Garden Bloghop!

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!

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Birthday Frog

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! 

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Halloween Christmas

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!

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Fancy Folds

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!

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I'm a Garden Girl

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! 

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Punch Away

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!

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Santa Baby

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!

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More Stashshopping

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!

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Like a Train in the Night

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!

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Dr. Fashion

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!

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Vintage Lady

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! 

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