An Apple a Day......

Hi all,

This week at Delightful Challenges, the challenge theme is "Red, White & Blue", no doubt linking up with the 4th of July. As we don't celebrate that here in the Netherlands, I decided to make a Get Well Soon card using the lovely apple image. You know, an apple a day keeps the doctor away ;) The tear-shaped dew drops looked a bit like apple seeds to me, so I added it on there, even though the apple isn't cut in half.

I had to be in the city for a graduation ceremony of some of my students and on the way back I popped into a craft store. I bought this lovely set of stencils and had a play with one of them (the honeycomb) straight away on this card. I like the look and think I will be using it quite a few times! The set also includes handwriting, paint splashes and a brick wall stencil.

Materials:
* Digital Delights Apple digi, coloured with Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs
* Co'ordinations Vintage Collection Retro Mod Squad CS
* Panduro Design Stencil, using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink
* Recollections Washi Tape
* Tear Dew Drops from Robin's Nest
* Personal Impressions Sentiment Stamp
* Red Glitter from stash

We are being sponsored by 

Offering a 25 dollar store certificate to the challenge winner! Now that's a nice prize :)

Challenges:
* ABC Challenge (Red, White & Blue)
* Creative Card Crew (No Designer Paper)
* Paper Playtime (Red, White & Blue)
* Created with Love Challenge (4th of July or Red, White & Blue)
* Oozak (Anything Goes with a Sentiment)
* My Heart Pieces (Use a Digi)
* Simply Create Too (Use the Colours in Your Flag)
* Get Inky (Red, White & Blue)
* Hobbycutz (Anything with H) Honeycomb pattern stencil
* Creative Inspirations Paint (Red, White and Blue)

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Use a Doily

Good morning all!

Well, that's half of the work week finished and it's been an incredibly busy one. At work we are now all full steam ahead on teaching updates & development, on top of our normal work load, on top of our current teaching load, so you can imagine I am looking forward to the weekend! Crafting is keeping me sane during the week though :)

This week's challenge @ Fab 'n Funky is "Use a Doily". Funny enough, I don't own any doilies, but I do own a doily lace border punch, so decided to use that instead, using a technique I had seen on the web before. You basically punch the border and then cut each link almost up to the top so that you can move them independently from each other. You can then shape it into a circle or oval, whatever you need. You might get an even better result if you cut and glue each individual link separately, but that would take you quite some time! This does the trick though :)

Materials:
* Digistamps for Joy Welcome Home Digi, coloured with Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs
* Prima Sparkling Spring & Jack 'n Jill DPs
* MS Doily Lace Border punch
* Panduro Design Stencil & Vintage Photo Distress Ink
* Afternoon Tea Candi
* Ribbon from stash

Challenges:
* Emerald Fairies (Dies/Punches)
* Craft Your Passion (In the Garden)
* Totally Papercraft (Flowers & Bows)
* Really Reasonable Ribbon (Dots & Ribbon)
* Hobby House (Anything Goes)
* Kaboodle Doodles (Pastels)
* Paper Makeup Stamps (All Tied Up)
* Ladybug Crafts (Flowers & Ribbon)
* Crealing (Flowers)
* Frosted Design (Polka Dots)

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Welcome Little One

Morning all!

How was your weekend, I hope you did some fun things! We certainly did, as we were in London for the weekend. Mainly to watch the Killers @ Wembley, but we also managed a shopping trip and a visit to a comedy club.

Today I have a baby card to share with you for the Ooh La La challenge, as this week our theme is "Welcome Little One".You will find more information and some lovely samples over at the challenge blog.

Once again, I used Ooh La La's Yesterday's Memories for my card, this type of image really reminds me of baby cards that were around when I was little, love it!

Materials:
* Ooh La La Storks image & DP from the Yesterday's Memories CD
* Papermania Seet Nothings & DCWV Mango Frost DPs
* Crafter's Companion Christmas Embossing Board
* MS Doily Lace punch
* Personal Impressions Sentiment Stamp
* Victorian Velvet Distress Ink
* Dew Drop from Robin's Nest

Challenges:
* Frosted Designs (Polka Dots)
* CD Sunday (S is for ....) Storks, Spots
* Paper Nest Dolls (Animal Love)
* Bunny Zoe (Wings)
* Crafty Calendar (Things with Wings)
* Challenges for Everybody (Anything Goes)
* Emerald Fairies (Punches or Dies)
* Oozak (Anything Goes with a Sentiment)
* Crafty Catz (Anything Goes or Embossing)
* Hobby House (Anything Goes)

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Raise the Banner for Delightful Challenges

Good morning everyone,

Wow, summer has paid us a quick visit for the last two days, the temperature all of sudden shot from 18 to over 30 degrees! Not that great at a work place without a real air conditioning unit, I can tell you that! But now it seems that sunny weather was all just a dream, it is as dreary as ever......even the newspaper said to enjoy the summer for the whole 2 days it lasted :) It's alright with me, I'm not a big fan of really warm weather anyway, around 25 degrees will do me just fine.

I've got another card to share with you this week, this time for the Delightful Challenge. Our theme this week is "Raise the Banner" or use a banner or flag on your project. I used a bit of a shortcut by using DP with banners on it, but you might have some more creative ideas with this time: come and show us! 

Materials:
* Digital Delights Tiered Cake & License Plate Love sentiment digi, coloured with Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs
* Personal Impressions Sentiment Stamp
* My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy True Blue & DCWV Street Lace DPs
* Washi Tape from local store (Hema)

Challenges:
* One Stitch at a Time (Use a Digi)
* Eureka Stamps (Anything Goes)
* Creatieve Zebra (Anything Goes)
* AnMaCreatief (Birthday)
* Oozak (Anything Goes with a sentiment)
* Hobby House (Anything Goes)
* A Little Bit Crazy (Sweet)
* Card & Scrap (Use a Text Stamp)
* As You Like It (Favourite Papers) My Mind's Eye is my favourite DP company and the True Blue pad is just so cheerful and bright, I can bring it out for almost any occasion!
* I Love Promarkers (Anything Goes)

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Birthday at the Beach

Hi all,

It's been a little quiet on my blog this last week, I missed a couple of deadlines because I really didn't feel like crafting and was running out of time, I'm sure you all have had such an episode at one point or another. But thankfully my crafty mojo and I am able to share a couple of projects again with you this week. The first one is a male birthday card for the Fab 'n Funky challenge, asking for projects using ANIMALS. I won this image a while back and it never had an outing before, so I decided this was the perfect moment for it. Hope you can join us!

Materials:
* Square base card
* Meljen's Design Seafaring Seagull Frame Digi, coloured with Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs
* My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy True Blue & DCWV The Photo Stack 2 DPs
* Tim Holtz Distress Tool, Vintage Photo & Tumbled Glass Distress Inks
* Kars Gefeliciflapsteerd Sentiment Stamp Set & Inkadinkado Fun in the Sun Mini Stamp Set
* Gems from stash

Challenges:
* Crafting 4 All Seasons (One for the Guys)
* Crafty Sentiments (Fun in the Sun)
* Tip Top Tuesday (Masculine)
* Perfect Sentiments (Sun & Sand)
* Art Impressions (Masculine Cards)
* Tammy's Scrappin' Corner (Anything with Wings)
* Delicious Doodles (All Creatures Great and Small)
* Card & Scrap (Use a text/sentiment stamp)
* A Gem of a Challenge (Father's Day/Male)
* Dream Valley (Father's Day/Male Theme)

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Blingy Buttons

Good morning everyone!

Did you all have a nice weekend? We certainly did, we spent a couple of days in Zeeland, one of the Dutch coast provinces. We had beautiful sunny weather, but there was quite a lot of wind so it was still a bit nippy on occasion. It was wonderful though to get away for a few days :)

But now it's Monday again and there's plenty of fun things today was well, among which is a new challenge over @ Ooh La La, themed "Buttons & Bling". I managed to finish this card by the skin of my teeth, I was working on it yesterday evening when we came back! A case of bad planning on my part I'm afraid, but I managed to finish before my eyes fell shut somehow :) Such a beautiful flowers image, the CD Fleur D'Imagination is packed with them! I'm pretty happy with this card, I love the papers I found in my stash, very cheerfu making the card usuable for many occasions, always good to have in your stash :)

Materials:
* Ooh La La Pom Pom image from the Fleur D'Imagination CD, sprayed with Crafter's Companion Iridescent Glitter Spray
* My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow and Art Talent DPs
* Victorian Velvet & Forest Moss Distress Inks
* K&Co Brenda Walton Transfers to Go rub-on sentiment
* Button & twine from stash (I applied some crackle glaze on the button, but you can't see it very well)

Let's see what you can do with your glitter and buttons, please share with us!

Challenges:
*4 Crafty Chicks (Flowers)
* Allsorts (In the Garden)
* Simons Says Stamp & Show (Use a Button)
* Crafts & Me (Something Old) MME DP and rub on sentiment pack have been in my stash forever
* In the Pink (Anything Goes As Long As It's Pink)
* Card & Scrap (Flowers)
* Fussy & Fancy (Bling It On)
* Joanna Sheen (Spots and/or Stripes)
* Crealing (Flowers)
* Ladybug Crafts (Opposite end of the Colour Wheel) I've used Green-Yellow & Red-Violet

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Sunny Barnaby

Hi everyone,

My workday is almost over, as I am off tomorrow because we are celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary. Ever since we got together, we celebrated every year with a little outing; one year I organise it and my hubby doesn't know what we will be dong, the other year it's the other way around. This year it's my turn, it was pretty fun thinking of a place to go but I think I've sorted it :) The weather is supposed to be really great, which is always a bonus of course :)

Anyway, we are celebrating this summer weather over @ Delightful Challenges,as our challenge is to "Include a sun somewhere or use a summer theme" for your project. This month's new release is all about summer, including the cute Strawberry Barnaby. I think this image would also work very well on a gift tag for a jam jar, but I used it on a card instead.

We are sponsored this week by Digital Delights, offering a

Why not join us this week, we'd love to see what you can do with this theme!

Materials:
* Digital Delights Strawberry Barnaby, coloured with Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs
* DCWV Mango Frost, Echo Park For the Record & First Edition Spring Feast DPs
* Kars Gefeliciflapsteerd Sentiment Stamp
* Memories Direct Flower
* Vintage Berries Card Candi
* Peel offs stickers & Silver Glitter from stash

Challenges:
* QKR Stampede (Any Winged Creature)
* Crafts 4 Eternity (3 things beginning with B) Bee, Berries, Bright Colours
* Get Inky (Good Golly Glitter)
* Pink Gem (Summer Time)
* Crazy 4 Challenges (Summer Inspiration) Summer Fruits and Colours
* Robin's Fetish (Use a Digi)
* Glitter 'n Sparkle (Anything with a B) Bee, Berries, Bright Colours
* Passion for Promarkers (All that Glitters)
* Craft Room Challenge (Use Your Scraps)
* Alota Stamps (Summer Feeling)

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Getting Fruity

Morning all!

Ooh, the weather is so lovely, it really is starting to look like summer! And about time if you ask me, I'm looking forward to skirts and dresses without tights and bare feet :)

First of all, thank you all again for your lovely comment you've left me over the week and my apologies for not coming to visit you. There was barely enough time to take care of my DT duties and the entire month of June seems to be about the same. But I will come and return the favour and visit your lovely blogs, bear with me :)

In the mean time, I have a card to share with you for the new challenge @ Fab 'n Funky, where we challenge you to get your five a day by using fruit in creations. We are sponsored this week by the lovely Stamp Fairy and we received some images to play with, here's Lenny holding some cherries:

Materials:
* Stampfairy Lenny Fruits 3, coloured with Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs
* DCWV Street Lace, Echo Park For the Record & Flower Fairies DPs
* MS Doily Lace edge punch
* Card Candi Vintage Berries
* Red Twinkles
* Whimsy Stamps Summertime sentiments

I basically had to search through my entire crafty stash, as I didn't seem to have anything fruity at all in my stash! No papers, no embellishments, nothing! Safe to say, a huge oversight on my part, which I'm sure I will rectify fairly shortly ;) I finally dug up some paper from the bottom of the pile with cherries on, so I did manage after all. I hope you can join us, I am looking forward to your vitamin-C rich creations :)

Challenges:
* My Heart Pieces (Use a Sentiment)
* Whimsy Stamps (Anything Goes)
* Simon Says Stamp (Anything Goes)
* Shelley's Images (Show Us What You Got)
* Get Inky (Good Golly Glitter)
* Cutie Pie (3,2,1 Recipe) I used 3 DPs, 2 Card Candi & 1 image
* Mayzy Art (Sweets)
* Songbird (All Creatures Great and Small)
* Robin's Fetish (Use a Digi)
* Glitter 'n Sparkle (Anything with a B) Bear, Berries

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A Vintage Christmas

Hi everyone,

Another month has come and gone, can you believe it? I was just trying to recap what happened in this month but with everything I thought of it was: No, that was the month before or before that. What DID I do in May? I really couldn't tell you, except that we have revamped our garden with new soil, planted a little fruit & vegetable garden and took out some old manky bushes that weren't very pretty and basically in our way. It's still an ongoing project, but it's already looking way better than before, so that we already have so much more joy from our garden then we did last year.

Anyway, I'm babbling now, let's get to the point shall we? A new monthly challenge is starting @ CCAYR, sadly this will be my last. But I'm glad I got to do this challenge, as the theme is :"VINTAGE". I am not a real vintage crafter, I love the style and seeing others' projects who are really going the whole hog, but when I craft I am giving it my own twist by keeping it fairly CAS (for vintage anyway). I love this little image, it's so incredibly cute!

Materials:
* Ooh La La Baking Day image for the Yesterday's Memories CD
* DCWV The Natural Stack CS
* Dovecraft Noel & Echo Park For the Record DPs
* Pebbles Chips Black Glitter Chipboard Swirl
* Studio Light sentiments
* Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Hope you can join me and the rest of the team for my last challenge!

Challenges:
* Alota Rubber Stamps (Childhood)
* Forever Friends (For a Child)
* Tammy's Scrappin' Corner (Vintage)
* Crafting by Designs (Anything Goes)
* Crimbo Crackers (Cute)
* Hobby Vision (Christmas)
* We Love Vintage (For a Baby or Child)
* ABC Christmas (Kept Safe) The Christmas paper with the playing children
* Kaboodle Doodles (Anything Goes)
* Shelly's Images (Show Us What You Got)

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