Four years in!

Hi everyone,

It's time for another Fab 'n Funky Challenge, we have a "Photo & Colour Inspiration" board for you this time. You can find the board on the challenge blog, using purple, blue, gold and brown. I decided to use this colour scheme to create the anniversary card for my husband; come June we will be married for four years. How time flies, incredible! Anyway, here's my card:

Materials:
* Kenny K Sexy Cupid digi, coloured with Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs
* First Edition Up Up & Away and Authentique Remembrance DPs
* We R Memory Keepers Cupid sentiment Stamp
* Seedless Preserves Distress Ink
* Heart gems from stash
* Golden Rod Stickles

Challenges:
* Oldie but a Goodie (Anniversary) First Edition Papers & Heart gems are at least 3 years old
* KennyK's Krafty Krew (Anything Goes, Twist: Femme Fatale)
* QKR Stampede (Anything Goes, Twist: Gems or Rhinestones)
* Addicted to Stamps (Inspired by a Song) Bee Gees - Arrow Through the Heart
* Paper Makeup Stamps (Sparkle)
* Sister Act (Anything Goes)
* Eureka Stamps (Up in the Air)
* As You Like It Challenge (Favourite Fur or Feathers) I love this sassy cupid image!
* Digi Designs (Use Those Markers)
* Shopping Our Stash (Sing it To Me) Bee Gees - Arrow Through the Heart

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Happy Anniversary

Good morning everyone!

Another week is starting, I hope you all had a good weekend? We took advantage of the gorgeous weather yesterday to take a walk through a forest nearby. It was wonderful, but my muscles are protesting a little bit today, better take it easy and stay at my desk crafting. Any excuse eh ;)

Anyway, a new challenge is starting today @ Ooh La La and this time our theme is "ANNIVERSARY". Such great timing, because it will be my parents' 51st wedding anniversary next week. So I had plenty of inspiration! Here's my card:

Materials:
* Ooh La La Couple image & DP from the Passion for Fashion CD
* Prima Reflections DPs, distressed with distressing tool
* Gold Stickles
* Ribbon, button and pearls from stash

I hope you can join us with your anniversary projects!

Challenges:
* Diva's by Design (Make It Sparkle) Stickles and glitter in the ribbon
* Totally Papercrafts (Make It Shine) Stickles and glitter in the ribbon
* Crafty Ribbons (Ribbons & Buttons)
* The Squirrel and the Fox (Something Spooled)
* Dream Valley (Vintage)
* Scrappers Delights (Bling It Up) Stickles and glitter in the ribbon
* Alphabet Challenge (Buttons & Bows)
* Gem of a Challenge (Anniversary)
* My Sheri Crafts (Bling It On) Stickles and glitter in the ribbon
* Creative Fingers (Anything Goes)

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Colourful Bunting

Hi everyone!

It's Thursday again and therefore time for a new challenge @ Delightful Challenges. The theme this week is "Colour My World", so any colourful project can be shared with us this week! I've decided to create a layout this week of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary in March. As my mum is wearing a red, white and blue outfit, I decided to use these colours for the LO as well:

Materials:
* Digital Delights Bunting Set, coloured with Promarkers
* Co'ordinations Vintage Collection DPs
* MS Doily Lace Border Punch
* Making Memories Chipboard Alpha 5th Ave
* K&Co Peppermint Twist Chipboard Alphabet
* Memories Direct Flowers
* Gems, brads & ribbon from stash

Our sponsor this week is

and the prize is really awesome, as they are offering this to the winner:

I love working with Spectrum Noirs, they have worked really well for me, so what an awesome prize!
So if you have the time, share your colourful projects with us!

Challenges:
TBA

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Tag, You're It

Hi everyone!

This March, if all goes well, my parents will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, married for half an age! Unbelievable, I can't imagine being married for 50 years and since I married quite late (only just celebrated our 2nd anniversary), the chance of us celebrating this anniversary is fairly small. But you never know, just keep breathing right? ;) I've made a little gift tag to celebrate the occasion, I'm not sure yet how I will use it but I'm sure I will find a fun way :)

 Materials:
* Digital Delights Tiered Cake digi, coloured with Promarkers & Spectrum Noirs
* K&Co Roam Tag Pad
* DP scraps from my scrappy shoebox
* Star border punch
* Eline Vintage Sentiment Stamp Set
* Tumbled Glass Distress Ink
* Pearls and ribbon from my stash

The Delightful Challenge for this week is themed "Tag, You're It", so using a tag in your project. You can make any type of paper craft to participate, so let's get creative!

We will be sponsored by 

offering a 15 dollar gift certificate to spend at their store!

Challenges
* Emergency Crafters (Use Something that's more than 1 year old) Pearls
* Cards Galore (Anything Goes)
* Sarah Hurley (Celebrate)
* Natalie & Amy (Things You Love) Pearls
* One Crazy Stamper (Anything Goes)
* Oozak (Anything Goes with Pink & Bling)
* Live & Love Crafts (Something Old)
* Emerald Fairies (Celebrations)
* Ladybug Crafts (Anything but a Card)
* Inky Chicks (Anything Goes)

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Buttons!

Hi everyone,

Card Makin' Mamas' New Challenge starts today, and the theme is "BUTTONS". I managed to make a card to the challenge at the last moment, it turned out to be a wedding anniversary card:

Materials:
* Studio Light image, DPs and inside sentiments
* K&Company Smitten Chipboard
* Button, pearls and gems from stash
* Silver glitter
* Eline Vintage stamp set
* Making Memories Vintage Findings Cool Trims

Why don't you join us, you have two weeks to link up! You can use one button and a whole bunch of them, it's up to you!

Challenges:
* Just Inspirational Challenges (2 Inspiration Pictures - I've picked the colour combo of the first picture + hearts)
* Paper Crafting Journey (Pretty Pastels)
* Crafty Boots (Glitter)
* Crafty Calendar (Spring Clean -  I've used DP scraps)
* Crafty Purple Frog (Pink and Girly)
* Crazy Amigo (Bike)
* Creative Card Crew (Vintage)
* Get Creative (Colour Scheme)
* Jellypark Challenges (Crafting - I love playing with DPs)
* Pixie Cottage (Perfect Pastels and/or Sketch)

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Anniversary Mini Album

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 :)

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Lovely Weekend

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

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Paper Anniversary

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!

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Anniversary card

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

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Another award and two new cards

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

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