A new challenge

Hi and welcome back to my little corner. Hope you're doing ok and don't have to fight any colds or flu's like we do here.

Today is the start of the last challenge for the year over at the Paper Shelter and the theme is Anything goes. We will not be doing any commenting for this challenge as me and Shirley has given our teams a well deserved break over the Holidays. They have been working hard all year long and really deserves it, and to be honest, I am a bit tired too. LoL We will be back with a new challenge for you again 9th of January when the B-team sets the first challenge of the year.

Also our blog hop has come to an end. A big thank you to all of you that has played along in our challenges over the year and to you who took the time to hop around both our teams blogs. We know that we are many and it takes time. :)

We all have chosen a winner that will receive a digi of their choice. The complete winner's list is found over at the Paper Shelter. You just has to claim it by visiting the Paper Shelter blog and tickle the e-mail elf and he takes you straight to Veronica and Pedro that will help you out. My winning comment comes from a very loyal player in our challenges and that is 

Crystal who said " This is the perfect end to the blog hop. The ladies have out done themselves this week and I for one and happy to say I can't wait to get my Paper Shelter images out once again and use some of their inspiration. Thank you for sharing your talent with us. Cheers, Crystal"

Congrats! We love that you take the time to play with us so often and we love what you do. Congratulations once again. 

I also managed to make a card for this very challenging challenge. I am back with my Christmas cards and this one is made for one of my youngest' teachers in kindergarten. A box card filled with chocolates. And let me tell you that there was a whole bunch of yummie! coming out from all the teachers. They are so sweet and all get so very happy. It makes it worth the whole process of making about 10 extra advanced cards for teacher's, kitchen- and cleaning staff that get forgotten almost all the time. Totally worth it! :)

I have used my another one of this years Christmas digis called Are you ready my friend? It's so cheerful and sweet. They are coloured with my Letraset family and decorated with flowers from my stash. Also a big snow flake made with a die from Whimsy stamps and a plastic one from You Do I think. Hope you like it! Designer papers are from Dove Craft. The stamped snowflakes ia a Magnolia stamp. 

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
CYDI - Not a creature was stirring
Celebrate the Occasion - Christmas Anything goes

Another posting...

...I'm on the go here! One on Sunday and now it's Tuesday and I am not even feeling well. Not my joints this time. I have a b----y cold that won't give in and now I'm hard of hearing. It feels like I walk around and scream all the time, because I don't have a clue of how loud I speak. LoL

It's time for some celebration here at my blog, well we have "Winter Birthdays" as our theme over at the Bearly Mine Challenges this time and this challenge will go on for two weeks or so. That means we won't be back with a new challenge until 2013 and then will Shirley and her A team let us challenge again.

For my card have I used yet another image from the Paper Shelter and this one is called Snow angel. I didn't have time to use her for a Christmas card but she works well for winter birthdays as well. She is coloured with my Letraset family.

The design is fairly simple but looks like a lot of work have been done! My kind of card! LoL I found the sentiment stamp laying around my table and I don't have a clue from where it comes, probably Lili Of the Valley as they has tons of wonderful sentiment stamps. Just wish they would make them in Swedish. :) Flowers and berries are from WOC and Magnolia. Might be one or two flowers from I am Roses as well. The broad ribbon is from The Ribbon girls and the lace from Molly's Scrapbooking. And the designer papers are from Pastel Christmas from Bearly Mine Design. Gosh! I really have cloggy memorie at this time, more than usual that is. Let's say it is the fever speaking, ok and let us hope that it will pass quickly. As always I have used some stickles form Rangers and this time I went with some sparkly Silver and some frosted lace.

Our sponsor this week is Donna from Bearly Mine designs. She offers two digi sets of winner's Choice for all of you that plays with us this time around.

So now let's see all of those forgotten birthdays that do take place even during the Holiday season. I have a niece that decided that it would be good to have her birthday 1st of January. LoL I can't wait to come and see what you all create for this challenge.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Passion for Promarkers - Use the word "happy" in your sentiment
Bunny Zoe Challenges - Celebration!
Fashionista Challenge - Winter
Paper Playtime Challenges - Winter fun

Christmas Challenges with sketches

Hi there! Have you done all your Christmas shopping yet? Was out today and nearly finished. Yeay! Managed to get a card done as well and this is made after a sketch from Christmas Challenges with sketches.The back ground of the image looks a bit shady in the photo but is really light blue IRL.  Probably have to retake this photo later on but it was more important to get the card in, and up in time.

I have used an image from the Paper shelter called Carol Singers, the most lovely image from the Shelters winter and Christmas images this year. Adore it. Have paired it up with some designer papers from Papermania called "Home for Christmas" if I am correct. This card will be put on a little box with some chocolates for my youngers' kids teacher later on tonight when the kids are asleep and I can be left alone, and then there is just one more to put together. But as I know that I am running out of time here I will use a card made earlier for this last project.

Quite a few punches is used here, like a M.S punch for snow flakes to the left, a few dies from Magnolia and Memory box for borders and other details. Flowers from WOC, pearls from Rox Stamps and some liquid pearls from Rangers.

Ok, time to crash. I am so tired and I still have to get the Christmas decorations up, maybe some today and the rest tomorrow?

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Christmas Challenges with sketches - sketch
Joanna Sheen - With love at Christmas
The Squirrel and the Fox - Christmas
One Stop Craft Challenges - Distressed Christmas (wet with inks on my card)

Finally

With the flu going around the house again, second time in two weeks there has been a real lack of both crafting and energy here the last couple of weeks. This week has been mine and the youngest one together taking it quite calm. P. had it worst this time and my dear mum took care of him while I had to go to the hospital and to meet my physiotherapist. These was must do appointments, sick or not. Had an appointment with the dentist as well, and another meeting but that has to wait. Now I really hope that it will be calm here when it comes to illnesses as I am so fed up by them all!

So a little card I have made in between how to speak. The last one of my cards for W.'s teachers. Third time with miss Snow flake and I just love the image more and more. I went through my old stamps the other day when I couldn't sleep. And found a whole bunch of lovely stamps that is just forgotten there in the boxes. It's time to start using them again, and maybe one or two of the new ones that never has seen ink. LoL They are many, way too many and I don't think I have to buy any stamps next year and still be able to use new ones all the time. That's how many they are. LoL

Sorry back to my card. This is my grey and pink version of the same card and this time I used designer papers from Bearly Mine design. They come from the digiset called Christmas light. As always (nearly) the image is coloured with my Letraset family. Flowers from WOC and I am Roses. She is also popped up from the oval as she got a lovely paw print next to her from my dear helper Tage, one of my cats. Nothing a good pair of scissors could help me out with this time. LoL Tons of pearls in different sizes and a doily from Nellie Snellen. Ribbon from Joanna Sheen. by the way.

I think that is it! I wish you a wonderful evening and joyful weekend!

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
CRAFT challenge - Winter (my little miss is called Snowflake and is all dressed in winter clothes, hope I'm not pushing it here, in that case sorry)
Craft Us Crazy - Christmas / winter and favourit embellishment (flowers and glitter)
Nutcrafters challenges - Sparkle and bling, and lots of layers
TOSNG (The official Sugar Nellie group) / facebook- "Anything Christmassy"
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Final challenge of 2012 from the Crafty Card Makers

Hi there! Have a kind of abducted post here today. This is the final challenge of the year from the Crafty Cardmakers team. As there has been so much illnesses and doctors and other strange appointments lately, I never got a chance to make a card for this challenge. But I hope I will be able to make some kind of reminder later on as this goes on till the 7th of January 2013. How strange to write that! This is what it says on our challenge blog today, but you have to go there yourself to see all the stunning creations made by the team for this challenge and it is a challenge

"Challenge 81 Inspired by a Song–Final Challenge for 2012

Our challenge to you for the next month is to take inspiration from the song lyrics of  'Time In A Bottle' written and performed by Jim Croce. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyTfbtZeGeU

 

 

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

Is to save every day

Till Eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I'd save every day like a treasure and then,

Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I've looked around enough to know

That you're the one I want to go

Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes

And dreams that had never come true

The box would be empty

Except for the memory

Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I've looked around enough to know

That you're the one I want to go

Through time with

I was pondering the time of year, and how Christmas evokes so many memories of times past and this song came into my head. I expect we have all lost someone, parent, brother, sister, etc. who we remember at this time of the year so the song seemed really poignant. It was especially so for me this year as I had to move from my home of 54 years into a dinky little bungalow, and as yet I have no memories formed here, and as Christmas approaches I have been dwelling a lot on the past. However, I don't want you to feel maudlin so take inspiration from the song's theme, or from the lyrics. There are a lot of words mentioned in the song, that you could use to inspire something creative. Or you could create something to show us what you would do if you could save time in a bottle and spend it doing your favourite thing, or with your best friend, lover, child etc. A scrapbook page of memories perhaps, or something more practical relating to time. You can choose one of the words in the lyrics and create a theme around it.

Have a good read through and see what you can impress us with. I will be honest and tell you some of the team were not too keen on the idea, until they started thinking about it, so please don't just pass us by and not bother, have a good old think and see what you can come up with. There are so many Christmas card challenges at the moment, and this will be a nice deviation from those, you also have a whole month to think of something. So when you are all Christmased out and want to do something a bit different you can join us with your creation. Please remember to tell us in your post how the song's lyrics have inspired what you come up with. 

Go on we dare you! 

As this is a month long challenge the whole team will be voting on whose entries they want to win or take out top spots, if there are enough entrants we may have a Top Ten instead of a Top Five. 

We are sponsored by our lovely teamie Kim Reygate. As Kim told me 'I have been lucky enough to work with some fantastic companies during this last year, both teaching and making samples and most of whom are represented in the prize, so I would be more than happy to donate them to Crafty Cardmakers', represented in the list are Clarity, HobbyArt, Sir Stampalot, Stampcraft and Woodware, some of whom will be sponsoring us in 2013, so watch this space!

The items in the prize are Items from the top of the photo 
Blue Magic stamp 
2 Embossing Folders
2 Butterfly Stamps
Fluffy Stuff 
2 ColorBox Queues
ColourBox Moulding Mat
Magnolia Stamp
Petal Stamps

We are also sponsored as usual by Milk Coffee Stamps with their usual prize of 5 digi images of the winner's choice.
   

MILK COFFEE DIGITAL STAMPS
Cute Digis for Cute Creations

Milk Coffee Stamps is a digital image shop specialising in cute and girly images. We provide high quality digital images with high resolution so you could resize at a big enough size for your project. We have many different image styles; sophisticated lady, cute girl, whimsical image, cute stuff, fairytale creature, and many other varied themes so they can fit many different crafting styles.

So after all that waffling, it's over to the team to hopefully inspire you. They have worked hard on this so please do stop by their blogs and leave them some love!

 

We won't be back now until 7th January, so all of us at Crafty Cardmakers want to thank you for your continued involvement in our challenges and to wish all of you out there a very Merry Christmas or Bright Yule and a healthy, happy and hopefully prosperous New Year. See you in 2013"

Love n hugs

Marie

Blog hoping time

Hi and welcome to my little corner of the yearly celebrations over at the Paper Shelter. It is time to hop! We are celebrating our two year anniversary and want to share it with you! So if you came from  Lucy's blog , one of our guest designers, then you're heading in the right direction - if not then you'll want to head on back to The Paper Shelter Challenge Blog to start again, as you'll not want to miss out on this one! Our Design Teams have worked very hard and are showcasing the gorgeous images available from The Paper Shelter Website and each blog on the hop is offering one lucky commenter a digi of their choice as well as the main prize, details of which are on the Paper Shelter Challenge blog.

So the theme of this hop is "two of a kind", so if you take part in our challenge that will run for two weeks, we want to see two of something. In my card I have two of a few things. But the main two is my two clowns. I have had such trouble getting this image coloured in a good way and don't know for how many times I have tried before, but now suddenly it worked out very well. I love my clowns! And as it is a celebration hop we need cake! So I have used that image too with the funky cake. Love that one too. :) I also have two small roses, and two bigger ones etc. 

All of the images is coloured with my Letraset family and the designer papers are from Magnolia, Sweden. So is the die I have made the leafes with. A couple of brads holds the cake in place. I didn't want to put tons of flowers behind the clowns as it felt too heavy. Anyway, I hope you like this little creation of mine. 

As I m the last in the long row of crafters on this hop, you now have the Paper Shelter challenge blog left and maybe you want to leave some love there. You don't have to do the blog hop to enter our challenge, just to let you know, even if we would love it if you did.  Don't forget to leave me a comment for a chance of winning your choice of one of the fab digis available in store. This years images from Veronica and Pedro has really been amazing so you will be spoiled for wonderful choices. 

Thanks to all of you that follows me each and every week on my crafting adventures. That can take it that I don't can come and vistit you all every time you post, that keep leaving me some love over and over again. I always do my best to come and visit but the last year has been horrible with tons of pain and operations and doctors and ....  

And a even bigger thank you to all my teamies that always makes the most amazing creations. You are amazing crafters and always do you best. Without you the Paper Shelter wouldn't be what it is today! And of course a very BIG thank you  to Veronica and Pedro that owns the Paper Shelter. They always  makes sure we have plenty of new images to work with and let us show of their stunning work. And I think the biggest thanks of them all goes to Shirley, the leader of the A team and an amazing friend and teamie to me on two teams. Lots of love hun! A BIG thank you to all of you from me.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for the card
I love Promarkers - anything goes
Crafting for all seasons - Use flowers
Through Craft door Magazine  - Anything goes
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

A little more of that coming season

Morning to you all. I am back with some more Christmas inspiration for you  all. It's so cold today and it's snowing like crazy outside my window. Winter is truly here now. It's one good thing with it at least, my oldest love being outside again. It's wonderful to see him out there, building stuff in snow that isn't possible to build with as it's so cold.

I have a little card to show as well and this time it's all about Santa. With only twenty days before he arrives here in Sweden we thought we have that theme over at the Bearly Mine Challenges this week. Santa is coming! We want to see all your santas poping up on your creations. I for sure can't wait.

 My Father Christmas is coloured with Prisma Pencils this time and he is paired up with some lovely designer papers from Bearly Mine Designs called Christmas Glee and Mini dots. A very useful set the last one. I love i! I have kept this card a little cleaner as it is for a child. Two decorations a christmas three made with a Marianne die and a wooden reindeer. What would Santa do with out his loyal pets that takes him all over the world, right?

I also have a second card for this challenge as I thought it looked a little bare over at the challenge blog with three teamies away. So this is also made for the challenge. I normally don't have two cards in the same posting but everything has exceptions. LoL This card is made using a Magnolia stamp that I really love and it's coloured with my Letraset family on craft card. Over at PFP a few weeks back they had this as a challenge and I really wanted to join in there but got sick, only got to the colouring part. So this is what became of that image. I love the colouring on craft with markers. If you have not done it, try it! It's fun!

I have kept this card fairly simple as well with just a few decorations on it. So Christmas trees made with a Magonlia die and a snow flake die. A gem stone from an old neckless in the middle of the snowflake, a few pearls and a seal for Christmas presents is used as decorations together with a ribbon from Molly's Scrapbooking. The designer papers are from Bearly Mine Design and the set Christmas Wishes.

We have a great sponsor in Kenny K this week. They are offering five digis of your choice if you are picked as the lucky winner of the week. Come and play with us! You surely has just a few of those Christmas cards left to do, right?

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for card 1
Make it Monday - Anything goes
Die Cuttin Divas - Holiday spirit
The stamping Boutique - Holiday cards
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenges - Bingo (Snow, Reindeer, glitter)
Lollipop Craft Challenges - Happy Holidays

Challenges for card 2
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Die Cuttin Divas - Holiday spirit
Paper take weekly - Anything goes
Ribbon Carousel - Holiday spirit
The stamping Boutique - Holiday cards

A little posting again

Hi there! Have survived a kiddie party for the first time in my life. Yes! 10 loud lads and a gal. That's a party for sure. It all went fine and my cold is leaving and it feels good. Tired and relaxed is the summery of todays activity.

Now, I have been working with some cards for the teachers and staff at the schools were my kids spends their days and last night when I couldn't sleep I managed to finish the first batch of them. Only 6 to go now, but I have been a clever gal and coloured up some images so it won't take that long to finish. Clever right?

I have used last weeks sketch over at the Sugar bowl as it was a simple one and I didn't want too much fuss as the card is a bit smaller than normally. It's a book card and now at least one of them is filled with some yummy chocolate. Hope it will stay there until it's time to give the card away. LoL

I have showed number 1 here earlier and here comes number two. Once again I have used the image from Sugar Nellie called Snow flake (still a thought). I could go and check for it's name but I am too tired for that. She is coloured with my Letraset family warm greys and reds as main colours. I so have a soft spot for the warm grey shades. If it wasn't given such dull impression to most people I would go all in more than once, that's for sure. And the best part is that greys doesn't look strange as skin tones either. Great colour!

The designer papers are from Dove craft and it's classic range. Love the colours in this collection. Just wonderful for a classy Christmas feel. A bunch of flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and some ribbon from Joanna Sheen and TGR here in Sweden. Metal corners are also from WOC. A red berrie cluster from Magnolia. A doily from Nellie Snellen. Some extra little details with a snowflake and a wooden button in the flower cluster, just for a little extra to be found in the details.Some golden rod stickles make my Christmas complete this creation. The third card in this "collection" will be shown just another day when I feel like popping something in here. :) Wish you a lovely Saturday with lots of warmth. We have -4 degrees here right now so I guess winter is truly here now. Brrr! Straight down to the basement and the fire I have going there, time to write some letters and do a little colouring now when I am the only one up. My partner is out for a bowling spree with his friends tonight.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Passion for Promarkers - Distressing (here made around all edges with some distress inks)
Two Sisters Challenge blog - Christmas Sparkle

I love Promarkers - Anything goes

Totally Gorjuss - Anything goes - With glitter