April Showers...

Hello and good afternoon everyone! Sorry everyone that I has been so quiet here lately. I really lost all energy the other week and just thought about my granny that passed away a few weeks ago. It totally drained me, and even the weather worked with me on this. All rain, just poured down and didn't want to stop, which is really suitable for this challenge from the Crafty Card Makers team. The theme for the coming two weeks are "April Showers gives May flowers". So a rainy image together with at least two flowers and you'll be fine for our challenge this time. 

My card this time is done with quite a lot of Magnolia products. I really was in the mood to colour with my distress inks and images that is the most fun to colour with these are the Magnolia stamps for some reason. Besides, I have an huge box filled with Magnolias that I have never use so I better get started. This is one of all my Tildas with rubber boots. I love the images with that, I actually have a whole collection with them. LoL 

Tilda is paired up with an old Kaiser Kraft pad called The Daisy pad. Flowers are from Magnolia, The ribbon girls and Wild Orchid Craft. Butterflies made with a MS punch, the fabric ones comes from my stash. All edges are covered with some heavy gesso, and I followed the sketch from CLP challenges. Glossy accent and Crackle paint is also used on the image. Some text stamps is also used and they are from Magnolia too. 

And this is what our challenge post says more or less this time. Be sure to pop by our challenge blog for all details and see what my teamies has been up too. Some fabby inspiration to be found there. 

"Tracey said 'Hello friends. When I think of April, I am always reminded of the saying "April showers bring May flowers". For this challenge, I would like to see cards that include an image of something rain related and are embellished with at least2 flowers. Your image could be a child splashing in puddles, a person walking in the rain, ducks waddling through puddles, an umbrella, etc.'

Please ensure your creation has both something rain related, and a minimum of two flowers to qualify for a winner or Top 5 slot. 

We are sponsored by 

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

 with a $10 GIFT VOUCHER

and

THE STAMPMAN 

 We are kindly sponsored for this challenge by The Stampman (and Lady of course!) who are ofering the winner a £10 voucher for their store, you can spend this online, in the shop or if you're lucky enough to see them at a show!  They have a ton of items in store, enough to tickle any crafty taste bud."

And this was all for today. Hope to see you over at the Crafty Card Makers. 

Love n hugs

Marie

Challenges for this card

CLP Challenges - Sketch

The cutie pie challenge - Lots of layers
Crafty Boots challenges - Use a stamped character
Created with love Challenges - Spring (lots of spring flowers used)
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

I'm having a guest

Hello and happy weekend! Hope you have a good one. Spent most of the day chasing clothes for my grannys funeral today. Manage half of the family, the kids. Found them each a lovely looking blazer in black, bought them big ones so the can (hopefully) use them again a few more times and Philip will take over Willy's when he has out grown it. They looked so handsome and grown up with them on. Granny would have love that. Now it's only me and my partner left and I dread that. I HATE BUYING CLOTHES for myself. Next to thunder storm and blood tests comes buying clothes for myself on the "hate list". A few more days left to find something, keep your fingers crossed that it will be smooth.

Ok, here is why I am here today. My olderst son Willy made a card the other day and he wanted me to show it here on my blog, so I have a 6 year old guest designer here on Cards by MI today. It started when he found one of my very few High Hope stamps that I really love but never know how to work with. This one is probably my favourite especially when used with the fabby sentiment "I might look tough and on attack, but I'm glad you got my back". Now he hasn't use it here but the image is cute anyway.

He spent a long time trying to colour the best he could, and then picked out some fabby designer papers from NitWit collections. Decided how he wanted to have his LO and made be cut the papers for him. Of course it took some looking into his mum's stash of decorations and this time the buttons was the favourite ones. And as he said, nothing is complete without some glitter stuff. So that is added in two different ways; stickles and some glitter borders from Anitas that I normally use for my Christmas cards. Pearls is also important but the ones that is a bit transparent is the best if you ask him. They look a bit like coloured water as he said.

So I promised to find him some challenges for his card as well. And here they are:

High Hope Stamps - Borders
ABC Challenges - Recycle (Buttons from old clothes
Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Love n hugs
Marie and the Willy-6, the guest designer

Using some buttons

Happy weekend everyone! Hope you're doing fine and have a lovely weekend planed for yourself. I hope to relax and take it easy as I am still adjusting to the warmer weather. The different air and moist is not that kind to my joints that's for sure. I also hope that I will be able to plant my last seeds today that has to be started up indoor. My dear partner gave me two smaller greenhouses earlier this week and I really want to get them up and in use by now. But I saw the weather forecast the other night and it's going to be cold a few nights. Have to bring in all the plants during the night, but that's ok, then I have my kitchen table back for the days at least. LoL

I've been a bit creative again. It's good that I am able to make a little card every now and then even when the kids are home sick. My olderst has been home for almost the whole week with fever and cough. Sounds familiar? Well, it might have been because I had it about two weeks ago and the youngest last week. LoL What a winter it has been! Hope we all start to heal soon.

So tomorrow it's a kiddi birthday party again and that is pretty much why I needed to make this card and I have actually been looking forward to making it. For some reason the creative spirit has come back to me and I am so grateful for that. Earlier this week I posted a card with a cow girl on it, a totally super cute image from the Paper Shelter and here comes an older image also from the Shelter. I have done quite a few cards with this image and I just adore him. He is so cute and such a joy to colour, and since my kids still are young I use him as much as I can. LoL (Sorry about the bad pictures, I have to take a photo class, soon.) LoL

He is coloured with my Letraset family and some prisma pens for the back ground. Also worked quite a lot with the blender especially on his hat to get a softer look on it. The designer papers are from NitWit Collections which by the way has a sale going on today. The digi set is called "Lil tumble weeds" and is inspired by cowboys in red, blue and white. Just to die for! Also used a cow girly paper set from NitWits for my earlier cowgirl card this week. For embellishments I have gone back to a favourite of mine making a lasso out of some jute string. A star charm (need to find more of those as I am running out of them) Also some buttons in brown is used to decorate my card. The inside is made to match up the front and to give space to a gift voucher and some text. The sentiment is made with my granddads old dynamo writer. It's super old but works as a charm. The text just says "happy birthday" in Swedish.

Have a brilliant weekend!

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Passion for Promarkers - Button it up
Cards for Men - Anything goes (Also running a DT call)
Created with Love - Reuse / recycle (my buttons from old clothes and the string from a gift)
Eureka Stamps Challenge - For the Boys
Love to Create - For the guys
The stamp Spot - masculine cards
Clear it Out Challenges - Anything goes with at least 2 buttons (My buttons! I have tons of them & they don't get use often enough)
Crafty Catz - One for the boyz

More blooms

Morning to you all. Midweek already, how fast does the time pass by? Still in tons of pain as my knee refuses to go back to normal again. It's probably the warm moist weather that gives all the trouble for me. I hope that it will settle soon as the pain is dreadful and I get so horrible tired of the pain. Oh well, keep smiling and it will be fine, some day. Wish it was fall again. Less pain and better air, high and clear hopefully. :)

So Wednesday means a new challenge over at the Paper Shelter and this week is a bit special to us. We have managed to reach and pass the magical line of 1000 follower of our beloved challenge blog and we are so grateful for that. It's such a milestone for us all, and I am so blessed to have been on this journey from the beginning. So to celebrate this we are having a little more prizes to give away this week. We are giving someone the normal $30 gift certificate and then we have another one worth $20 to give away as well. And the best part is that these prizes are open for everyone, not only the ones playing with the TPS products. So come on and join us in our challenge this week which is "Make it bloom". It should not be so hard to join in, right? We want to see at least two flowers on your creation, may it be on the dp, the image or as decorations, we don't mind, as long as your creation is blooming.

For my card I have used the team favourite called Adorable Cowgirl. She is coloured with my trusty Letraset Family. She is paired up with some wonderful designer papers that I believe is made for this image from NitWit collections. :) So perfect for this image, and the best part is that they have another set that is going in red and blues if you feel that is a better pick for your card. But I went girly with browns and pinks for this one, as the card was made for one of my nieces on her birthday. And they are girly girls both her and her twin sister. LoL

The flowers are from Magnolia, Wild Orchid Crafts and I am Roses. So a big mixture there. The lace is also from WOC. A swirl from Prima is also used together with some pearls from Bunny Zoe's.

So the them is Make it Bloom, please do come and join us and help celebrate our big milestone over at the Paper Shelter this week.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Crafty Sentiments - Lace and Pearls
Deep Ocean Challenges - Fantasty and flowers + DT call
Lexis Creations - Lace or/and ribbon
Sparkle and Sprinkle Challenges - Use a digi
Challenges 4 everybody - Always anything goes

Challenge time

Morning to you all! Hope the day is filled with sunshine and happiness. Myself is preparing to go to "Folkuniversitetet" where I have my "get back to working life" meeting of the week. Should have been the stables as well, but I am in way too much pain for that today. My right leg is refusing to straighten out at this point. So no good idea going to the stables then, besides I got tons of pain when I went there last. I am not really sure it's such good idea to be there for me unfortunately.

We have a new challenge up for you over at the Bearly Mine Challenges this week. The theme is set to "Spring flowers". That means we want to see some of them on your creation. Not that hard I hope?

For my card have I used one of Donnas new digi sets called Floral Surprise and Mini Dots. Don't ask why I used that soft organge mini dot stripe, I should have gone for something more bold but now it's too late. LoL The image is from The stamping boutique and is called Tulips. Tulips was my grandmothers favourite flowers and I had here in my mind when making this card. It's a little more than a week since she passed now and I will miss her dearly. She was over 98 years old and very senile so it was a blessing for her, still...

The image is coloured with my Letraset Family and added details with my Prisma pencils. The daisy flowers are from the Ribbon girls and I made the leaves with a boss cut die. Gemstones from Magnolia. And the card design is inspired by a sketch from Little Claire Designs. I love the clean look of this design even if I have altered it slightly. Artistic freedom, right?

Our sponsors this week is I am Roses and The Greeting Farm. More info is found over the challenge blog.

Do please come and join us and spread some flowers into the world! We could all use some colours in our lifes.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Little Clarie Designs - Sketch and spring theme (Nothing says spring more to me than tulips, hope I have not gone to far from the sketch, wasn't my attention to mess it up.)
ABC Challenges - 1 - 2 - 3 (I have used 3 designer papers, two daisy flowers and 1 image)
My Craft Spot - Anything goes
Sparkle and Sprinkle - Use a digi

New challenge creation

Happy Monday to you all. Hope your weekend was lovely and peaceful. I spent the whole day outside yesterday and now have severe back pain. I never learn to stop in time. This time it was my plants that needed or got my attention wherever they wanted too or not. The sun was shining and it was great to be out doors for a change. Just wish I had thought about the over doing part. As I have heard there is a day tomorrow as well. LoL Oh well, halfway there by now. I just hope that my new (two) small green houses will arrive this week, so I get my kitchen table back. LoL

We have by the way a new challenge up for you over at Crafty Card Makers. This time we want to see a matching set with some kind of gift rapping or box and a matching tag or card. I went box and card. Sponsoring this week is "my" digital company The Paper Shelter. So I have gone all in for this set.

The designer papers I have used is from the paper pack called The happy couple and the image is called in the 20's. The new version. She is coloured by me of course with my Letraset family, but for some reason her face got a tiny bit yellow on the box. Maybe the paper I printed her on. Oh, shit happens as my oldest stays all the time at the moment. It looks quite ok anyway. Flowers are from WOC and so is the lace and pearl string used on the box. Also some berries and glass leafs from Magnolia. The small lace is probably from Molly's here in Sweden or The ribbon girls. Not sure there. The sentiment stamp used is from Bildmålarna.

I know that this is a bit more tricky challenge, but maybe you should take part anyway? You know it's never to early to start preparing for Christmas. It's here sooner than you think. LoL And do you know what? You do have two weeks to play along in our challenges over at Crafty Card Makers.

And here comes some info from our sponsors this week.  

THE PAPER SHELTER 

with a $20 gift certificate for their fabulous store

 If you are looking for fun, cute and lovely digi stamps for your paper-crafting or web design projects, The Paper Shelter is your one-stop boutique! This growing catalog of high-quality digi stamps with many different kind of options offers a multitude of themes such as everyday items, holidays, special occasions, children, adorable characters and creatures. Stamps are available in standard black and white line art, as well as in pre-colored format. Images are wonderful for coloring and make perfect additions to greeting cards and scrapbook albums. In "The Paper Shelter" you'll also find great other resources for all crafts (or digital) projects, like Paper Packs, Printables, Accessory sheet, etc. 

and 
WOODWARE CRAFT COLLECTION 

 with this fabulous prize:-

Woodware are a Yorkshire based family owned business, as well as distributing Dreamweaver Stencils and Stampendous Stamps we have a wonderful range of stamps designed for us by Francoise Read and Jane Gill. We also scour the world for new and innovative products for the crafty card maker, and have a great range of punches and tools of the trade, to find stockists in your area or to see the range visit the website www.woodware.co.uk.

Our design team are playing along with the challenge so check out our blog, which is there for inspiration at www.woodware.co.uk/blog.

Our prize is £12.00 to spend at your favourite Woodware Stockist, either in store or on line.
Happy Crafting! 

So there you have our sponsors as well. So come on and join us. You have two weeks to join in the fun with us!

Love n hugs

Marie

Challenges for this card/set

Make it Monday - Always anything goes

Guest designing for Forever Friends challenges

Hi there! Hope you had a better start of your week than I am. Been "hit" with a cold, again. I think it is number 5 for this year. And with that comes the back pain. I love my life at this moment.

But back to the more fun stuff. There is a new challenge starting over at Forever Friends challenges today and as Bearly Mine is sponsoring a few of us from that team is guest designing for this "Punches and Dies" challenge.

As I didn't have and Forever Friends stamp, well I found a few that is for Christmas and I wasn't it Christmas mood, I used a sticker sheet that I found laying around. I think I got it from a card making Magazine a few years ago. Never throw anything away, you never know when you need it right? LoL

Designer papers used is Mini dots, Just Plaid and Spring Delights. Dies used is corner die from Magnolia, Lace border from Memory Box, Butterfly punch from WoodWare and so is the leafy punch. Flowers are from Prima and pearls from Bunny Zoes.

Better get back to bed as the world is spinning again and I need to rest again, still after spending two days laying flat in my bed, I need to get back in there. Wonder if this comes from the hockey game I went on last Friday or the stables last Tuesday? Probably a combo, the back pain wouldn't be this bad if I had kept away from the Stables but it was nice being there cuddling some horses. I just forgot that I can't use my arms above shoulder hight. ;)

Anyway, thanks for looking. Hope you'll come and join us over at the Forever Friends Challenges this time around.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card

Where is that doily?

Hello and happy sunshine to you all. It's a lovely day here in Kalmar, Sweden with bright sunshine and the sky is blue. Can it be spring showing up? We'll wait and see, don't want to say it out "to early" do we? But I feel my allergy coming on, so it must be true even if it's still really cold.

Speaking of cold, so is my card for this weeks challenge over at the Paper Shelter. Well, the colours I have used is very cold and then paired up with silver, makes the feeling even colder. But I love how it turned out and besides I have used both yellow and brown to the icy colours, so a little warmth. LoL Even if you hardly can see the designer papers they are from Bildmålarna and Prima.

Miss Grumpy (A little bit Grumpy) is coloured with my Letraset markers and some Prisma pens. I fussy cut her as she was in  a bad size for this creation. Tons of details is added to the mix. Gesso, crackle paint, glitter powder, flowers, metal corners, cheese cloth, ribbon, lace, corrugated paper, pearls, you name it, it's here. And in this mix of paints and other stuff there is a doily even if it might be hard to spot. Maybe I used a tiny bit too much of all that paint, but it was so fun! :) The doily is to the upper right if you missed it by any chance.

So why am I talking so much about a tiny doily? Well, the new challenge over at the Paper Shelter this week is "Use a doily" on your creation. That's why I am pointing out that it is really there. :)

As usual we have our $30 gift voucher up for grabs when you play with a TPS image in our challenges. Three digis is up for grabs if you play with a different brand. My team has been amazing this week, so be sure to pop on over to take a look at what they have done and maybe leave some love for them. We all love that. ;)

Ok, this will be it for now. I still have 6 more cards to make this week. So behind and I better get started. Why is there so many birthday parties to attend for the kids and the biggest question of them all; why are they always at the same time? First nothing, then nothing and then 32 of them at once. Oh well better get cracking.

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card
Passion for Promarkers - Fantasy
I love Promarkers - Favourite colour (Blue and white)
Papertake Weekly - Anything goes
Party Time Tuesdays - Ribbons and blooms
Bunny Zoe - Girly

Sketch time

Morning fellow crafters and friends. Hope you had a good start on you day and that you are ready for a new challenge from us at the Bearly Mine Designs. This week Donna is providing us with a lovely sketch to work on. Feel free to rotate or flip but we must be able to see the sketch in your creation. Great! Can't wait to come and see what you do with this one.

This week I have used one of the Paper Shelter pre coloured images as I messed up card number one and card number two that I made for this challenge. Not that clever to forget to attach half of the card and then think you have followed the sketch. Second one got lovely dirt print from my cat Tage. He is really living on the edge at the moment. Grrr!

So that left me no option a late card making night it was and I was so nervous and still are. So hard concentrating.  I am heading for the stable this afternoon for the first time in about 15 years. I suddenly feel afraid of horses! My gosh! I spent four and a half year riding in school while the others was doing their sports. At that time you wasn't allowed by the doctors to take part in the normal sports education but riding, cycling and swimming was ok. It didn't hurt your joints. Now they say, do as much as you can without getting more pain. It will not be any riding lessons but a class about leadership and things like that. Still nervous if you wonder. :)

I show the second one I made as well, didn't like how that turned out but it's done and I show it anyway. I have used a TPS image here as well and that's also a bit big for the sketch, but at least I have coloured it all by myself. LoL Here is designer paper used from Floral Breeze and paired up with a Marianne die swirl and some punched flowers. The lace border is made with a Magnolia die. Added a charm for decoration on this card as well.

So this little image called Mucha Influence Spring will help me out this time. She's pre coloured, told you that before and the designer paper is from the digi set called Paper lace. A doily is added just as the sketch suggests or a circle if you prefer that. I went for doily and then added some flowers and tried to get some text into them instead of just plain text.

Sponsoring us this week is Marianne Design and Letraset. From Marianne Design you have a lovely set of dies up for grabs and from Letraset you can win a set of skin tones markers. They are great and most of you probably know that I usually use their products to colour my images. I just get adventurous every now and then and use something else, like today. See you over at Bearly Mines!

Love n hugs
Marie

Challenges for this card

Sista utmaningen för mig i Scraplagrets CC

Hej igen, tillbaka till svenskan igen. Hur det nu ska gå, tycker väl jag är helt tokig som tycker det är jobbigt att skriva på svenska. Tror inte jag kommer att vänja mig. Tur att jag bara "behöver" svenskblogga några gånger om året. LoL

Nu är det dags att "redovisa" kort nummer tre  med utmaningsnummer 4, Gör ett Magnolia kort med minst en Magnolia stämpel. Sagt och gjort, ett vårigt Magnolia kort kommer här. Färglagt är det med Letraset Markers av olika sorter, och för lite mer detaljerade skuggor har jag använt prisma pennor.

Designer papper kommer from Forever Friends, den söta lilla bruna björnen ni vet? Han har egna papper också, i fina våriga pastelfärger. ;)  Gick lite trögt i idesprutan idag, fick lite hjälp på vägen av en skiss som jag hittade på en inspirationsrunda i blogvärlden. Hade kanske varit bra om jag kommit ihåg var. Lite för många kort på lite för kort tid den senaste dagarna. :) Ville ju inte missa CC:n och så var jag något sen med några av mina DT alster för två utmaningar som går upp senare i veckan, men nu är vi nästan ikapp igen, efter att ha hittat tillbaka till inspirationen. Bättre sent än aldrig eller hur var det nu?

För att dekorera detta mästerverk, (läses med ironi) så använde jag några blandade blomster from WOC och I am Roses. Hattnålarna kommer nog också från WOC tror jag. Pearl maker och några pärlor är också använda för att ge lite detaljer till kortet. Frosted lace glitter stickles från Rangers är använt på alla blommorna.

Tack för denna CC:n vilket alltid är roligt att ta del av. Hoppas det blir fler av dessa!

Kramar
Marie

Humour over at Crafty Card Makers

Morning fellow crafters! Time for a new challenge over at Crafty Card Makers today. I don't have any card for this challenge as I couldn't put myself together to work humour out and make a card about it after that horrible lost of the girl at kindergarten. It has been three long weeks since it happened now. Sometimes things feels normal but other days everything is up side down. It shows so well on my kid if it's going to be a good day or a bad one. We are still working the anger and fear out but it's getting better day by day. We have come to the stage when he has realized she ain't coming back. Well his other little friends has come to that stage too by now, at least some of them and I believe that it has an huge impact on each other, for good and worst. Thank you heaven for wonderful teachers over at the kindergarten! And I do feel that it's better to get it out than keep it inside.

So no new card from me today but my teamies has been good and has made some lovely inspiration for you all. Please drop by the Crafty Card Makers blog and see what they have been up to. Please join in and be sure to follow the rules so we don't have to nag you about that and then remove your entry. We are pick gals you see. You really need to follow our theme set and play by our rules. Not entering too many challenges with your card, use the right sentiment, colours or what ever we are asking for-not that hard. You really just have to read our posts. :)

The coming part here is from the Crafty Card Makers Blog...

It's April Fool's Day, a day for fun and trickery! Suze would therefore like to see some humour in your project. Perhaps a funny image or sentiment, or you might just want to add some googly eyes. Remember, laughter is the best medicine - so have fun! 

PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE RULES BEFORE ADDING YOUR CREATION AND CHECK IT MEETS THE CRITERIA AS LAID OUT ABOVE - ANY ENTRY NOT COMPLYING WILL UNFORTUNATELY BE REMOVED 

We are sponsored by 

DI'S DIGI DOWNLOADS

 with a

$10 GIFT VOUCHER 

I have been drawing since a child and studied graphics at College many years ago, I now work as a Medical photographer part time but my love was always drawing. I started cardmaking about 4yrs ago when I bought my daughter a cardmaking kit which we did together, but I’m afraid I got the bug! My daughter preferred scrapbooking. I then started looking online at other blogs and this then became my passion and I loved sharing my cards with likeminded people. 

I love stamping and loved finding images, but sometimes I could not find what I wanted so I started to draw myself. 

This then has become my second addiction and I have never looked back, I love thinking of new images, and its just fabulous to see others take them and make them into beautiful works of art. 

Long may it continue! 

and 

HOBBY ART

with these two fabulous prizes:-

Mouse Power

Bubble Bath

As a family business we're a friendly, helpful, bunch at Hobby Art.  All our stamps are designed by us and manufactured in Britain. Look at the gallery on my blog - jennymayes.com - for lots of card ideas using the Hobby Art range.  We're pleased to sponsor the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge and look forward to seeing the entries. Good luck everyone.  Jenny and all. X

So even if I am not joining in this time, it doesn't mean that you can't right?  I would love to see what you come up with for this challenge. I can need that smile you know.

Love n hugs

Marie