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