* Happy 2011 **

You all will know Ali Edwards One Little Word, and my word for 2011 will be ENJOY.

* Christmas *

Long time, no blogging. I am very busy with all things christmassy and it's very exhausting with this kind of weather we are having to ride to work and back on my bike. My route is normally taking app. 25 minutes or so, now it takes me over an hour.
Plus I am trying to keep up with December Daily. Until now I only have photo's and notes in my word document, because I didn't have Photoshop elements yet. But I got it this week as an early present from Bol.com and got it installed yesterday. So no more reason to delay.
So I am leaving with a small impression of the Christmas decorations in my home.

* more christmas cards *

Yesterday evening I finished 2 more cards for Christmas. I must really hurry up, because it's almost time to send them and I only have a few. So guess I will be busy this weekend with card making.
First one is for Get Sketchy sketch #66, however, I am too late too post, but I liked it too much not to. Love the lost of bling bling. Again I almost only used materials not bought in official scrap store. Second one is for this weeks sketch over at Card Patterns. It's sketch 92 already! Sadly I have missed a lot of sketches over the last few weeks (months) but life has kept me busy.

The weather is really very cold over here. It's -8 degrees, but due to the strong eastern wind it feels like -15 to -20 degrees!! And there is snow and the road are not kept very clean this time. I fear the roads will be icy tomorrow....

* Sunday's Photo's *

These are yesterdays photo's when I was out in the woods, trying to take shots of the first real frost around here. It was cold and I wore thin gloves so I could keep them on while photography, but still my fingers were half frozen. But ... I like the result.

* first snow*

Today the first snow of the winter fell. It wasn't expected in the area where I live, but still.
It is a beautiful sight, the whole world covered in snow. I hope I can shoot some photo's tomorrow, but at the same time, I don't like it too much because of the traffic chaos and accidents happening.
Thankfully, most of the roads I ride, were either wiped clean, and/or salted. So I was reasonably able to ride the bike. It only took me 15 minutes longer than usual to get home ;)

* Flower decoration *

This is the latest flowerdecoration, again a wreath but this time all in green colors with a candle light holder. One is standing on the salon table and one on the dining table and it really looks great. It always is nice to have flowers in the living room, I think. It gives warmth and a comfy homey feeling.
Just a few more weeks, and than the first christmas decoration will be made. I can hardly wait. With Chrismas coming, I really should do something about the layout of my blog. It has this header since spring I think. Also I have bought so many digi kits around the christmas theme lately, (also for my december daily digi) that I must do something about it. Very soon I promise!

* Magical Christmas *

I have to start working on my Christmas Cards now, if I want to finish everything early and on time enough before Christmas. So last evening I made one after the sketch of CardPatterns.
What I love about this card is that all stuff used, doesn't come from official scrapbook stores. The papers & rhinestones come from Kruidvat and were a gift of my mom. The lilac paper is from another store Euroland or something. The ribbon from a Garden Center and the trees from Wibra :)

Well gotta move on and go to work now. It's raining - again.

* Cool Dude *

I needed to created a new card for my nephew who is celebrating his birthday this weekend. So what better opportunity to do a round with my favorite challenge blogs to pick out a sketch to use. I have chosen for sketch #68 of Dutch card lovers for my card. I wanted something fancy and extreme, but that didn't work, so that one ended in the trashbin and my card turned out rather simple. But I think the colors make it spark.
Hope he will like it.
Furthermore, I am trying my hand at a December Daily booklet this year - again. Last year I tried it and made my paper album in advance. And it's still lying around somewhere. Empty! So this time I am doing it digital. I have both 2 digi kits and made 2 pre-layouts already, so I only have to add a photo. Hopefully this will work for my this year.

Well, it's friday finally, so have a nice weekend. Let's hope it will stop raining.

* Happy Halloween *

* bad blogger *

I have been a very bad blogger lately. Since my last post which is over 5 weeks ago, I haven't made a single card or any other scrap creation for that matter.
Butt.... I took up finally some of my photography again, which also has been practically neglected for the last months this year.

Finally, finally the colors are changing, after weeks of rain and rain it surely didn't look like it would happen. But there it is one splash of color!

The woods are amazing, too bad it's raining again otherwise I would go out for a photographic tour again. Tomorrow it will hopefully be dry, so I can go out again.

I also have to make a Birthday card for my nephew. His birthday is coming up very shortly so I have to move.

Bye.

* Karen's Doodles Fall card *

Yesterday I was on the site of Karen's Doodles and saw new too cute digi stamps for FALL. And since I *love* fall - its my favorite Season, I couldn't help it, I had to buy this cutie :) This weeks challenge of the dutch site of Karen's Doodles, is anthing goes. So a great opportunity to use the new stamp.
I used a sketch of Dutch Card Lovers, since it has been way too long ago since I played along with their sketches.
I am very proud of the coloring I did on this card, I think it really turned out well. (I really should practise coloring more) I used some old Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice papers to fitt the FALL theme. I also tried a (for me) new technique with stamping a swirly stamp on the orange and white flower, so the colors would be better suitable for FALL.
Supplies: white cardstock, Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice papers, ribbon, orange flower Kaisercraft, white flower Prima Marketing, pins, digi stamp from Karens Doodles, Crafts Too corner punch, Imiginsce swirl stamp.

* last minute card *

I needed a card for a wedding day... urgently... So I grapped my fav romantic papers (still Rose Garden from PaperMania, though I am practically running out of enough papers to make a decent card and only have a few very small scraps left)
Thankfully this weeks sketch of Card Patterns was - again great - just what I needed to get inspiration to make this card. It fell together effortlessly and it's already posted also today :)
Supplies: White cardstock, Rose Garden Papermania papers, doily lace E flowers Prima Marketing, Flowers Kaisercraft, pearls, pearl brads, digi stamp from myself, scalloped scissors, doily lace punch Martha Stewart, corner punch crafts too.

Enjoy the rest of your sunday!

* Music *

Over at Kenny K's the new stamps are out and believe me they are awesome. They all revolve around music, as does there challenge of this week. I couldn't help it, I had to buy one of those super duper stamps and use it for the challenge. Besides I love the theme, I am crazy about music, cannot live without it!
I also combined it with this weeks challenge of Card Patterns (I turned the sketch)
The papers I used are from Very Merry - October Afternoons winter paper line of last year. Thought it would fit nicely because of the music paper.
Supplies: White& red cardstock, Very Merry October Afternoon papers, fiskars borderpunch, scalloped scissors, text digi from Create with TLC, digi from Kenny K, buttons, Prima Marketing Swirl, Derwent pencils.

* Halloween * Birthday boy *

This card was created for Dutch Card Lovers, which had a great new sketch this week. It has been far too long ago since I played along with them and I thought it would be a good opportunity to combine the sketch with a great challenge over at the Doodle Diva's blog from Karens Doodles. You get this great freebie and one of the things you have to do is create a card with it. How hard can it be? I love the digi's from Karen and this freebie is no exception. I dug into my stash and found some old Basic Grey - still one of my fav brands even though I don't use it too often these days, might need to change that ;) - and some black cardstock. Sat down my old pc and created some text to go with it. Supplies: white & black cardstock, Basic Grey Ambrosia papers, ribbon, buttons, fiskars borderpunch, Karen Doodle's digi stamp, my own word art.

The next card is for Card Patterns - I always love there sketches. Again this one was a very basic one, but it was just perfect for the birthday card I had to create for my Nephew. Due to the busy patterns & colors, it's great to have a more simple sketch. The digi is from Sliekje. She is a great artist and her stamps are too darn cute. The papers are from provocraft - again some oldies from my stash, I don't remember how the series was called though. Plus I used again my very first bought borderpunch!

Supplies: White, orange & green cardstock, Provocraft papers, blue ribbon, Fiskars borderpunch, image digi from Sliekje, text digi from Pollycraft.

Enjoy the rest of the sunday & have a nice week!

* another round of challenge blogs *

Yes again some cards. Seems I really got my mojo back and I have tons of papers still lying around waiting for being used to create something. One of those is a summerline of Imaginisce. I don't remember the name and don't want to go through my stash again, so I will try to find it later on the internet.
Anyway, it's for 2 Challenges. The card is based on the current sketch from card patterns and the challenge from Kenny K, this time the theme is in the SummerTime. Supplies; pink and green cardstock, Imiginisce papers, Bo Bunny on the dot green, Zva Creative swirls, jewel, McGill flower punch, EK Succes flower punch, Martha Stewart doily lace borderpunch, scalloped scissors, Jolanda's digistamp (text), Kenny K digistamp, Colorsoft Pencils.

Other challenges for this card:

Creative Card Crew: Cute & Girly

Incy Wincy: Summer Fun

The pink elephant: Summer fun

Next is again a christmas card and this time I used one of the digi's from Karen's Doodles. It's also for the challenge over at the Dutch Challenge site of Karen's Doodles.

The papers I used are some old MME papers; colorful christmas, which I like because they are bright and cheerful :) Supplies: My Mind's Eye Colorful Christmas papers, snowflake punch, Fiskars borderpunch, jewels, Karens Doodles digi stamp, Colorsoft pencils.

Enjoy the rest of the week. There won't be much time for crafting for me, too busy at work these days.

* more christmast cards *

And again I am too late to upload my card based on Get Sketchy's sketch #49... I only finished it last evening and didn't have time to upload until now. ah well, I like my card any way. It's my first attempt at vintage style with printed pictures, and I think it's not too bad. I used the old BG line Wassail. Almost ashamed to say, but can you believe I have it lying here for ages already and have never made a project with it!!! Any way, I like it with the old fashioned pictures of santa and angels. I think there will follow more :)
Supplies: white cardstock, Basic Grey Wassail papers, vintage picture from the Internet, red and green ribbon, my own wordart.

Next is also vintage style with a more modern look for Card Patterns sketch. Already nr. 75! again a great sketch to work with.

Supplies: White and pink cardstock, October Afternoon papers, vintage picture from the internet, pink ribbon, white organza ribbon, pin, my own wordart, Fiskars borderpunch.

Enjoy your weekend!

* another KK challenge *

Last sunday the new challenge at Kenny K's was online. It was again a terrific sketch. Unfortunately I was not able to enter last week even though I bought specially a new digi :). So a good opportunity to use it now. I am proud of the coloring for this one. I think it turned out quite ok. I used for each color 3 different pencils and tried to mix them as best as I could. I still need a lot of practise.... Supplies: Going green papers Basic grey, green cardstock, Kaiserkraft flowers, Crafts too corner punch, jewel, green & orange ribbon, Derwent colorsoft pencils, Kenny K digi stamp, Jolanda's text stamp.

* Baby card * free wordart *

As promised in the previous post, below the link to the word art. Just leave a comment when you download. Enjoy! Futhermore another card. It has been ages since I last entered the Get Sketchy Challenges

so it was high time to do so again :) I loved this weeks sketch since it's not a pattern I would make normally, so it was a real challenge. But I like the outcome. The card is also for Karens Doodles Dutch challenge site, and the theme is baby card or project. Don't you just love the great digi's from Karen. This girl is just too cute. I just papermania's beautiful papers and again I used my own digi stamp. Supplies: Papermania Rose Garden papers, Prima Marketing flowers, roses, Digi stamp Karen's Doodles, Derwent pencils.

* Christmas in July *

I found a new challenge site which had a great sketch to work with this week - Paper Play Challenge. So I decided to enter and combine a challenge from Karens Doodles US where the theme is Christmas in July. And if you have a lot of cards to make, better start on time, right?
I have chosen for First Snow digi stamp combined with my own stamp, which will be offered in a next post as freebie. The papers are Eskimo Kisses which is Basic Greys amazing X mas line of last year. I still have some scraps of those, enough to start making some Christmas cards already.
This is also for:
2 sisters challenge: Christmas in July
The shabby tearoom: Christmas in July
Fab n Funky: Christmas in July
Ooh La La: Christmas in July
Cute card Thursday: christmas headstart




Supplies: white, pink, green cardstock, Eskimo Kisses by Basic Grey, Fiskars borderpunch, digi stamp Karen's Doodles, my own wordart, Derwent pencils.

* again some new cards *

Seems I really got my mojo back, because yesterday I finished 2 more cards. The first one is with a great image from Kenny's. (I love the fact that I can buy stamps now that I've got paypal finally) Don't you love it? The card is based on a sketch of Dutch Card Lovers. Kenny's challenge was to use pastels, so I dug out an old paperblock with lovely summery pastel colored papers Madame Royale. Which I haven't used for quite a while.
Other challenge: Wild orchid Challenge - Flowers Supplies: We R Memory makers Madame Royale papers, lilac cardstock, orange cardstock, white puffy paint, scrappers floss, jewels, McGill Flower punch, EK Succes flower punch, Kenny K digi stamp, my own text.

And the last is a card for Card Patterns & Karens Doodles Scandinavian challenge blog nr. 18.

Unfortunately the tiny squares are hardly visable, because as usual I put to much on the card, but they are there!

Karen has a sale at this moment, so it was a nice opportunity to buy some stamps and get one for free. The challenge was love. And isn't this girly lovely? How she likes the butterflies.

Supplies: green & pink cardstock, Basic Grey Green at Heart papers, green & pink ribbon, pin, Prima Marketing flowers, button, Zva Creative bling bling, Karen Doodles digi stamp, my own text stamp.

* freebie time again *

Yes, its about time to post a freebie again. It has been too long ago.
Please leave a comment if you download & have fun using it.
(click on the picture to get the download)

* Football finals *

Tomorrow we are in the finals!

* After a break.... *

I finished some cards again and I enjoyed crafting again.

The first is for CardPatterns sketch 71 already again. There are some anniversaries coming up, so I started making some cards for that already. I used the romantic papers of Papermania together with a picture of Mo Manning for a fun note. Added some flowers and roses and pearls and it's done.
Supplies: pink cardstock, doily paper, prima marketing E flowers, roses, Crafts too corner punch, digi stamp Mo Manning, my own digistamp, ribbon, Zva Creative pearl swirl.

And I made a fun card with Kenny K stamp. Don't you love it? I am going to buy one or two more. I combined them with the bright colors from My Minds Eye and another digi stamp from TLC. (The card is based on last weeks sketch from DCL, but I was not on time to enter)

Supplies: My Minds Eye papers, Bo Bonny on the dot, crafts too corner punch, digi stamp from Kenny K, digi stamp from TLC, ribbon, scalloped scissors.