* After a long break....*

It has been very very long ago that I entered a cardmaking challenge :( I have been too busy scrapping layouts again (and enjoying the process even when it's digi, I am so into digi scrapping these days.) But I wanted to make some Valentine cards to send. So this is the first one. I used oldie papers (guess everything will be called "oldie" now :) ) from Imaginisce and thought the color combo was just right for Valentine's Day. I used one of my own word arts on this card. The card is based on the Dutch Card Lovers Sketch of this week, which I turned around to fit my design needs.

You can download my wordart by clicking on the text. I hope you enjoy it.

I found some more quotes on the Internet, which I will be using for wordart, so check back later.

One more day of work and than weekend, unfortunately the weatherforecast is rather bad, rain, rain and rain again.... sigh...

* 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.

* 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.

* 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!

* 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.

* 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.

* Get Sketchy * Dutch Card Lovers *

Last week I started on a card for GS #37 but had no time to finish it up, but last weekend I had some spare time and finished it. Used again the great Bo Bunny papers. Supplies: Bo Bunny papers, on the dot papers, Meljen digistamp, American crafts flowers, roses, Fiskars border punch, organza ribbon, rope.

And I finished the new sketch from Get Sketchy as well. I will send it this week to a friend who is celebrating her birthday. Supplies: Basic Grey go green papers, Bugaboo digi stamp, digi stamp by Jolanda - Scrapaddictive, McGill flower punch, EK Success flower punch, roses,scalloped scissors, green & purple ribbon.

And the last card is for DCL. I made a card for a colleagues wedding day, coming up in July. I have several more to make and I think the romantic papers of Paper mania are just great for it.

Supplies: pink cardstock, PaperMania papers, Kaiser craft flowers, Prima marketing flowers, roses, pearl string, doily paper, Martha Stewart Borderpunch doily lace, pink and green ribbon.

The weather is finally starting to be more sunny and a little warmer.

* long blogpost *

I used my new October Afternoon The Thrift Shop papers to create a "vintage" card. It's my first attempt at creating a vintage card. I am not so happy with the end result, since its not really vintage to me. So I guess I have to keep trying to make it better. Supplies: white cardstock, October Afternoon The Thrift Shop papers, Prima Marketing flowers, Paper Mania pearl brads, Zva Creative bling bling swirl, ribbon, lace, digi stamp from Scrapaddictive, digistamp from Digital 2 4 Tuesday.

And here is my card for this weeks sketch from Card Patterns & the challenge from Dutch Card Lovers. A recipe this time, a round card, stitching & flowers.
And it was a hard challenge for me this round. Creating a round card. I search the whole house for suitable moulds to trace circles to use for my card..... Stitching was also a struggle, I don't have a sewing machine and by hand it was really bad... so I redid and make faux stitches by punching holes and tracing a black line. Of course it isn't the real thing, so I wonder if it's sufficient for the challenge.. I added the text in the heart of the digistamp.
On the photo it isn't visable, it's way too dark, but I used purple & pink on the dot papers of Bo Bunny, but on the photo, the purple almost looks black.

The card is also for the following challenges:

Meljens: challenge 5 shapes

Sentimental sundays: challenge 2 for someone special

Cupcake craft challenges: challenge 88 don't be square

Creative Cottage Challenge: Challenge 8 Circles

Allsorts Challenges: Challenge 50 animals

Craft Challenge: Challenge 48 Shaped card

Tiddly Inks: Challenge 2 Mothersday

Fun with Shapes: Mothersday

Lilly Boo Too: May challenge Shapes

Quixotic Paperie: Challenge 23 Distressing

Supplies: white cardstock, purple & pink on the dot cardstock Bo Bunny, Bo Bunny Jazmyne papers, Zva Creative bling bling swirl, scalloped scissors, Martha Stewart doily lace punch, McGill punch, EK succes punch, jewel flower, digi stamp Cuddly Buddly

* Another one with a digi stamp *

I am totally in to coloring digistamps at the moment. They are so easy to use and the "stamping" never goes wrong - like happens a lot to me with normal stamps - plus you can make it in every size you need.
Today I used a digi from Pollycraft to create a Happy B-Day card. (sorry for the bad photo, but it's too dark to do without flash now) The card it based on different challenges, first the pollycraft challenge in use of colors. I have picked green as extra color besides pink and brown. (love the color combo, I used some older Basic Grey Sultry papers to fit the colors. Plus I used puffy paint, which was one of my favorites to use a while back, but I realized I haven't used it a lot lately)

Plus the new sketch of DCL. ( I have never finished a challenge so soon, today the sketch is posted and today I finished my card :) )

Other challenges:

Creative Cottage - Challenge 6 things with wings

Stamp Something - Something layering

The Pixie Cottage - Challenge 14 Buttons

Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 108 Touchy Feely

Paper take Weekly - Cuteness

Creatalicious Challenges - Challenge 9 Create something with flowers & wings

Flutter by Wednesday - Challenge 105 Fairy

One stop craft - Challenge 76 Things with wings

Incy Wincy - Challenge 38 something magical

sir Stampalot - Fantasy

Materials: Basic Grey Sultry papers, crafts too corner punch, Pollycraft digistamp, my own digi text stamp, Prima Markteting flowers, Kaisercraft Flowers, puffy paint white, buttons, organza ribbon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

* Thank you *

It was time to play with a sketch of Dutch Card Lovers again. I love the sketch of this week - can you believe it's already week 40?
This is how my card turned out. I planned to add a text for mothersday to it, but there was no room anymore, so I will put it inside later by hand. It a bouquet of flowers for my mom for Mothersday. I love the cute bear stamp of Meljen and it fitted my occassion perfectly. I colored them with Derwent pencils.
Again I used the beautiful papers of Papermania :) Supplies: white & pink cardstock, Papermania papers, Prima Marketing E-line flowers, American Crafts brads, Zva Creative crystal swirl, jewels, digistamp Meljen Designs.

* With Sympathy *

Yesterday I got me some new font's so I started playing again to make some new texts for cards. One of the results is put on the card below & will be available on my blog next friday as freebie.
The text came in handy when I saw this weeks challenge over at Dutch Card Lovers; a sketch and an extra challenge to use black, white and a color. I had to search long through my stash to find some black and white, since I never scrap with these colors. But I found some left overs from Bo Bunny Alyssia and used the backside :)
The colors IRL are better looking than on the photo. Here the top of the ribbon almost looks black, while its purple/fuchsia. Just as the paper and the color of the calla lily are now not matching. Supplies: white, black, fuchsia cardstock, Bo Bunny Alyssia papers, rusty pickle digistamp, text digistamp by me, ribbon.

I haven't blogged about the books I am reading for quite a while. That doesn't mean I stopped reading, I only stopped writing about it due to lack of time. Mostly I finish 3 to 4 books in a month. Now I am finally ready the new novel of Dan Brown, the lost symbol. I started only few days ago and am already over half way through. Let me tell you, it's hard to put down. A great book!

Enjoy the rest of the sunday!

* cute girlie card *

I made a quick card and finished it in less than an hour (I am a slow scrapper so this is very quick for me!) and I still love the outcome. The card is for the sketch challenge of Card Patterns & for this weeks challenge @ Dutch Card Lovers which is a color combo challenge. Normally I don't to color challenges because I find them too difficult but this one came together very nicely I think :) Supplies: white, blue & pink cardstock, Daisy Bucket patterned papers, Kaisercraft flowers, jewels, Zva Creative swirl, A. Kramer digistamp, Jolanda's text digi stamp.

Unfortunately the weekend is already over ... Have a good week!

* Thanks * Happy Holidays *

Even though it was very busy at work and I was home late, I found some time to make a few cards. Which is quite relaxing after the stress of the day :).

First a card based on DCL sketch 30. I mirrored the sketch. I still love the Alyssia papers and for the new collection I love Sophie & Jazmyne :) supplies: white cardstock, Bo Bunny Alyssia papers, corner punch, Martha Stewart doily lace punch, Zva Creative swirl, jewels, pin, organza ribbon, Imaginisce stamp, kaisercraft flowers, Melissa Frances rubon.

Next is a Christmas card. This one is based on sketch 22 from Get Sketchy. I turned there sketch around to fit my card.
I decided to start making the occassional X mas card, to make sure I am ready on time this year. I love this Grandma's Kitchen soup collection and did you already see the new Egg Drop Soup papers? Delicious and fun for easter. Supplies: white, green, red cardstock, Jillibean Soup papers Grandma's Kitchen soup, ribbon, puffy paint, Studio G text stamp.

This week it was very very cold due to the strong east wind. Freezing! Tomorrow and some days there after the weather forecast says it will be snowing again! I have enough of this kind of weather I must admit. It may be over and please let spring start blooming....

It's almost weekend and I am so looking forward to it, plan to do some digi scrapping, got some things to prep for work and go out to photograph. I am thinking about a new DSL and think nikon D90, so if any one has this camera, just let me know how you like it.

* Happy Birthday * XOXOXO *

The new sketch from Dutch Card Lovers was a real challenge for me, until I went through my stash of papers and found some papers I haven't used in ages and was already bought a while ago.
I needed to make a male birthday card and these are always difficult for me. But this paper is cheerful and fun and yet very fitting for a male birthday card.
Again I used a stamp I never used before so I am really on a roll with using old materials and new materials not used yet.

Supplies: white cardstock, Daisy D's patterend paper, Papermania stamp, Inkadinkado stamp, Prima Flower, jewel, puffy paint, rope.

This one I finished some time ago but didn't post before. Since Valentine is around the corner, it is fun to make some cards. Based on CPS #149 sketch.

Supplies: white cardstock, Bo Bunny Love Bandit papers, On the dot paper, Studio G stamp, ribbon, white puffy paint, Kaisercraft rhinostones.

* A round of challenge blogs *

As I missed all challenges for WCMD however, I could not resist combining a challenge from Dolls forum with the lastes challenge card from Dutch Card Lovers. It was a challenge from Ingrid "Think Pink" since it's Pink Ribbon month and I thought it was a good idea and I immediately knew I wanted to use the last scraps from Bittersweet from Basic Grey. Looks like I am totally back in Basic Grey mood again :) Supplies: white & pink cardstock, Bittersweet Basic Grey patterned paper, crafts too corner punch, Fiskars lacy days of summer border punch, ribbon, orangza ribbon, white puffy paint, scalloped scissors, my little shoebox alphabet stickers, digistamp Digital Delight.

Next is a card based on CardPatterns sketch number 35 (already!!) Of course I had to make another Christmas Card with the wonderful Eskimo Kisses paper - also from Basic Grey. (Yep, I had to order also some sheets to make some Christmas layouts later this year) And - a big exception for me - no ribbon on this card!

Supplies: pink cardstock, Eskimo Kisses Basic Grey patterned papers, crafts too corner punch, Fiskars Apron border punch, Magnolia stamp, Imaginisce text stamp, prima marketing say it in crystals.

My last card for this weekend is for Get Sketchy. And guess what, again I used Basic Grey. An older line this time; Sulty, but I still love the bright and cheerful colors. So I decided for an birthday card.

Supplies: white cardstock, Sultry Basic Grey Sulty patterned papers, crafts too corner punch, scalloped scissors, pink ribbon, kaiser craft fuchsia & pink flowers, Papermania stamp.

Enjoy the rest of your sunday, Sunday evenings are best since I will watch Fringe. Totally hooked to that series.

* Get Sketchy & Dutch Card Lovers & Card Patterns Challenges *

It's Sunday, so it's card-making-day. Lets start with this weeks sketch from Get Sketchy. It was a basic sketch so I could "almost" do everything I wanted with it. I used my new My Minds Eye Colorful Christmas papers and they are so gorgeous to work with :)This is my card for the Dutch Card Lovers challenge. Used again some Basic Grey Eskimo kisses. I must confess that I only wanted to order a paperpad for cards, but these papers are so lovely that I also ordered some to use for scrapping layouts as well.

Last for today it the Card Patterns sketch #34. Again some MME colorful Christmas to create this card.

Supplies: white, pink, blue cardstock, My Minds Eye Colorful Christmas papers & die-cuts, October Afternoon Good Cheer, crafts too corner punch, fiskars apron border punch, pin, snowflake punch, beads, hotfix with stones, blue & green ribbon, Imaginsce stamp, my own created digistamp.

And also I was mentioned in the top 5 @ Get Sketchy with the challenge of last week. How awesome is that? Thanks for the great weekly inspiration!

Enjoy the rest of your sunday.

* Top 3 @ DCL * GS#04 * Shortcuts Challenge *

Go check out this blogpost.
Yesss.... I am listed in the top 3 over @ DCL. Go check out this blogpost. Congrats to Romy who won challenge #13. Her card is really lovely.

Unfortunately I missed sketch nr 3 over @ GS last week. I was busy and tired after work and had no time to make a card. Butttt.... yesterday evening I finished this card based on their sketch nr. 4. It's a wonderful sketch to work with and since it's Autumn - my most favorite time of the year - I thought it would be great to use up some scraps of Basic Greys Ambrosia and...
Over at shortcuts there is a challenge week, every day a new challenge will be posted and I am trying to make every challenge. This is challenge nr. 4 - make a project using a fall theme. So it was perfect to combine 2 challenges. Supplies: Cardstock, Basic Grey Ambrosia, Fiskars borderpunch apron, Crafts too corner punch, McGill flower punch, EK Success flower punch, ribbon, button, scrappersfloss, safety pin, white puffy paint, digital stamp Digital Delight.

Enjoy your Sunday!