Sleep Evolution

Good morning all!

Another fortnight gone, another (P)Inspirational Challenge! This is our challenge image this time:

Awww, how sweet! I was inspired by the 3 sleeping beauties and the colour scheme and decided to scrap three pictures of our girl to show her sleeping 'progress' over time. She started out taking her naps in the living room, but it turned out it was too noisy for her and she preferred to sleep upstairs in her cot. After six months the graduated to her own bedroom and bed. She has always been a very good sleeper, naps are important to keep her a happy girl, even now. 

The challenge sponsors this time are 

 and

Come on and join the fun! 

Challenges:

* Use Your Stuff (For the Love of Children)

* Moo Mania (Banners & Garlands)

* Simon Says Stamp (For a Child)

* Hiding in My Craftroom (Super Scraps Saturday)

* Counterfit Kit Challenge (Phrase Stickers) 31/8

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Napping

Hi all,

Hope you all had a nice International Scrapbooking Day last Saturday with lots of crafty fun! I had a scrappy evening planned, but I happened to be shopping with my friend in the afternoon and when I wanted to go home, all the trains were cancelled! Well, my train anyway. So I came home at 12 pm! No more ISD left for me....Oh well, I am sure I can plan some time soon and get my scrappy fix!

The new (P)inspirational Challenge revolved around this image:

I used the little flowers as my starting point and scrapped some picture of my own little fairy and her daddy. I used some 'forest' textures, such as woodgrain, branches and leaves too. 

Our sponsors this fortnight are Oddball Art Stamps and Digital Delights. Hope you can join us and share your project!

Challenges:

* Crafty Calendar Challenge (Flowers)

* Crafty Friends (Cute)

* Polka Doodles (Anything Goes)

* Glitter 'n Sparkle (For the Kids, Inspired by a Kid's film) Sleeping Beauty

* Dragon's Lair (Anything Goes, Optional Fashion Action)

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Using Up My Flowers

Hello all,

What a lovely sunny day today in my part of the world! Still cold, mind.....Nothing like a nice summer project to get me going when it's cold outside, so when I saw the (P)inspirational photo this time:

I knew I wanted to scrap some summer photo's! And here she is, our little girl, having an alfresco dinner in the garden. Unbelievable that this was less than a year ago, this weekend she started walking in earnest, stumbling her way around the living room! All the cliche's are true, they do grow up so fast..... I love it and hate it at the same time.

I took several elements from the inspirational photo, including the frame, butterflies and the word TODAY. I couldn't find any leaves in my stash, but I do have an absolute mountain of paper flowers that I want to use up and never do. Same with chipboard and butterflies, they really stump me on layouts! So I just started sticking around a circle I cut with my circle cutter (another one of those must-have tools that I rarely reach for somehow), using up flowers, brads and other assorted pieces I had to hand. I am pretty happy with the result, I tend to use rectangles of paper most often, so when I do something different it all feels so brandnew! I always say I should do this type of design more often, but then I never do....I guess I know my comfort zone!

We have two sponsors this time for the (P)inspirational Challenge: Imagine That Digistamps & The Cutting Cafe. Check out these links to see what beautiful things they have on offer!

Challenges:

* Come and Get It (Circles)

* Creative Sketchy Girls (Flowers and/or Butterflies)

* My Time to Craft (Sequins and/or Buttons) I did both

* Just Add Ink (Choose 2: Metallics, Balloons, Circles) I used Metallic letter stickers and created several circles on my LO

* Great Impressions (April Showers Bring May Flowers) I used a bunch of flowers on my LO and included the purple

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Exhausted

Hi all,

Christmas is coming near now, hope you are all prepared? Our last challenge this year at Pinspirational has this inspirational photo:

Lots of things to choose from; the theme, the colour scheme, the stockings, lace, rosettes.......I chose to use the colour scheme and the lace in my layout this time; these are two pictures before and after my daughter's 30 mins swimming lesson. As you can tell, that half hour took a lot out of her, so tired! But it was fun :)

Join us for one last challenge in 2016, we will be back in January with new challenges, but in the mean time will take some time off to celebrate the holidays with our families. See you on the other side in 2017!

Challenges:
* Lasting Memories (AG with photos from 2016)
* Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends (AG)
* Inspiration Destination (AG)

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I´m back on a DT!

Hi all,

Yes, I am back in the DT swing of things, the Pinspirational Challenge girls asked me to join their ranks after I put myself forward and of course I said yes! If you are not aware of the challenge blog, there is a new challenge up every fortnight and all you have to do if let the (p)inspiration image start up your mojo! We welcome every type of craft in the challenge. Let us know how the image inspired you, always fun to see other crafter's take on the same challenge!

Check out the image for the new challenge @ the Challenge blog!

Lots of things to be inspired by in this image! Once I saw it, I knew right away I wanted to scrap the story of our little girl's first toy, which was a Miffy rattle (we call her Nijntje in the Netherlands). Here's the result, it's a 6x8 page, which I will tuck in between 12x12s in her first year book.

I used the blue and script lettering from the image on the wall, the wood grain and I tried to go with neutral colours (but had to throw in some shockingly bright enamel dots in the end!).

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Those pesky frames!

I love chipboard frames, but have a real problem actually using them. I never really like the LO's where I include them, but this one might be the one where I can actually see how to incorporate them in my style!

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Precious stash

I've actually done it, I cut into this lovely Studio Calico houses paper and used it on a layout! I have the collection pack, but there was only one paper with the houses on. It became a little bit special when every time I came across it, I thought: no, I have to have a really special story for this. Rubbish of course and so I included it in the mood board kit from last weekend and just cut into it. There is still plenty left for at least two more layouts, so I think I will still ration it a bit (also because it's such a busy paper), but at least it's not special anymore!

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Daddy's First Day

I loved working on this page, such a fun memory! I used some square and camera dies that needed dusting off and used some new supplies as well.

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New Years Eve

Challange 5: Use a colour wheel to choose your colour combination. I had actually never used a colour wheel before, so it was quite fun using this approach. I used the Colour Wizard website and started with the colour I wanted to use for my background; a buttery yellow. The website then shows you different colour combinations based on the colour wheel. I used the triadic combination, which was yellow, purple and teal. I would have never thought of this combination myself, but I think it works quite well!

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Day 2: Title variation

Next challenge! This challenge is all about changing up the way I normally make titles on my pages. I usually use thickers and flat alphabet stickers, but this time I painted my title with distress spray. The colour really matched my papers really well, happy accident! Love that I also got to use up some of my stash of Shimelle's first collection, making room for new stuff, like her new travel collection :)

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Still alive....and scrapbooking!

Oh my, I haven't been here in a very long time! A lot has happened since the last time I was here and my life has changed dramatically. I am now a mum to the most wonderful 8 month old girl and I have moved on craftywise too, from cardmaking to scrapbooking.

Last week, I started a new scrapbooking course by Shimelle Laine, which is called the 20 project. For 20 weekdays, we will be working on scrap pages based on a daily prompt or challenge. I didn't think I would be able to keep up with the challenges, but so far I have completed three out of three challenges and am chomping at the bit for the next one!

As I have so enjoyed the course so far, I wanted to go back to my old and much neglected blog and share my creations with you. Just for the joy of it, I just feel the need to share.

The first challenge was to check your current family album and look for gaps in my stories. It was blatantly obvious that there were quite a few gaps to be filled, you possibly can imagine I take a lot of pictures these days, but what I missed the most was a current story beyond my monthly week in the life spread. It's not a big story, but it was a great afternoon and why not document that?

 

Hope you enjoy, any questions you might have I will be happy to answer of course. I will be back to share more project with you as I make them!

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Baby's Journey

Good morning all!

Did you have a fun weekend? As predicted, I spent mine sniffing on the couch, but feeling a bit better now so I'm on the way to recovery! I even managed to make this lovely card, perfect for a boy or girl me thinks. What a coincidence that this fortnight's theme @ Ooh La La is "FOR A CHILD" then eh? ;) I've used an image and papers from the Shawn Jenkins Collection CD, such a fun CD with both an 'everyday' and Christmas/Winter section.

Materials
* Baby's Journey image and DPs from the latest CD (Shawn Jenkins Collection)
* Coredinations Retro Mod Squad CS scraps for the extra clouds
* Dovecraft Cupcake Boutique Paper Lace Doily
* Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink
* Button and twine from stash

If you have any new projects suitable for our challenge theme, why not link up and join the fun? Hope to see you there!

Challenges:
* Delightful Challenges (Out Like a Lamb) 2-4
* Crafty Calendar (Animal Antics) 2-4
* Open-minded Challenges (Animal Antics) 11-4
* Creative Corner (Rainbow) 3-4
* Wags 'n Whiskers (Rainbow) 3-4
* Crafting When We Can (For a Child) 12-4
* The Squirrel and the Fox (Inspired by a Book) The Bible 3-4
* One Stitch at a Time (Anything Goes) 5-4
* The Sisterhood of Crafters (Animals) 6-4
* Craft Room Challenge (Transport) 31-3

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Welcome Little One

Morning all!

How was your weekend, I hope you did some fun things! We certainly did, as we were in London for the weekend. Mainly to watch the Killers @ Wembley, but we also managed a shopping trip and a visit to a comedy club.

Today I have a baby card to share with you for the Ooh La La challenge, as this week our theme is "Welcome Little One".You will find more information and some lovely samples over at the challenge blog.

Once again, I used Ooh La La's Yesterday's Memories for my card, this type of image really reminds me of baby cards that were around when I was little, love it!

Materials:
* Ooh La La Storks image & DP from the Yesterday's Memories CD
* Papermania Seet Nothings & DCWV Mango Frost DPs
* Crafter's Companion Christmas Embossing Board
* MS Doily Lace punch
* Personal Impressions Sentiment Stamp
* Victorian Velvet Distress Ink
* Dew Drop from Robin's Nest

Challenges:
* Frosted Designs (Polka Dots)
* CD Sunday (S is for ....) Storks, Spots
* Paper Nest Dolls (Animal Love)
* Bunny Zoe (Wings)
* Crafty Calendar (Things with Wings)
* Challenges for Everybody (Anything Goes)
* Emerald Fairies (Punches or Dies)
* Oozak (Anything Goes with a Sentiment)
* Crafty Catz (Anything Goes or Embossing)
* Hobby House (Anything Goes)

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Diaper Baby Card

Hello Everyone!

I hope this post schedules itself properly, as we are having a mini break on one of the Dutch islands. Lovely just to get away :) Anyway, this week @ Delightful Challenges, we are looking for projects fitting the theme of "FANCY AND FRILLY".

I've interpreted the theme by incorporating a fancy fold technique I came across on Vicky's blog, which I have been following for a long time and is well worth checking out! Here's her tutorial on the Whiff of Joy blog if you're interested :) Really an easy fold to do and it looks so different. I've used an old tag as a template to cut out my double sided tag from the same double-sided paper as I made the diaper fold from, I really like this alternative fold and colour scheme for a baby card! Something different :)

Materials:
* Digital Delights Little Dumpling & Baby Sentiment Set, coloured with Promarkers and Spectrum Noirs
* Echo Park For the Record DP
* Gold ink around the edge of the tag and for the sentiments
* Peel offs and ribbons from my stash

Our sponsor is The Cutting Cafe this week, who have made 3 sets available from their store for the winner!

http://thecuttingcafe.typepad.com/

Let me know what you think, I am very curious to hear your opinion! It's not a traditional baby card, but have already someone in mind for who is having a baby girl late this year, hope she will like it!

Challenges
* Moving Along with the Times (Anything but Square)
* Card Makin' Mamas (Try Something New - Diaper Fold)
* Polka Doodles (Tags)
* Craft Your Days Away (Anything Goes)
* Creatalicious Challenge (Fantasy or Baby) FINAL CHALLENGE!
* Robyn's Fetish (Use a Digi)
* Always Crafting (Kids)
* House of Gilli (Add a Sentiment)
* Paper Pretties (Primary Colours)
* Songbird Challenges (Over the Rainbow)

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New Kid on the Block

Hello everyone!

I don't know what they're putting in the water, but we received another baby card this week, again for a girl! Who they will be dating in 15 years time I have no idea, even at work all my pregnant colleagues seem to deliver is girls!

Still, I really shouldn't be complaining, cause what is nicer than to make a girly card, right? I had picked out a lovely design with flowers, cut everything out, started sewing buttons and just when I wanted to glue the whole thing together.........................................black smudge on the front of the card. I have absolutely NO idea where all this black stuff is coming from, what it is even, but it seems to jump on my hands whenever I want to craft. Anyway, save to say, the card was ruined, as I tried to get the smudge off with a wet cloth and proceeded to take half the colours of the base design along with it.......

Never mind, just had to come up with another idea and since the baby card had a big pink butterfly on the front, I decided to go with that theme and this is what I ended up with:

I'm still pretty pleased with the end result, even though it wasn't my original plan, combining the elements that could be saved with some other stash.

Materials:
* Create & Craft card stock (personally delivered by my FIL when they were visiting this week)
* Studio Light and stash DP
* Studio Light alphabet letters
* Karen Foster Baby Words rub-ons
* DCWV Glitter card (oh, how lovely is this stuff, no glitter falling off but fantastic sparkle)
* Wooden butterflies, gems and pearls from stash
* Rounded corner & Scalloped circle punch
* Eline Vintage sentiment stamp

Challenges:
* Moving Along with the Times (Make it Sentimental)
* Dutch Dare (For a Child)
* Sarah Hurley (Dimension & Texture - Wooden Butterflies)
* Shelly's Images (What the Text)
* Southern Girls (Pearls)
* Always Something Creative (Butterflies)
* Card & Scrap (Wings)
* Paper Pretties (Celebrate, Any Occasion Card)
* Whimsy Stamps (Anything Goes)
* Fashionista Challenge (Winged Things)

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New Arrival

Hi everyone,

We had a lovely anniversary trip last weekend, my hubs took me to Dublin, one of my favourite cities! We had a great couple of days there, walking around soaking up the atmosphere and sitting in pubs drinking Smithwicks & Guinness. We also had tickets to see Bill Bailey, who was absolutely hilarious, I would definitely recommend the show! I will hopefully do some scrapping of the trip in the coming weeks, I will try and share with you :)

When we came back, I got a call from my friend, telling me she gave birth to a little baby girl that night. That's girl number two for them, so a real woman's household! Of course I went ahead and made her a card, here it is:

I am not too happy about it, it seems I am not liking my creations very much at the moment, but as my husband assured me he thought it was lovely and beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all, I decided to post and send anyway. Let me know what you think, I'd appreciate it very much.

Materials:
* Digi from the Internet, coloured with Promarkers and Spectrum Noirs
* First Edition Spring Feast & Dovecraft Animal Antics DPs
* Eline Vintage Sentiment stamps
* Ribbon and button from stash

Challenges:
* 2 Sisters (Inside & Out)
* I Love Promarkers (For a Little Girl)
* Stampavie & More (For a Girl)
* Can You Digi It (Buttons)
* Digital Tuesdays (Anything Goes)
* Crafty Boots (Anything Goes with optional Bow)
* Ooh La La (Make it Girly)
* One Stitch at a Time (Use a Digi)
* Hybrid Chick (Use Pink)
* Ribbon Girls (Use Ribbon or Lace)

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CAS Baby

Good morning everyone!

Did you all manage to play along with the latest challenge at Friendship's Garden? Well, there's a new challenge starting today, so you might want to add your cards or other projects! The theme this time around is CAS (CLEAN AND SIMPLE). You can use and make anything, except stamping your main image (or using a digi that is not pre-coloured. Now, I do simple, but not clean, so it was mighty hard to make this card and not stick a million different things on or use lots of backing papers! It really felt like the card wasn't finished, but then again, this is CAS....you be the judge:

I made this card for a colleague of mine who just had her first child. There were some complications during the pregnancy, but thankfully both mother and daughter are completely healthy. Since she has quite a modern taste, I think she might like this style of card. We'll shall see!

Materials:
* White Scalloped Base Card
* Studio Light DP (I used a Crafter's Companion embossing board)
* K&Company Dollhouse Alphabet Chipboard
* Spellbinders shape
* Karen Foster Baby Words Rub-on sentiments

Challenges:
* Get Creative (CAS)
* Crafty Boots (New Beginnings)
* Crafty Ribbons (New Beginnings)
* Bling It On (New Beginnings)
* By the Cute & Girly (New Beginnings)
* Craft Your Days Away (New Beginnings)
* Ooh La La (New Beginnings)
* Dream Valley (Anything Goes)
* Unstampabelles (Anything Goes but no Stamps!)
* Papertake Weekly (Die Cute)

Hope you like my card, maybe I'll see all your lovely creations at the Challenge Blog!

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