HAPPY NEW YEAR To You ALL!

Seems like ages since I've last posted anything in here, but life and its convoluted 'surprises' didn't allow me to pursue my hobby in the last 2 weeks, or to enjoy visiting your blogs.

Right before Christmas, on the night of December 23rd, my Mum died.

She has been in the hospital for four days after having a stroke (on Dec. 19th) and her health got worse and worse, with numerous complications. It looked like her poor frail feeble body gave up on her. :(
Some of you know that in September she had cancer surgery, had most of the big tumour removed, together with her right eye and also had 2 skin grafts to cover the "hole".
We had to wait for three months to finally get the biopsy result and we were about to see the oncologist for prescribing a possible treatment. But three days after we've had those, she had the stroke and it was just too much for her body.

Anyway....

I just wanted to let you all know why I've been AWOL and to excuse myself for not commenting or emailing/replying much (if at all).

Also, I wanted to wish you all

A VERY Happy New Year, with good health, peace of mind, fantastic great moments with your dear ones and lots and lots of good luck.

Big hugs,

Mada

JCBC #11 - Sketch by Gry-Heidi... and other cards too

The way it looks lately, I can only deal with this blogging stuff once a week, on Saturday or Sunday. I hate that but have no other real option for now.

The new challenge for the coming week on Just Christmas and Birthday Cards (or JCBC as I like to call it) is to make one or two cards following Gry-Heidi's sketch which, as usual, you'll get to see tomorrow when the new challenge will be posted.

In the meantime, try to decipher what the sketch looks like by looking at my two cards. LOL

Christmas Card

Stamps: Basic Grey [for the background] and Anita's [Santa Clause]
Some heat embossing on the tag, glitter glue, peel offs, ribbon and two zooms


and Birthday Card

Stamps: Whiff of Joy
Papers are free downloads, flowers, gems, peel offs and ribbon are from stash.
The ribbon says "Happy Birthday!" in Romanian. :)

Both images were coloured with a technique I've never tried before, using regular (non-watercolour) pencils (Caran d'Ache) and baby oil.

I LOVE it and will use it all the time from now on. :)

I am aware that many of you have heard about it and are using it, but I first saw this technique explained on my friend Tracey's blog.

-------------------------------------

Here are a few other cards I made over the weekend:

A small thank you card using an awesome Spiral Whisper stamp designed by our talented Chris


A Christmas card with Herb (Whiff of Joy stamp) and a sentiment I've fallen in love with, from Anita's Christmas Classics stamps set


Another Christmas card, this time with my very favourite angel - Charlotte from Whiff of Joy

As mentioned above, all images were coloured with pencils + baby oil. All the cards smell very nice, believe me. :-D

Well, now I have to return to my other cards that need to be made. I still have 7-8 Christmas cards to make real quick, for "local" people. The "international" ones have been taken care of. Yay!

Thank you for passing by, hope you all had a great weekend.

Challenge #10 -- Just Christmas and Birthday Cards

For this week the sketch we had to follow was made by my talented co-worker Kristin. :) I loved the sketch - very versatile and easy to follow. Thanks Kristin!

This is the sketch:

And here are my two cards:

Birthday Card
(the one you can see on the JCBC blog)


The green background paper is made by me in Paint Shop Pro
The image is a stampprint I received from dear Karin.
Some peel offs, flowers, punched mini hearts and that's about all.

Christmas Card


I stamped the cardstock with snowflakes, bordered it with peel offs, added 3 stripes of Dovecraft DP then the stamped and gold embossed reindeer on showflake paper from Tracey's Blue Christmas Poinsettia Pack.
The stamps I used - Anita's Christmas Classics - and the white poinsettia flowers are a recent gift from my dearest friend Sue.

Hope you'll drop by our blog this week, we will have an EXTRA Challenge on Wednesday and the main prize for that one will be a lovely stamp from Spiral Whisper.

Thank you for being here! :)

Whiff of Joy Challenge - #10

I'm so late, late, late with this and I don't think it will be eligible as the challenge ended on Tuesday - it's already Wednesday where I am :(

But if I finished it I might as well give it a try. The WoJ challenge was to make "other than a card" and I made a small giftbox from scratch - draw the template (my printer is without ink), cut it out, dressed it with paper. Then I stamped and heat embossed the Whiff of Joy Christmas Tree and added some gems and a small bow. The box closes with a piece of ribbon.

I did everything in an hour, which is my personal record of the moment. :) The problem is I started working too late.

Well, here it is:

This is the first giftbox I've ever made myself. Please be kind. :D

Thank you for looking.

(Too many?) Holes for Dutch Dare #25

The Dutch Dare Challenge #25 asks of us to make a card with a hole somewhere on it.

I've put so many on mine, there's enough for everybody - LOL.

Added about a truckload of all sorts of shimmery stuff and a stamped and heat embossed snowflake (a Basic Grey stamp I think).

But Christmas IS all about shining stars and bright lights and colours, isn't it? :-D

Thank you for looking!

Learning from Mel and JCBC #9...

Having the day off today was much more rewarding than I would have ever thought. Knowing I don't have to be up at dawn, I stayed up all night and I am still up... but surely not for much longer :)

I am so very very pleased with myself because I crafted in one evening/night (add a bit of today too) more than I did over an entire week. And I have to say that I also really, really like the cards I've made - that's a very rare statement, I tell you.

Let's start with Mel, her fabulous creativity and blog - if you've never visited you should. :) Over the months I've been saving ideas and cards from her blog, thinking I will have to try them sometime. And I did today...

HERE you'll find one of Mel's cards that I adore and details about a technique I was planning to experiment for some time now - "Embossed Silhouette Stamping"

And here is my *Homage to Mel* ;)

I've been having this nice little stamp from my dearest friend Sue, and never had any idea how or where to use it, until I saw Mel's card. Of course, I couldn't "copy" it properly and make an elegant card like she did but I do think I've come up with something that resembles the original some 25%. :-D

** Another technique I've admired on Mel's cards was the 'knot embellishments'.

I thought to myself that if I keep focused and give it my whole being, I will be able to use a big needle and 'tangle up' a few threads. LOL

Well, I did it and it was an adorable experience. I will definitely repeat it soon.

Thank you Mel, you're a great inspiration and a fine teacher!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now about the JCBC # 9

I used knots for adorning the background paper on the Christmas card I made for Just Christmas and Birthday Cards, the challenge blog where, unbelievably, I am one of the DT members. :)

Have a look at my knots first....

You can't see them? :D You can click the pic and see it bigger. There's a bit of gold thread in there...
Well, they're the non-shiny ones on the big white snowflake near Joel's head. I so love this dear deer and I felt like a monster having to decapitate him for this card.

The whole card looks like this:

Stamps:
Whiff of Joy - Herb with Bird
and
Toodles & Binks - Joel, the Reindeer
(both coloured with watercolour pencils and some glittery markers)
Designer Paper: Dovecraft - one of their Christmas collections from last year

• This week's challenge - #9 - at JCBC uses a sketch made by my co-worker Amanda. It's an adorable sketch and very versatile, there are tons of things you can do with it or on it. :)

Thank you Amanda!

I've used the same sketch for producing this Birthday Card...

No stamping on this one, except for the sentiment which I've "invented" using a big letter (from a "Just Rite" set) and part of a clear stamp (Studio G) which I've cut out. Originally, it was a tag stamp which said "Oh, happy day!"

Designer papers are a gift from my generous friend Karin. I've punched a few flowers and added itsy bitsy ribbon, blings and peel offs.

Thank you for bearing with me through this long and convoluted post.

Hugs to all!

Many, Many Yummy (blog) Candies

The kindness and generosity of blog people has always amazed me. I've been even more amazed at some of the Blog Candies for this month.
Christmas has started early my friends, and here I present you the dear Santas who are offering us some absolutely gorgeous presents :

• Karin, my wonderful friend and boss (over at Just Christmas and Birthday Cards) is offering 2 blog candies. One of them consists of 3 - yes, three! - Magnolia stamps.
  

Check out Karin's candy and see the goodies for yourself! :)

Candy closes on DECEMBER 7th.
Winner will be announced the day after.

• The fantastic ladies at Whiff of Joy Stamps have started an Advent Calendar and they're disclosing a new gift for each and every day, from now till Christmas eve.

Pop up at their place and be a kid again, opening one window a day with lots of excitement and treating yourself with a chance to win
gorgeous WoJ stamps.

• The lovely Crafty C-laire is giving away a fabulous candy to celebrate her over 36,000 hits in just over a year.
  

May there be many more ahead! :)

You really need to see for yourself her loooooooooong list of gifts - they are all fab! [ a few of them I would kill for :-D]

Take care and do so until Sunday 14th DECEMBER, when
the yummy offer ends.

• Now go have a look at Artfully Ila. OK, at her picture too if you so wish :), but I was actually sending you to see the two goodie packs she's offering - you won't believe your eyes how many fantastic things are in there. And you even get a chance to brag about your favorite Christmas movie or your favorite Christmas song.
  

If you find all that as tempting as I did, enter yourself
into the competition... by Wednesday night DECEMBER 3rd.

Not much time left so hurry up people! :)

Now I just have to go and put my name on those lists.... bye-bye!

A new award, Chris' Baubles and playing with backgrounds

The weekend is finally here and this one is even longer than usual. On Monday (December 1st) we are celebrating our National Day so everybody has the day off - Hooraay!! :)

I am now trying to catch up with the last week....

My great friend Karin has honoured me way beyond my imagination by passing on to me a fantastic award. THANK YOU so much my friend for thinking about me. You've made my day and month too :)

This is the award I received:

The rules for this award:

• Pick 5 bloggers that you consider as your best blogging buddies and deserve this award for their contribution toward the blogging community no matter what language.

• State the name of the author of each blog as well as a link to each one's blogs.

• Each blogger (upon acceptance) of this award should do a post and show the award on their blog and put the name and link of the blog that has given her/him the award.

• Show these rules.

I've read somewhere that this award originated at Doing Life blog
so...Here's one more rule:

• Please link to DOING LIFE’s blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

As much as I hate to nominate only a few friends, when there are so many of you out there who always visit and leave heartwarming comments, I will pick 5 just so the lovely award spreads - I love that picture :) [which is in fact a card made by Desire]

Thus, the award goes to:

Laura

Alina

Donalda

Hev

Chris

Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!



Now to Chris' Baubles... :)

This talented lady has offered one of her designs as a freebie download on her blog. I snatched it the moment I saw it and this morning I've spent some great time playing with it.

Here are the two cards I did (too bad my photos aren't the same good quality as the time I spent making the cards)

Used a bit of heat embossing on those baubles and 3D-ed the bow and the holy.


Nothing embossed on this one, just some extra holy stamping and red glitter for the berries.
Oh, and the green base for the sentiment was done with the "ink over peel-offs" technique. :)

And now about backgrounds...

I've been playing with Paint Shop Pro (my beloved graphic software) and made a winter background for my blog. I know it's quite busy but I like it 'cos it's joyful. At least for me it is - LOL.

Something else I did is a 12 x 12 digital paper - came out mostly by accident while I was playing around in PSP. Here it is, and if you happen to like it please feel free to save, print and use it.

Click on image to see the real (bigger) size

Phew! This must be the longest post I've ever made :D

Thank you for your patience!

More Christmas and Birthday cards :)

As some of you know, tomorrow (already today for me, as I'm posting this) a new sketch and challenge will be launched on Just Christmas and Birthday Cards Blog.

For this coming week - # 8 - we are having a wonderful sketch by Janina. You'll see the "original" in a few hours time. :)

Until then, here are my takes on it...

Christmas card

The lovely girl is one of Inger Harding's giveaways - I just love Inger's designs, hope the stamps will be released this year - I plan on spoiling myself a bit this Christmas ;)
The rest is not much, mostly peel-offs. The background paper is (very)dark green with glittery swirls - they look like they're embossed. I don't know why it shows as gray in the photo.

Birthday card

Melinda is blowing some more kisses for somebody's special day - one of my most favourite Whiff of Joy stamps.
The scrambled sentiment is a SU stamp heat embossed with gold powder - I think it looks quite festive :)
The flowery paper in the background is Retro Floral from Dovecraft.

Off to bed now... it's close to 3 AM over here and I'm going to work in a few hours :)

Thanks for stopping by.

2 in 1 - for the first time

First of all I would like to say a huge "THANK YOU!" to all of you who left warm and thoughtful words soothing me for the loss of my doggie. It was very very very much appreciated.
To be very honest, I did that post mostly because I had to get it out of my system and also like a little memorial for him - with photos and all. I am still very sad and sort of 'numb'. The evenings are the hardest part of the day because it was our special time together playing and cuddling.

Anyway....

Let's get back to business :)

This is the first time I am doing a card to serve two challenges at once: Dutch Dare #24 - use 3 flowers on your card AND Whiff of Joy #9 - follow Heather's sketch.

This is the sketch:

and this is my card - with the 3 necessary flowers on it for the Dutch Dare challenge :)

Stamps: Whiff of Joy - Willow with hot chocolate; StudioG (sentiment)
DPs: free downloads from ScrapGirls and Faith Sisters
Big orange flower- made with Wings and Flowers crafting software
The rest is from what was lying around my cluttered crafting table

Thanks for looking and we'll meet again tomorrow when I'll post two more cards I'm working on right now.

Many hugs to you all. :)

The loss of a beloved friend

My four-legged friend died on Wednesday. I am still hurting so bad that I can barely speak about it.
We've been together for almost 14 years, the very first time we've seen each other he reached out and kissed me... and before he drew his last 3 breaths he turned his head to kiss me good-bye.
The only good thing is that he didn't suffer too much. The night before he brought me his toys, as usual, and we were playing before falling asleep. The next morning I woke up to his wailing and in about 4 hours he was gone forever.

I don't have many photos of him and his fur was so black that you couldn't tell his features in a photo - not enough contrast. But here are a few I have...

You'll never be forgotten my faithful friend.

My sketch for Week #7 at JCBC Challenge

When Karin and Linda held the DT members contest for "Just Christmas and Birthday Cards", they asked that those interested must come up with their own sketch and card to exemplify it. I don't know why it looked so easy-peasy back then. My sketch, I mean :D
Working with it now was like I've never seen it in my life and had no idea where to start. It must be the feeble mind I've been having lately. :)

I am curious to hear what the girls (my DT bosses and mates) have to say about it - I apologize in advance if my sketch gave you too much trouble.

This is my sketch

[the small red text says: Embellishments where you want them]

Here is my Birthday card ...

DPs are free downloads, the main image is a stamp print I have from my friend Karin, the embossed strip is from my friend Sue (aren't I the luckiest person in the world to be blessed with such awesome friends?), the flowers I punched myself and the sentiment is a sticker - loved the colour! :)

And now the Christmas one...

Everything on the card is from around the house - from my big box that my great friends keep filling. Thank you so very very much for never letting me 'starve' :)

I finally got to using the adorable Joel - the stamp I've won in a blog contest over at Toodles and Binks. They are releasing more and more new stamps which are all so awesomely cute.
Ever since I've seen Joel for the first time I had a card in my mind. I can't wait to find the time to make that one... maybe this week...

Joel is coloured with watercolour pencils, his white belly and the little spots on his rear end are glittery; his collar and the holy leaves are layered and glittered with markers. I admit that the colours I've used on my card are not very Christmas-like but I tried to match Joel more than the occasion. :)

I am hoping to have some time this week (it's a more breathable one) to delight in all your new posts and leave a comment too.

Thank you for looking and if you happen to like my sketch feel free to use it anytime you want. :)

I'm forever in your debt for all the warm and thoughtful comments you've left on my blog.

Week #6 @ Just Christmas and Birthday Cards :)

This post will be a short and very quick one, as I am typing in front of a trembling and quivering monitor. :(
Looks like it will be dying on me soon - hopefully not so soon [can't find the necessary funds to buy a new one right away]

Without further ado, here are the cards I've made for Just Christmas and Birthday Cards' challenge - Week #6. Amazing how time flies, isn't it? It seems like last week Karin opened the new blog and now it's already the 6th week. :)

This week's challenge was to follow Simone's sketch - loved it as much as I love her cards which are always so bright and cheerful.

For my Christmas card I used one of Inger Harding's designs - the adorable snowman which is her generous giveaway for November. Love it! Thank you so much Inger!

I printed the snowman twice, one image was heat embossed with holographic powder and from the second print I cut out the birdie, the nose and the hat and covered those with Anita's 3-D Clear Gloss Finish then layered them with foam squares - it doesn't show very well in the scan but it looks very nice in real life. :)

The Birthday card is already posted on the challenge blog - Just Christmas and Birthday Cards, but here it is once more for those who did not visit yet our new site.

It's a very simple and unadorned card, because it was meant to go to one of my co-workers, a guy, whose birthday was on Monday. He seemed to really like it - he giggled when he saw it :D
There's a bit of glitter on the champagne glass and I used a gold marker to outline the jacket and the hood.
The sentiment tab is one of Mel's - Thank you so much!

I sincerely apologize to all of you for missing so many of your blog posts. Time seems to be flying faster than light over here, I had to go to work on Sunday and I am more tired with every day. Simple chores around the house take more time than usual to be accomplished, probably because I'm so burnt out. :(

And on Sunday afternoon I fell on the stairs and now I have a hurting knee and ankle, together with two adorable bruises. :)
And then my monitor's image started to shake like jelly - it's killing my eyes every time I have to read or write something. Well, just my lucky day!

Thank you all for kind words and sweet comments. I am hoping for things to improve soon and for me to get back to being a civilized human being. :)

Have a great week all!

Just Christmas and Birthday Cards - Week #5

Having such a hectic week I was behind on everything other than my job and house/family assignments, so I made my DT cards for Challenge #5 at Just Christmas and Birthday Cards in a big hurry this afternoon/evening.
They are simple and quick cards :( - not enough time (or energy left) to make them more 'complicated'.

I used a lot of DP, peel-offs, punched snowflakes and scalloped edge and a decoupage (from one of my Dovecraft DPs) for the Christmas cards - instead of using a stamped and coloured image. (lazy me!)

I did use a stamp tho' - Melinda's Heart (from Whiff of Joy) for the B-Day card.

As usual, we had to follow a specific sketch and you'll see the model when the new challenge is posted tomorrow/later today :)

Here are my cards...

Christmas Card


AND

Birthday Card

[there are punched hearts on the purple corners but being so shiny
the shape is not "readable"]

Simple as they are, I still think they're quite nice :-D

Thank you for looking!

Have a mighty fine week ahead!

Tagged Twice

I should definitely start with my sincere apologies to all of you, for not visiting and/or commenting for a whole week. :(
I was so busy (and totally drained) with work and home that I could not find any spare time for crafting or for any sort of "me" time. Someday soon (I hope) things will get better and less hectic and I'll be back to normal.

Over this last week I've been tagged twice - first by Karin then by Laura.

Let's start with Karin's one :)

Things I love:
[I won't mention family, my doggie or other loved persons, they go without saying :) - I will try to stick with "things" only]

1. Nature - provides me with a small wonder everywhere I look and everytime I need one
(I always hated living in a big, crowded, noisy, dusty big city and always wished to be living in the country. To hear the birds in the morning, smell the flowers, grow my own fruits and vegetables, live life at a slower pace and in fresher air.)
2. Books - love to have them, buy them, smell them, touch them, read them, re-read them and share them so other people can enjoy a great story/novel/poem too.
3. Music - I listen to it every day for as long as possible - radio, walkman, cassette player, computer - there's music playing almost every minute I'm awake.
4. Scotland :) - visited once, four years ago, and fell in love for life. Everything in there is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l : the people, the landscape, the history, the food ;) and, for me, even the weather.
5. Writing utensils - pens, pencils, markers, anything you can use for writing. I really don't know where this love comes from but I always felt the urge to have all the pens/pencils/markers available everywhere. Crazy, isn't it? :D

Things I don't love

1. Cruelty and violence of any kind (from verbal to torture and killing), especially the one directed at small children or animals.
2. People who don't take responsibility for their own words, actions and personal choices.
3. Hot weather
4. Drunk people [grew up with an alcoholic father and my first boyfriend was one too - one never learns, eh? :D].
5. Seafood

Favorite Food/Drinks

1. Ice Cream
2. Pumpkin seeds
3. Coffee (decaf)
4. Sausages (any possible sort of)
5. Cucumber

Songs on your Ipod/playlist
[right now or in general? ;) - OK, here are five on my Winamp playlist as we speak]

1. James Taylor - Shower the People
2. Capercaillie - Miracle of Being
3. Big Mountain - Baby I Love Your Way
4. Chris de Burgh - The Same Sun
5. Van Morrison - Into the Mystic

***************************************************************

Now to Laura's :)

4 Jobs I've had:

1. Transferring old documents onto microfilm - for the National Archives ( for 2 years)

2. Drafter and then technician - doing structural and architectural drawings for the construction of the Metro/Underground in Bucharest (fro the last 26 years and going on...)


4 Movies I've seen more than once:
[probably 15 times each]

1. My Fair Lady

2. Sound of Music

3. A Beautiful Mind

4. As Good As It Gets

4 Places I have lived:

1. Bucharest, Romania

4 TV shows I watch:
[I haven't watched TV in years, but when I did...]

1. Forsyte Saga

2. Bewitched

3. Dear John

4. Seinfeld

4 Favorite places I've been:

1. Busteni, Romania - a small town on the Prahova Valley - love it!

2. Glasgow, Scotland

3. Oban, Scotland (I dream of moving there when I retire - dream on, Mada!)

4. Fort Augustus, Scotland - adorable tiny village at one end of Loch Ness

4 People who text me regularly:
(this is about the cell phone, yes? :D)

1. My brother

2. My friend Jeanina

4 favorite foods:

1. Sausages

2. Pastry

3. Polenta with cottage cheese and sour cream

4. Potato salad

4 places I would want to visit:

1. England

2. Australia

3. Peru

4. Nepal

4 things I look forward to next year:

Hmmm...very difficult to decide...let's say... ANY bit of "good" that might come my way.


Now who to tag and how, seeing that there are two types of "tagging"?

I'll tag 5 people and they will be free to choose which 'test' to do and pass forward :)

I am tagging:

Alina


Janine


Heather


Jana


Marie

Just Christmas and Birthday Cards - Week #4

These are my first cards as a DT member on "Just Christmas and Birthday Cards" :)

For this coming week - challenge #4 - my assignment was to do a birthday card, but I couldn't help it and did a Christmas one too.

Here's the Birthday card:

The lovely Bella is one of the stamp prints I received as a RAK from Melissa - Thank you! :)

I was in the mood for some bright colours and was also eager to use the "rainbow" paper I have from my dear friend Sue [I keep telling her she should start blogging, her parchment cards are to die for - she's such a master of that technique]. I only used a corner of the A4 sheet of paper and picked the pinky one. The rainbow goes diagonally on the sheet so unless I make a size A4 card :) I will never be able to show it all at once.

Sorry about the giftbox and the upper left flower, I coloured them with a pink metallic/glitter marker and it shows as white in the photo. :(

The sentiment(s) are clear stamps from Studio G and the dotted paper is a free download.
The flowers I've punched from the dotted paper and then added a punched circle and a sequin flower in the middle.

Now the Christmas Card - following the same sketch [which you'll get to see tomorrow when the new challenge is posted :D]

A very easy one - a bit of DP from Dovecraft, some silver and green cardstock, red handmade paper with silver prints, three ribbons, two brads, 4 gems and a peel-off sentiment. :)
The image is a Cuttlebug embossed 'village scene' (my friend got herself the CB a month ago and sent me a big bunch of cardstock embossed in various patterns - lucky me!) which I coloured a bit with watercolours and added glitter glue for the snow.

Thank you so much everybody for all the sweet and kind and encouraging comments. I feel so blessed to have your support.

Have a great week ahead!

Awesome Awards

More catching up from last week...

Two wonderful ladies have honoured me with an award each. :)

Donalda, a lady I admire a lot and love her creativity and cheerful view on things, has awarded me with:

It was such a huge surprise to see my name on her list and I am very grateful and totally thrilled.

THANK YOU so much, Donalda!

The rules of this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve nominated.

A few days ago I was sorry I couldn't give an(other) award to more than 6 people, because I love so many blogs out there and every two days I find a new one to love. :)

For now, I am sending this award to:

Janette

Alina

Dawn

Inger

Laura

Adele

Claire

Hope they will enjoy it as much as I did. :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The second award I received from Linda - I love her work!
So funny.... I didn't even know she knows I exist in blog-land

But life is full of surprises and starting next week I'll be colleagues with her on "Just Christmas and Birthday Cards" - well, I guess she's sort of my boss now... [wink, wink]

THANK YOU very very much Linda!

The award is...

This award's rule says that it has to be passed on to 6 people.
I simply cannot pick anymore so I am passing on this award to
YOU, who are reading this right now. :)

Because the award speaks about Art and Creativity and Inspiration and Friends and Thank You's, it can easily apply, as far as I'm concerned, to anyone of you out there.

Please feel free to grab it and pass it on to your favourites.

I am always happy when
Friendship and Thank You!
can spread quicker than diseases.

Got myself a new job ... and 2 cards for JCABC

Phew! I thought this week will never end - I had to go to work today too. [we often work on weekends - no extra pay :( - so it's nothing special, but I was in a great mood (and a bit of a hurry) to make some cards and blog a little]
So unfortunately, I spent a lot of my Saturday in the office, at my first job.
Oh, haven't I told you? I've got myself a second job - the best I've ever had! :D



I was selected to be a DT member for Karin's new challenge blog "Just Christmas And Birthday Cards" [JCABC ? or just JCBC ;)]

I still feel like it's a gorgeous dream and I'll be soon awake finding out it wasn't for real. I mean... can you believe it? ME a member in a Design Team?! I only hope the contestants won't all run away seeing my examples - lol.

The DT has extraordinary creative and talented members (except for me, of course, but I'll try to learn as much as I can and do it quickly).

I am very very grateful to Karin and Linda for choosing me, it's such a happy moment I find no proper words to express it. THANK YOU!

Please stop by our new challenge blog and check out my mates - they all rock!
We will have a monthly prize (for the moment) and the draw will be made from those of you who played at least twice a month.
We are working hard to make it a weekly prize in the near future and if you happen to know somebody who might be interested in sponsoring our challenge with a small something we will provide a permanent link for them and you on the challenge site and on each of the DT members' personal blogs.
There is 10 of us so I'd say that's quite a nice advertisement. :)

Well, now that I've been 'promoted', this week's challenge - #3 - is my last one as a contestant. As usual, I am never able to craft over the week so I'm always posting my entries in the last day/hour.

Here's Linda's lovely sketch for Week #3:


And here are my cards...

Birthday card


Christmas card

The background papers are from Dovecraft, the B-day card's other paper is a free download from Shabby Princess and the image is a Magnolia stamp print I received as a gift from a dear friend. I coloured it with regular markers (fineliners).
The white embossed cs on the X-mas card is also a gift from a dear friend :) and so is the ribbon and the stars.
For the trees I used light green cardstock, inked with darker green over peel-offs [when you take the peel-offs off :D it leaves a "print" - I love this technique and I'll be using it more] then stamped with a flourish stamp from SU and heat embossed in Snowflake tinsel embossing powder. And then cut by hand in a free/tree shape :). Too much work for such a tiny element isn't it? But I really loved putting it all together.

Flowers, other ribbons, gems (thanks, Mel for the better term!) and peel-offs are from stash - see, I learn a new crafting word every day

for stopping by.

May you all have a fantabulous weekend!