My top 10 of 2012! Happy new year!

Good morning friends and followers! 

Today is New Years Eve and to tell you the truth I can hardly believe it!! Where has the year gone off too?? My word! 

This has been the most amazing year of my life where I finally after many years of trials and obstacles gave birth to my second child. Little Ella came to us and completed our little family in the most splendid way. She is our little sunshine! And our oldest daughter has made me proud so many times this year as well. She has handled the getting a big sister business very well! I must admit I was worried during my pregnancy that she would backlash and have a major breakdown and or be kind of a badass towards Ella. Simply because she has been the only child in our family and is very spoilt. (of course) but she still amazes me with her awesome big love towards Ella and she takes care of her in the most loving of ways. Im impressed! But then again, she is my darling! ;) 

This time off year I usually list what I feel are my top 10 cards and so I will this year as well. Why break a perfectly good tradition? ;) If you want to take a look at my previous listings look  here (2011) and here (2010). 

I think its hugely fun to look at those and see the progree Ive actually made during the years ;) 

The cards of 2012 is not listed in any particular order, although I must confess I like number 1 the best! 

Because off the unexpected way this turned out. I usually have a finished project in my mind before I start off but this one turned out way different. As you can see I wanted to practice making red cards that I hated to do in the past and then I went crazy and added lots of soft pink and I loved them together. They marry well I think ;) 

I jut love the image! My very first Saturated Canary rubber-stamp and it was love at first sight! Besides that I surprised my self with coloring her lush hair red. Cool! 

A christmas card that I truly enjoyed making! The challenge was for MDUC and it was to be song inspired and as you might see I chose "Hark the herald angels sing". My teamie Camilla Stöen Bakke (that I admire a lot)  had made a fabby tutorial on how to make pop up cards the week before and I couldnt wait to try one. 

The inside of the pop up card

I have a special bond to anything australian because I have so many amazing friends there via my dt position at MDUC and this image is so close to my heart because of that :) 

Im loving the pastel colors! 

My last christmas card of 2012 and is on my top 10 because I colored with red and ended up loving it ;) 

I love this stamp from Wee stamps and this card means a lot cause it represents my own " comeback" in my mind. As I got pregnant I was feeling very sick and decided to quit making cards and creating. I actually started selling some of my stash and then as months past and I still had my dt position at MDUC (cause I wouldnt ever want to leave them!! :)) I started to feel it was fun again. Today Im very thankful I didnt end up quitting ;) 

I made this card for a coworker of mine as i was going on maternity leave as a thank you for the three good years we had together with the amazing class of students we taught. Linda is very special to me so thats why the card is I think. Besides that Im loving the color combination. The blue and yellow are also the colors of the swedish flag and to transfer that into a card was a lot of fun :) 

Talking about special people, my mum (of course) is another one of those. This is the birthday card I created for her this year. Im so into that image Elisabeth Bell has designed for Whiff of joy. She´s angelic! A shaker card needed to find its way to my list too ;) 

The last one is also for my mum...;) She must be good! ;) 

This is an easel card I created for her on mothers day :) 

I ADORE that stamp and she felt like a perfect fit with that store window also from Magnolia. 

Thank you so much for wanting to see my top 10 2012. 

I cant wait to see yours, have you made one yet? 

Lots of love, Louise 

PS: I will be back tomorrow with two post. One for Live and Love Crafts and the other one for Deep Ocean challenges, hope to see you then ;) 

Thank you for being my friend

Hi there friends and followers! 

I hope you all celebrated the most awesome christmas ever! Maybe Santa even brought you some crafty goodness? ;) I didnt get any...but Im not to complain, hubby buys me all kinds of craftyness all the time 

Oh, I just LOVE this time of year! Exept the fact we reflect more on what we have, what God sacrificed for us and being thankful for being alive and well we also get to spend time together in our little family. Johan is at home with us for about two weeks and that is something I really treasure too :) Besides him being home with us that also means more scraptime for little ol me ;) He, he, he! LOL! 

All the teams Im on currently is on a little break over the holidays so Im showcasing you a little just for fun today! 

I have probably told you about my love for Saturated canary stamps right? ;) I know so many times! Sorry...but Im in love! This little girly is a saturated canary named Bella and she is a rubber-stamp, I dont know if shes only released in rubber because I cant find her in the illustrator, Krista´s shop. 

Anyways although she is in rubber I decided to have another go with my Copics. It still far from perfect but I guess that´s the way it is when you take them out to play like once every third months. I really need to better that! Here´s an extreme close up: 

Isn´t she just gorgeous beyond words? 

The sentiment was a christmas present from my dear teamie in Magnolia Down Under, Tanja. So is the stunning pearl I placed on the metal flower up in the right corner. Thank you so much, sweetie! I treasure them! 

With this card I´d like to join in the current challenge over with the amazing team over at Saturated Canary challenges. Take a look at the stunning creations they made for us to inspire from and I sure did! They would like us to be inspired by a photocollage this week. Its gorge, to see it, head over there ;) LOL! 

Thank you so much for checking in with me today! 

I wish you a splendid ongoing holiday! 

Lots of love, Louise xXx

MDUC: Anything goes

I´M SO EXITED TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THE LAST CHALLENGE OF THE YEAR WITH US AT MAGNOLIA DOWN UNDER!!

Its a real easy peasy one and you have loads of time to submit your entry as it will run all the way over to the new year, more specifically til january 12. Amazing ha? And the theme is ANYTHING GOES! I have to tell you I love those because that usually means a lot of awesome entries since you guys are free to create anything :) But hey...its still a Magnolia challenge so make sure you add at least one Magnolia stamp and or Doo Hickeys to your creation.

We have the most cute sponsor this challenge as well, our very own generous and talented teamie, Janiel author of My little pieces of art. Im sure youre already following her but if you havent visited ever, go ahead now - you wont regret it! Here´s what she kindly donated as the prize for our winner:

              

Arent they just the cutest? Thanks Janiel!

We wanted to try and give you as much inspiration as we possibly could for this challenge so all of the dt´s were invited to join in and so many did! Please, hurry on over to the challenge blog to take a look at the astonishing creations made by my teamies. They are all stunning!

Today Im showcasing the last christmas card of this year. However its not the last for a long time because I seriously need to make a couple through out the new year to be able to send one to everybody I love out there in Blogland. I feel pretty good about the ones I managed to send this year. I combined a couple of them so they were both christmas cards and thank you cards (for the awesome gifts we received due to Ellas birth) and now I only have a couple of those left too. My God, Im ashamed to say I haven´t sent one out to everybody yet. I will I promise! I treasure them all so much :) They are all standing on Ellas cupboard and when we have finally got her room ready she will have the most gorge room in the world! Filled with lovely crafts!

As usual I have colored this cutie patootie Tilda (from last years collection) with my di´s on 300 G watercolor paper. I added loads of stickles star dust and faux snow to the image. I also used some gorge  glittered snow tex that I received as a gift from my lovely friend, Annette. Love it sweetie, thank you!

The letters are from Prima and the papers are THE MOST stunning christmas themed papers I ever laid eyes on ;) They are "Waiting for Santa II" from Pion Design. Sadly Im running out...but since Im making xmas cards through out the year I will have to track new ones down ;)

Id like to join in the  following challenges with this card:

Midweek Magnolias: Coming home for christmas
Tildas Town: Something Christmas

Thank you so much for checking in with me today!

Lots of love, Louise

DOC: Santa is coming to town! And amazing news

Oh! Oh! Oh! Have I got splendid news to spill or WHAT? ;) 

Hold your horses! (If you can, most of you probably already read it on Facebook? LOL! ;)) 

Firstly I will let you know the theme of our last challange of 2012 over with us at Deep Ocean. We are so thrilled to see the number of entries we had for our last challenge, you all created the most amazing christmas themed cards and projects! Since most are in the spirit of christmas we have decided to do a follow up ;) This challenge will run throughout the new year and is called "Santa is coming to town" Another easy peasy one ha? 

I put my silhouette to good use again with this card. The star shape is cut using my new darling. My card turned out to be rather non traditional. I dont know why but I kind of struggled a bit with this one ;) I think the stamp is supercute but since shes like...naked...I didnt know what to color the scarf. So what did I do? Picked my fav color and made it light pink and that set the tone ;) LOL! 

I adde loads of stickles and snow tex all over the card. The sentiment is from CC stamps and I used two gorgeous Magnolia dies. The lantern is old news but a goldie still and the swirl is a new one! Gosh, it was love at first sight ;) 

I hope yo will like this! :) And do check out the blog to learn more about the last challenge of 2012 and look at the beyond gorgeous creations made by my teamies! 

Now Im bursting to tell you my BIG NEWS! 

I have been invited to join the amazing Live and Love Crafts design team!!! YAY! YAY! 

When the gorgeous owner Sandra (more known as Sandy) asked me I couldnt stop screaming! Hubby thought something had happen and I was like: "Something did happen!" Something awesome!!" 

Im so lucky to have been invited and I cant wait to start my new "job" in january. 

The dt is amazingly talanted and Im so proud to be working alongside them all! 

Sandy has been looking for two new members and if you want to read more about the other luscious cardmaker you can do that in the Live and Love Crafts blog. And while youre in there, why not join in the fun of the advent calendar??? 

Thank you so much for checkingin with me today! 

Lots of love, Louise

MDUC: Christmas

WHOOOOOT WHOOOOOOT WHOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!! 

Feels like I havent posted since forever and I probably havent ;) He, he, he! LOL

Time for a new amazing challenge with us ladies at Magnolia Down Under and this week its an easy peasy one! Our theme is CHRISTMAS! We would love to see you join in :) Not to mention you could be the winner of our luscious price, this week from our sponsor which is Tildas town.

I have (no surprise there ha? ;) of course put my new Silhouette Cameo to good use again. I cut the shape of this one and the sweet little text in the upper left corner, its a bot hard to see in this picture but it reads Happy Holidays. Tilda is so cute and special and is part of this years christmas collection. She is colored with my di´s on 300 g watercolorpaper. I added some glitter snowtex around the image to try and add to the frosty feeling. I also addded loads of stickles star dust to her. Im so in love with that big bow! I bought four different colors of that ribbon from the The Ribbon girl. I´ll never regret it and it started a new addiction ;) Yet another one...its expensive being me ;) lol! 

Before you head off do not miss out on the beyond amazing creations made by the worlds greatest teamies, you can find them over here.

Lots of love! 

Thank you for visiting me! 

DOC: So this is christmas...

Hi there friends and followers! 

Firstly I want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you whom still visits and even takes the time to send me some words. I really appreciate it! Im soooooo sorry I dont seem to get the time to visit you back, pls know I REALLY want to! Hopefully I will learn a little time management and get to be a pro at doing all the things I want although Im a mother of two. I cant wait til the new wall is finally up in our house, that will mean Ella gets her own room and I will be able to create and do my bloghoping during the evenings again. Ella sleeps in our bedroom atm and that increases my alone time - a lot ;) So cross your fingers it will be ready soon! 

WHOOOT WHOOOOOOOT! 

Already time for me to tell you all about the new fortnightly challenge with us over at Deep Ocean. Its a very nice and easy one me thinks - at least this time of year ;) The theme is "So this is christmas". Create like anything christmassy and youre in! YAY! 

     Now, let me tell you a little about my contribution. I bought a silhouette Cameo back in june and it arrived from the Netherlands in july. I had just given birth then so it wasnt really good time to learn something new. In august I finally plugged it in and gave it a try and Im NOT kidding you! I could get it to work for me! I tried everything, followed the instructions to the dot (or at least I though ;)) and I tried it over and over and after some time I gave up thinking it must be broken??? Im a member of a little swedish scrapbooking society, we get together every once in a while to create and I noticed another member had written about her silhouette. Great I though and asked her to show me how she manages hers when the next meeting was. She said yes and Im so thankful! I brought everything and dearest Petra helped me out! Im still on a learning curve of course but I have gone from HATING it to really LOVING it in like 30 minutes! The reason Im telling you all this is I cut the shape of this card on the silhouette! Its gorge, isnt it? ;) 

     Tilda is colored with di´s on 300 g watercolor paper and she was released as a part of the A Christmas story collection. She is so cute :) The grey dp is from Magnolia and the blue one is from Prima. The sentiment is part of a lovely little set I bought from Mikaelas Scrap in. Its from Amy R stamps. Never heard of them before but my Im in love with them too ;) 

Now, before you head off, pls take a little friendly advice and head on over to the Deep Ocean Challenge blog and take a look at all the beautiful creations made by my teamies, the are truly STUNNING!! We would love to see you join us. 

Have a great evening and hopefully I will see you soon! 

Love, Louise

MDUC: Sketch + option of adding wings

Hi there friends and followers! 

How are you all doing? Getting a wee bit tired of making those christmas cards yet? Well, let me tell you! I am - soooooo much! And I havent really made that many either...I need so many more - yaiks! Where will I find the time to make those? Im making myself a promise, here and now NOT to make the same mistake next year. I will have to make them throughout the year instead of feeling this stressed out about it ;) Enough about that! 

This weeks challenge over at Magnolia down Under is to create a project using this luscious sketch! 

Isnt it gorge? IF you want to you can also chose to add incorporate wings of any kind on there. 

Since I dont have much time for anything else right now I made a christmas card - surprised? ;) 

I used this super adorable Tilda from the Christmas story collection. She is colored with my di´s on 300 g watercolorpaper. 

Before you head off Id like to remind you to stop by the challenge blog to take a look at all of the smashing creations my teamies made for you all to inspire from. 

Im so happy you decided to visit me today :) 

I hope to see you soon! 

Lots of love, Louise

DOC: Pastel colors

Welcome back sweet friends and followers! 

Time for a new fortnightly challenge over at Deep Ocean and its an amazing one, fits me like a glove if I may say so myself ;) We want you to join us creating something, anything really ;), in pastel colors. 

This time I chose to work with yet another one of my latest Magnolias, she is released in the Christmas story collection and I think she looks awesome on a happy new year creation. We have been invited to celebrate with close friends this year and so I wanted to make them something special. The papers are not at all winter like, in fact they were released during the summer ;) All of them are part of a collection from Pink Paislee called Butterfly garden ;) The checked one is also a Pink paislee but from a collection  called Cupid. Tilda is colored with di´s on 300 g watercolor paper and I must say Im so happy about the big lush ribbon! I bought it from the Ribbon girls, isnt it lush? 

I followed the sketch with the amazingly talanted ladies over at CLP Challenges. Its their last sketch for this year! I can believe it! ;) Hurry on over, the ladies have done some stunning creations for us all to inspire from! This is what the sketch looks like: 

I had so much fun working it! Thanks ladies, see you next year :) 

I wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year! 

Hurry over to the DOC Challenge blog to see the stunning creations by my fellow teamies :) 

To finish off my post I want to show you some more pics of the card, but more close ups ;) 

Thank you so much for looking! 

Hopefully I will see you soon in your blogs! 

Lots of love, Louise

MDUC: All about books

Hi there friends and followers! 

Already time for me to tell you all about the new challenge over at Magnolia down under! Im just pinching my arm, trying to take in all the wonderful things happening in my life right now. When we are on the subject of time flying by Ella is already four months old! She is so much more awake now and she is such a darling to be around. Signe is also behaving much better for me so at times I find myself sitting down in the evenings and suddenly theres tears of incredible joy running down my face. Im such a lucky woman! My little girls are miracles, its so hard to get pregnant with my disease and to think I now have not "just" one but two! Im so thankful! 

Signe is starting pre school next year and we always read to her every night before she sleeps and she just started asking us to buy her some chapter books. I therefor took this opportunity to make her her first bookmark. The stamp is from Magnolia and was a freebie in the latest Maggie Ink. Let me tell you, for me it was love at first sight, she reminds me so much of little Signe and I couldnt wait to color her. 

I started searching the web for some tutorials on how to make these little cute corner bookmarks as Ive been wanting to make one for so long. I found this one on Split-coast stampers. Very easy to follow in case you would like to try one yourself. As always Tilda is inked with di´s on 300 g watercoloring paper. Im starting to get the hang of my new paper. ;) In the pic below you get more of an idea on how it looks and the actual style

And a little close up on the sweet Tilda 

Before I head off I want to encourage you not to miss out on the marvelous works by my amazing teamies! Head on over to the challenge blog now :) 

And I just have to share this picture of my sweet thing: 

Thank you so much for looking! 

Biggest of hugs! 

DOC: Around the world

Hi friends and followers! 

Time for a new challenge over at Deep Ocean and let me tell you Im a huge fan of this weeks theme because it is the perfect excuse to play with something other than christmas cards ;) We want you to go with us around the world! 

I bought this amazingly cute little Tilda with kangaroo when I was at the Magnolia Event in october and Ive been dying to color her ever since. I decided to add some freckles to Tildas face. I was inspired by a teamie at MDUC whom Ive seen do this a couple of times, the lovely and ubertalanted Zoe. I hope she wont mind or think Im a copy cat, its just so fabby when she does that :) Im feeling it might become my new thing ;) He,he,he! This card is made on order by my five and a half year old daughter Signe. She was attending a birthday celebration at her best friends house, she is called Ellie, this past sunday. She needed a card so I thought I´d better make one ;) 

The papers are from a 6*6 paper pad from Melissa Frances called 5th avenue and its been one of my favs for quit some time. Tilda is colored with my di´s on 300 g watercolor paper. The lace, sentiment and big pink flower are also from the Magnolia store in Borås. To make the hearted edge Ive used an oldie but goldie border punch from Martha Stewart. The roses are all from WOC. The big pink e letters are from Prima, as is the little 5 in the upper right corner. The corner adornments are from Zoes online store called Make it crafty and is so amazing, its chipboard that Ive just painted with some di crackle paint Picket fence. The dies are all Spellbinders. 

Now, I encourage you all to head over to the amazing DOC blog to take a look at the stunning creations my teamies created for you all to inspire from. 

Best friends, right? 

Thank you so much for looking! 

I hope to see you soon :) 

Biggest of hugs, Louise