Summer is here again - at least at MDUC

Hello everybody! 

Good middle of the night (Thank God for scheduled posts ;) lol)) 

We at Magnolia Down Under  are so exited to wish you all a huge welcome to this our first challenge of the year. The theme is SUMMER DELIGHTS and we hope you can join us. We have decided to change our dear blog a little and spiced it up with additional challenges in our new Facebook group. If you wish to know more please read this. 

Summer delights sounds to me like a perfect challenge to join after all those christmas cards. I hardly made any this year but as some of you know summer is my fav season of the year so Im always ready to make one of those. 

Ive used one of the Tilda's from last years summer stamp kit club. She has never seen ink so that was a natural choice. I inked her with my Copic sketch markers. 

Dp from Magnolia. The tulips is also from Magnolia as is that lovely sentiment. All other flowers are WOC. The BEAUTIFUL and utterly elegant Blue crystal and diamante embellie is from the The Ribbon girl. 

Please, don't forget to head on over to the MDUC blog to see amazing work by my lovely fellow dt members. 

Thank you so much for looking :) 

Love 

MDUC: Jingle bells

Hi there! 

Welcome to my place, especially as Im amazed you guys still find your way here ;) lol! 

I made a whole card! And it fits perfectly with this weeks theme for the new challenge over at Magnolia Down Under. Its JINGLE BELLS! 

WELCOME to join in! We would love to meet you there! Please head on over to look at the amazing stuff my highly beloved teamies made :) 

I made a shaped card, cut with my Go Kreate die. It features one of the new Tildas released just a few weeks ago. She is colored with distress ink pads on 300 g water color paper. Signe was with me as I put the card together and somehow the red must have touched with water because it spread at at some places over the image. I didn't think it was disturbing though so I decided to try and cover the places with a little white and now I act like nothing happened ;) lol I should know better by now than having Signe with me during the "I will actually make something something" moments. :( My word, she is cute, being everywhere and so on but my gosh! I got to watch my properties ;) I thought it would have calmed down by now but its still the same. All though, that really doesn't make much of a difference as I raid my boxes now too. 

Good news on the progress of building my new craft room! We have a contractor! However, they are very busy at the moment and cant make any promises to start before christmas. Im really REALLY missing you all by now and you would have laughed your heads off if you could see me whilst my desire to craft gets the best of me. I open the box closest to me and I start patting them...OMGosh! Im not normal am I ;) (Be good and answer yes...otherwise...don't answer ;)) 

I hoe you will like my make :) 

Lots of love 

MDUC: Tic tac toe

Good (late) evening! 

Welcome to my place :) Im here tonight to let you in on all the deets you need to join the fun of this weeks challenge over at Magnolia Down Under. This weeks theme is a lovely one - I love it! Its a splendid game of tic tac toe! 

Here´s the sheet: 

I managed to use all but poor little Edwin. I really don't think there is enough light shining on him but one of my pretty Tilda stamps won the battle this week too ;) This is cutie "Tilda binding flowers" and I colored her using my di pads on 300 g watercoloring paper. Tilda is placed inside a spellbinder die and I frantaged all edges using the shabby green. The patterned papers is utterly lovely and is also from Magnolia. So is that huge amazing butterfly in the right upper corner. The cute heart charms was a gift from my very treasured friend Chelsea.

Im hoping Ive inspired you all to join in our game of BINGO. 

If not you should bounce by the MDUC blog to look at the amazing creations made by my teamies! They have outdone themselves once again! 

Lots of love, 

MDUC Jane´s choice: Black and white image

Hi and welcome Magnolia lovers ;) 

Tonight is the launch of an all new challenge over at Magnolia Down Under and this week the choice of theme was up to my very dear friend Jane. And her choice is...hold on to your seats..fasten those seat belts because it is...BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE. 

If you are anything like me you love a good challenge, you know the challenges that are just that...the ones that really challenges you and this was one of those for me. Ive never colored in b&w before and as I was going in with my black soot on Tilda's face I first thought it looked pretty ridiculous. I have colored in sepia though and I kind of felt the same way my first time doing that so I knew I´d better hang in there and as Im finished now I think its pretty fabulous - you HAVE to try it! 

And hey..when you're all done reading my post (thank you :)) you have to promise me to head on over to the MDUC blog to look at the amazing creations made by my lovely teamies. I can see why Jane chose this theme, its obviously dear to her heart - her inking blows me away! It looks like a very old photograph! :) 

Today is still saturday here in Sweden and so Id like to CONGRATULATE my uncle Tonny as he has married the love of his life today. Im so happy for them both. The lucky lady is Tina and so that´s why the banner says T&T. They make pretty good dynamite ;) ;) ! Good luck in your future life together. Here they are together after the ceremony: 

As you can see its Tina there on the front and I also chose to work with two Magnolia sentiments. Its the LOVE one behind Tilda..eh..Tina and the one on the spellbinder die is just so adorable don't you think? Its not only that its also true. The beautiful roses are by WOC and they are all pretty amazing gifts. Thank you so much dearest Camilla H. I love them! Ive also tried my beloved orchid doo hickey die for the first time and the amazing light lilac wellum was a gift from amazing Jane. Thanks hunni for fixing me up! :) The lovely seam binding and clay heart are from my fav store Live and love crafts. The papers are by...omgosh..I wish I knew, bought them a biz-zillion years ago ;) The fran-tage is called aged rose. Lock by Melissa Frances and charms from the Magnolia store in Borås. Before I go I want to show you some more pics. 

I have had some questions lately regarding what I do with the rest of my cards ;) Do I always / never decorate the back and inside? And if I do, with what? 

As I love getting questions asked heres the answers. Yes, I do most often decorate the inside and backside of the cards / projects I make. And I ALWAYS do it the same way, thats why I hardly ever show you because then yo might tire of me ;) 

For the backside I use the same layout with papers as I do on the front, I also add a personal rubber-stamp that I bought from Whismy stamps years ago - its still going strong - I love it! 

For the inside I use similar papers as back and front but I like to chose some that are slightly different. And of course for the inside I always add some nice sentiments and a personal greeting. Heres the inside of todays card for Tonny and Tina. These are not stamped, Ive made them both on my computer and just printed them out. 

Thank you so much for being here today! 

Be sure to come back tomorrow for my weekly inspirational posting for LLC. 

Its the lovely theme of "Inspired by a song" and the song is...now I got you seriously hocked ha?? 

He, he, he! 

My feet is in the sand..and I feel a sea breeze coming in..

....although this card is not much of a beach scene. No Tilda's in swimwear here ;) Although..this is us leaving the beach after a day of lovely swedish sunny weather. We are biking on our way home and oh! Theres a ice-cream bar! And we just had to stop ;) 

(Oh...well..I´ll stop the lie you just caught me with, sorry..you girls know me to well...okay so we wouldn't exactly bike home...we strolled along the beach...OH OKAY!!!! So...we took the car! ;)) rofl! 

Welcome to my place! 

Im here to tell you all about our new challenge over at Magnolia Down Under. This week its Camilla H s turn to chose a theme and I just knew right away she would pick an awesome one!! Its OUR FAVORITE THINGS time! 

So you might think I would go with one of the oldies and goldies you've seen me use from time to time and you're right..I could have. But, really I haven't been this exited about a Magnolia stamp release as I am about the Sea breeze in some time. I mean Im always loving them but these are just..breathtaking. So they became favs immediately ;) Its been a while since I built a scene too and its something that I love as well but strangely I don't do that very often. As I finished coloring these lovelies it came to me..OMGosh! There´s hardly any space left for me to put my pim pim! (embellies) How will I survive? And with this lovely theme you probably can imagine me going wild just taking EVERYTHING out and putting it on there. Well, my scenery kind off limited my choices. So I just added some flowers because well if I hadn't I probably wouldn't have survived ;) I looooooove these lilac flowers they are just BEYOND gorge! The big rose bud was a gift from my lovely friend and now theme picker, the adorable Camilla H. She bought them at the Magnolia store in Borås for me and Ive been clinching on to them hoping the will never fade. They wont of course, they are not real - dah! But they might run out and I wouldn't like that - at all. But I decided to dig in and deck out ;) Oh phew! And...the PRETTY PRETTY pink lace was a birthday gift from another stunning friend I could never live without, miss Elise. Since its my fav I had to use it but now Im left with just a teeny tiny bit that I cant use for anything. Feel sorry for me..I asked where she bought it and she bought from Ebay. Ive been hanging around since may and I cant find it! Im not a quitter though so Im still there browsing the laces and hey...as it turns out there are other ones...he, he, he! 

The little lock is also the last piece of a Melissa Frances resin embellie pack. Gosh, LOVE IT! Its soooo shabby.  They don't come shabbier that this! No shabbotaging necessary! 

I also added some cheese cloth - cause otherwise it just wouldn't be made by me. Some crackle paint, picket fence and tattered rose and well...some gesso too. Let alone the stickle star dust - its on there too. Some buttons, the clock die from Sizzix - oh that is neat! A magnolia sentiment on a die by Spellbinders and a gold charm. 

Well, as I went into this project I was taking my (now a days HUGE ;)) LLC container out because in that store is all of my favs but as I had picked everything out I challenged myself into not using them so I will use my other stash too. I feel sad for the other stash just laying around ;) BUT as it turns out there where two items I couldn't stay away from..its Sandys own seam binding (yes! its handmade by Sandy herself) . I SERIOUSLY cannot live without it and of course...the Fran-tage had to go on here too! So my plan didn't exactly work out in the end - but Im happy with the card ;) lol

And.now Im left with a desire to work my LLC stuff again - soon! So will have to make another card tonight ;) lol (Maybe plan worked out anyway??) 

Well...now you MUST be soooo tired with me rambling on and on about my thoughts and stash. Ill just leave you here with some close ups and the hopes of your survival! rofl ;) 

Oh..before I go...just a little reminder to stop by the MDUC blog because as always my teamies outdid themselves again! As I went to add my creation my heart skipped a beat and I had to pinch my arm - Im so lucky to be part of this swell swell team!!! 

Surprise for Camilla S! For a boy at MDUC + midway reminder CLP

Hi friends and followers! 

Id like to, as always, wish you welcome here but today I want to wish one of my dearest friends Camilla Stöen Bakke an extra hearty welcome! We have had something special planned for months now and its FINALLY time! Time for us all to once again join in and hold virtual hands and give virtual hugs as our second MDUC  surprise babyshower goes live! 

SURPRISE CAMILLA!!!!! 

As some of you may know Camilla is going to be a mum any day now. She is expecting a little boy that is going to be named Maximilian. Isn't that the cutest name? Oh, I simply cannot wait to see pictures of this little sweetheart but I will just have to wait. Theres no rushing mother nature ;) lol Its a little extra emotional for me because it takes me back to this time last year when the amazing MDUC team had planned the first baby shower for me and little Ella! I was soooo surprised and I have never had anyone do something quit this special for me before so I know first hand what this means to Camilla, its out of this world, Camilla! Don't you think? 

Besides creating something special for Camilla us in the DT have had the option to work after a tic tac toe board created by yours truly. Since its mine Ive added all the things I love in this board so no surprise I went all in! ;) Here´s what the board looks like: 

So our thinking is that if you want to join in our celebration you create something, anything with the theme "For a boy" in mind. It doesn't have to be a creation for a newborn baby boy it can be anything for a boy. We also have the option of using the tic tac toe board but you don't have to. We would be so happy if you could join in, we are nothing without you guys and your amazing entries :) 

The card i made is also my midway reminder for the greatest sketch challenge ever (if I may say so myself ;) Good job, Chelsea)) and to join in you have to create using this lush sketch: 

Before I go to take a look at all of the AMAZING creations made by my fellow teamies here I want to share some more close ups. My choice of image is Baby Tilda and I colored her with my di´s on 300 g watercolor paper. I made a shaker box for him to rest in so he is all cuddly and comfy ;) I made the box frame with spellbinder classic and scalloped oval dies. The glitter inside the box is from You do. I also added stickles to the cute wings and the lace on the stamped image. The gold, white and blue sprinkles are made with frantage "Shabby blue". Ive used an alphabet die from TH for Sizzix and its called "Typeset" to spell out Maximilian. 

The gorge dim blue seambinding and lace goes perfect together with the beautiful rattle charm I bought at the Magnolia store in Borås some time ago. The broad light blue lace behind the image is bought from Ebay and the white one is by Live and Love crafts and so is quit may other embellies. I cant stay away from them they are just to shabby and awesome! Ive added a gallery of the LLC stuff I used at the end of this posting via Inlinkz. 

The papers are by Pion design and are part of the "Studio of memories" collection. 

The flowers are from WOC, Ive really tried my best to contain my desire to go nuts with flowers here since its for a little boy, but hey...he´s tiny and so these three doesn't count ;) lol Flowers are my fav embellie so it took some strength ;) 

The circular stamp is from Kort og godt and I first noticed it when it was part of one of the surprises made for me last year. It was from my beloved teamie Janne and she had used it on this beautiful paper piece of cake she made me:  

I loved it already back then and ever since we found out Camilla was pregnant I had planned to buy one for myself and use it on her creation as its in Norwegian and will be perfect. I have a feeling I will use it a lot more over and over. Our languages swedish and norwegian are no that different from each other. It says " A little angel" and we used to spell ängel like that before here so it just looks like early on swedish - cool! I also had that die from before and had forgotten all about it and thought it would be a fun way to make it look the same. Of course I had to add some Frantage though! Thank you so much for you never stopping inspiration Janne. 

I hope you will like my creation and Camilla, I hope it will land in your postbox very soon along with a little pressie. GOOD LUCK! 

MDUC Designers choice weeks: Flower Power

Hi crafters! 

Welcome to tonights posting where I tell you all about the new theme over at Magnolia Down Under Challenges. I cant even begin to tell you how exited I am about it. We are trying something new during summer this year where we as designers has chosen one theme each that we LOVE working after! Last week was teamie Debbie D´s choice of Sepia coloring and this week its my time to pick the theme. What I chose must not be a total surprise to you as I hardly ever make cards without this lush embellishment, namely: FLOWERS! Theme is FLOWER POWER and so we are expecting to see your flower showered creations :) Go dig yourself done that flower(s) container and get your  groove on and I will meet you there. :) 

To tell you a little about my own creation its a thank you for your friendship card for one of my treasured blog buddies AND IRL buddies! Yes, we get together every once in a while to sit down and craft and Im loving that! To meet online is fantastic! To meet IRL is something extra. Her name is Christina and she is the author of Christinas scrapkammare. She inks with Copics a lot more than I do and is a chosen dt member for the newly started Copic Marker Sweden blog. I ask for her advice on color combinations all the time so Im thankful she puts up with me ;) lol! 

This time I inked Tilda with my Copics too and I had so much fun. THe blue patterned paper is by Maja Design from the latest "Vintage Spring Basics", 12*12 sheet is called 7th of march. The sentiment is from Bildmålarna and around the edge of the flower center I added some shabby blue embossing powder and pink rolled roses from Live and love crafts. The letters is cut out with a die from Sizzix by TH and is called Type set. The beautiful diamante spacer is from The ribbon girl. The sentiment "Big hugs to you" is from a sheet of sentiments called "Friendship sentiments" from my beautiful and utterly talanted friend Angie Hunts store Little Darling Rubberstamps. (Oh I miss you guys! We had so much fun! Love you all) 

Those sentiments are amazing, they are not as huge in size as they regularly is so they can fit into the smallest spaces like my little Doo Hickey die there. I will definitely buy more of those! The turqoise roses are by Prima all of the other flowers are WOC. 

Heres some more close ups: 

I hope you will take the time out of your busy schedules to join us at MDUC this week, that would mean the world to me :) 

But hey, don't forget to firstly pop over to look at all the beyond fabby creations made by my teamies! 

MDUC Anything goes meets CLP sketch

Good evening and welcome here! 

Tonight Im doing a combined post, both for Magnolia Down Under challenges which has the lovely theme of Anything goes and its also my midway reminder for CLP sketch challenge where the lush sketch for June looks like this: 

My creation is the last graduation card of this year. Its for our neighbors oldest daughter Isabelle. She graduated this past tuesday and we wanted to wish her good luck with whatever she choses to do next. 

I chose to work with my new fav color (well...as you can see theres still splashes of pink on there or else Id be ill ;)) lilac. Its Isabelles fav so that worked out perfectly. 

Before I leave you I want to show you some more close ups: 

Now, do not forget to join us. We would be delighted if you did! 

Hurry on over to the challengeblogs to take a look at the beyond stunning creations made by my fellow teamies :) 

Lots of love,