10 year wedding anniversary!

Yesterday, 19th June, was our 10th wedding anniversary. It's so strange to think about that I've been married to my lovely husband for that long. We'd been together for 10 years before we got married as well, so that brings us up to 20 years together... phew... That makes me sound very old, doesn't it...?? (I don't feel that old though)

I still have my wedding bouquet.... This is what it looks like now.... 10 years after... and if you look closely, you can see the caketopper in the bottom right corner.

...and this is what it looked like back then (sorry for the bad scan);

I also still have my wedding shoes. They are the same as my mum got married to my dad in, back in 1971... so they have turned a bit yellow.

They're still in their original box....

...and if you look closely, you can see how much you had to pay for a nice pair of wedding shoes 38 years ago... 39 Norwegian kroner (that would be about £3.90 or $ 6.20)

And here we are 20 years after we met... still happy together...

A giraffe and a couple of challenges

Maja needed a card for her best friend's birthday party today, so I made one (of course....) And the best thing about this card is that I managed to enter it into two challenges as well... I'm so chuffed!
I used the sketch from the Stamp Something Challenge Blog, and the challenge over at Stampin' for the weekend is to use a digi stamp. The giraffe is a free digi stamp that I found HERE. This was my first time using a digi stamp. I think I prefer "normal" stamps, but that may just be because the printer didn't very much like the paper I wanted to print on... The letter stamps are from the "Flower Power Alphabet" from See D's. The letters and the tip of the giraffe's tail is mounted on pop dots for a 3d effect. And as usual... everything is coloured with water colour pencils.

If you pull that little ribbon at the top of the card, the giraffe and letters pop up and reveal a space to write your message on underneath.... It's been a while since I made a pop up card, so I felt it was about time....

Well, this'll have to do. Have a few things to do before my brother and his girlfriend arrives. They've just started their holiday and will stop and visit us on their way south....

Two in one...

Well, this time I've managed to enter two challenges with one card! Yay!

The very first challenge over at the new challenge blog Stampin' for the Weekend is "From Dusk to Dawn" using the colours purple and yellow. And I have also used sketch #54 from Sketch Saturday for this card.

All the four triangles in the corners and the mats behind the girl and sentiment are the same paper. It doesn't really look the same on the photo, but it's a pearlescence paper and it was really hard to capture in the picture.

The image is from Whiff of joy. I don't own this stamp myself (wish I did though) but I was so lucky to be able to stamp some images when I was over at my friends house making cards the other day. Thanks a bunch Randi Anita. Image is coloured with water colour pencils...

This is the sketch I used:

2sketches4you - 1st Annual Ultimat Card Showdown - week 1

The challenge blog 2 sketches 4 you is having their first annual ultimate card showdown... and they've got great prizes so I thought I'd give it a go! Here is the card I made using their sketch...
Thought I'd make a summer card. The stawberry is a free stamp I got with a magazine ages ago, and I've used the flower border from HeroArts "Four dolls" set for the green background.

A close up of the strawberries. They're coloured with water colour pencils (surprise surprise...) and one of them is mounted on pop dots.

You might get a better look at the pop dotting on this picture... and also a little peek of the inside.

Sunny days and Sketch Saturday challenge #53

Would you look at that.... my counter has passed 10 000... wow! A big thanks to everyone that pops by to say hello.

We've had a few REALLY nice days here over the week end. Hubby was off, for a change, and we spent the days together outside. One of the days we went to a park not too far from where we live, where we could look at farm animals and "play" with the goats. The girls loved stroking the goats and feeding them grass.As you can see, the weather was perfect for a day out...

We brought a barbecue and some sausages.... that way we didn't even have to go home for dinner....

The girls have had their first swim in a small lake not far from here too... and, to my surprise the water wasn't too bad/cold either... I hope summer is here to stay...

Although the weather has been really nice I've managed to squeeze in some card making (late in the evenings, after the sun has set and the girls have gone to bed...). I found it so fun to do the Sketch Saturday challenge last week that I decided to have another go this week. Here is my contribution to this weeks sketch.

I couldn't resist using this bright yellow after all the sunshine... Again, I've used my new "spring girls" stamps from Panduro. Coloured with water colour pencils.

The sentiment is mounted on pop dots, and I added some gems for a bit of "bling"...

And look... I managed to add my signature... (got it from here)

Sketch Saturday Challenge no 52

This card is for this weeks Sketch Saturday challenge. It's the first time I participate in this challenge.
I've used one of my new "spring girl" stamps from Panduro. The bucket of flowers is from the same set. The image is coloured with water colour pencils, and one of the flower buckets are mounted on pop dots.

This was a fun sketch to work with. Hope I've done it right... I appreciate your comments. Thanks.

Ida's blog candy

Ida over at Little's Stash & Dash is having a giveaway. She will add things to her candy depending on how many comments she gets so hurry over and join. You have until 15th June.

I was so excited when I "found" Ida here in blogland as she lives really close to where I live. Most other bloggers are so far away and it's good to know there are other people with similar interests in the area....

God sommer

Ok... so I have bought some more stamps... I just had to have these stamps... they were on sale, and you can't just leave reduced stamps back in the shop now, can you? (Does it sound like I'm furiously trying to justify buying more stamps here...??) It was a set of five "spring girls" and I have used one of them on this card I made last night. She looks more like a summer girl to me, but hey, who cares...

The turqouise flowery background was a piece of card I had lying around from trying out a resist technique with Versa Mark ink, glossy paper, a flower stamp and some felt tip pens... It turned out all right and it was a real fun technique.

This card wasn't made for anything special... just playing with my new new stamps... The sentiment is in Norwegian and means good summer/happy summer. Image coloured with water colour pencils. Girl mounted on pop dots.

And before I forget.... some more blog candys... (I need to get my blog updated so I can put things in the sidebar easily....)

Imagine, create, inspire has this candy to give away. Ends 29th May.
Smells like homemade is giving away these goodies. Ends 15th June.

Paper hugs has a giveaway. End 25th May.
Paper crafting in cocoa has this to offer. End 25th May.
Inky wings has a giveaway too. Ends 31st May.

What a wonderful day!

Yesterday was Norway's national day. It's a "big" day here and everyone is out celebrating. People get dressed in their national costumes and there are parades, bands playing, fun and games all day long. I just wanted to share some photos from our lovely day...

Here we have my youngest,Susie, in her little costume, ready to go and watch her big sister in the parade.
And here is Maja, ready to walk in the parade with her class mates. I was quite amazed that so many children had national costumes. I had kind of forgotten, since it's almost 10 years since I last celebrated 17th may in Norway. The last 3 years were spent in Edinburgh on this day. At least there is a parade and some sort of celebration there... when we lived in Inverness there were nothing....

And this is the ONE picture taken of me yesterday.... I guess I'm always the one holding the camera...

And what a novelty... hubby had time to join us for the parade before he had to dash off to work...

Ice cream is compulsary on 17th May...

...and so are hot dogs, fizzy drinks and more ice cream... and fun and games like sack race, walking on stilts, throwing balls at tin cans etc etc...

After driving hubby to work, the girls and I went for a BBQ at a friends house. We had a good day... the girls really enjoyed themselves and so did I.

More candy...

I'm just letting you know that Debbie/Passion for crafts is having a great blog candy... Ooooohhhh I REALLY want this one. I love those stamps she's giving away. Head over here for a chance to win. Ends 23 may.

Birthday card

I made this card on Sunday afternoon... just in time to enter it into the HeroArts weekly challenge. I just haven't had the time or energy to blog it before.
I used my new Four Dolls stamps from HA on this card too. The background and the sentiment strip was made with Whispers words stamps from Docrafts. On the bottom picture here you can see that the girl and two of the lanterns are mounted on pop dots/3D foam.

I also wanted to share another giveaway with you... Head over HERE for these goodies (ends 15. may):

New stamps

I finally got my new stamps... bought on Ebay... and sent from the USA, so it took a while from I bought them till I had them in my hands... Anyway... the two sets of stamps I got are the "Four dolls" from Hero arts and "Butterfly beauties" from Stampendous. Aren't they gorgeous?
So the last couple of evenings I've been playing with my new stamps (of course...) and I made this card:

I made this card for the weekly challenge at the Hero arts blog. This weeks challenge is to make a card inspired by a card from the "win a day at the blog challenge", and my card is inspired by this card made by alnette.

The girl is mounted on pop dots for some dimension. The background paper is from Dovecraft. In addition to the HA and Stampendous stamps, I have used a background script stamp from Kort og Godt.

Just a few more blog candies....

I just wanted to share these links for some great giveaways....

Crafty moments is giving away these goodies (ends 20th May):

All glued up has these goodies (ends 8th May) :

Doing life is also having a great giveaway (ends 8th June):

Crafty cat is also having a blog candy (ends 31st May): Dragonflytime is giving away this (ends 18th May):
Well, that's it for today... Good luck!