It has taken some time, but we have 11 PRIZES.

They have been allocated using random numbers.

So keep the tickets that came with the cards you bought at the ready and check this list:

151
288
304
113
246
302
28
103
110
123
171

All winners should get in touch via [email protected], let us see the ticket and give us the details of where to send their prize.

Thank you all for your support in buying the cards!
Het heeft een tijdje geduurd, maar we hebben 11 PRIJZEN.

De lotjes zijn willekeurig getrokken.

Hou je lotjes die bij de kaarten die je kocht zaten en kijk deze lijst na:













Winnaars kunnen zich melden via [email protected], ons hun lotje laten zien en het adres geven waarnaar de prijs gestuurd kan worden.

Dank u voor alle steun in het kopen van de kaarten!


Foto
I have been making cards to sell for two causes.

Gold ribbons came falling out of the sky during the André Rieu concert in Maastricht which I took my husband to for his fiftieth birthday. My parents paid as a special treat, knowing just how much this would mean to him. We started picking them up and rolling them. The people around us soon joined in and handed the rolls to me. The atmosphere was so magical and inspiring that I immediately thought I should use them for crafting something special. It was obvious it would be cards, the design was to follow later on. However it was clear to me very swiftly where the money should go.

The idea is that I donate the materials and my time, so the full price of the cards can be split between two pots. 

One cause is the Friends of Ichthyosis , which was set up and organised by a dear facebook friend of mine, Melanie Bradley. She has touched me deeply with her stories about her and her life with this disease, which she has passed on to her lovely little girl, and with her courage and tenacity. 

The other half will go into a fund to enable my husband and I, and hopefully our little boy too, to return to Maastricht for the next André Rieu concert .  I love it too, but my husband so deserves this intensely special treat which means more to him than I can explain here.  Everything he does in looking after me, as I have complex health issues which keep me bedbound the majority of the time,  and our six year old son  who has multiple special needs is beyond admirable.  He really does deserve this relatively small treat. Because of my health we can only go if we stay overnight, and because of our financial situation I need to devise a way to create the funds.

The cards have been given a simple design, so I would be able to produce many. They have an insert without text, and hence can be used for any occasion.  They are available in light blue (the colour of
Friends of Ichthyosis ), and in purple and light green , and other colours might follow. The embossed swirls  repeat the background of the Friends of Ichthyosis  site, and the butterfly is sometimes used as their symbol.

To encourage you to buy generously, my friend Shelley Mimi Bo has offered to hunt down some wonderful prizes to be raffled. Each card gives entry into a random draw,   The winners will be made known HERE on this page.

Each card costs 2.50 GBP. That's 4.00 USD, to any American customers. If you buy five, you get 25p discount per card, buy 10 and it's 50p less per card, so 11.25 GBP for 5 cards and draw entries, and 20 GBP for 10. That's 17.90 and 31.80 USD. Payment can be made in cash, by bank transfer or through PayPal.

You can order in the comments here, with Melanie or with me.  Better still: you could help us sell!  
In any case, do get in touch, and do help spread the word - by referring people to this blogpage for example...

 THANK YOU!  

Deze kaartjes  heb ik ontworpen met de bedoeling voor twee aparte potjes centen te verzamelen. 

De gouden linten die worden gebruikt om de vlinder te maken, kwamen uit de lucht gevallen tijden s het André Rieu concert in Maastricht. Mijn ouders trakteerden ons hierop om mijn man zijn vijftigste verjaardag te vieren, wetend hoe belangrijk dit voor hem zou zijn. We verzamelden ze, en begonnen ze op te rollen. De mensen naast ons deden al gauw mee en gaven mij hun rolletjes. De sfeer is daar zo wonderlijk en inspirerend dat  ik meteen bedacht  dat ik ze wou gebruiken om iets speciaals mee te knutselen. Dat het kaartjes zouden worden was wel duidelijk, het ontwerp zou later pas volgen. Waar de opbrengst naartoe moest gaan wist ik onmiddellijk. 

Mijn tijd en de materialen geef ik, zodat de volledige prijs van de kaartjes  verdeeld kan worden over twee goede doelen. 

Het eerste goede doel is de Friends of Ichthyosis ,  dat werd opgericht door een facebook vriendin van me , Melanie Bradley. Haar verhalen over het leven met deze aandoening, die ze ook heeft doorgegeven aan haar lieflijk dochtertje, en haar moed en drijfkracht hebben me diep geraakt. 

De andere helft gaat naar een spaarpotje dat moet dienen om mijn man, en hopelijk ook ons zoontje, dit jaar opnieuw mee te nemen naar het André Rieu concert in Maastricht . Ik hou er ook van, maar mijn echtgenoot verdiend deze zo intens speciale traktatie enorm. Ik kan je hier onmogelijk de emotionele lading van deze uitstap beschrijven. Alle s wat hij voor mij doet, omdat ik door een complexe gezondheidsproblematiek bijna volltijds aan bed gekluisterd leef,  en voor onze zesjarige zoon die op verscheidene vlakken extra zorgen nodig heeft , is meer dan bewonderenswaardig. Hij is deze relatief kleine beloning echt wel waard. Mijn gezondheidstoestand verplicht ons te blijven overnachten, onze financiële toestand verplicht me te proberen een apart potje te sparen. 

De kaartjes zijn simpel ontworpen, om er veel te kunnen maken. Ze zijn voorzien van een inlegvel zonder tekst, zodat ze voor verschillende gelegenheden gebruikt kunnen worden. Ze zijn verkrijgbaar in lichtblauw (de kleur van 
Friends of Ichthyosis ), en paars en lichtgroen, er kunnen nog andere kleuren volgen.  De reliëf krullen geven  de achtergrond van de website van Friends of Ichthyosis  weer,  en de vlinder wordt wel eens gebruikt als hun symbool.

Om jullie aan te moedigen veelvuldig te bestellen, heeft Shelley Mimi Bo, en vriendin van me, aangeboden mooie prijzen op te sporen om random te verloten. Iedere kaart is voorzien van een lot. De winnaars zullen HIER op deze pagina bekend worden gemaakt. 

Een kaartje kost €3,15, per vijf komen ze op €2,80/st of €14/5st, per 10 is het nog €2,50/st of €25/10. Er kan in cash, per overschrijving of met PayPal betaald worden.

 Bestellen kan hieronder in de commentaren, bij Melanie of bij mezelf. Beter nog: je zou ons kunnen helpen bij de verkoop!  Laat in ieder geval iets weten, en zeg het verder, bijvoorbeeld door mensen naar deze blogpagina te verwijzen...  

DANK U!
 
 
Picture
This butterfly card is one I made for the very first order I received. I was given a lot of freedom, and this is one of the things I came up with.

I would like to enter it into Emma's Crafty Challenge, for which the theme this month is monochrome.

 
Foto
Tomorrow's my brother's birthday. Yes, you read that right: tomorrow. I actually made the card in time! I even had a look before I started to see if there were any challenges I could strive towards.

And guess what - as luck would have it a couple have the theme 'Birthday Card': Timeless Tuesday (Happy birthday, Beate!) and Scrap Creations. And  the 2 sisters have 'birthday fun' going.

Then there is Cards for Men with the Great Outdoors, remember? Well, my brother as far as I am aware is a man, and I was thinking of making something for him incorporating his hobby of fishing. He has been fishing for very many years, since we were in our teens, and still seems to very much enjoy it. Thankfully my friend Fien had just sent me some really elegant fish, and I found a fishing scene in my stash.

That made it relatively easy to fit in with the Pink Gem Challenge photo inspiration challenge. What a gorgeous gem to inspire my choice of blues for this card!

'Numbers' was relatively straightforward too, especially since I had those lovely aquamarine felt ones. It happens to be the theme at the Pixie Challenge from the Pixie Dust Studio.

That leaves one much less obvious one, but since it was one of the first ones I came across during this search and one of the very first challenges I ever took part in,  I wanted to keep it in. That is ' Sew it' at Do You Stack Up, which added a bit more of a true challenge in this case. I used one of the Hunky Dory sentiments which is nicely finished with silver faux stitching, complimenting the fish and water beautifully.

Eventhough this card fits so many challenges, which would sometimes work so restricting, I am extremely happy with it. I wonder what you all think, and much prefer an honest answer, but I personally feel it is one of my best so far.

 
Foto
You wouldn't believe how much thought went into this card before I ever started making it. The theme Emma set for us in her challenge was stripes. I didn't want to do anything obvious, or just happen to use stripey background paper, so in the end I thought something a little more abstract and playful was in order. This is what I came up with, with a sentiment that original said: "Seeing you makes it easy to smile" where I changed the second e into an a. 

I would also like to enter the Top Tip Tuesday Challenge, the animal part of it, obviously. I don't think I am advanced enough yet to have any meaningful tips yet, but at least I can enter a card. 

Order of the Opus Gluei who throw challenges for fun, also happen to have an animal theme going. So here's to them too.

And the great outdoors theme for Cards for Men this card should be good for as well. I have always considered browns, greys and darker blues to be masculin colours, and the stripes themselves as well, I guess they make me think of ties...