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!


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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!
 
 
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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.

 
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Phew! Ever since I heard the theme was floral I wanted to take part in the Crafty Blogger's Network Challenge. I had already missed a  challenge for which I had made a card when our internet connection went off for nearly three weeks, and now that is fixed, the lead to my mini-laptop is broken. This means I am very limited in coming online again, as I normally do this lying down in bed, and now I have to come downstairs and sit at my husband's computer, which is very difficult for me.

Anyway, this serves as a birthday card for my stepmother-in-law, who is called Malle. It is unusual for me to go this floral, another little step out of my comfort zone. I must say that zone is gradually growing, bit by bit.

So, just before the deadline, I would very much like to enter this card in the challenge.

When I do decide to make the effort to come downstairs, I have to make it worth my while. So I found another  challenge I think this card would suit.

Scrap Creations have one on the theme of flowers, so I am entering that one as well.

Of course there's always anything goes as well. Use your stuff is one of those at the moment. This card fits their spirit as well. I was sent these flowers in one of the many crafty packets my facebook friends send me. I wanted to do them justice, but as I said before, it's been outside of that comfort zone for me. I was always worried I would end up making something very old fashioned and naff. The same goes for the blue floral paper, which was part of my hunky dory packet. By weaving it with the pink paper, and colour coordinating the flowers, I actually very much like the result.

Make it Monday are experts on the anything goes theme, so this one os for them as well.

Happy crafting!

 
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Even though this was a relatively simple and very enjoyable card to make, for the very first time since I have started this crafting, I really ran into my dyspraxia wall.

Having chosen the elements, stuck, dusted and cut the butterflies, and prepared the base card, to go ahead and stick the butterflies on, I then wanted to go and embellish. I had dark blue stars and sequins, and brightish blue roses, and I wanted to stick them on with glue gel. It's always difficult to use this, as there is no cap to put on the end of the tube, so the glue dries up into it. So far though, I have always overcome it with some fiddling and sheer force. 

This time I was beaten by a tube of glue! The thing with dyspraxia is the emotional response that goes with it. The more I read about it, now that our boy has been diagnosed with it, the more I realise I am not alone with this and never should have been. Anyway, the card went flying across the room, and all the embellishments followed behind it.

This morning, as I gathered my courage to get back to it, they seemed to have disappeared. The card was there, but all the fancy bits are missing. Time for a reshuffle. It has turned out more simple, but possibly also more effective.

As I told Emma, one of my dear facebook friends, a great craft talent always ready to support, advise and care, I very much liked this theme of her very first ever challenge: shades of blue. I like the look of monochrome cards anyway, and blue has always been one of my favourite colours. So this one is for Emma's challenge, with which I wish her every success!

Challenge up your Life  happen to have monochrome as their new theme as well. So obviously this card will be entered in theirs too.

Because of the embellishments, and particularly how they came to be there as they are, I am also entering this card in the stamp man's embellishment challenge.

The stamping sisters in christ  are all about Love. When I designed this card it just so happened I had in mind exactly what is described in that challenge as well. That is why I added 'With Love' to a blue card, rather than being focussed on red. When feeling blue, just that little word can work wonders. So that fits nicely into their challenge too.

That closely resembles the thought behind crafty ann's challenge Love is in the Air. There is also this realisation that love is about more than Valentine's alone. So that's another one I am taking part in with this card.

So, a lot of challenges for just one card. Let's hope it is successful.

 
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Another card to raise money to improve the life of this girl who lives with cystic fibrosis, made to be entered into the Crafting for all Seasons (http://www.craftingforallseasons.blogspot.com/) blue and white challenge. Made with peel offs with the darker blue saying 'Thinking of You' as I thought that applies for so many things and might appeal to people to buy it easily when Jackie Newport (Craftyspecials) comes to sell it for her fund.

It was a surprise to me that the butterflies were sticky on both sides, took a bit of working out. Thankfully I had white sparkles from my New Year's HunkyDory stash, which I thought was very effective in adding that litle extra. It is much more obvious in real life than in the picture, as I am sure you can imagine.