Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Sweet wishes

Good morning friends,
Here we are on the last day of August.....the year is spinning by. I managed another card for the Progressive challenge on CDAC, Just making it as today is the last day for this first part.


I like the little chef from Digistamps4joy. This is what I did.
Paper...unknown from a pack
Image.....Digistamps4joy...by Jenlee, coloured..with copics....yes I am practising!!!
Image...also no name..stamped and mounted on a stamped cupcake, with a red brad for a cherry..added another cupcake munted on 3D foam dots, with glossy accents on the cherry and a bead in the corner.
I will also enter this in the Outlawz greeting challenge..recipe..1 image, 2 DP and 3 embellishments.
Not sure if this photo is so good, but had to scan it this time.
Have a good week and start to the lovely month of September, when spring arrives in the Southern Hemisphere.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Spring is in the air

Happy Sunday friends,
Firstly I would like to say that my thoughts and prayers are with all my friends on the east coast of America, as "Irene" has been making its way. Hope you are all safe and that any damage will not be too severe where you are.
Next I would also like to welcome new followers to my blog. Lovely to have you visiting and do appreciate your comments.
Yes here in South Africa spring is in the air, although today has been rather cool and cloudy, but the trees are blossoming and the lovely early scented flowers are starting, the daffodils are opening, so if we can get some early rains that would just be the ideal prize.


My card today is being entered in a number of challenges. Firstly
Digistamps4joy... Spring plus handmade flower
The Shabby Tea Room...Sweet days of Summer...use colours pink/peach/green plus handmade flower
Tuesday Throwdown... Dimension/texture
Totally Gorjuss ....as you like it
Charisma Cards...glitter it
Sarah Hurley challenge .....Bling and sparkle
The Outlawz..Greeting card
The Sisterhood of crafters..flower power Here is what I used:
Paper Cardstock...pink Bazzil, put through the cuttlebug with roses folder and some glitter brushed on the roses.
Image...DigiStamps 4 Joy..Spring.. Coloured with distress inkpads, punched out flowers in her hair, mounted on paper doilies cut with an X-cut die.
Flowers and leaves punched from a Marianne Design die, misted with silver glimmer mist,
Sentiment.. Whiff of Joy cut with a Nellie Snellen die and attached with ribbon
Some bling on the flowers and in the corners.
I must apologise. The colours, especially of the flowers haven't come out as they should. We did have a rather dull day, Sorry for this.
Love to know what you think of it. Have a great week and take care.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Check out this party invitation

Happy Friday everyone,
I have just seen that there is going to be a great party over at Annabelle's for their 2nd birthday. You can start off with some good prizes just by having this blinky on your blog, so hurry on over .
Have a wonderfula weekend everyone. See you soon.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Need a holiday????

Good afternoon to everyone,
Just one more day before the weekend, and it promises to be real spring weather. I do feel like I would like to do some travelling again, but I guess that will have to wait a while,



My card today is made from a template by Annette for theDuo challenge
I am also entering it in Simon Says Stamp & Show.....Some Travel
Sir Stampalotchallenge....whatever you fancy.

This is what I used:
Paper...Cardstock.. Black Bazzil for the card. DP..Upikit
Image on the inside from a local company. Inked the edges with Distress ink, stamped some footprints on the message side.
Sentiment inside...computer generated.
On the front I glued some silver braid to resemble a zipper and attached a small elephant charm with a chain.
The tag was a freebie from Marion
I rubbed some silver from an inkpad onto the handle of the case.
That's all from me, enjoy the last day of the week and have a great weekend. Will be back soon.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Sunrise

Hello my friends,
Well into the week already and getting close to the end of another month.
Several weeks ago I joined a challenge in one of my card groups, with the theme "sunrise" This is the card I made. The photo was taken when we were on holiday earlier in the year with my son in New Zealand. From our bedroom we had this view and a few mornings the sunrise was perfect, but the camera was not close by.... the morning before we left this was the sunrise and we were able to capture it just in time.
I framed the photo with a Cuttlebug frame...the background paper was just inked with distress inks and the sentiment was computer generated. This brings back happy memories of a wonderful holiday.
Enjoy the rest of the week and hope to be back soon.

Monday, August 22, 2011

All Happy and smiling

Good afternoon to all my friends,
Yes it seems all the problems on my blog have been resolved, still don't know what happened, but after my last posting of the easel card, everything went all screwy!!! Frustrations..as I didn't know what happened and where to go to fix it. My good blogging friend in Cape Town, Sharon, tried to come to my rescue, but nothing helped. Anyway it is now fixed and sorted, and I am happy. I will have someting to show tomorrow, it has been a hectic day, and trying to finish off swaps to go out.
Have a great week everyone.....see you soon.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

BLOGGER PROBLEMS!!!!!!!!!!??????

Good Afternoon friends,
Hope you are all enjoying a lovely relaxing Sunday, mine is a frustrating one..... My blog has gone haywire as I had mentioned yesterday. All my gadgets instead of being on the right side as in the past, have now suddenly moved to the bottom. I have checked all the settings and nothing has changed. Has anyone else com accross this problem, if so please let me know.. I am hoping it is a blogger glitch and it will correct itself. Enjoy the rest of the Sunday.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Crazy blog

Mr. Blogger...what has happened, have you done!!! I just had a look at my blog and it is all haywire. Everything from the sidebar is now at the end. How did this happen and how do I correct it. Will leave it and hopefully tomorrow it will be OK again....here's hoping.

Twisted Easel

Happy Saturday to my blogging friends.

It is a beautiful sunny day, here in this part of South Africa and it looks like we will have a good weekend.

I haven't posted much this week, just been rather busy. I have several swaps to finish as they need to go out by Tuesday and work is keeping me out of mischief. I think customers are slowly beginning to realise that the end of the year is not that far away... good for business I guess.


Today's card was made for a challenge at a WISH group meeting.... Women in stamping heaven... We have a get together every 3 months, where we swap ideas, have demos, chat and have tea together and today is another such gathering. The challenge for this month is a twisted easel with a bird theme., so here is my entry and what I used.



Paper... Cardstock for the base, DP is a paper napkin... I just loved the colour and design. Ironed this onto freezer paper, which came from the USA. Matted this onto lilac card and onto the base card. Ran over the edges with gold pen.

I made a bird cage using metal foil and a Marianne Creatables die, coloured with alcohol inks.

Behind the cage I stamped two birds.

The big bird was cut with a Nestability die, enbossed with the cuttlebug and spritzed with a bit of glimmer, a pearl for the eye.

The flowers were made with punches and a Marianne flower die, as were the leaves, I spritzed all with a gold glimmer mist, but was a little heavy handed I thin. The little butterfly was cut with velum, inked and layered onto the paper design. I felt birds, flowers and butterflies go together.

Sentiment from a local company.

I just love these easel cards, they go together so nicely. All the cards at todays meeting are donated to charity. I do hope whoever received this will enjoy it as it was made with love.

Well that's it from me. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, till next time.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Yippee! Yippee!

Good afternoon bloggers, no card today just good news.
If you could have seen me yesterday, I was doing a happy dance. In fact this month I have been doing a few of these waving in the air, jumping up and down happy dances. I have been on a winning streak, so I will let you in on the excitement.
Yesterday I was a winner at the Get Funky challenge and I have won a download of my choice. I love their papers and have a couple of CD's and downloads and this is the one I chose. I think you will soon see something with these papers.


Last week I was also a winner at The outlawz and I have won a Gilli Goodie bag to the value of $20. Can't wait to see what I get.

I was also one of the Top 3 at Digistamps4Joy and won 3 digi stamps. So aren't I just very lucky. This is rather unusual so you can understand why I have been jumping around a bit. Maybe I need to take a ticket in the Lotto this week.....

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Jolly old Santa



Happy Sunday to everyone,
Yes another Christmas card, with jolly old Santa. I have almost reached the required number of Christmas cards for my friend's project, one more after this and then I will start on my own stash of Christmas cards.
This was a quick put together, and this is what I used:
Paper: I needed to make my own DP..required for one of the challenges.. so I used a stencil from Crealies for the bottom half and I embossed the top half with a cuttlebug folder and added some glitter to the snowflakes.
Image...is from a local company, coloured with aquarelle pencils. Added flowersoft for the fur on his hat, cut out with a nestability.
Added ribbon and 3 transparent beads.. not sure what exactly they are called... were in a gift from a friend in the UK.

I am entering it in the following challenges
Outlawz.. Tuesday colour ...red, green and white, with transparent embellishment.
Paper Play..create your own DP
Secret Crafter...Christmas is coming
Ooh La La Creations...Oh Christmas
Christmas Cards all year round.. Texture paper..embossed, stamping,ribbon,inking...stencil

Wishing everyone a wonderful week.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Happy 80th Birthday







Happy Friday morning all,
Yes almost weekend and it promises to be a lovely one here in this part of South Africa. We can feel spring edging closer, and I just want to get into the garden...but have learnt from past experience, winter is not going to just let go...so will wait another week or two. Anyhow I have a special card today. One of our very best, old friend...as in long time... turns 80 today... and this is the card I have made for him. He is Irish..but won't hold that against him..LOL hence the greeting on the front.

This is what I used on my gate fold card:

Paper.. Bazzill cardstock, DP from Papermania..Hampstead collection
Image... Digi from Anne Fenton coloured with a combination of Aquarelles, Tombows and Twinkling H20s
Sentiments... Computer generated
Finished off with a few small buttons, a button 4 leaf clover, also a punched one and the 80 cut with my cuttlebug.
I made a band just to hold it together, and the sentiment on that is in Gaelic, means Happy Birthday, finished off with a button 4 leaf clover.
I hope he will like it.

I will enter it in the following challenges:
Craft your days away... Birthday
Anything goes ... Happy Birthday/Celebrate
Tuesday Throwdown ...Birthday
Top Tip Tuesday ...Straight edges
Cards for Men ... CAS
Hope you all enjoy a lovely weekend and whatever you may be doing...have fun.


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Challenges..Challenges...Challenges



Happy Tuesday friends. Today we are having a holiday in South Africa, to celebrate National Women's Day....so being Women's day I could do what I felt like doing...up to a point.
I decided to do another Christmas card for my RSA friend's community project. I quick one... use a cuttlebug folder, a few red dots a sentiment ...and done... Yea right!!! That was until I spotted a challenge at CAS-ual Fridays, using glue dots and glitter... so just a few minutes extra......ha, ha, ha... That changed the thought process..What paper to use...I found a pearl shimmer paper.... I still got out the cuttlebug folder and embossed this Holly branch, but now decided to colour the leaves....haven't used my Copics in a loooong time!!! In fact this is only my third attempt at colouring.. All the Copic experts, please be kind. I don't have a big selection, and really was just winging it. At least the leaves were coloured. Now for the berries... out came the glue dots...easy for the big berries anyway.... then came the GLITTER,.... Oh boy glitter all over... anyway I did get some on the glue dots, but the samll berries I foiled, much easier.
The sentiment was the easiest.. so what was going to be a quick card was in fact a challenge in more ways than one, but at least I will keep out my Copics and have another bash soon.
I guess it doesn't look tooo bad, not sure if I will put it in the pile for the Community project.

I am entering it in the following challenges:

CAS-ual Fridays... Use glue dots and glitter
Aud Sentiments Challenge... Merry Christmas
Simon Says .... Christmas in August
Paper Play .... Christmas in August
Hope you all have a lovely week and to my fellow South Africans, enjoy the rest of this holiday.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Card 1 Progressive freebie challenge




Good evening...this doesn't happen often!! two posts in one day....but I did say I had some time to finish off things.
My second card today,is for a very different challenge. CDAC ..Progressive freebie challenge Six artists have given freebies, which if downloaded have to be used in the challenge, and then you will receive another freebie. So if you do the challenges you keep getting new images. They really are lovely so maybe hop on over and have a look. The freebies are available till 29 Aug., and the grand prize if all 6 challenges are entered is a set of 12 Copic markers.

I am also entering it in the following challenges.

Totally Gorjuss....sketch
Tuesday Throwdown...summertime
Papertake Weekly .... Anything goes, plus metal..brads
Shabby Tearoom... Mix and match
Die Cut Dreams... Holiday fun

This is what I used:
Paper...White, teal cardstock, DP.. Wilson & McClaughlin, I used a Nellie Snellen porder die to cut the teal band.
Image... Freebie from Anne's Digital art coloured with Distress inks, and cut with a Nellie Snellen MFD.
Sentiment... Just-Rite stamps.
Finished off with 4 metal brads.
This was a lovely image to use. Watch out for the cards for the rest of the challenges.
Have a wonderful week.

Magic Moments




Good afternoon friends on a sunny Sunday afternoon, although rather cool. Hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend. Welcome to the new friends who have joined. Love having you visit here.
We had no power for 6 hours today, due to a scheduled outage for maintenance, so I could spend some time quietly trying to catch up with various things, including finishing off a card or two.

This is a card I started while on holiday in New Zealand. I enjoy doing stitching on the cards, so it was an ideal thing to take on holiday with me.Looked for an image that I felt suitable, and found one drawn by Anne Fenton, who offers them as freebies to members of The Outlawz I printed the butterfly, coloured it with aquarelles and Twinking H20's. added a little stardust glitter. I cut it out and then added feelers for which I used little stamens, colourd with Copics....see I do use my Copics....LOL.. Mounted the butterfly on a Nestie diecut, shaded with distress inks.
The sentiment is from Whiff of Joy, also mounted on 3D foam pads. 3 pearls finish if off.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a great week. Here in South Africa we are having a holiday on Tuesday for "Women's Day", so some people are enjoying a long weekdn.
See you back soon.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Framed flowers



Happy Saturday blogging friends,
Hope it is a lovely day wherever you are. Here it is lovely and sunny, fairly warm, but some colder weather forecast for tomorrow, so enjoying it while we can. Have just been to watch our granddaughter taking part in a dressage horseshow. The first time in a Regional team, competing against riders from all over the country. She did well, very nervous to start with, but we now wait for the results. It was a great experience for her.
So now on to my card. With spring hopefully, not too far away it was lovely to use a flower stamp. I will be entering it in the following challenges:

Anything goes..... Pick of the bunch
Polkadoodles.... In an English Country garden
Sentimental Sunday ... In the garden
Make my Monday ... Butteflies or dagonflies
Outlawz.... Tuesday colour.. lemon yellow, lime green, white.

This is what I used:
Paper.... Yellow cardstock, matted white which was put through the cuttlebug with a butterfly folder. Frame was also cut with a cuttlebug die, then embossed and then coloured with distress inkpads.
Image... from a local company Country crafts & rubber stamps was stamped onto watercolour paper, embossed with black EP, coloured with Aquarelles and Tombow markers. I think they are supposed to be cosmos flowers, but I have never seen yellow cosmos, so I turned them into daisies.
Butterflies punched with Nellie Snellen punch and smaller ones with a local punch.
Finished off with a sentiment from WOJ, stamped and punched, mounted onto ribbon with 2 flower brads.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend and have fun

Friday, August 5, 2011

B for birthdays, balloons.......





Happy Friday.... Hope the weekend will be enjoyed by everyone.
This double pocket card was made for my grandson's birthday next week. I just love the image and because I am entering it in certain challenges, I chose these colours for it.

The challenges are:
The Outlawz.... Monday...greetings, must have a balloon
Top Tip Tuesday..... blue, green, brown.
Dutch Dare Card challenge...For the kids
This was what I did.
Paper: Kraft cardstock, folded into a double pocket card. Also 2 tags cut from this cardstock. Blue card put through the Cuttlebug with the Happy birthday folder, then matted to the large tag,
Image: Priscilla styles. I printed it twice and mirrored the image to face in the right direction for the card, Cut off the balloons, added some extras and then put them onto the smaller tag with their strings plaited together. The image was coloured with Aquarelle pencils and tombow markers. Cut out the doggie and mounted him with 3D foam pads onto a Nestability cut out, that I shaded with distress ink pads.
Used a Marianne die to cut some grass. and added the number 6 onto the front.
Then I put the strings through the image, so that it was as the original image showed, doggie holding the ballons in his mouth.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend and have fun.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

August calendar page



Hello there friends,
We are well into the first week of August and I haven't shown this month's page.
It was made by Shamela and is bright and cheerful, just giving a hint of what's up next month when Spring starts to show. Wow!!! only 4 pages left to show, better start thinking of next year's pages. Have a wonderful weekend, as it is almost here.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Something sweet





Good morning all on this middle of the week Wednesday,
A lovely sunny winters day here in South Africa, temps. not too bad 17 deg. today, but wait for it.....cold weather on the way for the weekend. Oh well we hada taste of spring, peeking through so not all bad news.
Today I have a lovely sweet card for a couple of challenges:

Mo's ....Something sweet..food related
Outlawz.... Wednesday sketch
All sorts ..... Free n Easy
Make it Monday ....Create,Share and Inspire
This is what I used:
Paper: Cardstock, white for card, blue for matting. DP. Art from the heart, a local company
Image: Dormouse from Mo"s Digital images...from the Alice in Wonderland series. Coloured with Aquarelle pencils, cut out with a new Nellie Snellen MFD.
Sentiment..Whiff of Joy
Finished of with paper string to tie sentiment onto, 3 buttons and some glossy accents on the cherry.

Well that's it from me, I have some more cards to finish... a number of birthdays coming up.
Enjoy the rest of the week and have fun.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Set of Notecards

Hi to my blogging friends.
A new week and month, how good can it get for a clean slate.
Today I have a set of notecards to show. I made these for a swap in one of my groups, and we had to use soft colours, small animals like, bunnies, cats, mice etc.We also had to make a holder for the cards. So this is my contribution, had a bit of difficulty with the photo, but I am sure you can see them.
I am entering these into a few challenges:
Tuesday Throwdown... a matching set.
Simply Create ...Favourite animal... I do love little hedgehogs,
Charisma Cards 4 legged animal.



There are 6 notecards, 2 in each colour, pink, green and yellow and a small packet to hold them with their matching envelopes. These are winging their way at present to another continent.

Here is what I used:
Paper .. coloured cardstock, Gingham DP was all printed on the computer, in shades to match the cardstock.
Images .. A selection of Penny Black, House Mouse and from a local company, coloured with Distress ink pads.
Embelishments... Butterflies cut with Marianne design dies and Nellie Snellen punches.
Finished off with a pearl
On the inside I stamped a few small butterflies, bees etc.
The small packet is a design from Kitty's Craft, using my scorpal. I changed the size somewhat for the cards to fit in snuggly. Again a gingham paper, stamped image and a flower from Crealies designs, finished off with a lace edging, a bow and a ribbon handle.
Enjoy the rest of the week and see you again soon.