Friday, September 30, 2011

World Card Making Day 2011

This is a first for Pietermaritzburg, as far as I know, and I hope not the last. Gifts for lucky draws wrapped, cup cakes baked and iced, brownies in the oven and a day of card making with like minded ladies tomorrow to look forward to!
Remembering those loved ones we have lost and who are battling breast cancer and honoring those who have survived - we will 'Think Pink' all day.
The challenge - 12 cards out of 1 double-sided sheet of 12"x12" scrapping paper!
It can be done. Very few additions to each card other than an image and in some cases a bit of ribbon, some punches used and some stamping.
Makes one realise that you don't need a room filled with stash to create, but having said that, the full room is what makes us happy!
Have a happy day card makers!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Flower Digi

This trio was made up using the same digi which was a freebie somewhere. I coloured them using Copic's and mounted them on a scalloped rectangle to compliment the chosen dp used on the card. The sentiment is also a digi and was mounted on a Martha Stewart Waterlily punch, which is awesome used in this format.
Very quick and easy cards to make, but very pretty too!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Adorable

This little cutie is from the Adorable range of digi's from Funky Kits. I think she is Connie. I coloured her with Copic's and mounted her behind the stunning Cuttlebug all-in-one die folders. The background was a lovely sage green spritzed with the Perfect Pearls Mists in Pearl. This Mist is such a stunning addition to your stash and the colours are amazing! The flower was made up using tissue paper and die cut. The seam binding was coloured to match the delicate pinks in the flower and the sentiment and tag is from a set from PTI. Pearls added for a touch of class!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Rosebud Magnetic Board

I made this magnetic board for display in the shop where I teach.
Kept it very girlish using roses, flowers and butterflies as accents. The dp - don't remember the name, sorry - had rosebuds with a little glitter on them and I added ribbon roses, pink hearts and flowers to the board with bling flowers and mirror butterflies, ribbon and adorned the tiny pegs with roses.
Almost too cute to part with!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Water Colour Stamping

 I have a fondness for water colouring and was delighted to find this amazing new form of stamping.
The company is Art Impressions. They sell these stamp sets and individual stamps that you ink up using Marvy Markers, stamp onto water colour paper and then using a damp paintbrush, you 'paint' each stamped image to obtain the water coloured effect. You can compose your own designs or follow their ideas, as I have in these samples as it was my first time using their stamps. I have scratched around in my stamp stash and found several small stamps I can use in this format and have kept them aside for this purpose. I just love it and the water coloured effect and can't wait to play some more!
Another interesting effect I found on my blog travels is using your crimping tool that has been discarded into the unused stash drawer and crimping the edges of the card. I think it is so effective. Give it a try!
Thanks for visiting and I hope you will take a look at their site and see what is on offer. You will love it!
Nothing in it for me, just one happy customer....



Thursday, September 22, 2011

B-line Sweeties

Using my B-Line Sweeties again, I stamped them out using Memento Rich Cocoa ink and coloured them with Copics choosing the lovely Autumn shades. The background card was 'Bugged' using Swiss Dots folder and the striped dp was punched with an EK Success punch, on both sides. Lovely peach ribbon from the stash as added, as was a posy of flowers and ribbon. The image was cut with the Lacy Circles die as was the two backing circles. As you can see, the sentiment says it all, but nevertheless, the card was made with much love for a dear friend.
I'm really loving this stamp and hope I don't bore you all with using it so often!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sweet Tilda

How sweet is this little lady?
She was stamped off by a friend and I think she is 'Tilda with Present', but stand corrected.
I coloured her with Copics, cut the image out using the Spellbinders Labels Twenty One and whilst still in the die, shaded around with Distress Ink Pumice Stone, my new favorite colour.
The dp was offcuts in the stash, added ribbon, my favorite sentiment from PTI mounted on one of the Fancy Labels set and a few pearls for some class!
Working on the Copic colouring and am determined to get it perfected!
Paola, plot my progress and forward your critique please!
Thanks for the visit.
Hugz

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Flower Making Course

This week I will be teaching flower making to my ladies.
We will be using dies, templates and rubber stamps to make some of  these flowers. These are fairly big flowers, more suitable for decor than cards and scrapping, but there is absolutely no reason not to reduce the sizes for your needs.
I am absolutely thrilled with the way they have turned out and the display, which gave me nightmares until I found some cardboard square off cuts in the warehouse and glued them together, wrapped with rag then satin ribbon, added some lace off cuts I had and this is the result.
Thanks for the visit and I hope you enjoy looking at my flowers.





Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Vintage Girl

This adorable digital image is from an Etsy shop, under the name, madebyjanet - no spaces, if you want to find this amazing ladies images in Etsy. I printed it onto my favorite Opale Wove Shimmer White cardstock. Using both dark and light pink paper, I created a frame in each sheet using the Labels nesties. The trick with doing this is to cut the smallest of the layers (light pink) first using the bigger of the chosen nesties, center this onto the larger piece (dark pink) of paper. Take the cut frame (light pink), lay over the larger sheet (dark pink) of paper, place the smaller nestie into this aperture, and lightly mark the position using a pencil. Remove the small precut paper(Light pink) and proceed with cutting out the aperture on the larger (dark pink) paper. It should line up perfectly. Always start with the two or more layers precut with the borders already determined and cut. Layering then is a breeze. A few roses, a digi sentiment, ribbon and pearls and that brought the whole card together. Of course, you can pop the frames up on pop dots for a 3D look which is fantastic!
Try it, you will love the effect!

Monday, September 12, 2011

My Personal Footprint Socks!

In previous postings, I mentioned a new method of knitting socks, to me that is, where you used your footprint as a pattern, as you can see in the photograph.
Cat Bordhi has worked out this amazing method. It has taken me a good few months to get these socks off the needles, as I had to pay attention to the details to work out my pattern and this you cannot do with a running commentary relating to the sport on the TV, whilst knitting! However, I now have it sorted and just have to take my 'footprint' out to follow the pattern - well, truth be known, the book as well for a wee while longer owing to the demise of several brain cells!!
They fit like a glove and there is no 'pouchy' hangover around the shoe because of a loose sock. Love it! Thanks Cat - can't wait to get into the rest of the patterns in the book, but not whilst the Rugby World Cup is on the go!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Busy, busy...

My eldest son Neil, is marrying his sweetheart in November and I have been busy with their invitations, amongst other things.
They wanted something very plain and went with the tag in the envelope idea. All white, lovely shimmer board and the front of the envelope was scented daisy paper. I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder for the flap. The tag was the white shimmer board with the invitation printed on vellum on the front and the directions to the venue on vellum on the back. Tied together with a satin ribbon and a real Swarovski crystal on the ribbon fold. My indulgence!! The envelope was matching white shimmer and on the flap I embossed a dainty heart.
I packed them up into the box below and sent them back to Cape Town with my other son, Alan, who was up for a week's visit.

How blessed I am with these magnificent sons in my life!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Nelson

 We have a gardener who has worked for us for more than 20 years. He was a young man who was on the brink of marrying his sweetheart and very much in love when he came to us. He is a gentle soul and has a dreadful stutter, which of course makes him very shy. We bought him a suit and contributed as much as financially possible towards his wedding costs. I still have a photo he gave us, of the two of them taking their vows. Well, along came the babies and I was always the one to hear what the sex was first, as I had to contact the hospital whenever this wife went in to give birth. I'll never forget the pride and happiness when I told him about his first born son! He went on to father a daughter and another son. During the years he was in the TB hospital for 6 months and we managed to keep the family as comfortable as we could, during this period with no breadwinner. Now Nelson also has a very bad memory! Don't give him more than one task at a time because he will surely mix them up and once I found the tree he had to lightly prune back, totally stripped of branches as well as the roses lightly pruned! He thought the same task was for both the tree and roses! We have had so many disasters and many a time Nelson has been running down the street with my husband chasing him as dear old Nelson and created another disaster! He often does things without being asked to and I will look for a plant or pot plants and they have been 'relocated' and I cannot find them! I have to wait till next he is at work to ask what he did with them. Well, sadly his wife became very ill and died. He was so good whilst she was ill and he did all the work at home and still bathed and fed her till the end. He continued to run the household, look after the children and still get to work. Often I would find him with his hands clasped together on top of the rake handle, with his head resting on them, fast asleep, or behind a wall in the garden, curled up on the grass in the shade, blissfully sleeping! Very difficult time, but he brought up the children all on his own, not without a lot of stress and intervention by social welfare as to his capabilities to cope etc. Nelson is a devout Christian and has also been involved in his church and was a 'preacher'. He carries his Bible everywhere with him. Recently he came to work beaming and brimming with happiness. He had just been made a 'Reverend" and takes such delight in me calling him Reverend Nelson! A couple of years ago, he met a lady whom he thought he would marry. She did not get on with the children and I asked him to carefully consider this union. He broke it off in the end, but a few months later, the same lady was severely injured when a bus took her right off a pavement corner and broke both legs and a hip as well as an arm. She was in hospital for months and he started visiting her and praying with her. She eventually was released and went home to her mother for care. He faithfully visited her and eventually he came to me to say that he was going to marry her and take care of her and that she had changed towards his children and that he was very happy. He received my blessing and I was so happy for him. She now walks with a serious limp and still has on going treatment, but is managing to live a fairly normal life, but cannot walk distances and will not be able to work. Nelson and Gladys got married on the 30th August and I made him a card to go with his gift and baked a very simple cake for their celebrations. I'm sharing this with you as I want people to know that we don't always know what goes on in others lives, especially people who are in our lives and that if we take the time to find out a little about their background and home life, we all  would  find amazing people with equally amazing gifts and happiness to share with with us. We are blessed having Nelson in our lives, even though I do have to keep the peace between my husband and Nelson and watch that he does not do any more 'creative' gardening and re-organising.


Congratulations Nelson and may you be blessed with many happy years together!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Sweet Sisters

This adorable stamp is from B-Line and I purchased it from Niki at Paperchain
I coloured them with Copics and am awaiting my critique from the Queen of Copic's in South Africa, Paola Levi.
Her work is amazing and I want to colour like her when I grow up!
I kept the cards colours 'pretty'. I was practising multiple frame matting and wanted to see how it turned out. I seem to have missed a 'gradient', but actually like the wider turquoise border. I used the Spellbinders Labels One and punched the top white mat with a Martha Stewart around the page set called Eyelet Lace. The Adorable stamp is from a Stampin' Up set and the tab is a MFT die also from Niki at Paperchain, as is the flourish. Of course the flowers are all from Paola and I finished it off with seam binding from Amelia and a few of Paola's pearls. This card should be called 'Friends' as everything I used I purchased  from my blogging friends! How blessed I am to have these amazing ladies in my life who with their expertise and making products available to us in RSA, have helped me grow in my craft! Thank you dear friends.