Green is not my favourite colour, but...

... I quite like how this one turned out. I had an order for a green card and just could not get my head around it because I hardly ever use green on my cards or scrapbook pages. I couldn't find any green patterned paper that I liked (I know there are loads of beautiful papers out there, I just don't do green, OK? LOL), so I took a piece of white cardstock, some green inks and some stamps and started playing. The results are pretty cool, don't you think?

In fact, so does my son. He claimed the card when he came home to visit and now I have to make another one for my order!

The only things I used on this card was Bazzil cardstock, three shades of green colorbox inks, some ribbon and pearld from Kaiser Kraft. This was so much fun to do, I think I might just make my own background papers more often.

Today is my last day home on holiday, DH and I are going to a friend's farm in the Northern Cape for the weekend and school starts on Monday, so I will HAVE to do everything I have been leaving for a month today. Nothing creative, but I have only myself to blame I suppose. My marks have to be in on Monday, and those essays are most definately not going to mark themselves!

Awesome random photo.

Have you ever wondered if people actually stage some of their 'random' photo's? I have, that is untill this photo was taken.

Daniela and Tertia=Lee came over to school to give me something and spent a few minutes in my class. Tertia-Lee is my little 'shadow', everywhere I go, she follows, everything I do , she wants to do - much to the whole family's amusement. The first words from her mouth in the morning, Daniela tells me, is: 'where is my ouma?'. When they come to visit, she doesn't want to leave and cries her little heart out whenever they put her in the car. No better feeling than having a grandchild that loves you that much! I never realised just how much she mimicks me untill this day.

The title of the LO is Mirror image. Every letter is a rubon on a mosaic mirror tile. The journaling reads as follows:

Tertia-Lee and Daniela came to visit me at school one day. I could not understand why the girls would not stop laughing and start to work. Then Daniela got my attention and told me to look next to me. There was Tertia-Lee, a perfect mirror image of me. The body language exactly the same, the little arms on the hips and even her little feet, planted firmly on mother earth! No wonder the girls were laughing.

Cardstock is Bazzil, patterned paper EKSuccess, flowers and rubons by Making Memories and buttons from my stash. The photo is not very good quality, because it was taken by Daniela with her cellphone, but it is such a wonderful memory it just cried out to be scrapped.

Stamptacular Sunday challenge.

This is starting to freak me out a little. The second Sunday in a row that I was playing in my room, stamping away, only to discover later that one of the cards I made fits in perfectly with the challenge. The challenge this week is: 'Charmed, I'm sure'.

I am still having fun with my new stamps that I bought, unfortunately I don't know who manufactured them. Flowers are plain white paper flowers bought at the local stationers. Image was stamped in Stazon Jet Black ink and coloured with my Copics. The DP is a small piece I had in my leftover box, I think from EKSuccess. The handbag charm is from my local haberdashery store - again no name. Cardstock is Bazzil.

I don't usually use such bright colours, but I quite like how it turned out.

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I am finished!

In more ways than one. I am finished with the big order I had for cards, in fact I am finished with all the cards I was asked to make, so now I can relax and just play for me.

I taught a scrapbooking class yesterday for 6 little girls between 8 and 10 and I am still tired! I love children, because they are so creative and have not yet learned that certain colours 'don't go together' or that there are certain things they 'can't do'. They will try anything and love what they have done, regardless of what others think. The only downside to teaching little ones to craft, is that they are very demanding and they absolutely deplete all my energy. I need a day or two to recover after they have been here.

The card I am showing is part of the order that I had to do. I had to make two male cards. Now you all know I haven't been making cards for that long, so this was a real dilemma. I like how it turned out though.

The card is for a school. When it is somebody's birthday, everybody on the staff signs the card and there is never enough space for everybody, so that is why I made the tags to go into a pocket on the inside of the card. The tags are double sided, so there is plenty of space for everybody.

Papers are all by 7 Gypsies and Bazzil, The stamp is from Crafty Individuals and inkis Color Box, ribbon from my stash.

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge and more.

I bought some new stamps at the local stationary shop and just had to play with them. While I was bloghopping a while ago I came across the Scraptacular Sunday Challenge and realised that my card was a perfect fit. So this is the first time EVER I am taking part in a challenge. I haven't even been making cards for that long, so it is kind of cheeky to put myself out there amongst all those talented ladies, but you have to start somewhere.

The papers are by K&Co (I think!) and Bazzil. The image was coloured with Copics and the dress painted with Making Memories glitter glue after it was coloured. It looks very nice IRL.

I fanally scrapped again! When my DD came back from the last Water Polo tour to Durban, she was clutching some photo's and held them out to me saying they were a present for me. My DH's only comment? "Does your mother scrap or what? Other children, bring chocolates home and you bring photo's?" I had to laugh. I have trained them well!

The title says 'One legged wonder' and refers to the fact that she seriously injured her leg less than a week before the tournament and refused to let that stop her from playing. It tells how proud we are of her and how much I admire her perserverance. (The whole story is somewhere in my blog) In spite of the injury she played herself into the Soth African senior Ladies side. Not bad for somebody with one leg!

Papers by K&Co and Bazzil.

Long time no post, BUT....

... it was my birthday and I can slack if I want to! Seriously though, it was my 50th birthday and I have had an incredible few days. First there was breakfast with all my special friends and then on Good Friday, my actual birthday, all my kids came over for a braai. It was the best gift just to have them all there with me. It makes me realise just how lucky I am to have them all so close to me and to be able to see my grandchildren as often as I do.

I was given the most special gift from all my children and grandchildren. A silver charm bracelett with three discs on. Each disc has the imprint of one of the grangchildren's fingerprints with their name engraved on it. How special is that?!!

On Saturday we all went to a restaurant to celebrate - again!!! This party just did not stop. All my children were there as well as a few very special friends and my family. My wonderful sister and her husband. My brother was the only person missing, but it was his eldest daughter's 18th birthday party, so I understand. The top photo is with all my children and grandchildren. How did I get so lucky to be surrounded with so many beautiful people? The second photo is all my 'outlaws'. All the special men in my daughters' lives. The only thing a mother asks for is that her daughters partner loves her and makes her happy and that is exactly what these three do.

Sorry guys, I got a camera from my hubby, so now it is back to posting terrible photo's again. I am doing that photography course soon, so hopefully my photos will get better.

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I've been busy.

As you all know, I have been teaching paper crafting to the girls at school. On Monday, after the first day, I discovered to my horror that I had not ordered enough double sided tape for the rest of the classes. It was too late to do anything about it, so on Tuesday morning I went looking for the girl that I always order from. Murphy's law - she was absent from school! The secretary phoned her mom and asked her if it would be possible to deliver some to school asap. ( Very cheeky, I know!) Mrs. Stacey was fantastic and I had enough double dided tape within an hour! Even though we are paying for it, I wanted to thank her personally for saving my life. No better thank you than chocolate! So, thats what I did, bought some chocolate and made a slipcover for it. I think it came out pretty well. Papers were from my left over box. Stamps bought at the local stationer and ribbon from my stash. The image was coloured with Copics.

Life is what happens when you make other plans.

These last few days have been crazy. I seem to use the word 'crazy' a lot lately. I taught the paper crafting class at school that I have been preparing for for over a month and I am happy to report that all the girls had a blast. Everybody finished their projects and we even made more than a hundrrd butterflies for the butterfly project! I am posting a picture of them with their books and mini albums. It is one of life's most rewarding experiences to be a teacher and to be part of children's growth.

During the night on Sunday, I woke from a very deep sleep to find my husband standing next to the bed, clutching his chest, not being able to breathe! I didn't know what was happening and by the time I was fully awake, he had recovered a little and refused to let me take him to hospital. After much begging and pleading he went for some blood tests, which revealed extremely high cholestrol. He had to wear a blood pressure monitor for 24 hours and went for an ECG this morning. All is well, thank goodness! Turns out he had a panick attack after he dreamt he was being attacked by giant spiders! Now I can laugh about it, but trust me it was so NOT FUNNY at the time!

On Tuesday I got a call from Anke to tell me she had fallen on the Netball court - AGAIN!!!! - while demonstrating to the girls she coaches what to do. She injured her knee again and needed to see a doctor on Wednesday before she leaves on Thursday for Currie Cup ( the national Water polo tournament!) So, yesterday I went to fetch her, drove back home to our dr., drove her back home and then came back home again in peak hour traffic! The dr. said that she would be able to play, but that he didn't think it would be a very good idea. She only heard the 'will be able to play' part of course!

This morning she had to be at the physio at 7 so that she could strap the knee and teach her how to strap it for herself during the tournament. Then I had to drive her to work from where a friend would give her a lift to the pick up point to leave for Durban. They must be almost there by now. Then I had to drive back to school - in peak hour traffic again. This of course means that I did not get all the marking done that I had planned for this week while all the girls are away on camp.

Again I have been in awe of God's planning this week! If it hadn't been the week everybody at school was on camp, I would have had to take leave to ferry Ankie around. A friend at school had been planning to go with the girls on leadership camp. They always take three teachers and about a week before they left another teacher invited herself along on the camp, much to everybody's disgust, BUT... the week end before they were due to leave, my friend's mother took ill and had to be admitted to ICU, which meant that she couldn't go on camp. If the other teacher had not invited herself, they would have had to find somebody else which is an almost impossible task at such short notice. How's that for devine planning?