OOOPS - Not LOTV Challenge - New beginnings and a few Christmas cards.

The challenge over at LOTV ( http://liliofthevalleythursdaychallenge.blogspot.com/ ) Is "New beginnings", You can interpret that any way you please - new baby, new year, or simply new stash as I have done. I used my new LOTV stamp (Edited to add: My good friend Paola pointed out that this is NOT a LOTV stamp, but from Kanban. Hanging my head in shame, that will teach me to look at the stamp again before I blog. Thanks Paola ) and my new Martha Stewart punch.
The dp is Melissa Francis, the cardstock is Bazzil and the flowers are from my stash, the image was coloured with my beloved Copics and given the Stickle treatment.

Here is a close up of the image, hoping you van see the glittery wings, wand and tiara.

Next is a couple of Christmas Cards that I never got around to showing you. All are very Clean and Simple. No time for elaborate cards this year. All images are digi images from Just Inklined and Bec's place, coloured with my Copics. Cardstock is Bazzil and everything else from my stash.

Don't you just love that pointsettia?

Thats it from me for today, I have to finish my potato bake for tonight's 'braai' (barbeque) at friends. Have a lovely day, see you soon.

Peace.. at last!

My DH and son are off to play gholf (in the rain), Ankie has slept over at a friends after a house warming party, so I do not expect her home early. Daniela is still not allowed to drive and Karin celebrated her birthday yesterday, so no chance of them visiting early today. Peace and quiet at last! (Does that sound very selfish?) I have not done much in the line of crafting since my two grandchildren were born - I have been too busy playing and then there was Gemma's cot curtains that needed to be made and my own net curtains kinda disintegrated from old age and needed to be replaced in a hurry (Don't you just hate making curtains?) And then, Daniela is not allowed to drive after the baby and her DH works in Polokwane, so ouma had to do all the driving around for her, and then it was Christmas and then DH's birthday on the 26th and DD (Karin's) birthday yesterday.... so you understand why I have been MIA. Here they are, the two cousins on Christmas day. Aren't they just adorable? Wearing their shirts, designed and made by their uncle, just for them. These shirts have become a tradition in our family. Every baby that is born, gets one from him. For those of you that don't understand the Afrikaans, it reads: 'My uncle is the best"

And the back says,: 'no really, he is the best.' Cause for a lot of laughs and comments, but you don't understand... I wish I had an uncle like him. His very first salary ever, the first thing he did was buy toys for all the nieces and nephews. He gives the most amazing gifts. The kids all adore him. He is the only young man I know, that will take three kids under 8 to the circus or the zoo for the day, or on the Gautrain all on his own.(Can you tell I am proud of my son?) My biggest wish for him? That he will meet a wonderful girl and have his own children one day.

Here he is! The proud uncle, holding both babies! He would not give them back to their mothers untill they needed feeding and then he did so reluctantly! They were fascinated by him and kept looking at him. Eventually they both fell asleep in his arms.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and did a lot more crafting than me. I hope to get something done today and will be back to show you soon,

Have a wonderful day everybody.

And baby makes 5.

Just a very quick post to tell you all that baby number two -little Gemma - was born yesterday at 9h30 in the morning. She weighed 3.3kg and is only 49cm long. Short and chubby, like her ouma. Just loading a quick pic of the family, my DD, SIL, Luke and Hannah with little Gemma. All so very proud.
Gemma was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her little neck. Thank God that there was no serious injury. Mom and baby are both doing very well and should be able to come home today.
The title of my post? Not obvious to you? There are now 5 members to the Webber family, but also... and this is the great part, we now have 5 grandchildren! I knew I would be rewarded some day for not killing my kids during puberty!
Gotta run, have to take DD no 1 to the dr. for a check up and then have to fetch Hannah and Luke from school, and I have to finish the curtains for Gemma's cot TODAY (hanging my head in shame because its not done yet), hopefully before she gets home from the hospital.
Have a great day everybody, if there is time later (and I can muster up the energy) I will post pics of cards made this week.

Blue Christmas -Sunday Stamptacular challenge.

The new challenge at Stamptacular Sunday (http://stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.com/)is "Blue Christmas" I thought this card would fit perfectly! The image is a new one from Sugar Nellie. I can't believe how quickly they made it to my door after I ordered them! Fantastic service.
She was coloured with my Copics, the stars on her dress and her wings were glitterified with Stickles and the fur trim on the doggie's hat was given the Flowersoft treatment. She was cut out with a Nestie. The dp is from Fab Scraps, a local South African company (Love their papers!)

Cardstock is Bazzil. The ribbon is from my stash and the paper doily from my kitchen.

I have been very busy all weekend, making curtains for our new baby's cot (will show you as soon as I am finished) and playing with grandchildren. I had three of them for sleepovers since Friday. (Great fun, but very grateful they have gone home)

Its my last week at school this week, so hopefully I will get some crafting time in between the grandbabies and DH that will be on leave too.

This card also fits the following challenges:

1. Stamps R Us - Holiday card (http://www.stampsruschallenges.blogspot.com/ )

2. Dutch Dare =Winter/Christmas (http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/ )

3. Secret Crafter- Christmas (http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/ )

4. 2 Sisters challenge-Sparkly Christmas (http://dutchdare-cardchallenges.blogspot.com/ )

Welcome baby boy!

Warning: Lots of photo's today!
I was asked by a grade two class to make a card for their teacher who is having a baby boy. The image is from a local shop, so, like always, there is no manufacturer anywhere on the stamp. It was coloured with my Copics and the wings were glitterified with Stickles. The flowers, feathers and bling are from the local Chinese shop. The ribbon is from my stash. Cardstock is Bazzil and dp is Pebbles inc. Apologies for the bad photo, the colour is much nicer in real life!
Here is a close up of the image. The colour on this one is better. The image was cut out with a Nestie and the background was embossed with a Swiss dot Cuttlebug embossing folder.

The inside has tags for all the girls to write personal messages to their teache.

And here he is... my brand new little grandson and his sister. She is so proud to be a big sister.

She could not stop looking at him and was thrilled when he gripped her finger and wouldn't let go.

Here is the proud new mom with both her little darlings. Note the England babygrow - not my idea, but his father insisted. We made very sure that he has a Springbok outfit to wear (I actually think every member of the family went out and bought one, LOL)

Here is oupa, introducing Liam to his big sister. Such a precious photo.

There is just something so very special about a baby's feet. Look how small they are when his sister holds them.

Mom and baby are both doing very well. We thank God for the safe delivery of our precious little boy.

Have a great week everybody, I'll be back soon, but for now I am going to be very busy playing with my new baby!

FALLing for you - Stamptacular Sunday

The new challenge over at Stamptacular Sunday(http://stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/11/challenge-87-falling-for-you.html ) is: 'FALLing for you'. You are supposed to use only Fall colours. I thought this birthday'card' that I made for my granddaughter's teacher, fits in perfectly.

She is in the Butterfly class, so the instructions were simple - my teacher likes yellow (lello) and orange and it MUST have a butterfly. Each child in the class was given a tag (I forgot to take photo's) and one of the mothers went in to school on a day when the teacher had to attend a meeting and had every child put her fingerprint on a tag. The fingerprints were turned into little girls by my daughter and the moms wrote a message on the back of the tag.

I made a box for all the tags and put an easel card on top. The stamp is a freebie digi stamp that I have had for ages. It was coloured with my copics. All the cardstock is Bazzil and all the flowers are from the local Chinese market. The sentiment was hand written.

My granddaughter spent the night last night because her parents attended a wedding. This morning I got a phone call from my SIL to tell me that my daughter had been admitted to hospital with a severe bladder infection. The possability is there that my grandson will be born early tomorrow morning. So I get to spend some more quality time with Tertia-Lee. Please say a little prayer that all goes well for mom and baby.

Have a fantastic week everybody. Hope to see you soon with some baby pics.

Kenny K DT Call.

Who does not love Kenny K? I don't know a single person that would answer yes to that question. Every time I make a card with a Kenny image, everybody just adores it. It is so hard to find stamps that are appropriate for teenagers and men and when you do, you have to wait ages for them to arrive in the mail (living in South Africa often means it takes for EVER to get here or it gets 'lost' in the mail) so the instant gratification that you get from digi stamps really appeal to me.
It took me a while to decide that I would actually apply for the DT. It would be such an honour to work with such awesome people, it almost seems impossible.
Here they are, my two favourite cards (actually I can't really choose), but the first one is definately a favourite.

See, you can't do this with rubber stamps - I flipped the image and stuck it over the back of the image on the fromt -no ugly back here!

This was for a friend's birthday. She loves jogging and listening to music, so this image was perfect.

The next two cards are ones I just finished today. I LOVE these sassy Christmas gals. My son always complains when I make traditional Christmas cards. This year there won't be an "Ag no, ma, we live in Africa, why do you always make winter cards?' from him. LOL Still deciding which one to give to him and which one to give to DH.

The image was coloured with my Copics. I added some Flowersoft to the fut and some Dimentional Glaze to her boots and belt. The cardstock is Bazzil and the DP is from my scrapbox. The ribbon and bell is from the local Habby store.

This card was made with all the same products, just a different piece of dp from my scrapbox. Both images were cut with nesties.

Well, here's hoping for the best - holding both thumbs and saying a little prayer.

Have a great week everybody. I had a very fruitful weekend, so there will be something to show you almost every day for the next week.

13th Birthday invitations.

Where have I been? What have I been doing? you ask, Well, I am drowning in marking exam papers. 5 hours worth from every girl I teach! I have been sorting out insurance for my car - R41 000 worth of damage! (Thank goodness for insurance!)

AND.... I have been making Birthday Party invitations for a very special 13 year old girl. She is the daughter of a friend and comes to me regularly to scrap. Her mom is taking a couple of her friends to Gold Reef City (for those of you outside South Africa, its an old mining town that has been restored and is now an amusement park.) They are going to have photo's taken there that look like they are about a hundred years old. Complete with the right costumes. So we thought we would make her invitations to suit those photo's. Everybody expected it to have roller coasters on, but when have you known me to do the expected? LOL
Mom found a photo of her when she was 4 years old, playing dress up with her little sister. we scanned it and enlarged it and then changed it to sepia. How cute is she? All papers are Bazzil. The photo and mat was cut out with a Nellie Snellen die. The flowers and pins are from my stash. Ribbon and lace from my stash as well.

Made three different colours and I can't decide which one is the nicest.

Here is the whole lot together. Quite a job, but the smile on that little girl's face made it all worthwhile.

Have a great weekend everybody - next time I see you I might have a brand new granddaughter - my daughter's waters just broke.

A Thank You, A Christmas card and A reminder to be grateful.

Still very busy, but I did manage to get some cards in (actually, I needed to make some cards to take my mind off things LOL) The first card is a thank you for the very wonderful lady that works in the school office - I owe her more than just a card! The wonderful image was a freebie at Just Inklined (its no longer a freebie, but you can purchase it here (http://www.justinklined.com/ )It was coloured with my Copics, I coloured three images and cut out sections to give it some dimention. Other than that there is just some Bazzil, a left over piece of Melissa Francis paper and a lot of love.
The next card is a new digi that I found (true to form, I forgot to write down or save the link, so if you recognise it, please let me know) Coloured with my Copics again, cut out with my new Nellie Snellen die that I bought at the craft fair and glitterified with some stickles. The paper is a left over piece from my scrap box and the ribbon is from my stash. Cardstock is Bazzil.

Here's a close up so that you can see my bad colouring (I was in a really bad place when I coloured this one!:)) and the Glitter around the feet.

Now to the reminder to be grateful. (personal ramblings, so stop reading now if you find it boring). I have just had the most horrible weekend. It all started on Friday.

You know by now that it is exam time at school. My grade 11's wrote both their Afrikaans papers on Wednesday. They actually moved the papers to start the exam earlier than first intended. I saw the original time table and was asked if I would mind if it was changed- so I thought that that would be the only change. How wrong can you be to assume things. I intended to finish typing the grade 10 papers this weekend and hand it to my HOD for proofreading today, so that I could fix it and hand it in for copying in time for the 22nd. Something (I am sure God sent an Angel), tapped me on the shoulder at about 11h00 on Friday and told me to double check the time table. No time table on the notice board in the staffroom, so I walked all the way to a gr. 10 homeroom class to check and..... you guessed it, they are writing TODAY!!! I wanted to vomit. I got such a shock, I could not even think straight for a few moments. Anyway, to spare you the long story = I rushed home after school, typed the paper, e-mailed it to my HOD, she fixed it, e-mailed it back, I fixed it and printed it. On Saturday morning the lady from the office came in to copy my paper (see why I need a thank you?) and collated it. Crises averted. Thank you God for that nudge to check.

But wait.... There's more..... On Saturday was my other daughter's Baby Shower. I used my DH's bakkie, because I needed to take tables, chairs and everything else to the venue. He used my car to go to DD no 1's Nursey School to be Father Christmas at their annual Christmas party. At about 11h30, I got a call from DH: "I am so sorry" he said, "I just had an accident in your car" I thought he was joking, but no, its no joke. The car had to be towed away! He's OK, the car is not! My baby, she has less than 20 000km on the clock and this happens! I wanted to be angry, but then I realised - if he was in his old little bakkie, he would have been dead, because my car has so many safety features that his doesn't, if he was in the bakkie, he wouldn't have been wearing his seatbelt, the only 'injury' he has is a bruise from the seatbelt. Thank you God for making sure he was in the right car.
Have a great week everybody, see you soon.

Can you help? PLEASE!!!!!

No, I am not dead. I am just drowning in work. It is end of the school year here in South Africa which means that I have exams to set (done 2 out of 4) and then I have to mark all those papers before we close at the end of the month! In the mean time two of my daughters are expecting in the next month and we are having the second stork party on Saturday.
So, no time for crafting at all! I decided that I might as well show you all some of the cards I have made that never made it to my blog. Propably because the photo's are so bad. The image is from Sugar Nellie. It was cut with a Nestie and coloured with my Copic markers. The dp is from a local company, Upikit, and the cardstock is Bazzil.

Here is a close up of the image. Hoping you can see the Flowersoft on the teddy (It looks really nice in real life!) and of course I had to glitterify something - look closely at her boots and her belt.

I have been asked to make a birthday card for a 5 year old little boy, trick is - granny wants me to use super heroes and make the card inter active. Any ideas? I am stumped.

Then I have to make hats for a friend to put on gifts that she wants to give to the members of her chapter of the Red Hat Society. Anybody know of a link where I can find a template.

Mojo Monday.

A very good Monday to all. I have had a wonderful, but very tiring weekend. It was our annual family reunion and my brother, sister and I were responsible for the arrangements this year. Very stressful, but worth it in the end. We decided to get together for only a day this year, because most of us are a bit strapped for cash in this economic climate. In spite of the fact that there were two weddings on the same day, we still had about 75 people at the reunion and everybody that was there had a fantastic time. My son in law (born and bred in Manchester) attended his first one as part of our family and walked away with the trophy for the best "potjie"! Not every day an Englishman wins such a very traditional Afrikaans cooking competition. He has not let that trophy out of his sight.
On Sunday the whole staff went to a show in honour of our school's secretary that is retiring after 35 years at our school. She is an amazing woman who knows all 850 girls in the school by name! We all love her and I don't know if we will ever be able to find anybody to replace her. All of those things meant that there was no crafting this weekend, so I just had to do something this afternoon when I got home.
This card is based on the sketch over at Mojo Monday (http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/ ) Such a fun sketch to work with. The image is a freebie from TLC ( http://createwithtlc-createwithtlc.blogspot.com/ ) I printed it directly onyo the dp by Making Memories and then coloured it with my Copic markers. The other dp is from Bo Bunny and the cardstock is from Bazzil. The ribbon and lace is from my stash. I cut the mat out with a Nestie. The sentiment was stamped with Versa ink and embossed in gold.

Here is a close up of the image. Hoping you can see the glitter on her wings and on the dp.

Have a great week everybody. See you very soon.

Oh Baby, WOYWW!

I can NOT believe it has been so long since I posted a WOYWWpost! Life just happened so fast around here, my head is still spinning and then of course mr. Mojo went AWOL (shh..... he's back, don't want him to leave again). so not much happened on the creative front.
This is my desk today. Still messy, even though I spent a long time cleaning up in mr Mojo's absence. My excuse is that my DD borrowed one of my craft tables (the other half of my workspace) for my granddaughters birthday party on Sunday and hasn't returned it yet, so everything was just moved onto one table and left there.

This is what it looks like on my right. All those yummy new flowers and ribbon I bought? It wasn't me, it just jumped in my trolley when I bought curtains for my new grandchild's crib, I promise. I only noticed it when I got home. (Thats what I told DH when he asked - don't think he believed me, wonder why not?)

And here are the baby cards I have been working on tonight. I apologise for the bad photo's, but they have to be delivered tomorrow morning so there is no other time to take a photo. The stamp is a local one, not sure which company. All cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is from my scrapbox. The ribbon was found in my shopping trolley.

This image is an old favourite. Its my go to stamp when I need a baby card. Also by a local company. All papers are the same as before. Images were coloured with my Copics and the charm is from the local bead shop. The images were cut with Nesties.

Have a great day everybody and remember to check out Julie's blog to see what is happening on everybody's desks. http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

Welcome back Mr. Mojo - I think....

I think Mr. Mojo might have snuck into the house while I was sleeping last night. Not sure that he is working at full pace yet, but it is such a relief to have him back, I am not complaining at all.
This is a birthday card for a friend. The stamp is from Crafty Individuals. I stamped it on very old book pages that was inked with my Colorbox cats eye inks. The butterflies were glitterified with Stickles. I stamped it a second time on acetate and cut the butterflies out for dimention. Made the bodies with gems and added some Stckles to the back of the wings.
The dp is Basic Grey and some left over pieces from my scrapbox. All cardstock is Bazzil. Don't really know if I like this one, what do you think?

The next two cards are exactly the same, just different colours. I have to make a start with my Christmas cards. It is one of Mo's images coloured with Copics. The dp is from Fab Scraps ( a local company) and the cardstock is Bazzil.

The lace I found in the local habby store and fell in love with, you will see a lot of it on future cards I am sure.

Here is a close up of the image. I am hoping you can see the Dimentional Glaze on the Bauble. It looks very good IRL.

Hope mr. Mojo stays now and I will see you soon.

Who likes peacocks?

No, mr. Mojo is still not here. Still have not created anything new. This must be some kind of a record for me. (Insert pouting, sad face here!) Breathing has been so bad that I thought I was going to die on Wednesday night.Got up in the middle of the night to fetch my Asthma pump and then could not breathe at all - I was in the lounge, hubby was asleep in our bedroom and I could not call out for him and didn't have the strength to go to him, so I just sat down flat on the floor and prayed for it to pass. It did and I finally got back to bed at about 5 o' clock.
The only thing that kept me going was the fact that it was the SRC outing the next day and I could not let the girls down a second time (Remember when I was in hospital and they postponed their trip, so that I could go with them? I could not let them down)
We went to Gold Reef City in Johannesburg for the day and even though I really felt terrible and even had to lie down in the little First Aid building for an hour, the girls had their outing. There is nothing quite like teenagers to lift your spirits and by the end of the day I was feeling a whole lot better. We had so much fun watching this male peacock trying to impress his female counterpart.

They are beautiful birds, don't you think so? Never thought I would hear a bunch of girls scream so loudly though - the peacocks wanted to share their lunch and one snuck up behind one of the girls and stole a chip from her. Well - PANDEMONIUM!!! they screamed and performed like you can not believe. I just sat there laughing till the tears rolled down my face.

And here they are .... a very special group of girls, that remind me why I love my job. You did a great job as SRC for our school this year girls and I am proud to know all of you.

I did colour some images today, so maybe mr. Mojo is sneaking back in. We will wait and see what happens tomorrow.

Have a lovely week everyone, hope to see you soon with some creations.

Look what I found on my desktop!

Just a very quick check in. Mr. Mojo is still MIA, if you happen to find him, PLEEEASE send him home! While I was lying down on Sunday afternoon(at least that what I think happened) my son and granddaughter were playing around with my camera. She loves her uncle and would do anything to please him and he loves my camera and playing around on the computer. When I started my computer on Monday morning, I found this adorable fairy on my desktop.
She looks just like my beautiful little Hannah who is turning six today. Happy birthday angel child.
I am hoping to be back in creative mode soon, but my breathing is playing up again, (I am fine, I am fine, I am fine - power of positive thinking working here!) I am convinced its just the vast amount of pollen in the air and all will be well as soon as it starts raining.
I am off to see a parent now - wish me luck - its never nice to have to tell a parent their child is out of control.
Have a lovely day everybody, be back soon and lets all hope it starts raining soon.

Party season has started!

I know, I know, I have been a VERY BAD blogger, but I promise I will try to do better. It seems that with the warmer weather starting, everybody in South Africa has a child that is having a birthday party. I have been very busy making invitations. Trust my friends to wake up the day before the invitations have to go out and then phone me in a panic for help.
It has been so hectic that I literally made the invitations with mom waiting and grabbing them as I finish, so unfortunately there are no photo's of the Dinosaur or Lady Bug invites.
These ones are for a friend's 11 year old daughter. She wanted an Ice Skater and it had to be blue. Problem was I had no stamps with an ice skater. After a long search I found an image on a children's coloring page. She was resized and coloured with my Copics. The snowflakes, her shoes and swirls were glitterified with stickles. All paper is Bazzil. No dp this time. I had to make 10 invitations and here they all are.

I have been very busy as I said. It was Tertia-Lee's 4th birthday last week and we had two parties. One on her actual birthday, just for family and one on the 9th for her little friends.

Here she is, my beautiful girl blowing out her candles. She insisted that since she is 4 now, she needs to cut her own cake. Just look at the concentration and joy on that little face!

Have a great Friday everybody, hope to see you soon!