Bad day.

OK, so I don't normally complain or whine about things, but I wish the devil would find another house to visit sometimes! First my helper has the flue, which means that I have to clean the house myself (I know, I know millions of women the world over does it every day of their lives - so I am spoilt) and I had a scrapbooking class for 5 girls ranging in ages from 6 to 13 this morning.I LOVE having them - they are so creative and willing to try anything I throw at them, but they are very demanding and I don't get to sit doen or slow down when they are here. A class that should take 2 hrs normally ends up taking 4-5 hrs.
Before they even got here my DD phoned in a state. Somebody had driven into the back of her brand new car! DH is furious! Claiming that its all her fault and that she did it on purpose just to annoy him and cost him money that he doesn't have. I understand his frustrations ( Seeing that I run the finances in the house, I know only too well that we can't afford the cost of fixing a car right now). Me being the mom means that I am stuck between DH's fury and DD hurt. Not a good place to be, let me tell you.
BUT....... I also know that God has never ever before let us down and that He is not about to start, so, tomorrow I will feel better and laugh about all of this. I will propably be singing while cleaning the house and the insurance will pay, thats why we pay them a fortune each month.
See, I feel better already, all whined out.
I don't think I ever posted this card. I finished it before I got sick and forgot all about it. It is another one of Mo's images that I absolutely adore. She reminds me so much of my granddaughter Hannah. Hannah is such an animal lover and animals seem to respond to her, she has a wild lizard that comes out to greet her when she comes home from school and I have never seen any animal not falling under her spell.

The image was coloured with my Copics, cut out with a Nestie and mounted on foam squares. The Cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is Basic Grey. Other than that there is only a bit of ribbon from my stash.

Here's a close up of the image, hope you can see the glitter on her wings.

Have a lovely day everybody, I'll be back soon with more cards.

Here they are... 24 more boxes!

No, I can't believe it either, but I did make another 24 boxes. This time they are to hand out as party favours at Tertia-Lee's birthday party. I found a tutorial on Splitcoast stampers for an all in one box, downloaded the template, tweaked it a bit and voila, here are my boxes.

The birthday girl hasn't seen them yet, but I hope she likes them as much as her invitations. The image is from the Magnolia summer club kit. I coloured the fairy Tilda's with my Copics. glitterefied their wings, cut them out and mounted them on foam squares. Its when I have to make so many of one thing that I really appreciate my Cricut. All the circles and scalloped circles were cut with my Expression.

Here they are, the side view of the boxes, aren't they sweet? The lid has a flower and some ribbon. The flower centre has each girl's name written on. All Cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is the leftovers from the exploding boxes that I made. The edge of the lid was punched with a Martha Stewart punch. Did you notice that I found a little patch of green grass to take the photo's? A sure sign that Spring is really on its way.

Lastly but certainly not least, here is my chocolate stand that hubby rescued from the dump. I love it, its just the right size for all my little embellishments. I am still in the process of rearranging it all to be workable and I am putting everything in smaller bottles (so that I can fit more on, but shhhh, don't tell DH! LOL) Its taking for EVER, but I think DH was right, it is a good idea to glue a sample of what is in the bottle on the lid, so that I don't have to go through every one when I look for something. I have been inspired by this and have even made a start at typing out the names of all my stamp sets and glueing them to the back of the CD covers that I am using to store them.

I'm off to glue more little thingies to more little lids. Enjoy your evening.

The Pixie Cottage is having a DT Call.

The Pixie Cottage Design Team Call

The Pixie Cottage is looking for new Senior and Junior design team members.
We are a rubber stamp company with a wide variety of stamps. We are looking for a handful of design team members who are ready to grow with us and show their talent by making cards, altered art, scrapbook pages and whatever else they can dream up with our products. We will be accepting members for both Junior and Senior Design Teams.
This call is open to talented artists worldwide.

http://thepixiecottage.blogspot.com
I am entering and trying my luck. How about you?

Lazy Sunday.

Summer seems to have arrived. Finally! I am so sick of the miserable weather. Only worry is that we have not really had any of our usual August winds and its those winds that are supposed to bring us rain, so here's hoping the winds are just a little late and we will get some much needed rain soon!
This has been such a rslaxing weekend. I have been busy crafting, (making some more boxes! I kid you not) I will show you as soon as I have taken pics. We had my SIL and her hubby over for the rugby yesterday. What a game!! I actually felt like I played after that, it was SOOOOO Scary! At least we beat the Ausies and regained some pride after our recent spate of losses.
Here are two more cards I finished last week. The first one uses a sheet of velum map paper that I found in a gift shop and I thought it would be perfect for the Magnolia Spring club Maggie. I have a lot left over, so I am contemplating making a whole set of cards.

The Maggie was coloured with my Copics and cut out with a Nestie. Other than that the only decoration is a piece of string and a button from my stash.
The next card is another Mo Manning image. The paper is from a local company, Upikit. Cardstock is Bazzil and the centre strip was cut with a Martha Stewart punch. The ribbon, flowers and leave is from my stash.

I am not entirely sure about this image. Its one I coloured in hospital and there is quite a lot of bleeding around the edges - must have been the meds that affected my eyesight (thats my story and I am sticking to it! LOL)

Have a great rest of Sunday everybody. I have some more cards to show you tomorrow

Oh yes, I almost forgot, I have the most wonderful husband in the world. He was helping a friend out, building some cabinets for his garage when he spotted an old chocolate stand lying outside in the rain and wind. He asked his friend who it belonged to and if he could buy it from him. The friend said he was planning to dump it, so my DH was welcome to take it. He came home as pleased a anything, because he said that he thought it would be perfect for my craftroom. He was right! Its absolutely perfect. I spent most of the weekend sorting through my stash and reorganising my room. Will take a picture of the stand for you. It says 'Cadbury's' all over, but I love chocolate, so it doesn't matter.

Two more from MO

LIke I said yesterday, I absolutely adore Mo Manning's images. They are super easy to colour and no matter what you do with them, they always look great!
This one was coloured with my Copics once again. The fur on the stocking is polar white Flowersoft. The cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is from Kaisercraft. I really love this acid green at the moment. The image was cut out with a Nestie and chalked. The pearls I got from my friend Paola and the flowers were from the local Chinese guy again.

Here is a close up of the flowers I used. Quite a lot more than usual, but I think it works. Isn't that ribbon adorable? Picked it up at Dubai Centre and bought a roll of every colour they had. The lace is from my moms sewing box again.

The next card is an image that always makes me snile! I think because they remind me so much of my wonderful parents and how in love they were even after 47 years of marriage! The image is so gorgeous that it really doesn't need a lot more to make a special card. Some Bazzil Cardstock, Some Basic Grey dp, some ribbon and a bit of love was all that was required,

I have been crafting up a storm and will be posting as I finish taking pictures. Have a great weekend everybody.

Mo's images - finally becomes a card.

Hold on folks, this might become a flood! I finally had time to start making cards from all those images that I coloured in hospital. I am running around like a crazy person looking for the right paper in the right colour for every image (Yes, I know Paola, if I choose the paper first, I wouldn't have this problem! Where is the fun in that though - I like the hunt)

These twins are one of my favourite images from Mo (Actually, its impossible to choose a favourite LOL) They were coloured with Copics and given a very liberal Stickle treatment on their tu-tu's and wands. Other than that there is Bazzil cardstock. Basic Grey dp, a little antique lace found in my my mom's sewing box and a whole lot of flowers. Almost forgot, there is a tiny little purple butterfly too.

My blogging friend Paola decided to come over to the East for a visit yesterday. We had so much fun. I don't think I have talked and laughed this much in ages! Spent a couple of hours in my craft room and playing with our Copics. Its so much fun to look at your own supplies through somebody else's eyes. She is right, I am a very spoilt and very lucky lady to have such a wonderful space to call my own.

Hopefully we will be able to do this more regularly from now on and just maybe some of you that live close by can join in the fun!

I did finish another card last night, so as soon as the sun is up, I will take pics and try to post. You guys might regret all those coloured images waiting for me - I might just flood your in-boxes. LOL

Exceptionaly Beautiful!

Here it is .... the project that kept me busy for such a long time. The birthday invitations for my 4yo granddaughter's birthday. In her words they are 'exceptionaly beautiful'! Nothing like a 4yo's praise to make all the work worthwhile.
The idea started brewing in my head while I was in hospital. When i got home it was the first thing I started working on and like I said, I love the end result.
The first photo is one I took of all of them lined up on my diningroom table, all 23 of them.

I had strict instructions that they had to be pink and purple.. I made exploding boxes with a ballerina in the middle. The image is a freebie that I got ages ago from Marjie's Malarkies (http://marjiesmalarkies.blogspot.com/ ) I printed her with a mirror image, coloured her with my Copic markers, cut her out and stuck her to a piece of acetate, making her stand up straight.

I used a lot of flowers at her base, just to make sure she doesn't fall over. The four sides were cut with Nesties and contains the actual invitation. They were chalked (Haven't used my chalks in years, but I like the softness it gave) and even more flowers were addded.

The lids were covered in ribbon and flowers again and a handwritten sentiment with a charm and a blingy butterfly was added,

Here is a close up of the dancing girl. This truly is the stuff little girls' dreams are made of.

The cardstock is Bazzil, dp is Melissa Francis and Bo Bunny and the flowers all come from the local Chinese dealer. The acetate is the covers they use when they copy projects at Post Net - the normal transparency was too thin for the job.

I am entering this one for the Stamptacular Sunday challenge which calls for twq are better than one. ( http://stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.com/2010/08/challenge-73-twos-better-than-one.html )

Hope you like my little boxes as much as I do.

Tomorrow I will tell you about the lovely play date I had with my blogging friend Paola this morning and show you a card I made while she was here.

WOYWDW and a quick card share.

Good morning all! Yes, I am still here and crafting up a storm, just took for EVER to finish my last project but I love love love it! Will show you as soon as I have time to take pics.
This is the first time I am brave enough to share my work desk with you. I am a very messy crafter, so it is a bit embarassing! At least this time it is not entirely my fault. While I was in hospital, my one grandchild had a school project to do and my other daughter made new posters for her nursery school. True to form, they did what they came to do and left everything for me to clean up. I had to throw away some stickles and glue, because it was left OPEN on my desk - that really makes my blood boil!
Here is the desk I work at. It is huge! Actually it is two trstle tables pushed together to form one desk. It always amases me that I can spread out so much when I craft. Here is the same desk, taken from the other side. You can clearly see the aftermath of little people in my stuff! There is a delightful 'card' left for me by my 3yo granddaughter! Lots of it is just stuff dumped unceremoniously by everybody because they 'don't know' where it is supposed to go!

Onto the card. I made this one before I got sick, but never had time to post it. The image is from Phindi's Place. I just love that cake, makes you want to have some cake too doesn't it? The image was coloured with my Copics. The cardstock is Bazzil and the Dp is from My Minds Eye. The only other rhing I addae was a little bit of bling and voila - a simple but effective card! (Well, I think so LOL)

I'm HOME!!!!!!!

Thanks for all your well wishes everybody and thanks Audrey for posting the message on my blog yesterday.
It all happened so suddenly, that I did not have time to think about it. As you all know, I have a chronic problem with my breathing. Some days are better than others and the dr's diagnosis vary, but they have not really ever been able to establish why it happens. They say that it has now become chronic Asthma.
After my stressful week last week, the breathing was really bad and I started coughing like somebody that has been smoking for 50 years ( Never smoked in my life!). Everybody, family and friends kept urging me to go to the dr. , but I really did not feel sick, just coughed. Finally relented and went to see my doc on Friday. He gave me one look and booked a bed in the hospital. The more I tried to explain that I am not that sick and that I could not afford to take off time from work, the less he listened to me. (And he is usually such a good listener.)
Well, thats the story. Been there since Friday and must say, I feel better for the first time in years! I did get a bit of a fright when I heard him tell my hubby that I had pneomonia at a life threatening level.
I spent the first day pretty out of it and when I started to surface on Sunday, I realised that I was supposed to book a bus to take the Student Representative Council on their yearly outing and to give them consent forms to be filled in by their parents. They were to go to Step Up in 3D on Monday. Thats when I realised that I must have been really sick, because it is not in my natuer to not do important things like that. Started phoning colleagues in a panick, got hold of the SRC president and when the kids heard I could not go, they promptly cancelled the trip and said they would rather wait for me to get back - how sweet is that!
Begged my hubby for my Copics and my file with stamped images ( you know, the one we all have, with images that we will do one day! LOL) I spent the next few days colouring up a storm. I think I must have coloured about 30 images! Can't wait to get in my craftroom and start making them into cards. The hospital staff was fascinated - most of them have never seen so many pens and in so many colours before! I think they all think I am a little crazy, a grown woman colouring in pictures. Weird huh?
I have just spent about 2 hours reading everybody's blogs and sorting my e-mails, now I am very tired and can't wait to go for a lie down in my own bed! See you soon, hopefully with a card.

LIKING HOSPITAL FOOD

Lots of news to follow as soon as I get home from my extended stay in hospital. Colouring up a storm between meals, physio, blood pressure machines, temperature counts, etc. Will post again sooooooooooooooooooooon.

Mermaid Tilda and... Do you sometimes question yourself?

I am posting during the week, amazing isn't it? I was supposed to have my scrapping friends over for a playdate tonight, but it is SOOOO cold, we decided to leave it till it warms up. Roll on summer!
I have had this card made for a while, but never posted it. Not sure why not. I just love this little Tilda. She is the ideal image to use on a card for my little 'mermaid' Anke. She always says that it is only when she is in the water that she truly feels alive.
Tilda was coloured with my Copics and given a liberal treatment of Stickles on her tail. The bubbles are covered in Dimentional Glaze. Cardstock is Bazzil and the Dp is a little piece from my scrapbox. The image and mat was cut out with a Nestie. The ribbon is from my stash and the pearls come from Paola.

I took a closse up of the image, hoping you can see the bling on her tail.

Personal rambling are following, so you can stop reading now if you wish. LOL

I have had the worst two days at school in - well maybe in forever. Being a teacher is never easy. Kids are by nature very ungrateful and selfcentered - I get that and I don't expect them to be any different.

Over the last few years there has been a particularly 'difficult' girl in our school. Actually, I am of the opinion that it is not the child that has been difficult, but more her father who is a self centered, opinionated, pompous a@##, that makes excuses for his daughter's behaviour and never lets her take responsability for anything.

At the beginning of this year just about every single person on the staff had had enough of this little man and his big ego. The principal of the High School refused to deal with him any longer, the Deputy did not want anything to do with him either and he refused for his child to have ANY contact with the school councilor. I am the grade head for her grade, so I was called in by the Headmaster and asked if I would take her under my wing and try to help her.

Strangely enough, even though I had had a terrible run in with dad, I can't help but like this girl. I get the feeling that all she wants is a little bit of love, so I said I would do it. I had meetings with her and the headmaster on a monthly basis, checking on her progress. Because I teach her, I see her every day. We had long talks about what was appropriate behaviour and what was not. On one occasion, she screamed at a teacher and walked away. She ran straight to me and told me that she thought she had just made a terrible mistake. After I listened to her story I asked her what she thought she should do about it. She could not verbalise the right reaction and when I suggested that she should go back to the teacher and apologise, she nearly died! She did it though, begging me to walk with her to the teacher's classroom. I said I would walk with her, but that she would have to go in by herself. She did and I could not have been prouder of her if she was my own child!

So, silly me, I thought that we were making progress. We have just finished writing exams and this girl failed the term. She came to me crying and I consoled her and told her that even though she was still failing, her marks had gone up and that she was so close to passing that she would definately be able to pass the year if she keeps working.

Next thing I know, the deputy knocks on my classroom door and informs me that she is busy with an investigation into my exam paper. Turns out, this girl's father sent an e-mail to the Headmaster, saying that my paper was full of spelling and syntax errors and that the instructions were contradictory. He also demanded that another teacher's papers be marked by an independant person because that teacher is victimising his daughter!

My paper had two typing errors that slipped through and that was corrected BEFORE the girls wrote the paper, there are NO syntax errors (don't know how he would know that, seeing he is Portugese and the paper is Afrikaans!) no contradictory instructions either.

I can not tell you how this episode has thrown me! I don't know how to handle this. I am angry (VERY), I am sad, I am dissapointed and most of all I am starting to question my ability as a teacher.

I might just remove my rambling tomorrow, but I just had to get it off my chest.. If you read all the way to here, thank you for listening, I will propably feel better tomorrow and wonder why I made such a fuss.

Have a great weekend everybody see you soon.

Digistamps4joy Design Team call and a sort of disaster.

A few posts ago, I told you about the new South African digi stamp company Digistamps4joy. Well, she is having a DT call - So hurry on up and go and have a look. The link is on my sidebar.
Here are the two cards that I made for the DT call.
The first one (actually both of them) was coloured with my Copics and cut out with a Nestie.
The cardstock is Bazzil and I ran the background through my Cuttlebug. The Dp is a little piece I found in my scrapbox. I added a little silver star to her magic wand and some bling to her crown. The ribbon and flower are from my stash.

The next card is one of my favourites, but ended in a bit of a disaster. I had it all finished and was just waiting for the stickles on the wings to dry when my granddaughter came into my craftroom. You know what 3yo little girls are like - they look with their fingers. First thing I noticed was when I heard her say: "Ouma, this is very beautiful" then silence and a little voice "sorry ouma". When I looked up, the stickles was spread all over the top of the wing. If you look closely, you will still see the result after I tried to save the poor fairy.

The cardstock is Bazzil again and the Dp is from my scrapbox again. I cut the centre band with my Martha Stewart punches. The ribbon is from a local party shop. The flowers are ones I made with Fimo clay after I saw some for sale, but I thought they were terribly expensive - so out came the clay and florist wire. I am quite pleased with them in the end.

Have a great week everybody. See you soon.

Another one for the EB DT call

Yes, I really, really want to be on that DT.! LOL I would do just about anything for it. Not only do I love Elizabeth Bell's images ( and I have loved them ever since I saw them the first time),but my granddaghters both love her images too.

This card was made with another of her digi images. She reminds me of my youngest daughter when she was little. Even though she looks like a proper little fairy, you can just see the mischief brewing in those eyes. She was coloured with my Copics and cut out with a Mestability die. The cardstock is Bazzil and the Dp is from a Basic Grey paperstack (I think it is the Junebug one). The flower is Prima and the ribbon I found in a local party shop. (I bought every colour they had, so prepare to see more of it)

Here is a close up of her wings so that you can see the Stickles that I put on them - a girl has to have some bling.

Have a great Womans Day everybody here in South Africa. Hope yopu all have a wonderful week. I will be back later with some more cards.

I love you this much - Elizabeth Bell

The wonderfully talented Elizabeth Bell is having a design team call till the 13th of August. Hurry over there and have a look at her work.

I have always admired Elizabeth's work. She is such an amazing artist and her new digi's are no exception - I just had to have them. the fact that this one (I love you this much) is the splitting image of my granddaughter, Hannah, also helped of course.

She was coloured with my Copics and cut out with Nesties. The paper is from a DCWV paperstack, the pearls I got from the wonderfully talented Paola, the flowers are Prima, the feathers and pins are from my stash. I coloured the pins with my Copics - they were white. Very easy to make a card with such a stunning image.

Spent most of the day in my craftroom pottering around. Will show some more cards later.

Have a great rest of the weekend everybody.

I'm back and rearing to go.

All exams are marked and all marks are entered into the computer at school. Doing a little happy dance right now - I thought I would never finish!
My DH came home on Wednesday and asked if I could make a card for somebody at work's mothers 60th birthday. Sure, no problem dear. What colour? What is she like? Must I make an old lady card or is she young and hip and happening? Has she got a sense of humour? Can I make a funny card? (I was thinking one of my Bugaboo images - you know the 'whats one more frigging candle?' one). The answer? Yes you guessed it. A true to form, male answer. I don't know, just make a card, I am sure it will be fantastic. (Bless his heart, he thinks everything I do is wonderful)
So, off he went yesterday with my album of photo's of some of my cards. Came back and told me: She likes this stamp, but she likes the colour on this one and she would like a butterfly, geez woman, I never knew that people could be that difficult! LOL You would think he would know, seeing he has a wife, three daughters and two granddaughters!

Here is the card. She wanted one with tags, so that the whole family (all 27 of them) could sign the card and write their own messages. The stamp is a local one, bought a while ago and has no manufacturers name on anywhere. I coloured her with my Copics and cut her out with my Nestie. The cardstock is Bazzil and the paper is by Prima (Love those). I found the butterfly at a very small Chinese shop and bought a whole lot of them - they are made from feathers. The flower was handmade by me (yay me, I actually managed it!) and the charm is from the same little Chinese store.

This shows the inside pocket with some of the tags. I had to add another, slightly smaller pocket to hold all of the tags. It is actually raised a little, like a box, but there was no time for a photograph after I finished it last night. The edge was done with a Martha Stewart punch.

The other side of the inside. Very plain, but it looks really nice. I am quite pleased with the outcome and hope she likes it.

Will have to go look if my cards fit any challenges.

Have a great weekend everybody. For us its a long week end and I have no marking (did I tell you that? I am finished with my marking!!!), so I am planning some serious cardmaking and even scrapping (that Soccer City LO) this weekend.

I'm still here!

Sorry for being missing in action. I am around, but life is crazy at the moment.
First my internet line was down for a few days - now I know for sure that I am addicted to visiting all of you every day. It was terrible, but, I live in Africa, so cables will be stolen from time to time and then replaced in African time LOL Not good for somebody like me that likes to have everything done yesterday.
I haven't had time to do any crafting. (Sorry Audrey, no competition page either) Busy marking exam papers - so not a good idea to let kids write exams straight after a 5 week holiday! The marks are SHOCKING!!! I think I might just have a heart attack before I am done. Should be tomorrow, because the marks have to be in by Thursday!
My wonderful, bright,amazing boy took pity on me and helped me design a World Cup page - needed it to look like Soccer City and I just could not get the picture in my head onto paper. I knew that all the money we payed for his architectual studies would come in handy one day. Helps that he is the only one in my family that really gets me too.
Gotta run, still have about 30 papers to mark. Hopefully I will be back soon.