A wedding box

Another exploding box, I know, its getting boring now - but it is so addictive! I didn't want to make another square box. It had to have six sides, but how? Then I remembered that my son is an architect. I did not pay all those fees at university for nothing and it was finally time for him to prove that he did actually learn something. LOL He designed the box for me, made a template and all I had to do was print it out and use it as a pattern. See, its worth letting them study!
This box was an order from our pre-school. They wanted something different to a traditional card for a teacher that it getting married. I had to use ivory, brown, bronze and bright yellow not exactly my colours, but it turned out quite beautifully.

Put a lot of flowers on the lid. The brown ones were spritzed with glimmer mist. The dp is offcuts I bought in bulk from a printing company a long time ago. The cardstock is Bazzil.

And here is the inside of the box. Back and front looks exactly the same. The Magnolia image was coloured with my Copics. The staff will sign their names and write messages on the side panels.

A close up of the image, hope yoy can see the bling on Tilda's dress, flowers and shoes all done with Diamond Stickles.

Have a great week everybody, I am off to Stellenbosch for Drummie Nationals. I'll be back on Saturday, but I am going straight from the airport to Loftus Versveld (the stadium)to watch the Bulls play the Stormers (GO BULLS!!!) The kids bought DH and I tickets for DH's birthday. He doesn't know yet, but everybody, including his brother and nephew will be there with us. Should be a great party.

Finaly! Some pictures of LO's from SA Scrapbook Convention

Before the Convention started we were given the themes for each of the classes with a list of the photo's we would need. The theme for this was: "This is how I roll". I thought these pictures of Tertia-Lee would be perfect, but when I got there I found out that it was a boy LO with monsters! How can I use monsters with these pictures? Plan B - replace the monsters with flowers. I think it turned out pretty well.
Love this one too. It has a wheel that turns at the back of the right hand side to reveal more pictures and journaling. Simple joys for me is to just spend some time with my gorgeous grandchildren. This was a day spent at the Johannesburg Zoo. Did you notice Tertia-Lee reading the map and telling us exactly where she wants to go next? How cute are those butterflies? Made from flowers, just by cutting off one petal. Learnt how to make the purple flowers too.

One of my favourites. The Prima layout. How wonderful are those flowers. Don't think there is anything more I need to say about this LO. Its just beautiful and perfect for photo's of the most beautiful place on earth.

Have a great day everybody, I will be back with some more LO's tomorrow.

WOYWW can elegance come from this mess?

A very simple and elegant card made for one of the girls in our Birthday club. I have had this image coloured for the longest time and just knew that it was the right image for this card when the request came to make a card for her. Not too cutesie, use blue (her favourite colour) and flowers. The image is coloured with Copics. Ribbon is from my stash and the cardstock is all Bazzil, embossed with my Cuttlebug.
Did not want to jump straight to my desk, because if I hung my head in shame last week, then I am currently hiding under the table, whimpering every time somebody looks in! I am still blaming it all on the postman though - that man brought me three lots of goodies in the last week! I kid you not - THREE lots. My order from Sweetpea stamps, a gift of Bidmalara stamped images from a friend and the blog candy that I won on the Shoestring Scrapbooking blog.

Be honest now. Would you tidy up if you had very little time and all those fantastic new goodies to play with? I didn't think so. I think I might be forced to clean up soon though, because it is getting so bad I am having trouble finding my scissors (Don't say anything! I saw them on the photo! LOL)

This is the pile of papers that seems to have a life of their own and keeps growing. Some stamped and coloured images lurking there too.

Here is the other side of the work desk. This side was clean last week, but things are spilling out over there now too. That folder contains my stamped images that are waiting to be coloured. The beautiful box is filled with the layouts I made at Convention. The newspaper? I don't know, but I am sure there is a good reason for it being there. The Asthma pump? You would also need one if you had to work here.
I am going to try to visit more of you this week. We are having a long weekend here in South Africa this weekend- Friday is National Braai(barbeque) day or Heritage day, so I am planning to have a massive tidy up in my scraproom then. Lets hope I can show you my desk with pride next week.

Have a great Wednesday everybody, see you soon. Hop on over to Julie at ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) to visit everybody else's desks.

Mini Hanna & the real Hannah - Who's cuter?

I recieved my Pixie Cottage stamps in the mail last week and just had to colour them immediately. They are so cute. She is called Hannah, just like my granddaughter and I think she is almost as cute as my Hannah!
The first card uses cardstock that was left over from the Convention, I think it is by American Crafts. The dp is Melissa Francis. The ribbon, flowers and butterfly are all from my stash. She was coloured with my Copics.
The next card is very unlike my style. Halloween is really not a very big thing in South Africa, but this little Hannah in her witch costume just cried out to be used. The dp is from my scrapbox. The ribbon is velvet with purple bling - really gorgeous IRL, the flowers are Prima and some very dark purple roses I found at the Chinese store. The butterfly is from my stash.

And now for the REAL Hannah! I could not believe it when I realised it was Monday morning. This weekend just went by in a blur. I had my two granddaughters for a sleepover and we had so much fun, I didn't even notice how the weekend flew past. We spent the whole day on Sunday making clothes for the fairies in my garden.
Step 1: You beed to find exactly the right leaf or flower for your creation. This takes a lot of concentration.

Here she is - My Hannah - told you she is cute!

Step 2: You now have to make sure that the flower or leaf that you chose will fit the fairies. This requires very precise cutting.

This is Tertia-Lee, cutting a flower that became a dress for some lucky fairy.

It takes a lot of concentration to cut a single leaf into a fairy coat.

Step 3: When you are done, you have to leave the clothes in the fairy house in ouma's garden. (If you don't believe there are fairies in my garden, ask any one of my four children. There is a magical place where the fairies live - they have all seen them when they were little!)

Have a great week everybody. Hopefully the week will be a little slower than the weekend.

80 Its just a number.

A friend asked me to make a special card for her father's 80th birthday. he sounds like an incredible man. Still very hip and happening with a wicked sense of humour.When I first got this digi stamp, I knew that I would use it one day for somebody just like that.

The stamp is feom Just Inklined ( http://justinklined.com ) He is called Albert and I just love him. If I have to get old, I hope I end up just like him! He was coloured with Copics and cut out with a Nestie. The lights and window of his walker were covered in Dimentional Glaze. The Cardstock is Bazzil and the dp was from my scrapbox. The ribbon is from my stash.

Here is a close up photo - hoping you can see the glaze on the lights, horn and window.

I hope he likes my card.

Have a great Thursday everybody, I might be back later with my little Hannah's, but first I am going to have a look at a few more desks from WOYWW.

WOYWW Hanging my head in shame!

This week my desk is a disaster zone! My excuse? Well..... I went to the Scrapbook Convention this weekend and I had to get all my photo's and tools ready for that last week and when we finished on Sunday, I was so inspired that I came home and finished all the LO's we did in class and then, well then... I was too tired on Monday and I had to finish a project for my guest dt before Tuesday and then... on Tuesday the postman brought me some stamps from Pixie Hollow and I just had to ink them up immediately and I had to make a card for a friend, so you see, its not my fault at all. Its the postman's fault.

There you see my new mini Hannah's that I am busy colouring, you can see the envelope they came in and the rest? I don't know how it got there.

Here is the view to the right of my work area. That beautiful piece of green paper is for the little Hannah's and the rest of the pyramid of papers are the leftovers from Convention.

If you look to your left, you will find more mysterious things that just leapt up on the table all by themselves. It wasn't me -thats my story and I am sticking to it! LOL

I have to show that I can be organised if I want to be. Here are the shelves with all my flowers on. All in plastic containers and colour coded. Pretty, don't ya think?

Yes, those are more rulers in the bucket, but please don't tell.

Why don't you pop over to Julies blog (http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) and have a look at everybody's desks? You might even decide to play along, its very therapeutic.

I am a Guest Designer at Digistamps4Joy!

Good morning everybody. Now I can tell you my exciting news. Melanie from digistamps4joy asked me to be a Guest Desibner for this challenge. I am so excited. It took for ever to decide which image to use. She keeps adding more to the store and they are just getting better and better! ( http://digistamps4joy.blogspot.com/ )
This time the challenge asked us to use something recycled on our creations. I have had this cute little box lying on my desk for a long time. One of my scrapping buddies brought the scrapping group some chocolates back the last time she went overseas and I knew that I wanted to do something with the box. I pulled it apart and covered it with pretty paper to be used as a gift box at Christmas. Then I discovered the leftovers of some wool that brings back so many memories in my mother's box of 'stuff' and I just had to use it. So, without further ado, here is my project.

I hope you like it. Isn't that giraffe just too adorable? It is so hard to find Summery Christmas images. My son keeps complaining when I make snowmen and winter scenes. Hope he is going to stop moaning now. There is another giraffe image in the shop - just as adorable - go and have a look. The images were coloured with my Copics. The fairylights were given a Stickle treatment anf the giraffe's nose and eyes were given a layer of Dimentional Glaze to make them shine. I cut the image with a Nestie. The Cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is Basic Grey.

The Sentiment was computer generated and punched with my Making Memories punch. The glittery thread is actually wool. When I was about 12 i saw this wool at a woolshop and begged my mother to please make me a top from it. She kept saying that it would scratch badly and I kept begging her. In the end she gave in and made the top. She was right, it did scratch like crazy, but I was not going to admit it, so I just had to grin and bear it! It made me smile when I found the wool in mom's box of 'stuff'.


Here is a close up of the Giraffe, hoping you can see the Stckles and the Dimentional Magic.


And this is the box after I took it apart. I am very proud that I remembered to trace around it to use as a template for later use, because I really like the size of it. Ideal for a small gift - I thought chocolate, but my DD says she thinks it would be perfect for a watch. (Do you think she is trying to tell me something?)

And finally, the finished box. I printed another image, coloured it and punched out just the head to make a tag for the box.

I hope you liked my little project. Pop over to the digistamps4joy blog and visit the design team's blogs for more inspiration.

I will be back after school with my WOYWW post (hanging my head in shame today) Have a wonderful morning.

Scrapbook Convention. FUN FUN FUN!!

Just a quick post. I am late (as usual) and have to go to work. Just had to share some quick thougts on the South African Scrapbooking Convention. It was amazing. I enjoyed every minute. Met new 'old' friends. Like Michelle and Michelle. We have been chatting on the TMW site for years, but have never met face to face. Here is a photo of the three of us. As you can see we got on like old friends, So lovely to finally meet you girls.
We were laughing about my first ever post on TMW. I was busy preparing for the Scrapbook Convention and was making a tea table 'Fit for a queen' (Remember that competition?) My first post was a question - How do you make milk from paper? The girls on TMW thought some weirdo had joined the site, but they did answer the question and I won a ticket to the next years Convention and made some really amazing friends.
This year I had the honour to take a class with my all time South African scrapping idol, Madame C, or Candice Greenway as she is known. What an amazing class. Learned so much and made an incredible page ( yes Mich, mine is finished, I finished it on Sunday night) Can't show you yet, because I don't want to spoil it for the Cape Town girls. By the way, I always liked and admired Candice, but now I know that she could be a friend - her comment that she is in shape, because round is a shape too, just convinced me LOL. I am blaming my shape on the meds (Thats my story and I am sticking to it)

And here we are - all the scrapping Divas that shared our table. met some wonderful people and couldn't have hoped to share the Convention with a more fun group.

Got some really exciting news, but you will have to wait till Wednesday to hear. Think I might burst before then.

Have a great week everybody, see you soon.

Cupcakes by the dozen.

Here they are - all those cup cakes I had to bake for DD. Took me forever to make all the toppers. Thank goodness for my Cricut expression. If I had to punch all those circles I would have screamed! I tried to take a photo of all the boxes, but I think I missed one. Can you tell which box is the one DH helped pack? It really worries me, but he felt sorry for me and helped pack out of the goodness of his heart, so I can't very well repack them, it will hurt his feelings. AND ... It really does not change life as we know it if they are not packed in perfect little rows with all the toppers facing one way, now does it?
I was going to do the whole artistic photo of some of them, but DD was in a hurry (she still had to go home and prepare a lesson for today and write thank you notes and and and...) So this is the closest I got before she grabbed them all and ran out the door.

Hope the teachers like them. Actually, I know they will like them, teachers are like vultures when it comes to cake ( I am a teacher remember, I know about these things. LOL) I hope there are enough.

Going to register for the Convention today. I will be MIA this weekend. I will still be creating though. From 8 till 18h00 I will be Scrapping at the Convention. If I have any energy left when I get home I will show you what we were doing, otherwise I will see you all next week. Have a fantastic weekend everybody.

Some thank you"s

Good morning everybody.
After my recent stay in hospital I needed a lot of thank you cards for all my friends who brought flowers and sent get well messages. I also needed one for my DH's company who sent me the most beautiful flowers and card.
The first one is an image from Meljen. That little bear just makes me smile every time I look at him. He was coloured with my Copics and cut out with a Nestie. All cardstock is Bazzil and the Dp is from Melissa Francis, The ribbon is from my stash.
The next one is another freebie image that I could not find the link for. But I really love it. It was coloured with my Copics again. The dp is from a local company - Upikit. Love their glittery papers! The cardstock is Bazzil and the ribbon from my stash. The paper is so beautiful, it did not need a lot more.

Going to be a VERY busy day. Have to bake cake for my DD for tomorrow - its her last day of teaching prac and she wants to thank everybody on the staff for being so kind. Really big staff, so lots of baking for mom. I have to sort out my photo's for the Scrapbook Convention that starts on Saturday (horror of all horrors, I have not even started thinking about packing my bag, let alone look if I have everything I need!)

Looking forward to spending 2 days just sitting back and letting somebody else do the teaching for a change. Only two mor sleeps. YAY!!!

WOYWW

Good morning everybody! Its 1 minute past 6 in the morning here in sunny South Africa. The sun is up, the birds are singing and I am already posting. LOL I walked into my craftroom this morning to pack up for school and thought you would like to see what I have been up to.
My craftroom is the only place in the house where I get left alone to do my thing - I think DH is scared that he might catch the crafting bug if he ventures in there, so he only comes in there in an emergency (you know, one like: Have you seen my blue pants?)
Anyway, apart from crafting, I also do most of my marking (grading for those of you in the US) in there. Last night was no exception. Had to mark comprehentions. This is what I found in my room this morning.
My Copics next to my marking? No, I do not mark in rainbow colours - although.... that might be an idea. I was sitting there, marking away like a good teacher should, when I started hearing voices. They were saying things like: 'when are you going to colour me?' and 'don't you think that stamp would look good if you colour it green?' Now, what is a girl to do? I just had to colour a 'liitle' bit inbetween, didn't I? If you look closely, you will see my Cricut Expression in the background, ready to spring into action whenever I need him.

Here is another angle of my desk. You can also see my Copics more clearly and yes, the two middle parts are full of Stickles and my refills. I don't have refills yet for all the colours I own, but I am working on that slowly. You can also see the little orange metal buckets that hold my scissors (does any of you also own that many?) I never knew just how many pairs of scissors I had untill they were all in one place. There is another one for all my adhesives and another for all my go to pens and pencils. Behind that is my tote that holds my rulers (why do I need 25?), my foam squares and my pliars. (well actually my DH's pliars, but if you don't tell, I won't either.)

Pop over to ( http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com ) to see what everybody else's desks look like today and while you are there, why don't you join in?

Have a great day evryone, I hope to have time to post later, but I can't promise anything. I have to run a few errand for DH and its my son in law's birthday, so we were invited for supper.

Doing the happy dance, a card and an award.

Had quite a day at school today. Not a bad one, just a very busy one and I was dead tired when I got home. Poured myself a colddrink and sat behind the computer to read my e-mails. Guess what? I won the blog candy over at Shoestring Scrapbooking's blog. YAY!!! Wish you could have seen me, doing the happy dance while trying to type a reply to Canica with my address. So glad nobody was here to witness that one. LOL
My card for today is another one I finished in the holiday. My one and only Sweetpea stamp. I just adore her and even though she looks very hard to colour, she is actually a pleasure to colour. I have ordered some more Sweetpea stamps and can't wait for them to arrive. I know that they have shipped, but we live in Africa after all - it could take anything from a couple of days to a couple of months to get here. I live in hope that it will be days rather than months.


She was coloured with my Copics. The cardstock is Bazzil and the dp is from my scrapbox again.The flowers and ribbon are from my stash. The ribbon looks very different IRL - it is bright pink and turquois (sp?) Her wings were given a liberal Stickle treatment (not sure you can see that in the photo)
Now on to the award. The lovely Debbie Harris passed this on to me. Thank you Debbie and sorry it took so long to post ( http://dkhdesigns.blogspot.com/ )




I have to: 1. thank the person that passed the award on to me - done that.

2.Put it on my blog - done that

3.mention three things that I love doing: Thats a hard one - I love doing so many things, but OK here goes. i) I love teaching (I know, I know, most teachers complain about their jobs, so I am weird), but I really love my job and wouldn't want to do anything else.

ii) I love working with paper - making cards, making Layouts for my scrapbooks, making weird and wonderful paper creations for my grandchildren.

iii) I love taking photo's - I am by no means an accomplished photographer, but I love the whole process.

4. Post my favourite picture. Thats a hard one too, but this picture is a current favourite. It was taken at the Soccer World Cup opening Ceremony. One of those once in a lifetime photo's where the camera is pointed in exactly the right spot and you press the shutter at exactly the right millisecond. I did absolutely no editing on this one I promise.

My all time favourite picture is the one I used as my profile picture. My little granddaughter holding my face and looking me in the eyes telling me:"Ouma, I love you SOOOO much" I was not aware that my DH took the photo at the time, but I am so glad he did.
5. I have to pass this one on to 5 other bloggers. I really don't know who to pass this on to, but I would like to pass it on to all my followers that haven't already recieved it.

WARNING: Proud Mommy moment following- sensitive readers should stop reading here.

Just had some more marvelous news - My daughter, Anke, has been on teaching prac for the last seven weeks. She is busy with her last week and has enjoyed every minute of every day that she has spent at Crawford College Lonehill. The staff has made her feel so welcome and part of them. They have taught her so much and shared all their knowledge so willingly. She has often commented these last few weeks that she would LOVE to be able to teach there when she is qualified next year. I suggested she hand her CV in because you never know when a post will become available. She was planning to hand her CV in on Friday when its her last day at the school. Today she was called in by the deputy Principal and offered a teaching position for next year! How wonderful is that? I am such a proud mom - she must have made an impression on them for them to do that, because I know just how difficult it is to get a job at such a wonderful school, especially for a first year teacher. You go girl! Just another confirmation from our Father that teaching is where your calling lies my girl.

Have a great Tuesday everybody, hope to see you soon.

First day back at school.

Today was my first day back at school after 4 weeks. The first week I was in hospital and the next week I was still booked off by the dr. and not allowed to go back to work. Then it was a two week holiday. I was actually looking forward to going back today - can you believe it? It is such a good feeling to feel healthy and not cough and splutter through every lesson. The poor kids don't know what hit them. Their teacher has way too much energy for them. LOL.
The next two cards are still images I coloured while in hospital. Both images are freebies from the same place and yet again, I can't find the link. I will have to do something soon to sort out my digi files! . They were coloured with my Copics. All cardstock is Bazzil. The Dp is Basic Grey (I think, it came from my scrap box). The ribbon is from my stash.

Hope you enjoyed the cards. Please leave a comment, so that I know that you came to visit. I really love to read all your comments.

Have a great week everybody.

New beginnings.

The challenge over at Allsorts Challenge ( http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com ) calls for New Beginnings. What better new beginning than a new baby? The imsge was a freebie that I found somewhere and lost the link to. If you recognise it, please let me know so that I can give credit! That little one is so CUTE, don't you just want to pick her up and give her a cuddle?

As always, the image was coloured with my Copics. The cardstock is Bazzil and the dp cames from my scrapbox. The ribbon and charm are from my stash. A very simple card, but I really like it!

Had a very lazy Sunday and did very little other than make lunch for the family. School starts tomorrow so I won't be able to craft as much as I have been in the last two weeks, but I do still have some cards made that I have not shown you yet, so I will try to pop in and do some quick posts.

Just for fun.

I was thinking, while I am still on holiday and while mr. Mojo is being kind and sticking around, I might as well make the most of it.

So only the first of these cards are for a challenge, The mad for markes challenge calls for something pink ( http://madformarkers.blogspot.com/ ) and the CES challengewants a floral frenzy (http://ceschallenges.blogspot.com )The first one is coloured with my Copics again. The dp is a freebie downloaded and true to form, I lost the link! The ribbon. flowers and stick pins are from my stash.

This little dragon is from Elizabeth Dulemba, I think, and coloured with my Copics. I had these papers lying on my desk from a previous card, so I just had to use them. (It was either use them, or put them away and putting them away sounded like work.LOL)

The last card was an image my granddaughter, Hannah, wanted me to solour for her. She says its Barbie - but I don't think so. It was a free download from a childrens colouring site. The dp is from Melissa Francis. I am really loving her papers at the moment. The charm is from my local bead store. The ribbon and flowers are from my stash.

That's it for me for today.
Just finished watching the rugby test match between South Africa and Australia. I can not believe we lost that game in the last second. Very depressing to see some of my all time idols like Bryan Habana play like an idiot. Some people need to learn when its time to retire!

What's cooking at Friday Sketchers?

I have been up since 5 o'clock this morning. So what could I do other than start surfing and reading all of the challenge blogs out there. The first one up was the Friday Sketchers Challenge. It is a fab sketch so I set to work immediately.(http://fridaysketchersblog.blogspot.com I do have all those images I coloured in hospital, just waiting to end up on a card you know.

So here is my card. The Tilda and cupcake was a RAK I recieved in the post more than a year ago (about time I used her huh?) All papers are from a DCWV paper pack that I bought at the Craft & Hobby expo. The only other things I used was one of my new EK punches and some ribbon from my stash.

Hope you like what I did. Please leave me a comment so that I know who came to visit and can visit you too.

Digistamps4joy first challenge.

Like I told you, I met Melanie from Digistamps4joy yesterday while I was shopping. What I did not tell you, was that I was looking for paper for a card to match their first challenge which is based on this photo. go on, take part, you know you want to ( http://digistamps4joy.blogspot.com )A really lovely photo, but colours and a mix of patterns that is WAY out of my comfort zone. Suppose thats why they call it a challenge. LOL
I found the perfect stripey pattern by Fabcy Pants design and then I noticed these circles in exactly the right shades by Kaisercraft. Not often that you find dp from two different companies that match so well. (Or is it just me that think that they match?) I used the newest Freebie from digistamps4joy. She is called Primavera. I think I am still in fairy mode after all those boxes.

She was coloured with my Copics and her wings were given a liberal Stckle treatment - Hey, a fairy has to sparkle according to my granddaughters. The cardstock is Bazzil, the piece under the ribbon was punched with an EK punch (another one of the things that jumped into my basket yesterday - tell you I had ZERO control in that shop!) The ribbon (very bright pink IRL) and the flowers are all from my stash.

Here is a close up of the fairy, hope you can see the sparkle on her wings! I just love that dress - now if I weighed about 50kgs less, I would buy one exactly like it for Summer.

Its weekend people!! Enjoy. My last few days before school starts on Monday, I am weird, I know, but I am actually looking forward to being back at school. Only down side to it is that I won't have as much time to create.