Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Flourishes - Sweet Peas

More images from my colored stash! 

These are my very favorite Flourishes stamps - Sweet Peas!
I never tire of coloring in and using these stamps. You will notice that I used the Spellbinders Floral Ovals to cut all these images. They really are a perfect match!


I was given these fabulous pre-cut cards by
my dear friend Wendy!

I added some lace from the stash.

Colored in stronger colors

I had this pre-punched card in the stash.
Now I feel I can justify playing with my other stamps and dies as I have cleared out a lot from the 'ready to go' box on my desk!

I'm very pleased with myself ;0)

So glad you popped in......

Monday, January 28, 2013

Flourishes - Garden Picks

Still using my colored images from my stash, I embarked on a 'Floral Fantasy' and used up all the images from the set mentioned above. It really is a lovely set and I have much fun choosing colors to use on these beautiful flowers. 

These images are all stamped using Memento London Fog, which I find such a nice color to use for flowers, as the outlines are very feint, but there is just enough for you to rely on when coloring. I used Copics and or Prisma Pencils on these images. 

I was pleased with them in general and think that they make such nice cards that can be used for everything from Sympathy cards to Anniversary cards with Birthdays being the go to sentiment, as you can see below.

My stash is dwindling and my stocks for the shop are building up! YaY!!







Saturday, January 26, 2013

A2 - Fancy Ribbon Threader Die

Have you ever bought a die, thinking it was going to be your most 'go-to' die, and would simplify your card making process? 

Well, this die was all of that, or so I thought! I bought it soon after it's release last year and have battled to get a card made, using it! I seem to have a mental block with it, but was determined to use it.


For this card, I had the colored image in my stash, so just cut it out with the die and threaded ribbon through the slots and tied a bow.

 I am sure there are lots of other ways to use this die and need to make it a priority to search for inspiration! In the mean time, any suggestions would be more than welcome!





Thanks for the visit!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Simply Adorables!

I found these three images already colored, in my stash and decided to make cards using them. They are the Simply Adorable images from Funky Kits, I bought some time ago. I cropped these so as to just use the head and shoulders. That is the beauty of using digis!

I also had some white die cut Sizzix Circle Flip-It's, ready to be used, so that was the starting point for me.

For the first card,I decided to cover the white Flip-it base so I used the die again to cut out the patterned paper and carefully cut the circle out and adhered the bases together. I was then able to use the patterned circle underneath my image, which had been cut out with a Scalloped Circle nestie. The corners were cut using a new Joy corner die I bought from Joan at Country Crafts, on my last visit to Johannesburg. I was more than thrilled with them and I just know that they will be very well used, especially with these Flip-It die cuts as they just finish the card off so perfectly.



The next card, I embossed the base card with my favorite Swiss Dots folder and die cut a circle to place underneath the image, so as to add a pop of color. Here too, I used the Joy corner die.



The last card, I used the same method as the first card above, except I cut a circle out of plain card for the backing of the image. The corners were used here as well. 





I'm so thrilled that I managed to use up some ready-to-go stash! I have so many images already colored so have vowed to use them as quickly as I can.

I hope this has inspired you to delve into your stash and make use of what is ready for use.

Thanks for the visit! 

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Envelope Tag Booklet

Yes, I was on a roll with these tag booklets!

I have been wanting to make a booklet, using envelopes, like the many I have seen on my blog travels. After collating all the information I could glean from these visits, I set about making my booklet.

I was absolutely thrilled with it and will be making more of them, as well as Brenda's lovely booklet featured in my last post.

This is the cover with the tags just peeking out of their pockets. Of course they are actually hidden, but this was just to show them to you.


Hard to believe this booklet started out as 5 envelopes! 

I think it will really come to life once photo's and descriptions are inserted. 

Such a lovely gift!

Thanks for the visit and sharing my lovely tag booklets these last couple of posts!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Tag Booklets

On my first visit to Brenda's lovely home, she showed me a fabulous tag booklet she had made. Of course I fell in love with it and before I left she gave me a lovely sheet of patterned card stock with a coordinating plain card to go home and make my own. How generous is that?? 
I need to thank Martha, a dear friend of Brenda's and a follower of my humble blog, for her generosity of sharing this booklet with Brenda, who brought it with her to Africa and shared it with me! See Brenda's comment below - Thank you Martha!

Well, I had made rough notes, with her permission of course, but really battled to get this booklet together. I eventually found out, that as always I was trying to reinvent the wheel and it was just so simple once I demystified the whole process!
Rather than mess up the lovely butterfly paper she gave me, I first worked on the pink booklet, using stash of my own.

Closed booklet

This is the closed booklet.


The cover holds a hidden tag and when you open it up, there is a page that houses two tags.


This in turn flips over and you have the back page with a hidden tag inside it.



Opened to the last page.

I then went onto use Brenda's lovely card stock and this is the booklet below.
I was so thrilled with my lovely tag booklet - thank you Brenda for so generously sharing!
Oh, did I tell you that Brenda has a craft room to die for??? My word, it is such an amazing creative space, a happy creative space!

Now to fill the booklets with wonderful Memories!


Closed
Opened, showing the tag in the cover as well as the tags
in the pockets of the second page.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Wedding Invitations - first order for 2013

Just prior to going away in December, I received a call from a lady who had picked up my business card at the shop where I teach. She was very worried about her invitations as the business she had been dealing with, had let her down, and asked if I could help. It was urgent, but I said I could only do them on my return home. Fortunately, she had an idea as to what she wanted - that is always a huge help! - and I made up a couple of samples for her to look at and emailed the photos to her. She lives out of town, on a farm, so does not come into the city often. She selected the one she wanted and I was able to source the trimmings via my good friend Paola in Johannesburg. Paola always has stocks of everything!! It gave me an opportunity to visit her to collect my stocks. Thank goodness my DIL lives near by as she was roped into getting me to Paola's house, as we were without our vehicle!

On my return home, I got stuck into making these invitations and am pleased to say that they are ready for delivery. I will report back on the future brides reaction after delivery.

The invitation was very simple, with a 'rustic' feel to it.
All ready for packing!
 I had to find a way to pack them up so that they don't get damaged during transit. I found this big box at the local catering company and they fitted into it perfectly.

Packed up and ready for delivery!
 The lid was boring, so I took some handmade paper, with skeleton leaves pressed into it, that followed through the theme of the invitations. I attached this to the lid and secured it with some raffia ribbon I had on hand. I attached a couple of tags, one with 'thanks" on the front and a message from me on the back, the other, a tag with wishes on and my business card, for easy reference. It was all held together with a die cut heart, a heart charm and a flower.
The lid of the box. The box can be used for storing the
 memorabilia from her special day in afterwards!
I will let you know the brides reaction to them, after delivery!

Thanks for the visit!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Engagement Card

My niece, Keryn, got engaged on her visit home in December. It was lovely to have them back from Cape Town, where she teaches and her fiance works in the motor industry. They've had a very difficult year, but closed it with this very joyful occasion and cruised into 2013 with happy, positive thoughts and heaps of good wishes from us all!

I made this card for them using a lovely photograph I had on file. Nice to personalise cards, when you can.

I started off with a 15cm square red card, and using a MFT edge die, scalloped the bottom of the card so that the card inner showed up the edge in contrast. I embossed the front of the red card with my favorite folder, Swiss Dots, and die cut a white heart so that it created a frame for the photograph. The heart was embossed with a Sizzix Stampin Up folder, Lattice. I used some very pretty daisy ribbon with a die cut buckle and a bling center. A banner with Congrats! finished it off.

May they will always remember the happiness this day brought!

Closing 2012

Happy New Year to you all! May you be blessed with health and happiness, the most important things in life, in my opinion!
For me personally, it was a very good year but it ended on a sour note. Our water bill at then end of November was beyond high, owing to a leak at the meter that had been reported at the end of October. You need to live in a city like Pietermaritzburg to understand the incompetence of a Municipality! 
Then on the 23rd of December, my DH received a call from this bank to say his Garage credit card had been scammed! That amounted to many thousands of Rands. Just to crown it all, on our way up to Johannesburg for new year and a very important birthday celebration, DH vehicle blows the radiator and that caused immense damage, so bad that we had to be towed the rest of the distance, at an exorbitant cost. We had broken down on an extremely busy highway, known for all sorts of fatal accidents, high jacks and assaults, in searing heat, in the middle of nowhere! Not a soul stopped to help in three hours, but in hind sight, that was a blessing as were would have been at their mercy - good or bad! The tow truck driver was a very obliging man, who with his son, transported us and our car safely to Pretoria.The repairs were done by DH thank goodness, as it saved us a huge amount of money. But we were blessed immensely, as my brother accommodated the broken car, lent us his Jeep to commute between Pretoria and Johannesburg where we were staying and he had some very kind friends, who owned businesses that supplied the spares, when all businesses were actually closed for the holidays! 
It is at times like this that you actually stop and count your blessings, as it could have been a tragic incident.
DH was exhausted after his days on working on the vehicle, when this was supposed to be a break for him. We did however enjoy a couple of very relaxing days down at the Vaal Dam, with good friends and lots of laughter, good food and 'happy' drinks! Our trip home was uneventful, thank God, and we fell into the house just as a huge storm broke, that caused serious damage around the province, our city included, but we were very lucky as our electricity stayed on and we had no storm damage, except for a big branch breaking off an old tree in the back yard. Hundreds of people lost their homes and belongings, others their roofs and others had huge trees blown on top of their homes or cars. It was a very tragic start to 2013, but for us, thank God, all was well.
We still have to sort out the Municipality, who now have the storm damage to contend with, so we will be on the back burner with our huge water leak. The credit card was attended to by the bank and all has been restored to normal. The car is running beautifully and DH returned to work this week, glad to be back as it seemed like a holiday compared to his previous couple of weeks! Me? Giving thanks for all our good fortune, praying for those who suffered during this hectic period and looking forward to starting a new creative year.
My thanks to all my blog followers who left kind words over the last year and to all who just like the eye candy - so glad you all payed me a visit or two!