First EVER craft class!!

I was fortunate enough to have a few days leave just before Christmas.  There's this scrapbooking store that I've been dying to visit for a very long time so off to Jeffrey's Bay we went.  I had no idea what the class was going to be about other than that it was a Tim Holtz techniques class and since I've never been to any classes I really didn't know what to expect.  Boy oh boy was I pleasantly surprised!!   

The owner of Scrapbook Studio , Cariena, is a fantastic teacher!! She's warm and pleasant, funny and ever so patient with all my questions!  She introduced me to the Ranger Distress Inks and if I hadn't just spent a FORTUNE on Copic's, I probably would have bought them all!!!

Here's the class...

 Blending my first tag...

Almost seven hours later and here's what I made!!  We were also taught how to make the flower on the tag on the left!! What fun!

I also ended up buying some awesome goodies and my very first Magnolia magazine which I truly love and treasure!! My fiance also bought my Christmas present from there, a CUTTLEBUG, a extra C plate and some dies!! Guess what I'm going to be playing with !!!

This was really so much fun and I'll definitely be going there for another class soon!

Some Christmas gift card holders

Okay, so I can definitely say I've made more cards in a weeks time than I have EVER made!!  Do I like they way they came out...yes! Did I enjoy making them.... uhm, in the beginning I did.... then it just became a mad, sweating, swearing, frustrating JOB!!  And that is a definite NO no for me!! I'm supposed to relax while crafting!!

Anyhow, I again decided to give handmade gifts to my fiance's family this year (oh what a short memory I have, must be, since I clearly forgot last year's struggle!!)  I couldn't quite decide on what to make so eventually I decided to decorate some tins and use that to put some choccies and gift cards inside.  The smaller of the tins went relatively easy and I thought the same would go for the bigger tins.... WRONG! I used Saturated Canary images for all the "younger" ladies's cards.  It was a mission from the start, nothing worked, I couldn't get them cut they way I wanted and finally on Christmas eve (while the rest of the family was actually exchanging gifts!) I decided to "quickly" make four Book-cards ! yeah, right! For all of the "older" ladies's cards I used some of my favorite Mo Manning images!

Be warned.... there's a LOT of photo's!!

So, here are the 3 smaller tins...
1st one in pink

2nd one in blue, btw I think this image suits the person it was given to, perfectly!  I'd also like to enter her into the Saturated Canary Challenge which just so happen to be a colour challenge and my image fits perfectly (well almost)

3rd one in purple (violet?)

Next is a wooden box I decorated for my fiance's grandmother who is 86.

1st book card filled with goodies....

next 2 book cards....

and last but not least my favorite new digi...... and it was also my favorite card of the lot, therefore I'd like to enter it into Mo's DP2 Challenge.

Sorry for the bad light but I enlisted the help of my fiance to take the photo's while I added some finishing touches and to be honest, I can only be too darn lucky they came out this good!! lol

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and if you are still around next year Christmas time.... please remind me NOT to make anything!!!

A Christmas gift....

Once a month our group of friends get together and have breakfast at some or other unknown little restaurant.  We always try and go to someplace were we wouldn't normally go.  We've ended up at some pretty great places and we've also ended up at some not so great places ;)

Our last breakfast for the month was held at one of the friends holiday homes as it was also our Christmas breakfast where we normally exchange small gifts.  One year I suggested giving hand made gifts and although I think it went great, obviously my friends don't agree as this year they immediately said "NO handmade gifts"!!

Since my gift couldn't be handmade it didn't stop me from making "something"....  I bought a box to fit all my gift goodies in and decided to decorate the box.

I obviously used a Saturated Canary image.  She is called Nikki.  I received her from the Kaarten maken met Tiets Club and will be in store soon.  I also followed the Saturated Canary Challenge sketch for the layout.

This is the box.

And some close ups of the lovely Nikki

I really had fun coloring her and decorating the box.  I'm also happy to say that my friends loved the box!!

Fun was had by all and we ate WAY too much!!  What a great day with friends!

I'd also like to enter the following challenges

Digi Galore - Anything goes
Raise the Bar - Bundle up
Crafts and me - Ribbon or trim
Digital Tuesday - Girly
Live and Love crafts - Anything but a card

xxx see you soon!