IT HAS BEEN A WHILE....

Okay, so I have been MIA for quite some time.  I guess I just got busy at work, and life and didn't feel like doing anything else, for a while now.  I'm blaming winter too, its just been too cold to sit and colour and make cards.  Its spring now and we've had some really nice days (and the heater under my desk also helps)

So, on to my project.... It started when I saw a really STUNNING project over on the Make it Crafty FaceBook group. You can find Michelle's wonderful creation here! And when I say stunning, I mean totally AWESOME!! I loved it so much and when the creator asked me if I was going to "give it a go" I decided I would challenge myself  and try it.  Why such a challenge??
 1.    I don't do scenes and
 2.    It was just waaaaay beyond my level of colouring.
 But yeah, I tried it and actually liked it!  yay me!!  After that, I was so inspired, I decided to MAKE a frame for the picture and this is how I landed back here....

 I'm going to enter it it the Make it Colourful Challenge and the Graph'It markers challenge.

I've loved playing with my markers so much that I hopefully wont stop again for such a long time.  Looking forward to posting again soon!

xxx

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!

ANOTHER SATURATED CANARY....

So far, so good in keeping up with my "resolutions".....

I've basically had the image colored up since right after Krista from Saturated Canary released them!  When I finished coloring her, I knew I had to enter the Saturated Canary challenge which is so aptly called "FAIRY TALES"!!  I've been hopping and skipping to and fro between blogs to see if I could find a challenge to enter the card in...... actually  I was clueless as too the layout of the card and went searching for some sketches....

I finally decided on entering The Sketchy Challenges and this is what I came up with.....

 Now, you have to understand.... this card contains quite a few "firsts for me!!  Its my first time using my BV's..... first time doing black hair...... first time doing grass and lastly, its my first time doing stitching on a card!!  What a catastrophe!!!  Let's call it a learning curve and hopefully next time will be better!! lol

 Here's a close up of her face!  That was what drew me to her when I first saw her!!! I LOVE the surprised look!!  It reminds me of myself when I know I just did something wrong (and that happens often) so maybe that's why I like her so much!!

That's all from me for now.... I have the flu and sitting here typing this have reduced me to a coughing mess!

SATURATED CANARY TAG

Okay, here goes......

I haven't done this in SO long, I've actually forgotten how..... Its sad, I know!

I've recently made some "almost the end of the year" resolutions...... dont know if I should be committing myself to all of them by actually naming them here... BUT there are 2 that I dont mind sharing!! Hey, who knows, maybe it might even help me to stick to them!!!

The first one is to loose some weight... (oh gawd, did I just say that, AGAIN) anyway, I have some pretty good motivation!! It is my BESTEST friend in the whole wide world's wedding in March next year (actually 2 days before my birthday) and I'm going to be her matron / maid (not sure) of honor!!!  I heard that I'm gonna be wearing purple and have a desperate need NOT to look like Barney!!! I love you.....you love me.....uhm, I think not!!! So, that's the first one!!

The second one is something that all my lovely followers (yes, All 25 of you) might connect to a little better.... I am going to try and post at least once a week, mmm, maybe make that fortnightly, oh heck, who am I kidding!!! At least once a month!!!  okay, okay, more often!!!  And I am going to start by doing my very 1st post TODAY!!

I'm entering a challenge over at the Little Darlings Design Team Inspirations blog, simply because I LOVE Saturated Canary images!!! I only have digi's and since the prize is some rubber.... well, who could resist!??

The challenge is to create a tag, using any Saturated Canary image.  I chose the lovely Violet Vintage image. Isn't she just too darn sweet???

I used some Pebbles paper that I've had for ages and (to be truthful) didn't really want to cut up.. but just had to use it for something!! I cut all the little squares to (hopefully) give a quilt like effect.  Just wish I had the courage to do some REAL sewing!! But alas, its only white gel pen!

I've always had trouble with my flowers not sticking until I read somewhere on Facebook that people use Glossy Accents.... I got some and now its my alltime favorite new toy!!! I stick everything down with it and I lovvvvve the shine it adds!!

I'm still practicing hair, here's a little close up....

So, one done, lets see if I can stick to the resolution!!!

Fifty shades of black and white (and red)

I really cant believe how long its been since my last post.   Or on second thought, I can!! I've had a hectic time at work and what little free time I had, I spent reading Fifty Shades of Grey!!  Those who've read the book will surely understand why I haven't been around.

Anyway, a short post and I do hope I make it in time for the current Saturated Canary Challenge which is to use black and white and one other color.  I really really enjoyed this challenge because I've never tried to do the whole b & w thing.  I think for a first time, it really didn't turn out tooooo bad.

This is the finished card

and here's a little close up of the coloring...                   

Okay, off again!  Let's hope I made it in time for the challenge!