Alphabet ATC's - T, U, V & W

A very warm HI to all my friends! Hope you have all been keeping very well and were able to do lots and lots of crafting!

Here's some more of the ATC's that I did for our ongoing alphabet swap on our rubber stamp group. These were done in record time and in between packing - had to do them before I could pack up my craft room on the other side three months ago, because I did not know how long it would be before I would have a craft room at the new house. Just as well, as it would have been too late if I started with them once my goodies were unpacked.

'T' for Tortoise. The hat and flower is 3D. The edge was dipped in tea leaves, which is of cause also "T".

'U' for Umbrella. It was stamped on a crinkly kind of paper to try and give it a lace effect.

 'V' for Vase with Flowers.  I've put mirror tape between the black and the red board and also a piece of transparent film. I did not want the little cupped sequins to come off when the ATC is handled and this was my best solution. Almost like a little shaker card - just without anything inside to shake :-)

'W' for Wheelbarrow. The yellow checkered body of the wheelbarrow was paper pieced. First time I done this technique.

If I remember correctly, all of the stamps used for these ATC's were from local stamp companies.

 I am having a royal battle with blogger this afternoon!! It just won't do what I want it to do! But that aside, we now only have X, Y and Z left and I want to get started on that soon. They only need to be finish by next year February, but what's done is done!

Thank you so much for visiting again. I know I don't have the 'grand' style of a lot of stampers, but I am quite happy with my plain and simple ATC's. Nothing too fancy and also nothing too bulky, these fit snuggly into the ATC sleeves. Hope you like what you see!

I do hope that you will enjoy what is left of the week and that it will be full of great craft things.

Another peek into my craft room

Good Morning to all my blogland friends!! Today I am writing here with a happy heart because as I sit here looking out the window, there is puddles and little streams of water all over and the rain is coming down ever so softly. It is so welcome as it was really very dry. In a weeks time everything is going to be green. We had 20mm during the night and by the looks of it we are going to have lots more during the day. Not a ray of sunshine in sight, only heavy dark clouds rumbling every now and then. In the distance I can hear the guinea fowl also being happy that it rained - what a wonderful sound! Isn't it just wonderful how the Lord looks after us and gives us what we need in HIS time, not ours!

Thought I would just give you another sneak peek into my new craft room. No doors on the cupboards yet as DH is just too busy with other things. I am not complaining at all - at least I was able to unpack most of my goodies and I was able to make my set of cards for our stamping groups Christmas card exchange. This is the one corner of the cupboard where all my embellishments, cuttlebug goodies etc. are kept. Once the unit that has to go above my work area has been put up, a lot of these will move into that. It will then just be an arms length away.




This is my workspace. Neat and tidy at the moment - haha! It is probably the last time that it will look like this. The pegboard is still to be fixed to the wall. I love having all of these goodies right in front of me. The wall unit will go up just above this across the length of the wall. The two trolleys under the counter have mostly my wood mounted stamps in and off cause some other have-to-have-close-at-hand goodies.

Once burglar bars and a security gate has been installed, my computer will go in this open space. (Susan, see that box behind the cello-tape? That is my swap ready to be posted to you). The CD racks contain mostly my embroidery machine pattern CD's and also some stamps in CD cases and my Nesties. Still have to make a plan with them at a later stage, as they are standing where my printer must go.

Well friends, that is all from me for today. Unfortunately no crafting for me today - I am off to do some 'farming'. Those of you who live on a farm will know that even when it rains, there are things that needs to be done on a farm. Today it is tending to a batch of sheep that was offloaded for the feedlot yesterday. Vaccinations, tagging, etc.

Hope you will all have a wonderful week filled with everything your heart may desire.

Thanks so much again for visiting!

Craft Room

Whoopiiii!! I have fast internet connection again!! At least now I will be able to visit all the blogs I have missed so much. It is a feast to roam around in blogland now again. To all my friends who so regularly visit my blog and to those who have become new followers - it is much appreciated. I hope to drop by all your blogs soon.

I was also able to start unpacking my craft goodies into my craft room this week. It is not finished yet - the cupboards still needs to be 'dressed', but at least there is shelves that I can put my goodies down on and I have space that I can work on. The finishing won't be done before another week or two as hubby will be busy with other more important things for a while. Another unit that must go above the work space on the one wall still needs to be built as well. But, that is for much, much later. The pics are just to give you a peek of what is going on in my little craft space. Yes it is little, it is only 3 x 3 meters. But, here I can pull the door close at night and carry on in the morning and not have to worry about packing up everything before I go out or off to bed.

 This is a lovely corner unit, nice and deep and with enough space on top for my folder thingies where I actually store my paper, board, etc. in. These cupboards are loose units. They were specifically built like that to be taken with if ever we need to move again. This will be the third craft room that my husband has revamped for me. Two of them I had to leave behind - this one I am taking with! The cupboards will be 'dressed' with white melamine doors and white edging will be put on the shelves.

This is part of my workspace. My trolleys with all my goodies that I need close at hand normally sits under it. I will be working on the area under the window where there is plenty of natural light and the rest of it will probably house my computer and other gadgets.

This is another corner in the room. All my sewing goodies must go in these drawers and my machines will be lined up on top here.


I hope that the next time I am posting, it will be about a card or something crafty that I created. It has now been two months since I have done any crafting.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog! Hope you will have a wonderful week filled with lots and lots of crafting.

Blog candy winnings thanks and some other news.

It has been some time since I've posted anything but thanks to VERY bad internet connection (53.6Kbps - yes that bad), I hardly bother to come to see what is going on in blogland. This post will probably take me the best part of an hour to load. I would so love to see what everybody is doing and I know I am missing loads of great work on other peoples blogs.

Also, after moving house exactly three weeks ago, not only our house was turned upside down, but also our lives. Only the lounge is 100% sorted out, every other room still has a box or three standing around. There is just not enough cupboard space for all our stuff, and I have thrown out and given away lots already. And with everything going on, I just don't have the energy to tackle a room and finish it. At the moment I have my darling granddaughter visiting for a couple of days (2 years and 5 months of age). I am sure anybody who had/have a child or grandchild of that age, knows that one don't get much done if you have a little live wire around. Not that I mind, she can stay for keeps too. Later on this week I will be taking her back and then be away to look after my Mom who had a very big operation. Hubby will be staying home to do some work on my craft room and to sort out his work area.

In the meantime, this is what my craft room looks like after three weeks: EVERYTHING STILL IN BOXES!! What you are seeing on these photo's is not even half of it! This is just to give you a glimpse and a giggle. Why oh why do we crafters have to be such hoarders?! Or is it just me? Hopefully by the middle of next month it will be sorted out :-))

Since moving, I have received two lots of blog candy that I won. Thank you so much to Rosemarie for the lovely alphabet set of stamps and also to Holley for the lovely Art Warehouse 'Mother' stamp set. Thank you very much to both of you girls. It is much appreciated and I am sure I will be able to put it to good use (once I have a craft room again).

I hope to be able to blog a bit more regularly once I have a better internet connection. Unfortunately my current contract only expires around the middle of October and I will just have to be patient till then. So, until next time, thanks for stopping by. Hope you will all have a week filled with lots of hours to craft.

Happy crafting!

Alphabet ATC's - Q, R & S

Just a quick post in between the packing. Received my alphabet swap back and thought I would just post some pics of my little creations quickly.

Q for Quilt.

R for Rose.

S for Sweet Pea.


Hope you like what you see and thanks so much for visiting!

The packing has started!

A warm hi to all my blog land friends. Just a quick post to let you know that we are back home - this time to pack up all our belongings for the big move. Yes, we have started packing already and the first boxes is sitting pretty all sealed and numbered! As from today it is only a short 3 weeks that we have to pack and make all the necessary arrangements for the move. It sure is going to be a lot of work to pack up everything that was gathered in the 4 years we were living in this house, but we will manage. I am sure you all know that the more space you have, the more things you gather! I also started doing rubber stamping during this past 4 year period and who doesn't know how your craft goodies seem to grow and grow when you start a new craft! I am leaving my craft room till last, as I have the next batch of ABC ATC's to make for our rubber stamp group swap. We will be moving on the 30th of August and we are looking forward to starting a 'new life' in a new place.

Happy crafting!!

Candy winnings and some great news!

I have been doing the happy dance again! I won some candy on Crafty Dragons Blog! Even though I did not win the main candy, I got all the extra bits that was added during the run of the candy. And am I one happy lady! It arrived safely in my post box today all the way from the UK - in only 10 days!! I received a beautiful pyramid note card, some lovely lady stamps, some much needed black and white eyelets, a wire word with split pin fasteners, some flower sequins in the most beautiful colors, a lovely leaflet of peel off stickers and a stack of stamped images. There's some lovely Tilda's in between them too. Sorry there's no photo of it - our camera was left behind at our 'other home'. I will definitely be taking the images with me to sit and color when I have a couple of spare minutes.

Thanks so much again Dragonlady! It is much appreciated.

Okay, now for the great news! As many of my blog friends will know, our smallholding has been on the market for just over two years now. I started giving up hope of it ever been sold. But, the Lord works in great ways and He knows when to let things happen and when not to. In His time, not in ours! For just over a month now we have had somebody whose been seriously interested in buying the place. Things at first did not go the way any of us wanted and then just all of a sudden, things started happening and going right. The sale is finally on track and we will be moving at the end of August! It is a move to a much smaller town (Heilbron in the Freestate) than where we are now, but we will be much closer to our children and grandchildren and also to the rest of my family. So, in two weeks time, a packing frenzy will rear its ugly head in this house. At least we will be closer to Johannesburg and the surrounding bigger towns like Sasolburg and Vereeniging where there is many more craft shops available. There is a smallish craft shop and the town people are all extremely friendly. I will miss my friends I have made over the years here in Vryheid, but new friends have already been made in Heilbron. And we are going to make the best of the situation and enjoy our stay there.

So, today has been a day full of good things for us and we are extremely thankful for it.

Thanks for popping in and that I am able to share our good news with you all. For the next week to 10 days I am back to hardly any internet again, but I will survive :-)

Have a great week!!

Quick Post

A warm hi to all my blog land friends!

This is just a very quick post to let you know that I will probably not be around for a while longer. Where we have been for the last month and will probably still be for another two weeks, we have very poor internet connection and it is an absolute waste of time for me to try and load anything. I am still crafting though :-). I can also not visit all the blogs I so would love to on a regular basis, but I am trying to keep up with what is going on even if it is just through my Dashboard.

I hope to be able to post actively again in a couple of weeks time.

In the meantime, I hope that you are all thoroughly enjoying your crafting!

Thanks for stopping by!

Parchment Fan

A warm hello from a cold Kwa-Zulu Natal! It is freezing here today and even more cold is apparently on the way for our area. Even though it was freezing here in my craft room, I forced myself to sit down and finish my set of ABC ATC's for our rubberstamp group swap. It was for the letters Q, R & S. I had a royal battle with the Q ones, but, now they are done and can be in the post tomorrow or so. Sorry, cannot show them yet! They will probably only appear here around the middle of August.

In the meantime, here is a small fan I made some time ago. The blades are only around 10 to 12cm long. But, as you can see, the final product is gorgeous, even though I have to say so myself :-) There's a whole 18 blades! Being so small, they were nice and easy to handle.

Thank you so much for your visit. Hope you like what you see!

Hope you will all have a wonderful week with plenty time to do what you enjoy most.

Wall decorations

It has been freezing cold here in Sunny South-Africa but luckily we have a lovely sun room where I can sit and knit. My craft room is far too cold to work in at this stage. I have knitted so many pairs of mittens, my hands are aching. But I am not complaining, they are selling very well.

Just a quick post to show you some wall decorations I did some time ago. Don't remember where the patterns are from, but I do remember that I enjoyed doing them.

Hope you will all enjoy what is left of this week! Tonight Bafana Bafana is playing again - we'll be holding all thumbs for them.

I've been a Lucky Duck!

Look what I won over on the Simon Says Stamp Blog a while ago! I could not believe it when I saw my name and comment there. Now I am doing the happy dance all over again as my CD arrived safely in my post box.

Thanks so much again to the Simon Says Stamp group and to Tim Holtz.

Have a great week everybody!

Still around :-)

Good Morning to all my friends! Hope you are all keeping well.

This is just a quick post to let you know that I am still alive :-) Life is just happening too fast around me at the moment and there are just too many things that requires my attention. I am still not getting around to doing stamping or parchment and really wish a day had many, many more hours.

This is practically the only crafting I am getting done at present - and only while I am watching some soapies at night. At our machine embroidery class last week one of the ladies shared the pattern with us. I knitted a pair for a friend and from there I have been knitting them to sell at the farm stall. My dear hubby made me the hand and since it is displayed like that, I cannot keep up and wish I had two pairs of hands! These are super easy to knit.

I hope that everybody will have a lovely weekend. We are definitely starting to feel that it is actually winter, but still have some nice days.

Today is the beginning of a soccer mad month for us here in South-Africa. Who-ever you are cheering for, may the best team win.

Thanks again for stopping by!

MEGA candy at True's

Pop over to True's Gift's From the Heart to enter for her MEGA Multi Company Blog candy!! You might just be sorry if you don't! There are loads of goodies.

Alphabet ATC's - N, O & P

Firstly I need to thank everybody who has left messages of condolences on the passing of my Mother-in-Law on the previous post. It is still a very sad time for us, but we are definitely receiving all the strenght we need to deal with it.

We have now received our Alphabet ATC's on the letters N, O & P back. Must say the ladies who took part have really done some amazing work on these. With this round we were not allowed to use any embellishments. It is quite hard not to use embellishments when you are so used to using them. Makes the old mind think again. I think it was a good change.

'N' is for Numbers. The background was done on a piece of kraft board which I painted with acrylic paint mixed with scumble. While it was still wet I stamped into it with some clear number and the letter 'n' stamps which I randomly attached to an acrylic block. Have no idea who the stamps are from. The '2' in the top corner is prick-n-stitch and the word Numbers was done on purple tape.




'O' for Octopus. For the background I put the blue cardstock through the Cuttlebug using the Tiny Bubbles folder and then just dabbed a silver ink pad over it. The octupus was stamped in orange. The stamp is from a local stamp company - Great Impressions in George.

'P' for Paisley, Parchment, Puzzle & Pink. Again the background was done with the Perfectly Paisley embossing folder in the Cuttleburg. The paisley stamp was stamped onto parchment paper with a little embossing done here and there. The stamp is from a Chiswick set.

Thanks so much again for your visit to my blog!! All your kind comments are much appreciated. I am off to start on some wedding card samples for a friend - she only needs 30, but she's has left it very late - she's getting married on the 19th of June!!

Hope all of you will have a wonderful week filled with all of the craft time you may wish for.

Sad News

I am back from a wonderful visit to my Mother and my beautiful grandchildren. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it was a long trip there and back. Did no crafting but did manage to get some craft supplies which is just not available in our little town. My Sister arranged a kiddies party for my Mom (at 75!!!) complete with a fairy birthday cake, cream soda cold drinks, pop corn balls and lots of other kiddies eats. My Mom and her friends thought it was rather original. She was very happy with the card I made her and it is on display in her lounge.

Unfortunately we received the very sad news early Friday morning that my Mother-in-Law passed away during the night. She was 76 years old. She had emphysema and were in hospital for the last week. I will not be around for the next week as we are having a whole lot of family coming to stay with us before and after the funeral on Thursday.

I will be back as soon as possible.

Hope you will all have a week full of wonderful therapeutic crafting.

Card for my Mother

Just a quick post today. My Mother is turning a young 75 on Thursday and I made her this card. She loves parchment creations and have had some I made for her, framed. I did not put anything to do with the '75' on the outside as it serves as a Mother's Day card as well. With her it normally works like that as her birthday and Mothers Day is so close together. Don't remember where this pattern is from, as I found it in my file of printed patterns that I still want to do. All the flowers with flat back pearl centers are 3D.

Hope you like what you see! May you have a wonderfully productive week! I am off to make a card for my grandson's first birthday, which is on Friday.

Thanks so much again for visiting.

A new craft and venture for me

A very warm hallo to all my blog friends. Hope you are all doing very well. To those who are moving into spring - enjoy all the beauty of spring. To those who are starting to feel the cold of fall/winter- keep warm! Here in South-Africa we are starting to feel the chill in the early morning air, as well as at night. Not that I mind winter.

I have been introduced to yet another new craft and again by my friend Susan. A couple of Saturdays ago she sent me a photo on my cellphone of something she made at a class she attended. It was absolutely stunning and she immediately had my attention. She also has some pictures of it on her blog. It is called Tokreen. You can have a look at their website here. Unfortunately the website is in Afrikaans, but I am sure you will enjoy looking at and be amazed at all the beautiful things one can make with this product. They did a trade fair in a town not too far from us and I jumped at the opportunity to collect some stock from them. I am now also a distributor for Tokreen for the area I live in. But anybody from other areas in South-Africa, I am quite willing to post to you.

Below are two of my first projects - I still have a long way to go before I am going to be 100% happy with it, but I am enjoying myself. It can become very messy when you are painting the flowers, not that I really have a problem getting messy while I am enjoying myself.

This was an old tin that I found in my husbands' garage. Hessian, rope, silk flowers and some glass beads were used to decorate it.

This was a little bucket that I got with a gift many, many years ago. Here I have used a piece of an old sheet that was on its way out, some rope, silk flowers and some buttons for the flower centers.

The English side of the Tokreen book says "From trash to treasure with Tokreen" and that is exactly what it is. Everything and anything goes. You can absolutely give your imagination free reign.

That's it from me for today. I hope that you will all have a wonderful weekend.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Parchment Daisy Circle

Can you believe it - a second post this week!! Well, as I said, my stamping mojo is still on holiday and doing other crafts are definitely benefitting from it. And I so love doing parchment craft that I don't really mind but I do have some return cards that I have to make. Will have to do something to get back into stamping!

This was a pattern I found at ASM Designs and as normal, I thoroughly enjoyed working on it. The parchment is stitched to the cardstock with invisible thread all around the edge. To me, that is the only way that you can attach parchment and not see the product you have used to do it with. Unless of cause you put your glue or double sided tape under a heavily embossed area.

Thats all for today. I am off for some coffee with a friend.

Thanks so much again for visiting and for leaving such lovely comments.

Enjoy what is left of the week!

Stamping and Prick-and-Stitch Combination.

A very warm hallo there to all you talented crafters! Hope your week is going smoothly so far and that you are getting lots of crafting done. My rubberstamp mojo has gone on an extended holiday - again!! - so I am trying to keep myself busy with all sorts of other crafts.

Just wanted to show you a card I quickly put together this morning. I had the image stamped and colored for some time, but did not get around to making a card with it yet. I got this prick and stitch pattern freebie from Marianne design a while ago and after I finished working it last night, I thought of my already colored image and put the card together this morning. I am rather happy with the result. The stamp is from Flourishes.

Well, that is all for today. Thank you so much for visiting again and please know that I love and appreciate all your kind comments.

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Something different.

A very dear friend of mine, Susan, were kind enough to go and buy me terracotta moulds to do some papermoulding with. I have never done it, but saw some that she and somebody she also taught did, and wanted to give it a try. We live around 500+ kilometers apart and how was she going to teach me? Well, she was kind enough to sent me written instructions and she answered all my questions (and there were plenty!) via e-mail and sometimes Skype. I think she was probably sorry after a couple of days that she did agree to get me the moulds. But, I am very thankful to her - and I am quite happy with the results. Don't know what Susan will say about them when she sees it in real; hopefully she will be happy. Thanks again Susan!

We, that's my husband and I, made quite a couple of these 'impressions'. I put some of them on canvasses and also made cards with others. There is just so much one can do with them.

This is the card I made with the Leopard on a Branch image.

And this is the card made with the Storming Elephant image.

If you double-click on the pic, you will see all the amazing details that the manufacturers of the moulds have put into them.

Well, that's it from me for this week. Hope you like what you see here.

Thank you so much for visiting again!

Alphabet ATC Swap - K, L & M.

A warm hi and hallo to all my dear visitors! The weekend is nearly something of the past and I am happy that the new week is around the corner. I will have enough time on my hands to do lots of cards and other crafts. Today I have been trying to re-organise and re-arrange my craft room. Somehow everything just got disorganised and too messy to my liking. Hopefully when I am done tonight, I will be able to get creative in a more organised environment again when I walk in here tomorrow morning.

These are the last of the ATC's that I can show for some time from our rubber stamping groups alphabet ATC swap. My next 3 sets are all done and waiting to be posted to the hostess. I can hardly believe that the first set for the swap was done a whole year ago!

K for Kitty. This is a stamp from Micia.

L for Ladybird and Love. Both these stamps are from Inkadinkado.

M for Marriage. This stamp is from Whiff of Joy.











I hope you will all have a wonderful week and get to do lots of what you really enjoy.

Thanks again for visiting and thank you so much for leaving such lovely comments!

Alphabet ATC Swap - H, I & J.

A very good day to all! Hope you are all having a wonderful, peacefull weekend.

Here's H, I & J of our rubber stamping group ATC swap.

H for Heels, Hat & Handbag.

I for Insects.

J for Jester.

That's it for today!

Thanks again for visiting!

Alphabet ATC Swap - E, F & G.

A very good day to all and hoping that everyone is having a blessed Easter!

These are the E, F & G ATC's I did for our group swap

E for Eight.

F for Foot.

G for Gifts, Green & Gold.

Thanks for visiting!

Alphabet ATC swap - A, B, C & D

It's been some time since I did a craft post! Life just happened far too fast around me - it feels as if I am on a roller coaster ride that does not seem to want to end!

For the next couple of days I am going to post mostly pics of an alphabet ATC swap that our rubber stamping group is doing. At the moment we are working on N, O & P.

This is A, B, C & D with a close-up of the little ants on A for Ants. They were made out of beads and wire by a friend who runs a project here in KZN where ladies are making these little beaded animals.

Oh, I nearly forgot - this ATC of mine was published in a local craft magazine - Craftwise. First time ever something of mine were published!

B for Butterfly. A layer of Angelina fibres were used under the parchment butterfly.

C for Cupcake.

D for Daisies.

Thanks for visiting!

I won some blog candy!

Yip, I have been so lucky to win another blog candy!! This time from a very kind and wonderful lady in the UK - Jo Pritchard from JoZart. It was on the 16th of March that she notified me that I won the 3rd place candy. Can you believe it - the parcel arrived safe and sound right here in SA yesterday and that in less than 14 days! Nothing broken, not opened - even the little eggies inside the parcel were all intact. I received some gorgeous goodies, amongst which a lovely Geisha stamp (Shinzu & Shakiko) which is one of Jo's own designs for stampattack. This is all the goodies that was in the bag. There is none of the goodies that was in the bag, that I do have.

Thanks so much again Jo! I sure am going to enjoy playing with it.

Hope everybody will have a great weekend!

Card for Cariena

A very good day to all of you! Hope you are all doing well.

I did this card for a friend, Cariena Basson, who said she's never had a parchment craft card in her hands. I've done it some time ago already, but did not want to spoil it for her blogging it before she received it. She received it today.

This is also from The Language of Flowers by Tatsue Shibata. The card has two layers. The front part is held in place by two of the flowers which is cut loose from the back part partially and the front is then pushed in under these flowers. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this card.

In the meantime I have been working on my N, O & P ATC's for our group swap. See, I am not doing only parchment :-)

Well, we're almost halfway to the weekend. Enjoy what is left of this week and have lots of fun crafting.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Parchment cards

A very warm hello to all! Hope you are enjoying your weekend and that the 9 to 5 workers are getting lots of crafting done this weekend.

A project that I saw on a fellow RSA Stamper, Amanda Harrod's website, inspired me to make some boxes this week, into which I want to put 5 to 8 cards with envelopes, which can be given as gifts. I have found that people always appreciate a gift like that very much. So, I have been busy making some rather plain and quick cards too practically all week to put into these boxes. I got the pattern for the box from the Scor-Pal website and managed to make them quite easily, even though I don't have a Scor-Pal.
Inbetween making the cards and the boxes, I have been busy making some more parchment cards.

The first one is from the Pergamano World Magazine Nr. 39. Lots of cutting here but a very nice and easy pattern to do. There is another version of the pattern as well as a gift tag. I hope to do both at some or other stage. This specific magazine has some lovely wedding card patterns in it too.

The next is a pattern from a CD by Wendy Walters - Parchment Craft Pattern CD Vol 1, in the Flowers section. Both these cards are actually shown as a colored version, but as I am not so great on the coloring, I prefer to do it in plain whitework.

Well, that's all from me for this week. I hope you like what you see.

All the comments left on the previous posts is much appreciated. It really warms my heart.

Hope you will have a great first week of March. I know I have a rather busy week ahead of me.

Thanks for visiting again!