Xmas in July Swap

I recently took part in an Xmas in July card swap with our Rubberstamp group. We had to do a slider card. A first for me! The colors we had to use were black, white and either silver or gold with as little as possible coloring or no coloring. I opted for the silver with the black & white.

I stamped the Xmas Father (a stamp I love from one of our local ladies' collection - Niki from Paperchain) in silver on shimmery paper and added some bling to the buttons and hat tassel. The Happy Holidays were stamped in silver and the trimming on the left is also silver. Some of the snowflakes were cut from coffee can sealers. I have been hoarding these sealers not really knowing what I was going to do with them and here they came to good use. The part behind the Xmas Father was bugged with the Swiss Dots folder. I rather enjoyed doing this kind of card and will probably try it again.

Thanks for visiting! Hope you will all have a very creative weekend.

Parchment Craft Card

A warm HI to everybody from a very cold Freestate in South-Africa!

This morning when we woke up, it looked like fairies were playing around outside with white paint! The frost was thick and it was cold!! It is now just after 14H30 and it is still cold. Heaters are working overtime - VBG.

I have not been able to craft as much as I would like to, but I have been busy. I took part in an Xmas in July swap in our RSA stamping group. Our hostess have received my cards - I will show them when all have been received back. In the meantime she's also had her birthday and I made her a parchment craft card. Susan use to make the most beautiful parchment cards! I still love to go to her parchment website for inspiration. The pattern for this card I got from Lovely Bags in Parchment Craft (by Amanda). I did change the center and am quite happy with how it turned out.

Okay, that's it from me for today! I am busy with preparations for a Prick-and-Stitch class I have to give in August. Lots of examples to make - my card stash is totally depleted! Decided I will teach the ladies to make a corner bookmark with not too much stitching on, as the time available to teach them, is very limited and none of them have ever done it. Will show some examples I am making as I go along.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Happy crafting.

New Unmounted Stamp Storage

A very good Monday morning to all!!

A while ago a fellow stamper and friend, Moz Roberts from ...all things Moz, offered us some clear DVD cases after she saw it on the website of Becca Feeken from Amazing Paper Grace in this post . Becca's post was on storing your dies. When I saw Becca's post I thought these clear DVD cases would work perfectly for my unmounted stamps and ordered some from her. Her service was prompt and my cases arrived all intact.

Guess what I have been doing?! Jip, I've sorted through some of my stamps and transferred them to their new homes. I am so happy with these cases. In the old DVD cases some stamps got damaged :-(( In time, I will get rid of these horrible DVD cases and hopefully have all my stamps stored in these beautiful clear cases. I labeled the cases with Brother labeling tape. I asked Hubby to make me the storage unit for the cases and made sure there are more than enough space for plenty more. He also made me the storage unit for my ink pads & their refills. Now I have everything right at hand.

 

In the one pic you can see some of the old DVD cases as well as some CD cases that I still have stamps stored in. These will be sorted out at some or other stage. (My dies are stored on a magnetic sheet that has been attached to the inside of a cupboard door and I am rather happy with storing them that way).

Thanks so much for visiting!

Hope you will all have a wonderful week filled with lots of time to craft!

Winnings!!

Looks like Lady Luck has turned her path towards me for a change!

Earlier today when I checked Facebook, I found this on there:

Yes, that is MY name right at the top! This sure was a wonderful surprise! I played the Egg Hunt with The Wholesaler in the beginning of April and have completely forgotten about it. (There are 5 more hampers to be won - the hunt only ends on the 25th of May). I cannot wait for the hamper to arrive! Some more new goodies to play with. I just hope they include a packet with some Rubber Stamping MOJO as well! I have done some parchment craft, but NO stamping. Bad, very bad!

And a while ago I won a lovely set of Hampton Art stamps from Holley's Blog. This is the stamps I won:

Thanks so much again Holley!! I do not have many bird stamps - these will definitely come in handy.

Just wanted to share my good news with you people.

Enjoy what is left of the week & happy crafting!! Thanks for your visit!

Red & black shoe card

Good morning blogland friends! We have a beautiful sunny morning here in South-Africa. Very hot weather is however forecasted for us again. That means - I will be sitting right in my craft room in front of the fan - creating. This morning I have some of our Garden Club ladies coming over to play. It is our groups turn for the meeting for February and it being Valentine this month, we will be creating a little gift box/holder for the ladies. It will be filled with all kinds of goodies. I am rather looking forward to it - have a couple of easy make examples ready for them.

In the meantime, I have created another shoe card. This is with a stamp from Papercraft 4 You. Another plain and simple card! That's my style - I am not one for cards with lots of thingies on it - but I love the cards that people create with lots of flowers and things on. It always amazes me how they can put so many things on a card and make it look stunning.

That's it from me for today.  I hope you will all have a fantastic weekend full of the joys of crafting.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Butterfly with bow

Jip, I have been busy crafting these last couple of days! Looks like my mojo is back from an extended holiday :-)) I just hope it stays.

This is a card that I made for our RSA stamp group monthly challenge. One of our ladies will give us a theme every month and you are free to make as many cards with that theme and post them on the groups Yahoo page. On the other hand, if you don't want to make a card - you are not forced to. I think it is a brilliant idea. It certainly got me making something other than a card with a shoe on it!

The stamp used is from a local company - Great Impressions in George. It was colored with Distress Inks & then I added a couple of layers of UTEE. It is a technique that I haven't used much, but I thought it gave it a very nice look. Papers, pearls & ribbon are from my stash.

Well, I hope everybody will have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting!!

A card for a man

A warm welcome to all my visitors - from a VERY hot South-Africa. We've been having very hot weather - fans are working overtime :-)

This is the male card I had to make for our Women's Agric. Union. It is a stamp from a local stamp company - Country Crafts. The striped paper is also from a local company - Scrapsheets and is called Scarlet Stripe.

 

I don't have any shoe stamps for a man (remember our theme is Fleur de Shoe) - but I am sure this would do. This was a nice quick card to make - CAS! 

Thanks for your visit to my blog! Hope you are having a wonderful productive day.

More shoe cards

A warm welcome to everybody reading this post! Just a quick one to show some more of the shoe theme cards I have made. These were done in the Prick-and-Stitch or Card Embroidery method. I love doing this technique - not always enough time to do this though.

Thanks so much for your visit! Hope you enjoyed what you are seeing.

Have a fantastic day - full of beautiful things and with lots of time to craft.

Shoe cards

A warm hello to all my blog friends. Even though the year has walked on a bit - I do hope that one and all of you will have a wonderful 2012 full of wonderful things.

No real valid excuses for not blogging - I have just been very busy with a hundred-and-one things the last two months. Things not craft related. And my mojo were on looooong leave too. But it is back and in the last couple of days I managed to make 9 cards. Whooppiii! Won't show them all at once though.

I am still busy with the things for our Women's Agricultural Union Conference for the 1st of March, and these cards is for that too. I have to make 10 cards - 9 for ladies & 1 for a man. Will probably make more to give them a choice, and because my mojo is back. What they don't take, will go into my stash.

The stamps used is from Hero Arts - High Heels.  Coloring was done with either Twinkling H2O's or Tombows. Pearls & other embellies were bought all over the country.

That's all from me for today. I am off to do a card for a man. Not an easy task, but I am sure somehow I will come up with something acceptable :-)

Thanks so much for visiting!! Have a great day!

Postcard Swap

Most of you have probably thought I have left the face of the earth as I have not been blogging for quite some time. Well, LIFE has been happening around my ends of the woods. Wow, I only realize now that it has been nearly 3 months since I have last written something! Since I last wrote on my blog, my dear Mother lost her battle with cancer (4/9/2011); it has been a rather sad time for us all. We are however thankful for the 75 years that she lived a full life and for having had her as a Mother. (You can read a bit about her here.) Everyone who has lost a parent will know that it is not easy; thankfully, the every day Lord is there to to make the hurt more bearable.

We have also had our annual Stamp Camp from the 14th to the 16th of October. What a wonderful weekend!! I will at some or other stage post pics of the cards we made there. I have learnt sooooo much. Every class were on a technique that was either altogether or relatively new to me. Have heard about some of the techniques, maybe tried my hand once at some of them, so it was wonderful to be taught all these techniques by our talented tutors. All-in-all - I wish we could have had a stamp camp every quarter!

Our local craft shop also asked me to show a couple of ladies who have bought Cuttlebugs how to use their machines. I was nervous as can be - never taught a class in my life! Some had their machines for up to 6 months and have never taken it out the box! I think after the class they will be making more use of these little treasures they own. I for one will definitely be using mine more often too. Self inspiration :-)

I am also still busy with my share of the preparations for our WI Conference next year and hope to finish with most of it this week. Some of our invitations have been handed out at our last meeting with the other areas, most of the others are boxed and ready to be posted. We also took a short break - much needed - and after the rest, feel ready to take on the world. VBG!

Recently one of the ladies on our stamping group proposed a Post Card swap. The theme this time was Asia. Some time ago I received a lovely Asian stamp from Jo at JoZart and were able to take part in the swap. I colored it with Twinkling H2O's and Steadtler Luna Aquarell Silky Pastels. The background was done with  Distress Ink (Shabby Shutters).
The stamp on the front of the postcard is a Hero Arts stamp.

It was fun doing this swap & I plan on taking part in the rest of the range Rosemarie might propose.

That's it for today. Thanks so much for visiting. I hope to be able to be a bit more active again as far as blogging goes.

Have a wonderful & blessed day!