Hand surgery

I am taking a little rest while I recover from hand surgery.  Unfortunately this means no crafting for a while.  There goes my attempt to make lots and lots of Christmas cards this year.

Thank You

This clean and simple handmade card is for the latest challenge over at the Outlawz.  I was thrilled when walking through CNA yesterday and came across this sentiment stamp.  Quite unique and different.

This card came together very quickly and I was happy with the result first time.  One of those rare moments.  I think I will use this design for some Christmas cards as well.

My blog has been a bit quiet since I gave cardmaking a rest while knitting some prem beanies for the Mowbray maternity hospital.

Rest and relaxation

Today's CAS challenge over at the Outlawz is to depict what your form of relaxation is.  Mine is reading and if it wasn't for this awful wind that is blowing Cape Town clean, I would be sitting on the balcony in my newly acquired rocking chair reading a book.

Missing you

This clean and simple handmade card was my contribution to the Sunday CAS over at the Outlawz.  I seem to be in a blue mode right now.

The chair is from the Hero Arts set CL480 and coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.

Cascading Flowers

This handmade Clean and Simple card was made for Sundays CAS over at the Outlawz and I am over the moon that it was 'featured'.

The image is from Penny Black and is called sun-caressed.  It was coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.

Birthday card

This card is for a sweet lady who celebrates her birthday on Thursday.  I thoroughly enjoyed colouring this image and putting it together.  I must admit I am happy with the outcome.

World card making day

Our RSA group decided to swap out cards for WCMD.  Each lady had to make two cards and post one each to the two names below yours.  It could be sent at anytime as long as it reached the recipients before WCMD.  Well heavens above! I posted mine 10 minutes before the post office closed and the next morning one of the recipients received it!

Images were coloured with Spectrum Noir and the skin with Copics.

Classic red, white and black

This card was made for my friend Michelle who celebrates her birthday today.  She adores this colour combination and it was only fitting that I used these colours.

Cupcakes

Today I decided to bake half a batch of cupcakes.  18 will certainly be enough for the household and maybe a few for the neighbour?  Wait! I am in the mood for baking so lets bake a full batch of 36.  I could send about 10 or 12 to school with my daughter.  They are raising funds for their final year of school next year and sell coffee every morning.  Every week I bake, donate it to the school and they sell it with the coffee.

You know what? I really am in the mood for baking.  Lets bake another batch and share it with my work colleagues.  The going is so good I could go on and on.  Why not bake another batch and share it with the entire I.T.  Department? We are a about 70 or 80.

So.....3 hours later I have 6 for my hubby's favourite girls at work, 10 for school, 5 for home and the rest for work.

Sports challenge

Todays challenge at the Outlawz is to create a sports card.  I made a card to congratulate a soccer team who in the words of one of our Designers, 'hung the other team put to dry'.

Timepiece

Sunday's CAS over at the Outlawz has a theme of 'Timepiece' that I chose.  Yes, a tad early but hubby and I are going out for the evening and rather now than too tired later.  That, will definitely be a disaster.

This is what I came up with:

Primary colours of red, yellow and blue

Today's challenge at the Outlawz is to use the primary colours of red, yellow and blue.  They are all so bright and beautiful.

On this card I used the top 3 lines of a script stamp and coloured them individually with embossing pens.

Pull-out card that was destroyed while in-transit

I signed up for a pull-out or popup card swap recently and the due date is today.  I spent hours and hours on 11 of these cards and was very happy with the results,  posted off the cards 5th July and when it failed to arrive at its destination, I contacted the post office who informed me the truck delivering the parcel was involved in a serious accident and ALL the parcels were damaged as in DESTROYED.

I am totally gutted as Hayley so aptly put it although I used stronger words 😃

At least I took some pictures.

Fussy Cutting a dry embossed 'image'

Something I've never tried before is fussy cutting a section out of a dry-embossed 'image'. It took a little while to fussy cut and especially since I was too lazy to fetch my specs... 
Although I  am not  able to win any prizes, I entered this in the Monday's greeting card challenge at the Outlawz.

Anjas Squares Die Cut

Another card using the cut and emboss Anjas Squares Die cut and emboss set.  Isn't it just gorgeous?  I can't get enough of it.  I love a pink and green combo.

Hand knitted baby cardigans

Two hand knitted cardigans for a colleague of my sister-in-law.  I bring out the old knitting needles about once a year and normally for baby jerseys.  I was an avid knitter up until my daughter was born 17 years ago.  Hers was the last knitting I did until I hung up the needles to haul the out every now and again.  Those years ago it was adult jerseys, aran, fairisle, motives, anything goes.  Now....

One layer card challenge over at the Outlawz today

This one layer card is made using a stencil.  I adhered the stencil onto the cardstock with sprayable adhesive and used brushes and sponges to colour the image with acrylic paint and stamp pads.

95th birthday card using Anjas Squares die-cut

I have been chasing this die-cut set for more than a year.  It was always out of stock until finally I hit the jackpot and there it was!  It is not an easy die to use and took several whirls through the big shot turning the die in various directions before I achieved an acceptable cut.

My mom's friend will be 95 this week and she wanted a very pretty card to give her.  I think she will be very happy with this one.

Rubberstamped teapot cut on the silhouette

My Silhouette has been working overtime lately albeit cutting out teapots but at least it is being used.  The base of the pop-out card is coloured with distress inks.  The flourish is a mask made from a sizzix die.  I used a Hero Arts and Bo bunny stamp and blinged it up a bit with crystals.  The lid pulls out to reveal the message.  Took forever to make but I am happy with the result.

It's so sweet

Todays theme at the Outlawz is 'so sweet'.  Show someone how sweet they are.  This handmade sticker is just one of many that was crying out for attention.

1st birthday cake

I had completely forgotten that the title of my blog is'.....and more'.  The theme of the party was astros and the mother specifically requested, astros, stars and smarties on the cake.

Vintage Father's Day card

On this card I distressed and inked to create a Vintage card.  I rather like the way the multiple stamping if the same sentiment turned out.

Quick and easy card using Penny Black Tweet Tweet

Another quick card using one of the gorgeous Penny Black stamps from a set called 'tweet tweet'.  Using a plain dark colour and blinging it up with my favourite stickles.

Pearls

Todays challenge at the Outlawz is to feature some pearls.  The flower stamp is from a Penny Black Transparent set called 'Tweet Tweet'

I used a Kaleidacolor inkpad and added some texture to the flowers with micro-beads.

Embossing and die-cuts artist trading cards

The ladies of the RSA group produced these beauties in a swap I hosted recently.

Winter in South Africa

Today's challenge over at the Outlawz has a 'Winter' theme.  This handmade card Is turning Winter upside down with brightly coloured umbrellas.

Crafts u print - my new obsession

Gorgeous pre-printed stationary stationery purchased from crafts u print, lots of fussy cutting and layering produced this beautiful card.  Hoping the birthday boy will appreciate it.

Arbor day

I decided to use the designer paper as the focal point for this card. The peeping owl was perfectly placed on this paper to give a great highlight.

Break the plane

This week's Sunday CAS challenge at the Outlawz is 'break the plane.
Your handmade card must have something extended off any side of the base.
I chose to make my nephew a 21st birthday card with a bug as the focal point and used the black and white stripes to depict the racing track.

Weddings

Sunday's Clean and simple over at the Outlawz has a Wedding theme this week. An embossed card is always so. This is one of my newest embossing folders from Couture creations called "Fudge"

Toilet roll mini album

This is my contribution to the toilet roll mini album that was hosted by one of the ladies in our group. The first first pic is the completed roll and the second pic is the tag that's inside the roll. This was a fun project.

My very first card as a Designer over at the Outlawz in the CAS group

'Who let the frogs out' is the theme for this week. I used my nestabilities to cut out the pieces of the frog on this handmade card.

Penny Black Fairy Sweet

This is such a cute set and I've been wanting to tackle the images of this Fairy Sweet set for a while now. If you are anything like me, I tend to use a new piece of designer paper every time I use a card. This time I used the same piece of double sided paper in two ways and hope to use the rest of the piece as soon as possible.

Anything goes

This is my last card as guest designer over at the outlawz. The theme is 'anything goes'. Acrylic stamp was used from both angles to meet in the centre. Nestabilites were used for the centre and the layed onto another nestle and applied with foam tape.

Mixed media

This mixed media project contains a lot of cutting and embossing using different media.
The background is chipboard covered with sticky canvas and sprayed with sailboat blue and lettuce adirondack colour washes.
The cloud is pre-embossed vellum, the sun and wings relief foil, bird cardstock, flowers scrapbooking paper, butterfly shrink plastic, fence chipboard, heart grunge board and the silver heart embossing is cut from a silver foil pie plate.

Monochromatic green

My 3rd week as a guest designer over at the Outlawz. It's such fun. Monochromatic Green is the theme this week to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Baby mobile

My first undertaking with cut and emboss other than a card or box.

Die cut

My second week as a guest designer over at the Outlawz. At least one die-cut had to be used. I used the Disney cut and emboss set.

My very first St. Patrick's Day card

Who would have guessed that I would ever make a St. Patrick's Day card considering us South Africans don't celebrate this day.

Birthday card for Gail

Lily of the valley stamp coloured with Spectrum Noir markers

My first stint as guest designer at the Outlawz

I am pretty chuffed that I was asked to be a guest designer for March in the Sunday CAS (clean and simple) group over at the outlawz. Why don't you pop on over and join in the fun. The link is further dow on my page on the right hand side.

The theme for today is 'you have us in stitches' and must include any kind of stitching that includes faux as well. As I no longer sew I had to dig out a needle and cotton and do things the hard way by hand stitching.

This is my debut card.

Time to celebrate

A birthday card in colours I wouldn't normally use together. The black and white yes, but never together with a flesh colour. Go figure! They all work together.

In memory of my Dad

My dad passed away 16 months ago and yesterday, 16th February, he would have been 76 years old.  This card is in memory of my dad whose favourite colours were black, yellow and white.

How do I look in this dress?

I am entering this card in the 'Off Colored Creation Challenge' at Guylou's Inimitability. Why don't you head on over and see the lovely eye candy. The colours to use is orange, blue and grey. I must admit I forgot about the grey which led me to outline the image with a grey pro marker to highlight the image. You can find the challenge blog here:

http://guylousinimitability.blogspot.ca/2013/01/off-colored-creation-challenge.html

Wedding card

It's all about hearts right now. Hearts everywhere you look. This card...more hearts except I am going to be using it as a wedding card. Just loved this idea when I used it on my calendar page.

Lattice Card

I think my friend Moz will be proud of me.  My very first lattice card and not as difficult as I thought it would be. Not as stunning as Moz's but had to use the given colours.  Will definitely try it again.

Valentine's Card

This clean and simple Valentine's day card got me featured at the Outlawz today for the Sunday's Clean and Simple challenge.  It's such a honour.