Let's Dance

Good Day!

Today is a day with a lot of history in our family. Personally, my blog is two years old, thanks to Shelly from Minkie's paper paradise, whom inspired me through a magazine. Furthermore, 8 years ago we left for our adventurous stay in France.
This card is for a young lady whom was born 8 years ago, to our neighbours then. The digi is from Di's Digital stamp boutique and is called let's dance. I found music and dance a universal theme for any age. I've used a cuttlebug music emboss template on the vellum. I've used papers and ribbons from my stash.
Challenges I'm joining in the fun:
The Outlawz Wednesday Sketch Challenge 28/3/2012 -SC032812 Sketch
The Outlawz Tuesday Colour challenge 27/3/2012 - CC032712 Blue, Pink, White
Papercrafting Journey #6 - Photo inspiration
Robyn Fetish #100 - Kids Card
Crafty Catz Challenge #126 - Use a digital image

I'm off to my very first live international T20 cricket game.

Thank you for your visit
Olga

You're my #1

An Irish blessing.

Good Day

I've made this card for my hubby. As from the 1 of April a new phase, in his career, will start for him and all of us. He has been appointed as the new GM at the local plant. I'm very proud of his success and I wanted to make him something to remind him of this special day.

I've used the latest freebie of bugaboo stamps called guy-car-keys, though I have erased the car in the background. Added an irish blessing, which I believe he'll need. DYSU has a challenge for plaid and this paper, from fabscrap, contains all the colours that he loves. Used a cuttlebug border emboss template on the green.

Challenges I've been guided by:

Catch the bug - Stella says sketch 107

Do your stackin up # 64 - Plaid

Cupcake Craft Challenge # 185 - Sound of music - Tina Turner's Hero

Pile it on #13 - For a Man

Thank you for your visit.

Olga

Wanna be a Rockstar

A close-up of my image designed James Usher, which I found over at The Outlawz and coloured with aquarelles and distressing with chalk.

The open card, paper from Teresa Collins - on the edge: guitar

Good day

This weekend I have found a new challenge site called Forever Night Challenge. They have a colour challenge of red, purple and black. Usually I'm reluctant to work with black, but this paper just added to the rockstar mood. Used a bit of purple glitter on the edge of my computer generated sentiment. All the papers is from my stash and the red snake skin design added a bit of bling to the card. For the edges I've used my crafter's companion ultimate pro.

Challenges I'm joining:

Forever Night Challenge #FFC32 - Red, purple and black

Fussy and Fancy #59 - No square or rectangular

Cupcake craft challenge #185 - Sound of music - I wanna be a rockstar By Nickelback
Chocolate, Coffee and Cards #9 - Fancy folds

Pattie's creations #40 - Anything goes

ATCs & cards with attitude #8 - Steampunk/Anything goes

Thank you

Olga

Spring Morning

Good Afternoon

In the Northern Hemisphere life is slowly starting to come out of its winter sleep. Here in the southern heimisphere the leaves turns into all the warm colours and are falling. We are preparing for our winter. I just love flowers, doesn't really matter what season it is.
This is the second card I made yesterday. It is Isabelle from Sara Kay, distributed by Stampavie. She surely fits into a lovely spring morning with her new puppy love and bare feet on the fresh green grass. This can be very tipical of a four year old ladie in our country. I've coloured her with aquarelles. I used a kraft cardstock base with some tissues orange paper and the pink embossed paper I had for ages now, finishing it off with 3 flower brads. A bit clean and simple, but I wanted to make the paper and image more of the focal point.

Challenges I'm joining:
Shelly's images TTT22/3 - Colour challenge with a twist - Kraft, Orange & Pink with embossing
Fetch a Sketch #20 - Sketch
Crafty Catz weekly challenge # 125 - Spring is in the air
Prairie Fairy Fridays #75 - Spring fling
Cute Card Thursday #209 - Anything goes
Sweet Stampin # 24/3 - Anything goes
Dutch Dare #157 - Cute and cuddly
Raise the bar # 97 - In the garden

Hope you have the smell of spring or autumn where ever you are.
Olga

Get well soon

Good day

It is Saturday and after a week, where I did not had a moment to even come into my craft room, I used a moment this morning to make two cards. Both of them a bit clean and simple. This one is a Get well card. The sentiment in Afrikaans is a rubberstamp and I used a bit of glitter emboss powder. These plastic confetti flowers were just the right colour to blend in with my cardstock choice and I added some black beads in the centre. The digi is from Patti's Creations called sunflower vase. I used a Nellie Snellen diecut and did some distressing with chalk.
Challenges I'm guided by are:
CAS-fridays #CFC 45 - Bold and beautiful - Pastel(saffron) & black
One Stop Craft Challenge #175 - Clean & Simple
The Outlawz SC032112 - Sketch
Sweet Stampin Challenge 23/3 - Anything goes

Thank you and have a beautiful weekend!
Olga

Mr Bunny brings spring

Good Morning

Cloudy and cool this morning.....definitely signs of seasons changing. Thought I'll share some brightness this morning.
I have to admit I struggled a bit with this card. Mainly because I wanted to use a different border punch for a change, but it didn't want to work out the way I wanted. In the end, I turned to my favourite Sunburst Fiskar border punch and then I broke it. I was so frustrated with myself. My dearest engineer hubby came up with a solution and I could finish my project. I used the border punch on both sides of the strip of paper and this is the end result....an effect of daisies. It added to the spring feeling of the card. I have used 2 digis from Round 14's digis from the Crafter's Digital Art centre progressive challenge. They have the theme of easter/spring, this round. The basket is from Shelly's Images (cdacpc14, SI) and the cute Mr Bunny is from Spectacular Printables (cdacpc14, SP). Two of the five beautiful digi's available this round. Crafty Calender has the challenge of spring cleaning, so I used a lot of my bits and pieces and used my flower punches and circle border punch, that I have not used in ages. The cardstock is from My mind's eye and all the rest from my stash.

Other challenges I'm joining.....some of them the first time.
The Play Date Cafe PDCC123 - Teal, Jeans, Electric Green and Tangerine.
GingerSnap Creations GC142 - Border punches
CDAC round 14 - Spring/ Easter
The Outlawz 14 March Wednesday SC031412 - Sketch
Divas by design 26 - Citrus colours
Craft Calender March Challenge - Spring Clean
Shelly's Images TTT 15/03 - Show us what you got

Thank you have a wonderful week. I'm gonna be occupied with some beautiful people from France.

Olga

Op die rug van my ysterperd

Photo of the closed card.

Photo of the opened card.

Good Morning

My second easel card. Starting to enjoy making them. The digi is from Di's Digis and are called Biker Bear. This digi has been on my table for a while now, since I was not quite sure on what to do with it. Luckily, I still had time for this birthday card, that has to go all the way to France, soon.

The Outlawz colour challenge, finally gave this digi life. I've found the leather look ribbon at our local haberdashery shop and used a Upikit border punch. The sentiment was embossed with a Fiskar emboss and I used some heat emboss in silver. The sentiment - handwritten- "Speed is fun, but it is the journey that counts" and as from this morning a Afrikaans song turned in my head called " Hoeka-toeka " all about being on my iron horse(motorbike) with the wind in my hair. Something we miss a bit, since my husband had to sell his motorbike when we moved back to South Africa.
Challenges I'm joining:

Everybody Art Challenge #184 - Easel Card

Craft Your Passion #101 - Easel Card

The Outlawz CC031312- Black, white and winter sky blue, with fuzzy friend

Tuesday Throwdown #89 - Clip it up

Stella says sketch # 106 - Sketch

Cute Card Thursday 208 - Happy Birthday (they are celebrating there 4th birthday)

Aud Sentiment #50 - Song Title ( on my card: Happy Birthday and songtitle - Leader of the pack)

Thank you and have a lovely day!

Olga

Blogger awards

Good Morning Everybody

What a way to start a day! A lot of us love crafting and do a lot of effort, but does not always win something big or do not even have a lot of followers. So, when you suddenly open your mail and comments and you are nominated and awarded by your fellow bloggers it makes you feel loved and it makes all efforts worth while.

This morning I received 2 awards, though I am going to handle them seperately in one post.

The first one is from Hannelie. She is my sister-in-law, whom started much earlier than me with cardmaking and probable kickstarted my cardmaking craft.

Liebster is German for Dearest, but can also mean Beloved or Favourite.

Apparently to receive this award there are a few 'rules'... so here goes!

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog ... check!

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you ... check!

3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog ... check!

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

My 5 blogs I want to award this to, is:

Borqna - Borqna

Catherine - Cat's scrap

Mark Angel - Mark Angel's seaside scrapping

CT Girl - Life in the Craft lane

Samara Navi - If these cards could talk

They are from all over the world and each brings a new technique to the table to inspire me!

Thank you.

Now for the second nominatiion award:

This one I received from Laurie. Thank you for making my day!

There a couple of conditions attached to this award:-
"If you are nominated, you have been awarded the Versatile Blogger award". First, thank the person who gave you this award. Laurie
Include a link to their blog,
Select 15 blogs that you have either recently discovered or follow regularly,
Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award,

My 15 blogger nominations is:

Michelle(Shelley) - Minkie's Paper Paradise - whom introduced me to bloggerland.

Elaine (Sparklingblackrose) - Craft my life

Annette - Netty's Cards

Alison (tgl) - The great leveller

Angelique - Sliekje

Diana Scarlett - Scrap Affair

Nana Donna - Nana Donna's Card dream

Darlene - Dar's Crafting Creations

Carmen - Beyond the fringe

- Handmade by TLC

Hannelie - Desert Diva

Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself

I have been a stay at home mom for 11 years now, with two boys, aged 9 & 10. I love cooking and entertaining, though I love to escape into nature from time to time, away from everything.

We've stayed in France for almost 7 years and travelled through the whole of Europe. The Italians will always have a special place in my heart, because of their passion for life, but once an African, always an African. There is nothing that beats the smell of dust with the first drops of an African rain and an African sunset.

Have a wonderful day and continue to spread the good news to your fellow blogger inspirations.

Shamrock Blessings

Close - up on the faux embossing. A new technique at JUGS.

Sentimùent from Meljen's design: May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow.

Good Afternoon

The green and gold challenge at Shelly's image was the inspiration for this card. Since it is St. Patrick's day soon and the Irish have such a beautiful way of saying things, I thought I'll join them this week. The background was done with a faux technique. Instead of embossing you use diecuts or punches in the same colour as your cardstock and glue the cutouts on the cardstock. Very nice technique of creating your own background. Unfortunately I don't have any shamrock dies or punches. I've used my marianne's design diecuts. I've used 3 different ribbons and the only gold buckle I could find, which I had to modify by taking out the middle pen. The sentiment is from Meljen's design and the diecut is from cuttlebug and the CAS team require sentiment as focus point.

Challenges I'm joining:

Shelly images TTT 08/03/12 - Green & Gold

JUGS #127 - Faux embossing

CAS-friday CFC43 - For sentimental reasons

Charisma Cardz #9 - Ribbons

Thank you and may YOUR blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow.
Olga

Spring Birthday

Good Afternoon

The Crafter's digital art centre has a new round of digi's. This time everybody can come and play for free. The only request is that you agree to make at least one project with the 5 digis provided by well known designers, with the theme of spring. By making a project with any of these digis, you automatically qualify for the next round digis. There are 6 rounds and at the end of the 6th round there is a very big prize to be won. So go over and have a quick peek, since this round ends 14 March.

I have used two digis, the lady is from Back to Paper(cdacpc13, BackToPaper) and the flower is from Glitterbabe(cdacpc13, GB). The backing paper is from Serif - Picnic in the park and my stash. I was inspired by The colorlab's So Saffron, Lucky Limeade and your choice, mine is a pinch of red. The sentiment is in Afrikaans "Veels geluk" and it means congratulations and we use it also as a birthday wish.

Other Challenges I'm joining:
Crafter's Digital Art Centre round 13, spring is coming
The Outlawz - Wednesday sketch SC030712
Birthday Sundaes #47 - Use Green

Thank you
Olga

Pizza Delivery

Good Friday Morning!

My mom came to visit us and we had a good time together, so I was not much on the internet the last week. After she left yesterday morning, I have found a bit of time to get crafty. Since spring is on its way to the northern hemisphere there is a lightness in all the challenges. All the bright colours are coming out of the drawers. I am a bit of romantic, I just love red and the combination of a bright yellow, just gives it that extra umpf. This digi set is from Digi my World. I've used the menu board(just added my own menu inside), pizzas and the pizza chef. Cooking is another hobby of mine, of which I am very fond off, but do not get the opportunity to do it that often, since it is not the same to cook for the family everyday, than to cook for guest. As my sister-in-law said the other day: Paper is a bit more forgiving and patient, you can do it more often. The gingham is from the NitWit coleection - Cookin' Cookies. Digi my World, is sponsoring Catch the bug's Stella says sketch, this time around. The sentiment in Afrikaans says Happy Birthday. I'm also celebrating with Craft your passion's 100th challenge celebration with some lovely prizes.

Challenges I' m joining:

Digi my World #5 - Sketch

Catch the bug: Stella says sketch SSS105

Cupcake Craft Challenge #182 - Red and yellow

Divas by Design #25 - Favourite things - Red, yellow and cooking

Craft Your Passion #100 - Anything goes for their 100th challenge celebrations!

Aud Sentiment #49 - Happy Birthday inspiration

Thank and have a lovely week-end.

Olga

Born to be Wild

A close - up on the weathered tegnique.

Good Morning

The seasons are changing. Slowly the sun peeks out later and go to sleep earlier and the leaves are falling and there is a new chill in the mornings. A promise of winter on its way.

Today's card is another boy birthday card. The image is a freebie from Beccy's Space called little hobo. In a sense it reminds me of my boys. At a certain age it really feels as if they are hobos, for the clothes are always dirty and it seems as if you are always on the repair of clothes, patches all over and one day or another, they want to leave the house to find another that is less strict.

With the Ribbon real's challenge of weathered look with White, Blue, craft and a hince of red, natural twine/twill, this card got his life. It just fitted the hobo image. I used sandpaper on the edges to give it the weathered look with distressing done with chalk - brown, blue and red. The sentiment is from Create with TLC. All goodies is from my stash.

Challenges I'm joining:

The Ribbon Real # 22 - Weathered

Cards for men #5 - Sketch

Cupcake Craft Challenge #181 - Boys and their toys

Creative Craft Challenge 28/2 - Boys will be boys

Robyn Festish #96 - People

Papercrafting Journey # 4 - Anything goes

Divas by Design #24 - Spots and/or stripes

Shelly's images TTT1/3 - Spots

Thank you for your visit and have a splendid week-end.

Olga