Mermaids and Sisters...

Hello Dear Friends

I have been having loads of fun upstairs here in my scrap room. There has definitely been an oversupply of creativity which absolutely fills me with joy.  The weather is cooling down and today I spent a wonderful afternoon with a fellow scrapbooking friend and we had such fun chatting and scrapping ... and of course had a fantastic glass of wine later on.  We both completed two pages so it was a successful afternoon all around.  

One of the pages I worked on this afternoon is of my little niece having fun swimming in their new pool.

These cute flowers are basically made from two die cuts underneath and a Keisercraft white flower on top which I spritzed pink to match the page.  The heart brads are just too cute...  This was a really easy page as the paper really does all the talking!!

A couple of weeks ago I did this page below of me and my "Perth Sister" Debra.  Debs and I became friends in Durban in the early 2000's and I moved to Australia in 2005.  Debs and her family followed a few years later.  I treasure my friendship with Debs and although she now lives in Perth (they were in Kalgoorlie for a few years) I don't get to see her as often as I would like to. Debra's husband and I work for the same company and we got to spend the Christmas party together in 2012.  It as a wonderful sunset cruise on the Swan and has to rate as one of my favourite Christmas parties to date!  

I loved the simplicity of the page and wanted to keep it simple but just felt there was something missing.  I then added some hand stitching around the edges and added a few pearls on the top half of the page, and voila! I felt the page was complete.  I hope you like the amazing transformation of this page as much as I do.

Please excuse the light shining over the top section.  It is quite late in the evening and I wanted to post this today.  I just couldn't angle the light to be off the page without loosing the light completely and getting shadows!  The detailed photo below shows a bit more clearly the striking effect that the pearls have on the page.

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at my latest creations!

Take Care and please leave a comment to let me know you were here!
Cheers
Angie 

Easter Weekend Lay Outs

Hello dear friends,

I have taken a few days leave over the the Easter break and am so enjoying the time that I have to spend upstairs in my craft-room.  It's really cosy up here with my iPod playing relaxing music and I have a view of the activity going on outside.  I have an unlimited wireless internet setup at home and really enjoy streaming South African radio stations.  Jacaranda FM and KFM are my two faves!!

I have committed to as few things as possible this week, so that I can just relax upstairs here, and already I have completed three lay outs and one canvas.  The canvas is a first-timer for me, but more about that another day.

I would like to share with you a really cute LO of my little niece Jessica.  Look at the absolute delight on her face!!!  She knows that this 'toy' is usually 'out of bounds'!! 

Clearly she is showing signs of high intelligence by knowing instinctively how to touch type at the age of 2!!!  ... Obviously I'm not a biast Aunty!!

A close up of the beautiful Kaisercraft paper with matching embellishments.  I also used Prima flowers.  I used some Inkessensials Crackle Accents on the blue flower on the paper in the foreground giving it some *pop* on the page.  I used the same product for the bouquet of flowers higher up.

The next LO that I did is a beautiful photo of my Mom and Dad.  They were going to Tristan's christening last year.  I don't have too many photos of just my Mom and Dad, so wanted to add this one to my memory book!  Don't they look ever so glam!

I just love how this page turned out and how the colours compliment each other.  The sentiment is Kaisercraft from the Charlotte's Dream collection.

This stunning large teal flower is from Bella! Fancy Florals, and the rest are either hand made by me (lighter green flower to the right in front) and Blossoms by Vivaldi (pale pink and cream) and the blue one at the top is Prima.

This is also a hand made flower by me - I made it ages ago when I felt like playing around in my craft room but didn't have the mojo to do an actual lay out. The colour is absolutely perfect to compliment the paper and colour scheme of this page.

I have completed another lay out but after I took the photos I decided that I wanted to still do one or two things to it.  I will post that one in my next blogpost because I now need to take more photos.  I am so excited about the canvas that I have just completed.  It's my first attempt so look forward to sharing it with you soon.

I hope you have all had a wonderful Easter long weekend and if you are travelling - please go safely.

Take Care and lots of love
Angie 

It's been a very long time ...

Hi All,

It has been a long time since I have been inspired to send you all a blog post, and recently I was honored to be asked by a friend to make some invitations for her.  She is going to be having her 40th in New York and her friends would be flying in from all over the world. 

We spent quite some time designing the invitation and finally this evening I have finished them all.  I have so enjoyed making them and although I was invited to go, sadly the finances (or annual leave) does not permit me to be able to attend.

I am not sure if the photos do the invitation justice, but here goes ...

The shoe is heat embossed in Adirondack Wild Plum embossing powder.  The paper, ink, stamps and ribbon are all from Stampin Up.  

I stamped the shoe in silver on the Rose Red cardstock, then printed the words on vellum and adhered it to the cardstock at the top where the row if diamantes is.

I have done loads of cards recently, so will try and be more diligent and post some more photos soon.

Lots of love

Angie 

Creative Scrappers Sketch #227

Hi Friends

Alas, alas, I have been busy and have just finished this LO which was inspired by Sketch 227 from Creative Scrappers.  I also took inspiration from the Australian Scrapbooking Memories magazine.  Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on it:

These are the photos that were taken for my visa application for my Australian Permanent Residency - so they bring back memories - some I wish to remember, and some I would rather forget!

Thanks for taking a peek.

Angie xx

Creative Scrappers Sketch 226

Hello Friends,

Today is a very quick post to upload a LO I did following Creative Scrappers Sketch 226.  Here is the sketch:

I wasn't so crazy about the chevrons, as I thought they were a bit masculine for my niece, so I substituted them with these beautiful silk flowers. Otherwise I followed the sketch pretty much to the letter!

The lighting isn't very good at night, so apologies for the lack of clarity.  I used my Martha Stewart butterfly border punch on both the top and bottom borders.  I also used two Perfect Pearls Mists - the 'Interference Red' which has a lovely pale pink sheen - on the butteflies, then I used the 'Green Patina' on the paper behind the photos.

This LO now completes Jessica's first album!

Thanks for looking,

Angie xx

Random Layouts

Hi Everyone

This is a double post today, with me just having posted the 'Focus on Friends' post.  It never rains but pours in my household!!

I started these three layouts 2 months ago at our last Midnight Madness!  They sat unfinished for a good few weeks, then I finally got organised and headed back to my studio and finished them. 

This photo was taken in 2006 when Adrian and I spent the Easter weekend down South (of Western Australia).  We stayed in a gorgeous chalet next to a lake in Pemberton, and every day we ventured somewhere different.  We drove down to Walpole to do the Tree Tops Walk, and although it was rather chilly, we had a super day.

I had only arrived in Australia the previous year so it was very exciting to be doing some local travel. 

My beautiful cousin, Lauren - I have been wanting to do a LO of her Year 12 ball for ages!  I had to beg and plead for some photos and this one is cropped from a group photo, and I just love it!  I didn't have to do much to this LO because the paper is so beautiful.  Please note the stunning little 3D butterflies.  I cut them from the paper and raised the wings (thanks for the tip Yolanda!).  To keep them raised and 3D I used some silicone glue.  

I sadly wasn't in Perth for Lauren's ball - I was back in SA waiting for my Permanent Residency Visa to come through.

And now the last LO is of my new home!  There isn't really much to explain about this but I bought it earlier this year and moved in on 5 July 2012.  It is wonderful having my own home to be able to decorate and renovate as I'd like to!  I have already had the interior painted and am about to have double glazing windows and sliding doors fitted.  Next year I plan to do a patio/pergola out back, which will really transform the house and make it fantastic for entertaining in summer.  Watch this space for renovation LO's!!

That's all folks!

Thanks for looking,

Angie xx

Focus on Friends

Hi Everyone,

So much has been happening lately that I just don't know where the time goes - do you ever feel like that?  Work and weekends are always busy and I wonder sometimes how to stop the treadmill!  It is nearly the end of September and just thinking that Christmas is 3 months away is making my head spin.  Funny thing though is that my social life is a lot tamer than it used to be a few years ago, so I just don't know where the time goes.

I have a new addition to my household - a gorgoeus dog called Molly, I got her a month ago and rescued her from the RSPCA.  She is a cross chihuahua with pomeranean and she has the loveliest personality.  She is full of energy and LOVES going for walks every day.  If I should even think about forgetting her walk, she simply reminds me by running to the front door, then running back to me, and repeating this process until I get the message!!  Even though she weighs only 4 kg's she ends up taking me for a walk and is always so disappointed when we get back to the car / home. 

There will no doubt be some scrapbooking LO's of Molly appearing soon!

I have done a few LO's lately but today I want to share with you some that I have done of my friends Shayne and Lee.  When I visited SA in 2010 Shayne also came to Cape Town and we decided to spend the weekend in Franschoek to celebrate Lee's 40th.  It was really fantastic for us girls to be together for the weekend and we had a fabulous time.  All too short, sadly, but nevertheless - these are friendships that have been in place for so many years, we wouldn't even consider letting the distance between us get in the way. 

This LO is rather busy but I wanted to get the gist of Franschoek as well as the fun time we had all on one page.  I love the French theme of Franschoek and we all loved browsing through the gorgeous shops, having a hot chocolate at the Chocolatier as well as meals at the quaint restaurants.



I thought that I would do an individual page on Lee and Shayne - the photos were all taken in 2009. 

So often Lee has her eyes closed in photos!  I loved this one and decided that even though Lee's eys were closed I still wanted to document the memory in my album.  We had just been to the Nature Reserve for a picnic with Dean, Lee's son, and had stopped in at Lee's parent's house for a cuppa.  I used Sketch 223 from Creative Scrappers for this LO.

The photos that I chose to use for my LO of Shayne were taken when I visited her at their farm near Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape.  I spent a weeks holiday there and during that time Shayne hosted bookclub at the farm.  We had a hilarious afternoon and Shayne worked wonders in the kitchen and put on a fabulous lunch for all of us.  The photos taken outside were on my last day at the farm - I think we were in fact leaving for the airport!  I do wish the three of us lived closer, but it does just make the times we do spend together much more treasured.

I have been dying to use gesso in my LO's and finally last week went and purchased some.  This LO is the first one that I did using gesso and I am rather delighted with the result! 

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my post today. 

Angie xx