Spring Clean

In view of the fact that Spring is just around the corner here in the Southern hemisphere, I decided that I need to do some Spring cleaning. A little clichéd maybe, but heck I really need to do some Spring cleaning around the house!

Over the next week or so I will also be re-designing my blog and giving it a fresh new look to go with our wonderfully warmer Spring weather. My {really*messy} studio will be getting a Spring-clean too & I’ll be posting some pics of it soon.

Today I started by designing a blog button for Pixels & Paperie which has been long overdue. So now you can grab my button over in the column on the right and post it on your blog. {I say this with those big kitty-cat eyes from Shrek –LOL!}. Seriously, I’d love it if you’d display my blog button in your sidebar. And if you would like me to do the same, leave me a little reminder in the comments here and I’ll reciprocate gladly.

So here’s the new button! And from this you can maybe get {just a little} hint as to what the new design on my blog might look like…

Hope you have a great weekend. I’m off to do some Spring cleaning…….

Free printable gift cards

Well I don’t know how you feel, but I am just so happy it’s almost weekend again. I’ve not had too good a week. I haven’t been able to go to my art classes as my daughter has been ill with flu. All you creative junkies out there will know what it’s like to be art-deprived!

So instead of brushes, canvas and squishy oil paint, I opted for digital art this week and decided I liked the results too much not to share.

So here’s what kept me sane yesterday….

Hope you enjoy them!

(click on the image for a larger view, then right click to save the image)

 

 

{With special thanks to the Graphics Fairy & Karen Whimsy for their delightful vintage images}

Creativity unleashed…

 Lately I have been thoroughly enjoying all things creative. I have taught myself to crochet flowers (courtesy of a few websites), I’ve made organza flowers, made a few digital cards, I even did some gardening yesterday and today I made this…

I found this fun collage challenge HERE and decided to take part as I have been in the mood for some digital designing. The animal challenge was particularly fun as I had taken this photo of an elephant a few weeks ago up at the farm. I love how this photo came out SOTC (straight out the camera)…

I extracted the background and added it on top of 2 vintage paper images from The Graphics Fairy. I changed the blending mode to “Overlay” and added a little motif , also blended that with ‘overlay’ and added an “E” from a typography sample also from The Graphics FairyIt’s rather simplistic, but I like that – I think the ellie really stands out. When I print it, I’ll ink the edges by hand to give it even more of a vintage feel.

Talking about ATC’s & vintage, I received the gorgeous blog giveaway from Bonnie which I won over at her blog HERE. A couple of weeks ago she had a ‘blogaversary’ and chose a random comment and I won a whole bunch of goodies. They were all so beautifully wrapped and packaged and so pretty that I almost don’t want to use them. i think they’ll hang around in my little basket on my desk for quite a while before I get the courage up to use them.

Here’s a  a photo:Thank you Bonnie!! (again!)

This weekend, I also made these cute flowers which I embellished onto two small bags and added a label made from another image from The Graphics Fairy. My nieces were visiting with their mom over the weekend while my brother went to the rugby (SA vs New Zealand). The girls loved their bags. I also crocheted cute flowers and finished them off with some flowers and buttons from my (very unused) scrapbooking stash and glued them onto plain alice bands.

So easy and such fun. Especially fun to see two happy little girls when they saw their surprises.

Pop around again soon as I’ll be sharing some pics of my gardening. My husband was so amazed that I actually got my hands dirty and planted something! Normally all I do is give instructions – LOL! So this was a momentous occasion!

Leave a comment – I’d love to hear from you!

Plumbago free digi kit & pretty flowers…

Hi there! Well I know I have been AWOL for a while, and I really want to update my blog more often, but somehow I just don’t get here when I want to.

Well at least I have a freebie for today…

The rest of the Plumbago kit- yes you can complete the kit now!

 

Remember that you can use these papers and elements to print out for cards and other craft projects as well. They are not restricted to scrapbooking alone.

All are saved at 300dpi.

Note: For personal use/ scrap for hire use only. Not for commercial use.

Here are the final links to download the rest of this digital kit:

Plumbago Papers 1

Plumbago Papers 2

Plumbago Papers 3

Plumbago Papers 4

For the elements – click HERE

For the alpha, click HERE

Hope you enjoy them and do leave some love- I’d love to hear from you!

I’ve been having fun making some pretty organza flowers. I recently stumbled across a blog tutorial by Calamity Kim on how to make these. They are super easy and such fun to make. Each one ends up quite unique and i love combining unusual colours to create these shabby chic blooms…

I started off by wanting to make some to adorn a cushion for my daughter’s bedroom. She loves anything orange and wants an orange bedroom. I drew the line at painting the walls orange, as next week she may just want some other colour! (She’s 13 – need I say more?).

So I opted for orange soft-furnishings that will later be easy to change to turn the room into another kaleidoscope of colour.

We have used a charcoal grey, white bed linen, a silvery-grey throw and some orange scatters. I then added these fun organza and satin flowers to a shop-bought charcoal grey round scatter and this is the result:

 

I’ll take some pics as soon as the room is complete and share them here too.

It’s weekend now and tomorrow my brother & his family are visiting. My niece’s are so cute and so enjoy visiting here with my kids. I’ve made them each a little bag adorned with their own pretty handmade roses and in the bag, a headband with a matching organza flower.

I’m hoping to get some cute photos of them with their flowers in their hair.

I might even convince my kids to pose for the camera…mmmm wishful thinking (but, stranger things have happened! LOL!)

Hope you have a creative weekend….