Who stole the cheese

Look what I have to share today, a brand new image from none other than Ladybug Crafts Ink. This is my first card that I've made for Kerry, and I sure hope she likes it.

I think this image is just so cute, look at that big eye peeping at the poor little mouse going by. This is Tiptoeing Lily and she sure looks pretty confident walking past Magnum, then again he doesn't look like he needs food, lol!

I coloured the image with my prismacolor pencils, blended with sansador (gamsol), and then cut it out with an oval nestie. The paper is from October Afternoon, the fence is a Martha Stewart border punch and the sentiment is from Elzybells.

Now, I tried something different with my picture. I tried Jeanie's super clever way of taking her pictures with a pretty background instead of the usual dull one I have. I could not however decide which one I liked better, isn't that typical, lol! So please let me know what you think!

That's that for today! Hope you have a great Monday.

Meahni

Dropping in

Hi Everyone, are you having a good Sunday, has your Sunday started yet? I can't believe mine is more than half way done already. I am just dropping in to say hi and show you this cutie bear card I made last weekend, but haven't had a chance to take a picture or post it. Blame it on winter, lol!

I bought all of the teddy bears from Elzybells, a while back already, and haven't had a chance to use most of them. In fact I think this is only the third or fourth one I'm using, and I have about 8 or 9 of them. Not sure if you know, but sadly Elzybells is closing down, so if you want to get these cute images then don't waste time they're 50% off. Talking of sales, Bugaboo Stamps (digital only), are also having a 50% sale. I am definitely going to take advantage of that.

As usual I coloured my image with my prisma pencils and blended it with Sansador (gamsol), then I cut it out with a nestie square die and layered it on another nestie, which i ran through my cuttlebug template, but I don't think that is showing on the photo. I also chalked the edged of the image while it was still in the nestie die, and if you want to know more about how to do that, check out Jeanie's tutorial on my sidebar, or Paula's post last week on her blog, she's also on my sidebar, you'll find her linked under Paper Possibilities.

You may recall that we celebrated my mom's 70th recently. She had a lovely time and I thought I would post a photo of her and I taken on the day. I'm the one on the left, lol, rofl!!! Woohoo!

I may have mentioned on a previous post that our offices will be closing end of September. We have decided to have a final get together with the whole I.T. department, last week I made the arrangements for us. It took me a while, but after searching for two days I eventually found a place I thought would have something for everyone. It's called Zebula Golf Estate & Spa, and no I will not be spending all my time at the Spa, instead with the animals. Go check out their website if you are interested in more info. They have cheetahs, tigers and cubs, lions and cubs, they'll be doing a cheetah run for us, can't wait to see that. There's a crocodile gorge, bird aviary, meerkat den, snake and reptile park, can anyone tell yet why I chose this specific place, hehehe. I want to sleep with the cheetahs though, wonder if they'll allow me, lol!

Alright then, enjoy your day, and have a great week ahead.

Meahni

Born to shop

Here's an image I have had for some time, but seeing time is the one thing we would all like more of, only for crafting though, I have never had a chance to use it. The image was sent to me by Debbi (thanks Debbi), with MANY others. I was so excited the other day when I went through them all again, I wanted to use them all at once.

The image is one of the Miss Anya range, and I coloured her with my prisma pencils, then blended it with sansador (gamsol), cut it out with an oval nestie and layered it on an oval nestie mat. I added some glitter glue to her head band and although I felt I must add more glitter somewhere, I decided not to. The scalloped border was done with my fiskars border punch and the sentiment is from Elzybells. Of course a bit of ribbon, a button and a bit of twine and that's it, card done. No, it took me a lot longer than that sounds, I'm slow :-(

Not much else to tell for today. I am home alone, my mother is on holiday (again), so I got to run. I have to make my own supper, man alive do I hate that, but when you're hungry you have to make a plan, even if it's just toast, lol.

Have a great week.

Meahni

Brave cat

So here's a very brave cat, or maybe not! I don't think anyone will be too scared of a dog with a ladybug on his nose. However, are these two not adorable. I want to grab that lazy fat cat and hug and hug it.

I keep wanting to go rescue a kitten from the shelter, but I am worried what Simby and Misty, my two Jack Russells would do with it. They try and hunt anything that moves, and the other problem I have when the cat is big, Pepi and Roxy, my two parrots might not be too pleased with the new family member.

In the meantime I'll stick to colouring images of cats for people who love animals, just like me. This card is for a lady who loves animals, and as tempting as it was to put even more images on, I guess it would've made for a very busy card.

These are two Elzybells images which I love colouring. I find it so easy to work with Elzy images, I don't know why. Their bears are my utmost favourite though, and I wish I have had more time to have used some of the others I have.

I coloured these with my Lyra pencils for a change, and the cat was really supposed to come out some very different, but I just couldn't get the effect I wanted. I am no artist, so I have to rely on whatever comes out once my pencils hit the paper, lol.

I cut the images with my nesties and mounted the dog on 3D foam pads. Isn't he sweet with his little friend on his nose. The borders where done with a fiskars border punch and I felt it was a bit too much once I put the card together, but it was late and I wanted some sleep so I left it as is.

Well that's all there is to tell about this card. I am going to continue working on my mother's birthday cards while watching Desperate Housewives and then CSI - New York.

Oh and I have to share, our days are getting longer. When I drove home tonight it was still light until about 6pm. Usually by 5:30pm it is dark. I was so happy to see that winter is getting it's little boots on and getting out of here slowly!

Crocheted Butterfly

Lots of little pics to share for this post. I finally used one of my mom's crocheted butterflies, and I HAVE to say, they are just gorgeous. I don't know how she does it, all I can crochet is a cable, this stuff is far too complicated.

This card is for an 11 year old girl who loves butterflies. Isn't that cool!

I coloured the Elzybells image with my Lyra pencils, yeah I used my Lyra's for a change. I think they have been feeling very neglected. Blended it with Sansador and added a little grass here and there. I need to go through Paula's grass tutorial in order to learn the technique properly. When I clicked on her link I got only a portion of the post :-(

The paper I used was a free download from Summertime Designs. I can't believe it's free, there are some beautiful designs you can down load.

The image was cut out with my BRAND new Nesties template. Slowly but surely I get them all. It's a bit expensive ordering everything from overseas, so I try to get new stuff once a month. Although, believe it or not, it is cheaper for me to order from Cut @ Home, than to order from my local supplier. I don't know why.

Here's a close up of the butterfly. I got the link for the pattern from Bev's blog. If any of you can crochet!!! I had a bit of glitter to the butterfly, cut it's not too clear on the photo. It really brought her to life.

Now I'm out of this FREEZING study. My hands feel like they are going to fall off, they are so cold. I really must put a premanent heater in this room, or I won't be blogging much.

Have a great Sunday, and chat to you all soon.

More Father's Day

As mentioned previously, here is the little teddy on the chair! The stamp I just had to have and couldn't wait to colour up. I LOVE these Elzybells bears!!! They are the best! Oh and they are having 10% discount for the entire month of June, so if you like these bears as much as I do and have to have them, now it probably a good time to get them.

This card is for a friend's dad. My dad isn't lucky enough to get a card... hehehe. Not because I don't want to, it's a bit like the panel beater with the beaten up car. Know what I mean.

I coloured Mr Bear with my Lyra pencils and blended it with Sansador and paper stumps of course. I have two type of paper stumps, the one set is a lot softer than the other and they are so much nicer. I am not expert in stumps and don't even know what make these are as they all came in clear unlabelled packets, but certainly the softer the better - for me at least. While I'm on the colouring subject, the paper I used here was a sample I ordered from Elzybells, they stock paper for colouring now too. I cannot tell you how amazing this paper is for colouring with pencils. I was in heaven while colouring this ;-)

Don't you just love that little sentiment. It is also from Elzybells and inside I stamped Take It Easy, perfect with Mr Bear here. Another sentiment from them.

Now for the best news today, my Bella order arrived. Okay, the second one, they had to reship :-((( But I am so happy I got it! I am definitely stamping out some of those images tonight and am hoping to participate in the challenge for next week. I've not had a chance to do that for a few weeks now.

Here comes the moaning part of this post.... IT IS FREEZING HERE!!!! Okay admitted it was a little warmer today than the past week. We had constant rain, and that is so unusual for Johannesburg winters. Today was lovely and sunny, but still cold. I HATE winter, just a reminder in case anyone has forgotten or didn't know - LOL!

Righto, I'm off to go and feed my babies, I'm probably going to have to play ball first. Then some colouring. My mom is back from holiday today and she's babysitting my nieces tonight - I'm so glad she's back or it would've had to be me :-)

Pretty in pink

I am going to be short and sweet tonight, well actually the little image on the card is the sweet one here. I am so not sweet - okay when I have to be ;-)

This birthday card was for a friend at the office, she needed one for her niece. I was lucky cause I had this little girl half coloured up and seeing it was short notice, a half coloured image was better than no image at all. And I managed to finish it in time for the card to be posted.

I coloured the image with my prismacolor pencils, blended it with sansador and paper stumps, cut out with and mounted on nesties. The sentiment is from Stamping Bella and the little bear from Elzybells. There's a bit of glitter on the daisy and bow, but it doesn't show, as usual.

That's it for now... I never did get to colour anything last night, but tonight I am colouring another precious little Elzy stamp, for a father's day card. Snoozing Ted, he is irresistible and I had to have him as soon as I saw him.

Ballerina again

Here I am again, with my second little ballerina. This is a general little card, with no home yet, but I so wanted to use the second ballerina that I coloured up I just had to make something quickly.

I have seen this little round style card on various blogs in the past and have been dying to try it. I think my image might have been just a bit too big, but I made it nonetheless. The card does stand on it's own, I held it by hand so the image and ribbon didn't look all skew :-))

It was coloured with my prisma colour pencils, and cut out with nesties. All the cut outs were done with my round or scalloped nesties.

The inside was also cut with my round nestabilities template and I tried the method described on the package to make a card base with a nesties template. It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought :-)

I am VERY sad to share with you that the whales were all euthenased. They managed to get some back in the sea, but the whales kept turning around and swimming out to the beach. They decided to rather put them to sleep than to allow them to suffer further. It seems that a navigation error on the whale's part caused them to do this, but I am pretty sure it is some man made intervention that caused it.

If you haven't yet been to the Elzybells blog or website, do go and have a visit. They are having some really great specials for June. There will also be a new release in June - so much exciting stuff happening....

My next stop, father's day cards... just a pity neither my Elzy nor Bella stamps have arrived yet. It seems they might have been lost in the post... I have had sleepless nights for the last 3 nights worrying about my orders. It sucks!

The Cutest Ballerina

I have to admit that this is just the cutest ballerina in town! I absolutely love this little bear in her tutu. Isn't she just too adorable for words.

I coloured her just for the fun of it. I couldn't wait for the day that I had a specific occasion to need this image. Once she was coloured up I made a birthday card for a colleague's niece who's turning eleven. I hope she loves her as much as I do.

A little confession here... I coloured two of her, one in a pink dress and one in a green dress. I'm about to go and make something with the other one. Just because they are so cute.

She was coloured with my prismacolor pencils and blended with sansador. Then cut out with nesties, and mounted on 3D pads. The sentiment is by Stampingbella and also cut out with nesties. The border was done with my brand new Fiskars border punch! I don't know for the rest of you, but here in Jo'burg, the good quality punches are very expensive. But I wanted it so I had to spend the money.....

I put lots of glitter on the dress and shoes and the background paper. I am not sure the photo does it too much justice, but some of it can at least be seen.

I heard such devastating news earlier today. There are 55 Pilot Whales beached at Kommetjie beach in the Cape, here in South Africa. People are trying to get them back into the sea and keeping them alive with water. Apparently there are more coming ashore. They don't know yet what caused this. It's terrible, I wish I was there to help, but it's pretty far from Jo'burg. At least the sea rescue people are there doing something. I just hope they will all be okay. My heart just breaks when I hear of something like this.

Anyone feel like a bit of blog surfing, go see what everyone got up to for the latest Bella challenge. It was a sketch again, there are some gorgeous creations to ooooh and aaah over. Then Elzybells is celebrating their blog-a-versary, yip it's one year old in June, and they're planning all sorts of exciting stuff during the month.

Oh one other thing I wanted to share, my mother's been crocheting flowers for me, to use as embellishments. I can't wait to use one or two, she's nearly done with them. Hopefully soon I will post a card with a homemade, handmade crocheted flower on it :-))

Have a great weekend. Till later.....

Just because...

As the sentiment says, this card was made just because.... I bought this Elzybells stamp with my last order, and I just had to colour it up as soon as possible. It had such appeal to me and I couldn't resist not using it, even though I had no reason to make such a romantic card. I figured if some people (I mention no names), can make Christmas cards in May, I can make a Valentine style cards too - LOL!!!

The image was coloured with my Prismacolor pencils and blended with Sansador. I cut the bears out and put them on 3D pads, the mat was cut with my nesties long rectangle and also placed on 3D pads. There's a bit of glitter on the butterflies, but as usual the photo doesn't show it.

The flower was punched out with my brand new punch I bought yesterday. It's a Chiswick, I think that is a local company. I nearly forgot something very important, the paper was a free download from Two Peas in a Bucket. I love it.

Now if anyone is wanting to try and become a design team member, Nutshells are looking for new members. Maybe some of you are keen to do that, become a 'celebrity' in the craft world :-)

That is it for this post. (ps: those of you subscribed via email, might have received a mail with half a post, that's because I pressed enter on the wrong screen and it published my post before I was done. Do excuse my little boo boo.....)

Cheers for now. I'm off to do some more crafting.

Another Retirement

There's another retirement at my office. At least some one made it all the way before they decided to put us all out of a job :-)) This is for a guy who has worked for the company since he left school and has been there about 38 or 39 years now. That is a life time!

I used one of the latest Elzybells releases, called Gardening Ted, which I am dying to order, but have to save up a bit before I can spoil myself again. Paula luckily sent me this gorgeous little thing, I absolutely love it, and do yourself a favour go and see her creation with this image. I was SO happy when I saw it amongst the loads of images she sent me.

I did things a little different than my last 4 or 5 cards, I chose the paper first and then coloured the image. It actually does seem to be a lot easier. I always used to do that, but then got bored and just coloured up images as I felt, and have found it a bit difficult some times to find paper to match.

I coloured it with my Prismas, and have to admit, even with the 120 choice that comes with the Prisma, I still used one or two of my Lyras as well.... just couldn't help it. I blended it with Sansador and cut the image with my nestabilities die. No glitter on this one, cause it's for a guy, but I was so tempted though to put some on the little flowers. I guess it wouldn't have gone down too well with a 61 year old guy.

Now, I have to share something REALLY exciting, I don't know how I am going to sleep tonight. I made it onto the Stampingbella Challenge post!!!! Wooooohooooooo!!!

Go have a look at the latest challenge, oh boy have the design team come up with some gorgeous cards! And if you scroll down a bit and a bit more and maybe a bit more, you will see this design of mine. I feel so honoured.

Another retirement, and still not me!

Believe it or not, but I've finally made a card. One whole card since, umm, lets not even go there. This card is for a friend at the office, who is sending it to a colleague in Zurich, seems lots of my cards are going north. Pretty cool.

When I saw the free shipping offer from Elzybells recently, and it was free international shipping, I just had to order some stamps. I love Elzybells stamps, they are so easy and such fun to work with. Believe it or not, but I ordered a stamp I already had. Thank goodness I realised it before my order was packaged and shipped and Elizabeth was very kind to exchange it for me. Of course this was the one I chose. Now look how handy it has come in. The lady who's retiring loves cats, and I figured this image was just puuuuurfect.

I coloured the image with my lyras and blended it with Sansador. Oh I knocked my bottle of Sansador over the other day! What a stupid thing to do, and at the cost of that stuff, so not something I hope any of you ever do.

I've included a close up picture of the image, just so you can see how cool this cat is. Not even scared of the dog, typical of cats though. Cheeky, unpredictable and ever so adorable.

I've got lots of images all coloured up waiting to be made into something other than a coloured image laying around my house at the moment, so hopefully I'll be getting to make at least one more card before the end of the week, but I won't hold my breath, so don't hold yours either :-)

If you have some spare time and want to see some great cards, go do the My Favourite things Blog hop, it starts here with Kim. But ladies, and guys if there are any of you out there, please don't get too excited when getting to Paula's blog - don't ask why, you'll see when you get there, LOL!!!! Don't we just love her.

Where to put the 2

So I made this card, quite pleased as I go along all looks just great, but then, panic, I forgot, it's for a two year old, and they want a 2 on the card. Where on earth do I put the two!?

As you can see, it ended up on top of the image. I quite liked the card without the 2, but it was a specific request and one should try and do as per requests, else people might not want another card :-)

I had great fun making this card, and the idea of the name with the individual letters comes from my biggest inspiration of course, Paula, do check her blog.

This is one of my Elzybells stamps, which I ordered unmounted and still haven't mounted... Anyone with great advise on how to mount unmounted stamps do tell.

I coloured it with Lyras and blended with Sansador. Added some highlights with my white gel pen. Mounted the main image and the happy birthday sentiment.

Okay off to do the dogs' dinner. Have a good evening.