Pushing my luck!

I may not be as old as Stella over here, but this sentiment is so true when it comes to me, cause this is exactly how I exercise, lol!

This is one of the digital images I bought recently from Bugaboo Stamps (thanks Jeanie for introducing me), and her name is Stella Push my Luck. I love these images, and as mentioned before I had to take some out of my basket when I was shopping for her. I do prefer to have rubber when it comes to images, don't ask me why cause the digis work perfectly. Maybe it's just that you can feel what you got for your money, I don't know. BUT, if anyone has not tried a digital image and have been thinking about it, then I can only say go and try it, there is nothing to be afraid of, lol.

I have decided to enter this card in the Catch The Bug Challenge. The theme is April Showers, and you have to use the sketch, which was the easy part, but the April Shower part not quite that easy. I decided to apply my image this way, Stella is avoiding a sweaty 'April shower' by not doing any exercise. Does that count, rofl!!! See I'm pushing my luck, aren't I!?

Nothing new to tell you about the making of this card. I coloured it with my prisma pencils, blended it with Sansador (gamsol), speaking of which, I bought a new bottle today and was it expensive, man alive. I better not knock this one over, twice!, like the last one. I cut the image with a nestie long rectangle die and layered it on a scalloped mat. I added some glaze with my sakura glaze pen to her glasses. (The photos never show that though, but it makes the glasses look so good in real life.)

Lastly, this card is going to my mom for mother's day. Either from my sister or myself, I am still making another, but not with a Stella. I will let my sister chose which card she wants to give my mom, but I have a feeling it's going to be this one. Who can avoid Stella's charm.....

Till next time then.

Meahni

That's Krafty Thursday, on a Monday

As I mentioned in my previous post, Jeanie has decided to open up her That's Krafty Thursday as a challenge. No, there's no big grand prize to be won, but it's fun and you can get a badge for best card if you enter.

I decided to play along, and although I do not have true kraft paper, I used something that looks very similar. Hopefully no-one can tell, lol (and don't read this post). This card is going to my niece for her 10th Birthday, her favourite colours are lime green and blue, but this was the closest I could get. Hopefully she still likes it.

The image I chose is from Whipper Snapper, and it's called Turtle with Frog. Aren't they just the pair. I think they're adorable. I got it with the many other images sent to me by Jeanie, and I thought it made sense to use one of them for her very own challenge.

The image was coloured with my prismacolor pencils and blended with sansador (gamsol). I then cut it with a nestie die and layered it on a nestie scalloped mat. I also added some glamour dust with my quickie glue pen, and the sentiment is from Stamping Bella. Oops nearly forgot, the little fence border was done with my Martha Stewart fence border punch.

We have a public holiday tomorrow and I'm so pleased cause I want to start working on my mom's birthday invitations. I have lots of time still to make them, but I know myself all too well. I always leave things till the last minute then I make a mess or don't do it at all.

That's it from me for today, hope you will all try and join in the That's Krafty Thursday challenge, you have till Wednesday evening to submit your entry. Lots of time!
Meahni

Coffee anyone?

Here's an image I coloured ages ago and forgot about. It must've gotten lost under all my bits of paper laying around, cause I happen to stumble upon it the other. I immediately grabbed it and made this card.

At least I remembered what paper I used to match my image to. Now when I look at it again, it gives me a bit of a Christmassy feel, but it's not supposed to be. Oh well, it's done now, and hopefully someone will like it and want it, lol.

She is Chloe the coffee mug girl from Stamping Bella, and as usual I coloured her with prisma pencils, but I also used my lyra's for her hair. I have 3 lyra pencils I use in combination for a brownish reddish hair colour, but in this case I only used two of them to get the 'red' hair. I added a bit of glamour dust with my quickie glue pen, some bella dots and a bit of ribbon and that's it.

I know I complain about the weather a LOT, but you are just going to have to listen to me moan again!!! It is such horrible weather here in Jo'burg today, and apparently it is here to stay for the next few days. How unfortunate. It's cold, raining, and just miserable.

So two things I quickly want to share. Firstly, Jeanie, the Spotted Chick, has made the greatest sponging tutorial. If you have always wanted to know how it's done, or even if you want to check if you could possibly improve your sponging technique go check her tutorial. I loved it. Secondly, she has opened up her That's Krafty Thursday as a challenge, you can read all about it on her blog here. I am definitely joining in, hope you will all too. It will be fun!

I am going to install my webcam now. Hopefully soon I will be able to chat AND see all my buddies far far away. Anyone with Skype (it's free) let me know, we can chat some time.

Cheers from me for now.

Meahni

Cutest Bunny

Isn't she the cutest bunny? I think so, and I had such fun colouring her. She smiled at me the whole time, lol!

This bunny is from High Hopes Rubber Stamps, and she's called Posing Bunny. She is a real poser. She was also in the parcel that Jeanie sent me, see lots of images in that parcel.

I coloured her with a mix of lyra and prismacolor pencils, blended it with sansador (gamsol), and cut the image out with a circle nestability die. The border was done with my Martha Stewart doily lace border punch. Then I added some glamour dust with my quickie glue pen, and highlighted her teeth and nose with a glaze pen. They are perfect for precision.

After looking at Paula's grass tutorial I love adding grass to my images when it's needed it, but somehow my grass just never looks anything like hers! So Paula please no comment about my grass, when you come here to teach me I will finally get it right, rofl! Or alternatively I have ordered that webcam you and Jeanie have been nagging me about, so I could get a personal lesson, woohoo. How about that, lol.

I can't believe it is Sunday again, it feels like two days ago that I sat in front of the computer blogging. I have been colouring a bit this week, but so far this weekend I've only had time to make this one card.

My mom's 70th birthday is coming up in July, and my sister and I are trying to plan it well in advance. The reason I am telling you this is because I bought some images from Bugaboo stamps this past week to use for my mom's invitations and birthday cards. They are hilarious. Go and check out Stella, I had to stop myself or I would've bought every single one. (Like I don't have enough stamps and images!!)

Well that's the end of my story for today. Hope you all have a great week.

Meahni

Love is in the air...

.... every where you look around! Okay, I'll stop singing, I know it must be awful to listen to, cause I cannot sing to save my life.

Isn't this little bear adorable. He's from Whipper Snapper and he's called Love Bear, and I love him. He came in the pile of images Jeanie sent me, and he was one of the first to leave the pile for colouring, yay! Thanks again Jeanie.

I coloured him with a mix of lyra and prismacolor pencils and blended it with sansador (gamsol). The image was cut with a nestie square die, I added a bit of sewing, but PLEASE don't look at my sewing close-up. I am so bad at it. I cannot even sew a button, unless I absolutely have to, so please don't expect too much for more complicated stuff (yes, even with a fancy sewing machine). I added some glamour dust with my quickie glue pen, and a bit of glaze on his nose and the little bug, just to make them look a little more precious.

This card just like yesterday's was not made with anyone in mind, but I don't think it will stay that way for long. Who will be able to resist that little face. Yesterday's card with precious Jean and her zimmer frame was snatched up last night by my mom's friend. She just had to have it, even though she has no-one to give it to at this point in time.

I definitely can't sing, but I know who can. The latest bunch of contestants on American Idol. So I am off to go get the TV on so I can see who did what last week and who got voted off. Is anyone else watching!?

Oh and THANKS SO MUCH for the comments on yesterday's card. I was rolling with laughter, it was so entertaining reading them.

Till next time.

Meahni

Centre Fold

I think this is going to be me in 40 years time, a perfect centre fold, woohoo! LOL, ROFL!!

Don't you love this image!?? I know I do. It's from Art Impressions, and she's called Jean. She is one of the many images my friend the chicken, Jeanie, sent me. There is no purpose for this card, but I have a feeling it's going to turn out to be exactly what someone is looking for.

I coloured the image with my prismacolor pencils, blended it with sansador (gamsol), and cut it with a nestie. This range of dies have only one size, no small and large, so to get the mat to be just slightly bigger than the image I used the same size die I cut the image with and then used my craft knife to cut around the outside of the die, so I ended with a mat just slightly bigger than my image, perfect.

I took my poor little African Grey, Pepi, to the vet this morning to have his wings clipped. He is not hand reared so he bites, the poor thing has to be wrapped in a towel in order to prevent that. He was so not a happy little bird by the time we finished with him. At least now I don't have to worry about him flying away. How on earth would he survive, and he LOVES his daily granadilla (passion fruit for some), if someone was to catch him how would they know that he needs to get one every morning, lol!

Thanks to those of you who leave me comments. It us such fun to get them and read what you all have to say, some make me laugh out loud! I wish there was time to visit all the blogs out there and leave everyone comments. I do appreciate it when people take time to leave me one.

I am off to go and appreciate the sun. I am so happy we have sunshine today and not more rain. See you all soon.

Meahni

Happy Easter

Firstly, HAPPY EASTER! Hope you're having a wonderful Easter weekend with loads of chocolate eggs!

I came across this image from Mo's digital pencil! It is one of her freebies! Yes I could not believe it either that she was giving such a gorgeous image away for free, but I am definitely not complaining. I absolutely love this image and could NOT wait to colour it. In case you are wondering I found it on Paper Craft Planet when I became a member of Mo's group.

I coloured little Mr Rabbit with my Prismacolor pencils & blended it with sansador (gamsol). The border was done with one of my EK Success punches, which reminds me! The punch I used on Puff below was sent to me by my buddy Jeanie aka The Spotted Chick! The twine on the button is from Stampin' Up and it was part of the little parcel from Jeanie! Aren't I just the luckiest person ever!!! She sent me all sorts of exciting fun stuff.

I did not want to add too much to this card, I wanted the image to be the main feature. It is too precious to take away from it with all sorts of embellishments. So I kept it really simple.

That's that, now go visit Jeanie's blog if you want to win some candy. She has 100 followers and 50'000 hits and is celebrating by giving away some blog candy! All you have to do is leave her a comment. How easy is that. Even if you don't win the candy, it is worth visiting her blog. She is so talented and her work is such a treat to look at. I am sure you will get lots of inspiration.

I am hoping to make at least 2 more cards this weekend, so I don't post only once a week. I am enjoying doing this at my time though. It is such a pleasure not to have any pressure.

Oh and lastly I changed the look of my blog. Thought it was time to zhoosh is up a little. Hope it is not too much, I don't like too much, lol!

Bye for now.

Meahni

Puff (the love dragon)

I've been a bit slack with my blogging, but that's probably cause I've not made anything to blog about lol! Since leaving the Bella design team I've taken my time with my crafting and I've pretty much been doing it when I felt like it. It has been quite nice to take a bit of a break and not have any pressure to finish a certain amount of cards a week. Although there was an upside to that, it forced me to keep going cause it is so easy to slack off and leave my craft stuff to collect dust.

This gorgeous little dragon named Puff is an absolute favourite of mine. I find him or her I guess, so adorable. I just want to go and hug him! Look how he has his arms, I mean wings, open and waiting, lol.

I coloured puff with a mix of Lyra and Prismacolor pencils, blended it with sansador (gamsol), and cut him out with my circle nestie. The paper is from Basic Grey, love the 6x6 pads.

I layered the image and the background paper on 2 way foam tape. I like having a raised look on my cards, it's funny how one gets into a style and then find it hard to break away.

My trip to Zurich was good except that I got so sick on my last day. I don't know if it was a stomach bug or food poisoning, but I finally started feeling better two days after I got back. It was not fun especially when I couldn't just crawl into my bed and sleep. But I'm all better now and looking forward to Easter weekend. A nice long weekend is just what the doctor ordered ;-)

take care and enjoy your week

Meahni

Far far away

Hi everyone if you are reading this post then you need to know that I am far away from home, in the wonderful land of chocolate. I'm sure you guessed it, I'm in Zurich, Switzerland.

I managed to schedule this post before I left, just so you don't forget me, lol! This image is of course from Stamping Bella and it was made for the Friday polka dot theme which I never got to participate in. No mistaken that I got lots of dots in there though.

I coloured it with my prismacolor pencils then blended it with sansador and cut it with a circle nestie. I added some glamour dust with my quickie glue pen and layer it on a scalloped circle nestie.

I was told before going to Zurich that it is as cold as the arctic there, now those of you who know me might understand how excited I am about that! I will let you all know if I froze to death or made a safe return home. I guess if there's no blogging then I froze, lol. Oh and this is a business trip, I would not chose to go visit a cold snowy country, hehehe.

Take care and chat soon.

Meahni

A turtle and a tutorial

I am sure it seems that I've disappeared into thin air, but don't worry I'm still alive. My line at home was down, so I couldn't do any blogging, but I'm back and I even have a little tutorial to share.

I have been asked by a few people to please explain how to partly cut out an image with your nestabilities. This is by no means the only way of doing this, but it's the way I do it in order to save time.

As you can see from the image below Turtle Tots cowboy has a little hat on and it sits outside of the nestie cut out line. How I do this is what I am going to explain to you today.

1. colour your image like you normally would, then select the nestabilities shape you want to use, I chose the circle.

2. lay the nestie down where you want the image to extend beyond it and draw a line with a pencil outside the nestie (*tip 1: remember that the nestie cuts below that line so you don't want to make it too high or you will get very little of the image outside of the nestie; *tip 2: don't make the pencil line too dark cause you need to erase it again)

3. remove the nestie and use your craft knife or scissors, whichever works best for you, to cut the portion of the image out that is above your pencil line

4. once you have completed step 3 erase your pencil line and take your same nestie, place a part of it behind the portion of your image that will extend beyond the nestie cut out line making sure the nestie is in place where you want the image to be cut out (*tip 3: if you place the nestie in front of the image you will cut it off, so please don't do that, lol)

5. here I have lifted my image just so you can get a better idea

6. and Here I have taken a picture from the back

7. once you are happy you have placed the nestie correctly, run the image through your cutting machine, mine is the cuttlebug

8. here is the image once it's been cut out with the nestie, see how the hat is still in front of the nestie and hasn't been cut off, but the rest of the paper has been cut away

9. before removing the image from my nestie I quickly sponged a bit of ink around the edges

10. here is the image sponged, and cut out ready to be removed from the nestie (* tips 4: if you are going to add glitter or glaze or any shiny bits do it now and not before running the image through the cutting machine)

11. here is the image removed from the nestie, sponged and ready to be used on a card

I mounted my image on double sided foam and then layered it on another nestie circle mat. I added some baubles, brads, and a bit of ribbon. Quick simple and easy. Now go and try it and please drop me a comment if you do so I can come and see your gorgeous designs. Oh, I nearly forgot, you can of course always double stamp your image, colour one complete one and on the other only the hat, cut it out with a craft knife or scissors and place it on your complete image. The complete image needs to be cut out with the nestie but you need to cut through the image where you want it to extend.

If you have further questions please let me know, I will answer as soon as I get a free moment.

Happy crafting.

Meahni