sharing an older layout today...so what do you do with all your odd left-over chipboard alphabets? well i added mine to a layout, first painted them the same blue as my background card stock, glazed and embossed some and then added some smaller details in between like diamante, hand sewn stitches and printed words matted. I even used some Basic Grey alpha stickers - these I layered two or three on top of each other and then painted them. By layering them on top of each other you give them some dimension. Hope you like it and feel inspired to use all those x, y and Zs this week. I will be back later with that winner!!!

TIP:
to make it easier to paint all your chipboard letters at once,
adhere them to your Teflon craft sheet with stickies to keep them in place.
Paint the letters all at least three coats and leave them to dry.
once dry simply peel them off your craft sheet and use them on your projects.
This way you don't get any paint on your fingers while trying to hold them,
and you get a nice even layer of paint. Hope this helps.

OK so looks like we are back in business....it took about 3 seconds to upload this photo this morning! WOW! Anyhow..the last of the puppies are leaving the nest. It is hard to believe that we have come to love twelve little fluffy creatures and now they are all gone - hopefully they have all gotten really good loving homes!

This time of year seems to be on a downward slope...time goes nowhere and things are just happening too fast. Lots of exciting things on the cards though and lots of projects to work on for now and next year. I have also managed to purge some more stuff - although it be onto a friend who has loaded her car filled with magazines, projects, frames and stuff to take back to their new larger and improved shop. And talking about their shop...I thought about Amanda Harrod who is born to shop. Well by day 2 of shopping paper and embellishments and flowers and stuff I am sick to my stomach...literally! I wish Amanda was here to help - being a focused shopper and a professional we could have used the helped. Don't get me wrong - we did manage to spend a huge amount of money and fill a 4x4 to the roof! Not bad at all. However...has anyone had enough of the road works in Gauteng all in preparation for 2010. Man I would rather stay home than be stuck on the highway one more day! Well that's me for this mroning! Lots of projects to photograph today and then some creative blogging...and with the internet connection being fast again I can upload a stack of photos! Yeah-hah!

the Puppies are starting to leave the nest...

and it's been a while since I have cried so much - I guess a lot of dealing with my own stuff too.

Anyhow...on Friday we met her new parents and dropped her off -she "Nikita" is doing well and has settled in nicely with her new mommy and daddy - and is apparently in doggy heaven! Nice to know that there are people like us who really love their four legged children just as much as we do. Her new parents have sent threw pics already and it is really re-assuring!

This layout was inspired by the very Talented Elizna Parsons from PE. I used her layout and created my own sketch and voila. (Thanks Elizna for the inspiration and for giving permission to use you as a source of inspiration!) Check out her blog by clicking on the link under SA Talent rocks towards the right. Elizna is also a design team member for Kaisercraft who will be represented at the SA Scrapbook Convention in September 2009.

I love how this layout turned out in the end. The corner on the top left of the A4 photo is all stamped. I used some of my favourite stamps and a few borrowed ones to create a stamped photo corner - plain and simple! Oh and those are the puppies 2 weeks ago who are now eating us out of the house and have really, really sharp teeth, and who wants to play all day...and are just tooooo damn cute for words!! I think they are most loved and played with puppies ever.