Wishing you all a fabulous and prosperous new year!

May it be a year filled with truth, love, grace, favour, hope

and all things Godly.

forgive me as i clean up some of the dust around here...

hopefully nothing will be lost...hold your breath....

change is inevitable...except from a vending machine....

so visit back soooooon

return to the stronghold (of security and prosperity), you prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that i will restore double your former prosperity to you. if you are today, at this moment, hopeless, I want to encourage you again to start hoping. Hoping for God to show up in your present circumstances. Have hope . Become a prisoner of hope. Because when we start believing that He is strong and mighty to save, hope starts longing and expecting Him. and God loves when we look out for Him, when we depend on Him and start humbling ourselves before Him to show Himself strong. He will rescue you (ME)- because He is a rescuer.

Zech 9:12

this is was the first time i took part in the annual Christmas Chunky book swap hosted by Angella from our stamping group. The theme was a vintage Christmas so only muted and toned down colours. I liked it!

This is my front page. the base paper was printed from a printable CD and then stamped onto with my Artistic Outpost Santa in brown Versafine. The star is a coloured tag using my distress inks and also stamped with Artistic Outpost and then punched. The ribbon down the side reads...made especially for you.

well after a few days of a new Virus Protection (and for my own safety) i will not reveal which one.....i can now actually work on my computer again....

a virus has taken over total control...then i couldn't go on the net or my blog as it was the virus..LOL

anyhow....i got this award from Debbie! Thanks! and herewith my answers to the questions...

Your cell phone? Samsung

Your hair? Black with grey….grrr

Your mother? Thinks she is still 25

Your father? Deceased and missed

Your favourite food ? Salad and pizza

Your dream last night? Bits ans pieces

Your favorite drink? Water…no more coke

Your dream/goal? Health and wealth

What room are you in? Craftroom/lounge

Your hobby? Anything with paper and photos

Your fear? Fear itself

Where do you want to be in 6 years? Somewhere peaceful and secure

Where were you last night? Home

Something that you aren't? Financially secure

Muffins? No thanks

Wish list item? Exceedingly abundantly above all I can dream or ask…

Where did you grow up? Henley on klip, Hartbeespoort

Last thing you did? Fixed my computer

What are you wearing? T-shirt and tracksuit pants and socks

Your TV? Small and unimportant

Your Pets? Black and Jack aka Pumba and Timone a jack Russell and fox terrier – two brothers ha!

Friends? A few precious real friends

Your life? Unsure

Your mood? Tired and irritated with the virus on my computer

Missing someone? Dad….

Vehicle? Black Golf and a Black Hummer in my dreams

Something you're not wearing? Shoes

Your favorite store? Scrapbooking shops and Camera shops

Your favorite color? Blue / red

When was the last time you laughed? Last night

Last time you cried? When a friend died a while ago

Your best friend? J

One place that you go to over and over? My craftroom

Facebook? Can’t seem to get into it….

Favorite place to eat? Home

Tag #12

If only I had some grunge paper…oh Santa where are you? Well I wanted to make some of these paper rosettes so thought it may look cute on the tag as well. I used my mixture of colour wash and perfect pearls to spray the book paper rosette. I love how the spray nestled in between the folds and left a sparkly blue strip in between. The background stamp is a PSX Christmas script. The vintage Santa ornament I got from my sister and he was the perfect centre piece.

Tag #11

For this tag I changed it almost totally…well sorry tim I just don’t like your reindeer stamp and well don’t have any other reindeer stamps, so opted for this one from Stamp City – a real classic. I used the Prima flowers like tim did and because I don’t have the I-top brad maker (not sure how much you would use it to be honest) I made my own epoxy brad. Took a chipboard button and covered it in music paper, then added about 5 layers of glossy accents – the trick is to leave each layer to totally dry before adding the next one. I do like how it turned out though.

Xmas tag #10

Right up my alley! I love this tag Tim!! Now if only I can get my hands on some of those vintage baubles he collects. As we don’t have any big metal sheets with sticky backs…I used my Nashua tape and simply divided my tag into 3 parts to that my tape would cover the widths perfectly. I also don’t have the refillable alcohol ink pens so I simply used the bottle – nothing wrong with that – it worked fine and I could even do the straight lines where the tape meets up with each other. I added my faux stitches using my tiny attacher and then added 3 metal star studs.

And here’s a tip….if by any chance you don’t have a black archival ink pad around to remove some of the colour off the top of your letters….use black STAZON! It worked just as well. I simply rubbed my ink pad across the raised parts and then took a baby wipe and rubbed.


Xmas tag #9

For this tag I replaced Tim’s film strip ribbon with some negative strips. I added some photos from his doo-dads instead of the smaller printable ones he offered. For the bigger picture I did use his photo although not crazy about the screaming child – I can just hear these kids crying and screaming and throwing tantrums in the shopping malls….
I managed to dig out some of the old EK success letters that almost look like typewriter keys with some imagination. The rest is pretty straight forward – needless to say I loved making this tag.

i got a bit of a late start in making tim holtz' 12 Xmas tags but here they are so far... and realised how little of the things tim used i have but then decided to do what i do best...do my own thing

mmm tag 1 is still in progress....

tag #2

yes i know its missing the flower...couldn't quite decide what to do so it will be added later. the frames are from Prima and the sentiment by Artistic Outpost

i loved the flourish on the tag and those splats in green patina...

tag #3

the alcohol colours came out quite faded -a bit more than intended but still liked the look.

on this lovely morning I am sharing my heart with you...

remember that whosoever you come across in life has a heart,

it's fragile and can be ripped apart at any time

scarred for life

How amazing are these heart shaped leaves of the waterlily in our pond.

God shares His heart with me everyday

What does your heart look like this morning?

A thankful heart!

I got this award twice....from Shamela and Elizna....thank you so much girls. I must say being human and getting recognition must be one of the nicest things in life...

So with that I need to tell you some things about myself...mmm always tricky

skydiving and paragliding keeps me sane...

red and blue are my favourite colours...

if i had the means I would live no-where else but the USA...

i miss my dad everyday for the last 23 years...

i have an older brother and older sister...
i love my work...

i recently got my first and only piece of furniture...things are just not as important as people...

OK now i am passing this award on to

1. Amanda Harrod

Because the year seems to have run out ahead of us all - and there is no time for doing a Christmas card class like last year I have put together some quick and easy cards. And as a bonus built some stash to send to the girls on our stamping group.

These Father Christmas stamps are some of the nicest I have seen in a while. They are either too nasty and angry looking or the detail is lacking - but I simply love these guys and the detail is amazing when stamped with Versafine ink.

Last week was this special guy's birthday! well special guy in my life - and since life is so fragile I made a collage style layout with some of his favourite photos and special moments we have spent together over the years. I loved how it turned out using only black and white photos and some special patterned paper and quotes - less is more after all.

And then on Saturday i got an e-mail about a dear friend who passed away on his birthday! i think of all the good times we had, the serious chats about life, abundance and lack, faith and friendships and creativity and stuff....and just spending time together while we have fun. she truly was a special person and will be dearly missed by family and friends. My prayer is that the Lord will give her family peace in this trying time.

for those of you in the gauteng area and elsewhere and looking for a thrill....head on over to

my sister and brother in law runs this fun adventure out at Hartbeespoortdam - a mere 40 minutes from JHB and Pretoria on the Lanseria airport road. The most fun you can have up in the sky...after SKYDIVING of course (my sport of choice)

so for Christiaan in Germany who desperately wants an update on some of the family...check out Paul and Anita on the website to see what they are up to lately! Lots of fun working in nature and having the thrill of their lives I imagine.

I am honored to have gotten this from amanda who tagged me this week and gave me this honest award ...the idea is to list 10 honest things about yourself...mmm a tough one

1. I have no maternal instinct at all! And that's ok!

2. I love being alone in my own quiet space - too many people too much c(*&p

3. I hate people who think they are better than others

4. I absolutely love the ocean and crave water

5. When i was young and stupid and a rebel I got a tattoo

6. I am addicted to collecting patterned paper

7. If God takes you to a place He will also give you the grace to go through it

8. I hate shopping with a passion

9. I am not a housewife - I hate cooking and cleaning

10. I craft because it is a God given talent not to be taken for granted

and I pass this award onto the following girls to be honest

1. Sophia Allison

2. Desiree Hanvenga

4. Melani de Groot

5. Shamela Hendricks

i got a roll of this gorgeous wrapping paper from Benice and felt totally inspired by the stunning images. So I made some cards - really quick and easy.

The first card is square and measure 16cm x 16cm. With all the cards I adhered a piece of the wrapping paper onto plain white card stock using a glue stick. Once dry i cut the paper to size to use as a layer on my card or as the entire background. I combined the wrapping paper with a strip of book paper and a simple stamped image. The brads were distressed using my Tim Holtz texture hammer.

This card uses the wrapping paper as a folded card. I then carefully trimmed two of the hearts out of a piece, matted onto dark green matching card stock and finished it off with a vintage button. The centre part was matted onto craft foam for dimension.

For this card I added a strip along the left edge stamped with a Cavallini bird stamp and finished off with coloured diamantes and another vintage button.

Towards the end of the month I am teaching a Christmas gift ideas class at Sweet Scrappins in Pretoria. So, come along and make some really cool and usefull gifts for friends, mom, granny and even dad. There's something for everyone...and every budget!

In this class you will learn how to make 3 different kinds of notebooks in different sizes and styles. All you need is some patterned paper, cardstock, adhesives and some embellishments.

i've been quite busy the last couple of weeks and can hardly believe it is November already! Time sure does fly when you are having fun. Anyhow just wanted to finally share the little project I did at Stamp Camp this year. It consists of a box built with two covers and a clear acetate box inner. Inside we made a selection of cards - a great gift for those unexpected guests over Christmas time don't you think?

Does anyone remember this range of American Crafts paper? Wonder if Mike can even recall this line? Anyhow I had loved the idea of combining red, green - so wonderfully traditional - with the bright pink. The stamped Santa is from Artistic Outpost stamped in Versafine onto a die-cut Spellbinders shape and matted.

The red flowers was a bargain buy from Prima - a whole bag of flowers ...somewhat scrunched and distressed ...but loved them. Bling on the other hand can fix any dreary looking bloom...