we all find inspiration somewhere. we all need inspiration sometimes. and sometimes we just need to copy something and do something that doesn't require that much thought! right! i am pretty comfortable in my scrapping style, i know what i like and what i don't like, but it doesn't mean i am not going to try something else....and that is how this layout came to be. i saw a sketch by Michelle van wyk on let's scrap and thought of trying it. it took a while and many tries of cutting up papers and discarding papers until i finally just lived with this....

it's way too busy, way too full for my but i loved the outcome in the end! maybe it's the photos of my little nephew, maybe the beautiful papers, maybe the pinwheels or maybe it was just the fact that i embraced it all. who knows? so thanks for the inspiration michelle and the challenge.

teresa collins mixed with bazzill ...

pin wheels for fun, texture and pops of colour

pockets stuffed with tags, postcards and images cut from the beautiful beach themed paper

and some signature sewing that brought it all together in the end

i miss this little dude so much - but was lucky enough to see him for an hour this past Saturday. he is soooo cute and adorable, sparkling with life and full of personality! love them so much!

here's wishing you a wonderful creative sunday - mine is a pajama day - a day for reflection on what people think when they openly do something that is not honest, how people can so easily be cruel, how people so easily justify not giving credit or paying someone for work done, how people look after their own needs so easily and yet forget to see the suffering in the world.

thankful for being home with my family, thankful for work, thankful for my daily bread, thankful for talent, thankful for beautifully creative people i meet every day, thankful for support and love, thankful for peace and being able to hear the birds outside!

another month and time for a new sketch over at scrap Africa. this is an awesome sketch and i simply love what the design team came up with - all so very unique and creative. The sketch is so unique and as usual perfect for those single pages, but i turned my into a double page layout.

and here's what i did with the skecth.

i stretched the sketch and changed things up a bit as usual. i loved working with the new Glitz papers and embellishments. to make things interesting i also added basic grey chipboard and crate cardboard stickers. other elements include a prima butterfly, some teresa collins brads and washi tape.

i love how this one turned out. simple yet filled with bits and pieces grouped together for impact.

remember to play along with us over at Scrap Africa - you can win some amazing prizes just for playing along with us. hope to see you all there....

the thing about December daily is that it is real - it's about the real things we do in our everyday lives.so day 3, 4 and 5 is random things happening - some fun and some still work. both for which i am very grateful. we are blessed! day 3 was well received with a great big gift parcel filled with home baked Greek goodies! they are amazing.

day 4 saw us watching Ice Age 4 for a bit of R&R. just chilling. i pulled an image off the internet and printed it onto photo paper. i added a till slip from groceries. my patterned paper choice for this fun day was the SN@P range by Simple Stories. i love the bright fun and festive colours in the range. the keep calm and snap on bit was cut from the packaging found on the album cover.

...snap on was also the theme for day 5 as we headed off to a photoshoot for some work related design work. we booked some studio time and spent most of the day doing what i love most -  playing with cameras! i used the invoice from the studio as part of my background and filled in bits and pieces using Teresa Collins, simple stories, American crafts and kaisercraft.

how's your december daily going? i am keeping it simple - it's not about the what but about the story behind the everyday, the extraordinary ordinary things.i do this for myself - to capture at least one month a year showcasing bits of our life just in case we forget....how very blessed we are.

Wow, can you believe we are there already? yip it's December! this year i am taking my December daily project a step further - making it public. every year i tinker around and make a little project but never share it for some reason (well many reasons actually). but this year i have The Wholesaler as a sponsor and will be working with a number of their fabulous products they distribute to the shops here in south Africa. so here we go...Day 1
Day one was a pretty ordinary day with a class in Jhb and then some down time at home in the afternoon. my focus for this festive season - Breathe. I used plain white cardstock splattered with brown Mr Huey ink before adhering a quote cut from the new Basic Grey quote booklet, a green star punched from simple stories paper and the no 1 is from teresa collins' Christmas range. i kept it simple with lots of breathing space.

then on the right hand side is a fun page. I used AC tinsel in red applied to double sided tape both by The Wholesaler to create my base page. I covered the tinsel with acetate sewn to the base to help keep the tinsel in place especially when the album will be handled a lot. The star is cut from the same Simple Stories check paper as before and decorated with a printed tag, stamped image from the DoCrafts Christmas range with Red Glitzin' Glamour glitter glue details, ribbon and a festive pin. Everything is layered using Pop Dots distributed by The Wholesaler.

the beautiful seam binding ribbon was sponsored by Scrapbook Studio JBay - you can find them here. they have an amazing range of products distributed by The Wholesaler and will get anything you need and want. The ribbon was coloured and gave this amazing green/cream colour combination.

and a close up showing how i sewed right through my chipboard word. To see the entire range of chipboard elements distributed by The Wholesaler you can visit their website here

I will be sharing my pages daily as i finish them and then an overall of the entire album as it fits together later in December. what will your little creative project for the holidays be....have a wonderful day!

thankful!pretty much sums up my day today. driving home from class today, i was stuck in traffic again for way toooo long in fourways. way too many people irritated and driving, way too many people consumed by the rush of spending money they probably don't have. way too much of ugly. i am so thankful for making it through this year, for the opportunities and the blessings bestowed on me in this tough year, but i am glad it is heading towards the end. i am thankful for the small little things that are the big things in my life, since the big things really are just things and can be taken away in an instant. i am thankful for just being. and so thankful for the people who share my creative journey in so many ways - so that means you if you are still reading.

i am also so thankful for being able to work with beautiful stuff - for the little inspiring projects like wrapping a gift in some prettiness. i love graphic 45 paper so much, but find it hard to work with - what i do like is that embracing the "differentness" of the papers and turning it into the unexpected and the different makes the product blossom even more. so i loved wrapping gifts in the papers, with special bows and gorgeous gift tags.

so this means that my colour scheme for this festive season is bold and bright and totally happy. it's filled with pretty and delicate and glitter and bling. here's wishing you a 'thankful' ordinary day and may your preparations for the silly season be reasonable and sparkly and keeping the spirit of caring alive. have a thankful day! i am playing catch up with my December Daily project...stay tuned