~ First Kiss ~

This is Erin giving her brand new little brother a kiss for the first time shortly after he was born. I just love the pic and the memory......
This design has been used many times by other artists and I honestly don't know where it originated but I simply love it and wanted to do a LO of my own using the basic design. I still feel that the LO has my own style in it though.
The pp's are from a local Durban supplier (fab scraps). I just love their paper.



I started by tearing the 2 pieces of pp's in half diagnally and the tearing all the way along the border as well as tearing out a photo "frame". I used charcoal (the colour) chalk along all the edges to give it a more distressed finish. Then I tied the 2 pieces of pp together with some black floss.



I stuck the picture onto the grey backgroud cardstock and painted around it with white craft paint using an old toothbrush. I just love the effect............
Such an easy technique with great results. I also painted the pp's in the same way.



I made these adorable fabric flowers myself by following Gabrielle's "Kanzashi's bloom" tutorial. You can find the link on the right of my blog under the slide show. I just loved making these. It was so much fun trying out a new technique and never in a million years would I have thought I could make these myself. You just have to give it a try. The best part is you can mix and match fabrics to accomodate your own design needs.



Here I made my own flourishes again using some silver liquid pearls. I drew the flourishes myself on a piece of paper, covered it with a transparency ad traced the flourish with drops of the liquid pearl........VIOLA, you have the perfect flourish!!!



Now this butterfly I SIMPLY ADORE!!!! They come in a set of 2 from Karla's fabulous etsy shop (kaylori77.etsy.com). Again you can conviniently find the link on the right of my blog. These are so incredibly beautiful IRL.

I really enjoyed working on this LO and trying out some new things together with some old favourite techniques. I hope you like it because personally I'm delighted with the end result. TFL.

~ All I want for Christmas ~

This is VERY VERY early Christmas morning, hence the kids look a little dozey...... just as well you can't see what I look like on the other side of the camera....LOL!
I did this LO for the "Jan no patterned paper" challenge on sb.com. That said, I obviously only used plain cardstock and plenty of embellishments.

Most of these embellishments are from the Candy Cane kit I bought from KatiesKreations4U.etsy.com. Again, these are just fabulous kits that the extremely talented Katie Atkins puts together. Included is this adorable candy lollipop vine. I used the Prima Opus clear stamp on the backround paper.

Don't you just love this stunning ribbon and red & white candy cane that's also included in the kit. I layered these all together and attached them to the paper with some clear thread (a trick I learnt from the brilliant GabrielleP. The flowers are Prima and are just gorgeous IRL.

Another favourite item from the kit are these stunning pins. I used some silver liquid pearls along the circle frame to add some definition.

I made these swirls with some liquid pearls on a transparentsy and then sprinkled some loose red glitter over. It gives the flourishes a velvity texture and looks really beautiful IRL.

Lastly I made these really cute rose buds by following Gabriellep's tutorial. She is just incredible and I find her tutorials so easy to follow. You can find the link to the tutorial along the right panel of my blog along with a few of my other favourites. This is the "6 petal punch rose bud"

~ Wedding Bliss ~

This is a picture of my in-laws on their wedding day almost 50 years ago.......
I just fell inlove with this picture when my MIL was showing me her wedding album recently. It's such a natural picture and they look so happy and inlove.
I tried to add a vintage feel to this LO so that is why I chose to have the pic re-printed in sepia. I used the beautiful Magnolia kit from Katie's wonderful etsy shop (link listed on the right). This is such an amasing kit with stunning embellishments.


Included in the kit is this stunning Magnolia vine which I altered slightly by using some Creme De Chocolat glimmer mist to give it a more aged feel. I also repalced the centres with the rhinestone centres that came with the kit.


These cute rose buds were from my stash. The stunning decorative pins also came with the kit. Aren't they just beautiful!!!


Another favourite item in the kit are these lovely cardstock butterflies. I added some Antique Brass glimmer mist and some gold liquid pearls along the wings. I also added some rhinestones to the large butterflies wings.




The brass flower was something I already had in my stash and felt worked prefectly for the LO. I also finished off the perimeter of the circle with some gold liquid pearls. The ribbon on the LO also came with the kit.




I just love these dragonflies I found in a little craft store up the coast the other day, it added the perfect finishing touch to the LO.
I also used some of the creme de chocolat mist on the top right and bottom left corner to complete the vintage feel.
Thanks for looking.

~ Pretty in Pink ~

This is a picture of my darling daughter Erin and her favourite cousin Kerry whom she absolutely idolises. As a mom I couldn't choose a better role model for my daughter. Kerry is hard working and has been top of her class for several years. She is very athletic, polite and a beautiful person inside and out.
I just love this picture of the 2 of them. I used the girlyness of the picture as my inspiration for the LO. To start I used my brand new Martha Stewart border punch to do the edges and then I chalked them with dark brown chalk.

These amasing butterflies come from the incredibly talented Angelica Franssen's etsy shop (www.angelicafranssen.etsy.com) They are so beautifully made and I love them.

The title was obvious. The girls look so pretty and I couldn't think of a better title.

I just love the large butterfly that come with the kit from Angelica. The detailed work on these are just incredible. I did my own flourishes with some liquid pearls using the raspberry and lavender. A tip for anyone trying this for the first time: When you first make the drops they have a pointed tip so you need to wait until the drops are dry enough to touch so you can flatten the pointed tips with your finger or something with a clean flat surface. Unfortunately I let my drops dry too much so my flourishes still have the pointed tips. A mistake I don't intent making again.

These beautiful rose buds were a gift from the amasing Katie Atkins. I just love shopping at her etsy shop (www.KatiesKreations4U.etsy.com). These are the roses she uses on a lot of her vines. All I did was add some stickles and attached them to some other flower petals I had in my stash as a base and to add some contrast.

I just love these Prima blooms. Again, I added some stickles for a little sparkle. So simple but very effective. Thanks for the visit and as I'm still learning, I'm open to constructive critism and advice.

Sharing is caring

This is my 4 year old Erin's favourite saying. Of course she only uses it when she wants some-one to share with her and very rarely does she practice the sentiment in reverse, LOL!
But it got me thinking.....I've been scrapping for just over 2 years now and I have yet to attend any formal classes. Most of the techniques that I have learnt all come from seeing what others have done on their LO's. My favourite source of inspiration is most definitely scrapbook.com.
I sometimes wish that the artist would give a step by step breakdown of how they accomplished those incredible works of art. Some are kind enough to share their secrets on their own blogs so it got me thinking that I should do the same. In no way do I think I am nearly as talented as most of those ladies but I'd like to share what I have learnt along the way and hopefully teach some-one else out there something new.

I'll be posting any new Lo's I do here with detailed descriptions of all the techniques I have used. This is a first for me so I sincerely hope I manage to accomplish my intended goal. I also think this will encourage me to try do more Lo's than I am doing now. 2009 was a slow scrapping year for me because I had my son Matthew in April and life with a new born is a little crazy as I'm sure a lot of you can relate to so not a lot of scrapping was done but I have set a goal to complete 50 Lo's in 2010 and they'll all be posted here.

Thanks for enjoying the journey with me