Monday 25 May 2015

VLV May Week 2 & PPA#252




Hi everyone!!!!


It's late already, but I want to post two cards before I'm off to bed.
First up is my card for the Week 2 sketch of the Viva La Verve challenge for May.
This is the sketch:

 
 
and my card:

 
 



Used my Daisy stamp from Verve as well as stamps from the Bloom & Grow, Friendly Phrases and Borderline stamp sets. 
Verve dies used: Pennant Trim, Elegant Leaves and Charming Banner dies.
Chevron die from Tim Holtz.
Added sequins and black plastic dots to finish it off.

Oops, just spotted an ant on my card in the bottom photo!!!! 




Next up is the sketch at the Pals Paper Arts Blog.
The sketch:

 
 
and my card:






Used two bg stamps by Glitz.  Sentiment stamp by Verve.
Daisies and leaves punched by hand.
Arrows cut with Tim Holtz chevron die.
Hexagons cut by hand.
Added my usual sequins and black plastic dots and it was done.



Have been busy with knitting over weekend and today, but will be visiting blogs again in the morning.


Ok, I'm off to bed!!!  Thanks so much for taking the time to pop in - your visits and comments are always much appreciated!!!

Till next time!!!!










Saturday 23 May 2015

VLVMay Week4



Hi everyone!!!


Joining in the fun over at the Viva La Verve Blog this time!!!
This week the sketch is one by Stacey and I loved it the minute I saw it for the first time:


 
 
 
This is the card I have made:





Lots of Verve goodies used:  Mini Classy Label and Charming Banner dies and stamps from the Borderline, Bloom & Grow and Friendly Phrases stamp sets.
The piece of designer paper is from my stash.
Added a hand punched daisy, a sequin and black plastic dots and it was done!!!!


Hope you're having a great weekend!!!
Till next time!!!



Friday 22 May 2015

FMS#187




Hi everyone!!!


Have you seen the great sketch by Cindy over at the Freshly made Sketches Blog??  I just had to put the knitting aside for a while to make a card!!!!  The sketch:


and my card:

 



The butterfly stamp is from KaiserCraft.  Coloured it with coloured pencils.
Leaves stamp and die from PTI.   Sentiment banner dies from Verve.
Done sort of a bokeh effect on the black using my Platinum Planet ink pad by Dew Drop.
Afrikaans sentiment saying: 'Congratulations'.


Have to be off to prepare supper!!!

Thanks for popping in - always a pleasure to have you here!!!

Have a great day!!






Thursday 21 May 2015

CTS#124



Hi, everyone!!!


Oh, boy, am I excited to bring you this post!!!!   Yep, Chrissy, from CTS, asked me to be Guest Designer for the week!!!  Those of you who follow my blog will know that I LOVE to play the CTS game, so how could I not say YES!!!!  Thank you so much to Chrissy and her DT for giving me this opportunity to be guest designer - what a great honour!!!!

So this is the great sketch Chrissy has for us this week:




...and this the card I have made:





I've done my bg with washi tape strips and Spiced Marmelade DI and added some paint splatters.
Flower stamp and die from Verve.  Coloured my flower with a koki pen and added some shine with 3D clear Gloss.
Sentiment computer generated.  Sentiment banner dies from Verve.
Leaves stamps from PTI.
Arrows cut with Tim Holtz chevron die and given some shine with 3D clear Gloss.
Added two sequins and black plastic dots and it was done!!!!


Hop on over to the CAS(E) this Sketch Blog, have a look at the great cards the DT have made and then join in the fun!!!


Have a lovely day and thanks for popping in - your visits and comments are always much appreciated!!!



Wednesday 13 May 2015

Mojo Monday #397 and Another CTS#122




Hi everyone!!!!



Two cards to share this morning!!!!  First up is my take on Julee's Mojo Monday sketch over at the Mojo Monday Blog.  This is the sketch:

 
and my card:
 
 
 
 
 
The piece of patterned paper is from KaiserCraft.
Flower stamps and dies from Verve.
Added some washi tape strips and black plastic dots and it was done!!!
 
 
 
 
Next up is another take on the sketch over at the CAS(E) this Sketch Blog.
The sketch:

 
 
 
 
and my card:
 







Daisy stamp from Verve.  Leaf stamp from a local craft shop, Great Impressions.
Used a doily as stencil to add some texture paste.
Used my Tim Holtz lattice die.
Heat embossed the sentiment on vellum.
Added some scorelines, sequins and black plastic dots.
Afrikaans sentiment saying: 'Congratulations'.


Thanks so much for popping in - your visits and comments are always appreciated!!!!


Have a great day!!!







Monday 11 May 2015

CTS#122



Hi everyone!!!!


Yep, I've spent some time at my craft table again!!!


The sketch over at the CAS(E) this Sketch Blog is a fun one:


 
 
 
This is the card I have made:
 




 
The U-die, the sentiment stamp and the hearts stamp are all from Verve.
Daisy die from MFT.  Diamond die from Tim Holtz.
Added a twine bow and a red rhinestone.  The red rhinestone is part of some lovely goodies my sweet friend, Mynn Kitchen, has sent me.
The tiny blue dots are the little circles cut by the alignment holes on the Verve dies!!!
The dotted paper is a cut-off piece from my stash.



We went hiking again yesterday and some of you might remember that I have in the past taken photo's of my cards next to a stream on the hiking route  (You can see it here and here).  So I took some cards I wanted to photograph, along again, yesterday.
My son took this photo of me photographing my card!!!




I love experimenting with photography and it's a hobby I would really like to master somewhere in future. 

This is a photo of my family we took yesterday:




That will be it from me for today!!!  Thank you so much for popping in - always a pleasure to have you here!!!!
Have a great start to your week!!!!




I've been busy!!!!



Hi everyone!!!!


Oh, boy, can it be that a month and a half has passed since I last did a post??!!!!  But believe me I've been busy!!!  So many times in the past I have said that I want to share with you what I'm busy with when I'm absent from Blogland, and finally now I have taken lots of photo's of projects, other than card making, that I enjoy doing.  Be warned - this is going to be a picture heavy post!!!!  (Apologies for the bad quality of some of these pics!!)


A lot of you will know that I love to knit and crochet so I'm starting off sharing some pics of knitted and crocheted articles.  Some of these are projects I've done in the past and some others I'm still busy with.
These are sweaters I've knitted for the boys.  The top left one I've knitted a month ago and it has taken me six days to complete - I've been a very keen knitter since my school days so I knit very fast after all these years!!!!





These little jerseys I've knitted for charity.  Whenever I've got the time I love to do my bit for charity.
It has to be mailed to Cape Town during the coming week and I'm hoping to do another one before I mail it.






In the line of crochet I'm busy with three blankets at the moment:


This one is for one of my nieces and it's close to finish at this stage.  I've started with it in June last year - it will be big enough for a queen size bed when completed which will hopefully be within a very short time.









This is another charity project - will be the size of a single bed when completed:

 
 
 
 And I love to crochet granny squares so I had to start with a granny square blanket, too!!!!  These will be joined with many others that need to be crocheted still, to cover a queen size bed.  This will also go to a niece of mine.

 
 
 
A big project that has kept me quite busy three weeks ago was these slipcovers I have made for my dining room chairs.  As much as I love burlap, I hate to work with it, but I'm quite happy with the end result.  I've made the little cushions on the chairs, too and done the tablecloth and the overlay with embroidered protea's and pincushions on it.
 
 
 
 
 
 I made some burlap curtains and white roman blinds for the lounge.  I still need to do the tiebacks.  I'm going to use the rope in the pictures, for the tiebacks and I'm going to add burlap and white roses and maybe some raffia.  I know what I want to do, just have to figure how to do it now!!!!!










And now for some smaller projects:
 
I've painted these jars on the inside with white paint.  The little wooden tiles I got at a local stationary shop and I've tied the letters to the jars using some of the twine I use on my cards!!!  The letters spell our surname (Swart) and are the first letters of our names (B,P,T,A).  These jars are on a shelf at the top of the fridge.  And, yes, I still need to make a few paper flowers to put in each jar.

 

 
 


 
  
And look what I've made from air-dry clay, to decorate my fridge:
I think I've got the coolest fridge in the whole of George!!!!!
(Need to make 2 more paper flowers!!)
 





After being frustrated so many times to find my kitchen utensils in an overloaded drawer, my son and I made this  - makes life much easier in the kitchen!!!!!




A cushion:



...and these still need to be put against the wall:




...and this is hanging on the inside of the front door:




Two glass vases I've dressed up with brown paper bags and some burlap and fabric roses:



These I've crocheted for myself, but I have done a few for other people as well:



Some knitted and crocheted cushions on our bed:


 
 
 
These are mason jars dressed up with burlap bags I made:
 



And I love to do this:  flowers in wellies!!!!   There's a small jar in each of the boots to hold the flowers.   (The boots are meant to be so dirty!!!!!) 

 
 
 
 
Some mason jars and banners in the kitchen:





...a mobile - added some Cuttlebug butterflies cut from old book pages!!!

 
 
A crocheted rug:
 
 
 
 
Like a lot of card-makers do, I, too, love to do scrapbooking!!!
Here's a few of my favourite pages I've made recently and in the past (there are many more, but I'll stick to these):
 

 









I love to do mini albums and I'm busy with one I doing with our wedding photos.
 
Oops - can't upload any more photo's to this post!! 
 
And then of cause a mom has to spend some time in the kitchen, too!!!  The boys had their autumn break from school in the beginning of April and I decided to spoil them with some goodies from the kitchen!!!  How do you like Wild Boar Pie with seasonal vegetables, Breakfast scones with bacon and gruyere cheese, served with green fig preserve, Venison meatballs, and Apple pie with fudge sauce to name a few!!!  Yep, I do love to cook and bake, too!!!  Hubby and my eldest son love to go fishing and my son was lucky enough to catch a lovely fish on one of these outings.  We did the fish in the oven and made a lovely onion, butter, white wine and cream sauce to enjoy with it  (the recipe for the sauce we got from a sjef at a local hotel).  I  made some savoury rice and steamed butter green beans and carrots to go with it and we had a feast!!!!  I've even taken a photo of how I served the fish, but I can't load it - sorry!!!
 
 
For those of you who are still here:  thank you so much for allowing me to share some of my creative world with you!!!!!  I've got some more photo's I would have loved to share, but maybe next time!!!!  So next time I disappear from Blogland, you will know that I'm busy with some creative stuff!!!!  Very often I don't really plan to take a break from Blogland - I just get busy with some other things and end up being carried away with what I'm busy with!!! 
 
 
And now I've got some blogvisits to do and I have a CTS card to share  -  will be back with that shortly!!!  
 
 
Thank you so much for the visit and have a great day!!!
Keep well!!!
 
Kind regards
Petra