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Johannesburg, South Africa
I am mother to four and my wonderful dil Lisa recently blessed us with our first grandchild. I share my life with my indulgent husband, and my love of hobbies

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Mo's dp 2 challenge dt



As we gear down from the festive hype we at Mo's challenge blog thought it would be a nice change to look back over the last years projects made using a Mo image and select our favourites, so this week its easy peasy, look thorugh the cards you have made using a Mo image and select your favourite to join our challenge this week.

Mine has gotta be this "Summer fairy Finna" that i used to create a reflection with.
Will be back later with pics of my new craft space, just trying to get sorted so you dont have to see the transition, lol
smiles
Paola

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Mo's dp 2 challenge dt

Can you believe i am getting an early start today to posting for our latest challenge on Mo's challenge blog, this week its "punches and or die cuts"  I know you all have loads of dies or punches stashed in those drawers so time to play.
I wasnt gonna make a card for this weeks challenge as i had forgotten how difficult it is to find "Me" time with the kids home and they seem to have become more demanding this year than ever before or perhaps its just that the house is so big that the demands of cleaning have become more thatn i anticipated.  So yesterday i managed to find a couple of hours to myself and made a card for the challenge.
I love this image, Big girl pants available here,  as it so reminds me of my girls dressing up  in my own clothes at the end of the day when i get into the shower, they try on my clothes and i just love watching them prounce around, lol.
I couldnt come up with a quirky sentiment so didnt add one, the die cut i used is a nestie label that i cut in half to add on the corners to string my ribbon through, and i used an Xcut die doorplate to cut my image, love this shape.  And unfortunately i dont recall what die the flourish is as i take my things out of the boxes when i unpack my new items.
I hope you will join our challenge as it is an easy peasy one this week
smiles
Paola

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Paper Shelter challenge and Winner

first i would like to announce the winner of our blog hop from those that commented on my card:
the winner is Shanna : 
Shannah said...
Wow - what a gorgeous image - and you've coloured it beautifully! I'm so glad I dropped in to The Paper Shelter today - what a happy surprise to see all these fab creations! Hugs, Shannah xox if you would like to claim your free digi pls go to the Paper shelter challenge blog  and click on the email Elf in the left sidebar to email them directly to claim your prize.
On to our challenge for this week its The lace look, as you all know by now i love lace, flowers and all the pretty frilly girly things.
The paper i used is from Prima and Marianne design paper bloc.  After using my long rectangle nestie to frame my image i had to just add the teeny tiny pearls around the edge to keep the soft feminine feel of my card.
the image i used is "in the 20's" avaialble from here, and colored with my trusty copics. Do join us for our challenge and good luck to you al. Before i go i would like to wish all my friends and followers a Blessed festive season and a fabulous new year.  May the best of this year be the worst in the year to come. smiles Paola

Monday, December 19, 2011

Tomic challenge 29

wow, time is passing my by so quickly and we have a new challenge for you on TOMIC "A symphony of snowflakes in Purple"
I gotta admit that i am just not a fan of purple, but i must say that stretching my limits seems to be quite good for me as i love how this image turned out in purple.
i also got to use a fair amount of glittah on my snow which made me very happy, i can never get enough glittah!!  All my edges got the going over with craft paint that i added impasto paste to so that once dry it would lose its dimension and then added all my glittah in layers over the impasto.
Images:  Tilda with Fir tree, miscellaneous fir trees
inks:  copics and memento tuxedo black
all the punched out snow flakes are various ones that i have had in my stash forever
rhinestones also from the never ending stash, as is the ribbon.
have a great week
smiles
Paola

Saturday, December 17, 2011

merry Christmas:

 i made this card for Magnolia Sweden and since it didnt make the grade for the magazine and get published i thought i would share it here on my blog.  i dont often use Edwin, but i found this fabulous paper that suited the image so well that i just had to make this card.
 this fold is one i havent seen anyone else besides myself use and its called a dbl display you can find the template for it on my regular blog :HERE
 my bff Barb sent me these darling little Christmas lights some time ago and they were also begging to be used.
i hope you like the card and give the dbl display a go, if you do decide to use the template pls link back to me
smiles
Paola
i havent really given my Marvellous Maggies blog as much love and attention as i would like to, so i think that would make a good new years resolution once the new year comes around.
I decided to make this magic box that i first saw on my friend Barb's blog, boy i was awe struck, then she told me she had first seen it on Cabio's blog, sure you can figure that very few things are "ours" to claim we invented, this blogging bit is all about sharing knowledge and know how.
this box on a scale of 1>10 was about a 3, so dont be intimidated, try it.  The only thing that took me an age was coloring all the images and deciding what i was gonna put into it.
this is gonna be a present for an elderly friend of mine Jean, i am gonna fill it with flowers and flat backed pearls since i have an over abundance of both, she also crafts and celebrates Christmas so i am sure will appreciate the work and thought that went into this aswell as the little crafty treats i fill it with.
stamps:  Tilda with fir tree, Tilda with snowheart, winter Tilda dn something for you, star Tilda, Angel Tilda, sitting with glitter, vintage Tilda

punches and ie cuts:  nesties, ek success punch and a few miscellaneous flourishes
Other: lots of stickles, liquid applique, flower soft, flat backed pearls and garlands
Paper: MME and basil basics, cryogen white
have a great week
smiles
Paola

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Mo's dp 2 challenge dt

not much new here my friends, here i am late again for our challenge on Mo's digital pencil challenge blog, this week i have a really good excuse "Its my birthday"
so i have been at the hairdressers most of the day and clean forgot to do my post before i set out for my appointment today.
Ok now our fabulous challenge this week is "the fabric of our lives"  Boy was this a chllenge for me, expecially as my mojo has taken a bit of a knock being out of crafting for soooo long and only now getting back into the swing of things.  Well despair not!  i found this fabulous sheer crinolene whch i thought would make great flowers.

They wouldnt punch out and i nearly broke the punch trying, so i cut them with a few nestie dies, pierced a hole into the centre with my piercing tool and heated them with the heat gun, they curled beautifully once the heat hit them and then i just popped a pearl brad in the centre.  Then i decided to add some dry brushed puff paint to the flowers which really did it for me.
the image used is a newish one from Mo, snow day available here, colored with my trusty copics and added lots of stickles to highlight the snow.  the paper is old from MME, but a fab Christmas paper and its nearly finished.
thats it for me today, i am off to have dinner with my family, and have my cake and eat it! lol
smiles
Paola

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Mo's dp 2 challenge dt

running behind schedule so it must mean that i am back to crafting full time, lol.  My kids broke school yesterday for the end of the year and summer vacation so it just means i have a lot of distractions.
for my card this week i am using Angel with puppy (c) available in Mo's store, i got this image last year from Mo's and i just loved using it, cant get enough of Mo's artwork and my cards using her images are always so well recieved.  I colored my Angel with copics and gave her wings a good going over with stickles start dust.  This paper is from Joy crafts, but we also have a local company in SA who call themselves Upikit using the same papers, go figure?  Our challenge on Mo's challenge blog is tags and banners, well i dont have a die for banners so i just cut my own.  I stitched around the edges of my papers for added interest, added some rhinestones to the corners.
No card of mine feels complete without a few flowers, so i added them to the corners, these flowers are available from WOC, but locally in SA i supply them too, cant bear the price of postage from Uk so for me it just makes sense to have something of equal value locally.  The ribbon slider is one of those cheap and nasty plastic ones, but i do think it looks quite classy with the ribbon strung acorss my card.
Do go and check out the inspiration the rest of the team have for you on the challenge blog.
smiles
Paola

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Paper shelter birthday blog hop!!

Good Morning fellow crafters and welcome to The Paper Shelter Blog Hop. Our hop is a very exciting one for all of us at it is in celebration of our 1st Birthday!!!! If you have landed here from Carol's blog then you're heading in the right direction - if not then you'll want to head on back to The paper shelter to start again, as you'll not want to miss out on this one! Our Design Team have worked very hard and are showcasing the gorgeous images available from The paper shelter Website and each blog on the hop is offering one lucky commenter a digi of their choice as well as the main prize, details of which are on The Paper Shelter Challenge Blogspot.
 for my card today i am using the Winter Princess available Here from The Paper Shelter, colored her with a variety of different blue copic combos.   i added loads of puff paint for her trim on the cloak and clothing and loads of glittah! a girls gotta have sparkle and then i punched out the snowflakes using various punches and added a few rhinestones for additional bling.  Lastly a ribbon acorss my card with a snowflake charm that i bought at the NEC a couple of years back.


From here you will need to hop on over to Kim's blog.   Don't forget to leave your comment for a chance of winning your choice of one of the fab digis available in store.
Hop! Hop! Hop!
Good luck and hope you're enjoying it so far.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

blonde moment but I'M BACK!!!

Yes i am naturally blonde, but i dont suppose that could be an excuse.  I promised that i would have a card for Mo's challenge this week, and i did, only problem is that i didnt load it to the dt group, duh!
so first off i want to share the first card i have made in almost two months and encourage you to join the challenge on Mo's challenge blog with the theme being "outdoors" this week, Mo has the best images out there and these talented girls have loads of inspiration to share.  So this is my contribution that i forgot to load.
This is where i see your eyes glaze over in boredom, so if you dont like browsing around other people's homes this is where you want to leave my blog.
As you've heard me going on and on about my great move to our new house i thought i would share a few pics since we are kinda settling in.


our fab new kitchen, if i tell you the last one was the size of a closet so this is just heaven to me, just excuse the husband looking like a gansta in my kitchen with his mouth full, lol

then we have my living room, with one of my tv addict kids on the sofa.



on to my bedroom and en suite bathroom.


the stunning garden that my children are supposed to play in, we didnt have a large enough garden for the kids in the condo we used to live in so this is a real treat, now to figure out how to get them out of the living room.



last but not least, my make shift craftroom as you can see from these pics the new one is in the process of being built, cant wait for them to get finished


wish i had thought of taking before pics, before they started the building and bashing and rebuilding, but sure you gonna love how it is gonna look when i get sorted.
thats it friends, i am so pleased to be back blogging and just had to get a makeshift craftroom sorted so that i wasnt mia for any longer than neccessary, see you all soon
smiles
Paola

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

taking time out for me

Ok things are really heating up in this house, the move is now inevitable and boxes are appearing all over the place, i am still sanding and renovating a few old pieces of furniture thats gotta look new for the new house and my husband is planning a business trip to China the week of the move.  If you are wondering how he can leave me with a house to move and three kids, imagine a screaming lunatic with more to do than one person can cope with and you get a pretty good picture of why he can decide to escape the move, lol.
So after sanding down a seat for the girls room and not having much joy today as the sander has now decided to give up the ghost so i gotta go get a new one tomorrow, i sat my weary toosh down and decided to make a card with an image that i have had colored for quite a while and enter it into the challenge on Sassy Cheryls blog  where the challenge is to use pink and a die cut.

I have certainly used pink and my die cut is a spellbinder that i used to mat my image.
Have a great week
smiles
Paola
P.S:  As we are all aware it is breast cancer awareness month and there is a new challenge called link up for pink in a breast cancer awareness campaign. so i am using my card to link up to the challenge as for those that know me will know this is a cause very close to my heart, perhaps later today i will be brave enough and share My story on my blog.  

Monday, October 10, 2011

Tomic challenge 19

A nice new easy cahllenge for those Magnolia fans on TOMIC this week, use a doohickey and a seated image on your creation.
I have decided to use Edwin with butterfly from the butterfly dreams collection for my card, i colored hime with copics and just totally enjoyed using an Edwin for a change, the poor dears are so neglected as we all go for girls first, but this time i had to play with this little darling.
My dear friend Barb made cards like this a few weeks ago and i loved the design of the circle folded in half to make a rocker card, so cased this idea from her.  Also those tiles that you see looking very much like scrabble pieces i actually downloaded and you can find out about them HERE
i used the flourish doohickey for my card, added some star brads that i inked to give them a more masculine feel, ribbon from my stash and some gauze from my medicine cabinet.
On the inside of my card i used another of the doohickeys a vintage tag and added some paint around the edges and a couple of butterflies to tie the whole lot together.
have a wonderful week
smiles
Paola