Every year we make loads of promises to ourselves to get more organized around the holidays and festive season. And each year we forget to take photos of the little moments, the big moments and life kind of just gallops away. 

 So this year I am getting all organized – yes I am on a mission! Since Christmas in South Africa is normally a fun festive and HOT occasion, I wanted to use summery colours, and the first thing that came to mind was the new Project Life kit “Hi Sunshine”. So I simply dressed them up to have a festive look and threw in some mixed media products to alter them with a little more personality and oomph. So now all I need to do is take those photos and get my pages done before Jan 1st!

 Card 1
For this card I used a Prima stencil and added the Opaque modelling paste through the stencil in the left hand corner of my card. The reindeer head is a jpg. image I cut on the Silhouette in smooth black American Crafts cardstock and then misted with Gold Leaf Color Bloom mist. Once the modelling paste was dry I inked over the top with a finger dauber and some brown ink to highlight the texture.

Card 2
For this car I added 3 little triangles using the modelling paste through a Heidi Swapp stencil. The bottom half of the card has a Christmas phrase and some red polka dot paper cut from another PL card.

things are slowly getting back to normal and into some kind of routine after a hectic 2 weeks of traveling, teaching, parties and more scrapbooking events. but it's all good and i love it. the only negative is that you have to get back into normal/diet eating habits, design team responsibilities that have gone astray along the way and the mundane like washing and packing the dish washer.but God has been good and this year seems to be better than the last couple. God is good in so many little ways and then in so many miracle BIG ways. I think it also has to do with a change of mindset from my side. i will no longer be abuse and used and take a back seat to those who think they are better than everyone. we all deserve a piece of the sun! one of the projects i have done lately and am  very proud of is a specially designed mixed media canvas for Scrapbook Studio JBay's Retreat. I love how this canvas turned out. it started off slow and then turned into this thing i love with all my heart - it's amazing what paint and Mister Huey inks can do for the soul!

the base of the canvas consists of patterned papers that are covered up in a process of layering. the girls were totally freaked out but in the end the result was spectacular. some punched flowers with beaded centers.

beautiful prima flowers for a touch of the unexpected

old rusty nails straight from the farm shed combined with delicate ribbon and lace

hope you have a wonderful creative week filled with blessings. i am blessed each and every day! 

my totally messed up story is worth telling....this is what scrapbooking is doing for me this week!

It’s the month of love, the month of red and white and pink, of eating overpriced chocolates and flaunting ridiculously priced red roses – yip it’s Valentine’s month. Sad that we haven’t cotton onto the idea of celebrating love each and every month, each and every day of our lives, instead we wait for the one month to publicly and privately declare our love to each other. I have learned early in my life that it’s the little things, the seemingly unimportant things that show real love. The things that money can’t buy but that comes straight from the heart and sometimes even the hand. 

For Valentine’s Day I made this little canvas decorated with lots of colour and texture. I started off by adhering some DoCrafts patterned paper to the base using gel medium. I then used a stencil and texture paste to add a pattern directly onto the paper. Then it was time to add some colour using Mr Huey inks. I combined pink, silver, gold and white mist onto the canvas and left the inks to dry naturally. The decorating part was the most fun – I used a combination of different Petaloo flowers to form a dimensional corner on the canvas. As a finishing touch I added some DoCrafts tags and punch outs and chipboard letters. This is a really simple project but loads of fun playing with colour and texture. To create the dimension using my flowers I adhered everything on the canvas using 3D glue dots, this way I could adhere the flowers and then manipulate them until the glue dot settled.

i love the texture and colours variations on these beautiful Petaloo blooms...simply delicious

a docrafts tag peeking out from underneath the layers of flowers

more blooms in reds ...

this little guy or girl has been done for a while now. It is a box canvas measuring 3 x 4 x 4 inches. I used some left over pieces of clay to complete it and then just added a few new pieces. It really is a mixture of colours and textures and i love it. The inspiration for the piece came from the old and worn door handles i discovered while clearing out the store room. they used to be gunmetal but now are silver, gun metal and rust. the face is a mold i made years ago after returning from Ranger.
copper and bronze UTEE mixed and poured into the mould for the face...

Thanks to Laurie Mika for the inspiration of her mixed media art works! This project is right up there with the best things in life - having fun and being creative. Thanks to the girls for playing with clay, the coffee, the chats, the inspiration, the free goodies and for just being there! We have had so much fun creating these canvasses - and using a lot of stamps and things long forgotten.

I'm not sure if this canvas will be in this golden frame fro sure...there may be another creation in a different colour for this one, but it will definitely be frame and hung soon...like today once it is totally dry.