Scarlet Lime Layouts

I made these two layouts using my Scarlet Lime May kit. I love the bright colours!

Now I'm going to eat a tasty plate of hot supper and snuggle up with the kids under a blankie in front of the TV!

I feel so blessed and my heart ache when I think of the homeless who have to be outside in the cold tyonight! I pray that God will protect them and that He will also lead my path to cross those who I can help in whatever way needed.

Hope you all had a blessed weekend too! :)

Hugs

Michelle

Slip and Slide

I made this paper layout two weekends ago but I'm only getting around to posting it now. There is another one I made then as well but the photos I took of it came out all blurry so I'll have to redo it and post it later.


I bought a couple of the core'dinations cardstock a while ago and couldn't wait to start playing with it. It's simply amazing what beautiful effects you get when you distress this cardstock! I couldn't stop mysself and just had to distress the entire page.

I've done some paper scrapping!

At long last after so many weeks of not having time to even look at my stash I scrapped all day yesterday! I finished a layout for Kim Watson's challenge # 8:We had to do a 80-somehting lo and I decided to do one about a little song and dance show me and my friends did way back in 1982 when I was only 12 yo!

I also finished another lo and I'm busy working on another but can't get to upload it now - will try to do it later today.

I love to see what other girls do with my designs! Just look at this pretty layout and cards that Jacinda made with some of my designs:
Thanks for sharing your work with us Jacinda! Visit her blog (Digi Kiwi Chick) to check out more of her fabulous work!

I'll be back later to show off some more!

Hugs
Michelle

Our Shangri-la

Skulls are very much the “in thing” at the moment. From kids to adult clothing, homeware and yes – even scrapbooking - there are skulls everywhere you look! For us (Leon and I) skulls have a bit of a deeper meaning than just a fashion fad. We found our little piece of heaven on earth – our Shangri-la – at the Skeleton Coast of Namibia.

Leon has been going there on fishing trips for over 20 years now and he is so much in love with that place! His entire being changes when he talks about it. I couldn’t really understand what he was going on about until he took me there for the first time. It’s something you have to experience for yourself – no word (in my limited English vocabulary at least) can describe the beauty of the desert and the ocean there!! We would love to retire there one day.

This is my layout that I made with this set:

I made this friendly skully set with our Shangri-la in mind. Hope you will be able to use it too. The set consists of:
2 x plain cardstock with inked edges (black and white)
2 x patterned paper with a skully design
2 x skully charms (with and without ring)

1 x skully lace paper
1 x torn and distressed cardboard skully
1 x plain skully
1 x brown paper skully
1 x distressed skully strip

1 x journaling block
3 x plastic embellies to cheer up your skully page (crown, heart, flower)

This is what it looks like from up close: If you like it, you can download the set here: (link expired)
Be sure to visit my blog because in a day or two I will a matching alphabet ready for you – similar to the one in my layout but each letter will be separate.

Enjoy!
Michelle

That's why I love scrapbooking challenges ...

It get's you going when your mojo goes AWOL! Thanks Kim for your latest challenge. We had to use this sketch by Becky Fleck:
Here is my LO for the challenge: Now I think it's time for another freebie - I haven't done one in what - 2 weeks - I think! I'm busy working on it and all I'm gonna say for now is that it's something that I promised I would do when I posted my second freebie. You'll just have to come back again later to see! ;o)

I love these kids!

I finished my LO for Kim's challenge #5 - at last!

She called for:

1. Arrows - I created mine from a heart and a strip of flowers

2. B & W photo - mine is a combination

3. Journal block

4. Stamped title - isn't digital actions the best! It looks so real doesn't it?

5. Frame - Love this frame made by Katie PertietCredit:

Carolinna Rom - BG paper

Kitty Chen - Elements (modified)

Atomic Cupcake - actions

Katie Pertiet - vintage frame

Fonts - Black Jack, Clingy

A bright, pink freebie for a cold, grey day!

I know that the Northern Hemisphere is in the middle of Summer and there's no sign of greyness but here in my world it is cold and grey today. The sun only showed it's pretty face for a wee bit this afternoon but now it's grey again ... and cold ... bitterly cold. Definitely the coldest day so far this winter.

It's Saturday so I don't really mind the cold. I can stay indoors and play with pixels all day long! Photoshop is so amazing and I can colour my world any way I want!. I decided that pink would be perfect to give colour to my grey day. Here is the LO that I made. I just love this photo of Celine!
You're welcome to join in the pink happiness and download my Pretty in Pink set here (link expired) for free .
Enjoy! :)

We Love Sushi!

Yay! I've got another day off from work to play! Play wiht my kids, play with photoshop and just do the things that I love! Freedom!

I made a page about our love for sushi. Yes - we all love it - including the kids!
I made the textured japanese paper myself and just because I'm in a giving mood you can have it if you want! You can download the full 12 x 12 paper as well as the bracket cut paper here. (link expired)


Enjoy!

M

Another Freebie!

When I first saw Lace Paper I was soooo thrilled! What a great idea to have diecut paper in all sorts of beautiful shapes and colours! I've used real paper Lace Paper on a couple of LO's already and always wondered if I'll be able to recreate it digitally. I just had to give it a go. For my first attempt was I used numbers and I love how it turned out. Can't wait to do the same with flowers and hearts and stars and ... well ... whatever tickles my mojo! :) Here's a LO that I made with the very first digi lace paper that I made.

Numbers are always usefull, so I hope you'll enjoy using it as much as I did creating it.

Click on the picture or here to go to the download link where you can download all 4 papers at once.

The file is rather big so if you prefer, you can download each paper individually:

(sorry - all link have expired)

Orange Number Lace Paper

Pink-Red Number Lace Paper

Plum Number Lace Paper

Turkois Number Lace Paper

All I ask in return is that you share your lo's with me once you've used it - pretty please!



Love

Michelle

My very first freebie!

I promised you a freebie so here it is - my very first digi freebie! I know it's not much but hey, I'm getting there. I was so inspired by the little clouds on the ad in Kim Watson's challenge #4 that I decided to make my own in PS and while I did it I decided to share it with whoever likes it.


Here is the LO I made for her challenge inspired by that gorgeous Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream ad. Part of the challenge was to make a LO about desert. I decided to use this photo of Marco - taken a couple of years ago. The history behind the photo is as follows: My mom makes a devine chocolate sauce and everytime she makes it, my kids fight over who gets to "lick the pot". Needless to say - on this day Marco won the fight and I took this photo when he was finished "licking the pot". Notice the chocolate sauce all over his face - even on his forehead!!! Translated the title means "Granny Anna's chocolate sauce is heavenly!"



Now on to the freebie as promised. Click on the picture or here (link expired) to download all the clouds - transparent and white - as well as the brackety notebook paper that I used as the background. Hope you like it. If you use it - please let me know so I can see!

The man of my dreams! :)

I made this LO yesterday for Challenge #3 on Kim's blog. We had to use 2 different sized photos and bling. The bling thing was harder than I thought it would be! I didn't add a lot of bling but there are a couple of shiny thingys here and there. You can see a couple of more close-up shots in my SIS galery as proof!

Mirror album and more!

I know, I know - I'm probably not supposed to change the entire look of my blog after only a week but I did - cause I can and cause I wanted to. I'll probably change it every week untill get bored with creating new banners. Until then - expect the unexpected :)

I got my new cellphone on Friday – a HTC S710. Still trying to figure it all out. It’s much more complex than my old Nokia but I'm impressed with what I saw so far. At least I could post on my blog from it last night - better than what I can say about the PC in my living room - the one that Noah forgot to take with him when he went into the ark!

I finished my Mirror Album that we started in Heidi Swapp’s class at the Scrapbooking Convention on 1/5/2008. At last! I didn’t have a lot of time to scrap in the meantime and I really wanted to spend quality time with this one. Heidi presented a wonderfully inspiring class. The theme of the album is “to my heart be true”. A lot of introspection went into making this – not just your standard mini album! Although I used her basic concept, I customised it to suit my style and personality. Almost everything I used to make this album are from Heidi’s new product range. I absolutely love all her new stuff – from the beautiful patterned paper to the chandelier crystals! You can see the entire album on my SIS gallery (34 pictures!)

I feel so absolutely blessed today - for no particular reason. Just because I'm healthy and happy. I have my kids with me and I feel rich, so very rich, because I have Jesus Christ in my life! :)

Yay - I managed to post again!

I've been struggling to post since Monday night! There's something wrong with my internet browser on my home PC or something - grrr - sooooo frustrating.

Anyway - I'm on my work PC now - so here's a quick update:

Monday: 16/6/08 - I enjoyed a wonderfully peaceful public holiday with Leon. Went for a fun drive in the Vredefort Dome near Parys where he lives. Such a beautiful area! I took a couple of photos at the Vaal River and on our way back we saw some Giraffe at a game farm - he had to stop so I could snap them. (sorry - I didn't save the photos of the Giraffe on my memory stick - will post later)

Back at home I saw a butterfly in the garden and since I was in picture taking mode, I ran for my camera and my new macro lens and took some more snaps. When the butterfly decided to take of, I decided to get up close and personal with the lavenders! :)

I made this digi layout for Kim's Challenge #2 on her site . I so wanted to do a paper lo for this one but since I was nowhere near my stash I had to opt for digi. Still tried to stick with the elements that she called for though - multiple pics, ink/paint and stitching.

Tuesday: 17/6/08 - Spent the day (not so peacefully!) at work. Took the kids out to dinner to celebrate Michael's b-day. Spent the rest of the evening struggling to get my PC to cooperate - grrr!

So - now it's Wednesday already and I feel like the week is running away with me! Just got great news from Kim - I won the RAK for her challenge #2! Yay! I needed some good news! Thanks Kim! Your next challenge sounds great too. I love bling but never use it on my lo's - think I'm going to go all out with this one! Watch this space! :) :) :)

I took the leap!

I've done it! After many months - even years - of contemplating whether or not to do the blogging thing, I took the leap today and started to set up my blog.

I'm totally overwhelmed with all the options and all the other beautiful blogs out there.

The aim of my blog is to be a showcase for all my creative efforts as well as to keep my friends and family part of my life in our always-on-the-go lifestyle.

Please feel free to leave comments - I would love to hear from you!

I also plan to share some of my digital creations so look out for a digi freebie from time to time.

First of all I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my big boy! It's Michael's 13th birthday today. I can't believe he's a teenager already! He's not with me today but that's allright cause he's with his dad (on fathers day) and doing what he loves most in life - fishing in the ocean!

I want to share this wonderfully inspirational and arty site I found - http://www.webdesignerwall.com/ So beautiful to look at - absolutely great web design!

Here's a LO I did today for a challenge on The Design eXperiment - you have to do a lo about your favourite word.

I'm on a roll here today! I did another quick digi lo inspired by an old photo of Marco when he was about 4 years old. I love this photo - he's got such a stunning smile don't you think?

Hugs
Michelle