Greetings 

Wanted to share quickly what I have been up to today.  Yes colouring again ....well these actually took me the whole week to colour but were finally put onto cards today!

These are both for a challenge over at OUTLAWZ in the group Alcahol markers. The theme was  Weddings or anniversaries, I had this little image by sliekje stamps her digi's are all so very cute and I cant believe that she has them all freely available on her blog, she is a gift herself to share her talented so freely! Thank you!! 

For this card I pulled out the old cuttle bug and made a piece of lace which I threaded white ribbon thru,  the little fern leaf that I use so so often to make the little leaves either side of the roses broke today, it is one of my oldest punches, and also one of my favourites.  It made lovely little Christmas trees and added the perfect little sprig of greenery to any bouquet.  I will miss you my beloved punch! I coloured the darling little couple with Copics not too happy with her hair, and the shading on her dress didn't come out at all, so I need to make a note to work on those two things in future, mastering blondes and taking photos of copic white clothing!
Otherwise I like this card it is very gentle!

I coloured this couple with Copics and then made a little arch of roses, I used peel off bells as I have no idea where in the towers of boxes of my stash in the garage are my real little bells - I would have loved to have used them rather.  These two little honeys are Wedding Daisy and Dylan digital delights by louby loo.

Thanks again so much for taking the time to read my post and visit my blog, as always any comments or questions are welcome and appreciated!

I am off to make 50 cupcakes for my daughters for school tomorrow - YAY YAY its break up day YAY YAY!!!

Till next time keep it Crafty

Greetings,

I have been colouring up a copic storm of late, I still don't know where lots of my stash is, buried somewhere in boxes in the garage, I find bits and pieces now and then and its like Christmas with each thing I find!  So copics are easy, they are all in an Art Bin suitcase (with no magnetic sheets) and I can print out what I need and pop them in the case, I can colour in the car, I can colour in the dining room, in front of the TV, or even in bed ;) a thought just popped in my head ... couild Copic also be a verb for eg. "do you Copic in bed?" hmmm interesting ... back on track now- so for the few competitions and challenges I have entered recently I have used a coloured image on a different background. 

So I will share a couple of my pics and cards with you, I have so enjoyed playing with these fabulous pens but as you will no doubtly see I still have a very far way to go, lots to learn!!  I have put my name down for a colouring class with Copic Australia but as yet they havn't got back to me, so what you are about to see is my self taught attempt at Colouring with Copics.

 This cute little Koala is an image I got from Digital Delights by Louby Loo and it is called  Ice cream Roxy it is such a cute little bear, it was for a challenge on the outlawz and the theme was ice cream.  I really liked how the sand cam out i just tore a piece of scrap card and it worked so well, as luck would have it if i tried that again on purpose i probably couldn't do it again ....

 This card is one I made for my nephew in South Africa who loves his soccer, I did a step card with the player upfront and the net on the third step it didn't work out exactly as I had envisioned it but I liked it none the less! I 3D'd the right boot and the ball with foam squares,  I got the image off the internet it was a colouring page that i found.

This one is a Penny Black image it is so beautiful as it so clearly depicts the love between a girl and her dad! I really like the way I did his denims I was a little nervous to try a denim but  really like the way it turned out, now I have to work on taking better photos lol.  This one was for a challenge that Copic Aus was hosting for the koala Kids with cancer foundation where they donated $10 for each card they received in for the challenge to the foundation, as well as all the cards that were entered had to be get well cards and they too werte given to the children.  A totally worthwhile attempt at an amazing prize - that I didn't win :( 75 Copics to the winner OMG I would still be celebrating :)

This cuty was also made for the Copic challenge, it is also a Penny Black called up up and away, I love this image she and the little bear are too cute for words.  I coloured her in very pastel shades and did my best to make her look a little vintage, I know the photo doesn't capture it that well.

 This one is Dr Marci from La La Land Crafts, she is a cutie but not one of my absolute favourites, she doesn't have that cupi (sp) doll look, or those precious Mabel Lucie Atwell qualities that I seem to be so fond of - and apparently have been since I was a little child.  But she is cute and I love all the different Marci characters so there may be a couple more in the future :)

This is one of my favourite digi's and sadly the blog I got it off no longer exsists, I  I think if I not mistaken it was called something like mijnstemples.blogspot.com I wish I knew what had happened because then I could credit these lovely images, If anyone knows any more details, please share!  She has such a sweet darling little face and the lines in the drawing are so fine, its a really lovely artist and very easy to colour, I also made this card for the copic challenge.

This nooni (colleen for cute) little fairy is a Penny Black, I love fairy's and think I will always.  There is something so playful and innocent about them and it is for that reason that I find fairy's such a sweet escape.  This cute little lady is from the Fairy sweet collection, her friends in the collection are just as nooni :)

This card is not coloured but it handmade and for those of you who are not fluent in reading hebrew, it says Shabbat Shalom, I made it for friends we went to for Friday night supper, the little candles are symbolic, but the rest of the card was just pretty :) I made an easle card and decorated the bottom with a simple rose and left space for the message.  It was really well received.

If you have managed to get to here I thank you for taking this time to read this long post, and look at what keeps me busy - sometimes during the day but mostly during the night LOL. I will dedicate a post to my night crafting soon as its a rather lot I have to say! 





If you have any questions or comments about my work I would be only to happy reply.  




Till next time Keep it Crafty 

Greetings,

 

In a desperate attempt to keep me and my three year old interested in our busywork activity of the day, I cam up with such a cool idea.  He loved it and I loved it because it was a medium very different to the ones we usually work with.  When we moved to Australia (gosh almost 6 months ago) on our first grocery shopping trip I was faced with so many strange brands and really odd looking packaging.

 

How do you buy food in a foreign country? Do you buy the most expensive - it must be the best...? Or do you go with the cheapest - less money wasted if it turns out to be awful? I usually go somewhere in the middle, I am a real sceptic when it comes to home brands / no name brands but here in Aus it seems that Woolworths offers two brands one is their Home Brand and the other their Select brand, so far I have been really impressed with most of the select brand goods BUT ...... There are still some areas that I am just not prepared to budge .... things that spring to mind are Tastic Rice, All Gold tomato and onion gravy, Royal Baking Powder, and spray n cook. 

 

 

I didn't know how easily accessible these things were here in Melbourne, and settled for some strange brands when doing our first grocery shop.  Rice was one of those things that I purchased as it is a staple in our family,  it goes with so many dishes I make, but as said above it has to be TASTIC rice.  When my MIL came back from a trip to South Africa she bought me two bags of this treasured ingredient, YAY we could eat normal tastic rice again!!!  

This left me with a smile of note but also some left over (not mentioning brand names) rice! I thought of donating it to the cooking class at one of my daughters schools but with all the hygiene policies (we cant even donate old toilet rolls or egg boxes to school) in place I didn't even try, so Ben and I divided up all the rice into plastic bags and we put a drop of gel food colouring into each one and shook shook shook - this was a whole bundle of fun on its own! We made music while shaking and shook in fancy ways and silly ways and had a good laugh.

Our coloured rice, so pretty!

 Then we left it overnight to soak in a little in the hopes that when we used it the next day it wouldn't colour our fingers too much! I decided on a cold / craft glue for our project, it was very thick and didn't have good spread ability so i diluted it a smidge with some water, we applied it with a plastic knife.  I drew an outline onto a 260gsm piece of cardstock with a permanent marker, I chose an ice cream with big easy to fill shapes.  Ben applied a little glue to each section and then sprinkled on his colour choice of rice.  

It came out perfectly and he really enjoyed it, I had to giggle because true his boyish nature, half way through he decided that the lifting and placing of the rice needs a sound effect, so we had a crane lifting the rice ... he is too cute!

Ben with his [r]ice cream picture

So I highly recommend making yourself a batch of coloured rice, its cheap easy and supplied loads of creative fun!  Any questions ... happy to answer them :)

Oh and we have lots left over for another project, I am thinking glitter..... Christmas ..... hmmmm this could be a-whole-nother project all together.

Till next time keep Crafty

Greetings Friends

I just thru my eleven year old a Grease party, she is so hooked on the movie she watches it at least once a week usually twice or three times.  I loved this movie a child and even as an adult it has to still be one of my favourite movies! It is a true classic!!

Being me, as I do, I had to turn it into an occasion to craft - Firstly I designed some invites not too fancy and then just 3D'd the logo below onto the front of the invite, I was not sure what the party / invite protocall is here in Oz as it is my first party :) I received some really lovely comments back from some of the moms about the invites so at least I was on the right track ....

 Next came the cake and the decorations, it is absolutely amazing what you can find on the internet and what you can find in every state except the one you live in, I found a lovely party shop online that happened to be in Brisbane, but with a while to go till the party I took a chance and ordered some really amazing Grease theme decor from them - their prices were the best in fact FAR cheaper than anyone else i found and the service was good too - if you are looking for party supplies you need to visit OzPartyShop! 

We hired a couple of costumes - not too many just a jacket for bad sandy and then good sandy's cheerleader outfit. We went to costume world for these and that was also a good experience - just remember to take a credit card, and your drivers license with!

Bad Sandy Good Sandy and Dani Zuko in the middle.

 

Bad Sandy all dressed and Dani Zuko in PJ's.

The prettiest Good Sandy and the party decorations.

Next I had to make a card for the birthday girl, keeping with the grease theme I made her a card, with her favorite scene from Grease - bad sandy at the end.  Singing her best song You're the one that I want! I found the perfect picture at squigglefly I love their stuff and they always have the odd cute digi's for under $1 so when you have done your shopping and want to just round off you can grab a bargain.  These were two separate images Heartthrob Ritchie and Dazzling Sue, They were really fun to colour lots of area to work in, I would like to be able to take credit for the "shine" in her pants and his shoes but I cant :( the awsome patent leather effect is thanks to Glossy Accents.

 

The coloured images for the card.

Once coloured I cut the images out and stuck them on card that I had pre printed with a random funfair image I found on google.  I really love the effect and i think this has to be one of my favourite cards :) You know that feeling you get when you make a card and it just "works" this is one of those! 

The completed card.

 Then came the cake!! In South Africa I did so many cakes and cookies with edible prints on that I eventually bought my own edible paper and printer, I would have loved to have put some of the images onto the cake that I had used on the invitation, but do you think we could find the edible paper .... NO!  I have the printer, the ink cartridges and a head FULL of ideas, but no paper.  We still have so much to unpack, our garage is still full of, well um ..... my craft stuff ;)  So not being able to print a Grease logo for the cake I had to improvise so I just rolled out a piece of plastic icing, drew the outline of the logo onto it and then coloured it in,  It came out quite well, not as neat as I would have got from the printer, but that wasn't an option.  

Painting the logo with edible paint.

I cut out music notes and records out of icing and made some stars on florists wire, I had about 2.5 hours to make this cake from start to finish and I did it, i kept checking the clock and getting a count down from my DH.  I had thought the stars would be enough on top but when I was done it needed more so I grabbed the teen's little mirror-ball and placed it on top, it finished the cake and looked perfect.  The 11 on top were sparklers and when lit gave a real sparkly effect. A great success!

It was a really fun party and gave me loads of excuses to craft, the girl was spoiled and danced the night away with her friends.   If you ever need help putting a Grease party together and need some help, please shout I now consider myself an expert LOL

Greetings Crafters

I entered this challenge over at OUTLAWZ Challenges, by now they must think I am mad, I seem to enter my card to the challenge 2 seconds after the new one is posted LOL oh well maybe I will get there one day!

It has always been my aim to be a proverbs wife and when that happens I do hope I will be more organised and on time.  Here is my latest offering ...

It is a digi from Sguigglefly and its called graduation celebration - very cute stuff in their shop, could have spent a fortune if I had a fortune to spend ;)  I coloured it with my favourite medium Copics *sigh* I love my Copics....

This is the coloured image, the black was fun I have never coloured such a big black area - without using black LOL

Coloured Image

 This is the finished card, I used Kaiser Craft papers, I really had fun making this card :)

Glad To Be A Grad

Till next time keep it crafty

Greetings

On Monday I decided to make some chocchip biscuits, the recipe I used was my mom's and apparently she got the recipe from my Aunty Lolly (Loraine) they are divine, but, being me the emellisher I had to go just a smidge further, where the recipe called for 300g of chochips i put in 100g of each dark, milk and white chocolate chips, and then it also calls for 300g peacan nuts yummmm....

Looking into this bowl of choc chip heaven, I was faced with a rather interesting question, do I make this particular recipe for the actual biscuits at the end or for the mixture?  Come on you have to admit, there is nothing quite like cookie dough, it kindof transports you to your childhood in a single taste, its that absolute forbidden taste - if you were caught pinching dough from the bowl before mom was finished baking, the pleasure of having waited, watching each ingredient being added, salivating, waiting, maybe catching a choc chip that jumped out the bowl when mom turned on the mixer, but that waiting until the moment when your mom handed over the bowl and it was YOURS!!!

I love cookie dough and if it has choc chips in - then all the better!  My DH and kids love to lick the cake mixture bowl, i don't, so when it comes to cookie dough everyone is vying for their blob, this makes me wonder ...... why bother baking the cookies at all?

 

 I think I bake them because, oh my word there is nothing nicer than a delicious choc chip cookie that is crispy on the outside and has a slightly gooey center, this with a coffee ...... bliss!

There is also the plus that they make great bribes for three year old and lunch box treats for teens and tweens.

Greetings

I almost fainted when I saw the date that I last posted, omg its like two years ago - wow I have been really busy - obviously not with my blog ;P

I do however intend to change that and do hope to make more regular posts as the title of my blog IS a creative DAY in the life of col, and not a creative post in the lif of col.

So just to get you up to speed, I have since my last post immigrated with my hubby and family to Melbourne in Australia, I miss my mom terribly and wish to have her here with me, I also miss Evelyn and my little boy Jo, more than I have words to express. Look at this darling ...

A huge piece of my heart got left behind in South Africa with this little man.  I also miss my garden, my garden here in Oz is about a 1/4 of the size of my old garden and very uniform, cirtainly not the wild country garden I grew with 10 years of love, dedication and bounceback in SA.

Our new house is beautiful, each of the kids has their own room and I am pleased to report this has put a much welcomed end to the teen and tween fighting. We also have a walk in cupboard in our room which is wonderful, other treats in the house are a lovely hidden laundry. I also have this fabulous grass, it is astro turf type stuff but looks so natural, I was really anti in the beginning because, my main garden aim was keeping the grass green and weed free, now it is just that with no work .... Getting used to it!

Also getting used to this foreign thing they call housework, not my favourite but has to be done, and being me it has to be done perfectly, which does take some time and energy, but I am getting used to it and it is becoming more normal, I have gotten into a couple of good routines and nearly everything has a place!

Not working - but still having to do all the housework and mom stuff leaves some time for crafts, I try to do at the very least one project a week, I enjoy it, its my thing and I need to not loose what I learn.

So, now that I have brought you up to date, I will post a couple of the interesting activities I have been up to lately.

Luv Col