Keeping it together

My father used to say that his best years were when he could still cover all his children with one blanket.

I didn’t realise how true his words were until my own children started growing up and worries about minor (and some major) cuts and bruises turned into more serious worries. Worries about their future in uncertain times, would each of them find the right person to love and cherish and spend their life with, etc. (in the meantime three of the four have already met wonderful life partners and worry didn’t have anything to do with it!) I could go on and on and I’m sure those of you with teenagers or grown children could add many items to the list.

But I have learned that we have to trust that our children’s roots will stay firm and that the wings we helped them develop will let them soar high and strong! Now I try to just love them while trusting that God would look after them. That way I manage (sometimes) to keep it together!

My layout this week is about the people I love and try not to worry about too much 🙂

The printed paper is from Authentique and I fell in love with the designs and colours the moment I saw it!

The envelope on the left page is bound with measuring tape trim with flowers from Creative Talents as detail. The trim is repeated on the title and the small pictures on the right page. Because I didn’t use a lot of fine detail on the page, the patterned paper is the star of the layout.

Looking forward to scrapping with you on Saturday!

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Let yourself fly

After a long scrapping drought, I am back in action and I really enjoyed it to sit down and fiddle with scrapping goodies again!

With a dead underperforming thyroid and hormones out of whack it has been a battle to keep my boat afloat over the past few months.  But there is light at the end of the tunnel and although my memory is still often out of action I just  hope that people will forgive me if they have to jolt my memory on occasion.

When I started with my layout for our class on Saturday I haven’t decided what pictures I wanted to use yet, but as the layout came together I remembered these pictures and they were perfect!  It was early morning in the mountains and with everybody else still asleep, I slipped out quietly and sat down at the water’s edge.  As I enjoyed the view of the impossibly green summer mountains I experienced the most serene and peaceful feeling.  It was as if the water  ran right through me, taking with it all the stresses and worries that is so part of being human.  I didn’t realise that Frans had woken up in the meantime and was photographing me through our bedroom window.

I made envelopes with fragile photographic dry mounting tissue that I bought from a dealer in second hand goods some time ago.  I used black ink to stamp onto the envelopes for added texture and filled them with music paper tags and tags made from Tim Holtz’ Kraft resist paper.

Back flourishes and cards from red lead paperworks add to the theme.

Come  feel your soul blossom en let yourself fly on Saturday!

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Part of being sane is being a little bit crazy…

according to Janet Long and I totally agree with her!  If I am not a little bit crazy every now and then I will go completely crazy.  Serious!

As adults we have to deal with an enormous amount of stress just to keep the wheels on the bus.  But sometimes I close my eyes and refuse to see the wheels coming off – or even take the wheels off to allow that little bit of craziness to keep me sane.  Does that sound insane or what?!

During our family camp a few weeks ago we had the opportunity to catch up with everybody’s bits of craziness and the kids joined in with abandon.  We camped at a resort north of Rustenburg on the Zeerust road and although  it was deep in March already it was sizzling hot.  Of course Ms Photographer couldn’t keep her hands off her camera and took some gorgeous shots of a beautiful sunset.

Yes, crazy is a relative term in our family 😉

The children enjoyed the swimming pool in the hot weather and I decided to use these pictures on my layout for Saturday.

The background is Kraft paper and I used various printed papers in blues to match the 97% complete stickers from 7G.  Walnut ink magically transforms ordinary manilla tags into rustic tags and I used them to fill a pocket on the left page.

I used the brown strips with quotes as a band through the middle of the layout and clustered some of the stickers on the right page.

This is a fun layout suitable for a wide range of photographs and I hope it will bring a smile to your face as it did to mine.  See you on Saturday!

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Dream a little dream

In this case the dream was huge and it came true after years of hard work -sometimes in the face of adversity.

On 1 March 2013 Tjaart officially received his B.Sc Electronic Engineering degree at North-West University and we are so proud of him!  To top it all Tjaart and Corli got engaged on 28 February so we have reason to celebrate and above all a lot to be grateful for.

I started some time ago with my layout for this week’s class but it was one of those that just didn’t want to fall in place and I put it aside until yesterday.  When I took it out again everything came together perfectly and I love how this page turned out (maybe I just needed the pictures to boost my creativity 🙂 )

The paper is from 7G and some of the tags are also from these clever travellers.

The washi tape is from Tim Holtz and buttons are from my stash.  The layered ephemera is stitched to the page to bring everything together.

The ‘To Do’ card on the left page was the perfect spot for me to journal and I used three beautiful quotes as inspiration for his life.  By changing the stamp on the right page this layout could be used for any pictures but it is perfect for my pictures the way it is.

Keep well and dream lovely dreams until Saturday when we scrap together again!

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An intricate dance…

is what a relationship is.

You sometimes get to choose your partner and sometimes have to accept the partner because it is the loved one of someone who matters a lot to you.  And then the dance begins – sometimes you get it right the first time and you fall into step with your partner and the angels sing!  Sometimes it takes a lot of practise before the angels will start singing and that is also okay…

It is when you or your partner don’t get it right or fall out of step that toes are stepped on and feelings are hurt.  If the partnership is worthwhile you have to start again and learn new steps that both of you can manage and appreciate and create your own special dance all over.

My layout for this week is about a special relationship and I used beautiful paper from Lost and Found and combined it with Basic Grey and 7G for a little whimsy.

I cut up the Basic Grey paper and created a pocket to fill with post cards bound together with Seweasy floss from WeRMemoryKeepers.

Together with the buttons from Lost and Found came some flags that I used to create  bunting in the top left hand corner of my layout.

The paper that I used for the background is my favourite paper in a long time!

Come share the love on Saturday when you will create a layout about a special relationship in your life.

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Hello 2013!

One moment I was leading the race and the next moment my head disappeared under water and I came up spluttering…

We were having fun in the pool after a hectic course of cheese making on Saturday.  My two sisters and three brothers with their husbands and wives decided last year that we wanted to do something together and we chose cheese making since most of us were interested in the process.  Little did we know…

Let’s just say that cheese making is far more involved than I am prepared to invest at this point in time.  But we had loads of fun and after Sunday lunch tried to take a family picture.  I say ‘tried’ because we ended up with a lot of funny, funky pictures… but a proper family portrait?  Well, we’ll just have to try again next time.  Promise!

However, the pictures were perfect for my layout this week 😉

I used stickers from Echo Park and paired it up with paper tape from Bazzil Basics.

Slits in the background provided a place to slip cards with the months of the year and some journaling on it into.  I lined the slits with dotted tape in the same colour as the background that draws the attention to it.

The title was stamped and highlighted with white and I added black shadows when the paint was dry.  Stickers on top of the stamped  title repeat the title for added detail.

Now all that remains to do is to live, love, laugh, pray, play, pause… and then start all over again!

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2012 In Review

I am not going to say it, I refuse!  The end of the year did not sneak up on me and I do not still have a thousand things to do…

Since we finished our biggest project for this year – the Platinum craft market in Rustenburg – I have been out of sorts.  It was the beginning of something new that I really hope will grow  into a very successful undertaking.  At the same time it was the end of a long process of planning and production and being so busy that I had literally functioned on auto-pilot for weeks!  It is only now that I realise how tired I am and how blessed we are to break away to the mountains for a few days to charge depleted batteries…

The market was a huge success and we won an award for the most beautiful hand-made products!!!  I was so humbled when I saw the award displayed at our stall that all I could do was cry 😦  But it was tears of joy and gratitude and only then could I start to relax and enjoy the event.  We came back with some stock left that will be ideal gifts for Xmas and you are welcome to shop on Saturday.

It has been a full year for us with lots of ups and downs.  When I sat down to prepare my layout for Saturday’s class I started thinking about everything that happened this year and decided to call my layout ‘2012 in review’.  What an emotional rollercoaster it turned out to be!

Each of the twelve months have their own pocket filled with tags for journaling and pictures of the family member who has a birthday in that month.

I took the time to explore the events of each month and during some of them I smiled and sometimes I cried.  Often I walked away to finish later because journaling about stuff somehow makes it real again and it is difficult to face emotions you thought you have dealt with and buried.

What I learnt out of this process is three very important lessons:

Lesson 1:  I cannot fix everything

Lesson 2:  I am not God

Lesson 3:  Let go and let God

Nothing new – I have learnt them often before, but somehow I ‘unlearn’ them time and time again.  And God indulges me and lets me work myself into a frenzy and allows me to worry myself sick.  And then, when I cannot bear the load alone any more and fall down on my knees He takes my hand and leads the way.

Be warned: this seems like an easy layout and in the practical sense it is, but you have to dig deep and it takes courage to journal honestly about the people and events closest to you!

Looking forward to an amazing morning with you on Saturday 🙂

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Joy!

I enjoyed putting together my layout for this week so much!

It is a celebration of different paper and techniques with a lot of work involved and I am so happy with the result 🙂

The wall with the door on the right page is an idea that I scrap-lifted from a Christmas card by Shelley Hickox.  The blue buttons echo the colour of the bird in the bird-cage.

Pinterest is such an inspiration and the idea for the Christmas tree is an example that I found on one of Alisha’s Pinterest boards.

The rest added itself onto the page and I had trouble tearing myself away and declaring the layout finished!  I love the look of the gold foil on the bird cages, ‘house’ and Christmas trees.

As you can see, there is a lot of work involved in this layout so put on your big-girl scrap-panties and come scrap on Saturday!

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How do I measure the things I love

Problem is…I have a wandering mind and being a Gemini the measure I use today for something I love is not the same one I will use tomorrow 🙂

I love life and only realised last week the influence that my love of life has on my grandchildren.  On the weekend of 19 October the weather bureau issued a warning for severe thunderstorms and many of us suffered serious losses because of the extreme hailstorm that buffeted Gauteng. We were in the mountains with Kobus and Alisha where we also had a terrible thunderstorm with hail and a flood that scared me silly!

We were like children when the rain stopped and couldn’t wait to see what the stream we have to cross on our way home looked like.   Alisha and I ventured into the calmer water at the edge of the stream because Kobus wanted to take a picture.  The water was freezing because of the hail and I couldn’t stand still.  My feet were burning because of the cold and I made a fuss (Kobus said I was doing a rain dance).  The picture was taken with a cell phone so the quality is not that good but just look at that face!

Because we pick our drinking water up directly from the stream the water in the holding dam was muddied and we had to let it run clean.  I tried to open the flush valve by leaning over the edge of the deck but couldn’t reach it.  I gritted my teeth and stretched a bit more… and cracked the rib that was pressed against the sharp edge of the deck!  OUCH!!! 😦

Needless to say, I was very sore when we got home and didn’t move about much.  The kids couldn’t understand why I was so subdued and when they saw the video of me dancing in the water, Frans said ‘Now that is the ouma Marie I know!’  I was still loving life – but in slow motion 🙂

Our layout this week is about the things we love.  I love being creative – be it scrapbooking, handcraft, crochet, knitting- whatever I have an urge for at any given time.  Family is another of my great loves but one layout cannot picture everything I love.  Mmmm, maybe that calls for a new project?

I used ‘Hands’ from 7G’s Off the Wall collection on a Nightmist (Bazzill Basics) background.  Because I had two printed pages I could play to my heart’s content and apart from the two faux folders I made a large envelope and tore it in half after folding it to create pockets for tags.  Two small closed envelopes feature on the right page.

A card with a few nik-naks are held together with 7G elastic and a measuring tape trim.

I used Tiny Text from Cosmo Cricket on the tags, envelopes and on the background.  And…wait for it…film negatives for good measure 🙂 🙂

That is what I will keep you busy with on Saturday.  Cannot wait to show you some of the projects we are working on for the Platinum Market when we scrap on Saturday.  Patience…

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It all begins and ends with family

On Saturday we had a huge get-together for my brother’s and his wife’s sixtieth birthdays this year.  All his brothers and sisters and all her brothers and sisters were there with some of their children – I would guess about 100 people!

Here is our bunch:

My sister and her husband (in the insert) unfortunately had to leave early and missed out on the family picture.  We caught up on all the news and had a family meal together on Sunday before everybody returned home.

The eight of us who went on the Namaqualand tour regaled the others with all our beautiful memories and what do you know – the next tour is being planned now.  I don’t know where or when yet, all I know is that I want to get on the road and make some more memories with my family 🙂

I used some pictures that we took at the West Coast National Park at Langebaan on our recent trip for my layout this week.

The paper is from DCWV and I hope you will love the flocked paper as much as I do.  The two pockets in the bottom corners of the layout were taped onto the background with 7G paper tape and provided space for tags that I used for journaling.

The chipboard wings were painted red and matted on dotted cardstock.  The word ‘beautiful’ came from a 7G card and were also matted on the dotted cardstock.

I used cotton twine to fasten a metal charm to one of the pictures as well as for a photo corner on the main picture on the left page.

It all begins and ends with family and I look forward to getting together with my scrapping family on Saturday 13 October!

 

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