Reflecting .... What to do for my workshops ...

OK, so I have been mulling of what to start off with in 2015. I have decided to go with a scrapbooking page kit using Maja Design papers.  The kit will come with a sketch, the layering papers and primary embellishments to make up a easy but beautiful page - all you will need is your own 12x12 background paper of your choice. And this is what the finished page could look like.... but with your own photograph (or two) and your own journalling. And you can add a title if you wish. And I am happy to put together a separate add-on kit for the 2nd page so those of us that like to do double layouts.

And this is what I am also thinking of doing at my first workshop for the year. The kits will also be available for posting out to those who aren't able to attend the workshops. I get out more details over the next few days.

And some close ups of the flowers, die cut from scraps of Maja Design paper.

2014 Relections

Although 2014 was not totally my "annus horribillis" year - it was a bitter sweet year for me.  A year of huge ups and terrible lows.

Sweet, oh so sweet in that our 6 year very expensive immigration journey finally came to an end with New Zealand citizenship and lovely new Kiwi passports.  That journey in itself came at a huge financial cost to us over the last 6 years, was filled with a number of anxious times, but it has finally come to its conclusion.  We have never regretted it for a moment, although we have shed many, many tears along the way, tore our hair out in frustration and have asked ourselves at times whether we completely mad to do it.  Despite the financial setback, we have never looked back and regretted our decision and love our new life here in our new country.  And slowly, slowly as the years pass by, we have become more settled and starting to feel like we belong.

And the lows, loosing beloved family family along the way.  In April I lost my darling mother at the age of 88 years, after a 2 year battle with the effects of a devastating stroke.  I did expect to loose my mom due to her age, but it was still heartbreaking when she passed away.  I miss her dearly.

The lowest and most unexpected blow of all in 2014 was loosing my cherished sister in law to cancer and a very aggressive brain tumour in October.  So unexpected and so quickly.  From the time of diagnosis of brain cancer resulting from breast cancer, she was gone in 6 weeks.  This loss has been huge on my poor hubby who spoke to Linda on Skype just about every day and on me as well as I looked upon her as my own sister.  It is a difficult loss that we cannot reconcile with and still leaves us reeling in shock.

RIP mom and Linda, we love you and always will.  Till we meet again.

Happy 2015

Happy 2015 to you all. May it be crafty, may it be prosperous, may it be joyful, and healthy too! 

Looking forward to an exciting new year!!

December 2014 - Black with 2 challenge - Ice Blue and Pine Green

Where did November go??  Already 1 December and time to put up my DT sample for the December Black with 2 challenge.  The Mood Board challenged us to use the required black cardstock background with Ice Blue and Pine Green.  What a lovely colour combination!!  And the sketch to use was just as lovely.  Here is the Black with 2 Mood Board and sketch to follow:

I was playing around with a flower and butterfly punch at a recent scrap get together I held and punched out a pile of blue and green flowers and butterflies and whilst playing with them, my whole layout came together for this challenge.  So here it is a vintage page from my children done in these beautiful colours:

I kept it simple with just flower and butterfly embellishments with some trellis and flourish details.  The photo is of my mum with myself and baby brother in our favourite childhood park, Queens Park in Kimberley, South Africa.  Here is some close up of the flower detail.  Some of the flowers were cut  from scrap paper with a die punch and then put through an embossing punch, cute little hand-held punches.  I then combined them with some Prima flowers and used either brads or little pearls to decorate the middles of them.

Playing with a card design

I took some of the left over papers from Maja Design and made up a Thank You card.  Love the soft shades of the card.

And I really love how the flowers cut with the Silhouette Cameo came out.  Here is a close up of

Black with 2 - Tangerine and Blue

Black with 2 have a lovely colour combo this November month to play with - Tangerine and Blue.  What appealed to me about their mood board was the soft shades of this colour combination.  When I think of Tangerine, I always think of the bright orange colour, but here the tangerine is a soft muted colour.  So when I looked through my paper stash I was struck how beautifully the colours of some of the papers from the Graphic 45 By the Sea collection matched the BW2 mood board.

My layout:

Did quite a bit of layering and fussy cutting for my page.

And here is the BW2 mood board and sketch that we needed to follow:

This is a great challenge so I hope that many play along with the challenge this month.

Finally! I got to play with Maja Design paper!!

After dreaming about Maja Design papers and drooling over every page and card I have seen made with this gorgeous range of paper, I finally got to do it all myself.  I just so LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this range and I was in heaven working with it.  It is everything it promises to be!!  Beautiful, romantic, modern vintage and such a treasure to use.  I love the thickness of it and it distresses beautifully.

So here it is - my page made with some random pages from some of the Maja Design collections:

I am crazy about layering papers, so did a lot of layering here and this is where beautiful crafted papers like Maja Design really come into their own and in my opinion are worth using.  The thickness of the paper allows you to easily distress it.  I did damp the edges of the papers with water so that I work the edges into a more distressed look.  I used Maja Design for all the page with exception of the trellis detail and the flourish - even the papers flowers were cut with my Silhouette Cameo from some left over scraps.

Just some close ups of the detail:

Just a comment on the flowers I made.... The paper is really wonderful for paper flowers as you can work it exceptionally well to make soft kinks and bends in the petals to create a lovely 3D effect.

I would also like to credit Page Drafts for their amazing sketches.  I used their sketch #31.1 for my page.  If you haven't checked out their sketches, you really have to - they are amazing!

Well, needless to say, I am now a Maja Design convert!  I am totally obsessed with it!  And am already thinking about my next page.