By Dezign

Stunning Goodies from the Designing Sisters and A Freebie

2011-11-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

WHEEEEE, I beat Kim today. I have to rush out, but couldn't go before I shared some stunning goodies from my favourite designers Kim B and her equally talented sister Gaye (GS Creations)

Kim has the most gorgeous Christmas Kit up at ScrapMatters. It's called Elegantly Christmas and it's so soft and like the name says ELEGANT. You know when you get a kit and you just want to produce LO after LO, well that's what this kit does to you. Before I looked I had made 3 LO's. I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this kit.

Makes you wonder just what she's going to get up to for Black Friday. I personally can't wait to see.

Here's some LO's with the new kit.

And Gaye (GS Creations) has these simply DIVINE CU New Year Templates and Paper Patterns up at SugarHillCo. Not only are they perfect for New Year's kits but anything else from wedding kits, to adult party kits. Makes me want to have a glass of ice cold champers right now.

And the freebie I have for you today is of some dried seed pods I found in my garden and I just loved the colours.

You can get the freebie here

Hope you have a great weekend and happy scrapping.

Hugs
Ren

CT Enabling Plus a CU Freebie

2011-11-11T03:21:00.000-08:00

OMW, it is sooooo hot here in Johannesburg. I love summer, but this is just way uncomfortable. It's so bad that fire hydrants are asking dogs to have a tinkle on them LOL.

Today I have a lot of CT stuffies to show you and because I don't have a store anymore, I will be gifting my CU goodies as freebies over time. My first freebie of some doodled 3D gift boxes will be right at the bottom of this post.

Let's start with

KIM B

Now that all the DSD sales are over, Kim has opened all her grab bag goodies. They're all available at SugarHillCo. All these goodies are so gorgeous.

Vintage stuffies

Christmas doodly template stuffies

LouCee Creations

LouCee has a stunning revamp of her Merry Berry Kit with added stacked Papers and a gorgeous alpha. You can get it at PBP, ROO and My Memories

And here's some LO's I have done

And if you haven't got her portion of the November Take Your Pick at the ROO as yet, pop over and have a look at Grapevine. It's so rich and yummy scrumptious.

Here's a LO I did with it.

GS Creations

What can I say about Gaye's goodness that hasn't been said already. Today Gaye has the most divine Magic templates for sale at SugarHillCo. And she has a stunning CU freebie of some stars on a string up on her blog.

And when I saw these templates I just knew what direction I want to take my Color Challenge at Bunny Cates. So be sure to be on the lookout for a color challenge freebie soon.

And as we're fast approaching Christmas I decided to put this up as a freebie. 5 doodled 3d gift boxes.

You can get it here

Have a blast this weekend

Hugs
Ren

Angel with Horns, DSD & A Freebie

2011-11-04T00:23:00.000-07:00

HAHAHAHA, have you guessed yet who is celebrating her birthday today. Yes, our favourite designer, friend and fellow South African Kim B is having a birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMMIE!!!!! I won't try to sing as I sound like a cat scratching a chalkboard, but I want to thank you for your friendship, your generosity and I would like to say "Just set your cares aside today and give in to temptation. Let yourself be spoiled a little and have a special celebration". I love you my friend. There's a little gift for all readers at the bottom of this post to celebrate Kim and my birthday and birthdays in general.

And now on to the serious stuff in life. SHOPPING. I can already smell credit cards burn. I'm not going to clutter this post up. Hop over to Kim's blog, wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and see all the goodness she has for you over this weekend. Can I just say it's HUGE!!!!

And as mentioned I landed my bum on Loucee's CT. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to play with her kits, but she also has some awesome sales on in her stores at Digiridoo with 50% off today, 40% off on Saturday and 30% on Sunday. And her store at PickleBerryPop is 40% off the entire weekend. And please check this "product" out. Build your own PU Grab Bag with 3 Kits for $7.00. So if you have some of Loucee's kits on your wishlist, you can grab 3 of them for barely more than a full kit. BARGAIN.

I used The Great British Street Party to scrap this LO of my son's girlfriend. I have a thing about a red phone booth and when my son went to visit his dad at the end of last year, beginning this year, he especially took this photo for me. I used a freebie template from Eudora Designs and added Loucee's CU Paper Roses and CU Little Buddies.

And PLEASE, if you grab my freebie, pop over to Kim's blog to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, from everyone in ScrapLand. It's all over the Internet, her birthday is big NEWS. LOL.

You can get the freebie here

Happy shopping and have a fantastic weekend.

Hugs
Ren

Birthdays, DSD is coming and a Freebie

2011-11-03T04:29:00.000-07:00

OMW I fell off the wagon again with blogging. This time of year I always have the best intentions of blogging at least once a week and when I look again, 2 or 3 weeks have flown by.

November is a crazy month for me with birthdays, anniversaries and lots of functions. It kicks off with my Aunt's anniversary on the 1st and continues right through the month with special occasions. Today is my BIRTHDAY and I have a little CU gifty to all at the end of this post.

Tomorrow a very special "Angel-with-hidden-horns" is having a birthday too. Please pop past my blog again tomorrow as I hope to have her blubbering with tears again. LOL.

And then of course it's the start of all the DSD sales and I promise to give you lots of news too. Have you been saving? Do you have a long wish-list? This weekend is definitely going to be worthwhile getting all those goodies you have been dying to get. Uhm I think a few Credit Card statements will be hidden away. LOL.

And I'm very excited to announce that I'm now on a very special lady's CT. I love Loucee Creations kits and what she does with her hybrid projects is just jaw-dropping amazing. She's also planning some special deals for DSD, so watch this space and hers from tomorrow.

OK enough jabbering. I made a frame for some doilies for a baby room and decided to scan it and extract it to make a mat for baby LO's.

Here's a preview

And you can pick it up here.

Enjoy the rest of the day

Hugs
Ren

IT'S A BOY

2011-10-07T05:42:00.000-07:00

Well actually it's a boy themed kit. The two designing sisters from South Africa have joined forces again and came up with the most amazing kit EVER. Gaye (GS Creations) designed the most gorgeous baby boy templates and Kim B used the templates as a base for the most SUBLIME baby boy kit. It's packed choc full of the most amazing elements, papers, date tags, wordart and a bonus date wheel if you buy the full bundle from Kim's store. It's on sale for a limited time and if you have baby boy photos to scrap, this is a MUST HAVE KIT.

The rest of the CT and I have had so much fun with this kit and if you follow all the CT links on Kim's blog you will find a whole lot of stunning QP's as well as one from Kim.

Here's some LO's that I have done of my gorgeous GS.

And here's one done by my daughter Katia of her precious little boy. If you stop by here again on Sunday, I will have this LO up as a QP freebie.

Here's one of my cousin's miracle twins that were not only preemies but were born from a late pregnancy as well. I turned this LO into a QP and it's available in png and PSD format.

You can pick up the freebie here.

Have a great weekend.

Hugs
Ren

World In Union Plus A Freebie

2011-09-09T06:14:00.001-07:00

Whoooopeeeee it's here!!!!! The Rugby World Cup started in New Zealand today and it was a spectacular opening ceremony. Congrats to NZ for winning their opening match against Tonga. Tonga, better luck next match. We're playing our first match on Sunday and we're planning a buffet breakfast for about 30 people. I hear they're planning green Buccs Fizz. Oy. Good luck to New Zealand, France, Tonga, Canada, Japan, Argentina, England, Scotland, Georgia, Romania, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Russia, USA, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Namibia and of course SOUTH AFRICA. Bring the Webb Ellis Trophy back boys. We're doing the Bokkie Jive, we're wearing the green and gold and the spirit is with you all the way. Here's some pics of the opening ceremony courtesy Reuters.

Kim B has some new CU products available. If you hop on over to her blog, you can see it in all it's goodness, plus there's a full reveal of her new CU Grab Bag plus a marvelous freebie made with some of her new styles. Whoooohooo, don't you just LOVE her goodies?

I've also got a little freebie cluster frame made with goodies from her Journey of the Heart kit, available at ScrapMatters. It's such a gorgeous kit. Here's a preview of the freebie

and you can collect it here

Have a great weekend

Hugs
Ren

CREEPED OUT & Freaked Out + A Freebie

2011-09-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Apologies

First off, sorry that my blog was down, but it has been fixed and you can now collect yesterday's freebie.

That's part of the reason for my post title today. LOL. I was up until the early hours of the morning and the house was deadly quiet. Me attempting to read The Tommy Knockers by Stephen King for about the 3rd time. So just imagine reading quietly and the next thing the parrot whacks off it's perch. He fell off his perch in his sleep. I jumped about 3 feet high and nearly doo-doo'd in my pants LOL. Then I want to do today's blog post and I get redirected to another page and my domain name is up for sale. WTF????? The pc has been posessed. I can get into my g-mail account, I can log in and out of blogger, but my page goes up in smoke after about 2 seconds.

Well dumb and dumber started the signal fires going and our CT jumped in and with a lot of advice and somehow I managed to fix it. I'm putting that book down for good now. LOL.

Have you seen what Kim B is up to? Not only did she bring us her gorgeous portion of Scrap Matters's September Mix a Kit, stunning CU goodies at Sugar Hill Co, but she has also brought out the amazing kit Journey of the Heart - a collab with Elise's Pieces this month. You can get that from Scrap Matters as well. Here's another LO I did with this kit.

And my freebie for you matches Kim and her sister Gaye (GS Creations) portions of the September Mix a Kit. Word Art. 1 says "You Jumped Feet First Into My Heart" and the other "I'm not sleeping... I'm recharging my batteries. Hope you enjoy.

You can pick the freebie up here

Hope you have an awesome weekend.

Hugs
Ren

Spring, Save the Rhino, CT Enabling & A Freebie of Course

2011-09-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow scrappers and bloggers.

I hope you have your coffee, juice, water, cold drink and or Red Bull.

Whee Spring is in the air in the Southern Hemisphere and the South African girls on Kim B's CT had a discussion this morning about having our bodies defluffed and our toe nails painted. BWAHAHA, heavy topics for early in the morning. My toe nails haven't been done as yet as I'm in serious need of a major pedi. It's warmed up a lot over the last few days and there's buds on the trees and even some green tufts in my lawn. I'm definitely a summer person and dislike the cold immensely.

Apart from it being Spring Day it's also Save The Rhino Day today and a lot of people are wearing black ribbons for this cause. Rhino poaching is rife in SA at the moment and all this for the poor animal's horn which some cultures believe has great medicinal purposes. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not against any culture, but man's greed to make huge amounts of money and the inhumane way in which this is done is what really upsets me. On Sunday the 21st August the owners of the Aquila Game Reserve were alerted to the fact that one of their rhinos had been killed and another butchered and left for dead and fighting for his life. ABSA (a beautiful selfless animal) was left in the veld with 1 horn removed and the other partially removed. I am posting the link with the news article after he died here and would like to ask everyone to note that the images posted are not for sensitive viewers, but I want to ask that even if you are sensitive, look at the images as this is the only way we can make a difference. The link to the article with images is here and like this page here on facebook to show support.

OK now on to the good stuff. It's the 1st of the month and all the designers at ScrapMatters have brought out a new Mix A Kit. I was lucky enough to get to pay with both Kim B's and GS Creations portions of the kit. And as a fairly new granny I just love these "whimsical" kits with "childlike" elements. I find that I'm more of a scenic scrapper than a conventional scrapper that uses many papers and beautiful clustering. I think the fact that I can't shove a bunch of flowers into a vase and not making it look like a disaster might have something to do with this. LOL. BUT yes, as much as I LOVE all the kits I get to play with, the fun ones are always my favourites.

Here's some LO's I did with Kim's Jump 4 Joy. Don't you just love those froggies????

And Gaye's (GS Creations) Sleepy Time. When I saw the cloud paper and element, I was in "heaven".

And now I'm going to sound like a shopping chanel, BUT THAT'S NOT ALL, Kim B has found a new exclusive home for her CU products at Sugar Hill Company and has a brand new designer grab bag up for sale. As usual it's packed with the most delicious goodies. Here's a little sneak peak.

Are you cockeyed yet, are you shouting, WHERE'S THE FREEBIE??? OK, OK, enough waffling from me. I used the current grab bag plus some goodies from previous bags to make you a little mini kit. My first in over a year and even if I have to say so myself it think it's so PRETTY.

I've got it in two downloads and you can pick up PART 1 here.
And PART 2 here

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for anothe little freebie

Hugs
Ren

Finally I'm Back

2011-08-07T04:55:00.000-07:00

Well it's the first time in over a year that I've blogged and I need to really get back into the swing of things.

I'm still a member of Kim B's CT and she has been very patient with me and all my woes over the past year. Hopefully this is a start of a lot of new things to come.

Kim is having a huge sale at Scrap Matters and I was so happy when she included Merry-A-Round to the store. I think this has been my all time favourite kit of Kim's. Here's a new LO I did with the kit.

And of course what is a Kim B sale without a new CU Product Grab Bag? I made a border cluster freebie with some of the products in the bag. Don't you just love that one of her surprises is usually some color inspiration?

You can pick up the freebie here

Hope you have a stunning Sunday and see you soon.

Hugs
Ren

Pick your Bits

2010-02-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

DSO's fantastic designers have come up with a STUNNING new Colab called Forever and After. But instead of buying a huge kit with only a small portion that suits your scrapping style, they have decided to break the kit up by designer and you get to choose exactly which portion or portions you want. Each portion is priced between $1 and $2.25. You can view all the bits in Forever and After here.

I was lucky enough to get to play with both Kim B's and her sister Gaye (GS Creations) portions and it's full of whimsy and love with stunning papers, beautiful worn mats, realistic elements and the CUTEST Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater elements.

I made this LO of Jayden

And then turned it into a QP to share with you all.

You can get it here

Chat soon
Hugs
Ren

Dents in my Chair

2010-01-20T05:26:00.000-08:00

Last night we were in hysterics. I got up from my pc to go and make some coffee and Corné noticed these indentations from my bum bones in my chair. I'm spending so much time in front of the pc that I'm leaving impressions. I think the foam in the seat of my old chair is finally giving in. But I love that chair so much.

I'm busy on some crazy extractions for some new goodies and I'm very excited to get it done. I'm hoping to be able to reveal and release it all next week.

My kit Letter from the Heart is available at $3.00 until tomorrow midnight and then it will go to full price.

And Kim B has the most stunning new kit Passions Blush available. I did this LO of my friends Cindy-Lee and Rudolph's wedding photos.

And of course I have a little freebie for you as well. It's a double page QP using Passions Blush.

You can get it here.

Hugs
Ren

Letter from the Heart

2010-01-15T05:34:00.000-08:00

Today I have a lot of pimping to do!!!!

And I'm running late as I went back to sleep after I completed a few things this morning. Friends of mine own a pub and they're a bit short staffed at the moment, so I'm standing in as bar lady Thursdays and Saturdays for the late shift. OMG I woke up this morning after a 10 hour stint yesterday and I thought my feet were having their own war. I took some pain killers and went right back to sleep. It is a lot of fun though, but I think some of the patrons were having "head" problems today. I'm not called the shooter queen for nothing. LOL. I came up with some wierd combinations again.

OK straight to the pimping. As most of you probably know, Kim B has a new Overlay Grab Bag for sale and I'm proud to say I was a tiny bit of inspiration for 1 of the products in the bag.

I was busy on my first PU kit for sale, Letter from the Heart, and was stuck for more papers and of course my cry for help went out to my favourite designer and Kim came up with the most beautiful overlays. Thanks Kimmie, I REALLY APPRECIATE it.

So without further ado, here's the previews. It contains 17 papers, some of them totally new created by me.

It has 54 elements. The whole idea was really to create a Christmas kit in my favourite Christmas tree colours, but I got so carried away with colecting items for the kit that I went past the Christmas deadline and then ended up making a "Valentine's" kit inspired by some papers my SIL hand made.

Some CLOSE UPS

It's available in my store here for a limited time for $3.00.

Here's some LO's

Kristine

Jenni

Vicki

Cheryl

Sue/MumaSue

Thank you ladies, your LO's are gorgeous.

And of course I have a little freebie for you. It has 2 papers and 2 cluster frames.

You can get it here.

Hugs
Ren

Marvelous Days

2010-01-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over and everyone has gone back to work and the schools are re-opening tomorrow and I'm enjoying empty shopping centres, not having to stand in queues for minor things and quiet in the neighbourhood. Total bliss.

Don't get me wrong. I love the holidays, but I have a problem with crowds that seem to be going nowhere. I went to buy fresh produce today and was done in 15 minutes. Last week or the week before, it would have taken at least an hour.

And we're having the most beautiful weather at the moment, which makes me think of everyone in Europe and the UK having such a cold winter. I wish I could send you some warmth and sunshine.

Jayden is growing so fast. Can you believe she was 6 months on the 2nd? It's like yesterday this precious bundle came into our lives. Just before Christmas we took her to a professional photographer for some photos and I really have to get my behind into gear and scrap them. Here's one of the photos.

I have been very busy with PSP and CS4 (think it's going to take me 5 years to get to know it) and all will be revealed soon, but today I have a Commercial Use Chinese Fan for you. It's partially opaque and I've left it rather big for ease of resizing.

You can get it here. Standard digital scrapbook etiquette applies.

Chat soon.

Hugs
Ren

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010-01-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

OH BOY!!!! It has taken me days to recover!!!! LOL. I hope you all had a blast like I did.

All photographic evidence has been destroyed, plus I would have had an over 18 age restriction to my blog. Not that our part was that wild, but one of the props was a bit outrageous. We spent the evening with friends at Theo's house and he and Gloudine always come up with some very interesting ideas.

This time they decided they wanted a "human" food platter. You know the kind they show on tv where a model lays down with the food displayed on her. We were just not comfortable eating off a real person and a store manequin could not be found. So these crazies decided to use a blow up doll. LOL. We were in hysterics. They proved that she had been purchased earlier on the day and that she'd been properly sterilized too. We named her Pamela and once the food was eaten, we dressed her in some of Gloudine's clothes and she became the dancing partner for any of the guys that didn't have a partner. Pamela turned out to be the most popular girl at the party.

Their latest shot was also vodka and pomegranate cordial. OMW that stuff is the devil's brew. It's rather more-ish and when I looked again I had definitely had too much. At midnight everyone was dunked in the pool. We partied the entire night and only got home at 6 a.m. And I got visitors on Saturday that stayed the entire day.

I'm only now feeling completely recovered.

Yesterday I woke up and had my design mojo back. So I've been spending the past 2 days creating a new kit that will be released soon and with Kim B's DSO Colour Challenge. These colours are just so pretty.

And she has this beautiful posting bonus if you participate in the challenge. All the rules are listed on the blog. So hop on over and see how you can earn her beatiful freebie plus many others that will be posted during the month.

I started a really adult mini and then hated it and decided to do a soft and gentle baby mini.

You can get it here.

Please leave a comment and please send your friends here to collect the freebie.

And I'm looking forward to sharing many new frebies with you during the year.

Hugs
Ren

Winding Down

2009-12-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

Gosh I can't believe that Christmas Day has gone!!!

We had a very special one this year. Christmas Eve Katia, Jamie and Jayden came to us for dinner as they has other family commitments for Christmas Day. Oh boy it was Jayden's first Christmas and we had to open her pressies. Being 5 and a half months old she was more interested in the pretty paper and wanted to taste it too. We got her mainly clothes as she's going into her new clothing age group and needs new clothes.

Yesterday my mom cellebrated her 74th Birthday and spent the day with my cousins. She tries to be at a different group of family every year. We also have Jade, Corné's daughter for the first time over Christmas and went to spend the day at his father and step mom. As usul there was just too much good food.

I need to share this photo we had taken of Jayden with Father Christmas.

Today's freebie was made with Kim B's latest kit, A Fresh Start, which is less 45% off until tomorrow evening.

You can get it here.

Remember to come back for the last of the freebie QP's tomorrow.

Hugs
Ren

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

I'd just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you have a great, joyful and peaceful time with your loved ones.

Today's freebie is a quick page I made with Kim B's beautiful Christmas First kit. It's 45% off until the 27th.

You can get it here.

I'll be back on Saturday with another QP.

Hugs
Ren

Quick Page Freebie 3

2009-12-23T06:39:00.000-08:00

For today's QP Freebie, I used Kim B's Time Anew kit which is 45% off until Sunday the 27th.

You can get it here.

See you tomorrow for the next freebie.

Hugs
Ren

Quick Page Freebie 2

2009-12-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the second QP Freebie made from Kim B's Heartsong kit on sale now until 27th December.

You can get it here.

Swing by tomorrow for the next QP.

Hugs
Ren

Freebie Quick Pages

2009-12-21T09:59:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone

This is going to be a short post, but this week I'll have a QP Freebie per day. They'll all be made with one of Kim B's kits. This runs in conjunction with her store wide sale.

Here's the preview of today's freebie made with her Mezzaluna kit.

You can get it here.

Remember to pop by every day from now until the 27th, excepting for Christmas Day.

Have a great day.

Hugs
Ren

Blog Train Freebie and a huge THANK YOU

2009-12-18T04:27:00.001-08:00

The first one goes to KIM B. Thank you girlfriend for giving me the snots today. Hop on over to her blog and see what it's all about. Yes it made me stop in my tracks and made me realise my blessings too.

The next one goes to her as well. For her generosity. She has her entire store on sale. How great is that.

Thanks to the first digi scrapper (I don't even know who she is), that got me hooked on this marvelous hobby. I one day saw a LO and thought I'd like to know how to do that and as they say, the rest is history.

Thanks to all the people that visit my blog, share their kits, share their knowledge, share their LO's and share a bit of themselves. In the almost 3 years that I've been digi-scrapping, you've enriched my life no end.

Thanks to Kristine for coming up with a great swatch for her store designers so that we could get this blog freebie going for you.

Stop by the rest of the ladies to get the whole bang shoot.

Dianne
Mindi
Leslie
Cate

That's 6 mini kits making one huge big kit for you all to snag.

Here's my portion

and you can pick it up here

Enjoy snagging and chat soon

Hugs
Ren

Wish I was a baby

2009-12-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

Gosh but it's hot here at the moment. It's just after 08:00 in the evening and I've just been in the pool. It's just too hot and the sun too dangerous during the day to go for a refreshing swim.

We spent the day in my studio as it's the coolest place on the property, but even there it was uncomfortably hot today. Jayden was extremely cranky and eventually I just fetched her bath and filled it with luke warm water and stuck her in the bath. She was such a happy little girl and was splashing and playing with her bath toys. Eventually the whole floor was wet, but as long as it kept her happy we weren't going to complain.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to have my hair done and have decided to not do my usual cut and color, but just a cut as I won't be able to cope with this heat under one of those huge black shrouds. I'll wait for a cooler or rainy day to do my color.

And the count down to Christmas has started in earnest. We took Jayden for her first photo with Santa and then the photographer asked if she could enter her in a baby competition, so she took a whole lot of other photos as well. I can collect the disc with the photos tomorrow and I'm so excited. her first professional photos and I can't wait to scrap them. She is already such a little diva. When she sees a camera, she just smiles.

Rainer left for Ballito and I just got a text to say that they arrived safely and that he is turning his phone off for 3 days. LOL, he hates his cell phone because it never stops ringing.

Today I have a Christmas Commercial Use freebie for you.

You can get it here.

Don't forget to swing by my blog tommorow as the big surprise will be revealed.

Hugs
Ren

BIRTHDAYS ALL AROUND

2009-12-16T09:29:00.000-08:00

HELP!!!!! Can someone stop my merry-go-round, it's going way too fast. LOL, it feels as if my life is running on rocket fuel at the moment. It has been hectic, but I have all my Christmas shopping done and I can relax as of tomorrow.

Today is a very special day in my life. My darling daughter, Katia, turned 20 today. I can't believe that time has flown by so fast. It's like yesterday that she made a very hasty entrance into this world, but she did wait until the end of our public holiday to make her appearance. The 16th of December is the Day of Reconciliation and therefore she has a very special day for her birthday.

She came around this morning and then her boyfriend Jamie took her and Jayden out for the day.

And Kristine's cutie pie Julie also known as Miss Thang turned 10 today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS JULIE!!!! Have a blast of a day.

Kim's beautiful A Fresh Start kit is still on sale and I meant to blog about it on Friday already, but we've had some line maintenance on our telephone and internet lines and they forgot to reconnect the line when they installed a new splitter box for the block. It has been a very long 5 days without any internet connection.

I loaded this LO at The Garden Parlour's gallery and promptly got Bloom of the Day with it. And I must say it's easy to create great LO's when you have the beautiful kits that Kim comes up with.

I also turned my LO into a QP to share with everyone.

You can get it here.

Have a great day and if all goes well then I'll have something for you tomorrow, but you definitely have to come back for a visit on Friday as something very exciting is about to happen.

Hugs
Ren

HAPPY THANKSGIVING & BLACK FRIDAY SALES

2009-11-26T05:23:00.000-08:00

Whoooohooooo, a Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers. I hope you have a blessed day today. I can just imagine all the preparations that are taking place and can almost hear the tables starting to groan. Enjoy all those turkey dinners and pumpkin pie. I'm particularly jealous of the pumpkin pie as it's my favourite vegetable.

We don't have Thanksgiving here in South Africa and I always feel it's a pity, but then again, we have to be thankful for what we have on a daily basis. I'm very lucky that I'm blessed to still have my mom (she'll be 74 on Christmas Day), 2 beautiful kids (my son Rainer and daughter Katia), my precious little grand daughter Jayden and my very special man Corné. I'm blessed to have a huge, spacious house that's fully paid for, 2 cars, 2 motorcycles and good food on my table every day. More than that no one needs.

Until last year I didn't know about Black Friday sales and when I first heard the term I thought it was a bad day, BUT my gosh isn't it the most fantastic day ever. So this year I decided to join the Black Friday madness and have put my entire Commercial Use store on sale. Each item has been reduced to $1.50. The sale will start tomorrow and will end at midnight Sunday. So at least you can shop at your leisure. You can view my store here.

And Kim B has also put her store on sale. As you can see in the preview her sales are on a sliding scale over the weekend, so if you want to get really special deals, hit that store tomorrow.

She also has a new Grab Bag out for Black Friday for $3.50 only. And you know that her grab bags are always packed with an enormous amount of goodies, the one being more gorgeous than the other.

I have made a Christmas Wreath cluster frame with 1 of the products in the bag, some items from Christmas First and some of her other CU products released a while ago.

You can get it here.

Enjoy the rest of your day and happy sales tomorrow.

Hugs
Ren

Gorgeous Baby Kit

2009-11-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Kim B has done it AGAIN!!!! Her new kit Christmas First is just too gorgeous for words. It's soft and pretty and so timeless that it's not just great for baby pics, but any glamorous LO. I just had to scrap this photo of Jayden. It looks as if she's saying a prayer and I've been looking for the perfect kit for it. Well Kimmie didn't even need a hint. She just came up with the perfect kit. You just wonder what that little face is wishing for from Santa.

Katia and the family has returned from their holiday and she brought me some beautiful photos, so now I have my scrapping and designing mojo back. I just need a few more hours each day to get round to doing all the things I want.

Remember all my new CU products available in my store, sale ends Sunday midnight.

And I made a freebie cluster frame with some elements in Kim's stunning kit. I left it very big so that you can resize it any size you want.

You can get it here. Chat soon.

Hugs
Ren

Brand New Products & CU Freebie

2009-11-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

Today I don't have much to say but I have a lot to show you. Go and grab a cup of coffee (or anything else you'd like to drink) and possibly something to nibble on too.

I have 10 new CU products in store and it's all on sale for the first week. I decided to offer it all in a bundle at $10 for all 10 products or if you don't want everything in the bundle I have each product seperately at 50% off for 1 week only.

Here's the preview of the bundle with all 10 products

And you can get it in my store here

Or the individual products

1. Baby Stitches

4 Embroidered Baby Elements that come in psd and png files. These were tests that I embroidered on my new embroidery machine before I made Jayden's quilts and thought they'd be beautiful as elements for baby kits.

Here's the preview

And you can get it in my store here

2. African Bush Overlays

5 Scenic Texturized Overlays of the African Bush. These photos were taken by my very talented friend Warren de Swardt and are used by permission

Available in my store here

3. Beading

10 Wire Bound Bead elements. Lovely to string on chains or to create cluster elements.

You can get it here

4. Charming

6 Funky Metal Charms. Will work well with the beads and the shorts are a front and back view.

Available here

5. Coral & Pearls

8 beautiful Coral and Pearl elements. Contains 2 frames, 2 single pearls, 2 pearl and coral strings, 1 coral scatter and 1 pearl scatter.

Get it in my store here

6. Fave Roses

5 Long Stemmed Red Roses. These are perfect for any kit.

You can get it here

7. Gift Box Doodles

5 3d Doodled Gift Boxes. Just add your paper and some embelishments for unique boxes for your kits.

Available here

8. Season's End Flowers

6 Pretty Pink Flower elements. These flowers were starting to lose their full summer beauty and they appealed to me because of the character they had.

You can get them here

9. Sequined Face Masks

4 beautiful Sequined Face Masks in original full color and grey scale versions. Perfect for Year End kits.

You can get it here

10. String-a-long

6 Multi colored metallic string elements. I chose them specifically to match the face masks, but they're versatile enough to be used in any kit with some bling.

Available here

All these are 300 dpi and without drop shadows.

And of course I have a CU freebie for you. It matches the Fave Roses and is a single red rosebud with a shorter stem.

You can get it here.

Have a great day.

Hugs
Ren

Oh Boy

2009-11-12T07:43:00.000-08:00

I thought that once I was working from home things would be less hectic, but it's as if I blink and 2 or 3 days have gone by.

I spoke to Katia again today to see how they're enjoying their holiday and to tell her I can't wait for them to get back tomorrow. Guess what? The brat informed me that they're staying until Sunday. Boohoo. I'm missing them like crazy. I haven't seen Jayden since last week Thursday and I'm definitely having baby withdrawals. I can't really begrudge them this holiday as the weather is perfect and the holiday season hasn't started yet so they don't have crowds everywhere they go.

I don't have much news today, I'll keep it for Monday LOL, but I do have a little freebie heart frame for you today. It's a dainty flower and bead frame made with some items from Kim B's Birthday CU Bags that is still on special until the 15th. If you haven't got it yet, you better high tail it to her store as they;re crammed with the most beautiful goodies.

Here's a preview

And you can get it here.

Have a marveouls day.

Hugs
Ren

BABBELAS

2009-11-09T03:39:00.000-08:00

Tee hee, which is slang for HANGOVER here in South Africa. LOL. In true Scorpio fashion I partayed the entire weekend. Friday afternoon my friend Lilla phoned and invited me to a quick pub lunch. BWAHAHAHAHA - quick???? You have got to be joking. We had prego rolls and chips and then the owner of the estaurant found out that I was having abelated birthday party and the 1920 came out. I don't know if it's a brandy or what, but that stuff is beyond dangerous. You have it with espresso and after that we sort of forgot to go home and eventually the guys joined us and we ended up having supper and more drinks there.

Then on Saturday it was the big celebration and we all went to the tennis club early to set up. I'll tell you there's nothing worse than trying to set up tables and chairs when you have an entire marching band playing in your head. The kettle drum section was extra loud. We hired a spit and had the butcher do a sosatie spit, which is deboned chunks of meat and with that we did baby potatoes, onions and marvelous little breads that get done in a clay pot. With the party being held at the tennis club it wasn't long before some of the animals decided to play silly buggers on the tennis court and it got quite hillarious with the guys trying to play tennis to the beat of the music. We eventually got home at about 4 am and yesterday I slept late and acted like a total vegetable.

Katia, Jamie and Jayden have gone to Illovo for a week. Illovo is a coastal down south from Durban and she says the weather is marvelous. They've been gone 3 days and I'm missing them like crazy and can't wait for them to get back on Saturday and to download their photos. Hopefully I get some precious photos of Jayden to scrap. We bought her the cutest little bikini and we're lucky that she loves the water. Katia says they spend each morning in the pool.

As usual my hectic weekend has made me late with my freebies, but here's the fixed QP

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/148935090/f28894ad/RB-KBs_Birthday_QP.html

And here's a cluster element I made with some goodies from Kim B's CU grab bags.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/146290482/45020f11/RB-kbbirthdayelement.html. Remember to pop by her site to see what the other ladies from the CT have for you.

Hugs

Ren

Serious BLONDE Moment

2009-11-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

And I don't mean that in a derogatory way to any of my blonde readers. BUT I made an OOOOOOPPPPPSSSSS of epic proportions. I don't know what I did, but it seems that when I did my preview of my QP freebie for yesterday I saved after I resized it. How stupid can you get. My sincere humble apologies and I'll redo the QP and post the new link tomorrow.

Unfortunately I was out the entire day and only saw that I made an oops and haven't had time to redo it. I'm soooooo sorry for my stupidity. Seems that age is starting to show it's ugly horns. LOL.

Well Kim B is still celebrating her birthday in STYLE and she has the most marvelous CU freebie on her blog today. Swing by and grab it up as her goodies are always perfection itself.

I wanted to make a little shop menu with her age on it as a price, but this year there's an odd number of candles on her cake and I decided to just make a fun and funky little menu element using some products from her PU Grab Bag. Just shows how versatile the goodies in this bag are. If you haven't got it yet I suggest you hurry and get yourself this bag, it is worth every cent.

Here's a preview of the menu element. And LOL yes, I checked the size 3 times before making this post. I have backache from trying to kick myself.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/146854185/36a40169/RB-kbbirthdaymenu.html. Remember to pop by tomorrow for the fixed QP and anothe little goodie that will be revealed.

Have a marvelous day.

Hugs

Renée

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM B

2009-11-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

WHOOOOOOHOOOOOO, it's my friend Kim B's birthday!!!!!! Many happy returns girlfriend. I hope this is the start of the best years yet to come. Oh boy and if you go read Kim's blog today, you will see that once again she's celebrating BIG!!!! I'm deliberately not cluttering my post with too much eye candy, as I really want you to go by her blog and wish her a HUGE, BIG, BEST birthday wish ever.

Since my last blog I have been extremely busy. I had to wind up my job and train someone new to take over from me. It was quite emotional as I have been with the company for 4 years and in that time colleagues usually become family. But it was time for me to move on and start my own venture.

I also bought a new computer to handle the magazine and all my scrapbooking and I have been setting that up to my liking. Wheeee and did my pc supplier surprise me with a gift of PS CS4. Whoooppeeee!!!!! I do have some PS experience, but have always preferred to work in PSP. I'm now doing as many PS tutorials as I can lay my hands on so that I can migrate fully to that.

And yesterday was my 50th birthday. WOW, I can't believe I'm a half a century old. I definitely don't feel it and plan to have a hooligan of note party on Saturday. There's 8 of us that have our birthdays one day after the other and we have decided to all get together on Saturday and PARTAY. I'll probably regret it on Sunday, but now I'm looking forward to it.

OK, I'm sure you want to see 1 or 2 little hints of what is in Kim's PU grab bag.

Here's a LO of my darling Jayden using 2 products in the PU Bag.

And here's a LO using a picture of Disney Lizzi from Deviant Art. Isn't it just perfect for this kit???

And of course I have a freebie for you. A QP using items from the PU bag.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/146292169/e091f177/RB-KBs_Birthday_QP.html. Just remember to go by Kim's blog and wish her a Happy Birthday.

Love and Hugs

Renée

AMAZING!!!! Eye Candy Intensive

2009-09-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

That's what has been happening at DSO the past couple of weeks. AMAZING creations, AMAZING products and AMAZING prices.

TARRARRRARRARAH, it's the 2nd Annual DSO Personal Use Grab Bag week and the ladies have out done themselves. Each Grab Bag is filled with at least 4 items, all quality checked and of the highest quality standards, for only $3 per bag. I'm going to put up a preview of each bag and if you click the DSO Roll on the right hand side of the screen it will take you to each designers store. I unfortunately don't have a preview of Jazzy's bag, but I can assure you, it's worth having. Also, the photo mat I used for Jayden's pic in my last posting is hidden somewhere in Kim B's Bag. Enjoy your sales everyone. I NEED TO SMELL CREDIT CARDS BURN!!!! LOL.

Kim B

Loucee

Andrea Dickenson

Jill

Dianne

Lynn

Mel C

Misty

Sassy

Charlie

And here's a teaser of a LO I did with some goodies from Kim B's bag

My Commercial Use Overlay Bag is also still on sale for $5. That's 5 new products each with 5 full color and 5 desat overlays in each pack. That's 50 items making them 10c each. They'll be going to full price on Tuesday midnight so if you have your eye on them, grab the bag now.

As I missed posting yesterday, I will reveal 2 of the products in the Bag.

Striped Overlays

Hand Painted Fabric Overlays

Have a wonderful day.

Hugs

Renée

My First CU Grab Bag & CU Freebie

2009-09-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Oh boy, my life is changing by the day. My darling little GD will be 9 weeks old tomorrow and she's getting so cute. Jayden rules the house when she's here. We all become quite silly around her. Katia is blessed that she is such a happy contented little baby. Just look at how cute she is.

And if you want to know more about that stunning photo mat, be sure to pop around on Friday because I have some AMAZING news to tell you.

I'm about to realise a lifelong dream. I have always wanted to be involved in a biking magazine and I have just been offered the whole publication of a new magazine. I have resigned from my job to do the mag from home and to concentrate more on designing, so I'm so excited. My last day at work will be the 14th of October.

And I have my FIRST Grab Bag in the store. It's entirely an overlay bag with 5 new products, each with 5 full color and 5 desat overlays. That's a total of 50 overlays for 5$ for 1 week only. Here's a little hint of what's in the bag. All quality checked to make sure that it has no pixelation, blurry bits or anything that can frustrate a designer when they use a product for the first time. You can get it in my store here.

And of course I have a Commercial Use freebie for you. It's a hint of what is in the bag

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/129656791/8c7b5816/RB-CU-Freebie-Overlays.html. And if you pop by tomorrow I will reveal 1 of the products that is in the bag.

Hugs
Renée

25 Hour Day & Bar One

2009-08-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know it's a crazy title for a blog post, but we have a chocolate here in South Africa called a Bar One and the punch line in the ads is "For a 25 Hour Day". I have recently been wondering if I have 3 of those a day, maybe I could have a 75 hour day and get through all the things I want to get through.

Jayden is growing so fast and is changing daily. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do a LO or 2 in the next day or two. I just love the stage she's at. She's 6 weeks old and started smiling and she smiles at her blanket and the lamp and the side of her carry cot and and and if you KWIM. LOL. It's too cute. It also looks as if she's going to have big blue eyes, but we'll have to wait a bit longer to be sure. She is thriving and Katia took to motherhood as if she's always done so. She is 100% comfortable with Jayden and if I think back to when Rainer was born I know I didn't handle him all that confidently.

I've been having a wierd headache for the past 2 days. All on the one side of my head and my eye kept on twitching. I was getting rather concerned this afternoon and decided to stop off at the doctor. Well I have to tell you, if my doctor wasn't married to one of my friends, he'd never see me. I'm not very fond of a doctor's room. His consulting rooms are on a very busy road and I was watching traffic very carefully and when I turned to check that both sides were clear I just felt this huge clack in my neck. 15 minutes later I was still waiting for the doctor when my headache was gone. Seems I had a bit of a pinched nerve and with the rapid movement of my head I managed to release it. He gave me some anti-inflamatories and a jab in the butt and hopefully this is the end of wierd headaches and I can see him at the next friends visit. LOL.

Well have you seen that Kim B has been at it again. She has another one of her glorious mega grab bags up in the store again. 8 Brand new CU products for $8 for a limited time only. And her regular customers will know that it's top notch quality. No strays or jagged edges. You can get it here

I've got a freebie cluster frame for you made with some of the products in the bag.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/125683997/67688ede/August_Mega_Cluster.html. Hope you enjoy using it.

Hugs

Renée

Very Bad Blogger & New CU Items

2009-08-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone

Seems all I'm doing lately is appologise for being such a bad blogger.

Life has really taken over. First my car was hi-jacked, then I became a GRANNY on the 2nd of July. Oh man, has that little madam just taken over my life. My DD Katia had a bay girl named Jayden and she is the cutest little thing imaginable. She has just stolen all our hearts and most of our time is spent with her.

I did this LO of her using various of Kim B's CU items.

I have also been working on some new CU items and I'm building up quite a few things to release during the month, but the following items are in my STORE. 25% off for 1 week only. All items have been quality checked for no jaggies or strays. No drop shadows on any of the items either.

The first 70's Ribbon are from ribbons I found in my mom's stash. It's times like these that I'm so happy she's a hoarder.

The second Africa Wildlife are some beautiful animal overlays that I made from photos taken by my very talented friend Warren de Swardt. They're textured with slightly grungy edges.

And I haven't forgotten about everyone, I have a faaabric flower that's CU friendly, and I've included a layered psd file, desat .png file and a colored .png file.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/122631114/20d5c3c0/CU_Fabric_Flowers.html. I hope you can find some use for this and we'll chat soon.

Hugs

Renée

Special People

2009-07-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone

It's not often, but every so often in your life you meet a very special person. Today, my blog post is dedicated to just such a person. Her name is Gina (or Geezee) Zuiderduin. I'm going to tell you about her in a bit, but I first have to do a bit of advertising.

Bunny has decided to shake things up quite a bit over at DSO

First there's a Designer's Call Drive. Are you looking for a fantastic store? Are you looking to make friends with your fellow designers? Are you looking for a happy place? Then look no further, DSO is the place to be. Read more about it here.

Now for all the scrappers out there

Oh yes, you read it right. DSO will now have it's own Store Creative Team. Stop by the forum and read all about it. I'm so excited about this. WHEEEEEE

Now I have to share something that Kim got up to. Her creativity knows no bounds. Not only does she create the most amazing kits and CU goodies, but she challenges us as a CT as well. LOL. Earlier in the week she decides to come up with a "strange" request. It's time for the July Color Challenge and she asks each of us for a color. Well when they started coming through I thought, this is going to be spaghetti bolognaise. We are all so different. BUT Kim came up with 2 yes TWO amazing color swatches and 2 of the most incredible posting bonuses I have ever seen.

Go read the rules here and here.

OK, that out the way, let's get on to Geezee. I was carjacked on Monday morning. I don't want to dwell on that too much, but apart from the shock and losing my personal effects and being very frustrated by red tape I am OK. I am going for councilling and feel OK with what has happened. I just have this uncontrollable urge to swear profusely. Well Kimmie mentioned this on her blog yesterday (thanks my friend) and when I got home and checked my e-mail, I had this INCREDIBLE e-mail from Geezee. I'm not going to share the mail or the subsequent mails between Geezee and myself, but I have to tell you that she made me SOB. I cried harder because of her e-mail than after the whole scare I got.

Geezee, you are an incredible lady. May every kindness you show to others be returned to you a million times. I have made this little frame cluster to thank you and I'd like to share it with the scrapping community. All I ask is that if you use it, remember that it stems from a kind deed and be thankful for the kind and loving people in your life.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/115345105/686e218e/Geezee.html. Have a marvelous evening. I have an idea for color swatch one and I'm raring to go.

Love and many hugs

Renée

Have you got it yet?

2009-06-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

Kim B's new Grab Bag, that is. Today is your last chance to get it at $4.

I'm lucky that I'm on Kim's creative team and get the chance to play with all her wonderful products. I was busy doing a LO with this week's bag and realised that every time Kim brings out one of her Commercial Use Bags, you can virtually create an entire kit from just one bag. She always includes so many diverse items. This week's is no different. So if you haven't got it yet, make sure you do before time runs out.

This is the LO I made with some of the goodies in this week's bag. I liked my LO so much that I was inspired to put a little mini freebie together for you.

Here's a preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/114427516/714eef8e/RB-AcidDrops.html. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hugs

Renée

Very Quick Post & QP Freebie

2009-06-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been crazy, so I'll just get straight to the freebie. I used goodies from Kim B's Mini Grab Bag 4 and Mezzaluna Papers.

Here's the preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/113646242/b188c417/KB_MMB4_QP.html. Speak soon

Hugs

Renée

Sorry

2009-06-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry that I've neglected my blog and all the followers that I've got, but I've had an incredibly hectic month. Things should be back to normal now and I should be blogging a lot more from today onwards.

I've had an ear infection, work has been crazy and I tried to shortcut my doodles and it really didn't work. I really didn't like my computer when I tried to fix that mess. In the end I went back to my trusted method and things went a lot more smoothly.

But before I get to my new product and the freebie, I have to share some amazing news. My daughter Katia is expecting soon and I'll be a Granny. It took me quite a while to get my head around the fact, but now that I've come to grips with the idea I'm very excited and can't wait. She doesn't want to know the sex of the baby, so I'm jokingly calling it the puppy for now LOL.

So on to the new product release. You can find it exclusively at DSO. I'm always looking for the perfect rose to use in my LO's and can never find exactly what I'm looking for. Well I doodled them. There's 4 roses - from a rose bud to a full blowsy rose and a set of leaves. These are perfect to use on their own or to make a cluster/bouquet of roses. It's on special at 20% off for 1 week only.

And to give you an idea of the size of each image, I have done a rose bud that's commercial use friendly. The sample is not included, it's just an idea of what you can do. The freebie link will stay up while the product is on special.

You can get is here http://www.4shared.com/file/111017210/136b4b5f/RB-CU-DoodleRose-free.html. Now I'm going to jump into a hot bath as it's freezing cold here.

Hugs

Renée

NSD & New Product Releases

2009-05-02T10:53:00.000-07:00

Oooooooh, WOW, my head is spinning. I have been following the sales and I almost forgot to come and blog. There's so much out there that I WANT, MUST HAVE, or simply just sit and stare at. Are you enjoying your shopping days???

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. First off I have 2 new Commercial Use products in store exclusive to DSO. I love vintage and I love hand drawn images, so in keeping with my passions I have created 4 Vintage frames and 4 Vintage Kid papers. These are all created with royalty free images that I desaturated and then reworked. Both the papers and the frames have a lovely texture to give some depth to any vintage kits. I have recoloured the papers to show you what each looks like in it's entirety as a preview doesn't do them justice. These will also look great if you apply a torn and worn overlay that is so popular at the moment.

And secondly, as promised yesterday, I have 2 QP's in 1 zip folder using Kim B's stunning new Antoinette and Moody Days kits.

You can collect them here http://www.4shared.com/file/103009288/4af83710/Kim_B_QP.html. Enjoy the rest of NSD and all the marvelous items that are on sale at 50% off at DSO.

Hugs

Renée

NSD at DSO 2 May

2009-05-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

My internet and telephone woes are over, but the story will have to keep until next time. Now it's time for the important stuff!!! NSD fever has hit and the digi world has gone CRAZY!!!

DSO will be having a 50% sale for tomorrow only. That's on all products excluding services and grab bags. Swing by my STORE and see how cheap it is. My cheapest product will be $1 and the most expensive $2.25.

I have a lot of product release news as well as lots of eye candy to show you. First up is the Grab Bag colab by Kim B and Bunny Cates. I've had the pleasure of working with this grab bag and all I can say is hold on to something when you unzip it, because it's going to ROCK your world. Maybe that's why Bunny had to hide away from tornadoes and bad weather yesterday. LOL. In this baggy, you get 10 new CU products, but if you break it down even further there's 95 items in this bag and all this for the extra special price of $10. At just over 10c an item, that's virtually for free. I think you deserve a little hint of what's in the bag LOL.

Then Kim has 2 divine new products available as from tomorrow as well. The first is another installment in her Friend Series and this one is in honor of her friend Antoinette. It's so gorgeous I just keep on wanting to play and I really am neglecting my other duties just to have fun.

The second one is Moody Days. This kit is warm and broody and just as much fun. The first LO shows the fun side and the second the more dramatic feel that can be created.

And if you come back tomorrow for some more news you can collect my LO with Antoinette and the second Moody Days as QP's.

Happy shopping.

Hugs

Renée

Klutz

2009-04-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well that's what I have been today. LOL, I should have just pulled the duvet over my head and marked the day absent.

First, I started off having a bath this morning instead of a shower and so I enjoyed my float in the bath that I stayed in much longer than I should have and I started off late. Then I decided to dump half a cup of coffee on my off white suit I was wearing to work. Now I don't know if any of you have this problem, but once I've made up my mind what I'm going to wear, I can't find something else if for some reason I can't wear the outfit I set my mind on. So now I'm late and standing in front of the cupboard in my underwear complaining I have nothing to wear. Corné just shook his head and grumbled something about the closet being so full the door can't close. Eventually I settled on pink and managed to get my behind out the door and onto the highway. Yeah well Murphy decided that today of all days there will be 2 accidents and a broken truck on my way to work. I eventually got there about 20 minutes late.

Only to discover that instead of doing a copy and paste for our daily backup our IT guy did a cut and paste last night in his rush to go on leave. Our whole server is pristinely clean and we couldn't even phone him as he was in transit to Dubai. Hopefully we can get hold of him tomorrow and get the password for the backup server so that we can retrieve our data.

And on Wednesdays my gardener comes to tend to the garden and he watered the lawn. My little cocker spaniel (affectionately known as the cockeyed spaniel) does not dain to go on wet grass and left a little surprise exactly where I place my foot when I get out the car. So yes, today has been a cr*ppy day. LOL.

So starting the day late has even got me blogging late and I wanted to show you lots of eye candy, because Bunny wants to see, but it will have to wait.

Today I have to show you what Loucee has made with my doodles. It's a freebie on her blog, so please hop on over and collect it. Remember to leave her some love. Shame and her fur baby is ill. Lenny, get well soon, your humans are very worried about you.

I also managed to complete my DSO Color Challenge. Even if you only manage a LO with the colors or one of the freebies up for grab, it's one challenge that you really have to make an effort to complete. And that posting bonus makes the pot so much sweeter. I found 3 very old corner stamps and played around with them and then got the idea to try and create some "paper lace doilies". I left them to look sort of old and worn. Here's a preview of one of them and then of course there's the paper preview and a preview of the full kit.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/98732194/5a9b40bd/Faded_Memories.html. Have a great day.

Hugs

Renée

Still on Cloud Nine

2009-04-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

Well I'm still floating up there, trying to get over finally having my own store.

I don't have much to say today. It's the end of my 4 day long weekend and back to work tomorrow. For the first time in many years I stayed home and just chilled. I needed this relax and will go back to work revitalized.

I nearly drowned my sorrows on Saturday night. My team The Sharks lost to the team that's at the bottom of the log in the Super 14. I still can't believe that The Cheetahs won, but we're still at the top of the log. And last night I stayed up for the first motogp race of the year. It's a night race in Qatar at the beautiful Losail circuit in the middle of the desert. They have to race at night because it's just too hot during the day. And would you believe it, the race got rained out. A tropical storm that could not be believed. The race has been postponed to tonight and I just hope I can keep my peepers open for that. And in this I support an Australian - Kasey Stoner!!!! So in case I miss the race and have to wait for the result, I wish him and the rest of the field a safe race, but Kasey, go and grab the first win of the season.

I also got some beautiful photos of wolves and huskies taken at the Husky Romi Wolf Sanctuary in the Eastern Free State in a little town called Reitz. Corné and I will definitely be taking a trip there in the Spring. Unfortunately the Free State only has 2 kinds of weather - very cold or very hot and I just cannot do cold. I love wolves and find it such a pity that people have to take them out of their natural habitat to make pets out of them and then later abandon them because they're not ideal pets. Larry and Thea are in the process of starting a new website with the details of their extended property and the wolves and huskies now have far better facilities. I wish them every success in their endeavour.

Jazzy had a CT call a while ago and I just had to muscle my way into that team. Thank you Jazzy for letting me on board. Jazzy makes it very easy for me to ad some "journalling" to my LO's because she just has this gift of always coming up with just the right phrases for her WA. And she has 3 new sets of WA in the store - He Is Risen (if you swing by her blog you'll see a LO that I made) - Just Baseball and Graduation Day. I have yet to make some LO's with the last 2, but baseball is not a sport that is really played in South Africa and our Graduation is also totally different to that of the USA.

Remember my new items are only on sale for one week and then they go to regular price. Livia has made this devine fairy element, using my Doodled Fairies and she will be giving it away on her blog a bit later tonight. She is also having a public holiday and told me that it was outdoors weather, so please be patient until she can get to her pc to blog. Isn't it absolutely gorgeous? And please keep your eyes peeled during the week for more freebies created with my doodles.

I have also decided to leave my last 2 freebie links up for another 24 hours, for those that didn't get to do any freebie searches over the Easter weekend, but I will unfortunately have to take the links down tomorrow evening. Have a great day.

Hugs

Renée

I'm HOPPING

2009-04-11T10:27:00.001-07:00

Faster and higher than the Easter Bunny. LOL and it's hopping for Joy!!!!!! I have finally joined a store!!!! Thank you Kim & Bunny and all the other ladies in our team that encouraged me to take this flying leap. When I mentioned that I'm a scaredy cat, Kim was quite surprised because I race around on motorcycles. Kim, my friend, if you can ride a bicycle, you can ride a motorcycle. But if you can ride a bicycle, you can't necessarily design. LOL

So since February I've been playing around with joining a store to mainly sell my doodles (I love to draw) as Commercial Use items. Bunny was so kind to offer me a position in her store and I am now designing exclusively for DSO. Clicking on the link will take you straight to my store and I have 4 Commercial Use items on sale. Yes, I'm starting this with a bang. You get 20% off on all my goodies for a week.

Doodled Cupids - A collection of 3 cupids and a text banner that can be coloured and texturised to your hearts content.

Doodled Fairies - 4 very detailed fairies.

Doodled Mushrooms - There are 7 mushrooms. All the doodles are large so that they can be resized as small as you like.

Yesteryear Overlays - 6 flower themed overlays in .png format. These are perfect for aged papers.

And to celebrate the store opening I have a Commercial Use freebie for you. 3 Cupid and Angel .png Overlays. The folded and worn paper is not included, I just used it for preview purposes. There are no drop shadows on any of my products either. All are full scrapper size. This freebie will also only be up until Monday morning our time.

You can collect it here http://www.4shared.com/file/97966389/b575d091/RB-CU-Store-Opening-Overlays.html. And because of the time difference, it's almost Easter Sunday and I won't be blogging tomorrow. Have a peacefull day.

Hugs

Renée

Happy Easter

2009-04-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

It's a 4 day weekend here and I better get this wish in soon because I'm sure we're going to end up having a very hectic weekend.

Today I took my mom to visit her sister. It was my aunt's birthday yesterday and we went for tea and cake. My mom's brother went with us because it's his birthday tomorrow. I definitely had too much cake.

On a sad note, Romeo, my colleague passed away from his injuries on Monday morning. I have been busy all week doing the LO for the pamphlet they'll be using in church. I used Kim B's Precious Angel Memories Blue and found a beautiful poem "Whispers from Heaven" for the back page. Although this poem is very sad, I also felt it very uplifting at the same time.

I have to get off the pc in a while as I haven't even started thinking of supper and I now have a headache from hunger. A girl cannot live from cake alone. LOL.

Today I have a limited freebie for you. It's some CU Easter doodles and the link will only be valid until Monday morning our time.

You can download it here http://www.4shared.com/file/97647471/a53d439/RB-CU-Easter-Doodles.html. Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to leave me a comment either here or on 4 shared. I love reading them and appreciate them tremendously.

Have a blessed and peaceful Easter Weekend.

Hugs

Renée

Another Quick One

2009-04-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm going to do another quick post of the last installment of Birdsong.

I have to go and have my hair coloured and get the spare room ready as we're fetching Corné's little one for the weekend.

Just a reminder of what it looks like

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/96565221/8383be3f/Birdsong.html. I'm hoping to get some time to work on the color challenge hosted at DSO this weekend. Have a great day.

Hugs

Renée

Quick Post

2009-04-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm just making a quick post to load the next installment of the Birdsong freebie.

We're going out to dinner with friends and I really cannot be late. Tomorrow will be the last installment of this freebie.

You can get today's download here http://www.4shared.com/file/96386006/57896fe2/Birdsong_Ele_2.html. Have a great day.

Hugs

Renée

Another Award & The start of the Elements

2009-04-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

When I got notice that I got this award, all I could say was WOW. Thank you Jan, I really appreciate it. This is the "Look How Cool Blog" award.

Here's the rules:

• Display the image of the stamp "Look How Cool Blog" you just won!

• Post the blog link you provided.

• Indicate your choice of 10 blogs.

• Let them know.

• Post the rules.

• Check if the blogs post the prize and followed the rule

And I'd like to pass this on to some very special ladies that are part of Kim's CT or just regular visitors. We're a crazy bunch and that's the main reason for their coolness. Sometimes we chatter away like magpies and we can build up a 100 mails in a day and sometimes we're quiet as mice. LOL, the calm before the storm.

I know that's more that 10, but I can't give to one and not another.

Today I'm very sad. One of the guys that works with me was involved in a car accident on Sunday and sustained head injuries. They operated on Sunday, but he is not getting better. In actual fact he has started bleeding again and his condition was critical today. Can all my readers please send up a wish for him to get better. Romeo you are in our prayers my friend.

I'm not going to keep you much longer, I know everyone wants to get at that amazing blog train, so I'll just post the preview to Birdsong Elements here.

And you can get the first download of the elements here http://www.4shared.com/file/96199973/4fb8aec8/Birdsong_Ele_1.html. Have a fantastic day.

Hugs

Renée

Paying it Forward

2009-03-31T09:33:00.001-07:00

I have to thank Gaye for this wonderful award. It's the Totally Awesome Blog Award for being Loyal and Harworking. Now I have to:

1 - Pass it on to 10 other deserving bloggers.
2 - Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.
3 - Link to the bloggers you passed it on to, and leave them a message on their blog.

I didn't have to think very hard for this one, because there's none so deserving as the stores that have forums and blogs. The store owners work incredibly hard to keep their shoppers informed of new goodies in the store, blogging, keeping a forum going and the upkeep of a gallery. So I'd like to pay this forward to these stores/blogs/forums/galleries.

Digi Scrap Obsession
Digi Shop Talk
Digital Scrap Garden
Scrap Gratuit
Enchanted Studio Scraps
Rachael's Scrap Store

And some blogs I love visiting:

Bunny Cates
Creekside Cottage Designs
Carena's Designs
Ladybug Graphix

Whew, now I need to go and leave them a note that they've received these awards and then tomorrow I must do it all over again LOL.

So now I'm just going straight over to the second installment of my Birdsong freebie.

You can grab it here http://www.4shared.com/file/96005871/2ceeabbf/Birdsong_Papers_2.html. And remember to pop by for the first installment of the elements tomorrow. Have a great day.

Hugs

Renée

There's a busy week ahead

2009-03-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

First off I got 2 awards, but I'll pay them forward tomorrow and Wednesday. Today I have too much to say.

We've had a great sporting weekend and my head suffered for it. LOL. On Friday night we played cricket against Australia in the Pro 20 series and we WON!!!!! Whoooohooo, go PROTEAS!!! Sorry to my Australian readers.

Then on Saturday my favourite rugby team the Sharks played against the Brumbies and we also won. I'd like to wish Shawn Mackay from the Brumbies a speedy recovery. Shawn was injured on Sunday morning when he crossed the road and was struck by an armed response vehicle.

We had a crazy weekend. On friday night I was going to watch the cricket at home, but friends phoned and nagged for us to come and watch it at our local. We were drinking John Deere's because they're green and our national colours are green and gold. For those of you that don't know, a John Deere is Cain and Creme Soda. From then on it was downhill. LOL. We only got home at 2 a.m. in the morning and then we had to rehash the whole evening, I think I only got to bed at 4 a.m.

Then on Saturday morning it was out the house very early. Twice a year I support a local charity for quadruplegics called Ry-Ma-In (loosely translated in means Just Ride In). It's always a very emotional experience for me. It's when you see people that have no use of their limbs that you become humble and appreciate the fact that although you sometimes have aches and pains, you're still able bodied and not dependant on helpers for the most mundane tasks.

Saturday afternoon I helped my friend Sonja prepare for her daughter Sabrina's Sweet 16 party and we watched the rugby there and partied until very late at night. We decided it was a good idea to drink our way through every conceivable shooter we could find. And the end result, yesterday I woke up with half the day gone (and I had to be at the track at 7 a.m.), my mouth tasting foul and feeling as if I was hit by a cruise liner, a train, a bus and run over buy a stampede of cattle.

On top of all this I wanted to finish my new kit, but it just had to go on the backburner so that I could recover. And I just know that all my good intentions will just fly out of the window this weekend.

And I'm so excited about this kit!!!!! I'm very jealous that the northern hemisphere is going into Spring and Summer and we have Autumn (Fall) and Winter to look forward to. I had this idea to do a very fresh looking kit and I've done the entire kit in various shades of green. I'm very happy with how it turned out and I got the opportunity to use some goodies from Kim's Mishmash Bag that is on special for a limited time. This is one of those kits that I just couldn't finish because I kept on adding new elements. It's so big that I've had to break it up in several downloads that I'll put up every day this week. Here is a preview of the 9 papers and 25 elements. Drop shadows are for preview purposes only.

Here is the link to the first portion of the papers http://www.4shared.com/file/95819525/f4210648/Birdsong_Papers_1.html. Thank you for stopping by.

Hugs
Renée

Inspired

2009-03-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

Well I still can't get over my pretty blog Kim created for me. LOL, I can blog 3 times a day. I feel like creating and designing and doing LO's again.

Yesterday I went to the public library for some inspiration and got some strange looks as I spent most of my time in the children's section. I just love looking at some of the illustrations in children's books, especially the books from before the 80's. Unfortunately our library doesn't have many of those as they replenish their books and of course many people don't return books to the library.

My quest was inspired by a book of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies I got as a gift. I treasure that book. She was such an amazing artist and her paintings are special because they're so timeless. I can well believe that children in 50 year's time will still love looking at ther art.

And that is where I got my inspiration for today's freebie. All the paintings in the book is a full page illistration with it's poem on the opposite page. I just loved how they were presented. The illustrations all have a border around them and the background paper has a texture to it. I tried to emulate this look and feel and Kim's got the perfect CU overlays for this. I used Watercolors 1 for the "drawing" and Paper Textures 2 for the textured border.

Here's a preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/94285063/3fcf5189/Inspiration.html. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hugs

Renée

Link for Freebie

2009-03-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

I worked in Mozilla last night and seem to have a problem with posting links

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/93822942/c67405e2/New_Blog.html

Sorry for the inconvenience

Revamped

2009-03-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

VAVAVAVOOM!!!!

Don't you just love my new blog look???? I think I now have the most beautiful blog on the net. And it's all thanks to the very talented Kim. THANK YOU KIMMY, I JUST LOVE THIS!!!!.

Last week I mailed Kristine and asked her if she could give me some links to tutorials on how to create blog backgrounds. My blog was really depressing me with all that black and I really didn't feel like blogging. Kristine got back to me in a flash with a link. The next day we had a quiet day at work and of course I didn't have the link, so I mailed Kim. She also let me have some links quick as a flash. Well I followed the tutorials and played around and eventually came up with something that "looked" as if I knew what I was doing. Let's face it, I'm under no illusions that I actually know what I'm doing, I just bluff my way through these things. Well I mailed Kim my little tryout and SHE ASKED ME if she could design something for me. Who in their right mind will say no if Kim offers???? And this is what she came up with and very tentatively asks me if I like it. KIM!!!! I like Cape Cookies - this I frigging LOVE!!!!

Kim has managed to capture me 100% with this LO because that's what I see, a beautiful whimsical LO. But apart from the fairytale feel to this she captured some of my personality traits. The vines that are slightly chaotic which defines my attention deficit, slightly disordered life. The boots the fairy is wearing - I love boots and I'm currently the owner of 23 pairs and now that winter is approaching I'm sure I'll find about 50 pairs that I just have to have LOL. The striped socks the fairy is wearing, I do so love to make fashion statements and the dark wings, which matches my impossible nature. And of course the flowers and butterflies which represents my love of nature. So with one blog design, you got to know me quite intimately.

And now I'm motormouth LOL. Some news from the past month and a bit. Rainer has healed quite nicely and is back to being full of bluster and blarney. His bike was written off by the insurance and he has decided to buy a new car. Mom is suitably jealous because he is buying what I'd love to drive. A black VW Polo TDI.

We've been crazy hectic at work with financial year end, but thank goodness that is over and the auditors packed up their laptops and files today and we can take a breather for the next year.

Jazzy has some new word art in store that's on sale for a very limited time only. So swing on by her blog and go and read all about her exciting news and see what new word art she has. I just love what she comes up with. It's always the perfect finishing touch to a LO.

Oh and I'm sure you've all been saying "STOP WAFFLING" and get to the freebie. Well I made a little something to match my new look.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/93822942/c67405e2/New_Blog.html

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Hugs
Renée

Trouble, Trouble and more Trouble

2009-02-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone

Yes, I'm still around, but unfortunately for me, my year has started off horribly.

First off, Rainer came back from the UK on the 14th of January and then I just wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. He enjoyed his trip enormously, but like me, he just doesn't like the cold. I was quite cross with him because he took about 5 photos the entire time he was there. At least I know what the outside of his dad's house looks like LOL.

And just there is where the wheels fell off the bus totally. On the 16th Amy, my SIL was involved in an accident where a biker cut in front of her and hit her car. Luckily everyone is OK, but it upset Amy terribly as she's extremely bike aware.

Then on the 24th Rainer was involved in quite a big bike accident. A car thought it would be able to make a turn in front of him and he hit the car full on the side. Thank goodness we have such strict helmet laws as most of his injuries were to his face. He had a severe concussion, a blue eye, bruised and swollen jaw, broken tooth, some bruising to his abdomen, torn ligaments in his wrist and leg. There is nothing worse than getting a late night call from a paramedic to tell you your child was involved in a major accident. Luckily the young are strong and resilient and he is well on the mend.

The Saturday after that another friend was involved in a major bike accident. A woman decided to run across the road right in front of his bike. We were on our way to go and visit them and we came across the scene of the accident. It all just hit me at once and I just sat down and sobbed my heart out right there and then. I even refused to ride my bike home. And I have subsequently sold my road bike. For now I'll get my adrenalin rush on the track.

Sitting at doctors's rooms has had one benefit. I started drawing again. So what I have been doing is doodling in pencil, tidying the drawings up in felt tip pen and then redrawing them with the graphic pen. To the point where I have neglected all my CT duties, but Kim is the most understanding designer and has told me to take my time off and just take care of my family.

But being such a great designer also makes her good for the soul and I just had to create a little mini freebie using some goodies that can be found in her new February CU Grab Bag. You can get it here and at $8 for a limited time only, I can guarantee that it's money well spent. Here's a little hint of what you can get.

And here's another with some goodies from the bag included in the freebie. The cupid is one of my doodles and I hope you like it.

You can get the mini here http://www.4shared.com/file/87004257/284d8591/Victorian_Love_Notes.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And if you pop by Kim's blog, you'll get some more hints and some other freebies too.

Hugs

Renée

Just Horsing Around

2009-01-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

LOL, I couldn't think of a post title today. But after I drew my little rocking horse I did a unicorn and I'm in the process of doing a pegasus and I'll probably do a carousel horse and a normal horse after that.

I don't have much news at the moment, so I'll get straight on to some eye candy and today's freebie.

On Sunday I blogged about Beth's new kit and promised to show a LO, so here it is. Her new kit Fall Splendor is just so pretty and warm.

I've decided to keep to the DSO Color Challenge colours for the whole of January. That way you can build up a huge kit that will be both Valentine's Day and little girl friendly for all your LO's. Today I give you the finished product of the unicorn.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/80453265/e66f7c2f/CC_Unicorn.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Thanks for stopping by and looking.

Hugs

Renée

What's New

2009-01-11T05:06:00.000-08:00

Well apart from it being a new year and a new day, I had to get a NEW WARDROBE. After eating like crazy over the festive period, I literally didn't have anything that fit properly.

Yesterday I went off to the shops to go and get a few things that doesn't cut off my circulation or makes me look like an over stuffed sausage. I decided to get the minimal amount of stuff otherwise I'd just get comfortable with this weight and never lose it. I took Katia with me and she was disgusted. I decided to get neat stuff, but not very flattering, so that every day when I get dressed I can look at myself and have incentive to lose weight. I'm also not drinking any fizzy drinks (even if they say diet), but sticking to mineral water and the MOST DISGUSTING Chinese detox tea I have ever tasted in my life.

My mom is back from my cousin and she brought me some goodies that my cousin embroidered with her embroidery machine and my next goal is to buy one of these machines. I'll have to save like mad and be very disciplined because I still want my Sony camera and do some photography lessons as well. I'm just going to have to shut my eyes and ears if there are any mototcycling bargains that come my way. I might even sell the one bike, but just thinking about it breaks my heart.

Has my little teaser of Kim B's January Grab Bag gotten you in the mood to scrap and design yet? Remember, it's only on special for a few days and then the bag gets broken up and loaded at regular price.

Jazzy also has some gorgeous sets of new WA in her store, you can go and have a looksee here. Jazzy has this uncanny knack of creating WA that is so appropriate. I usually find just the right phrase in one of her collections to really give meaning to my LO's.

And Beth will be releasing a new kit in the next few days that is very earthy and warm. Be sure to swing by Beth's blog to pick up a QP freebie that is absolutely DIVINE. She's definitely the QP Queen. And if you check back tomorrow, I'll even have some LO's just to whet your apetite for her new kit.

And as my gift to you today, I have completed the DSO Color Challenge. I started off in one direction and when I looked again I had made a complete u-turn and ended up with something totally different. Some of the elements match my last freebie and can be used for Valentine's Day LO's. But the kit was really inspired by a little girl named Colleen that I knew when I was a kid. While working on this the colors reminded me of a birthday party Colleen had and I remember her in a dress of similar colors. I also made my first brushes for this kit and I'm quite proud of it.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/80076717/9764a86b/Colleen.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Just a little note - I still have all my kits and freebies up since I started blogging, so if you go through my archives, don't worry, the links are still active.

Have a great day.

Hugs

Renée

9 Days Gone

2009-01-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

WOW, how has this year gotten off to such a Bang??? We better not blink too often or it will be Christmas again.

Our New Year was great. We went up to our local pub to accommodate all the friends and only 1 friend remembered her camera, so I'm waiting for a disc with all the photos and then I'll share. It rained which I was very happy about. It's tradition in Johannesburg to let of fireworks and I'm anti as it traumatizes the dogs. We usually have a lot of lost dogs in the area on New Years day and this time we had none.

And then on the 2nd I got some wierd bug. Whereever there was pressure on a muscle, the muscle would swell and hurt like crazy. Even the doctor was stumped and could only think that I may have Lyme's Disease. He tested me and luckily those tests came back negative and just like it started it went away. I personally think my body was just acting out because I had to start work again on Monday.

It's actually great being back at work and seeing all your work friend after a 3 week break. Well apart from being back at work I have no other personal news.

Now on to digi news. My dear friend Kim B has got the most amazing grab bag up for January. It's worth $40, but as usual Kim cannot resist giving out bargains and it's $8 for a limited time only. There's in excess of 35 items in the bag and that's the type of bargain I like. So hurry here and get yours.

I made this little mini mini freebie using a few of the items

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/79809785/e2006b5a/Jan_Grab_Bag.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Now I really have to get cracking and finish my DSO Colour Challenge.

Hugs

Renée

The Countdown Has Begun

2008-12-29T10:11:00.000-08:00

Can you believe there's 3 days left of this year. And the saddest part, I only have 1 week left of my holidays.

I have managed to rest a lot and stayed away from the computer a bit. The rush before Christmas really tired me out this year.

Last Monday I took Rainer to the airport and he flew from Johannesburg to Dubai, Dubai to Birmingham and then they drove from Birmingham to Derbyshire by car. Shame the poor kid was in transit for 24 hours. Coming from a heatwave, he is stressing with the cold, but he is so glad to see his dad whom he saw last on the 28th November 2007. He phoned me on Christmas morning and my house feels so empty without him.

On Tuesday I took my mom to my aunt and my cousin fetched them for a visit close to Thabazimbi. She lives in a game reserve and my mom says it's too beautiful with all the game coming right to the fence around the property. A baboon managed to come into the house and not only did he admire himself in the bathroom mirror, but he also stole a whole tin of biscuits. After the fact they found it quite funny, but they can be quite distructive and viscious so it was a bit scary while he was in the house.

Christmas day we had a very quiet day at Corné's mom. She is a polio survivor and is in a wheelchair, so the day was quite special. And like everyone we ate absolutely too much.

Saturday I went to see the Bjorn Again show at one of our local theatres. It's an Abba show put on by 4 Australians and it was absolutely brilliant. They have been doing the show for 10 years and have even perfected the Swedish accent. At the end of the show the blonde girl was singing "Thank You For The Music" and as she got to the end of the first bit without music, a little kiddie in the audience just started singing. It was really funny and she was laughing so much that they had to keep playing the musical intro to the song. If they ever come out your way, and you're an Abba fan, make a point of seeing the show.

Seeing as I haven't been near the pc much, I fixed up my very first complete drawing I did with the tablet and pen and offer you a little Commercial Use Pierot plus a sample of what can be done.

Here's the preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/78074558/20f530d0/Pierot.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. I'm hoping to stop by before the end of the year, but if I don't get a chance, here's to a great 2009, with many blessings and may all your wishes come true.

All my love

Renée

Finally

2008-12-21T06:08:00.000-08:00

Gosh, I've finally had a day to myself. Between taking my mom and the kids shopping, I'm going to go demented. By the time I get home from shops with long queus and the heat, I'm so tired I cannot think straight. At the rate we're going I'm going to be more tired than when I went on leave. My mom is leaving for my cousin's on Tuesday and Rainer is leaving for the UK on Monday evening and I've warned the rest of the family that as of Tuesday afternoon I'll be vegetating.

Enough moaning, I've wanted to tell you a little story about glue. LOL. For those of you that don't follow Bunny's blog, she does cards and mini albums that are absolutely stunning. I passed a comment that I can't do any of that as I must stay away from glue. Kim then said if Bunny can do it, so can I. Heck NO!!! Here's my tale of woe with glue.

When my brother passed away, I had trouble sleeping and after many kinds of sleeping tablets that didn't work, my doctor decided to bring out the big guns. Well that first night I took a tablet and decided that while I waited for it not to work, I'll fix my nail. So here I am in bed, nail kit the works. I roughened my nail, put glue under the tip, stuck that puppy on my nail and applied pressure. Next thing I wake up the next morning, one finger of the one hand glued to the other finger of the other hand. It was hysterical. We eventually had to soak the nail off to get my finger released. Can you just imagine what I'd stick together if I tried to make cards? LOL.

Talking of Kim, have you been to her site to see her gorgeous new kit for New Year. Boy I love that kit. She has already put 2 of my LO's on her blog, so I'm not going to put them up here, but here's another one that I did. I used a template by Scrap Saya for this LO.

Now on to my freebie for today. I have been playing a lot with the tablet and pen and I'm so imppressed with the focal point of this little mini I have for you. It's a hand drawn rocking horse that I then had fun with adding texture and elements. The colours are from Kim's DSO December colour challenge. Here are a couple of close ups of the rocking horse and the preview of the mini.

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/76976419/ef654d6b/Rock-A-Pony.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Have a peacuful Sunday.

Hugs

Renée

Hoarders

2008-12-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

It has always driven me crazy that my darling mother is a hoarder, but after this weekend I'm so happy that she is. I've got a bit of a summer cold and stayed home this weekend so that I can get better. Well boredom drove me to go and scratch in my mom's stash. Boy did I find some stunning ribbons and laces!!! Things that she has kept from when I was a kid. Well I've been scanning and photographing like crazy. Now I have to clean it all up LOL.

I think I hate hoarding because my ex had this thing about buying houses, renovating them while we were living in them and then selling them. We used to move at least every 2 years. I never got fond of my kitchens or any special rooms and I learnt that excess stuff just made moving extra difficult. I've now been in this house for 8 years and I definitely don't intend ever moving again. LOL.

Well today my freebie is some blingy ribbons from my mom's stash. I kept them in similar colours as the fireworks. Here's the preview.

And you can get them here http://www.4shared.com/file/75350315/2c442282/Ribbons.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And I'd like to thank everyone that leaves a comment. You don't realise how much I appreciate the little comments and thanks. It makes sitting here at the pc worthwhile.

Have a great day and before I forget WHOOOOHOOO, 2 more working days.

Hugs

Renée

4 more days

2008-12-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

I have 4 more days of work left before I go on my annual summer holidays. It's a bit hectic at work as I have to get everything up to date by Friday, but I'm starting to get that holiday feeling. From next week I'll definitely be devoting a lot more time to my little blog.

And as I'm in a holiday mood I decided to make some fireworks elements for all those new year's LO's. They're blingy and I'm quite proud of them as it's my first elements that I've created using the pen and tablet.

Here's a preview

And you can get them here http://www.4shared.com/file/75044887/2b4bdb4f/Fireworks.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And while the muses are still with me, let me go and do some more designing. Have a great day.

Hugs

Renée

It's all about the kids

2008-12-01T07:28:00.000-08:00

I've been rather quiet lately because I've been working on my pet charity for the past couple of weeks. Traditionally the last Sunday in November or first Sunday in December (closest to month end) is the Toy Run. It is the world's biggest biker charity event. Bikers in all the major centres get together to donate toys for the underprivelleged for Christmas.

This year has been the biggest ever with 50,000 bikers attending the Johannesburg get together alone. Cape Town had 20,000 bikers. We're probably looking at a total of half a million toys being donated. We also had a blood donation drive. It just gladdens my heart when you see thousand upon thousand bikes with toys all over them travelling down the highway. This year I didn't participate in the mass ride as I was needed at the venue, so I also don't have as many photos as I usually have, but here's a few that I managed to take.

These are my toys I donated and I really loaded this poor guy down.

Some of the bikes

My baby

Even cars

I also have my first CU Overlay on offer for you today. This download contains the overlay as well as the sample paper.

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/73961942/ff97cd5b/CU_Xmas_Overlay.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Love and hugs

Renée

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2008-11-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Turkey day to all my readers and especially to those that have become fast friends over the past couple of months. To those travelling to yourloved ones, please be careful. Have a great day, eat lots and be merry.

I'm not going to yak your ears off with a long post today, but Kim has outdone herself again with the most gorgeous kit From Santa with Love. Kim knows when she has a winner, we come up with lots of pages in a short space of time and burn up her inbox with goodies. Plese pop by her site to go and see all the beautiful eye candy already made with this kit.

I've done this LO

And my freebie today is a QP made from goodies in the kit and I've included a mystery fun element. Let's just pretend today is the tenth day of Christmas. LOL

Here's a preview of the page

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/73397742/f3a90b3a/FSWL_QP.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And I hope you're wearing your boxing gloves tomorrow for the Black Friday sales.

Love and Hugs

Renée

KAAAA-RAAAAASSSSHHHHH

2008-11-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

It was a dark and stormy night. Lightning crashing, thunder bolts and lashing rain. The kids were all huddled under their duvets, fathers were battening down windows and doors, mothers were making coffee to keep warm. When...... LOL, no I'm not telling campfire stories. This is something that fit with the storm we had last night.

I was wating for my zip folder to upload to 4 shared and decided to go and make some coffee. I wanted to get my blog done before the storm got to us. I could see it approaching in the distance. Next thing there's lightening that lights up the kitchen like daylingt, next pitch darkness and then this horrifically loud bang.

I start feeling my way to the other side of the kitchen to find the flashlight, but I never noticed that my silly cocker spaniel, Venus, has once again dragged her half eaten bowl of food into the middle of the kitchen floor. Yes, you guessed it, I stepped right into pet mince. Now I have to tell you, I HATE anything that goes between my toes. I don't wear slops or sandals that have that thong thingy that goes between the toes. So now I have this mushy stuff oozing between my toes and I start hobbling to the basin, but then I think "You DEFINITELY cannot wash your feet in the washing up basin". But I have to get my foot clean, get some light and see to the dogs that are now going off their heads.

I just plonked myself on my ass in the middle of the kitchen floor and yelled for light. Corné, Rainer and Katia came storming into the kitchen thinking that I hurt myself. Noooooo, I just have gunk in between my toes. LOL.

Found out a bit later that that lightning bolt hit an old tree, felled it right across the road onto the power cables. So we were without power for the rest of the night and they only managed to restore it mid morning. I had to have a cold wash to get to the office and the electric gate's backup battery ran down during the night. So now you know why I'm telling campfire stories. Pass the marshmallows. LOL.

I really wanted to up this QP freebie last night as I'm working n a little surprise, but now we have to share a day late. I used some goodies from Kim's new grab bag, word art from Jazzy and a snowy overlay from Luna. Don't you just love her blog header?

Here's a preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/73057965/16014ebe/Xmas_QP.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. I forgot to include the TOU, but it's standard. For Personal Use Only and do not hot link, send anyone over to my blog to snag. Now I have to get of the 'puter, as we have another massive thunderstorm forecast for tonight.

Silly Season

2008-11-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

BWAHAHAHA, I embarassed Katia so earlier on. I LOVE Christmas and how the stores are decorated and all the decorations they have for sale, but my absolute favourites are the "toys" that have the little button you push to try them.

I forgot to buy parrot food on Saturday and picked Katia up from college after work and we popped into the shop quickly. While we were standing in the queue I spotted these trees, a Santa, a hat and an angel - all with that little try me button. Well I couldn't resist, I had to start them all. Santa nearly danced right off the shelf and the hat started bouncing around. I stood there gleefully watching all this, while my 18 year old daughter nearly died of shame.

Then someone else came by and did the very same thing, but she forgot to do the tree and hat, so I walked away from the till and told her to try them. Katia has vowed not to go back to the shops with me until the 26th of December. Saturday I'm going to the store that sells all the lights. LOL.

Traditionally we put our tree up on the 16th of December, which is Katia's birthday, and I'm planning a really stunning tree for this year. We don't have live trees, so I'm going to buy the biggest white tree I can find and do it in red (Katia's favourite colour). I'll then do my Christmas table in red with white trim. I can't wait.

Today I have a little ad on to yesterday's kit. A cluster frame made with some of the goodies in the kit. The papers in the preview is part of the main kit. Here's the preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/71912439/18d67390/Sweet_Rosie_Cluster.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939.

And you'll notice I've designed a new label for my kits. Somehow I managed to delete the old one. See silly season is in full swing.

Have a marvelous day.

Blessings

2008-11-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

I really have been a bad blogger lately, but I hope to fix that in the days to come. Today I have quite a lot to share, so grab some refreshment and get ready for a book.

I got 2 awards. One from Jazzy and one from Bonny. The first one is the Kreativ Blogger award, thank you Jazzy, and I have to share 7 things that I love.

1. My children Rainer and Katia. They are my life, my sunshine, my rain, my sustenance.

2. My Mother. She's turning 73 on Christmas Day and she is the busiest woman I know.

3. Corné, my man, my lover, my friend. He grounds me and keeps me out of mishief.

4. Creating beautiful things. Be it scrapbooking, decorating a table or planning a function.

5. My bikes. Riding on the track in a controlled environment and being allowed to be a hooligan or going on a nice sedate road trip. It's the time I let my spirit soar.

6. My friends, the people that accept me as I am and never judge me or try to change me.

7. The digi-scap community

The second is the Sweety Award and I thank Bonny for it. Now I'm supposed to pay these forward to 7 people a piece, but I've decided that today I want to give them both to each and every reader of my blog, those with blogs of their own, but most importantly for those that don't have blogs. These are the people that make it worthwhile to design for. Every visitor to my blog is Kreativ and everyone is a Sweety. Thank you for stopping by, reading what I have to share, collecting what I create and leaving a comment.

It's when America gets ready to celebrate Thanksgiving that I become very reflective and of all the holidays, it's the one I wish South Africans would adopt. But today I'll just give thanks for the many blessings I have received. The internet with all it's bad things have some people that are amazing. They give and share without "knowing" anyone out there.

I met this guy Stefan via a biking forum. He is a South African working in Saudi Arabia. We immediately got to talking as we ride the same bikes and an online friendship was formed. I mentioned that I would love a graphic tablet and pen and YES you guessed it, Stefan a relative stranger gifted me one for my birthday. I cannot tell you how I've cried about this. I got my gift on Friday, a 12 inch slim tablet and it now has place of honour on my desk.

I have met amazing people like Kim, Bunny and Jazzy through blogs and forums and these people share their talent with me on a daily basis. Jazzy has 2 new sets of word art in store. One that I adore, all about scrapbooking, that is cute and funny and so tongue in cheek and the other designed specifically for Thanksgiving and when I saw the preview, the word "Blessing" popped right out at me and gave direction for my post today. Swing by Jazzy's store and get these absolutely deliteful packs of word art.

Another lady that I'm blessed to "know" is Kristine, a whacky, crazy, beautiful designer that is just as impossible as I am. Kristine loves life and embraces it wholeheartedly. You are an inspiration my friend and when I have no mojo, there's nothing better than yakking to all te Dork Dancing Wenches. Kristine also has 2 new kits in store. The first - Rawhide - is the cutest little boy kit.

The second is Winter Wonderland, a colaboration between herself and Carjazzi Scraps. Swing by her store and check out this absolutely gorgeous blue kit.

I have been stretching myself designing and trying new things. My freebie kit I have for you today is for the DSO Color Challenge. When I saw the colours I thought back to an absolutely beautiful paper Bonny designed with a rose that was part of the kit she created for Kim's 19th Wedding Anniversary. I went mad when I saw that paper and I printed off a copy to use as gift paper.

I created this kit thinking back to that paper and I call it Sweet Rosie. It has a few elements that I created totally from scratch. I love vintage and very realistic elements, so this has some vintage rose papers, some old laces and even a ceramic hat with roses. I hope you like it. Here's a preview

And I've got 3 download links for you.

Papers 1 http://www.4shared.com/file/71704278/2d31edac/Sweet_Rosie_Paper_1.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Papers 2 http://www.4shared.com/file/71707935/290c141a/Sweet_Rosie_Paper_2.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Elements http://www.4shared.com/file/71701021/1dc08511/Sweet_Rosie.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Remember to count your blessings.

Link Correction

2008-11-03T22:22:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Seems I duplicated the one paper link. This is the correct link. Once I'm home I'll fix the post.

http://www.4shared.com/file/69608466/a9d0afbc/RB_Gratitude_Papers.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

A Very Special Birthday

2008-11-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY, IT'S YOUR VERY SPECIAL DAY DEAR KIM!!!

Well I can now let the cat out the bag. A few weeks ago the entire CT team decided to do a bit of a colab kit for your birthday. We knew we had to jump in early and get it done before your birthday week started, so we've been sitting on the top secret files for a while now. We had this idea and Kristine was kind enough to giv us a colour swatch and from then on the goodies just started to flow.

We called this kit Gratitude. It's to firstly wish you a very happy birthday, but also to thank you for

1. Being the wonderful person that you are.

2. For bringing laughter into our lives.

3. For your generosity.

4. For inspiring us with your beautiful kits.

5. For sharing your knowledge.

6. For being a mentor.

7. For your sensitivity

BUT MOST OF ALL WE WANTED TO MAKE YOU CRY!!!! LOL. Kimmy, have a wonderful birthday. You are so special in so many ways and this is our way of showing you what you mean to each and every one of us.

We were each only going to do a few elements and papers, but with this being a special kit for a very special person it sort of got out of hand and on top of all 4 shared's NSD woes we are adding this humungous kit with all sorts of beautiful goodies from flowers, frames, ribbons, papers, bragbook pages and several sets of alphas.

To my fellow CT members, thanks ladies, you all RAWK big time. A special thanks to Beth for the beautiful bragbook pages and to Silvia for the previews. She took the one job we all probably hate the most and created works of art out of the previews.

We also have some LO's of the team and yes, that is Jazzy sitting on a statue's lap LOL. We're definitely a BAD INFLUENCE on her. I think the girls were quite worried with what I was going to come up with as I asked them if they wanted to be on the "good" girl page or on the "bad" girl page LOL. Kim, we love you so much and it's such an honour and privelege being on your team.

So without much further ado, here's the links to my kit and I'm also hosting Kimberley Rae's bit until I can influence her into getting her own blog up!!! Get to it Kimberley, I got hold of Jazzy's wet noodle and I'm high on power. LOL

Kimberley's portion can be found here http://www.4shared.com/file/69605695/46afee7a/KimberlyRae-Graditude.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

And mine can be found here http://www.4shared.com/file/69605402/a8d14fe/RB_Gratitude_Elements.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

and here http://www.4shared.com/file/69614097/29f0bd31/RB_Gratitude_Papers_2.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

You can find the rest of the kit by visiting these blogs

Andrea : http://boyervillescraps.blogspot.com/

Beth : http://bethbydesign.blogspot.com/

Carol (Crops) : http://crops2dawn.blogspot.com/

Jenni (Chaos Lounge) : http://jen-at-chaos-lounge.blogspot.com/

KimberlyRae : available on this page

Kristine (Wench'd Grafix) : http://wenchdgrafix.com/yakkin/

LeAndrea (Doodle) : http://doodlelt.blogspot.com/

Linda (Jazzy) : http://wordstodelite.blogspot.com/

Nett (Lady Grundlefunk) : http://www.skwerlicious.com/blog/

Pamela (Luna) : http://midnightcharms.blogspot.com/

Paula (PKDoll) : http://pksbragbook.blogspot.com/

Renee : you are here

Silvia (Phillsboo) : http://phillsboo.blogspot.com/

Please go to Kim's blog and leave her some birthday love and some love for my fellow CT members.

Kim!!!! Many mwahs and squishing hugs. I wish you a very special day.

Denim & Diamonds

2008-11-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to upload this last night, but 4 shared was being difficult AGAIN.

It's my birthday today and I really want to spoil all my loyal readers. I LOVE my birthday. Especially when it's close to a weekend because my family spoils me ROTTEN.

Saturday all my friends joined us at our local pub for a few drinks, BAD karaoke (LOL) and dancing, dancing, dancing. I got such lovely presents. Corné bought me a beautiful white gold and diamond dress ring, Rainer bought me a new cell phone, Katia bought me a Kimora Lee Simmons top that I've wanted for ages and my mom got me my favourite perfume Kenzo Flower. I feel so spoilt.

I designed a kit for all of you that is totally me. I love denims, but I like to dress it up with tops that have rhinestones or sparkle and that's why I call this kit Denim & Diamonds. It has some denim textured papers, some grungy papers, some diamond encrusted laces and flowers. I hope you like it.

Here's a preview

And it's in more than 1 download, you can get it here

http://www.4shared.com/file/69430904/d6800971/Denim__Diamonds_Papers.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939 and here
http://www.4shared.com/file/69429432/5c7e0aee/Denim__Diamonds.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

And later this evening, my party will continue and I'll have something very special up for you, but please keep on checking, our time difference is about 7 to 9 hours ahead of the States.

Keep well
Hugs
Renée

Madhatter's Tea Party

2008-10-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

As a kid, Alice in Wonderland was my favourite story. Now I have to tell you half a century ago you got 3 kinds of kids - good, naughty and impossible. Well I fell into that impossible category. I didn't sleep, threw tantrums and was a downright nasty piece of work, but one way to calm me down was either to dance with me or read me Alice in Wonderland. Today of course they would say you're hyperactive or have ADD or a combination of both ADHD.

I don't stay very far from work, but with peak hour traffic a 10 minute trip turns into an hour or more trip and while I sit in that mess I either design in my head or plan what I'm going to blog about. I was sitting there in my car and thought that KIM's birthday week reminds me of my favourite storybook.

Like the Chesire Cat, Kim reveals a bit of her bags every day, like the doll house, you get huge bags of goodies for "tiny" prices and like the Queen of Hearts there's 45% OFF her entire store. Like the rabbit I'm always late, Nett is like the Madhatter with her crazy wit and I'm sure I can find a character for each one of us on the team if I carefully sit and think about it.

So step through the looking glass and have some fun with us. We only get to party like this once a year.

I made you a little freebie using 3 items from the CU bag. This is what it looks like

and you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/69024827/55eeac8f/Kims_Birthday_Freebie_2.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

And now I'll do the cat trick and disappear LOL. Have a great day

Birthday Week

2008-10-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not big on analogies but at the moment my life is like a Nascar race. I'm sitting in the grand stand and watching the days speed by. I can't believe a week has gone by since I last blogged.

And it's only going to get more hectic. Today is the first day of Kim's BIRTHDAY WEEK and you're all in for a treat. First off Kim has a SALE at 45% off, THAT'S ALMOST HALF PRICE, on goods that's not even very expensive to start with!!!

Then just 2 celebrate her birthday in STYLE, she has 2 Grab Bags. The one is a PU Bag and I can vouch for this, whatever is in it is GORGEOUS and it's only going to cost you $3. The whole shebang is worth $14.50

And then a CU Grab Bag (always a winner) at $8 and that's worth $44. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL, buy both bags for $10 (yeah we won't tell Kim she can't add LOL) and you get a 30 page brag book ABSOLUTELY FREE. This part always reminds me of home shopping ads, but unlike the ads, you really do get good value for money and the free items are genuinely free.

I'm going to get off now to go and make goodies for the rest of the week, but please swing by Kim's blog, she has a CU freebie up for 24 hours only and I made you a little cluster frame with some of the goodies from the PU bag (paper not included)

Here's a preview

And you can collect it here http://www.4shared.com/file/68887501/9442c6fd/Kims_Birtday_Freebie_1.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Please leave some love and if possible just a note of where in the world you're from.

Hugs and many kisses

Renée

Kim's New Kit

2008-10-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

WHEEEEE, I didn't fall off the edge of the earth, I just got Bizzzzzeeeeee!!!!!

My young friends Rudie & Cindy-Lee got married on the 6th of September and I unfortunately couldn't attend the wedding as it was my son Rainer's 21st. They brought 1649 wedding photos to scrap. Oh my word, Cindy-Lee was the most beautiful bride I have ever seen. Her dress was so beautiful. It was layers and layers of little net scraps that were individually dyed. The photos don't do the dress complete justice and it's stunning in the photos. This is a huge undertaking and my payment is Photoshop CS3. Rudie has promised to bring it around this weekend if they can keep me in one place long enough.

Here's a few LO's I've done so far. Credits for the kits all go to Kim

Then this past Sunday we did our Breast Cancer Awareness walk at Kyalami race track. What a brilliant day. It was an absolute success and wll be repeated in years to come. This year we walked in memory of my late friend Jill that unfortunately did not discover her cancer in time and in celebration of 2 other friends Margie and Eloise that are survivors. I'll have some photos a bit later in the week. I got a replacement camera for mine that was stolen and I have now had 2 download cables that don't work. I have to go and collect that on Saturday morning. But I have to post the most amazing photo. As we finished our walk there was a "halo" in rainbow colours around the sun. It was too beautiful for words and I felt so peaceful, I forgot that I was tired from my long walk.

I got an award from Crops, my fellow CT member for Kim's team and I'd like to pay it forward to

Kim and the entire CT
Kristine and the entire CT

Scrapbrat

Bunny

These ladies all have HEART and they pour it all out lovingly on their blogs. They make me laugh, cry, get wierd stuff flying out through my nose and lift my spirits on a daily basis. I HEART you all.

And finally I get to the real purpose of my blog post for today. Kim, designer par excelance has once again come up with a gorgeous kit. She calls it Loryn and it's for one of her amazing friends. She's planning a kit for each of her friends, and if this is just an example of the first, I for one can't wait for the rest of the kits in the series. It has marvelous elements and gorgeous papers in an orange and green theme which are 2 of my favourite colours and as we're heading for summer, it reminds me of fresh cut green grass and lovely salads with melon and mango.

I did this LO

I don't have a freebie today, but I'm working on a little something for later in the week.

Have a great day

Hugs

Renée

As Usual

2008-10-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm late with something. This time it's about my lovely Canadian friend Kristine's birthday. Kris honey, I'm so sorry I'm posting this a whole day late. Well I didn't forget her birthday. I mailed her early yesterday as we're a couple of hours ahead, but I did promise to come and blog that Kristine has wonderful news on her blog. I was going to go to the shops to buy fresh veggies and milk and stuff and then come home to blog.

Well another birthday party intruded. We were invited to a 55th birthday party for my friend Chris (yeah how coincidental is that) and at first Corné didn't want to go and then as I get home from the shops he phones to say that he has been nagged to go and has finally rellented. All good and well, but this is a masquerade party and we don't have masks. And this silly man tells me "But you're so creative, make us a few quickly". Hellooooo, I like to plan these things in advance and get all the goodies to make them pretty beforehand.

The upswing was that I quickly had to scratch in my stash of things that I don't throw out because I may need them one day. Luckily I have a card programme with a mask template so I quickly printed 2 blank masks off. For Corné's mask I found some black velvet with a gold thread through it that was barely big enough to cover the mask. I attached some black ribbon and his was ready to go.

For mine I found a "rag wash" look pink wallpaper sample, some pink sequins and pink gift bows. I wrapped a dowel stick with some pink paper ribbon and made some ribbon swirls and attached the mask to the dowel. I got a pic of the pink mask that I'll post in the week when I've resized the photos.

It's 90 degrees here at the moment so I new I wanted to dress very cool. I have a pink camisole with the exact same colour pink sequin empbroidery as I used on my mask and I teamed that with pink pants and gold high heel sandals. It didn't keep me cool, but I would have passed out if I wore a t-shirt. I also had chocolate cake for Kristine. A shooter made of Nachtmuzik, stroh a dollop of cream and a glace cherry.

Well as my mom would say, I'll even be late for my own funeral LOL, so big appologies Kristine. I hope you had a great birthday and to celebrate I made you a little mini in melon colours I hope you'll like. I called it Wench Wishes and this is a little preview.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/66624164/874b904a/Wench_Wishes.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939 and to show your appreciation, you can pop over to Kristine's blog and leave her some belated birthday wishes.

And I'd like to say a special thanks to Benoit for her lovely comment she left. I'll be visiting your blog soon.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll chat to you during the week.

Hugs

Renée

Another DSO Challenge Freebie

2008-10-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

Have you gone to see all the lovely DSO challenges and posting gifts for the month of October?

Register on the forum, participate in the challenges and receive a freebie gift by the end of the month. Sounds like the best kind of bargain to me LOL.

There's some totally new challenges up as well this month. One being the "Great Exchange Challenge" hosted by RC Mama. All you have to do is create a QP with one of her kits, freebie or bought. How easy is that???

When I saw her Teatime freebie, I just fell in love. It reminds me of an ad for one of our tea brands - 5 Roses. The ad lists 4 of the tea's qualities and then the narrator says "And the 5th rose, the 5th rose is for you, for no one makes better tea than you and Five Roses." There's 5 roses in my QP. Thanks for the freebie RC Mama, it's really gorgeous.

Preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/66025623/16e95210/Teatime_QP.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. I'm off to go and participate in some of the other challenges.

Hugs

DSO Colour Challenge - October

2008-10-05T02:10:00.000-07:00

I'm finally recovering from Friday night. We had a ladies night in aid of our Junior Lions rugby players and it was one of those nights where the wheels fell off the bus. My friend Cheryl is the social secretary for the rugby club and usually comes up with a fun evening every 3 months. We had some strippers and belly dancers this time and a really fun evening. The guys joined us at about 9 in the evening and by then the atmosphere was so fantastic none of us wanted to go home. I eventually got home at 3:30 in the morning and had to be up at 06:00 again. All I can say is yesterday was a very long day.

I wanted to watch Shrek 3 again last night (I love that movie as we called Max Shrek) and I fell asleep soon after it started. I didn't even realise that Corné sleep walked me from the couch to the bed. But I feel revitalised this morning.

Oh and I wanted to let our American friends know that my posts aren't full of spelling mistakes. South Africa used to be a British colony and that's why we spell like the British. We use s instead of z and add letters like u in certain words.

On to today's freebie. My compatriot Kim runs the colour challenge over at DSO every month and boy, can she pick great swatches. This month she put up a colour swatch that was truelly me. I fell in love with this swatch and couldn't stop creating. I ended up with a monster kit for me. It has 12 papers and 25 elements. I call it Flower Shoppe and it has lots of flower elements and satin ribbon and bow elements. I just loved creating this kit and eventually sent Kim an e-mail to say that someone is going to have to tie my hands up, I can't stop. Thank you Kim, I love participating in this challenge every month and your Commercial Use goodies come in so handy for these kits. This month I also used some goodies from The Scrappin Cop, a marvelously generous lady that offers all her CU goodies for free to the scrapping community. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate your contribution to our community so much and hope that I do your goodies justice.

Here's a preview

This kit is so big, I have had to upload it into 4 parts and here's the links.

Elements 1 http://www.4shared.com/file/65655746/648a4ebe/Flower_Shoppe_Elements_1.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939
Elements 2 http://www.4shared.com/file/65656900/f1aeac6b/Flower_Shoppe_Elements_2.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939
Papers 1 http://www.4shared.com/file/65724142/a6aa9ec5/Flower_Shoppe_Papers.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939
Papers 2 http://www.4shared.com/file/65727247/c6337bfd/Flower_Shoppe_Papers_2.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Sorry for the huge download. Please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy what's left of the weekend and if you're travelling, keep safe.

Hugs
Renée

Fall Splendor Blog Party!!!!

2008-09-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

WHEEEE, IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!

I'm not going to yak your ears off today as I'm sure you want to get at the goodies asap, BUT I do want to say thanks to KRISTINE for putting this together. It was a huge understaking. Imagine 70 (YES SEVENTY) designers all jumped in to get this humungous, monstrous, MEGA-MEGA Fall Splendor kit up and running.

Before I show you my preview and link, here's the link to the rest of the bits.

http://blogpartycentral.blogspot.com/

Here's the preview of my contribution

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/65104132/4572b87f/Fall_Splendor.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And don't forget to swing by Kristine's blog and leave her a special word of thanks for getting us all together to do this. Links will remain up until the end of the month.

Hugs

Renée

National Heritage

2008-09-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

OH BOY, have we just had the most marvelous day at work. Tomorrow is our National Heritage Day and as we're the Rainbow Nation it's rich and diverse. The company decided that all the staff would celebrate the day together and we dressed up and had traditional dishes for lunch.

I did a LO of some of my photos. Credit for the cluster frame goes to Kim B. I'm the one in the centre pic with the red hat. They dressed me as the Zulu queen and it was hysterical. I had 2 "maidens" that went everywhere I went today and they swept my path clean for me. We had Xhosas, Muslims, Hindus, Zulus, Twanas, some domestic workers and even a bunch of school kids. As diverse as we are (and that is in the company itself) we had an amazing day.

Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika - Our National Anthem and the first line means "God Bless Africa"

And I've also played some more with Kim's Anniversary Grab Bags (on sale for a limited time only) and I've made you this little freebie with just a few of the items. It's a "tie-dye" paper, torn paper, realistic flower, bit of ribbon lace and a doodly bird. Isn't it just the cutest little bird you've ever seen?

Preview

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/64162237/3b025361/09_CU_Sampler_Softs.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Hugs

Renée

The Secret is Out

2008-09-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

Gosh, have you ever had to keep a secret that was so great you couldn't contain yourself? Well that's what Kim made us, her CT do this past week and a half.

Kim and Wayne will be married 19 years at the end of the month and she decided to celebrate in style and well the digi-scrap community are the ones that benefit. The one thing about Kim, is that she doesn't do anything in half measures. She has come up with some CU Grab Bags, each with 19 items in them, and as we got the links I was gobsmacked. The stuffies in these bags are AMAZING!!!! These are absolute must have's for anyone that designs or that just wants to add a little pizzazz to their LO's. You can either buy the individual bags (at a bargain price) or get them all in one big bundle at $19, BUT THAT'S NOT ALL (said in my best shopper's chanel voice LOL) - if you buy the bundle, you get a BONUS download. Please pop past Kim's blog to wish her and Wayne another 19 years x 2 and see what else she has. The lady's generosity knows no bounds I tell you.

Here's a teaser of what you can expect.

I created a mini-mini with some of the goodies just to whet your appetite. It's a paper, flower, bow frame and hanging frame.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/63623958/642cc904/09_CU_Sampler.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. I may even have a few more teasers in the days to come.

I'm off to go and fetch Elaine and there's a bottle of red wine with our names on ready. Have a great Friday and keep safe.

Hugs

Renée

Last of Flirty Flighty

2008-09-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to upload the linky to the last installment of the kit.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/63369740/b3828a6a/Flirty_Elements_2.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Thanks for looking.

Hugs

Renée

Surprises

2008-09-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

Boy I love surprises and if it's long lost friends that surprise me, it's even better. Late last night I got a call from a late friend of mine's son. I haven't seen these young people since their mom's funeral. André phoned to tell me his dad is turning 50 this Saturday and to invite us to his surprise party. Gosh that's going to be so great, I haven't seen them in 3 years. They all moved to Botswana and have now returned to South Africa.

Then today I got a call from my friend Ermyn that lives in Cape Town. She usually comes to Johannesburg for Christmas and New Year, but she's coming early this year. Her daughter is getting married early in October and she's coming up to help with the wedding preparations. I just know we're going to have a few all night chat sessions. We usually have a whole year to catch up on and make a bed in my lounge and just chat away. I can't wait.

Then Corné my sweetie called this afternoon. His aunt that lives in Portugal is arriving tomorrow for a short holiday. WHEEEE, I love Elaine. She's loud and boisterous like me. The red wine will probably be flowing on Friday evening. She first has to go say hello to her family and then she's coming to stay the night with me before going to her kids in Angola.

So I feel like someone that has hit the jackpot. Oooh I can't wait.

OK so on to the next installment of the Flirty Flighty freebie. And Kristine, bring on those colour swatches. You know me, I'm stuck on blue.

Here's a preview of the elements.

You can get them here http://www.4shared.com/file/63238152/fb1a9d05/Flirty_Elements_1.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939 and don't forget, the last bit will go up tomorrow.

Keep well and many hugs.

Just a Quick Post

2008-09-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

No news today, except that I sat in traffic and a 10 minute trip took more than an hour, so I'm tired and irritable.

Kristine is such a tease!!!! Pop past her blog for some sneak previews of the HUGE Fall Splendor Colab kit that will be hitting the blogs on October 1st. That's going to be a mega and a half. Practice your blog hopping skills in the meantime, you're going to need it.

And as mentioned yesterday, Kristine threw out this colour swatch that was just too devine to ignore. I had to make a mini kit. I call it Flirty Flight. It has some delish papers, some glue globs, gel frames, crinkled foil doodles and some lovely flowers. I just loved creating this kit.

Here's a preview of the papers. Element preview will go up tomorrow.

Today I'm upping the papers, but come back tomorrow and Wednesday for the 2 installments of elements. And don't forget, my kit for the DSO color challenge is up until the end of the month.

You can get the papers here http://www.4shared.com/file/63098209/1481b73b/Flirty_Flighty.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Don't forget to leave some luv.

Hugs

Renée

DSO Colour Challenge

2008-09-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

Well I have definitely gotten out of my usual zone with these last 2 kits. I'm very modern by nature, but Gothic Cathedral and the kit I designed for the DSO CC has made me depart from my usual style. Not that I really have a style as yet, as I've only been designing for a few months LOL.

But first I have to share a LO I did with Kim B's new Spring Passion kit. The pictures were a share from a friend. He was searching the net for pictures of unique gardens and came across these pics. We don't know much about the creator of this amazing garden, other that his name is Bruno and he sculpted all the fantasy statues out of dead trees. What a marvelous way to regenerate what we'd usually see as something useless. The Word Art is from Jazzy's (Words to Delite) Nature WA.

Kristine sort of threw a colour swatch at us the other day and I thought it was going to be for a colab, but she said just to have fun and BOY, did I have fun. Tomorrow I'll post the first installment of that kit. It's modern and very girly girl.

Back to this month's challenge. I just didn't have a clue of what to do with the swatch and was just going to make a LO until I found a beautiful photo of a sundial and that just clicked in my head. This kit is a slightly heritage style kit with the sundial, an old wooden box and an old purse as the central elements.

Here's the preview

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/account/file/62939057/febe9faf/Yesteryear.html. Don't forget to pop past tomorrow for something totally different.

Have a peaceful Sunday.

Hugs

Renée

Last Installment of Freebie

2008-09-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

And some news.

Kim B has the most devine new kit in store. Spring Passion is available at 25% off for a limited time only. I love this kit. All the lilacs and lime colours make me smell fresh, wet earth. Here's a preview.

I haven't much else to share, so I'll get straight to the last bit of the Gothic Cathedral freebie.

You can get is here http://www.4shared.com/file/62350000/4e7e6705/Gothic_Cathedral_Elements_2.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Hugs and kisses

Gothic Cathedral Elements 1

2008-09-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone

Thank yu for all the birthday wishes for Rainer and the commiserations on the loss of my camera. I really appreciate it.

Have any of you been to Mojo's blog? Not only is she a talented scrapper, she has now got her own store and she posts the best food porn ever!!! Mojo has awarded me a Sweety Award, read all about it on her blog. I'd like to pay it forward to the following ladies

Kim B - Fellow South African, friend, great designer and a lady with a marvelous sense of humour.

Jazzy - Jazzy, you inspire me. You have had large crosses to bear this year, but you still put a smile on your face and create the most amazing word art for the scrapping community.

The Scrappin' Cop - Wonderful designer that shares stunning CU freebies daily.

Jenni - Another South African, guest CT for Kim, marvelous designer and "owner" of a stunning daughter that appears in the most amazing LO's.

And then also to all readers that prefer to do good to others. Kindness and good spirits are usually not rewarded in tangible ways. I'd like to give you all the Sweety Award.

And now on to part 2 of my Gothic Cathedral kit. This is the first part of the elements.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/62204416/35d1902f/_2__Gothic_Cathedral_Elements_1.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939.

Enjoy the rest of your day

Much love and hugs

Proud and a bit of a Rant

2008-09-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

The merry-go-round has been shut down for some major maintenance work. LOL. Well I've been so busy, that's how my life feels at the moment.

Yesterday was the PROUDEST day of my life. My gorgeous son Rainer turned 21. And man, can a milestone like that make you reflect on your life. How did this hooligan actually bring up the most gorgeous child in creation???

On Wednesday Jazzy blogged about the little poem about the days on which a child is born. Well on the 6th September 1987, I gave birth to my beautiful son on a Sunday afternoon. And yes, he is good and wise. I'm so proud of this son of mine. Not only is he beautiful of face, but of nature as well. A child that has from his youngest days set himself goals and achieved them. He played cricket for a provincial team from the age of 11, was head boy in Grade 7, played first team rugby from the age of 15 and captained his school cricket side. Did speedway motorcycle racing from the age of 16 and was a prefect in his matric year.

He then took a year to do an art course, just to have the qualification before he embarked on his true profession. Rainer is studying to become a chartered accountant, but he has opted to do his articles while he is studying, which means he works full time as well as being a student. He is in his second year and consistently gets distinctions. He is doing so well that he has received a full scholarship from one of our prestige auditing companies to complete his studies and work in the UK. So at the end of this year, he will be emigrating to the UK.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY my darling boy.

Last night we had a party for him with family and friends and this is where my rant comes in. 3 cameras of which mine is one was stolen at the party. Someone in their greed has decided to take away some precious memories of mine. We have no photos of the night. None of how we made up the marquee, none of the speeches, NOTHING!!! And this hurts especially as my child is not a lover of a camera. I hope whoever took the cameras will have a serious case of guilt and just return them.

Then I got an e-mail from Kim this afternoon to say that I was chosen for LO of the week at DSO using items from her latest grab bag and the pride came back again. I can't get over the fact that a LO of mine has been chosen on 2 forums for an accolade. And that is reason in itself to get over to Kim's before the end of today because the kit is on special until tonight. After that it goes into the store at regular price.

I used the kit to create my new header and as promised I've created a kit that reflects the new look of my blog. I called it Gothic Cathedral, but decided to stay away from the very dark gothic type of stuff. I has 8 papers and 18 elements. Some frames, dried flowers, crosses and books to give it a moody and broody look. Today I will give out the papers and I'll give the elements in 2 downloads tomorrow and Tuesday.

Here are some previews

And you can get the papers here http://www.4shared.com/file/62088526/2850fca9/Gothic_Cathedral_Papers.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Thanks for swinging by my blog. HUGS AND LOVE - Renée

Get the Gogga Going

2008-09-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone is thinking I've just lost my mind and have gone gagga. Well on a good day I'm not far from that.

I do motorbike racing and Saturday we had a meeting and there's the cutest little girl that always strikes up a conversation. Lyndie is 4 and has the most vivid imagination I've ever seen on a child. Once after a storm that washed the seedling out the planter, she politely told us "These little flowers don't like it here, they're growing to China." How cute is that?

Well on Saturday she was keeping me entertained about the gogga (chawcha/bug) that was travelling around the world. It was an interesting geography lesson as Johannesburg was a country right next to England and Durban (one of our coastal cities) was very far away. Well Lyndie's little story got me thinking, how far can we get a bug to travel in cyberspace.

Here's the challenge - I nominate 2 people in different parts of the world, they have to collect Lyndie's caterpillar from my blog and send her to another 2 countries. And then to track her progress, the new people have to link to my blog and leave a little note with their blog address for me to track her progress.

So to kick Lyndie Caterpillar's trip off I'd like to send her to Kim B in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and Kristine in Canada.

Want a little hint what's in Kim B's PU Grab Bag, I used a little something from it.

Keep well

Hugs

Renée

Cleanup almost done

2008-08-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

Whooohoooo

I've cleaned up my pc from top to bottom.

I set myself a task to organise my pc and had a rule that every day I'd clean out my Outlook inbox, my Gmail inbox, make either 2 papers or 2 elements, do at least one LO and clean up 1 folder on my pc.

Well those folders were such a mess that I only stuck to cleaning up my inboxes and the folders, but now I have a neat and tidy pc and I can actually find stuff.

With the result that I'm incredibly behind on doing any scrapping stuff, but I had to celebrate having finished a major task by changing the look of my blog.

I'm now going to finish a kit to celebrate even further and hopefully that will be ready before the end of the week.

Don't forget to stop by Kim B tomorrow as it's the new month and she's sure to have her new colour swatch for the new colour challenge at DSO up. I think it must be one of the most popular challenges ever and we look forward to it every month.

Tomorrow it's officialy spring here in South Africa and you can already see the new life foming in the gardens. Wheeee, I cannot wait for my first swim of the season.

Keep well and be sure to pop by in the week for the colour challenge freebie and my new look freebie.

Hugs
Renée

Major Clean Up

2008-08-18T10:57:00.000-07:00

I've spent the past week and a bit cleaning up my computer files. I've really let them get into a state. I'm about halfway done, but at least now I know where to find most of the goodies I'm looking for.

Onto the good stuff.

Kim B has her new Designer CU Grab Bag on sale until this Thursday and it's loaded full of the most amazing goodies for $8. I have seen designer resources for sale with the equivalent of 1 of her items for the same price and she has 5 new products in the bag, the one being a mega.

Here's a LO I did with just one of the items.

And if you pop on over to Wenchd Grafix you'll see a whole lot of new products on sale from Kristine (Summer Slush Kit), Cate with amazing PU and CU Templates and Andrea from Boyerville Scraps with Verdant Kit and Oh My Goth Papers.

Here's a LO I did using the Summer Slush Kit and one of Cate's Templates.

And here's one using Andrea's Oh My Goth Papers - I just love the acid colours.

The freebie kit I have for you today has had me stumped. I usually come up with elements quickly and have to really think about the papers, but this time it was the other way around. And thank you Cate for naming the poor orphan. Here's a preview of Gazebo.

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/59517788/bfb55dc7/Gazebo.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. I'm now off to go do some more cleaning up of file folders.

Enjoy the rest of your day.

Hugs

Elizabeth's Gift

2008-08-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody

I've just stayed in relax mode for a few days. I've been taking things easy and cleaning up some half done stuff on my pc.

One of them being Elizabeth's prize from the end of June and she's kindly given me the go ahead to share it with everyone out there. Her colour choices were salmon and tan and she's very happy with what I've come up with.

Here's the preview

And you can pick it up here http://www.4shared.com/file/58133170/fa3f381d/Elizabeths_Gift.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939

Relaxing Weekend

2008-08-03T00:54:00.000-07:00

I'm finally having that relaxing weekend I've promised myself ages ago.

Friday evening when I got home from work I immediately saved the colours of Kim B's August Colour Challenge over at DSO. Go and check it out. How stunning is that posting bonus you get just for participating in the challenge? When I saw the colours I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it.

I then got a call from Corne's dad to say come out to the gate, he's in a hurry but he has a present for me. I LOVE music and I still have great affection for my favourite singers and bands from the 70's to date. He bought me a dvd of Kat Stevens of his 1976 Magikat concert. Well creating was put on the back burner and I was watching my dvd.

Yesterday it was a quick run to the shops to buy my fresh produce for the week (I don't eat frozen or tinned vegetables) and then it was me in front of the computer creating a mini kit. HAHAHA, famous last words. This sucker ended up in 2 zipped files. I was having so much fun and just couldn't stop. And horror of horrors, I ended up with 13 elements, which we just couldn't have, so I was a little stumped for a 14th, but I did come up with one. This freebie has 8 papers and 14 elements and I just loved the soft colours.

4 shared was being a PITA last night and I was forced to wait with my upload and that's why you're getting your freebie a day late.

This morning I was at the track at 06:00 to do some practice laps, but the garage was closed and we couldn't get any fuel. We had breakfast and decided to come home.

I'm just going to vegetate for the rest of the day.

Here's the preview, not all shown

You can get the elements here http://www.4shared.com/account/file/57524827/db934182/Thistle_Lite.html

And the papers here http://www.4shared.com/account/file/57527412/9b7bb044/Thistle_Lite_Papers.html

Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

A Tip

2008-07-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

DON'T stick your finger in your eye, it burns. BWAHAHAHA, well that's what I always say when asked for a tip. Gratuity is earned.

But the tip I wanted to share has actually got to do with scrapping. Have you ever wanted to just cut out a bit of an element so that the bottom layer sticks out and you have the teeniest gap between the two? Well here's an easy way to overcome that problem. Especially for those that have to use a mouse and don't have as fine control as with a pen and tablet.

Place your element in the top layer, the item that you want to show through in the middle layer and a copy of your top layer in the 3rd and bottom layer. Whatever you "over" crop won't show as your bottom layer will be intact. Hope you found this tip helpfull.

Today I have 2 more flowers to match my orchids from a few posts ago. There are no drop shadows on the actual elements and the paper is not included. Here's the preview

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/account/file/57144099/c51d5340/Hibiscus.html. The usual yakity yak applies. Personal use only.

Have a great day.

When things work out Perfect

2008-07-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

I just love it when things work well.

First I had a terrible weekend. NO INTERNET. Gosh don't do that to me, I feel as if I'm cut off from the world. But we ha a cable fault and it took until yesterday to be fixed.

Then last night my female African Grey just fell off her perch and died. I sobbed so. She was my good kid. I'm waiting for the autopsy results and we're hoping it's not anything contagious like bird flu as I have a young male as well. Keep your fingers crossed.

Now to the part that worked out well. Every year I do my Christmas tree in one colour only. I go through all my ornaments and decide which of the neutral ornaments I'm going to keep and box the rest and do a beautiful tree for the local orphanage. My neighbour's 4 year old often just pops round for a visit and she usually just comes to "help" me do STUFF. While we were boxing up the ornaments she expressed the wish for an angel doll, but not one of those in the box because they're for the babies without mommies or dolls. The child is so cute, so I made an angel with a scrunchie, a table tennis ball and some feathers. I swear no battery operated doll that could pee and poo would have been so well received.

BUT that got me thinking and I wanted angel doll elements for LO's. Well with KIM's great CU stuff I was able to create the base, but soon had t send her an SOS for the frame for the head.

I think these are rather cute. I have included 2 pastel elements with 2 matching papers and 2 Xmas elements with matching papers. Here's a preview of the pastels only with a blowup of how they're used.

You can grab them here http://www.4shared.com/account/file/57019849/8f76f8bd/Ribbon_Angels.html

Blame it on the Double D Wenches

2008-07-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

BWAHAHAH, I'm so late with today's post because I got sidetracked with e-mails. Been at it for over 3 hours and I was intending a long post as it is. So get your sundowner/cocktail/coffee/Dr Pepper/Diet Coke or whatever and get comfy.

You're probably wondering what bra sizes have to do with wenches? Well it's not such a great mystery. It's the Dork Dancing Wenches of the ever so delightful Kristine's creative team. We mail each other constantly and half the time we carry on like a bunch of crackheads with much laughter. Well one of the hubbies calls us the Double D's.

Andrea (Double D One - alphabetically speaking) has the greatest deal in store at the moment. Some $1 Impulse Buys. Get more Boyer for a Buck as Mojo would say. In these cash strapped times, they come just at the right moment.

If you popped by Kristine's blog yesterday you would have seen that she introduced pages of each of us with our favourite LO of ourselves and a little bio. In my bio she mentioned THE PARTY BUS and I just have to tell you all about this bus. IT'S THE BEST THING EVER.

It's called The Part Bus Company and what they did was buy these double decker buses and converted them with a bar and nice wide aisles. What you do is hire the bus and you party like mad without ever having to worry about drunk driving. Because I'm in advertising and promotions I got invited to the launch of the service and WHAT A PARTY. We really carried on. Did you know that the upright in a bus makes for great pole dancing. Uh YES, that kind of party. LOL, we had so much fun until we were surrounded by cop cars with sirens wailing and we got escorted to the nearest police station. Some of us sobered up pretty quickly. Once at the police station we were asked to get off the bus. Well I had no problem with that as I wasn't driving the damn thing intoxicated. I traipse off the bus and there at the bottom of the stairs is the MOST DEVINE young policeman. Well without batting an eyelid but with much fluttering of eyelashes I walk up to him, undo his top button and tell him in my sexiest voice "I just love a man out of uniform."

It transpired that our last bit of party was to be at the police canteen and then each lady got a policeman to escort her home safely. So if you're ever in South Africa, come party on my bus.

I was GOBSMACKED this morning. I usually quickly go and read the comments left on 4 shared and was I amazed. There were more comments than downloads!!! Some people forgot to download. I hope you realized your mistake and came back LOL.

I've really suffered from attention deficit this month. Usually I do Kim's colour challenge at DSO early in the month, but this month I was battling with a name for my mini kit and then held back so that I could add a little something made with items from her new CU Grab Bag. This item is not shown in my preview.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/56539299/bb35ca41/After_8.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And there's still a few days left before the challenge closes for you to do your LO or design a mini kit and get rewarded with a beautiful posting bonus.

Just an all round sad week

2008-07-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

Emotionally this has not been a good week and today has been one of my worst.

It's the 4th anniversary of my darling Big Brother Glyn's passing. Glyn was affectionately known as Max, after the character in the Mad Max movies as he was a crazy kind of person. The things that boy and I could get up to. I was 12 years older than him, but from the day he was born it never mattered. We were the best of friends and always together.

We were in the same bike club and on this day 4 years ago I had gone to have my hair done in the afternoon. I coloured it black with pink streaks. I was on barduty at our clubhouse and just before we closed he left to go to a friend's pub where we were all to meet. He stood on the step, looked round and said "Sister Person you're beautiful and I love you madly." I replied that I loved him tooooooo much. Little did I know that within 15 minutes I was just going to lose 5 weeks of my life, but one of the most important parts of my being.

On his way a drunk driver ignored a red traffic light and hit Max (on his bike) at more than 140km/h. We took a slightly different route to the destination and when I got there I heard that he had been in an accident. From there I lost all sense of time and reality.

Max was a practical joker and used to put stones in my coffee, leaves in my drink and he used to love licking me in the face and over my specs when I wore them. Last night I was shutting my computer down, when Corné (the man in my life) came up to me and licked me. Before I could shout at him for being stupid he said "Max told me to do it." This morning I woke up and on reflection remembered that at that given time 4 years ago, Max and I had our last conversation. Well that just set me off for the rest of the day. I have been sobbing on and off the entire day. I still miss him so much.

But I remember all our silliness and how much trouble we used to get into with fond memories. This is a LO I did of Max last year when KIM brought out her Forgotten Not kit. The pic with him sucking the pacifier was when we held a baby shower for him just before my nephew Justin was born. It was one of those whacked crazy days as not many men have a babyshower, but he took to it like a duck to water and had us in stitches.

Darling Max, your favourite thing you always said to me was "I'm watching you." and after last night I know you still do. Ride the skyways until we meet again.

Now on to some FUN stuff. Kim has once again come up with the MOST STUPENDOUS CU Grab Bag. It is so full of wonderful stuff you won't know where to start playing first. Well I centainly was at a loss to begin with. Here's a LO I did with some of the goodies in the bag.

You can get it here and at $8 for $40's worth of goodies for 1 week only, it's the bargain of a lifetime.

I've been playing with some new design toys and came up with this orchid flower cluster as your freebie today.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/56413120/fd7a75d6/Orchid.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Enjoy.

Have a great day.

Kim says it best

2008-07-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

I'm still finding it difficult to express myself, but Kim has found just the right words. What a wonderful outpouring of love throughout the digi community for our sweet Jazzy. How wonderful it is to see how everyone took up Jazzy's plight and did their bit for her. I'm sure that every single person will receive an extra special blessing.

I was sitting here last night thinking how there must be a hole in Jazzy's heart and I started doing this "LO" leaving the bit in the heart blank deliberately. I used Kim's Forgotten Not kit and WA by Jazzy from her Sweet Baby collection that describes perfectly why her and Andrew were together. I asked Kim if it would be morbid to post as a LO or should I give it out as a freebie QP. Kim said QP.

So here's my interpretation of how I think Jazzy must feel.

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/56165532/cae09f18/RIP_Andrew_QP.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. I hope it fills the hole in your heart too.

Have a great day.

Rest in Peace Andrew

2008-07-21T03:55:00.001-07:00

Ever since I got the e-mail from Kim yesterday, the bottom is out of my day.

Our darling Jazzy had to say a final physical farewell to her beloved and special grandson Andrew. Please swing by her blog to read a bit more about Andrew and what Jazzy had to go through to keep him with her.

Jazzy my friend, words fail me at the moment. I'd so love to be right where you are, so that I can just hold your hand and let some of your pain flow into me. Andrew was your light, but although he is no longer there, he will shine even brighter in your heart. You are in my thoughts through this very trying time and the Digital Community will take you up and help where they can.

Bunny and some of the other designers over at DSO have decided to have a 1 day sale to help Jazzy with all the ramifications this additional setback has brought into her life. Please, if you're at all in the position to make a purchase, I ask with genuine tears in my eyes that you do so in "Honor of Andrew".

Here's the info

Please also leave a little word over at Jazzy's blog. It will mean the world to her in time to come.

Andrew, soar on Angel Wings, straight into the arms of your Mama. Look down on Grandma with delight and Rest in Everlasting Peace. You were and always will be Much Loved.

Pranked

2008-07-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

Oh my living, my family pranked me good and solid this morning. I'm a terrible dawdler especially early in the mornings and usually have to do the kilowatt kwela (kilowatt - electrifyingly fast and kwela - a dance) to get out the house by 07:00 to get to work in time for 08:00. Well last night my family waited for me to go to bed and changed all the clocks including my cell phone an hour early. I did my usual this morning and thought the traffic was exceptionally kind only to arrive at work at 06:50. At first I was not amused, but later saw the funny side of it LOL. Now I'm contemplating setting the clocks an hour later, but knowing me, I'd forget and arrive at work in time for lunch. LOL

I'm also very lazy to journal on my LO's. I think it comes from years of typesetting annual financials and therefore I'm always looking for GREAT Word Art. Jazzy our CT Leader - her of the slave driving with a wet noodle (LOVE YA JAZZY) - has just started selling her own stuff over at DSO and she is the QUEEN OF WORD ART. Jazzy finds just the right quotes and presents them all so beautifully. I wish you great success my friend.

Today I found some beautiful quotes about cats and dogs and decided to try my hand at WA too. Well I did have a whole hour to play LOL. So my freebie to you today is some pet related WA. I'm quite happy with them, but I'm nowhere near as good as our QUEEN.

Here's a preview

And you can collect it here http://www.4shared.com/file/55144269/d69e8ac8/Fur_Critter_WA.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. If you like it, leave a note, I love to hear from you all.

Keep safe and lots of HUGS

The Sun is Shining

2008-07-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

HEEEEHAAAAA!!!! I'm such a Vitamin D junkie. We haven't had sun since Thursday and today it's OUT!!! Oh wow, I feel human again.

I was making the balance of the pet elements this morning and Rainer was watching me run some styles and commented that these pieces reminded him of the wooden Fischer Price puzzles he had as a child. He went off to the garage and next thing he comes back with a HUGE box. All his old toys that for some reason we could never give to goodwill. He was rummaging in there and man was this a trip down memory lane. Well we found the puzzles (minus a few pieces of course) and would you believe it, parts of the pictures were torn off the edges. Just like these elements. I would just like to know why he kept the little red car with only 1 wheel.

We were sitting there looking at this assortment and decided that we're going to build a huge collage of his toys for his 21st in September. I unfortunately have very few photographs of them growing up as we had a burglary and the burglars stole my wooden box with all my photos in it. They must have throught it was a jewellery box and I can tell you if it was jewellery I'd have been a lot less upset. Their first locks of hair and first "real" shoes were in the box as well. Things that can never be replaced.

So on to the rest of my "Fischer Price" freebie. These are birds and fish and I call it Cages and Tanks. The pinkish paper reminded me of the sandpaper you put in the bottom of birdcages.

Here's a preview

And you can collect it here http://www.4shared.com/file/54991548/138a7303/Cages__Tanks.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939.

Now I'm off to go and enjoy the sun. Have a peacefull Sunday.

Flealess Cats

2008-07-12T08:43:00.001-07:00

Have you been over to the Dork Dancing Wench's blog lately? Well not only has she got an amazing revamped look and STUNNING Colab freebie up, but she has found the reason for her flea woes.

Well I just adore that crazy Queen of Wenches to bits and started looking for a remedy for her problem. Izzy, one of my friends is a herbalist and she says common household salt is just great for fleas. Kills them buggers deader than dead. You just sprinkle salt on your carpets, furniture and pet bedding - leave it overnight and vacuum it up the next morning. Something that is human and pet friendly and you don't have to go to specialist shops to find it. Izzy also reckons you must introduce garlic and brewer's yeast to your pet's diet. Fleas apparently don't have any tollerance for garlic. So Kristine, plant some garlic in that mulch heap LOL.

So my pet related designs are continueing and you should be able to collect a decent sized kit when I'm done. Today I have a flealess cat mini for those that don't have he patience to battle with fleas and hairballs LOL.

Here's a looksee

And of course you can pick it up here http://www.4shared.com/file/54886794/c7fd57a7/Catterwaulin.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. Remember it's for personal use and leave us a bit of love.

As usual, keep safe and remember to THINK BIKE.

So Far So Good

2008-07-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

It's Friday evening here and I've been able to keep my promise to myself that there will be no socializing this weekend. There's rugby tomorrow morning, BUT I'll be watching it from the comfort of my couch. We are experiencing the coldest days of our winter at the moment and I'm not a lover of the cold. I'm dressed like an Eskimo and only go outside to take out the garbage.

-5 Deg C is definitely not for me. I know it's mild compared to some parts of the world, but my blood only likes hot weather.

I'm crazy for motorcycling and I'm a member of an awareness campaign called Think Bike. Basically what we're trying to achieve is awareness by car drivers of bikes that are so much smaller and faster than cars to elliminate senseless accidents. So when you drive, always check in your mirrors for that single headlight before you turn or change lanes. Because of this I'm also on our biker assist list and got called out to an accident at 05:00 this morning. Thank goodness both the rider and driver were OK and the rider only sustained minor injuries, but his bike is trashed, This was a case of the driver having worked the night and not being as aware as he should have been and he drifted in front of the bike. Luckily the young man was on his way to work and very alert and he could avoid having a far more serious accident. But it was exceptionally cold and since then I haven't been able to warm up.

Well that's enough of my complaints about the cold and I'll get straight onto the freebie. Anne_Ominous left a note that she'd like something with American Cocker Spaniels. I love "cockeyed" spaniels LOL. I have a miniature of my own called Venus and as soon as I can get her to sit still long enough, I'll post a photo of her. I love her to bits, she has the heart of a Rottweiler. I hope you like this little mini Anne_Ominous. It's 7 chipboard dog elements and 3 matching papers.

Here's a little preview

You can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/54792932/9dbb3b20/Dogs_Life.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939. And I'd like to thank everyone that downloads my goodies, but especially those that leave a comment. It makes a designer's heart feel good when we read the comments.

Have a great weekend and remember to THINK BIKE.

Did I hear someone....

2008-07-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

.... say SALE???

DSO has been revamped and prettified too beautifully and to celebrate, they're having a huge sale of everything in the store over $1. So if you have anything on your wishlist, now is the time to get over there and indulge.

KIM B also has the most gorgeous new kit available and yes, it's at 50% off too. How generous can you get. I love how soft and gentle this kit is. OOOOOHHHHH and you have to pop past her blog for the most amazing gift.

Here's a LO I did

Well I have a lot of blogs to go and visit and I'll have a little something up for you again tomorrow.

Tried Something

2008-07-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

KIM blogged about a cat that she will let out the bag tomorrow and I left a comment about being allergic to them. I think they're such beautiful animals, but I can't breathe around them and get nose bleeds and the only cats I can keep are of the glass variety LOL.

That got me thinking (which is always a dangerous passtime) and I tried something without using a tutorial. Sort of just let my mouse do some clicking and I came up with these glass-like freebie cat elements. The number of downloads will tell me if they're successful or not, but I think they could be fun and you can play with adding some goodies like the collar I added on my sample.

Here's a preview:

And you can get it here http://www.4shared.com/file/54516255/ab0a9b79/Glass_Cats.html?dirPwdVerified=1524a939.

Have a great day.