blogger award!

I recieved a  blogger award from a lovely young South African crafter/ blogger Heidi-Mari if you have not heard of her, i suggest you go take a look at what this amazingly talented 13y/o girl creates.  Her cards are amazing and she has such a good soul.  I feel  absolutely honored that she would consider me an inspiration, Thank you so much Heidi for this lovely award.

Mo's dp2 challenge dt

Hi there for the second time today, we have a new challenge on Mo's challenge blog, set for us by uber talentented Pat, she wants us to use "buttons and bows".

For my card i am using Flower girl available at Mo's new store colored with my copics, listed below.
i gotta admit that bows are not my forte i sure gotta find a REALLY  good tutorial and do something drastic to improve my bows.  i hear you girls all saying "bow easy" or "bow majig", i have those, no improvement, i seem to be all thumbs, slow co-ord i geuss.

Recipe:
copics:  R89, R59, R39, R37, R85, R83, R81
skin:  E21, E00, E000             hair: E25, E31, E53
shadows on the dress:  C3, C00       touch of green G85, G82, G40
Marianne creatables: new tags
Paper and embellies all from stash, Miscellaneous:  star dust stickles all over her dress

Please pop by the challenge blog and see what all the talented dt ladies have done to inspire you with your buttons and bows
smiles
Paola

Just for fun

As card makers what do we do when we have free time during our hectic schedule in the real world?  make a card just for fun!

I needed to just unwind, after the high of preparing for the wedding i have been positively exhausted this last week and wasnt up for anything really and then i got these new images from Spesch, which i think are just adorable, so i had to make something just for fun!

I am gonna enter the challenge on Papertake weekly with this card as i used their sketch.
I colored my image with my normal medium of coloring, copics, sorry i didnt note the colors i used.
the papers are from my stash and unfortunately didnt have a name on them, all the bits and bobs are from my stash.  Hope everyone is having a great week.

See you later today with my card for the challenge on Mo's dp 2
smiles
Paola

a few more wedding pics to share.

My parents and my son the groom:

My little ones, they are so close, Eden, my little girl, was ushered around all day by her brother, i caught this pic of them while he was telling her not to be in the way and he's holding her hand so that she wont run off and get involved, they are so sweet and he so protcetive of his little sister

then a few more pics of my lovely dil lighting candles

lastly a pic while they were signing the registrar:  if anyone is interested in seeing a few of the proffessional photo's done by the photographer you can follow this link:Jason and Lisa at Killarney country club and just scroll down.
smiles
Paola

good news!!

Hi all my blogging friends, do you see the pictures?  YAY!! i managed to get extra gigs for my blog, yes it cost a minimal ammount, but i seem to have loads of space now, just gotta watch that i dont load such large format pics in the future.  Hell when blogger told me i was outa space on my blog i nearly had a nervous breakdown!

Well since i got the space i thought i wouldnt waste time and i would make a card to share and also enter a couple of the challenges that are on the go right now:

MDUC: shabby chic/ use lots of white
MSL: ribbons

recipe:
Stamp:  # 261 Tilda with Hawaii flower available from Magnoli-licious
           hero arts swirly borders
Punches:  MS border daisy flower, spellbinders labels eleven, Marianne design flourishes
Paper:  GCD Ashley Ella Blue collection
Coloring medium:  copics:  Skin:  E21, E00, E000
Hair:  E57, E55, E53             Clothing:  E74, E71, E70, E44, E43, E42, E42, E40
shadows:  W3, W0
Stickles star dust and distress ink vintage photo, and pumice stone.
Embellishments:  ribbon, pearls, butterflies, roses all from my stash

And last but not least a simple layout for inside my card.
smiles
Paola

HELP!!!!!!!!!

I have spent the last four or five hours, deleting my first year of my blog, cleaned out my downloads file, deleted all my picutres off my laptop, minimalised my home page, dont have a clue how much else i can delete without losing my laptop altogether.  My blogger new post page keeps telling me that i need to purchase more space to load any pictures etc.   HAS ANYBODY ELSE HAD THIS PROBLEM????  PLEASE ADVICE ASAP, before i shoot myself!
I couldnt craft or blog while i had visitors and working towards the wedding, now all i need to do i craft and blog and this has happened.
Any help would be greatly appreciated before i delete this whole blog and start again.
smiles
Paola
:(

wedding pictures!!!!

this is a pic of my son coming to veil his bride before the ceremony, oh my this was such an emotional moment!
A pic of the three men in my life:

My children:

And my STUNNING! daughter in law, she made the most exquisite bride, i am so proud of the newly married couple!!
will share more pics later when i have more as these were taken by Lisa's cousin James who is visiting from London and a few taken with my camera, hopefully will be able to share more with y"all soon.
smiles
Paola

Magnolialicious Challenge dt

I have had to hit the ground running for the last 48  hours, had so much to do.  I am now taking a deep breath and hope to get into the swing of things again, so forgive me for being somewhat late with this post.

We have a new challenge on the Magnolia-licious challenge blog chosen by Angela here is your picture inspiration:

I am using #3031 Tilda as a Shepherd aswell as #1412 Fantasy flower available from Magnolia-licious store where you can expect exceptional service from Diana and her team.  I wanted to try a twisted esel that we are seeing so much of in blogland lately, and i bought this wonky squares spellbinder espcially to make this booklike  centre to write the sentiment on when sending the card.

I have used loads of flowers and pearls from my stash, and i cut up a MS border and re-assembled it to go around my image.

The only problem with this style of card is that to properly showcase all the detials you need loads of photos, so i do hope you wont mind that this post is filled with pics.

I am pleased with how this turned out and hope it will inspire you to come and play with us on Magnolia-licious challenge blog
Have a great week
smiles
Paola

Magnolia Blog hop!!!

I am feeling positively GREEN around the gills so you will have to forgive me for the short post.
The two Magnolia dt's have gotten together for a blog hop and a bit of inspiration, if you have gotten here from Norma's blog then you are right on track.

For my card i used two images from the hoppy easter collection, the image on the front of my card is #399 Bunny Tilda and the inside i have used #268 Llittle Bunny Tilda both available from Magnolia-licious store.  The sentiment was a freebie from Bizzy Becs.

Used my MS punch around the page for my front matting layer, added loads of pearls, a few roses, some punched leaves and a few butterflies that i found at a craft store locally.
from here you wanna hop on over to Maureeens blog

If you get lost along the way you can head over to the Magnolia-licious highlights blog for a list of all the blogs to visit along the hop and information to join us with this exciting competition and blog hop.
Will be back later with a few snaps from my sons wedding so keep your eyes peeled.
smiles
Paola

SPRING EXTRAVAGANZA CONTEST!!

Magnolia-licious design teams are getting together to help usher in Spring and we are gonna be having an amazing Extravaganza that you are not gonna wanna miss out on as there are some FAB pirzes up for grabs:
For all the details pop over to the Magnolia-licious blog or the Magnolia-licious Highlights blog

And here are some of the awesome prizes up for grabs:
First prize for each category (there are 3 categories) - $150.00 Gift Certificate to the Magnolia-licious Store.
Second Prize for each category - $75.00 Gift Certificate to the Magnolia-licious Store.
Random prizes chosen by Diana will receive $25.00 Gift Certificates.
Now isnt that enough to wet your appetite?
So get the creative caps on bloggers and get creating.
While most of the people in blog land are celebrating spring, we in SA are sweltering in the heat of summer, so its a perfect time to squirrel yourself away and get crafting.
have a great weekend
smiles
Paola 

No idle hands in my house!

As you can imagine with less than two weeks to the "wedding" i am very busy, but i wanted to share with you what has been keeping me soo busy.  We decided that the flower girls would look really sweet with ringlets and since its been soo long since i have made ringlets i decided we needed a trial run.  Over the weekend i spent the better half of three hours winding my girls hair in rags, after lathering the hair in tons of gel, since it will have to last all day when the big day arrives.  they had to sleep with it in so that i could be sure it was dry, then we took out the rags on Sunday morning and then combed it out and retwist the ringlets so they are nice and soft.  I pinned up a few pieces so it would hang in layers down their backs, and then we palyed with added tiara's and pins etc.

This year we are celebrating "Purim" which is a Jewish holiday that the kids all dress up and we give gifts to one another, namely food baskets of dried fruits and nuts and perhaps a drink, nothing big, just a token gift, sometimes we add choccies, you get the idea.  Anywho i saw these fab baskets on Dena's blog and thought they would be lovely for the purpose of giving Mishloach manot.  My future dil saw them and decided that they would be great for the girls at the wedding too, so i made these in the wedding colors also.

We are collecting our dresses later today so look out for pics of those.
P.S: i am gonna enter my baskets into the challenge on the Crafty cardmakers challenge as they want you to use fabric, which there is tons of tulle all over these beautiful little baskets.
smiles
Paolas

Magnolialicious Challenge dt

We have a fabulous new challenge for you on the Magnolia-licious challenge blog and we are going "GREEN"
For my card i have used Native American Tilda available from Magnolia-licious store and i just wanna add, Dianna is so GENEROUS you get prezzies when you order and of course if you are close by, you get free shipping etc, so head over to the store and check out all the darling little Maggies that she has available.

I am really not a green fan, but that was the challenge, and a challenge it was too.  I masked my image onto the Log which you can also purchase from Diana and then colored with my copics, adding some grass around her feet.  I masked a bit of a sky around the background so you could get a clearer impression that my daring little Tilda is sitting outdoors.  My image was cut with a spellbinder nestie and then i added a punched border from Ek success, layered onto this paper from MME.

Added a flourish up the side of my card, a few gypsophylla and a couple of feathers and skeleton leaves and a large lush bow to the corner with a button centre to finish off my little ensemble.
The inside of my card was also quite a challenge until i turned my double sided paper over and noticed that on the back there were lines so i just cut a rectangle and  gave it the same border as the front of my card and a few extra embellies.

Do pop in to the Challenge blog and see what my great teamies have done with green this week and i look forward to seeing all the entries.  The ever generous Diana is giving one lucky individual a 25$ gift certificate so you dont wanna miss out on your chance this may be your lucky week

Have a great week
smiles
Paola