We celebrated Karla's birthday in March. These layouts were made using some birthday photos and loads of Enmarc goodies.

Birthday Princess

I used the following Enmarc products from my DT April kit:
Dazzles: Waterloo on background
Swirls & flourishes: Baroque (sprayed with Dazzles: African Violet)
Whiteboard Alphas: Chunky Monkey Uppercase
Feathered Friends: Hugging birds

Make a Wish

Enmarc DT April kit:
Deco frame: Arch window 2 (painted with white craft paint, Fast Crack, then raw sepia craft paint and a coat of varnish)
Whiteboard Alphas: Chunky Monkey Uppercase (coloured with Tim Holtz distress marker: milled lavender)
The brick wall was achieved by using the Page Essentials: Brick Wall packaging as a stamp with raw sepia craft paint onto a layer of gesso and misting with a touch of Dazzles: eggshell

Enmarc DT February kit:
Moosgummi: Hearts (misted with Dazzles: Waterlily blush)
Page Corner: Ornate 1

The butterfly was cut out with my Silhouette, embossed with Perfect Pearls, embellished with Ranger liquid pearls, misted with Dazzles: clay pot and finally each swirl painstakingly hand doodled with an Artline black Calligraphy pen.

I simply had to try this card inspired by Patricia Basson, one of the Enmarc DT members. Armed with a tutorial supplied by Anita Hogan I doubtfully started measuring, cutting and folding. (I'm not shy to admit that card making is not my strong suit.) Before long I was hooked and simply couldn't stop until it was finished. I enjoyed every moment of creating this card.

Oops, I fell a bit behind on the blog updates. Between uploading creations to facebook and the Enmarc ning site I completely forgot to update my blog. Well, here's an update of what I've been up to.

My latest Enmarc creation looks like this:


My friend loves hearts. She collects hand made hearts to hang in the living room. She has a few gorgeous hearts. Everywhere I go I see all these lovely hearts and I'm always so tempted to buy her one. But I've made up my mind that I'm going to make them myself and I finally got around to doing it. I bought blank wooden hearts from Itz van Alles, covered them with lace paper (my absolute favourite), inked the edges with black ink and embellished them with flowers, liquid pearls, iRock bling and lacy ribbon. The end product looks like this.


My next project was a jewellery box (also bought from Itz van Alles) for a 5-year old's birthday. Also covered with paper and embellished with flowers, butterflies and iRock bling.


I love these blanks and am busy with another jewellery box. I also have a jewellery “wardrobe” and printers tray still to be decorated.

Okay, so it's my first design team. I'm still getting used to the idea. But I LOVE it! Enmarc has gorgeous products and I get to play with them every month.
I received my first 2 batches of goodies last week. What a whopper! I completed my first layout tonight using 4 items and I hardly made a dent in my February stash.
This photo was taken when Karla and I made a little road trip to McGregor on one of our Robertson weekends. We had a little photo shoot in the lovely garden of one of the art galleries. The angle of the photo is a bit strange. When Karla saw it she complained that “I made her feet look big”


I used the following Enmarc products:
Deco frame: Elegant flourish
Swirls & flourishes: Heart of wings (small)
Plain embellishment set: Hearts (blue heart)
Jumbo page essentials: Mama's Lace (swirl)

My baby girl started “big school” this year. I can't believe how fast the time is going now. She turned 7 yesterday and I kept thinking to myself how it feels like only yesterday that I dropped her off at crêchè, a 4-month old little bundle, and sobbed all the way home. Now I'm so used to dropping her off in the morning that I was hardly bothered on the first day of Grade 1. Yes, it was a big moment... but the separation anxiety doesn't get to me anymore.

This layout was made using mostly Simple Stories paper. How I love Simple Stories and wish that I could find more of it here. I want it ALL! And of course some Enmarc design elements, e.g. the 1st Day of School chippie, coloured with watercolour pencils and the Butterfly Swirl, inked with green moss distress ink and then painted with white craft paint.

Here she is: my DD on her first day of school.

Yes, I'm still on the layering mission. I bought a Scrap 365 magazine from Scrap Delight yesterday. What an amazing magazine. On the front page is a layout by Tomoko Takahashi. I have been admiring her style for a while on several web sites and blogs. She's all over the place. I was really inspired by this layout and decided to try “lifting” it by using my own colour schemes and embellishments. I reckoned by copying a layout I could get a feel for proper layering and hopefully next time be able to do it on my own. (It worked with the very first layout I ever did.)
I must say I'm very happy with the result. It doesn't have as much detail and dimension as Tomoko's layout but it is still my current favourite. At first I thought some of the colours might be too bright but in the end everything blended together very nicely.

The photo is of my brother and I on a wine farm 2 years ago. The title says it all: You will always be my baby brother. He is 11 years younger than me.
Here is Tomoko's layout on the front page of Scrap 365. Note all the liquid pearls accenting her frames and embellishments. (I ordered some last night )

Thanks for the inspiration, Tomoko!

Wow! I have forgotten how much work a double page layout can be. Because I've been working mostly with sketches lately all my layouts have been single pages. Needless to say, this layout was quite a challenge and took me a few evenings to complete.
I loved working with this sketch.

And the best part is that I had the perfect Enmarc goodies to match the photos! The dress form, corset, flourish and mini scalloped oval frame are all from Enmarc. The title was made with my new best friend, Silhouette.
I thought outlining the various sizes of paper pieces with gold would add some dimension and separate them from each other. I think it came out okay.



The journaling strip to the left of the large photo pulls out to read:
10 Feb 2012 - Die laaste keer wat ek jou sover kon kry om enigiets anders as 'n rokkie te dra, was voor Desember 2011. Links: 1 + 2 - 2 van die rokkies wat jy vir Kersfees gekry het. 3 - Jou huidige gunsteling uitrusting. Regs: Jou eerste reaksie toe jy hierdie foto van jou by Wacky Wine 2010 gesien het, was: “Aah cute!” En 'n oomblik later: “Maar dit sou nog cuter gewees het as ek 'n rokkie aangehad het.”
10 Feb 2012 - The last time I could get you to wear anything other than a dress was before December 2011.
Left: 1 + 2 - 2 of the dresses you got for Christmas. 3 - Your current favourite outfit. Right: Your first reaction when you saw this photo of yourself at the Wacky Wine 2010 was, “Aw cute!” And a moment later: “But it would have been even cuter if I had been wearing a dress.”

Okay, so I am finally scrapping some old photos. These are from a live performance by Louise Carver (another one of my favourite South African artists) at Van Loveren Wine Estate during the 2010 Wacky Wine Weekend.
I used this week's sketch from Sketchabilities.

My favourite part of creating this layout was definitely playing with my new Silhouette, cutting the banners and photo frames. And of course distressing the photo frames. I love the Making Memories edge scraper.
The ticket and felt strips at the bottom as well as the buttons and other small embellishments are from My Mind's Eye and the big flower and butterfly are Prima.

My dream has come true and I have been elected to create for Enmarc Crafts.
When I got the email on Thursday night I had to read it a few times to make sure I was understanding it right. Me... on a Design Team? But... here's the proof...

Come join me on the Enmarc web site.

A friend contacted me a while (like almost 2 years) ago to find out if I was interested in buying her Silhouette (that has never been used) from her. I wasn't in a position to do it then.
About 3 weeks ago I decided to pay her a visit and see what this wonder machine looks like. I took it home to play with and was instantly hooked. When I saw all the goodies you can purchase for $0,99 at the Silhouette online shop I had to stop myself from drooling.
Here's my new baby.

These are just some of the items this baby can make. These were made for a layout I created this afternoon.

The Silhouette is was one of the originals and not the brand new Silhouette Cameo but it is still the best cutting machine I have worked with. No dies or cartridges needed. The only problem with it is that it only cuts paper, cardboard, vellum, etc. No chipboard or other thick mediums. I'm still in love with my Silhouette