Welcome to my blog and thanks soso much for spending a little while peeping into my world

ARTS, BELLYDANCING, CRAFTS
BELLYDANCING, ARTS, CRAFTS
CRAFTS, BELLYDANCING, ARTS

whichever order I put them in, these are my passion!

... all from my little home studio in Durban, on the east coast of sunny South Africa!

"I used to think that anyone doing anything weird was weird. I suddenly realized that anyone doing anything weird wasn't weird at all and it was the people saying they were weird that were weird." -- Paul McCartney









Friday, December 31, 2010

THE NEW MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE DESIGN TEAM FOR 2011


If you are a regular follower of my blog, you will know the fondness I have for entering almost every week's sketch challenge. And when Priscilla recently had a design team call I decided to try my luck, with absolutely NO EXPECTATION of being accepted - have you seen the creations of the DT members there??!! They are awesome!!

well ... I made it ! ... I was SO surprised that you could have blown me over with a feather!
I am now the Sponsorship Co-ordinator - how awesome is that???

So here is the New Design team for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge

PRISCILLA (blog owner)

CHARLOTTE (Senior DT)
DARSIE (Senior DT)
DENISE (Senior DT)
GUNN (Senior DT)
LINDA (Senior DT)
PHYLLIS (Voting coordinator)

~~~~~~~~~~~

BONNIE

DAWN

GURO

JEN (Sponsoring Coordinator)>>>>>>>>>> (that's ME!)

LORIE

MARSHA

REBECCA

RENEE

Please hop on over to each of the member's blogs to see just how talented each of these ladies are! And leave a little bit of love to show that you've visited.

And please check back here every Tuesday to see my creation for the new week's Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge.

Here are some handy links for you to follow ...

THE MIDNIGHT MADNESS SKETCH CHALLENGE
CRAFTERS DIGITAL ART CENTRE

Perhaps you'll want to enter the MMSC each week too - there are awesome prizes to be won ...

A DAY FOR DAISIES NEWS RELEASES : 31 DECEMBER 2010


"Listen to the ocean
Echoes of a million seashells
Forever it's in motion ..."

Some of the lyrics to a 1960's song by Nina and Frederick - memories of my childhood, sitting in the lounge with dad, listening to the seven single record on the record player.

Those are the beautiful memories brought to mind when I first saw Tammy's adorable new images to be released today.

I used two images, and merged them into one to make this little beach scene, wich well could have been my brother Ron and I. Once again the image was coloured using my colured pencils and I used copics for the skin tones. A few little beads were sewn onto the 'sand' to emphasize the sparkle of wet seasand in bright sunlight.

The sentiment is a quotation that is written by that very well known Mr Anon, and it seemed to be so apt for the image. I printed it onto cardstock which was then cut using a Nellies Choice oval die and beaded. The ribbon detail I added afterwards. The background is make of various offcuts of scrapbooking paper which I had in my "nice to keep" drawer.

Here are some handy links you might like to use ...

Click here for the A Day for Daisies Store
Click here for the Challenge Blog
Click here to join A day for Daisies on CDAC
Click here to join A Day for Daisies on PCP
Click here to join A Day for Daisies on SSC

Friday, December 24, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL ...

My Christmas Eve post today is to show you one of the new releases at A DAY FOR DAISIES. The image is called "a bird in the hand" and this is the card I made ...



As you can see, I turned that cute little image into a little robin redbreast, and was inspired to write a little poem about the image, which was coloured using my coloured pencils and OMS. The rest of the card consists of gold metallic card, embossed using a Cuttlebug folder, and some green velvet Christmas ribbon. Beads and sequins were sewn on as embellishments.

Some handy links you might like :

A Day for Daisies online store .... click here
A Day for Daisies group on CDAC .... click here
A Day for Daisies group on SSC .... click here
A Day for Daisies group on PCP .... click here

All that's left for me to say is Merry Christmas ... may you spend it in the warmth and love of family and friends.

Bright Christmas Blessing
Jen Leeflang and family
Durban
Sunny South Africa

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL ...

Monday, December 20, 2010

NICECRANE DESIGNS


Nicecrane Designs is a new group on CDAC, headed up by an extrememly talented artist, Ignacio, from Spain. He specialises in vintage-style images, and takes his inspirations from old fashioned children's books illustrations, such as Alice in Wonderland, the WaterBabies, and some of the Mark Twain and Charles Dickens classics.

After joining the group there, Ignacio invited me to choose three images from his store - how generous is he? and ... what a sweet gesture!

So now I have another mermaid in my collection, as well as a Water Babies image, and an Alice in Wonderland. And to top that, Ignacio invited me to join his Design Team - what an honour and how could I resist?

You can visit his store here : and I am sure that as you browse through all those fabulous images, you will be taken back to the sweet memories of your childhood, and won't know which to pick as your favourite!

The current round of challenges on CDAC is on at the moment, and Ignacio provided one of the many freebie images called "A Christmas Carol". - This is my entry for that challenge:


I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of colouring the Nicecrane images, and I feel that it totally suits my style.

The card was made for the following two challenges:
CDAC Free Digi Challenge #13
Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #84

Why don't you hop along there and join in those challenge too?

Saturday, December 18, 2010

What's new at A DAY FOR DAISIES? ....

Yes, lots happened this week at A Day for Daisies ...

First a bonus new release set of the cutest little boys images .. and for all of you mothers of sons, you will so identify with these images! They are just the cutest!

Then it was time for another set of new releases, a wonderful set of doggies with their humans, gorgeous little girls and boys who just love their pets! As one of the newest DT members I had the absolute honour of choosing two of these to use, to showcase Tammy's images ... and here they are.



The first is "My Doggie", and I coloured her in pinks and lilacs and made a cute girly card. I cut the image onto a a Nellie's Choice die cut and printed a quotation as a sentiment, The bp's consist of some printed scrapbooking paper from the thrift store, and cardstock which I embossed using the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Folder. The pawprint is a punch and the embellishments are sewn on sequins (my signature), some flowers and a bow.



The second card is "Boy's Best Friend" and when I saw this image I thought 'old school and traditional' - not too many embellishments - and so I printed the digi onto cream cardstock, coloured in traditional pastels and added some pastel checked paper and ribbon, probably the only patterns available to mums in "those days" ... It was a bit of a change to my usual style, but it worked!

Then the other happening was the start of challenge #8 - and Tinsel and Tags ... is not that difficult for this time of the year, is it?



My tag is star-shaped, and has "My Little Angel" featured. She is colured using my coloured pencils, and I sewed on some flower sequins {of course}. I attached some gold tinsel all around the star border and doesn't it look like my little angel is really up there somewhere?

Please use the handy links below to check out the gorgeous images I have used for these projects, AND all the other equally gorgeous images in Tammy's store.

Click here for the A Day for Daisies Store
Click here for the Challenge Blog
Click here to join A day for Daisies on CDAC
Click here to join A Day for Daisies on PCP
Click here to join A Day for Daisies on SSC

Are you there yet?

Monday, December 13, 2010

I made the DIGIS BY PHOOKA Design Team - yippee!

I had completely forgotten that I had applied, and when I was informed on Saturday morning that I made the Design Team, I had such a pleasant surprise that it set the tone for a lovely weekend.

Digi's by Phooka is one f the newer groups on the Crafter's Digital Art Center, and Myriam describes her images as "Adorable images which you can colour and use for all your craft projects" and she is right ....



In celebration, I used the cute cupcake image from Myriam (the artist and owner of Digis by Phooka) and created this yummy card by layering three cupcakes and colouring in really delicious, fresh baked colours. I added some stick on gems and crystal glitter glue, and placed them on a die cut mat, cut from a Nellie's Choice Die. The background papers are from Wilson and Maclagan, and I added some MS WordArt as a sentiment. The embellies are paper flowers and a satin ribbon. And yes, the sewn-on beads and sequins are there too ~~~ how could they not be?

Here are some handy links :

CRAFTERS DIGITAL ART CENTREDIGIS BY PHOOKA GROUP

Please come along and join us there, some really fun activities have been planned in the form of challenges, events, and who knows, Myriam just may have a freebie for you to grab!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

OVER THE MOON HAPPY - THAT'S ME TODAY!



I have been SO blessed with such good news today - I made the Design Team for Tammy's A Day for Daisies - my very favourite images! I love working with her gorgeous little images - I don't think anybody could make an un-pretty card with them. I get to display my DT badge on my blog here on the right, and you will be seeing many more of my ADFD creations, here on my blog and in the A Day For Daisies groups on CDAC, SSC and PCP.

Here is a card I made with the Christmas Angel called "Christmas Pixie 2". She and many many more fabulous images are available in her store here.


There is also a challenge blog called "The Flower Basket" that you can join, enter your ADFD creations, and perhaps win yourself some of Tammy's images too!

Monday, December 6, 2010

200 MEMBERS ON "A Day for Daisies" on CDAC



(for your convenience, I have added all the links at the end of this blog entry)

To celebrate her CDAC group's 200 member achievement, Tammy of A Day for Daisies gave every member a set of gorgeous little images as a gift.

This is my creation, using 'Pettel Pixie" for my entry in Challenges #7 on the Challenges Blog, where the brief was to use gift wrap.

Pettel was coloured using my watercolour pencils, and some bling was added to her wings. Then using the stencils from my favourite online scrapbooking supplies store, Scrapbooking-Scrapbook.co.za I marked where to place the flourishes of daisy sequins, which I sewed on, using invisible thread. As further embellishment, I attempted to recreate the "A Day for Daisies" logo in the bottom left hand corner.

The gift wrap was used as the dp, and the colours and print were just perfect for this image and the colours I used.

I would love you to join the "A Day for Daisies group, and to take part in their challenge. There are wonderful prizes for te winner every challenge! To create your perfect entry, please visit their online store to see all the absolutely amazing images that are available - you will find it extremely hard to choose .....

Here area few links that you might find useful:
a Day for Daisies online store
a Day for Daisies challenge blog
Mel's Scrapbooking-Scrapbook online store
Crafter's Digital Art Center