Penguin Moment

My second Christmas card of the day... that's enough for me. Sorry girls, Rudolph Day can have two contributions and LIKE IT!!!

Materials:

Background paper was part of a prize from Card Making & Papercraft

Christmas Tree and Penguins, Whipper Snapper Designs

Jingle and mittens from Jolee's Embellishments

Button, flower and ribbons, from local Craft Shop

Kenya Part 1

This is the front cover of my Kenya Safari Adventure Scrapbook.

It occured to me today that I have never shared this book with you on my blog. Basically, I WON the trip of a lifetime on a local radio station a few years ago and it really was the holiday of a lifetime. Seven days safari, luxury hotels (and believe me, they were gorgeous hotels), wonderful food, all inclusive), it really was a wonderful experience. I hope to go back one day, when the children are a little older so that they can experience seeing wild animals in their natural habitat rather than locked up in cages in a zoo, although that can be fun too, if not a little sad!

JAMBO is the Swahili word for 'Hello'. We heard this a lot during our stay in Kenya.

Photo 1
This is a couple of photographs of the red elephant and the giraffe we spotted on the first day of our Safari. The leaves are stamped images from Whipper Snapper Designs and the Jeep is from a collection at Jolee's Boutique, coupled with the brown and the African background papers.

Photo 2
This is one of the red elephants we saw. They are called red elephants because the dust on the ground here is so red and when the elephants wash, they roll around in the dust, which makes them appear red also. The metal embellishment says 'Make a Wish...' I added this because never in a million years could I have ever wished to see such a thing, it truly was tear-jerking to see such an amazing creature, so untroubled by our presence, and yet so graceful and beautiful.

Photo 3
These are the zebra we encountered on the side of the road. They just stood looking at us as if to say, 'You're the funniest looking creatures we've ever seen!' Over in the distance, we could see them running around and playing, like wild horses do, it was really lovely to see them like this. Our guide explained to us that the zebra stripes are like a fingerprint, no two zebras have identical stripes, not even twins!

Kenya Part 2

Photo 1

In this picture you can see Steve is standing on a huge pile of volcanic rock in the middle of a volcanic crater. The volcano (thankfully) isn't there anymore, because when it last erupted about a 1000 years ago, it totally flattened itself and now there's nothing left but rock , although our guide did say that it's only just in the last 100 years or so that plantlife have started growing around the rock, which is why you can see a little greenery too. I added the wording... 'Where's room service when I need it?' as there was nowhere nearby for refreshments or anything, oh to be a man on occasions such as these!!! The photo in the bottom left of Photo 1 is of a giant spider. We had just found the perfect spot to sit and sunbathe within the grounds of our hotel, right by the pool (and the bar). When we were comfortable, I laid back on my sunlounger only to see 'Boris' right above me. God knows how, but I managed to stay still long enough to get a picture before we made a hasty retreat. Well, it was only fair, he was there before us - and he can stay there too, if you ask me!

Photo 2

Just passing through. This is one of the monkeys we saw on our safari travels. He didn't seem too bothered by us, in fact, he even got up and gave us this little pose. Bless him! The embellishments in this photograph are again by Jolee's and the postage stamp is an original one from Kenya.

Photo 3
This is Steve and a couple we met while on safari having a look through the telescope within the grounds of our hotel, which overlooked a vast landscape. We managed to find a herd of elephants at a watering hole, a family of giraffes grazing, some lions and some water buffalo.

Photo 4
This is the final page of my safari scrapbook and this has the most amazing coloured lizard featured at the top. Together with a picture of Kenya at sunrise and Kenya at sunset. It truly has some of the most breathtaking sunsets you've ever seen and the red dust roads are in themselves a sight to see. At night, the hotel staff spray the thatched roofs with some form of bug spray and in the morning when you come down for your breakfast, there are literally hundreds of these scorpions lying around on the ground and in the flowerbeds. This one was about the size of the palm of my hand, and we were informed that he was not one of the largest species in the area. Believe me, there was no way I would've photographed this bad boy if he hadn't already been dead!

Hope you enjoyed looking at my memories book of Kenya, one day...I'll be back!

Tropical Engagement

This card was made for friend's of a friend who have just got engaged. They love Ibiza so I drew a couple of palm trees and the caveman and woman decoupaged in front are by Whipper Snapper Designs. I printed the names and the date of the engagement directly onto the card and I then added some Jolee's Boutique Wedding Embellishments (the invitation, the bow, the rings and the present). Hope they like it?

GCSE Luck

This card was a request from a work collegue for her son Jamie. She didn't like the High Street cards and wanted a personalised card that would wish him good luck in his GCSE's. She liked it so much that the lady she works with has also requested a similar card for her daughter who's about to sit her SAT's. Good luck to both Jamie and Emily in the next few weeks, I know it's a horrible time and I'm sure you'll both give it your best efforts.

Snow Joke

I was asked if I could make a 'ski' themed 50th Birthday card for SUE. It wasn't a problem as I am always keen to make 'different' cards and I remembered that whilst going through my many different storage boxes of 'stuff' I found a load of Jolee's Boutique embellishments, which were perfect. Anyway, I finished the card and although it's supposed to be quite simple, and although I think it looks ok as it is, I still can't help thinking that something is still missing. Any suggestions? What do you think?