My Mom

Hi Ladies.
Mothers Day has come and gone and I have only now got down to upload my L.O. that I made about 10 days ago on Zeffy Scraps

I made this L.O.because I was inspired by the talented Gals on Get Creative to create a L.O. about our Mothers using lots of flowers!!
I went Prima crazy,using the Songbirds collection the paper name "Zephyr" I chose it because my Mom loved wild flowers and this paper reminded me of them. By the way some people also called me Zephyr as I was growing up..
My journaling is personal and emotional so it is tucked away and the glassine envelope hold more journaling paying homage to her!!!A young woman that left home at 17 and became a Mum at 19 in a new country without her family.......
Here is to all the Mums out there!
I salute you...
Zeffy.

It is Sunday...again

Hi there my Friends.
It is amazing how time just flies ...we are almost in the middle of May..
Yes, Sunday is the closing day for CSI case files. I worked on this L.O.this morning and it is almost 3.30pm and I have not posted yet!!!
This was Case File #18...a beauty...

And here is my L.O.

This L.O looks a little top heavy to me...I think it's the big flowers, but I loved this photo of my niece and nephew..and Athina's head was cropped so I added a flower mmmmm....not a good move what do you think...I also journaled on the flowers, I liked that!
Both of these lovely children are my brothers' and they live in South africa so I hardle ever see them, so sad!
Papers are from Kaiser Craft "Sweet Nothings and the telephone embellie is from My Minds Eye Stella Rose.
The twirled ribbon is from a swap, it's lovely..
Have a good Sunday.
Zeffy

What a Wednesday!!!

Hi hi hi....
I am high today...and if it was not for Julie at the Stamping Ground I would not be cyber surfing nor posting I would be playing!!!
Firstly check out my desk!!! Woopeee.....

These are papers that I downloaded and printed,last night they have been created by my friend Nektaria from
Nektaria's Creative Garden  the papers are almost a steampunk/shabby chic, gotto love them,  I made a tag or two last night...now I am dying to go and start my  album.
Another thing you can spot on my desk is a bag of (washi) tape I madelast night,I painted and stamped masking tape....

If I swing my chair,I have an ottoman behind me and on it is this delicious box all the way from the UK......
Look how beutifull packed everything was...including ribbon,twine and charms!!!

Yes, it is my order from Art fron the Heart all my new DYLUSIONS toys....I planning great stuff to make with these!!

Off to play....woyww girls I will visit your blogs tonight....

Wishing you a great day.

Zeffy

Some Colour Inspiration.

Hello there.
As another week comes to an end it is time to show you my L.O. that was inspired by file # 17 at
CSI. I was very happy this week because I was on the CSI watch list.
Anyway I don't know how and why you scrap, but as I was telling a friend the other day, scrapping for me  must come from the heart! I need to feel the passion for the L.O. I am working on...
I had an idea for this challenge and it was more about  the enviroment  around our neighbourhood....that plan went out the window when I accidently found this photo whilst looking for an old photo of my Mum..........this phot made my heart sing it made me happy I needed to scrap it.....Viola!!!

The paper is from Sassafras there is coloured music paper on the other side and the little border under the denim is its border strip...I used some of the downloadables from CSI, eg. the banners and the Horoscope wheel.
Some of the evidence that I used was the music paper,stars, something translucent (I used vellum)circles.
My testimony was my jouranling that I wrote in two circles.
"You are the centre of MY UNIVERSE.Even though Libra and Virgo do not make a good pair...
My Love...You are the energy that gives me life. You are the sunshine of my day.You are the star of my nights.
Without you I am but an empty core!
You are my light,you are my breath,my heart......
I leave you on that sentimental note...
Zeffy

Hi there...
Last night I did a little USTREAMing, its been ages since the last show on  Zeffy Scraps. I decided that I needed to make some cards  for some weddings and birthdays that we have coming up. Over at Simon Says Stamp and Show,the guys want to see some colour....a kaleidoscope of colour in fact. So here is my Marci card.

I coloured the stamp."Marci with Rose" with my new Distress Markers, I do not have many colours,but it was fun playing around with my new water brush and also with  the white pigment ink marker from Ranger called Picket Fence. ( I am not a pro stamp colour inner!) The pink border around the Melissa Frances paper is Worn Lipstick Distress Stain.

Elina from Cherry Nest gave me two Embossing powders from Lindys Stamp Gang to try, she is now stocking the products at her on-line store. So I decided to emboss the lace detail  I used the Byzantine Bronze  embossing powder and as it is a fine powder it was perfect for the intricate detail of the lace...

I must also mention that the sentiment stickers are from Anna Griffin. I added the doily behind the sticker.

Here is the second card I made last night...this lollipop flower is my favourite....it is not stuck on,because I am not sure I can part with this flower yet.....crazy hey?...I played around today trying to find a way to duplicate this pretty flower,  I have some paper drying will ,will see how my flowers turn out when they are dry....

That's it I am off to bed, did a lot of housework today and I am bushed!!(S.African slang for knackered!)

Zeffy

What's on my Workdesk and some up- cycled Drawers

Hi there Friends,
I took some photos to show my desk, for WOYWW and wow when I see this photo I realiselise how untidy I am!! Lucky for me I can function amongst clutter!! I took all these things out yesterday afternoon so I could make some cards on my show Zeffy Scraps on USTREAM....but my Laptop was so slow last night that I spent the evening removing about 1000 photos plus instead!!

Amongst the ribbon and lace you will see a Melissa Grances Paper pad C'est la Vie...not mad for it, a bit washed out.. and some yummy Sentiment Stickers from Anna Griffin.. hopefully by the end of today they will turn into lovely wedding cards!!
This is a cute box we will be making at my workshop on Saturday, National scrapbooking Day..

This box is great for storing photos or journaling spots!

And last but not least my pride and joy!! My lovely wooden drawers that I picked up on the roadside turned into shelves for my rubber stamps and a cork-board..

Yesterday on my walk I spotted a wooded cubby, maybe I should go and save that too??

Heres wishing you a good month.

Love.

Zeffy.

Sweet Brown Eyes

Hi there I hope you are having a pleasing Sunday and a very good long week-end.

Yesterday I had a lot of fun working on  Case File #16 yes I am talking about CSI....I think it is becoming an addiction.....but their Challenges are such fun and very, very inspirational...I had fun working on this pretty L.O. using pinks, greys, sparkle, bling , feathers and the sweetest of all, a photo of my Faye.

This is my Sweet Faye at 9 months old...I would call her my Little Night Owl...she would lie awake at 2....3 in the morning and just gaze at me with her big brown eyes!!! It was not easy especially seeing that we would get up at 6 am to go to work....

I used the very interesting sketch #68 from Sketchabilities I was going to make some banners from the grey spotted paper from Echo Park " Be Mine"  for the top corner....but then I decided on the "vintage "bling intead seeing that I had used some next to my photo....Michele Singh thanks for your lovely papers again , I used the music paper to make a flower.

Have a Hoot..

Love.

Zeffy

Life Can Be Hard Sometime

Hi it's me again..
This is a L.O. made with a photo that I have been wanting to scrap for the past 2 weeks or so..the past 3 weeks have not been easy...
When I was looking around for challenges to  inspire me  I saw this blog on facebook  I knew I wanted to give their sketch a try and work with my masks and mists and stamps....

I did sketch #160 from Skissedilla I first masked a honeycomb pattern, with some Lindys..need to work on being more bold...you can just about see it the rest is under the photo!! Then a masked with some Distress inks...Barn Door and Black Soot....I also stamped some flowers with Black Archival ink and also with some Distress inks...Scattered Straw..you can almost not see that either...I used Prima papers as you can see...the Songbird Collection and the bird and the word fly is from their canvas resist elements.
The black splodges are some of my new black gesso...it is very runny and i got tempted to blow it with a straw..thats why its so flat!!
I have not participated in Bird is the Word challenge blog for ages...so I decided to use the word Future in my title.
Have a very good week-end....
Zeffy.

Passion

Hi there Scrapbooking Friends.

Those who know me will know that I am a passionate person...I believe that whatever we do in life, is done a lot better if we do it with passion.
We love more, we create with more zeal, we cook better, we function more efficiently with the magic ingredient "passion"
So on Monday when I saw the challenge on Simon says Stamp and Show I knew right away what word I would use.
I decided to make a plaque that would look like an old metal  hanging info sign.
Lettters and owl  are from the Ideology Seasonal Stack.

I altered a piece of chipboard, with gears, I painted the whole thing with black gesso ,then I added some tissue paper for some texture. I inked the gears with Chipped Saphire and Broken China. I then embossed it all using Tims' technique to create faux rusted metal.
As I used the gears in a previous L.O. to symbolise baby growing so I used the gears again , this time to look like they are churning out the word PASSION.
I also used elements that I am passionate about, namely flowers, crystals, ribbon, lace, owls and lastly my favourite material is the embossed foil, I used that for my one gear and rose....oh yes I also love beads...can you spot those?
This sign will eventually hang on my home-made shelf/cork board, made entirely from junk that I found on the side of the road

I showed one of these drawers lined with corks, yesterday on my blog and today I received mail at my g-mail acount offering me 2 months free subs to a wine magazine!!! That's Gooogle for you!
Anyway I have joined the drawers with a random piece of wood I found in a skip..so that is what determined the space between the drawers....an extra shelf.

The wall with the black and white picture is actually a retaining column ie. it has a lot of steel in it (at least I hope so!) So putting shelves on it have not been an option as drilling holes in this wall will be a nightmare. I am hoping my new creation that I have so passionately made, will be able to sit on the black table and hang off one strong hook....just in case we have an hearthquake, God forbid and it comes toppling down!
Sorry for this long post....
Goodnight.
Zeffy
P.S. I may still use the Mariposa butterfly on the chain ....I love butterflies too!!

Whats on My Desk Wednesday and a Special Card

Hi there My Friends.
I have pulled myself out of my languid state of limbo, made a list of all I want to do and today I got very busy!!
Here is a sneek peek at my desk, I am working on a project for Simon Says Stamp and Show guess my word? I will show you the project tomorrow...it's almost done....woopee!!

On Monday I was wondering about a background , I was thinking of a faux metal technique that Tim does and then yesterday I saw Bella's blog and that was that, I also used the gears and tissue paper, on black Gesso,but after inking I used clear embossing powder....more of this tomorrow....

This  drawer is also lying in my scrapbooking area....I am planning to make a cork board out of this drawer....as in inspiration board...I am hoping to marry photo 1 with photo 2 tomorrow...plus another drawer...we will see what happens...
Now if you want to take a look at more very very interesting desks. Pop over to Julia and see everybodies working areas...
Yesterday was my youngest daughters' birthday...how time flies!
Here is the card that I made for her.

I used the sketch that is on Get Creative mmm I tweeted,I mean tweeked it a little ,I am sure it is fine.

I mounted some Kaisercraft "Sweet Nothings" on some craft looking cardstock...I used a scrap of Tiffany's for the sentiment do you remeber this paper line it is from WRMK.?

The birdcage is from Sizzix..thank-you Elvira and the paper lace is also from Sizzix die Vintage Lace.

So tell me ladies what is so therapeutic about colouring in??

 I had so much fun making my little bird...

That is all for now...catch you tomorrow.
Zeffy

Monsters Beware!!

Hi there Friends...
I am posting in a rush....and all I need right now is a new Blogger set-Up!
Anyway I had some Mojo to scrap this week-end and thanks to the inspiration of the challenge on CSI and a lovely photo of my daughter...this is what I came up with, oh yes I also used Elina's sketch on that is on Get Creative

.

I must thank Michele Singh for here lovely free downloads...I had fun using the prints especially the monsters....you can see the one has a chain around his foot..and the little orange one is double...he has a little acetate double (Double trouble!)
The little poam I wrote says. "Monsters you had better fear,
                                                when my Mommy is near.
                                                Better for you to be,
                                                far than near!
I used a bit of dictionary paper as a mat and just by chance, right at the bottom it has a definition of Night Lighting!!! How apt.
I used a metal chin to grab the monster and on the top I have a metal washer and a brad.
I don't know if you can see that the word Imagination is printed on acetate.
I also gave my L.O. a zig-zag stitching around the border, so as to pull everything together.
have a good Sunday afternoon, I am off to lunch with my sister and family.
Love
Zeffy

Black Envelope Album for Val

Hi there Scrapbookers.
Here is the album that I created for my sisters 50th..I looked through all of my photo albums and then decided to make something that would house photos from different stages in her life...not an easy job...I waded through the hundreds of loose photos too...then I scanned,edited and printed the photos I was going to use...
I have cut open 4 of the 8 envelope to make pockets for large black folios that house lots of fun photos as my sister Val is a very fun loving person!
At the very last moment I decided to decorate a box so that the album could be safely transported and stored.The decorations on the box are very very basic.
The papers are from IOD...and I just love them.

I kept the cover of the Album very simple too as no flowers I tried to use seemed to want to work with the Popies..the plaque under the name Val is made from embossed toilet paper!! That I misted like crazy with Lindy's mists....although I did add some paint dabber at the end......just to highlight the raised areas!

I must apologise for the photos and for the video...I recorded these very very quickly as I was pressed for time!!
Here are some of the pages and the video is at the end of  this post.

 Val is my sons' God-Mother.. Michael just loves her..the lady holding up the baby is my darling Mom!I kept these pages simple...if you look carefully you will see a tag peeking out of the top of the page...not crazy for this kind of pocket.

As you can see I used lots of different fold-out pages to create extra real estate...this album has almost 100 photos in it!!

The paper on this last page that you see above is from Prima Papers.

Enjoy the video....

Lots of Love.

Zeffy

Wishing you all a Blessed Easter

Hi there my Friends.
I have been lying low for a while....as you all know, I have not posted for a while...
I want to take this oportunity to wish you all a good and Blessed Easter...a bit late you may say..yes this year the Greek Orthodox Easter is a week after the Latin Easter.
Anyway I have been busy baking and dying eggs,,,,will make the last of my Easter breads tomorrow morning....
Last Sunday was my sisters 50th Birthday,and I decided to make her a canvas and an album as a gift.
today I want to share the canvas with you.

I went to town with this project...I had fun....I painted, I misted and how I loved misting....I used my new Lindy's Stamp Gang mists.... from the Starburst and the Moonshadow range...what vibrant colours !!

I must tell you that their embossing powders are fab as well...

I go into all the detail on my video...which I filmed while sitting on the floor..so it is a little strange..

I was very happy with the results of my embossed toilet paper....just love the end result, you ladies should try it...I will show you how I went about the process on USTREAM in the coming weeks.

I also made Val an album, with lots of photos ...Hopefully I will get to uploading that in the next couple of days.

Enjoy the video.

Have  a good week-end.

Zeffy

Scrapbooking with Colour Combinations..

Hi there Scrapbookers..
I have eventually decided to post the L.O. that I made on Sunday night on Zeffy Scraps on USTREAM.

Each time my friend Elina from Scrapbookers In Greece posts a colour challenge I mean to do it ,but never get to it ...so this week I am very happy to be able to use the colours from challenge #28.
This is our babies' first Spring and I thought I would surround him in lovely flowers....now that he is still a baby!! We can safely say that this is the spring-time of his life and we will have to wait and see what his future holds......

I used the sketch from Sketches In Thyme Thursday Takes #72. As you can see I substituted the 2nd photo with a die cut hand....
As I said above I made this L.O. live on USTREAM...the papers are Kaisercraft ,Sweet Nothings. I cut out the roses from the sheet of paper called "Dozen Roses" I used the roses off the die-cut sticker sheet and the yellow rose and blue flowers off the rub-on sheet.
My circle is a chipboard lazer-cut from Leaky Shed. I gessoed it and then painted it white,added crackle medium "Clear Rock Candy"...once dry I added a little "Picket Fence" Distress Stain.
Katerina thank you for the "Patetura" Vintage music paper...it is so cool!!
The white border at the bottom of the page is also of the sticker sheet I added  little  pearls
Oh yes the die-cut hand and the little Elixer label are both from Pink Paislee "Butterfly Garden"

I must tell you that I was not happy with the L.O. Mr Nino... Today I have misted the background with Mists...I am still not happy...This will be the first time I am going to pull a L.O. apart and add new papers...I will just keep the matting and the metal tag....I welcome some suggestion for improvement....
Have a good week-end...are you doing Tim's lessons?  I could not  make any of the tags today as all three had Picket Fence Distress stain on them.....and I do not have any!!
LOts o' Love.
Zeffy

Mr.Nino

Hi there Friends.
Another Sunday is almost over...it was a beautiful day here in Athens today...spring is trying to squeeze this miserable winter away!
I have spent most of the day putting together this L.O of my little Honey all dressed up...the photo was taken on the day before he was 3 months old..is he not too cute!! (excuse the ranting and raving ,this is my 1st Grand-baby...and I love him so very very much....raving again!)
There are many challenges out there, today I chose to do Case 10 from Color Stories Inspiration.

I started with a BG paper 'Cupcakes" I misted with Lemon Zest, I inked and masked with Spun Sugar ,Aged Mahogany and Wheathered wood...I used the gauze that my daughter uses to wipe the little guy clean, I misted that with Starfish G.M. At this stage of my life I am very into spirals  I would say one of the most primitive and ever  present shape in our lives, I find them very comforting to draw .....So I stitched a spiral as well as I could free-hand on a 30x30 paper...I used metal as a strong contrast to the soft gauze, I embossed my tag with the gears..that represant the little guy growing..I also used a safety pin..in my day safety-pins=BABY....we used towel diapers you see! Times change.
I also played with the concept  Man/Baby....and by the way the little bow-tie on the ribbon was a left over scrap from my hubbies 50th Birthday party....I also thought that the black and white of Nino's outfit was a classic contrast.
Mr.Nino reminds me of his Daddy, I will scrap a photo of my daughter wedding photos so you can see my S.I.L. in a tuxedo...
an older L.O photo not too good
I also need to tell you that I was inspired by the sketch on Sketches In Thyme. It is the first time that I use one of their sketches....
I have numerous projects finished and one or two on the go...hopefully I will have time to make some You Tube videos in the coming week.
Thanks for popping by, have a good week.
Zeffy

Questions I ask of me...

Hi there my scrapbooking friends...
I have been lying low the past couple of days....you know feeling under the weather. Last night as I was aimlessly browsing the web, my eye caught hold of this picture..... and I was caught!

This is from a very interesting Ning site called CSI Color Stories Inspiration I almost wrote investigation!
This is what I happened at my desk this morning.....with an old photo of me, taken ages ago, during a very difficult period of my life! Do you remeber the song  Do You Know Where You Are going Too?

This is the result of the inspiration of the song, the photo and the challenges...
Most of the papers are Websters pages, I have misted the one so heavily that you can almost not see the print on the  pattern...read the criteria of the challenge and you will see that we need to use certain elements.I have used print, the bird,stripes and a scrap from a dictionary...it is the definition of disgusting...I also  think that the barbed wire represents how I felt at the time!

I must also say that the sketch  and also the journalling criteria from Once Upon a Sketch fitted in exactly with the direction I had in mind for this L.O. to go. The journalling is hidded under the sign post and it is the first time I have written about this period of my life....
Here is  Diana  Ross with this amazing song.

Be good Ladies, be happy.
God Bless.
Zeffy

Something New

Hi there again.
Here is the second L.O. that I promised you. I made it using the colour challenge on the Get Creative Challenge Blog
I used a photo from my daughter's wedding collectiona and some lovely Websters Pages from  Winter Fairy Tales.

Some details.

More details on my You Tube video.....

Thanks for reading...remeber I love to read your comments....
Chat again later,keep well.
Zeffy.

Something Old.

Hello there my Friends.
Today I want to share with you a photo taken just over 30 years ago...Yes that is me and my DH!
Garden Girl Shimelle at 2 Peas in a Bucket challenged us to scrap a vintage photo.
My friends Irini and  Eleni tell me that anything over 20 years  old is vintage...scary!!!
This past Saturday we went to a crop at the darling Katerina's home..so I packed a box of papers and about 4 potential photos to scrap, I had decided to do the challenge at Get Creative.... it is a colour challenge, these were the colous we were to use .

Even though the crop was hectic, a lot of chatting and laughing and eating, I managed to plan 2 L.O.s 

Here is one of the L.O. I have made, there are another 2 to follow....in the same colour scheme!!

This paper was given to me by my friend Aliki, it is called Sweet Surrender by G.C.D.Studios. This was one sheet of paper, I just cut out the center panel and distressed both pieces. As you can see the lilac paper under the photo is Co-ordinations that has been embossed and sanded, then inked. I sewed the 2 lace pieces onto a lilac cardstock....I love the strings just hanging, I think they add to the vintage, frayed feel...
The "Voulez Vous" is from a clothing tag, the post card from a generic sheet of images, and the vintage paper under that is mounted on a piece of paper that I have coloured with coffee. The tag behind the top pansy is from Echo Park and I have journalled on it.
That is it for today, I will photograph the other L.O. tomorrow..it was so cloudy today!!
Oh yes I will be STREAMING tomorrow on Zeffy Scraps I will be making a mini album for my SIL using B.G. Curio Papers.So join me if you can.
xx Zeffy

Seeing You Grow

Hi there my Scrapbooking Friends.
I want to share the L.O. that I completed yesterday on my show Zeffy Scraps.
As you all know I love challenges and over at Simon Says Stamp and Show  they are having an Idea-ology Bonanza. So it was time to break into all of the Idea-ology products I have stashed.
This is my grandson, he was sleeping on my chest and I loved this photo....I decided to use the gears to symbolised his growth,and his excistence....Don't you just love the little sheep on his onesie.

Ok here goes I used Idea-ology Paper Stack Seasonal, the back of this paper is a valentine paper. The word SWEET is also taken from this paper pack.I masked using the  Tim Holtz  swirl and misted with Trunk Bay G.M. I used Craft Glassine paper that was embossed and misted for the flowers and I used the filmstrip to symbolise the babies dreams. I also used metal foilage flowers, they are gessoed a little. A safety pin as well as a Philosophy tag that says Journey add a little touch of metal and idea-ology....I decided to use the metal ball chain on my border to add extra dimension...I stapled this onto the paper
I  also stamped a little around the edges of the page with Vintage Photo.
Lastly I want to thank Melania from A Room full of Colours and Shapes for her sketch...as you know I have a problem leaving white space, so I really enjoyed doing this l.o. using this sketch...even though I flipped it a little.
I wish you all a good month.
Love Zeffy.