Hi there Friends.

Firstly, excuse my absence, I have been on an internet detox for this week….no internet here at my FIL ‘s house…I am writing this at a WIFI cafeteria….hopefully we will have internet at home by MONDAY…otherwise I may start pulling out my haiR!!!

Here is a L.O. of my dear Father-in-Law, I took this photo one morning last August after his swim. He loves swimming in fact he swims in the sea the whole year round! I have been joining him at 7am each morning!!! In fact he told me yesterday that it is time for him to throw away his beloved hat…it has a big hole in it!!

My L.O. was inspired by CSI...Case File 29. When I saw Michele’s distressed woodgrain paper I knew it would be perfect for the weathered look of my photo. So that took care of two pieces of evidence, then I rolled some striped paper into straws to use as embellishments….I had to use the sprig of flowers because my FIL often tucks Basil or Lemon Verbenia behind his ear….he has also come home with Origanum behind his ear, after his jogs.

I used a little bit of music in the background because he loves to dance. In fact he has so much energy, Bless him that he have nic-named him Duracel

I have used the Top 10 list to name a few of his many endearing characteristics.

 My journaling reads. “Papou you have always been the driving force of our sumers in Lesvos. You are the one that plans our daily excursions. The first to get into the sea and to go for long swims, you always choose the best place for us to eat and have high expectations! You have the energy to go jogging on warm summer evenings and even go cycling. You still take spare shirts with you to dances because you dance all night and need to change out of your wet shirt!

You are the driving energy of our family. You achieved your lifelong dream and built this amazing home for us at the age of 75! You know what you want and you achieve it!”

That is it for now people…I am off …I need to keep up!

have a great day!

Love Zeffy

Hot hot hot.....

Hi there Folks.
It has been super hot in Athens so I have not done much scrapbooking!
Yesterday I scrapped with friends and I made this L.O. of my sweet sweet Grand-Son.
I used  CSI Case-File #28.My sketch is from The Studio Challenges.Sketchy

This is one of many photos taken by my SIL during baby's bath time....such a Silly face...the journaling reads "Mummy in this day and age,us babies should have goggles to wear when having our hair washed!"

As you can see I did a lot of painting and stamping as I did not have many papers in my stash to match..the little wooden embellie at the bottom of the page is made by me!

Greetings...I need to go and finalise my packing, my next blog post will be from Lesvos....maybe we will do some USTREAMING too.
Keep Cool.
Filakia.
Zeffy.

Son By Choice

Hi there Ladies and Gents.
Today I want to share a L.O. that I made with the last few photos that I still need to scrap from my daughter's wedding! Yes is was a 2 years ago...and I still need to get them all into an album!!
I used Case File #26 from CSI as an inspiration.I also used Melenia's sketch from Get Creative even though I changed it up a little.....you know me!

Background paper is from Prima "Songbird Collection" and the other 2 papers  and the canvas resist flowers I sprayed with my Lindys and my Tattered Angels sprays...

I hace some translucent flowers and some home-made flowers in my spray as well as a little die-cut crown ...Prima I think.

I crackled my Fleur-de-Lys using balck acrylic paint as a base and the Cool Peri Dabber on the top then I accented it with a metal fleur-de lis.

Keep cool. I am off for a little dip in the pool...the beaches are too hectic on a Sunday .

Love Zeffy.

P.S. thanks Eleni(Guru) for my clever title!

Better Late Than Never!

Hi....
I am all over the place this week..not up to anything very special...I have a L.O. that I made last week-end to share.
I was inspired by CSI:Color,Stories,Inspiration Case file NO 26 and the L.O.was put on the Watch List! I am so happy.
Well it started like this.....MY Favourite photo from last year...and things that I pulled from my stash that I could potentially use.

I used blue cardstock as my base and a sheet of the free downloadables that Michele Singh designs for CSI.

I knew I wanted clouds, they were part of the evidence so I randomly added some with some white 3D paste and a spatula...what gave me the biggest headache was the photo of the statue of Robert the Bruce...I wanted to use it, believe me I had it placed all over the place!! At the end I fussy cut it  and placed it in the Garden...even though at Sterling it stands outside the castle gates!

I did not have a leaf die so I stamped the leaves using the Dylusions "Doodle Parts"stamp and fussy cut the leaves....on Sunday at the crop I die cut 4 more stems...you can see they are different...

I used my Martha Steward punch for the little gold railing that is heat embossed gold. I used the brick paper and embossed it with an Alterations embossing folder and then I inked the bricks a little too.

The "washi"tape at the bottom of the page is made by me.. I liked the design it added and architectual feel to the L.O. as did the lace under the leaves.

Here are a few photo of the crop at Perahora, near Corinth...thank-you Amalia and Co. for an amazing day!

I had to go and rescue my L.O out of Amalia's craft room...she wanted to keep it...Amalia your project from me is coming( had to promise her one in order to take back my L.O!!)

Stella taking amazing photos of the day....we each made a page for Joanna that is leaving for Chicago.(lady looking at me) I will show you the album we compiled for her in my next post.

Eleni our Guru -or Guru Gonzales fromSpeedy Gonzales...taking a break after finishing her 4th or maybe even 5th L.O.of the day! I lost count...ps.I have just seen that Eleni has posted pics of the album oon her blog.But First I...

Thats it ladies....wishing you a great week-end ...keep cool it is going to reach 37 degrees in Athens!!
Love.
Zeffy

Wednesday here again...WOYWW

Hi there Dear Friends.
Yes it is time for WOYWW once again...so if you have 15 minutes to spare pop over to Julia's blog and have a look at what everybody is up too.

Yesterday I played a little, making some new things and trying some new techniques, I made a pocket/box with some of TimHoltz's craft Paper Stash( it is standing in the back-ground) I am not happy how the paper  goes when misted it gets very wonky...I also made a tag  inspired by Finnabair on the Sizzix blog, I also used an ATC for mopping up mist,and you can see my junk journal in the corner that helped mop up some of the odds and ends too.

Tag has a Distressed Doily from Alterations on it as well as some micro beads and beads.

Have a great day.

Zeffy

P.S. Remind me to buy a new craft mat...mine is looking bad!!

Wednesday's Post WOYWW

Hi there...

From a very very hot Athens.....The photo I have today is of my balcony...I have taken my journalling box upstairs and I have spent the past 3 mornings journalling on my balcony with my morning coffee. I stay up there until about 10am...then it starts getting hot...
The page you see is a bad water-colour painting....waiting for it to dry so that I can journal around it...
If you want to eye out somemore crafty workspaces pop over to the  Stamping Ground to have a peek.
Oh yes... before I lof off I want to mention that I will be streaming this evening at about 22h00 on Zeffy Scraps
Keep cool.
Zeffy.

The Colors of Me...

Hi there my Friends.
Another Sunday has rolled by,this week my L.O. for CSI was finished yesterday. So without further ado here it is. Oh yes it follows on the previous L.O. you know the "I am Queen of my Castle" type of scene, the who am I? Kind of feeling....

A close-up of my flowers.

My page design was based on Elina's sketch on the Get Creative blog chaleenge, and my title was inspired by the word COLORS from Bird Is the Word.

Ok.Now something about how I set about making this L.O. I first cut out a circle on scrap craftstock and masked My Minds Eye paper using watered down Gesso. I then stitched around my circle (Darker grey as that was the circle that was masked) I then carefully cut around the circle with my craft knife and added 2 papers, pink is Echo Park and the music is a free downloadable from CSI.

Then I stitched a red border around my L.O. and painted the border with silver acrylic paint....took ages to dry and wrinkled my paper..

I made some flowers and added a lot of bling and Stickles

My journalling was done around the page and I have described some of the things about me eg. passion being the colour red...how I am usuallly positive and how sometimes I may not be so cool and charming as I am always dashing around trying to get stuff done to the best of my ability...ect ect....Some of the journalling in the circle is not visible, but that's ok as it is repeated in the border journalling..

Be postive and PASSIONATE.

Love Zeffy.

Yes it is WOYWW again!

Hi Ladies.
It is Wednesday again so it is time for me to share my desk with you again...
Last night I was a busy bee...I re-organized my acrylic and rubber stamps..
I had originally had them is plastic sleeves,but they were all bunching up into one corner and the file was all lopsided, then I thought to sew a sean down the centre of each sleeve so stamps would be in compartments...but that never worked as  they then just would slide out of the sleeves and land all over the floor....
Now I have found file pockets with studs, so each pocket closes...we will see how this work...the studs may drive me crazy...I want things to work quickly..I hate fussing around!

I did sew a seam down some of the pockets so that I can use them for my smaller stamps. See video for more details and a more in depth look at my enviroment.

After watching the video I have spotted my next project...I need to tidy up the pizza boxes with papers as well as that old white box with my dies...the one under the ribbon box!....it never ends..
Don't forget to pop over to the Stamping Ground and see what all my other friends are up to!
Have a good week.
Zeffy.

I am Zeffy....

Hi there Ladies..
Today I want to tell you a little about a L.O. that was almost trashed!!
Late on Sunday afternoon/evening  it gets dark here at about 9pm and that gets my South African mind a bit confused!!
Anyway it was my SIL birthday and I had spent the whole week-end making him a Notebook/Journal, see video at the end of post.
So when I got home I knew I wanted to scrap this photo that my uncle (6 years older than me) took of me when I was abot 13...his son had discovered it and had posted it on facebook a while back...and it triggered memories of my youth and how I felt about myself...

I always enjoy the challenges on Color Stories inspiration and I knew this photo would be perfect for the case file....I also knew I wanted to write and write a lot....so I treated this page almost like a journal..I wrote about how I was brought up in a classical old-fashioned way....I never got praised for anything and I was a good kid...believe you me..I looked after my siblings,behaved and I made endless platters of meze! And yet I  always felt shy, timid almost as if I was an inferior child....I was always the little Greek girl, different growing up in an S,African enviroment...never allowed on play dates nor school trips!!

One day at about 16 ...maybe even closer to 17 something just clicked!! And I thought well hell, why are these girls better than me??? I can do this, this and that and maybe even better...that is when the gate of my mind opened up and I allowed myself to become the princess that I was not allowed to be!!

I almost never posted this L.O. and I had no intention of blogging about it.....but I guess some things are just meant to be....You guys need to know that today I am Queen Z!! ( I still think this L.O. needs some work..but at least the story is told and that is what scrapbooking is all about!!!)

I am mistress of my home and family...I even wear a tiara when the housework drives me crazy and does not allow me to scrap....I wear it and say " I am the Queen of my castle."..and then I see how quickly I can get things done so that I can play!!

Thanks for reading this far......here is a video of my Son-In Law's Journal/Notebook. I did not photograph the project.

Thank-you for all of your lovely and kind comments in my previous posts,,they make me happy!
Keep well....
Love.
Zeffy.

WOYWW

HI...
I know it is late ...very late for WOYWW ...but it is still Wednesday here in Athens.

Yes, yes, my desk is completely rigged up for the photo today! Why you may ask? Well firstly I have just finished my mystery project...and was about to shoot the video.(No.1)
Secondly, I wanted to show you the two ATC's I have received...funnily enough the ones from very far have arrived first. Oh you all know that we did an ATC swap on Julie's Blog the Stamping Ground she also hosts Whats on Your Workdesk Wednesday.
As I was saying the 4 from the UK have not arrived but, (No3) Princess Judy from Arizona sent me 2 ATC's and they are both so special as well as a  little note and a post-card .
My second ATC (No 4) arrived from Cape Town, yesterday and this one is so special because I was born in South Africa and have seen elephants up close...Amazing creatures. Thank -you Belinda Basson your Atc is stunning and so is your card... feel bad as I did not send cards...I owe you one ladies!!
And last but not least in the corner of my desk there is a little photo booklet  sample made from re-cycled envelope( No2) that is a very interesting tutorial on Get Creative, I like to make little saples to have in my idea file.Take a look it makes a great quick gift!
Anyway Ladies that is all, I am basically all scrapped out after our marathon cyber-crop here in Greece...see my previous posts.
Good-night I am off to snoop around and see what fellow crafters all over the world are up to.!!
Hugs.
Zeffy

phew!!

Hi there girls ...today I am all scrapped out!!
After falling into bed exhausted last night I got up early this morning to make my last item for the Cyber challenge on Scrapbookers In Greece.
I am late in posting , as this evening we had a power failure, and my daughter Raphaella and I sat on the balcony in the dark and just chatted..no lights, no TV, no internet....a much needed break. And now blogger will not upload photos..so the post is written and waiting!!
Here are a few more things I made for the cyber crop.
This was for Katerina' challenge, she had drawn a page map.

This little booklet was made for Roulla's challenge, "to alter and decorate something."

This darling little bound book already has a home, as my sister was looking for a gift for a school teacher, so she decorated the inside pages this evening and hopefully Antrea's teacher will like it...she
loves butterflies, and this booklet had 2 on it...how is that for coincidence.
Anyway this booklet started its life as a spagetti box, I had started it at the crop on Saturday, I had added chipboard onto the cardstock, then painted it with Faded Denim Distress stain and the added a liberal dose of glitter, it was a challenge by the Greek Glitter Queen after all!!
I bound the interior of the book...and then decorated it with flowers and bling.

Happy Baby was made for Eleni's Bingo challenge I misted, added washi tape ,2 pattern papers and some flowers

My last project was this card with a window, which was Natassa's challenge, she wanted us to use a Smiley face...perfect.
These little people were designed by Faye, for Nino's Baptism invitation, so I used them, I made a card with a window so that I can also enter this card for the challenge at Get Creative.
Zeffy.
p.s.this post was written very late on Monday night!

It is me again...

Hi there again

Last year when we went to Scotland for the first time, a wish that I have had forever. I heard what was being planned for the Queens Jubilee, a huge pageant on the Thames, I decided that I would love to see such a spectacle. Unfortunately I did not manage to go to London to visit the Queen.Some details here

Last week as I watched on TV I knew I had to make a L.O. to commemorate the event.I am so lucky that the superb team on Color Stories Inspiration came up with a perfect challenge for case#22, and once again I must thank Michele Singh for her free printables, as I had no Britannia supplies in my stash!

I used Sketch#42 from Frosted Designs as a base, I hope  that the girls there like my take.

My page is a bit wonky as I painted and misted the music mask, I loved the music on the river.I also used 2 trims and 2 brads to the L.O.I  also had to have a bunting , did you see how good those vessels looked?

I need to leave you know so that i can go and work on some more challenges..

Keep scrapping.

Zeffy.

Sunday Morning

Hello Ladies.
Today I want to show you what I managed to make yesterday for our on-line crop at Scrapbookers in Greece
Here is the tag for Irini's challenge.

And here is my L.O. for Nektaria's challenge,she had challenged us not to use any scrapbooking supplies...so I used corrugated board from packaging,some baby wipes for my grass and paper from my misting box for my rhinos and my clouds and my flower..I also used my fingers to make my red little flowers...oh yes there also is a little 3D paste in the back-ground

The design of this Lo was inspired by the challenge on Get Creative that wanted us to be inspred by the sun.

OK I am off to make one or two more L.O.s
Love Zeffy!

Let's See Your ATC!!

Hi there my Friends.
Today is a super exciting day here in Athens, because Scrapbookers in Greece are having an on-line crop.
So today I am here to inspire you to make some ATC s to showcase your art....ATC is short for Artist Trading Card see here.
I like my cards to be dimensional and chunky...you all know I love flowers nd lots of embellishments!
I also like my cards to have a word and something metal on them.
Besides that you also know that I LOVE re-cycling or up-cycling as it is also called..so you will see candy-wrappers as well as daily ephemera such as stamps or othe images on some of my cards.
I did a USTREAM show on Zeffy Scraps last night, but I lost the recording...so I made this short video to show you the 2 ATCs I had made on the show.

Here are a couple of my ATCs that I recently made for a swap on the Stamping Ground

ATC.s I made last night.

And so I wish you all a creative week-end..if you have made an ATC that you want to share leave a comment and I will pop over to your blog and take a look..

Zeffy

It is Wednesday

Hi there ladies..yes it is Wednesday again even if it is only 00H10 as I write this. I do not have an interesting desk to show you today..it is so tidy it is boring!!...so if you want to see some real interesting desks pop over to The Stamping Ground
I do however  have an album to show you, I completed this on Sunday night, so I will share some photos and a video with you...
I used a paper line called Summer Fresh from Simple Stories. The kit worked beautifully with this project as it had many blocks  that I used for tags and for journaling spots, as well as  a lot of stickers and other images for embelishments..and I have plenty left-over for some L.O.s.
Here are some pages...Ihave used a couple of papers that are not from Simple Stories as well.

And here is a photo of my grand-son and his dog Winston after a noisy  Sunday  Family brunch

Have a happy Wednesday and I am waiting for my ATCs...so much excitement!
Love
Zeffy

WOYWW and ATC swap

Hi there Ladies.
This is a very late Wednesday post, in fact I almost never played this week...but then I remembered that it is "The" week!! Yes it is WOYWW 3rd Anniversary check out Julies' blog and I have my ATC's ready can you spot them?

The reason why I almost never posted today is that I have a mystery project on the go...some clues on my desk...yes yes the photo is over exposed!
You can also spot my album that I made with Nektaria's papers and also a teeny tiny ATC size booklet I made with the scraps....the book with the flying pigs is my Hand Bound Art Journal made by Moi!!
Will the lady whose name is before mine please mail me her addie so I can post her ATC tomorrow...I will send one or two more ATC's to a couple of ladies...
zeffyk@gmail.com
Love Zeffy.

Smile....

Hi there Scrapbooking Friends.
Today I want to show you a L.O. that has been inspired from many blogs and challenge sites.
I took this photo on my daughters' 2nd wedding anniversary, and knew I needed to scrap it. I told her to smile for me again,next to the same flowers, 2 years later...
The colours and many of the elements are inspired by the clever CSI Team....here is a photo of some of my old stash that I pulled this morning!! Papers are over 2 years old as are the brads and alphas...spot the old envelope...

Here is my L.O.

I used the sketch on Get Creative by Melenia. Here are some details of the ladybugs,...we call little insects Gogos in South Africa, the G sounding like the "ah" in Ahmed!

The ladybirds are paper pieced, glossy accented and crackle accented!

CSI wanted us to use some Gogos sorry insects in our evidence, as well as stitching and paint spots...I also journaled in  a spiraly fashion saying that I hope my Grand-Son who is going to be brought up in Greece will still know what a Gogo is and that he will grow up to respect nature.

This L.O. will be submitted to Use it Tuesday thanks guys, I used my brads, alphas and 2 sheets of old paper. I also used my re-cycled envelope for a photo mat, so that should make Scrap for Help happy, And because my family is all smiles the ladies at Bird Is the Word will be happy too.
Here is that L.O. that I made of Faye 2 years ago.

She is wearing a Greek Worrior helmut, that her cousin who was here for the wedding had bought that morning from the tourist area Monastiraki....very apt.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Zeffy.

Summer at Last

Hi there My Friends.
This past week I have been playing with ATCs and tiny ATC size books..I will show it all to you  on
Zeffy Scraps
I needed to make a birthday card for today and I also wanted to play along at Simon Says stamp and Show and they want us to show them a Summer Holiday...

When I think Summer I think Greek Islands, so what better paper to use than 7Gypsies Mykonos collection. I wanted to use my Fiskars Threading Water punch but it broke as I cut that blue bazzil!! So we have a bit of paper and some ric-rac symbolizing the sea...
In Summer we have many  religious holidays' which are a good opportunity to get out of our bathing suites and shorts and dress up a little....here you can see Marci in her Sunday best.....all coloured in with Rangers Distress Markers!!
Happy Summery Week-end...
Zeffy

Be Warned!!

Hi there...

Neat Freaks I suggest you do not look further, and pop over to the Stamping Ground and check out Julies'

desk and many more that I am sure are a lot tidier than mine!

What happened? You may ask...well last night I journaled in my brand new art journal that I made on Saturday, it is on the chair....only I am not hasppy to show the page...its from the heart, you understand...the two pages that you see are backgrounds ready for more arty journaling..

Looking at this desk you will not believe if I told you that I spent Monday afternoon re-organizing and sorting out stuff...you can see my new set of  black plastic drawers, I needed something for my new Distress Markers and for my journaling pens.I found the drawers at Leroy Merlin for 10.60 Euros..the only problem with them is that the drawers slide right out!! No stopping system..but they are deep!

I also went and bought myself one more 4 cube Expedit..so now I have a cubby for my journaling sprays,stamps and masks...although it looks that they will live on the floor while journaling....will see how it evolves..
My letter stamps now also have a spot on hand. If anybody has good advice on how to store masks in a handy manner I will love to hear ..oh and that bag behind the blue box thats my dustbin I need an idea for a bin up high so that my stamps and Nesties don't fall into it!

That is it for today, I need to go and tidy up...and then go and see what I get get up to..

Happy scrapping!

Zeffy

Adore

Hi again
I have just finished my L.O. for Case file #19 on CSI  Today I worked with a sketch from Sketches With A Twist although I did not use 3 photos and I also omitted a lot of the embellishments, however the little booklet takes the place of one of the photos. It was an interesting sketch and a lovely starting point for my L.O.

 Blue spotted paper is from Fancy Pants and the background paper and the green paper with the small floral is from Cosmo Cricket "Odds and Ends" The blue butterfly, the banners, the circular embellie and the wood-paper that the booklet is made of is from the free downloadables that are on CSI by Michele Singh

I used a mask from Dylusions to create my back-ground circles and the flowers that are peeping out behind the column,.yes and the ADORE photo mat is from Heidi Swapp.

CSI Evidence.1 bookpapers...    .check

                       2 circles................check

                       3 small patterns    check

                       4 woodgrain.........check

                       5 border punch.....check

    Testimony, some journaling in a circle, the rest of the journaling is in the tab booklet and it says how calm my sister was on her wedding day and how she adores her children!

I forgot to mention that the  ruffled flower was from her wedding favours. oh yes can you can spot the "washi" tape by me?

Keep scrapping.

Love

Zeffy