Freebie-Cluster...and your help please.

Hi there, I would appreciate it if you could take the time to read this post before you download the freebie and run off-lol! I need your help. Thanks so much, you're a star!
It's school holidays...so that means being crafty at home. I like to get the kids making thing's, baking, going outdoors when we can. Today we tried a bit of fun things: finger puppets, some type of toilet-roll person thingy *can't think of an appropriate name*.

I also spent a lot of time cleaning and re-arranging...this is a small shot of my DD's bedroom....
all cushion covers and bed quilts made by me.

I was wondering who still reads my blog? If you check whenever I make a blog entry or pop by at least once or twice a week..please let me know by leaving a comment today. I am feeling sad as I used to get a lot of comments and now I am lucky if I get two comments per post. I know...whinge..whine...but come on! A girl likes to feel loved! :) And if you would kindly answer the questions below....

1) why do you read my blog?
2) What sort of things interest you/draw you to a post: is it the title, the images...the content...
3) What sort of things do you like to read about or see on blogs? (incl mine)
4) What would make my blog more interesting?? Should I post more arty type stuff?
5) Do you think I should start a separate blog...as you know I love digital scrapping but I also have a strong arty/crafty side and am always busy with some or other project, swap, etc-Should I have two blogs? What do you think?

Thanks a lot!
appreciate the time you take to answer these questions.

It's a bright sunshiny day!

Well it was...lol.it is almost 7pm here now! But it was just such a beautiful day today....I didn't even switch on my PC until around 5pm! Quite a task for me! ha ha.
I baked some strawberry muffins this morning...then the we had lunch and the kids and I headed to the nature reserve for 3 hours. It was lovely. We went for long walks, fed the Geese...saw some lovely flowers, a huge tortoise, beautiful birds and played pooh sticks. (Read Winnie the pooh if you don't know what I am talking about! lol!)
Here are some pictures I thought I would share with you...the rest I am going to scrap with!! Yay! New photo's to scrap with!





Isn't this so sad? He was only 4 years old! So sad..I wonder what happened...

Been MIA...

It has been a hectic time here. I have had a migraine for 13 solid days, constant,no letup. The kids has measles but were back at school on Friday. Friday after school on the way home , Em started to throw up and was screaming with pain from a headache, so the two together are never good, I rushed her straight to the doctor. But she just said it was viral and should pass, nothing serious.
Monday morning I woke up in absolute agony. Nothing like a million drums beating in your head. I couldn't walk, see, move. Was in bed until 1pm. Hubby was at home recovering from flu, so he took care of me and the kids and later took me to our homeopath who prescribed pills, which I started taking right away. Today I am fine, a bit sore if I look up or to the extreme corners, but it is gone! Amazing! All those days of taking hard-core medication which did nothing and I take a natural remedy and it works almost immediately.
anyway....First of all I am in a matchbox swap...here is mine..

I hope Rosalyn-Sue likes it. It is amazing what you can squash into one!

I also wanted to quickly remind you that the CT application runs out in 2 days, if you'd like to apply you still have time. (see post below).

I also wanted to show you these cute snaps i took today....I got this little bird feeder a while ago and have been waiting for the birds to land on it so i could sneek a few pictures. Finally today my favorite little yellow bird came to gobble some seeds and I snuck outside as quietly as I could so as not to startle him...



Some ATC's I've made lately...

I'll be back tomorrow with more..till then!

My first Round Robin book/group!

Round Robin
I am thrilled to be in my first Round Robin participation hosted by the Elegant and talented Dede Warren.
The other ladies besides me and her doing it are:
Victoria from I-Think-I'm-an-Artist
Lori form Vintage Flair
Dawn from Oh So Pretty

I can't wait for this..I have done my cover, and the first couple of pages and am waiting now for Dede's book to arrive...

Here is my cover and a sneak peek at my pages....




So I will be keeping you posted as this journey unfolds...

I am speechless.....

I cannot believe it! Both my children have measles...so my dear dad went to the PO for me to collect a parcel awaiting there for me. He got back with it and I nearly fell over at the sheer size of it! Oh my goodness??!!
Take a look..
You can click on any image to view it full size.


I had to leave it unopened for about three hours though as it was bathtime, supper time etc...Finally after dinner and whilst watching Grey's Anatomy I couldn't wait any longer. Even DH wanted to see....I opened it and wow....
This is what came out..
Oh wait...before I show you..this package/gift/amazing parcel was from a swap I did with Nerissa.
It was her first swap....oh boy, was I the lucky one!!

The best things for me were a set of rubber stamps..here they are just so expensive...to give you an idea ..a medium sized stamp can cost R40 the same price as 4L milk, 2 loaves of bread and two slabs of chocolate... What do they cost there?
The other treat for me, and one of the best things I have gotten so far are these magazines. We get country living here, but not Romantic Homes nor Somerset life/studio. In fact I have seen these magazines mentioned on blog's and have been craving them for absolute ages!
I was THRILLED to get these....they are incredible!


Let me show a glimpse inside....
Just beautiful...
So thank you Dear Nerissa....I am totally thrilled and amazed!! I owe you! My box to you was nowhere as near as nice as this!

I have some more stuff to show you but will do it in another post.

More swapping goodies!

I am still here...I haven't been blogging the last few days cos my poor little boy has got measles and has really been under the weather. In fact I was house bound for two days! I hate that. It was so nice just to get in the car and drive today, the first sunny day we've had in about a week too! I just soaked up the view of the mountains and the ocean and all the green grass. (normally everything just looks grey with all the rain we've been having!).

My DH is away too and swiped my camera for work purposes, much to my dismay!!
My long-awaited parcel from Dede arrived. So fabulous. I love it all so much, Unfortunately I had to take the photo at night, so it is not that nice.


I've received a ton of ATC's in the last few weeks too, I really must show you some of them, they are gorgeous....the time....

I have a cat to let out of the bag...I am so excited and thrilled to announce that I am now partaking in my first round robin! The host is Dede, and the participants are:Dede, myself, Dawn, Victoria, Lori.
I can't wait to receive the books to work in and obviously to get mine back, these ladies create some amazing stuff! Go check out their blogs!

And finally today was my turn to host the blog at snap at scrap too, I did a piece about fabric painting if you want to check it out.

Will be back another day when I have my decent camera back!!

New favorites on Flickr!

A gift for my ATC arty friends...

I know there are those of you of my blogging friends who read this and make ATC's...some have been doing much longer than me, others are just starting out.
I have made some ATC backs for you to print and stick to the back of your ATC's.

Click on the image's to open up full size and right click and save as to your computer.
Depending on your printer settings, I can set it to choose to print 9 on a page and it comes out the right size, then I just cut them and stick on.





I hope you enjoy them!!

Using digital kit for art work

Hi there,
I do the blogging on a Wednesday-my theme "Altered arts and crafts" over at the Snap and scrap blog. Today I did a piece on using digital scrap booking kits in normal art work. Please go take a peek. In you click on this link, you will see my other tut's and posts.

NEW ATC's

Available for trade through flickr

GIVEAWAY, SWAPS AND A DIGI FREEBIE

So Today I have some goodies to share.
First of all For all my digi buddies, besides the regular freebies I give away in my newsletter, I thought to share a blog freebie with you.

SORRY NO LONGER AVAILABLE
Please do not share the link in anyway. Rather send people here to download for themselves.
And please leave a kind comment if you accept my gift to you. Thank you.

Next up is the GIVEAWAY I have been promising.
GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED!!

All you have to do is leave a comment on THIS post- state clearly if you are commenting to enter for the draw. I need your name, blog address (if you have one) or email address. I have to be able to contact you, so be sure you leave your details. I will accepting entries up until the 20th May. Then I will shove all the names in a hat and pick a winner. The prize will be posted airmail between 25th-30 May.
What you get:
* 3 vintage collage sheets
* 2 poem sheets
* 2 origami cards
*2 white embossed cards
* 1 ATC made by me
* 2 large ATC's (can also be used for a card front)
*2 card's made by me
*3 decoupage paper napkin's
* 7 vintage ribbons
*some quotes and words
* pack of alpha's
*my moo card
*1 South African post card of where I live

LOOKING FOR 6 SWAP PARTNERS
SWAP CLOSED TOO, GOT MY 6 PARTNERS-THANKS

Next up I am looking for 6 swap partners. I have put together 6 little packages, consisting of a color scheme of mainly pink, cream and browns. Lot's of scrap papers, perfect for ATC's and cards. Also 6 ribbons, 1 ATC (all differ from one in picture-packs similar but not identical). and one of my little moo cards. I sometimes just get too much stuff piling up and too much of the same thing and 1) I love to get post 2) I love to get new things different to my stash.

If you want to swap all you have to do is send me:
1 ATC of your choice
6 ribbons or lace.
a stack of scrap papers - any colors, any designs.

I do prefer blue, purple, pink, neutrals. I love butterflies, dragonflies, anything vintage, lace, polka dot's, swirls, florals and LOVE roses.
I don't like stripes that much. I love music and poem sheets.

Please comment here if you would like to do a swap with me. I won't do a first come first serve thing, as I like to choose who I am swapping with, and if you have a picture of the goodies you want to send, that would be great you can email me at : bouncingbonbon@gmail.com

The swap packages I want to send out after the 25th May, so please get back to me soon. I will need your name, address and email address.

I can't wait to hear from you!!!

Tutorial on Art Journal

Hi there. Thanks for those of who left me some comments today !It meant a lot to know some do still read my boring blog! ha ha.
As you may or not know I do the post on a Wednesday over at the snap and scrap blog.
It is about arts and crafts. Today I posted a piece about art journals and also in a 10 step-by-step tutorial show you how to make a very simple art journal page using mainly collage techniques.

This is the end result.
Click on it for a larger view.

Go read here for the whole piece. And also there is a tut/piece by me on

1)baby board books
2) mini accordion albums.

Go on...go look...

ATC's, PARCELS AND CASTLES-hey that rhymes!

It's been a while since I blogged. Just very busy at the moment. Busy enrolling my son into grade 1 school for next year, hubby been away, and busy with other duties and responsibilities.
I'll try and be a good girl and blog more often!
Okay this is another mix and match post with digital, paper and other goodies!
So stick it out and you're bound to find something to relate to! lol!...
ATC's
I have really gotten into this ATC thing and I must admit it is an addiction! I love creating them and trading them! I haven't been doing it long, only about a month and loving it! I have traded with people from Denmark, Israel, New Zealand, And many different states in the USA. It is great fun getting post too.
Here are some of my latest ones:



The rest are on my flickr account if you want to go and catch a peek.
PARCEL
Something I have been waiting anxiously for arrived today and that is my parcel from Monica .
I just love everything she sent me. Thank you Monica!
Everything was so pretty, in the box it all came in (wrapped up in another box for the post)


My favorite has to be this gorgeous paper mannequin she made. So talented!! I love it.

Beautiful Box's

I went and got these stunning box's today.
This one is huge and is so beautiful with all these birds on. Inside is a tray for goodies.
I don't think i will ever part with this box!
The other one is also very pretty tied with ribbon and a flower.


above:lid

above: inside box, a tray that lifts up


I also got this beautiful herb holder at a shop yesterday and picked some lavender from my garden to put in. It hangs in my kitchen.

By the way have any of you ever tried lavender shortbread?? Oh my word, it is so yummy . I made some a few years back and haven't since but I want to make some more this week. I will post the recipe then when I do and pic's of it.