Gift Card Envelope with The Play Date Cafe

Good morning Bloglanders

Friends of mine got engaged and I decided to give a gift card.  A bit more personal than money in an envelope but still ........... So I decided to add a personal touch of my own.  A pocket where the card fits and then a handmade envelope to go with it.  Of course I only used scraps! Even the yellow button comes from an old jersey.

This is what the envelope looks like:

The sentiment is from a freebie ex Scrap RDV.  And these are all the components:

And the back of the envelope:



The pocket where the gift card slots in, is double and I left the back open to write my message to the newly engaged couple.

Once again my photo taking skills let me down as the colors are actually very yellow, blue and pink.  When I started out my project I searched through my scrap stash for colors to fit The Play Date Cafe's theme of the week.  This is what it looks like:

I find inspiration from their color combo every week and the good thing about doing a project to submit, is that I use colors from my stash that I normally would never use / never use together. Once again, I proved to myself that thinking outside the box does not only use up my scraps but it saved me time and money as well!

Have a great day and please come back to play.

Mini Camp Recipe Folder

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you had a great weekend.  I did.  We went to a luxury resort (part work, part play) and had a wonderful time. Great service, wonderful food, most beautiful setting - five +++ star!

Now for the promised mini recipe folder. 

As you know my husband is Mr Campy and as I don't want to miss out - we do the camp thing.  Currently my hubby and his mates are planning a trip through Namibia.  I only have to worry about the food and as I don't want to pack my recipe books, I decided to convert the ones I use while camping to ATC card size. 

I made dividers from camping pictures, inserted some quirky speech bubbles and had it laminated for endurance. In between I inserted the little pockets that are used for security cards.  They are used like little page protectors for my recipes.  The wonderful thing is that you can change the recipes should you need to.

I made two of these books - one for myself and one for a camping friend's birthday pressie.  You will see that I included a ticket on my first page which says that it is book #1 of 2. Obviously mine is #2 of 2.  I just think that this shows how special she is to me.

And the back of the books:

Currently I only have 2 recipes in my book - one for Princess pancakes and one for pizza.  I'll take pictures of the pancakes next time I make them and share the recipe - super easy.

I'm off to work.  Have a great week and please come back to play.





Card for CPS challenge

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm going away for the weekend but want to submit the birthday card I made to the CPS challenge before I go. Here is my interpretation:

I think it's "manly" enough to use as a birthday card for my husband.  It has a sort of Moroccan feel to it.  I think the die is from Papertry Inc and the rest is leftovers from freebies or kits from days gone by.  Even the buttons come from my sewing left-overs.

If you want to see the rest of the entries, please click here.

I'll be back on Sunday to do a post on my mini recipe book that I'm using when we go camping. I'll also share the easiest pancake recipe ever (it's in my book, of course). I call them Princess Pancakes as the recipe came from daughter-in-law #1 - The Princess!

Have a great weekend and please come back to play on Monday.



My Mind's Eye layout

Good morning Bloglanders

I had a wonderful day until it started to rain.  No walk in the park!  Anyway, I still loved every moment of it and enjoyed the time with my husband, son and friends.

Today I want to show you a layout I did about our past holiday - some of the pictures you'll recognize as I included them in my mini book as well.  Still, my albums are very important to me and I'm sure they'll be the ones that my grandchildren will read in years to come.

From the picture you can see that I did the layout and filed it away and only THEN did I stumble upon this blog post from My Mind's Eye. Now, normally I don't use papers from only one kit.  This is not my personality - I love to make every page I do, a "Hazel" page and therefore I mix and match as I go.  Even though I did it here as well, the biggest part of the layout comes from My Mind's Eye's "Follow your dreams" collection.  I totally love it and have been saving them for a holiday layout and a mini book.  When I saw these pictures of my husband helping my sisters' son fly his kite, I knew the time has come.

What is more is that the challenge wants us to use something to celebrate the middle of the year and you wouldn't believe me - the pictures were taken on the 1st of July 2012!! 

I've got another picture of the layout for you.

It's a rather "old school" page with two half pages flipping over the main ones.  I totally love the look even though I haven't tried it before.  I also did some stitching directly onto my album pages. What I like as well is the hexagons that was left over that I glued onto the half pages.  The chicken wire on the page is a stamp.  I know that I'm not good at stamping but this worked very well.

Now you know - it helps to be Bloghopping as it turns out that great minds think alike!  Hop over to My Mind's Eye's blog to see the other entries.  Have a great day and tomorrow I'll be back to show off one of my pressies. Please come back to play.

Not my imagination

Hi there Bloglanders

Today is my son's 24th birthday and as I only got married once, only had one child and was born only once - I'm taking these days off!!  To tell you the truth, his birthday is the most special day of my year.  I'm so glad I had him!

It is a beautiful spring day outside (and it's only July in sunny SA) and I plan to go for a walk in the park, have breakfast outside, a nap after lunch with my cat curled up on my feet and then off to dinner at a friend as my son and his girlfriend have other plans for their evening.

I have some great stuff to share with you but as they are all gifts, I have to wait until the recipients have opened them up before I can show it on my blog.  Sorry about that but part of a gift is the surprise.

Now for something different. You know how I'm always complaining about bad light and my lack of photo taking skills.  Well, here is the proof that I'm not entirely wrong:

On the left you have the picture that I shared on my blog for the CPS card challenge last week and when we had better light, I took the picture on the right - same camera, same card, same me (without the photo taking skills).

That's it from me. I'm off to spend some "me time".  Have a great day and tomorrow I'll share one of the pressies as it will be opened today. Please check back here to see.

Little Day Book

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm so busy at work that I totally forgot to post my picture for this week's Play Date Cafe color challenge.  On my way to bed, I suddenly remembered so here it is:

Amy Tangerine calls them day books.  I haven't figured out why and if any of you know, please leave me a comment!  Anyway, a few multimedia pages, a cover decorated with a Fancy Pants sticker, a glassine envelope, a tag, bit of ribbon and a button and my day book is done. I just love it and will probably use it as a card.  The idea is to list special moments that I share with my friend and then mail it off to brighten her day.

And the inspiration for my color combo:



Not my normal color scheme but I still love how it turned out and best of all - I only used scraps. If you want to see the rest of The Play Date Cafe entries, click here.

Well, I'm off to bed. My old cat is already curled up and keeping my side warm. See you again tomorrow hopping around Blogland.

Scrap RDV July 2012

Hi there Bloglanders

Today I have a card that I'm submitting for the July 2012 Scrap RDV challenge.  I have to thank my dad for our past vacation and thought that while I'm at it - I can just as well combine the challenges. Here is my take on the challenge:

I actually used small vacation pictures on the card as this would make it more personal. And of course - DANKIE is THANK YOU in Afrikaans. All the frames are different tones of cream and white. Don't you love the fraying ribbon?  It all happened by accident!

This is where I got the idea:

Want to visit the Scrap RDV blog? Then click here. The great contributors are currently having a summer break but so save the link - so worth your while to see what they're up to.

I'll be back tomorrow to share some crafty fun.  To tell you the truth, I've got so many projects lined up, I can't decide what to do first!  Please come back to play.



Holiday mini

Good evening Bloglanders

It's Sunday 6.30pm in SA and no sun at all BUT it was a great day. My husband's back after a week of business and I finally had some light to take pic's. 

This is what the book looks like from the side:

Normally during the winter school holidays we go to the picturesque Jeffrey's Bay. While the west is having cold and rainy weather, further north is nice and sunny. J-Bay is renowned for its surfing but more important to me is that there are two scrap shops. I know this should not be a big thing to my American Bloglander friends, but I live in Stellenbosch, a HUGE university town and we don't even have one! (not even a decent stationary shop.)

Normally I buy online from Bohemian Scrapsody (great name for a scrap shop don't you think?) and this time round they gave me a gift voucher to spend on whatever I fancy.  As I love the Rusted sun range by Fancy Pants and they had it packed in a kit for R100 - I just couldn't resist!  The colors and images fits in perfectly with my mini album's sun, sea, sand and surf theme.

Without further ado - here are the inside pages of my holiday mini.

And here you can see it filed away as part of my A5 "2012 in review file".  I made the plastic sleeve myself. Just used thick book plastic,  sewed around and punched in some file holes.  I made it before I filled up the book and now I can see that it wasn't such a great idea as it's fitting very tight in there. Next time I'll first do the book and then the pouch.

I hope you enjoyed my book.  I sure did and will be paging through it for years to come! Have a great week and please come back to play.

CPS card challenge

Good morning Bloglanders

We are back to real winter weather and I plan to stay indoors and spend some time on crafting fun.  I still have to show the holiday mini album but normally my picture taking skills are not up to standard and with lighting being an issue - I just can't get it done. In the meantime, I had to do some cards and decided to use the CPS challenge #274 for inspiration. You can see it here.

And my take on it:

The colors actually look much more vibrant but once again, it's me lacking some skills. This is what I did:  I sewed a piece of vellum onto a white embossed card, added letters, ribbon and some punched out hearts to the "bag".  I think I'll write a little something onto each of the hearts before I mail it off.

I'm not a huge fan of page or card maps but have started using them this year and they actually never look like the inspiration once you have put your own twist onto things.  So, to save time and effort, I turn to them a lot nowadays.

I'm off to my crafty space. Have a great weekend and please come back to play.

Packaging tutorial

Good morning Bloglanders

It is a beautiful day in sunny SA!  I'm going to finish my admin and get out of the house.  I think sushi in the park would be great.

Yesterday I showed a tin I decorated for The Play Date Cafe challenge of the week.  I just love them as a pack of 3 x 4 cards or tags fit perfectly. When you need a gift in a hurry, you just decide on which set in your stash would suit your friend best, wrap it in tissue paper and into your decorated tin it goes. 

I love the "peek-a-boo-look" of the tin and therefore attached my decorations to a piece of acetate that has been cut to fit the tin's lid. 

Attach it to the inside of the tin's lid with double sided tape:

Ta-da!! Two done for my stash. One for a friend's birthday pressie (a mini cookbook) and the other for my mini book with fave quotes that stays next to my computer.



Whenever I do a layout, I always try to do a set of cards as well. These get stored in sets for pressies. It does make my life much easier knowing that I have everything ready and waiting whenever I need it.  I plan to give sets to my neighbors and friends for Xmas and have bought extra tins to decorate for that purpose.  Once done, I'll share it with you - of course!

One more thing - I rarely write letters or cards but use 3x4 cards and tags on presents / flowers / thank you gifts / apprecation gifts all the time.  I found that this size is perfect for a note, a sentiment and some decoration.  For me it is also the perfect size to try something crafty - like stenciling, masks, stamping, etc.  If it goes wrong, you just cut it up and use your failure to enhance another card / tag and it's recycling at its best!

That's it!  I'm off to the park.  Tomorrow I'll show you the holiday mini. Please come back to play.



The Play Date Cafe #140

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm still way behind on everything that has to be done and I promise that I'll show the rest of my holiday mini once I get the chance to take the pic's.  BUT, never too busy for a challenge.  Once again I couldn't resist The Play Date Cafe's.  As I'm way behind with pressies I decided to use the challenge colors to create some creative packing.

And these were the colors of the challenge:



Tomorrow I'll show you exactly how I made this tin for packing a mini recipe book that I've made for a friend's birthday. Of course I'll share the recipe book as well. Just check back and all will be revealed!

Have a great day!

Back at work

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm back at work (and play, of course!).  My vacation was wonderful and I loved being able to sleep whenever I want, walk on the beach and spend time with family and friends.  Now I have to get all my washing done, the office work up to date and plan the second half of 2012.  It will be hectic - I just know it!

Today I'll share with you my fave holiday picture:

My husband helping my nephew, Marcus to fly his kite.  Marcus is the youngest of the seven nephews and he always makes me smile.  This year he announced that he doesn't want his tooth to fall out as it takes too long to grow again!

And my holiday mini book done and filed:

I haven't had time to take pictures yet but here is a sneak peak of what's inside:

Even though it's winter in sunny SA, Jeffrey's Bay has wonderful weather this time of the year. And of course we had to do the flip-flops and popsicles to celebrate the sunshine and summery weather.

Well, that's it from me. I'll be back tomorrow to share some of my crafting fun with you.  Have a great day and please come back to play.