My card of the week

Hi there Bloglanders

Just a quick note to wish you a jolly weekend and to share the card I've made for the CPS challenge of the week.  Here it is:

And the card map:

Except for the red dots, all the paper and sentiment are from Eco Park (For the Record).  It was on my craft desk and even though it turned out rather retro, I really like the colors. Of course I'll do siblings but I first want to use the paper pack for a 12 x 12 layout.  Of course I'll share once it's done.

A friend's cat was run over and broke his hip.  It has been very traumatic for her and I decided to treat the cat to a catnip plant.  Of course I used my lovely Kitty stamp on the card and even added a sentiment!

That's it from me. Have a great weekend and please come back to play as I love to share my creative fun right here on Play as U Go.

Hazel

Blob mini album

Hi there Bloglanders

We are having horrible winter weather even though it's supposed to be spring in sunny SA.  I don't really mind and stayed inside doing admin and my school supply mini (told you about it yesterday, remember?). 

After die cutting all my "ink splatters go wrong" into more acceptable shapes, I printed my pictures and off to my craft table I went.  Here it is - my ink blob mini album:

I used pictures from our camping weekend and plan to incorporate the whole mini album in a layout for my 12 x 12 album. Of course I'll share once it's done!  And the inside pages looks like this:

There is still some journaling to be done but the nice part about this mini book is that it can be taken apart without any hassle.  Maybe I'll include some more pictures or  souvenirs at a later stage.  Now for the challenge.  We had to use school supplies and do the "ink splatter thing". I think you know how I feel about the latter but the first requirement was easy even though I don't have any school going children.

I use craft folders from the stationary shop all the time.  They cost R1 for a huge one. (Card stock will cost about R8 for a single 12 x 12 sheet) The other paper I've used is purple paper that we use to cover school books - it looks like the normal brown variant but I love to use it as they come in all the colors of the rainbow.  Once again - very cheap and you get the school labels that I've used included!  All my white pages are recycled office paper and the envelope is a used wage envelope.  What more?  A bit of washi tape, a few die cuts and I even printed the alphabet that I've used on the left over space of the pictures I did.

I love it when something worthwhile gets done by using stuff for alternative purposes.  Also, to recycle is very important to me.  Even though I have mixed feelings about this project, I'm rather proud of my effort.

That's it from me. Have a great day and please come back to play. I'm off to link my project to Scrap RDV.  If you want to check it out, please click here.

School supplies mini book

Good morning Bloglanders

I'm back to share a mini book that I've been working on.  More than working on - this one is a real mission (mess).  It's the Scrap RDV challenge using school supplies (I don't have children in school any more) and ink splatters (mine looks like ink blobs).  Anyway, at least I'm always game for trying out new things. 

Alexandra from Scrap RDV and Art, Scrap and More can do just about anything with paint, ink, pen, pencil and whatever art medium you can think of.  I don't even have paint except for an 20+ year old water paint set ex my son's childhood.  I do have refill ink for my stamp pads so this is where my blobbing started:

It was a huge mess and I ruined my nails, the dining room table, the dining room floor and a whole week's newspapers.  This is what my thumb looked like:

More than a week later, it still looks like that.  I'm a rather fussy scrapper and a mess is a mess to me so to salvage some of my effort I decided to die cut my blobbed artwork and now I'm left with this:



On the right is a my mini book and one of the inside dividers.  Here is a close up of the mini book:

I made a folder out of an old office file and added the fastener to keep everything intact. Then I decorated my front with the die cuts, blobbed artwork, some washi tape and twine.  It still looks like some alien slush but I think I'll be able to live with it once I've added my pic's, titles and some journaling.  I'm off to have my pictures printed!

Have a great day and please come back to play as I'll be sharing my crafty ideas right here on Play as U Go. 

Back to Play

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm back after a long, long weekend and this is where I've been:

This is actually heaven on earth. It's on my family's farm and they have Springbok, Wildebeest, Eland, Gemsbuck, Steenbuck and lots of other small animals roaming the fields around the camp.  Do you see the smoke?  We sat outside, drank wine and had a braai - every day, all day long! Back to reality - today I want to share my Play Date Cafe entry with you:

It is a necklace made out of wooded beads and crocheted flowers.  I don't knit or crochet but tried these flowers last year from a tutorial I found on Pinterest - easy peasy!  Even I could do it.

And another picture:

And this week's colors:

I even tried out the color scheme and the crochet flowers with twine on a bracelet:

If you want to hop over to The Play Date Cafe to see the rest of the entries, just click here. Now, that's it from me - I have a heap of washing to do and all my camping stuff needs to be cleaned.  Please come back to play and I'll share some more of my creative fun.

Have a great day!

Butterfly card

Hallo Bloglanders

I'm off on a road trip for the long weekend and will be back on Monday. Before I go, my card for the CPS Challenge:

Sorry about the bad picture but I don't have time to redo!  I started out with scraps on my desk and it evolved into this butterfly themed set of cards.  The background is grey and it actually looks wonderful with all the yellow.

And the inspiration:

And the siblings:

If you want to hop over and have a peek at the other entries at CPS Card Sketches, click here. I'm off for the weekend. Be safe and please come back to play. See you on Monday!

Hazel

Get Real

Good morning Bloglanders

Just one more day before the weekend and for my fellow South Africans - a long weekend!! (Hiep Hiep Hooray). I have cleaned up my table after my encounter with ink splatters (more like blobs) and my nails are only charcoal grey - not black any more.  Anyway, I'm not so sure I'll be trying this again but I've cut all my artwork into pieces and you'll be seeing more of the ink blobs in my projects. (I'm far too stingy / sentimental to throw them away).

Today I want to show you a "layout" I did after I've seen Cathy Zielske's Big Idea: Get real.  Here it is:

 

 

Cathy's idea was to journal about things when they happen as it is important to keep your memories real.  She even supplied a template.  I have decided to keep the template on file and when something worthwhile happens, I'll fill it out, print it and include it in my scrapbook pages. Of course, I'll make it my own - I never just copy - I adapt! In my example I included two thumbnail pictures and inserted the wood grain backing. I'm still thinking about a suitable Afrikaans translation of "real life".

 

I'm really thinking about starting a  "project life" next year (or maybe earlier) but once again I want to think it through before I spill the beans here on the blog as mine won't be the conventional one. (what did you expect from me?). Also, "imperfect me" wouldn't cope with a year-long project for the rest of my life - we'll see.

 

I'm off to do the prep work for our camping weekend ahead. Have a great day and please check back as I'll be sharing more of my crafting fun right here on Play as U Go.

 

 



Imperfect me

Good morning Bloglanders

I've been crafting since early this morning!  Another first: I have tried to do some ink splatters for the SRV challenge of the month but either I don't know how to do it or it's just messy. Even my hands are black and I haven't even looked at my table yet.  Once I've cleaned everything (and myself) up, I'll show you what I've done.

Back to the Big Picture, Big Idea festival.  I can't believe how much you can learn about yourself just by thinking about new ideas. Challenge #4 was to scrap your goals and #13 about "imperfect me".  This ended up as a double page in my album as I started with my imperfections ("onperfekte ek" in Afrikaans) and from there made it my goals ("doel" in Afrikaans) to either change some or accept them. I know you don't like layouts, but I really enjoyed these.

Imperfect me:

And my goals to either accept / change my imperfections:



If I didn't join in the Big Ideas I don't think I would have done these layouts and I'm so glad I did.  I showed it to my son and he had such a laugh because he said it is so true.

Well, that's it from me.  Have a great Wednesday and please come back to play. I'm off to clean up the mess I've made!

Another first for me

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you are having a fabulous Tuesday!

By now you will know that I don't do cards but I try to make some for my stash to give as pressies or with pressies. Every time I look at the submissions on blogs I'm stunned at what can be achieved with stamps and coloring pens.

So, you also know that my son is an architect and uses these upmarket coloring pens.  As I already have them on hand, I decided to give them a go.  NO!  It didn't exactly work like that - when my cat died, I saw this marvellous stamp from MFT and ordered it ASAP.  Really not my kind of thing but I WANTED THE STAMP because it reminded me of my cat. And this is what I've done in honor of my cat:

I only used 4 colors - nude, black, grey and lilac.  I couldn't resist adding the red heart to the little girl's hair and darker grey stripes to the cat (Tossel looked like this). My effort will go to The Play Date Cafe challenge of the week.  This is the  inspiration:

You know I hate cards without family!  Here is the little sister:



This one looks a lot more dreamy and actually the only difference is the oval backing behind the little girl. Still, I loved the pic, the coloring-in was fun and I think I'll do it again.

That's it from me. Please check back to see what I've done with my creative mind and the little time I have for crafting. Have a great day!

My Dreams

Good morning Bloglanders

It's Monday in Sunny SA and I have a hectic week ahead.  Next weekend we have a public holiday and  my hubby has organized a camping trip - lots of fun, laughter, good friends and wonderful memories! Let's get started as I have to share my crafting fun with you before the albums get filed away.

Once again I joined Big Picture classes.  This year it was 14 days of Big Ideas brought to us by the very best .  I don't think I have learned anything new about myself (still hate ironing, doing dishes, etc.) BUT I made time to think about it and documented my feelings. At least I'll be able to monitor my progress or the lack of it!

On day 3 Courtney Welsh had the Big Idea to document your dreams. I didn't want to do a layout about it and decided to include it in my book of lists (ex Monika Wright's iloveitall on Etsy).  This is what it looks like:

I used a page with an envelope as I wanted to "hide" my journaling.  Get the idea?

I blurred out some of the journaling if you're thinking that my photo taking skills has once again let me down. Also, I covered the journaling with a transparency.  It's from BoBunny and I just love the "old school" feel. 

I just love my book and even though I didn't join the "30 days of lists course" my book is filled to the brim with dreams, goals, things that I love / hate / make me smile / make me cry. I even listed what my life was like 30, 20, 10 years ago and what it is right now. Get yourself a journal and start listing!

I'll be back to share another of my projects right here on Play as U Go. Please come back to play. Have a great day.

Card of the week

Hallo Bloglanders

It's Friday and more time for fun!  I have a lot going on and can't wait to get started.  First up is the cards that I've made for my Christmas stash.  I try to make a set each week and this will then be packed into embellished tins for gifts. I give small handmade presents to all my friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. 

Here it is:

And my inspiration came from CPS-Card Sketches:

And you know how I feel about cards without family so I made siblings:

I wanted to try out these "dimensional  balls" for ages and I love the effect - think I might try it out on my Christmas tags as well. I have used Bo Bunny's Country Garden Collection as I had a 6x6 paper pad in my stash.  I only used 3 sheets (6x6) and have enough left to do another card.

At the beginning of this year I set these weekly goals for myself  and it actually works very well - I have done most of my Christmas pressies as well as a huge stash that I can use in cases of emergency. No rushing around for gifts, wrapping paper and cards any more.

I plan to start doing one quilt block per week as well as I have to re-do my bedroom and would love a handmade quilt on the bed.  At this stage I'm only thinking about the color scheme and looking for patterns to try out.

Well, that's it from me for today.  Please come back to play as I'll be sharing my projects with you right here on Play as U Go.

Tinned mini

Good morning Bloglanders

Nearly the end of the week!  It seems that everyone in Blogland made summer mini's so why not me?  The problem is - Sunny SA only have half their summer at the beginning of the year - the best part is still coming to us. So I decided to use the summer pic's that I have left over from other projects and add the rest of my memories when we've been there and done that.

This summer mini album fits into a tin on my fridge!! We don't get a lot of nice stuff down under but when I saw these magnetic tins from Making Memories, I just had to get some. They are very, very magnetic and I love them - I will share some more projects that I've made with these at a later stage.

Here is what my finished project looks like:

And this is what the mini looks like:

Sorry, I couldn't decide which way to turn it.  I have added a loop to the top as well as a "sun" trinket and some beads to the bottom - maybe I'll hang it on my porch in future. Still deciding on this.

And some close  up pic's:

I even made a belly band for the tin and then decided that I didn't like it. Here is the proof:

I have used my fave line of papers from My Mind's Eye - "Follow your heart". As their challenge this month is for summer pic's I'll be adding my tinned mini to their challenge. Here is a link if you want to check out the  other entries.

I love to look at my mini book every time I open my fridge.  At this stage my front page is of my hubby helping my nephew fly his kite.  What I love about this is that I will be changing my front page every day / week or month.

Have a great day! Please come back to play.

Hazel





Gift card holder / The Play Date Cafe #148

Good morning Bloglanders

I've been writing thank you notes and wrapping pressies for the past 2 days.  It seems that everyone I know has a birthday coming up / did something I have to thank them for.  Well, a lot of them are men and as you know they don't like anything fussy or girly.  So I used the color combo from The Play Date Cafe to create this:

OK, this is the girly version. The manly one was too boring to show! Believe it or not but I even made the hadbag paperclip!  I cut the base from cardstock, rounded the bottom edges, added a punched out half circle, ball chain for the handle and a little flower.

And the inspiration:

And the rest:

On the bottom left is my "manly" version.  Inside I have stapled a note and on the top edge of the note I've used a die from Di-Namics called "Notebook Edge".  It's wonderful with a little tear off strip.  Just perfect for a manly note! I couldn't resist making another girly gift card holder and this time I added a butterfly to the paperclip.

That's it from me. Have a great day and please come back to play.

Storage crate covers

Good afternoon to all of you hopping around Blogland

I hope you are having a wonderful Monday.  I have a lot of projects happening at the same time - so glad I don't have children to pick up / drop off anymore.  I can just see myself  forgetting someone somewhere and me feeling like the worst mum on earth.

This is what I've done over the weekend:

I don't know how you store your left over scrap paper but for me the easiest is in a wooden crate.  It's heavy and won't fall over.  I have 17 pockets one each for single colors and one each for patterned paper. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Naturals, White and black and grey are kept together (really don't know why) and one extra for paper that has a mix of colors. You see, I have a BSc degree - that's about all I can remember from way back at university - the colors of the rainbow!!!

New stock goes into another crate by manufacturer. Not that I do pages by manufacturer BUT I tend to remember who has what range and mix and match them into a "kit" before I start on a project. Another crate for stickers and letters.

You get my drift?  I have a lot of crates, my craft room is smaller than my bathroom and I do a lot of sewing as well.  So I covered the crates with fabric and added pockets to the outside.  It makes a HUGE difference!  It feels like 4 extra storage pockets added to every crate I own. See what I mean?

I used sheeting for the inside and scraps of blue, white and cream for the pockets.  It really is a bargain - lots of extra storage space by recycling scraps of fabric.

Now for the next project!  Please come back to play and I'll share more of my ideas with you.