Gift card makover

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday. And to my American friends, I hope you haven't been affected by Sandy. Such a nice name to so much destruction.

Just a quick post to show you what I did with a shop bought gift envelope.  At a lot of our stores we get free envelopes and holders when you purchase a gift card. Normally I use that for my scrap stash but this time I liked the shape and the color of it. So, out came the scraps, washi tape, stamp and glue and ta da!

At the bottom is the original envelope and on top is how it looked once I've done my magic on it.  I'll definitely make cards in this shape in future - they look extraordinary.  Imperfect me is not a 6x4 girl.

I'm back to my shop order. Have a great day and Happy Halloween to you all!

Family layout

Good morning Bloglanders

I'm very busy trying to get my shop orders out in time for Christmas but I love sharing my crafts with you and as I'm currently making 50+ op each item, it is not very stimulating.  For inspiration, I paged through my pictures and made this layout with a pic from a few years ago.

I have a cousin living in the UK and as we've always been close, we try to get together whenever it is possible.  This picture was taken on such an occasion with my parents and hers sharing in the fun. 

In Afrikaans, a cousin is a "niggie" or "nefie" - depending on the gender.  When my son was small he wanted to know how Cornelia and I are related and I tried to explain but as he only had "nefies" (no granddaughters in my family!) - he adapted her name to Cornefie. We still use the name!

Here is my layout:

The picture really makes me feel good.  

Bloglanders, I hope you are having a terrific Tuesday. I'm off to my sewing machine but will be back to share some more crafting fun. All work and no play, makes Hazel a dull girl. And if anything, I may be imperfect, but I'm not dull!

Plan Z

Hi there Bloglanders

Yes, yes, yes - I did say I'll show my new notebook cover over the weekend BUT everything did not work out as planned.  First up, I wanted to use The Play Date Cafe colors of the week.  I find that if I use inspiration from a sketch, I tend to broaden  my horizons. Otherwise I'll probably begin and end with black and purple. 

I had the perfect piece of minty fabric which I wanted for a book cover as well as a stamp set from Papertrey Ink.  This is where plan A went wrong.  I didn't have any Staz on ink to stamp with so all my stamping wiped off.  Then I decided to do my leather angel without the stamping and now he looks dull and un-inspiring. See for yourself:

So I ditched the leather and the angel and tried other trim:

Still not what I was looking for so I swopped the colors around and now my book looks like this:

I'm still not sure that plan Z is the best I can do but I've decided to call it a day and relax by sewing a tassel and some beads onto a keyring.  The beads are out anyway - I can just as well use them and actually, I like the color scheme much better on the tassel than on the book.

There you have it - my attempts to make inspiration work for me!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend and please come back to play!

Hazel

Layout day

Good morning Bloglanders

It's Friday and time to kick up your heels and do that little something for yourself and your loved ones!  I'm here to share a layout I made of our Mother's day celebration earlier this year.

Girlfriend #2 invited us to spend the day with her family. Sunshine, good company, great food, wine and a beautiful setting. Once again, I just couldn't get myself to do a new age layout - I loved the pic's too much and each and every one tells a story.

Here it is:

I used paper from days gone by - very, very old Creative Memories that I had in my stash.  Die cut letters  and the leaf flourish and we're done.

When I look at the layout, I can just feel the love and fun we share -  not only on Mother's day but every day of the year. I'm so blessed to have them in my life.

Now, I don't normally blog on a weekend but you can check back tomorrow as I'm working on a notebook cover in the colors of The Play Date Cafe. I can't wait to share it with you so I'll be back .

This week's color scheme:

I just couldn't resist the colors. Also, at Scrap RDV there is a card sketch by Kathy Martin that I want to try out. Boy, can that girl do miracles with cards and her stitching is to die for. Want to try as well?  Check it out here.

Have a great weekend and please check back to see the book cover that I'll be sharing tomorrow. Have a great weekend.

Keys to my Castle

Good  morning Bloglanders

One more day and it's weekend.  More time for fun and family!  In my house I've got a few things of huge value to me.  They are not expensive - BUT I just love looking at them.  One of these is my key holder that my hubby made.  Now, you must remember - our house has 17 outside doors. Each and every one has a key to the door as well as one to open up the trellidoor inside.  Both the boys live in flats - all with their own set of keys (and spares that hangs on my board).

Now that you have the background info, this is what my key holder looks like:

It actually fits over our power supply board and my husband made it rather deep - if you have to take it off to get to the switches underneath, you just flip it up.  Apart from the keys, the children write messages on the blackboard underneath and I add sentimental stuff.  You will see a rattle from my son's baby days, angels that friends have given me, sea shells on binder rings etc. The keys are not marked but because each and every one has a different key ring, the whole family knows which one fits where.

That's it - one of my prized possessions!  Have a great Thursday and please come back to play as I'll be sharing some more crafting fun right here on Play as U Go.

Pinterest Inspired Me

Good morning Bloglanders

Halfway through the week already!  On Write Click Scrapbook Teka Cochonneau is doing a series called "Pinterest Inspired Me". Of course hers is more like - "I saw this on Pinterest and it made me do this". BUT I get a different sort of inspiration when looking at all the ideas on Pinterest.  I think this is the whole idea - there are no right or wrong - if you get inspired, you get inspired. Whatever works for you.

A while ago Monika Wright shared a risotto recipe found on Pinterest and as I love risotto, I immediately re pinned and have been making it ever since. Click here if you want to get hold of the recipe. When my rice loving walking partner, Charlene had her birthday yesterday, out came the recipe and a gift bag filled with all the ingredients.  She had to work late yesterday and I can just imagine the joy when getting home and somebody delivered dinner in the meantime. Anyway, that was my idea. This is what the pressie looked like:

I just love that stamp of the little girl and the cat - just makes me smile.  And inside it looked like this:



I have packed everything in Ziploc bags and finished it off with toppers made out of gift wrap scraps.  Love the color combo.

I loved the card so much that I didn't want to hide it inside an envelope.  I used it to decorate my shop bought party bag and made a mini folder inside the card to hold the recipe and a birthday note.

Well, Pinterest inspired me!  Have a great Wednesday and please come back to play right here on Play as U Go. I'll be back to share more of my inspiration.

Hazel

Haunted House

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm back to show you my Halloween House - couldn't wait to share!  You remember that my children are going to a Halloween party and this is for all their treats.

The colors are from The Play Date Cafe and I'm glad to share:

And the colors are:

If you want to see what the rest of Blogland did with the inspiration, just click here.

And the family:

The one with the cats is is my fave even if it is he Halloween version.  I hope you have enjoyed my take on the Haunted House. Please come back to play!

Last of the siblings

Good morning Bloglanders

The last card in my retro range:

I love making sets of cards in different sizes - when they are wrapped in a glassine envelope, it looks much more interesting.  This one was inspired by a sketch ex Scrap RDV and I love the beaded body of the butterfly. You can click here if you want to have a peek at the original.

And this is the sketch:

I wanted to recap on the rest of the family members but it seems that my friend Blogger is being difficult. I'll come back to this post and add them when the strike is over.

I have to get back to the Haunted House bag that I'm making. So, have a great week and please come back to play.

Hazel

Happy stamping

Good morning Bloglanders

Finally it's Friday - time to unwind and have some fun!  I'm here to share the cards I made with my MME stamps. Well, I don't have a lot as it's very hard to get hold of them down under but I've used what I have.  You also know that I'm not a big stamper and when I saw the MME challenge of the month - stamping, I thought I'd give this one a miss. 

So, last week I had a horrible day (still don't know what actually went wrong) and on the spur of the moment I decided to get my stamps out and craft away.  I actually loved how it turned out and have done a lot of it.  I'll be making a layout with the rest of my attempts. Here are the three cards in this series:

I know they are not perfect but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and IMPERFECT ME love them.  That's it from me. Hop over to MME and see for yourself what the rest of Blogland did with their stamps. Just click here. Enjoy your weekend and please come back to play!



Pet Layout

Good morning Bloglanders

Only one day to go before the weekend!  I hope you are having a fabulous Thursday.  Today I'm sharing a layout of my cat, Tossel (like a pom pom) who died a little while ago.

And a bit of the detail:

We had Tossel for 20 years and she was our first cat (actually she was my son's) and she will probably be our last as my husband and I are considering a lock-up-and-go lifestyle. Tossel even had her own "catbook" - an album with pictures and journaling about her.  I'm so glad I made it - it stands next to my son's childhood album on my bookshelf. I knew since the beginning of this year that her health was deteriorating and that she would probably not live until the end of the year.  So, I got myself a notebook and wrote everything down that I want to remember about her. Eg. she used to climb our thatched roof and hang upside down like a bat for a whole day! She was really, really funny and unique and I completed the 72 page notebook before she died in August.  It is awesome reading! This will probably become a mini book / journal that I can add to her "catbook".

The challenge at Scrap RDV is  an "Animal" project using a picture of an animal or animal shaped embellishments or stamps. As my family are huge animal lovers, the hardest part was to decide which layout to use. I have a beautiful layout  in my childhood album  album titled "to all the pets I've loved before." I have included pictures and journaling about pets from days gone by.  Such fond memories. This is one of the first pages I've done when I started scrapbooking many, many moons ago (2006 actually) and I still love the page. Click here to hop over to Scrap RDV to see the other entries.

I hope you have enjoyed our chat. Have a great Thursday and please come back to play.

A Jar of Worms

Good morning Bloglanders

It's a beautiful summery day in sunny SA and I'm off for my walk around the park but first I want to share another Halloween project.  As I've said before - we don't do Halloween down under but one of the children got invited to a Halloween party. (and yes it's one of the 25 year olds) They have to dress up and bring treats.  And this is how I got to make 30 Halloween treat bags.  Here they are:

I used the scraps of vellum from Mr Architect's desk, cut them into bottle shapes, sewed two together, filled them with gummy worms, sewed shut and added the labels and twine. Don't they look lovely?

And another pic:

And a close-up:

If I may say so myself - even my pictures are getting better!  And now for my card  #41 for the 52 Card Pick-up.  Can you believe we are in week 41 already?

For this card I used a sketch from CPS for inspiration and the card is part of a set of 3.  I'll show the rest at a later stage.

I'm off for my walk. Have a fabulous Wednesday and please come back to play.

Something Sweet

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you are having a fabulous Tuesday.  Today I'm sharing something entirely different - labels for my jam jars! And this is it:

I love cooking - baking bread, preparing food and making jam.  Once a year I go to Robertson to get apricots and I make the most beautiful jars of jam.  You can taste the sunshine in it - reminds me of summer  whole year round. A lot of them ends up as hostess gifts and I love to add a label to the jar with my name, the type of jam and a vintage. (my winemaking history coming through!)

I did the labels in photoshop and if I can figure out how to share a free downloadable file, I'll share it with you right here on Play as U Go.  The labels are actually round but I love to cut them with scalloped edges. Now for the surprise - The Play Date Cafe challenge #153 colors:

        Bubblegum ... Tangerine ... Pear

And my interpretation:

OK maybe my "pear" is a bit lighter than it should be but in Sunny SA that is what they look like to me. I'm definately linking up!  If you want to see the rest of the entries, please click here.

I'm off to my HUGE Etsy order. Have a great day and please come back to play.

Cards for Color Throwdown #213

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you all had a marvellous weekend and that this week will only bring you joy, sunshine and smiles. Today I'm sharing two cards that I made for the Color Throwdown challenge of the week. Here they are:

And the inspiration:

I'm sure all of you know how I feel about stamping but then I read a post by Karen Grunberg where she said "Be who you are and keep it IMPERFECT".  This was the kick in the butt that I needed and boy did I enjoy my stamping!!  I'll be showing some more attempts during the week. I stamped in pink, green and pumpkin on watercolor paper and then brushed over the whole thing with water.  This gave it a weathered look. Once dry, I stamped the sentiment and some more elements in black. On the bottom one I did some sewing to finish it off but I totally forgot to do it on the first one. IMPERFECT ME!

The stamps are from MME and I've used my Jenny Bowlin ink pads.

Even my diary got some Pumpkin Pie:

I've got some vines growing on my "stoep" and their  flowers are everywhere.  Just look - it's like tiny, green snowflakes! I just love them.

 

Now, hop over to see the rest of the Color Throwdown entries and please come back tomorrow as I'll be sharing some more of my crafty ideas with you. Have a great day!

Album upgrade

Hallo to all my Blogland friends

I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday.  I've totally lost track of time - just very, very busy doing fun stuff. When my husband asked this morning if I did the recycling, I couldn't believe that I missed yesterday's pick-up.  Thought it was only Wednesday today!  Time flies when you're having fun.

About a year ago my mum and dad moved to a smaller house and had to downsize.  One of the things that had to go was a lot of framed pictures as their new possie just doesn't have that much wall space.  I took everything out of their frames, copied, cut and paste it all into a 12x12 album.  As I didn't want to spend a fortune on and album, I used one from a sale and covered it with beautiful fabric.

I took the whole thing apart and covered the spine and covers in fabric.  My good old glue gun did the rest.  On the inside of the covers, I used rather neutral scrapbook paper. Mum can always add a pocket or some journaling here in future.

This is what mum's fabric covered album looks like:

Top right picture is my mum when she was 5 (taken 70 years ago!).  The album is now proudly displayed on their coffee table and instead of filing the pictures away in boxes, they can be enjoyed 24/7.

That's it from me.  I've already lost one day this week and will have to run to get everything done before the weekend.  Have a great day and please come back to play.  Remember to Play as U Go!

Making cards all day long

Hallo Bloglanders

A few days ago I spent a whole day making cards.  It is not as if I'm a good cardmaker - my stamping is awful and I suck at coloring in BUT if I want to de-stress - I make cards.  Actually I made two whole ranges that will be given away as sets. First one is the family of my MME project which I shared earlier this week.  If you missed it, scroll down or have a look at the archives.

For this one I used a sentiment from MME.  The background was embossed with my good old Cuttlebug.

This one is 3x4 and I used a Polaroid frame done with a Spellbinders die. (Snapshot range) This little card will be my entry for The Old Bach Porch card pick-up week 40.  Hop over and see the rest of the participants. Just click here.

And some more hand sewing.  Once again I did the holes with my sewing machine (take the thread out!) and hand stitched in the holes with some top stitching thread.

And the one I did for the MME challenge:

It is much more interesting if I do them in different shapes and sizes and I love the look when they are stacked and packed.



I'll just put them into a glassine bag and wrap some twine around, add a sentiment and I have a great pressie for someone special - ready to go.

That's it from me. Please come back to play and I'll share the projects on my craft table with you. And remember - Play as U Go!

Have a great day.
Hazel