Good news and Party Favors

Good morning Bloglanders

First the good news!! You remember my rainbow bookmark?

Well, I won the challenge over at The Twinery!  And this is my prize:

I love Twine and two more rolls to my stash would be wonderful. I'm not sure about the Michaels gift card as we don't have one in Sunny SA but I'm sure I'll think up a plan to utilize it.  Hop over to The Twinery and see for yourself. Just click here.

And next up: a way to celebrate - Party favors.  As my husband and I are both winemakers we are always trying to determine a way to determine a specific smell. I'm sure you've heard about citrussy  earthy, berry and things like that associated with wine. So I bought a whole bag of Jelly Beans when I found a mix of 50 different flavors.  We've been guessing flavors ever since.

Then I thought up a game using the Jelly Bean mix for party favors. My bags include some beans, note paper, pencil and the rules of the game - easy - you have to guess the flavors and write it down.  My first guinea pigs were  8, 13 and 17 year olds and I can report back - they all enjoyed the game and not a single bean was spilled. (hie hie hie!!)

Want to see?

And I decided to do one in the color combo of  The Play Date Cafe.  How's that for hybrid crafting?

And these are their colors for the week:

                            Grass ... Rose Petal ... Hibiscus

That's it from me. Thank you for visiting my Blog.  Please check back as I'll have some more crafting fun to share with you right here. I'm off to paint my craft desk but that's a story for another day.

Have a great day!

PVC Drawer Organizers @ Craft Storage Ideas

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that you are well rested and ready for week 18!  I'm working on my house - painting, sewing curtains, cleaning out drawers and purging what is not needed.  I can't believe how much less space you need when the kids are out of the house.  Not that they take anything with and that you are allowed to throw their stuff out - no, no, no!! I've packed everything into storage containers and moved it to the garage. (don't know if we'll ever get that sorted)

The plan is to arrive on their doorsteps (with the truckload of "stuff") once they have settled into their own homes. I hope they are not reading my blog today!!

I'm over at Craft Storage Ideas with my idea of using ordinary, clear PVC drawer organizers to sort your crafting stash.  I buy a lot of them and use them all over the house but I'm not spoiling the surprise - hop over there and see for yourself. Just click here. And a sneak peek just for you:

That's it from me. Thanks for visiting my Blog and please check back as I'll be sharing some more crafting fun right here. Have a great day!

Knit with Rope

Good morning Bloglanders

I totally forgot to put my post up yesterday!! I'm making new curtains for my house and it's true - time flies when you're having fun. (Curtains aren't really fun but they are time consuming!) So, as promised, I'm here to show you what I've made by knitting with rope.  I'm sure you still remember - I don't knit!!

My mum (she doesn't knit either!) read in a magazine that you can knit the most beautiful place mats using ordinary rope. So, (as always) she commissioned me to get the rope for her.  I got it from my local hardware store - they don't all stock the thick one (and that's the one that mum wanted) but eventually I tracked it down and bought it for her.  End of story?  Never! Mum knitted only one  row and decided it is too difficult. As the rope was very expensive, I decided I'll give it a go.  Pot stands are not that big and I do use them a lot so I decided rather to start small and later expand my repertoire. Mum was right, it is difficult but I managed to do three so far and plan to do two more. That would cover my pots and use up all the (expensive) rope. Want to see?

My beautiful purple pot on my hand knitted rope pot stand!

And this is what the work in progress looks like:

I'm glad I persevered but it is not the easiest task that I've tackled and it you cherish your nails, I would recommend that you don't even start. I even looked up "knit with rope" on Google and this is a few of the projects that I found:

The shoes looks more like macrame - maybe that's doable but the rest NO, NO, NO!! Maybe I'm using the wrong kind of rope????

This picture came up on my Google search:

Now you (and I know) why it is filed under "knit with rope"!!

That's it from me. Back to the curtains. Thanks for looking at my Blog and please check back as I have a lot more crafting projects to share with you. Have a great day!

Christmas 2010 Layout

Hi there Bloglanders

It's Tuesday and I'm here to share my Christmas 2010 layout with you. No, I haven't lost it!! I have a very specific system for scrapping my photos and when I looked something up in my 2010 album, I noticed that I didn't scrap the Christmas day lunch at Girlfriend #2 and her family.

Worse things have happened to me so I just got it done. Here it is:

I'm SO glad I did it because at the time I didn't notice but the two pictures on the left hand page were taken 1 second apart!!! One moment we were all smiling for the camera and the next we were eating away.  We must have been very, very hungry - not that our figures look like starved people at all. For my English speaking Bloglanders: my title is something like "ready, steady, eat".

I have used some of my goodies from the Simple Stories SNAP line. I love the stickers and the papers matched so well with Chandre's T-shirt.

The little boy in the pictures is Kyle. I made customised playing cards for him - remember? It looks like this:

Missed it?  Click here to see.

He is the only "grandchild" in both our families and all the women adore him and the men ................... I think they all turn 5 again when he is around. When his playschool has a function, we all attend and he has a whole row of adults cheering him on. Not normal? Probably not but my son Pieter grew up like that and he turned out fine.  His only problem is that he doesn't like Christmas. Why not?? When he was small we didn't get a Christmas father because it was only him and when he was all grown up he had to que for his presents together with cousins aged 5 and below. I can't say that I blame him.

There you have it - it is never too late to get it done.  And, maybe if you do it, you will notice something that you didn't see before. It made my day and I had a lot of happy thoughts about Kyle, Pieter and family from days gone bye.

That's it from me. Thanks for visiting my blog.  I'll be back tomorrow to share some more crafting fun. Wednesday is my Hybrid day and I've knitted some pot stands to show you. (You remember - I don't knit?????)  I'll show you what I did in tomorrow's post. Have a Terrific Tuesday.

Summery cards

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that your Monday will be magnificent!  I've done my bit of crafting over the weekend and would like to share my contribution to The Play Date Challenge of the week with you:

And another card:

My heart and butterfly is actually very, very pink - don't know how it got to to this "purply" color. Anyway, this is the color scheme of this week's combo:

I love yellow so I had a lot of scraps to work with. Even the pink is right up my alley but the grey????? I used a stamp and ink in smokey grey to stamp the background for my cards.  No grey in my life - I'm kind of a primary color person and if all else fails, I revert to black or white.  In the end I loved the background most about the whole card and will be making some more without the pink and yellow.  While everything was out, I made some more cards for my stash:

And my neighbor's cat came over to help and didn't want to move when I had to take the pictures.  Now you know why the pink turned out purple! It doesn't really matter to me. I just love cats and are truly blessed to have this one in my life even if he is only a visitor.

We are still having the most wonderful summer weather in sunny SA - it is great to be outside, eat on the porch, work in the garden and just be.  I hope that when I'm looking / using these cards during our winter months, that I can regain the summery feeling.

That's it from me. Thank you for visiting my blog and please come back as I have a lot more crafting fun to share with you. Have a great day!

Over at Craft Storage Ideas

Hi there Bloglanders

Today I'm over at Craft Storage Ideas with my solution to preserving memories - Project Life!!  Those of you who have been regulars at Play as U Go might remember that I really didn't want to convert to this BUT in the end my family made me change my mind. Read all about it (and more) over at Craft Storage Ideas.

OK, I know some of you don't like to be redirected but it is easy and it will be worth your while. I promise!! Just click on the word "link" below and you will be redirected.

LINK

A lot of you might be laughing but I had a very, very old friend of my mum who called me up to tell me - please write everything in your post - I don't get this "link thing". I didn't even know that she owned a computer!! I'm still grateful that she reads my blog and will try redirecting her with these red links. To those of you who do the "link thing" humor me and click on the red LINK.

Have a Fabulous Friday and enjoy the weekend. I'll be back to share some more of my crafting fun right here on Play as U Go. Please come back to play.

April showers Bookmark

Good morning Bloglanders

We have the most beautiful late summer's day and I just want to be outside to enjoy it all!  I have some office work but I'm going to get that done NOW and then I'll be off to Sushi in the park for lunch and some time in my garden. But, first things first. We had a lot of rain yesterday - yes, it's getting winter in Sunny SA. Everything was grim, cold and wet and then I saw this challenge from The Twinery:

Now, I'm not a knitter but I have a stash of knitting needles that I inherited from both my grandmothers. So, out came the twine and the needles and this is what I came up with:

Yes, I'm still in bookmark mode and as I decided to make some for my Xmas gift stash, I think I'll be "on this page" for a while. (hie hie hie) The whole effort took less than an hour and suddenly the day wasn't that grim any more.  (Die from Clear and Simple stamps). Between you and me - I just love, love, love them.

And another pic:

And who wouldn't open a book if this lurks inside the pages?

This book was actually on my desk for another purpose. You still remember that I'm a winemaker??? Well, when I got the picture ready for this post, I saw that it is Vredendal's winery.  I grew up in Vredendal and my family still lives there.  Small world. Maybe the "Fly away" on my bookmark is symbolic!

That's it from me. Thanks for visiting my blog and please come back to play as I'll have some more crafting fun to share with you right here on Play as U Go.  I'm off - have a Terrific Tuesday!

Ring-a-ring-a-Rosie

Hi there Bloglanders

First of all I would like to thank all of you who have been visiting my blog.  Suddenly it has taken off and I'm having 10 times more hits!  Especially welcome to the Russians - for the past week you were the biggest part of my audience. I'm grateful to all of you that you take the time to check out what I'm up to - this makes it worth my while sharing what I do with Blogland.

Now for today's project:

A while ago I told you that I showed my friend's daughter how to make flowers out of leftover fabric or felt. Well, the ring was her favorite.  I've used the Die-namics Rolled Rose to die cut the felt, rolled it, added the beads and leaves and glued it to the blank ring.  Good old hot melt glue gun.  Even Alexa's little fingers did the rolling all by herself and even though I didn't want her to use the glue gun for fear of getting hurt, she uses it at home with a lot of confidence. Looking for the rocks on someone's road again!! IMPERFECT ME.

And the ring even fits my hand:

It would make great party favors and even decorations for presents.  I keep all left over fabric and felt and use it for stuff like this where I only need a tiny piece.  When I have time, I'm going to do some more die cuts and give it away as DIY gifts.  

Well, once again thanks for visiting my Blog. Please check back as I will have some more crafting fun to share right here.  Have a Wacky Wednesday!

   

Mini Book and Mini Layout

Hi there Bloglanders

It's Terrific Tuesday and I'm back to share some more crafting fun.  Today I have a mini book and a mini layout  that I've whipped up in no time.  I find that using "home made" notebooks brings a smile to my face and I love giving them away as pressies as well.  First one up is my mini book with a photo and it's for MME's April fool's challenge.  Hope that there IS a challenge otherwise I'd be the fool. Anyway, I'll still have my notebook and that's enough for me.

I've told you before about this picture that my friend Marelize took on a camping trip. It perfectly describes my marriage. Wynand never knows what to expect.  Good thing or bad??? Don't know but it works for us. Here it is:

We work together and this will be my official office notebook.  Maybe I should rename myself  - UNEXPECTED IMPERFECT ME.

And I made another one for the MME layout challenge.  With Project Life, my layouts are a lot less. I still do layouts because I love them but I find that I'm doing smaller versions.  If I only have 1 picture, I'll size the layout to 6x4 or 6x6 and include it in my PL album. You need much less paper and it's a quicky. Love it.  This is what I did - I'll add the picture once I get time to go to the printers.

For my non South African Bloglanders - the title is "Onthou die Datum" - it is like "Save the Date" in Afrikaans. I plan to add a little journaling tag behind the paper squares as I don't want to spoil the serenity of my layout with my IMPERFECT handwriting.

And the sketch:

I love the flower lace that I've added.  It just gives dimension and a girly twist to the layout. It will be perfect for my picture of  Pieter and his Princess. I suppose at this stage you can guess what the journaling would be about??? That's what I like about being an hybrid scrapper - I've used leftover paper from my scrap stash, lace from a sewing project and the staples are ex the office. No cost at all - just reuse, recycle and repurpose in my PERFECT world.

Please hop over to the MME blog to leave some comments. Just click here to be redirected.

That's it from me for today. Thanks for visiting my blog and please come back to pay as I've got a lot more crafting fun to share right here.

Bookmark FUN

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you had a marvellous weekend.  Once again, I had some time to do some extra crafting.  I'm working on my house - making curtains, organizing, purging and painting but do try to keep the creative juices flowing.  So, this is what I made:

I read a  lot and not only one book at a time. In front of my bed, I've got at least 4 books and I read as they take my fancy.  In between I have to keep bookmarks to remind me where I am. This is what I've done to make this bookmark:

I used spray on starch to stiffen a piece of  leftover lace trim.
Added some beads and it was done!

And my color inspiration came from: The Play Date Cafe (of course!)

I love the colors and now they will be the last I see every night before I go to sleep.  

Last year I worked on my Xmas pressie stash every month and it made a huge difference - when I got to 1st of  December all I had to do is wrap them. This year, I've been working on revamping my house and haven't been that effective.  All that is going to change right now!  I'll start out by converting all my leftover trim to bookmarks. This would be great gifts to neighbors, friends and teachers. What is an added bonus is that it's flat - easy to mail off to that special friend who needs some Xmas joy.

That's it from me. Please hop over to The Play Date Cafe to see what the rest of Blogland did with the same colors. Just click here to be redirected. Thanks for visiting my blog and please check back as I've got a lot more crafting fun to share. Have a Marvellous Monday!

Girly Layout

Good morning Bloglanders

As promised:  My secret weapon for making a washed out girly layout!  It actually didn't start out as a layout. I had to do some party favors for a stork tea and as I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, I decided to do paper doilies in yellow, pink and blue to pretty up my white party bags. No buying custom made when I have a stash of white ones in my cake decorating box. (I don't do cake decorating, but I'm going to try - one day!) Only one problem, I don't own any color sprays or mists and the only ink that I have is black!

First up: My layout:

And a bit closer:

AND my inspiration came from this Page Map:

I don't normally do circles so when I saw this sketch, I immediately thought about my colored doilies and the rest is history. Want to hop over to PageMaps to see for yourself? Just click here.

Now back to the beginning.  I keep about 6 shades of  fabric dye as I do a lot of sewing and sometimes (actually, a lot of times) I can't get lace or trim to fit my project and I dye it. I only make up about a quarter of a cup at a time as my projects mostly are rather small.  So, I poured the dye into spray bottles, diluted to where I wanted the washed out color to be and ta da:

If you want to try as well: I used 1 teaspoon of dye powder in a quarter of a cup of boiling water, stirred until dissolved, cooled it down, diluted where necessary and poured it into spray bottles.

Here you can see my stash:

The best part: dye is cheap and readily available everywhere in Sunny SA.  I will be buying a few more colors and use it on other projects as well.

That's it. Something ordinary used in an extraordinary way! I'm off to finish my stork tea party favors. Thanks for visiting my blog and please come back to play as I'll have some more crafting fun right here to share. Have a great weekend!

Don't look for the rocks on my road

Hi there Bloglanders

A layout to share?? NO.  I'm sharing the story behind the layout.  My fellow South Africans can read it on the layout but as I have a lot more non-South African readers now, I will translate. First of all - this is a very, very old layout and it still hangs above my desk. Wanna know why? To remind me to let the boys be boys (more like men be men).  

As Pieter grew up as an only child (Wernich joined our family  when they were about 13 years old), I was very, very protective of him.  I  used to warn him about things all the time - didn't want him to ride his bike alone, swim alone or go near unfamiliar dogs / people, the list can go on forever. 

One day (he was about 7 years old), he came running into the house - super excited and screaming "I've hurt my toe, I've hurt my toe, I've hurt my toe". I asked "didn't you look in front of you?" and he replied "no, and I've always wanted a  plaster on my toe like all my friends have but I never get one because you always look for the stones on my path."  That day I decided to let him BE!

It is hard and after nearly 20 years I still struggle with it but as both the boys are all grown up, I give my opinion and then tell them to decide what's right for them. I hope that if they are sorry for things that they have done, it will be their own doing and not me looking out for the stones on their paths.

That's it. I hope you have enjoyed my story. I'll be back with some crafting fun tomorrow.  I will give you a hint - I'm coloring some paper doilies but I don't own any mists so I've come up with a workable alternative. Please check back and all will be revealed.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting my blog.

The Playhouse @ Craft Storage Ideas

Hi there Bloglanders

Today I'm over at Craft Storage Ideas to show what Darnell did with a garden shed. Want a peek?

And some of the storage solutions inside:

It is calm, serene, beautifully organized and I love it (and so would you), Just click here to hop over and see. There's a lot more pictures and links. While you are there, leave a comment.  I would love to hear what you think of Darnell's Playhouse.

That's it from me. Thanks for visiting my Blog and I'll see you over at Craft Storage Ideas. Have a great day and please come back to play.

Bye Bye Easter Decor

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you are having a fabulous day!  Today I'm taking down my Easter Decor but over the weekend I had all my children home and we had a wonderful time outside.  The weather is glorious this time of the year in Sunny SA. Not too hot, not too cold.

The Easter mobile that I made with the little birdhouses was outside on my "stoep" above our outdoor table. I just had to take a pic to show you the leaves on my porch and the happy mobile dangling above the table - ready for fun with family and friends. Just look!

The colors are even crisper and brighter - you know me and my picture taking skills!!

Well, I'm off to my chores. Wernich is back in Bloemfontein and it's all work and no play for me today.

Thanks for stopping by my Blog. Please come back to play as I've got lots of crafting fun lined up to share.

Have a great day!