Clean and Simple Pressie

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you are having a Wacky Wednesday!  Today I want to share a pressie that I made for a friend's birthday. I love giving interactive mini gifts / dimensional cards. Know what that mean?? Yes, something you can actually USE. And if I can recycle some leftover stash - you've got me hooked! Here they are:

Tags! I've used the "Quite the Pear" die and stamp set from SimonSaysStamp. I love the cat especially after I've added the hart to it's tummy and as my friend is a BIG cat lover as well, this would be perfect for her. 

Everything got packet in a 2.5 x 2,5 inch hinged box that I cut with my Silhouette:

And I added some blank cards, more cats, hearts, tags and twine to the box, Now my friend can use it to create notes and tags with her own personal touch.

I've only used scraps - for the cats it's offcuts from my watercolour paper because I intend to colour some of them with watercolour pencils. The labels, hearts and twine spool all came from my scrap cardstock stash. I think I'll be making some more of these to keep on hand to give away.

Where did my inspiration come from?? The SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge - Clean and Simple ................. and the cat stamp that I could not wait to use!!

That's it!! I'm off to do some shopping for our upcoming camping trip. Watch my Instagram feed to have a sneak at my daybook that will tag along.  In the meantime, have fun and remember to try something new - TODAY!

Design on Time - Rubber bands, paint / ink / mist and junk mail

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm back at Hamman HQ and yesterday we had a public holiday down under in Sunny SA - more time for FUN!!

Of course, we had a "braai" on the "stoep", beautiful weather and lots of cold, white wine. And I had some time to watch Amy Tangerine's Design on Time video.  Her inspiration came from Tim Holtz - rubber bands, paint / ink / mist and junk mail.

My take:

As I didn't want to copy Jamie's idea of misting the rubber bands, I used this piece of scrap fabric as inspiration:

As the 15 minutes were not enough to sew, I stapled my cut-up rubber bands onto the background. It looked totally horrible as I've used craft cardstock (not one of my faves). Some mists, paint and ink and the mess just got bigger. Once again - 15 minutes and no time to re-do.  I just went on with the rest on some office copy paper, added it to the wet mess and mounted it on cardstock to get it less messy.

I left it to dry overnight and now it looks rather good. Still not my fave colour scheme - I'm not into naturals - craft and mustard are a big NO on my craft table. But I do think that the blue and purple mounting does make a difference. I love the film strip and are rather proud of myself for keeping it up and finishing the layout.

The more I look at it, the more I love how it turned out. Maybe in a few years, it would be one of my all time favourites!!

That's it from Hamman HQ. I'm off to get some office work done, photos printed and shopping. Watch this space and you will be the first to see. Thanks for looking at my blog today. Have FUN!!

@ the West Coast

Hi Bloglanders

Happy weekend to you all! Down under in Sunny SA we have a long weekend. I'm at the beach house visiting my sick mum and Wynand is making wine.

Today I joined him at the winery's restaurant. 2015 West Coast Sauvignon Blanc with a seafood pizza with LOTS of seafood!

Hop over to my Instagram feed to the right of my blog to see the pic. I'll be back at Hamman HQ to do a proper craft post just 4 U. In the meantime - have fun and craft on!

Hazel

Make your own Background

Happy Sunday Bloglanders

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  I had FUN and a few projects to show but today I'm sharing a Multi Media project.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to make more backgrounds. Up till now, I just didn't get to it but when I saw the SimonSaysStamp Wednedsay challenge - I got my Gelato's out and here it is:

Only Gelatos, water and a print from Wilna's iheartstudio. The "quote" came from a sheet of patterned paper from Studio Calico. Have a look at my Planner Page where I've used it:

And a close-up:

That's it - STOP EVERYTHING AND DANCE!!

Have a GREAT week and thanks for looking at my blog today. I'll be back tomorrow with my Sunday Summery.

Design on Time - Sweet Potato, seeds and food magazine

Hallo Bloglanders and a happy Friday to you!!

Remember Last week's Design on Time for Amy Tan?? Well, if you thought that a funny combo - watch this week's video!! Sweet Potato, some sort of seeds (that I didn't have so I substituted it with poppy seeds) and something from a food magazine. You only get 15 minutes to do the layout!

Because of the time constraint, I just used the back of last week's layout. With the stitching already intact, I had texture that didn't cost me any seconds. If you missed it, here is last week's attempt where I did the stitching.

I couldn't think of ANYTHING to do with a sweet potato so I followed Amy and Jamie's example and stamped with it. As I knew it would take some time to dry, I stamped on some vellum heart die cuts and put them aside. The same with the seeds. I used some double sided adhesive foam and adhered the poppy seeds to one side. I didn't need to cut any of the hearts as I recycled them from my scrap stash. To save more time, I just stapled them onto my layout.

Here is a peek at my work in progress:

Once you stamp on the vellum with the acrylic paint it starts curling. I love the effect on my layout!

The story behind the journaling is that I try out a new recipe every month and as we try to cut down on carbs, a lot of it is reflected in what we eat / cook and bake. For my non South African Bloglanders KOS = FOOD. The vellum negative came from a previous layout. I just added it with the Silhouette registration marks and all - just positioned the hearts to cover the black lines and squares.

I just love these 15 minute layouts and  plan to use it to do a PL spread next week as I'm way behind schedule on that. Can't wait for the next video.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Have a Happy weekend and see you back in Blogland next week.

April Showers bring Spring Flowers

Hallo Bloglanders

What a  weird heading for Sunny South Africa heading for winter BUT .................... it's the inspiration for the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challenge. You know me and a good challenge ...........................

This is what I did:

Some time ago I invested in a pack of air dry clay and when we went on our last camping weekend I took it with to try.  It's wonderful, soft and easy to work with and dries quickly.  Back home I painted them with acrylic paint and they are ready to use on layouts, decorating presents and I'm even adding one to a bracelet. Watch this space and you will meet again ...................

I've used this one to decorate a pressie:

It's an inexpensive shop bought jewellery box that now looks like a million dollars and would be the the perfect place for a little girl to store her valuables.

Even if you can't get hold of a similar box, you can hop over to this post and see how I've recycled an old book cover to make one. And a peek for the lazy ones:

That's it. I'm off to my craft desk to work on Amy Tangerine's latest challenge - sweet potato, seeds and a food magazine!! I'll be back to show what I did. Just check back on my blog or join me on Instagram and you'll be the first to know.

Have a GREAT day and remember to try something new - TODAY!!

Amy Tangerine Design on Time - Sew, Stamp and Bling

Happy Friday Bloglanders!!

I'm off on a camping weekend - yes, mini notebook made, toys, food and gear packed and ready to spend some quality time with wonderful friends and family. I'll share in my Sunday Summary all that happened on my craft desk and around Hamman HQ this past week. If you want a peek, visit me on Instagram and see if you can spot the new projects (there's a link to the right on my blog).

For the first time in months, I did a layout - not a Project Life spread, a real, proper, old fashioned layout.

I told you before that I'm joining in Amy Tangerine's quest to be more creative. Every week someone sends her 3 "ingredients" and she makes a layout in 15 minutes using it. IMPERFECT ME adapted the concept to watching her video, jotting down the ingredients and the next morning while everyone is still asleep, I use my 15 minutes to come up with a layout. This week the ingredients were "stamp, sew and bling". I love how my layout turned out (except for my wicked way with the stamps!) and can't wait for next week's video.

If you want to get hold of Amy's Design on Time video's, go to her blog to get the links. You can see this week's video here. Even if you don't want to join in the crafting fun, just get over there and WATCH!!! Her "baby" Jack is totally adorable and makes a guest appearance in this video.

That's it - a wonderful peek into my children's lives scrapped and ready to go into my Project Life binder. And I had lots of FUN!

I'm off camping .................................... have a GREAT weekend and see you back in Blogland on Sunday.

Not just Evelopes

Happy Wednesday Bloglanders

I LOVE beautiful envelopes!! If you make your own cards, sending them off in ordinary, white envelope is like wearing a beautiful evening dress with flip flops. Let us start with the ones I made for my sister's kids:

And the back:

A bit of matching Washi and we are ready to go. All the boys are big rugby fans so I incorporated it in making the envelopes with Silhouette's "print and cut" function. No need for name tags - the jerseys says it all! Inside the envelopes I've got money, a small gift (shoe laces) and a card. Don't fear if you don't have a silhouette, I've used a coin envelope as a template (much less paper) and of course - I customized the size to fit my pressie.

But not only did the boys get beautiful Birthday envelopes, My dad got one as well.

All my fellow Creative Memories lovers from years gone by might recognize the paper. I've allocated ALL my unused paper to my "envelope" stash so you'll be seeing a lot more of them around here. For this one I didn't even use my Silhouette - trace the template and cut - decorate and you're done.

Last but not least. A 80th birthday card for my mum's "sew loving" friend:

For those of you who haven't noticed - I joined the Instagram gang. Find me here. It's FUN, FUN, FUN and I'm having a ball figuring out the new technology.

That's it. Enjoy the rest of your Wacky Wednesday and next time you need an envelope - go to that unused paper stash and make one yourself.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

PS. I'm submitting my envelopes to the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Birthday challenge. Hop over there to see what the rest of Blogland did.

Spring Art Journaling

Hello Bloglanders

As it's a LONG weekend, I decided to do something extra crafty special.  My inspiration came from an art journal page on the SimonSaysStamp blog and even if we are heading towards winter, I decided to hang onto the "summery" colour scheme a bit longer.

 It's actually funny!! My title is "SPRING" but in Afrikaans this means "jump" and it is what my page will be about. I adapted the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge to suit my needs! (and the South African weather)

For this page I used acrylic paints, moulding paste, a few transparencies and left over die cuts. My polka dot stencil is from Wilna Furstenburg's LOVE workshop and it's the third time I've used it. It didn't cost me anything to cut with my Silhouette and the effect is SO worth my while. Here is a close-up:

Hop over to the SimonSaysStamp Blog and see if you can spot the page that inspired me.

Thanks for looking at my project and visiting my blog. I'm off to get some sewing done ................................... I LOVE long weekends!

Easter 2015

                LINK                              LINK                              LINK                             LINK

DIY Card Kit

Hello Blogland

And a Happy Wednesday to you all!! I'm rushing around to get everything done before the LOOOOOONG Easter weekend but first I want to show what I made.

My mom is very sick and a lot of people go out of their way to make her life easier and of course, they have to be thanked.  She has a full time carer and as mum sleeps most of the day, Gerda (the world's most wonderful carer) are always looking for ways to fill her hours.

So, I gifted her with a DIY Card Box. When she has time, she makes cards, write thank-you-notes and keeps up to date with mum's admin. What a brilliant idea! (even if I have to say so myself)

A peek inside the box:

And I packed everything in a box that I cut with my Silhouette. If you have one on hand that can be recycled, it should work just as well but I wanted to stay with my milky, pastel colour scheme which reminds me of my mom's clothes.

My cut files are from Wilna Furstenberg's  shop. When I cut some for myself, I do a whole page and keep the rest in my stash to decorate my planner, pressies, art journal and cards. I love her stuff.

I wanted square cards as they had to fit into quarters of the square box. Also, I wanted them to fit the envelopes which were shop bought (the cheaper option!). So, I customized my envelopes (will show you how I did it in my next post) and cut the cards accordingly. These were my "dry goods":



































And some of the finished cards:

And here you can see what went where in my DIY Card Kit:

It's a GREAT way to recycle and share your crafting leftovers with family and friends.  The only item that I bought, was the glue stick  - the rest all came from my stash. I have more than enough for a few more kits.

That's it. Have a Wonderful Wednesday. Tanks for visiting my blog today and remember to try something new today.