Journal cover

Happy Sunday Bloglanders!!

I had a wonderful weekend. One son left for Canada, I'm "babysitting" his cat and the other one is moving to a nearby town. Busy, busy, busy.

And I've made sure that I have some crafting FUN as well. A cover for my journals!!

After seeing a video on YouTube, I decided to do my December Daily in a notebook format this year. BUT, I already have one in progress for my Thank-You-Journal on my desk. Getting a bit all over the show. So I decided to make a cover to keep everything together. I totally LOVE the Christmas Cat fabric!!

Wanna peek inside?

On the left is a pocket made with some more Christmassy fabric and on the right my DD. Not done yet but ready for action.

On the left is the back of my DD  waiting to be decorated and on the right my nearly finished gratitude journal. If you missed out on all that fun, just scroll down to my previous post and read all about it.

And last but by no way least I have a brand new one that will become my summer vacation notebook. Remember, down under it's SUMMER and HOT!!

You will see all of them right here on Play as U GO again. Just keep checking back and all will be revealed.

And a bit of detail:

I've added 2 colourful buttons to the front of my cover - my inspiration came from the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge - Trio-Tastic and I even added 3 bookmarks. The trim and buttons all came from my sewing stash. Totally love seeing and using them all the time.

Wanna make one yourself?

1. To get the size, I stacked 3 journals and folded a piece of copy paper to fit over it.

2. I added about 1 inch to the length of the copy paper and my pattern is made.

3. Zig-zag some stiffing onto the back of iron-on-batting. I made it about half an inch smaller all around and even made a "spine" for my cover as it will become bulky when  my journals fill up. For stiffing I've uses mosaic backing - I'm sure you will get something similar in your local fabric shop but this works very well and I use it in lots of sewing projects.

4. Fabric for my front cover ironed onto the batting.

5. Lining for my inside cover.

6. Pockets for the front and back flaps. I can add 2 more journals here should I need to. 

7. Elastic to keep my journals from falling out.

8. To the front cover I've added the buttons and some more elastic to keep my journals from falling out and my memorabilia safe.

OK ...................................... I forgot to take a pic!! Just sandwich the front and backs together and pipe all around.

DONE.

If you want  more detail ............................. leave me a comment below and I'll gladly answer / give more info.

I totally love it!! Think I'll do some more in different sizes and even a few for very, very special Christmas pressies.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Have a happy week and please come back to play. Remember to hop over to SimonSaysStamp's Monday Challenge to see the rest of Bloglands Trio-Tastics.

Thanks = Dankie

Good Monday Bloglanders

I hope you are having a marvellous November!! Even though we don't do Thanksgiving down under in Sunny South Africa, I try to do a thank-you-journal every year. It's like my December Daily - a yearly routine. I just LOVE to look back at my stash of journals lined up on my shelve.

Have a look at this one!!! It's still next to my craft desk and one of my all time FAVE mini books.

Let me show you what I made this year:

I'm using this handmade Travellers Notebook and Collect pictures to reflect at my blessings. We are SUPER busy during November at home and at work and I wanted to speed things up a bit. Let's peek inside:

I decorated this page with Gesso, a stencil, die cuts and scraps of paper. I printed 4 Collect pictures on a 6x4 photo, cut them apart and DONE. My aim is to have at least 12 pictures and therefore pages in my journal. Throughout the years I have learned not to do a page a day as it's too overwhelming for me.

And a few more pics:

I'm still trying to use what I have in my stash in my quest to live cleaner and leaner. It's not working but I'm trying!! Except for my pics - I stayed true to my myself in this project and I love how it turned out. I will probably add another picture or two to this post as I still have a few pages to fill up and I also want to add "November 2016 / just "2016" to the front or back covers.

Now you have to excuse me - I'm off to prep my December Daily notebook!!

Thanks for looking at my blog today .................................. please come back to play.

PS. I'll be adding my notebooks to my Project Life album. I love them on a shelf  but I also want to store everything in one place.  Watch this space and I'll show you how.

AND

DANKIE = THANK YOU IN AFRIKAANS

Happy 1st of November!!

Hello Bloglanders

I'm BACK!!! Most probably I won't be blogging as often as I used to but I'll try to get at least one post up every week. It's not that I don't craft - NO!!! I do. I just got tired of taking pics, "talking" to you and not hearing anything back. It's sort of one dimensional!!

I do plan to go towards videos but first I'll have to figure all that out. If any of you know of "how to" videos, PLEASE leave me links in the comments.

Another thing - I'll be using real scraps in my future scrapping projects. No big deal if something from my stash slips in but I'll be focusing on what I've got - my punches, stamps, wrapping paper, brochures, printing and Silhouette. This all is because I want to have less worldly goodies around me.

OK, let me show you what I've done last week:

First up is my planner page:

I just love this "quote". I got it on Pinterest and then found out that it was done by one of my FAVE's Amy Tangerine. (you can get the link from my Pinterest board here) The whole page evolved around it. The stamped labels are from Kelly Purkey (another FAVE), the diecuts and washi from my stash. Underneath the quote is a bit of wrapping paper.

As I love this planner page so much, I'm submitting it to the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge - ANYTHING GOES. Hop over there to see what the rest of Blogland did.

And a close-up:

And my Project Life Page for week 40 and 41:

Since my son's accident I haven't had a lot of time to spend on my Project Life pages but I still want to capture what we did. So, I'm mostly using Collect cards to keep track. On the bottom right, I've used a picture of my Sweet peas as a filler card. I love pictures more than shop bought stuff so, if you have it, why not use it??

I'm still using my 6x12 alum and on this picture I have 2 weeks side by side. Love all the pictures and the info. On the picture next to the Sweat peas I'm waiting on my son trying on shirts in Woolworth's. He still can't fasten the small buttons so I had to go with to do that for him.  A year from now, he would be fully recovered but I'll still have this pic to remind me to be thankful that he survived the accident and has the opportunity to fully recover.

Next up - some sewing:

My mom died less than a year ago and while she was sick a carer looked after her. Mum made me promise to make something for Gerda's baby's christening. SO, "baby" Gerda got his little white christening suit.

I made it from white, raw silk. The blue tartan bow is just to add some "boyishness" to the outfit. While at it I want to wish them well for the christening this coming weekend.

Last but not lease, a 6x12 layout as well as a Project Life page. Both my boys are 28 years old. One of their classmates recently got married. Pieter was the bestman and Wernich the MC. It is very special as today it's 4 months since Wernich's accident. We never in our wildest dreams would have thought that he would be MC at a friend's wedding after spending a whole month in ICU. Here they are - both my boys:

I used Letter Glow to add the background picture (a photo of roses in my garden) and text.  Printed. Done. Here you can see the 6x12 Layout on the left and the PL page on the right.

More detail:

That's it!! I'm off to get that video sorted as I'm sure you would have loved to see how all this came together. Watch this space and all will be revealed.

Thanks for looking at my blog. Have a wonderful day and a thankful November.

It's Hip to be Square

Good morning Bloglanders

Today I'm sharing a Project Life page from my 2016 album. I love these smaller slots!! A 12x12 inch page used to intimidate me. With 6x4 and 3x4 slots, I just get going and the page develops from there.

Everything is still about my son's rehab and as always, the cats are nearby to give moral support. Best part about smaller slots is that I can use all my scraps and leftover stash to decorate. The tiny black and white alphas were done in Silhouette studio. I'm totally addicted to them to add titles and sub titles.

My second flavour of the month is chipboard and puffies. Especially the little frame in the top left slot makes the cat stand out in the picture. Here is a close-up:

I'm submitting my project to the SSS Wednesday challenge. Hop over here to see what the rest of Blogland did with the same challenge.

It’s Hip To Be Square

It sure is hip to be square!!

Thanks for looking at my blog today. Have a GREAT week and please come back to play.

Life is Messy Project Life Pages

Hello Bloglanders

And I'm back!.......... Wernich spent a month in ICU, 2 weeks at a rehab facility and we are now looking after him at home. The last two months have been hectic - no time for anything but we are slowly getting back to normal. He has therapy sessions twice a day and will make a full recovery. It will take time - about 2 years but we are SO thankful that he is alive and recovering. I can tell you - to get the news that your son has been in an accident is every parent's worse nightmare come true. To spend 2 weeks at his bedside while he is in a coma and not knowing the extent of his brain injury, makes it even worse.

I hope this never, ever happens to me again. For that matter not to anyone else as well!! Thanks for all your prayers. Our faith and prayers have been the only things that kept us going.

Now you know.

I kept my Project Life pages up to date throughout the first half of 2016 but "lost" out on the first 2 months of the last half. I didn't even want to look at the hospital photos but decided that it's important to remember what happened when. Fortunately I did take photos as we progressed and kept everything recorded on my Collect app. I decided to print directly from Collect, add a few 6x4 pictures, journaling and embellishments - that's it. Let's go!

I did cover some of the ICU pictures to protect my son's privacy. Can you spot my blogpost title?? Keep reading and all will be revealed.

All about "firsts". How awful to have to see your 28-year-old learning to walk and eat again??

Leaving the hospital and moving on to rehab.

On the left I've used mostly Collect pictures and right next to it, I recorded my birthday party. It was the day before Wernich left the rehab facility and we asked to take him with us to a restaurant to celebrate. Don't worry, the wine was for me - now alcohol for a patient with a brain injury!!

The first 6 months of  2016 I went for a "cleaner" look but I missed my own handwriting and funky embellishments. Also, working in weeks got the better of me. I'm much more of an "occasional" scrapper. SO, I'll just go with dates and occasions for the last part of 2016.

As this whole experience was awful for all of us, I went for a very grey, black and white colour scheme with pops of blue, orange and green. I got these from my stash.

And my Blogpost's title is an embellishments from Messy Box:

And some more close-ups:

The vellum hearts inspired my colour scheme. They are from Messy Box as well.

Even where I've used 6x4 photos, I added the collect journaling to save time and give continuity to my layouts.

That's it!!

Thanks for looking at my blog. I'll be back to show more of my projects right here on Play as U GO. Have a GREAT weekend and thanks for bearing with me!!

I'll be back

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you have missed me!!  I'm so sorry about that but on the 1st of July my son was in a serious car accident. We've been through 5 days in a coma, he is till on a ventilator but we are making progress!!

All this has resulted that I rather spend my days at his bedside and not at my craft desk and therefor, I've temporarily stopped blogging.

Right now, all he needs is medical care and prayers. If you are a believer like me, please pray for us.

I'll be back with some updates and when things get back to normal, I'll be back to my craft table and blogging.

Thanks for EVERYTHING. I miss you all.
Hazel

Out of Africa Travel Journal part 2

Happy Sunday everyone!!

I hope you had a wonderful Father's Day. We had. Both the boys and our daughter-in-law came home for the weekend and we loved having them around.

After everyone left and all the dishes were in the washer, I had some time to finish my second "Out of Africa" Travel Journal page.

Once again I used the Africa stamp from Studio Calico, a collage picture and some bits and bobs from my stash. While at it, I made some more of my magic mini alphas which I do with my Silhouette. More about that later this week.

As South Africa is SO far from everything, we do travel a lot. Not only locally but all over the world. I do have a "local" as well as an international bucket list. On my local one is to visit all Sunny South Africa's national parks and as my husband is a HUGE camper, my dreams may come true sooner than later. My travel journal keeps track of all that.

Let's do some close-ups:

Sunny South Africa marked with a puffy star.

We have a green caravan called MOTTY (short for MOTLAPPER - my son did not know the difference between a moth and a butterfly so he combined the words in Afrikaans and called the all Motlappers MOT = MOTH; SKOENLAPPER = BUTTERFLY) See, now you can speak Afrikaans as well!! Whenever I do a camping page in my Travel Journal or Project Life album, I add one of these diecuts. You will see lots of them on my projects.

One of the lions we saw and more of my Magic Mini Alphas.

And a camera die cut and "Ek heart dit = I love it" to finish my page.

There you have it!! My second "Out of Africa" Travel Journal page. Hop over to the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge to see where the rest of Blogland travelled this week. The challenge this week is WORLD TRAVELER.

Have FUN and thanks for looking at my bloggie today.

Out of Africa Travel Journal

Happy weekend Bloglanders

I got up very early this morning to get this post up as both my boys are coming home for Father's Day and I want to spend every available second with them. Of course I'll share some pic's after the weekend!!

Today I brought a Travel Journal page to share:

A few weeks ago I joined Wynand on a business trip and we extended our stay to visit 2 of Sunny South Africa's National Parks - Augrabies Falls and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. I showed you the mini book I made here.

BUT, I also keep a travel journal that joins me on every trip I do. Do you know that Sunny South Africa has 22 National Parks? Wynand and I plan to visit them ALL.  We only have 5 to go!! Want to read more about it? Just click here.

As you can see - we saw LOTS of animals including 5 lions!!  I had this stamp set from Studio Calico that I used on another page and as it was out, I stamped and coloured the 5 lions and the giraffe that we saw. A few pictures and bits and bobs from my stash and it was done.

I still have to add my journaling. Normally I add the website, rate the experience, note the kilometres we drove and what it cost. When I have a bit of free time over the weekend, I'll add it. Also included in this stamp set is a map of Africa. I'm using this on another Travel Journal page which I will share next week. Just check back and all will be revealed.

I think my other "travel stamps" are from Ali Edwards and I just HAD to add the quote from Nelson Mandela (it's also part of the "Africa" stamp set) "it always seems impossible until it's done". 

I do a travel journal every year and this one is nearly full. We still have 2 more trips planned for later this year and of course, I expect the unexpected - hopefully my journal will be full this year.

Someone asked me about the "mini alpha's" on my layouts and journals. I'll show you exactly how I do them in another post.  As we don't get the nice goodies down under in Sunny SA, I improvise. I do them with my Silhouette but you can print them on an ordinary office / home printer and cut it out by hand as well. Check back and I'll show you how.

That's it!! I'm off to get beds made, buy food and have an early morning cup of coffee on my "stoep". While you are here - hop over to the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challenge of the week - ANIMAL MAGIC. I bet nobody else saw 5 lions! (genuine ones out in the wild!!)

Thanks for looking at my bloggie. Have a GREAT weekend!!

 

Giftwrap Summer Garden Notebook

Hello Bloglanders

Happy Sunday to you all!!

Today I have a covered notebook to share:

Even though it's winter down under in Sunny SA, I got so inspired with the SimonSaysStamp Monday Challenge "Summer Garden" that I just had to get into the vibe.

You know me - LOTS of notebooks on my desk and in my pressie stash. It is SO easy just to add a funky pen / pencil and you have a beautiful, homemade present. No need for a lot of wrapping - just a glassine envelope and a bit of twine and you're ready to go - no use hiding all that beautiful stuff.

For this one I used butterfly wrapping paper to cover an ordinary notebook. Added a doily, some die cuts, stamping and scraps from my stash and it's ready to go. Even the title was die cut from glitter foam - nothing shop bought here!!

And a bit closer:

I LOVE to "sign" and date all my projects, This one got it on the back:

And I'm already using my brand new Summer Garden Notebook!!

With one roll of cheap wrapping paper I've covered numerous pressies, made this notebook, a planner page and a travel journal (it's coming in another post) and there's some more left. Here you can see a bit more of the beautiful print on the wrapping paper.

It's  really hard to get good scrapping supplies down under in Sunny SA. If I buy, I normally order online all the way from the USA. SimonSaysStamp is most definitely my FAVE shop and their shipping is the most affordable out there. Believe it or not but most shops don't even want to ship to South Africa!!  Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I tend to spend my money on dies, stamps and ink as they are rather Light and therefor cheap to ship. Then I look around for cheaper paper and art options locally.

So far it's working very, very well for me. If you are short of cash or living down under somewhere - just follow my example and use stuff that's already out there and available. Most of the time it's free!!!

That's it!! I hope you enjoyed my gift wrap Summer Garden Notebook as much as I have.

Have a GREAT week and please check back. I'm working on my VERY FIRST video EVER. It still needs some tweaking but it will hopefully be up before the weekend. You don't want to miss out as I'll show the inside of this travel journal that I've featured in my previous post. Once again, all supplies from my scrap stash and the local office supply shop.

Just scroll down or click here.

Bye, have FUN and thanks for looking at my bloggie.