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.

Monochrome Mini Magic

Happy Week 23 Bloglanders

OK, maybe you are counting differently but what's important is that we are nearing the middle of 2016. Time to get going and get things done.

I just came back from a mini holiday / maxi weekend and decided to get my pictures and memorabilia into my Project Life album right away!

Most of my pictures went into 6x12 Project Life pockets but I decided to put the journalling, more pictures and memorabilia into a mini book (well sort of) and add it to my album. Like I did here.

I just cut an old school exercise book to 6x12 and sew it to a page protector.

Everything except the page protector is from my scrap stash - I even recycled a printed paper bag from my previous birthday's pressie.

Now just for a bit of decorating:

I decided to go for a monochrome look inspired by the SimonSaysStamp Monday Challenge. Normally I'm not a natural kind of girl but because this was all about an outdoor, camping trip in the wild of Sunny SA, it worked perfectly.

Did you spot more of my "secret sewing"?

And it's in my 6x12 Project Life album:

I hope to have a video soon of all my holiday pictures. I'm sure you would love to page through it with me. In the mini book are loads of brochures, maps, notes and more pictures.  The maps and brochures are BIG and folds out or fit into glassine pockets that I've added to the inside pages.

That's it. Another project done and dusted!! Thanks for visiting my blog today and please come back to play. In the meantime, have FUN and craft on. I'll be back later this week to show my super sexy picnic basket. All handmade by ME and in a monochrome colour-scheme as well. Love it!!

PS. For those of you who want an inside peek, this is my VERY first attempt at a video. Please bear with me - I'm sure I'll improve with every one I make!!

Going, going GONE!!

Hello Bloglanders

No, I'm not letting go of my little blog - I'm just officially letting you know that I LOVE to travel and plan to do so whenever the opportunity arises. For years my boys came first but now that they have lives of their own, I'm off to GO, SEE, DO.

For the past week I joined Wynand on a business trip to Upington. We extended our stay to visit 2 of South Africa's national parks - The Augrabies Falls and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. I'm on a quest to visit ALL the South African National Parks - have a look - we have a LOT!!

Let me show you the Project Life pages I made while there.

Augrabies Falls:

Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park:

I only used my iPhone (Project Life LetterGlow and PhotoGrid Apps). What I love about this method of memory keeping is that it's simple, LOTS of pictures and my story is being told while I'm still there to enjoy the moment.

When I have time, I'll still do layouts and "embellishment scrapping" but with my lifestyle getting busier and storage space less, I plan to keep doing a lot of digital memory keeping. I keep reminding myself that this is MY LIFE, MY STORY and I can tell it whatever way I choose.

That being said, I'll be using above pictures in my Travel Journal as well but this one will get more handwritten detail.  I'll also include tags in both above layouts to tell it all. While at the parks, I gathered some brochures and maps and this will probably go towards a "mini" book that will go into my PL album. Like the one I did here.

And a peek for the lazy / busy ones:

Link to Project Life travel book

If you missed out on my post about doing Project Life on my iPhone. Get it here.

Link to phone memory keeping

Sunny South Africa is heading towards winter which means that our light quality is less. My photo taking skills is totally zero and therefore, I wait untill the natural light is better to take pictures (on my phone, of course!!) First in line on my photo taking list is my totally awesome picnic basket.  I can't wait to show you!! I couldn't find anything to fit my needs and decided to make my own. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!

I'll be back to show what happens in my life and on my craft table. In the meantime, have FUN and remember to try something new - TODAY.