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.

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.

Amy Tangerine Handbook Exercise #4

Good day Bloglanders

And a happy week to you all!!!  Once again I started my day with one of Amy Tangerine's handbook exercises.

You have to write the lies "that inhibit you from living your best creative life" on the left, then strike them out and write the "truths you will tell yourself before starting a project" on the right.  I decided not to strike them out but rather use my Amy Tangerine stamp set to stamp "NO" (=NEE in Afrikaans) on the left side and "JA" (=YES in Afrikaans) on the right in bright red ink.

Let me tell you what my NO NO NO NO NO says: VREES VIR MISLUKKING = FEAR OF FAILURE; VREES VIR SUKSES = FEAR OF SUCCESS. This actually comes from my son who always says that I procrastinate not because I'm scared of failure, but of success!!

On the right I wrote JY IS GOED GENOEG, JA, JY IS!!!! = YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH. YES, YOU ARE!!!

I totally love how it turned out and it's already in my Project Life album. When I get stuck on a project, it will come out and I'll read the "truth that I will tell myself before I start a project" and get my mojo back.

That's it. I'm off to do a few cards for upcoming events. Please check back as I will show what I've done right here on Play as U Go. Have a wonderful day and remember to try something new - TODAY!!