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.

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!!

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.

My 2016 "Plan of Action"

Happy Monday Bloglanders!!

I hope you are well. I took some time off blogging for a bit of work and travelling with my husband. Last year when my mom was so sick I realized that if you get to that point, all that counts, is your memories. We should really make them matter.

Part of making more memories is having more time to make them!! And YES, I'll still be crafting as it is part of ME but I decided to make it quicker.

I'm using a 6x12 album for my 2016 PL. I like that it is the same length as my 12 x 12's from previous years but it is easier to move around the house and one week in my life fits onto a single or double page. If I need more, I'll just use more ........................ no rules! Not only a change of size, I'm embracing my phone skills.

I spend hours waiting on clients, in queues at the Post Office, Traffic Department and Grocery Store. It drives me crazy to lose all this time. SO, 2016 started out with a few apps in my Christmas stocking. The ones I use is PhotoGrid (I LOVE collages!); LetterGlow, Project Life and Dropbox. Between these 4, I can do ANYTHING!!!

From top to bottom:

:

I added the date and location in LetterGlow. I wanted some open spaces as I'll be adding "hard" elements for the date and week.

I used a template from the Project Life app, added my pictures, a journaling card and some journaling then saved it to my pictures. I opened it up in Letterglow and added the other elements "lief dit" (love it); "PEREK" (perfect), the couple and the arrow. You can even change the colour of the digital image - I changed "lief dit" to orange. DONE!!

Exactly the same!

As I'm Afrikaans and we don't get ANY Afrikaans digi images, I decided to make my own!! These are my first attempts. Wanne know how I get it onto my phone?

I make it in Photoshop, save it to PNG, upload it to Dropbox and ta-da .................................. you can insert it anywhere. As I said, I use LetterGlow but maybe you already have another method. Leave me a comment - I would love to know.

I even make my own journaling cards:

Step 1: Project Life app for the layout, journaling box and filler cards:

Step 2: Still in the PL app, I added the journaling. You can do this in LetterGlow as well but in PL it forms a textpath which is much easier to manipulate than adding text one row at a time.

Step 3: Adding elements in LetterGlow. I also added the "Oktober" here - can't do it like that in PL app / I just haven't figured it out!!

The "hello" and red arrows is from LetterGlow's library, "PERFEK" (perfect) once again - my own handiwork uploaded to Dropbox and the pineapple  is a digital image from Amy Tangerine. "Oktober" (October) was just typed and moved and sized to fit the block already on the journaling card.

Have you tried using your phone for crafting?? I use an iPhone 6 and I find it really easy and straightforward to operate. I have NO knowledge of other phones but I'm sure the apps will work for whatever you use.

OH!!! Before I forget ................................ Before I go to the printers, I go back to the PL app and see what my completed page will look like:

This is the only 6x12 page template on the app (as far as I know). I would love to have one that has 1 x 6 x 12 slot and another with 3 x 6 x 4 slots. In the meantime, I'm making plans to do what I have to. You can print the page as it is but I do it in 3 separate 4x6 photos as it's a lot cheaper and I love pocket pages. IMPERFECT ME!!

I'm off to have my pictures printed. When I come back I'll add my "hard" elements and tomorrow you will have a picture of my completed page right here on Play as U GO.  Check back. I have some more 2016 shortcuts to share!!

Have wonderful day and thanks for looking at my blog today. Feel free to ask questions. If I can help, I surely will.

PS. To my Afrikaans Bloglanders. Here is the link to the two digital images that I've used on this page. Download and USE!! Check back and I'll share some more right here on Play as U GO.

Link vir "Lief dit"

Link vir "perfek"

Notebook Layout

Happy Sunday Bloglanders!!

I hope you are having a wonderful time!! It is VERY hot down under in Sunny SA and even though I try to keep up with my crafting - today I thought it too hot to do. Therefor I'm sharing a project from a few days ago.


This page is all about the similarities between me and my mum. Not a lot but still worth mentioning - for the rest of my life, I will remember her sewing - she made ALL our clothes and it looked like designer outfits. I suppose they were - we drew pictures and she made it come to life.

Here you can see the whole page:

My inspiration came from this week's Magazine Monday Challenge:

and the colourful background came from last week's challenge:

Who said you only have to be inspired by one thing??? I loved the black title and doodling but as I decided to simplify my crafting this year, I only used black letters, journaling and a flourish on  my "busy" background. It was super easy and finished in a flash.

I added a picture of me and my mum. The frame is from one of Wilna Furstenberg's classes. Love it and have used it on numerous projects.

I love how it turned out and can't wait to get inspired by next week's Magazine Monday!!

Thanks for looking at my blog. Tomorrow is the 1st of February - if you haven't started on your New Year's resolutions - now is the time!! Get going with the first thing on your list - by the end of the year you would have accomplished 11. Even if you only get to 5 - it's 5 more than before!!

Have a GREAT week and a LOVE-ly February!

Getting Inspired

Hello Bloglanders

I'm still on my quest to get inspired??? Have you tried The Creative Life Documented?? Well, I am and it's working. My workspace is cluttered which means - I've been inspired!!

Let me show you the next project I did with the 3 colours of wrapping paper picked up from my local supermarket:

A lot of pictures, a few torn strips of wrapping paper and embellishments from my stash.  As easy as that and it took me a few minuted to complete.  I love the "Springy" feel of the whole layout!

AND, a page for my planner:

This week we are "making time" over at The Creative Life Documented. I had a GOOD think about this and worked out a lot of short cuts that I'll be taking in future. Check back and I'll tell you more in my next post. In the meantime, I'll share my first step towards having more time to be creative:

In this layout I used ONLY photos and even took a picture of the logo of the place where we've been  to use as a tile for my page.  I also added the date to one of the pictures - no need for labels / stamping. All done while we were camping - only printing and it's in my album for my family and future generations to see and enjoy!!

That's it!! I'm off to "make some time"!! I'll be back later this week with two more of my projects. Have FUN and remember to TRY SOMETHING NEW - TODAY!!

Vintage Beach Layout

Hello Bloglanders

Happy Sunday to you!! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and that this coming week will be totally awesome.

This past week I've been inspired by a lot of new ideas.  First one up is Paper Crafter's Corner Magazine Monday Challenge #109. This is my attempt:

And the inspiration:

All I could think of was beach, sand and sea.  When I looked through my childhood album for pictures, it fell apart. No time like the current to relocate them to an acid and lignin free album. I decided to keep all the original pictures but as most on them include other family members, I scanned them first.  The ones in my album is nearly 50 years old and faded but I still love them and am very glad that  they are now safe for at least the next 50 years.

Most probably I'll enlarge the bottom left one for the "beach house photo project". I shared my first attempt here.  Can you imagine how GREAT it would be to look at these "vintagy" family pics all day long. Once I've done 4, I'll have them framed and up on the walls.  Watch this space and you'll be the first to see my Beach House Memory Wall.

That's it. I'll be back once the Craft Storage post is up to share how I made my mini Softies. I'm sure you are as excites as I am to make a butterfly to join Flower Power and Maya the Bee. 

Have a GREAT week and thanks for looking at my blog today.

Vintage Layout

Happy Sunday Bloglanders!!

I've been crafting up a storm! My Project Life pages for April and May are done, I'm working on June pictures, I've been trying my hand at making "softies" and we have beautiful weather down under in Sunny SA - so, I've tried out LOTS of new recipes.

But let's not wast time on things that I'll show later - here is my Vintage Layout:

For some time now, I've been planning to do some "beachy", vintage pictures for the walls of the Beach House. Most of the pictures are in a bad state from being stored in acid containing albums or even worse - boxes stuck away somewhere.  Also, they have been taken many, many moons ago with instant cameras.

I just don't like small pictures on BIG, white, seaside walls!! SO, when I saw Papercrafting Magazine Monday challenge #107, the vintage "feel" reminded me of this picture of my husband and his cousin on the beach.

I decided to make my picture "bigger" with a Layout - how simple is that! With the exception of the picture and the background paper, everything came from my scraps. I didn't want the title to stand out. Therefor, I went for white on white lettering:

I love how it turned out and can't wait to have it framed and up on the wall. In the meantime I'm off to rescue another vintage picture. Come back to play and all will be revealed right here on Play as U Go.

Thanks for looking at my blog today. Have a GREAT week and remember to try your hand at something new - Today!

"Layout" gone wrong???

Happy Wednesday Bloglanders

Just a quick post to show what I've been up to.  The SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challenge for the week is "Let's get Sentimental".  As I don't do cards, I decided to try my hand at moulding paste and make a Project Life title card.

Once a month I record what is current at Hamman HQ and I thought this mini layout would be perfect.  Everything that I've used, was out as I wanted to participate in this challenge. (Heidi Swapp: Stencil, wood veneer and Dymo)

I started out with a stencil from Wilna Furstenberg's Art and Design class, light molding paste and acrylic paint. Then everything was too white, so I added some yellow and I went on adding stuff until everything seemed all wrong. Wilna calls it "overworked". YES!!! My page is totally overworked but I decided to keep it like this, add it to the rest of my Project Life spread and maybe tone it down a bit. Normally I would just throw something out that does not meet my expectations but I decided to embrace my imperfections in 2015 so this one's a keeper.

Tomorrow I'll be back with my "layout gone wrong" - can't wait to see how it turns out. Check back and you will see ..........................

14 May 2015
And look @ me now!!

LINK

Happy Wednesday!