SMASH

Hallo Bloglanders

It's a beautiful day in sunny South Africa and I want to do a quick post and then take my book, old cat and sunglasses and spend the rest of the day outside.

I'm sure that you can still remember that I told you all my books are SMASH books. BUT - I received an original and I have to tell you - it is NOTHING compared to anything I've ever seen.  First of all it's HUGE (11x13.5 inches; 29x35 cm) and the papers are gorgeous. Bright, bold and much sturdier than normal cardstock. Inside there are pockets, photo sleeves and printed gassine envelopes. The outside is embossed and covered with thick plastic to protect the book. It even comes with a pen and glue stick attached to the plastic cover for your convenience. In my picture you can see this to the right of the the book.

I took some pictures for you. I'm sorry for my USA readers but I thought my fellow South Africans would love to see this - we don't get SMASH stuff here!!!!!

The book even explains the whole concept of SMASH filing on the first page. (A junk drawer in book format) It welcomes you and says good bye as well. Mine already feels like family.

To be fair, I love this book but the smaller one looks ordinary to me and I think I'll rather buy another book than any of the add-on products.  I have enough tools, stash and initiative to do them myself. But, that's only my opinion!

So, off I go and I'll take my SMASH book as well - just to look at him makes me smile.

Have a great day and please come back for another playdate tomorrow.

Voucher books for Mum

Good day to all of you hopping along in Blogland

Today I have a voucher book I made for Mother's Day to share.  I don't really believe in all these commercialized day's but always try to make something original, handmade and preferably at no cost to commemorate the date. Here it is:

I used what was left from old school books, printed the "VOUCHER", added a tag, a red heart and some twine from The Twinery.

Inside, I used a stamp (got it as a freebie from Hero Arts) and just filled it out with whatever I thought would put a smile on my mom's face.



You know me!  While the supplies were out, I made some for the neighborhood kids to do for their mothers.

That's it from me.  There's still enough time to whip up something special for your mum or to get the tools out for your kids to do something themselves. Have a great day!

Personalized Playing cards

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm so sorry that my post is late but I had a very hectic day. My mom and a friend came to visit and I spent the day between fabric and shoe shops. I didn't buy any fabric but couldn't resist navy sandals. (and it's winter in sunny SA!!!)

Do you still remember that I'm doing Christmas pressies every month?  This month I'm doing ones for the children. It's going to be playing cards - I don't know what you call the game (maybe someone can help) but it is where all the cards are turned upside down and you have to pick up a set.  If you get it right, you get another go otherwise it's your opponent's turn.  We used to play it for hours when my son was small. 

This is what Kyle's finished cards look like:

They are 3x4 inches each and I did everything in Photoshop, printed it on cardstock and had it laminated for strength and durability.  I used pictures of Kyle, his parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle and even the family dog.  It will be packed in an upcycled tin, wrapped and awaiting collection from Christmas father later this year.

Here I've got a close-up of the recipient himself:. Isn't he a sweetie?

I hope you have enjoyed our playdate and will come back to play tomorrow when I'll be sharing some more of my toys.





Autumn

Hi there Bloglanders

It's a beautiful new week and I hope you all have one filled with love, creativity and sunshine.  In Stellenbosch we had our first winter rain last week but the weekend was hot and sunny. It's beautiful outside - colored leaves and fluffy white clouds everywhere you look. 

You know that I'm not good at taking pic's but all this was too much for me. On Sunday, I got out early and took some photos in my neighborhood.

Here they are.

And just to show that I did it myself:

I'm off to have my pictures printed. I've got a pre-made mini book that I want to use.  If you want to see where I got my inspiration, you can click here. What I love about this mini is that you can print 4x6 pictures, glue them together and whoa-la - mini made!

Thanks for joining me.  I'll be back tomorrow to share some more creativity with you. Have a great Monday!



Appreciation

Hi there Bloglanders

Today I'm sharing my Play Date Cafe entry for this week:

And this is the inspiration:

If you want to see the rest of the entries, click here.

Those of you who follow the WCS blog, will know that they are sharing ideas for teacher appreciation this week.  Now, I'll never be a teacher as I'm far too impatient but for years I used to do Sunday school  at church.  In all those years ONE mum made her son write me a letter at the end of the year to tell me how he appreciated me and in all honesty that made all those years of getting up early on a Sunday worth my while. Whenever I see her or her son in town I get this huge grin that keeps me in a good mood the whole day.

I don't have children at school any more and know that working mum's don't have a lot of time for appreciation but whenever I have grandchildren I will do the teacher appreciation gifts for them. 

You know me, I'm like a factory at my scrap desk.  All the tools were out so I decided to stack up on "thank you gifts" while I did the Play Date Cafe entry.  Here is the rest of the Play Date Cafe family:

And X3 that will be delivered today as "thank you gifts":

In total I have made 10 of these. Inside is a small slab chocolate.  I will keep the rest in a container in my fridge and they will be ready whenever I need to thank someone. (Maybe I'll do it more if I have something ready made to deliver) Come to think of it, this would make great party favors or Mother's day gifts as well!

Well, that's it from me for the day. I have to get back to the office as I still have "thank you gifts" to deliver before the weekend starts. Have a great weekend and please come back to play.



Handbag Fave's

Good morning Bloglanders

I'm still trying to catch up on work after the long weekend but all work and no play makes Hazel a dull girl. 

Today I'm sharing my Handbag fave's with you.  I ALWAYS keep one of these in my bag and it goes everywhere with me.  The moral of the story is that I hate it when someone asks you what your children / husband / cat  looks like and you have to start sorting through stuff on your phone.  Maybe I'm just not good at it but I've never seen a good picture on a telephone. (and you know I don't have high photo expectations)

So, once in a while I have a picture printed in 2x3, stamp it with a date and have it laminated. I then add it to my binder ring and it's done. Whenever I get bored with a picture I take it out and it goes into another binder ring witch I keep on my nightstand. My fave's over the years. I even date the cover of my book because even that gets changed!

On the back you can see the stamp that I use on everything I make.  I just makes me smile whenever I see it.

In Stellenbosch it's cold and wet. I'm off to put on some winter woollies and will be making homemade soup and freshly baked bread for lunch. I got a tomato soup recipe from my Robertson friend and it's simply the best. I'll take some pictures and share it with you. (Of course not the soup!  The recipe and the pic's!)

Have a great Thursday and please come back to play.

White trees

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm back from a wonderful, long weekend and inspired to finish old and new projects ASAP.  The problem is that I'm snowed under in office work and will probably have to wait until the weekend to get to my craft desk.  In the meantime we will cover some alternative projects.

As I've told you before, my blind-side-son is an architect and studying towards a higher degree this year.  He's designs are very calm, serene and holistic. (and very white!) Even the trees have to be white!  So, A+ personality (that's me) came up with the solution to his white tree problem - I picked foliage on my daily walk around the park, sprayed them with spray-on-adhesive, then with white spray  paint and whoa-la!! 

Very calm, serene and holistic (and very white) trees!

And here you can see the  whole idea.

I know this is not my normal crafty ideas but I wanted to show you what a bit of initiative and some craft stock can do to an alternative project. That's it from me for today. Thank you for coming to play. Please come back tomorrow and I will share more of my toys.