Cover for notebook

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday.  It's a beautiful day in Sunny SA.

Today I'm here to show what my covered notebook looks like. Ta-da:

This is the book that I have to keep track of all my codes and it's always on my desk. Of course I don't keep my bank codes in there - money is far too important to me - I remember those!

The book has been on my desk for the past 3 years and it looked horrible.  So, while all these papers and stickers were out for another project, I decided to cover it up ASAP.  And who wouldn't love to have a cheerful little book like this on her desk?  Even though it's winter in Sunny SA - it givers me a feeling of spring.

I'm off to the stationary shop to get some more of these books as they would make perfect pressies. I plan to have all my Xmas goodies finished by the end of October and so far I'm keeping to the schedule. The "quote" on my bathroom wall says: "going the extra mile keeps you miles ahead" - and it does!

Off I go. Enjoy the rest of your hop around Blogland and have a great day.  Please come back to play.

Girly Layout

Good morning Bloglanders

If I look at my blog stats, I can't help but notice that you don't like layouts. Maybe you just don't like mine BUT I love them and as my albums are very important to me, I'm sharing a layout today.

Normally I don't buy a lot of girly papers as my life is surrounded by men and they are allergic to pink. I'm not a huge fan of pink either but I've got a pink toothbrush, towels and suitcase as this means that nobody will even think of touching my stuff.

In one of my previous posts I've shared my sentiments about my 20-year-old cat, Tossel (pom pom in English).  She does everything I do.  From the pictures you can see that we both sleep a lot.  Funny enough, all these pictures were taken on different occasions and when I was looking for pics of her to scrap, they worked perfectly together. I also love the grey and pink color scheme of my layout.

That's it from me. I'm off for a walk in the park and then I'll be back in the office to get my admin up to date.

Have a great day and please come back to play.

Gift Card Envelope with The Play Date Cafe

Good morning Bloglanders

Friends of mine got engaged and I decided to give a gift card.  A bit more personal than money in an envelope but still ........... So I decided to add a personal touch of my own.  A pocket where the card fits and then a handmade envelope to go with it.  Of course I only used scraps! Even the yellow button comes from an old jersey.

This is what the envelope looks like:

The sentiment is from a freebie ex Scrap RDV.  And these are all the components:

And the back of the envelope:



The pocket where the gift card slots in, is double and I left the back open to write my message to the newly engaged couple.

Once again my photo taking skills let me down as the colors are actually very yellow, blue and pink.  When I started out my project I searched through my scrap stash for colors to fit The Play Date Cafe's theme of the week.  This is what it looks like:

I find inspiration from their color combo every week and the good thing about doing a project to submit, is that I use colors from my stash that I normally would never use / never use together. Once again, I proved to myself that thinking outside the box does not only use up my scraps but it saved me time and money as well!

Have a great day and please come back to play.

Mini Camp Recipe Folder

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you had a great weekend.  I did.  We went to a luxury resort (part work, part play) and had a wonderful time. Great service, wonderful food, most beautiful setting - five +++ star!

Now for the promised mini recipe folder. 

As you know my husband is Mr Campy and as I don't want to miss out - we do the camp thing.  Currently my hubby and his mates are planning a trip through Namibia.  I only have to worry about the food and as I don't want to pack my recipe books, I decided to convert the ones I use while camping to ATC card size. 

I made dividers from camping pictures, inserted some quirky speech bubbles and had it laminated for endurance. In between I inserted the little pockets that are used for security cards.  They are used like little page protectors for my recipes.  The wonderful thing is that you can change the recipes should you need to.

I made two of these books - one for myself and one for a camping friend's birthday pressie.  You will see that I included a ticket on my first page which says that it is book #1 of 2. Obviously mine is #2 of 2.  I just think that this shows how special she is to me.

And the back of the books:

Currently I only have 2 recipes in my book - one for Princess pancakes and one for pizza.  I'll take pictures of the pancakes next time I make them and share the recipe - super easy.

I'm off to work.  Have a great week and please come back to play.





Card for CPS challenge

Hi there Bloglanders

I'm going away for the weekend but want to submit the birthday card I made to the CPS challenge before I go. Here is my interpretation:

I think it's "manly" enough to use as a birthday card for my husband.  It has a sort of Moroccan feel to it.  I think the die is from Papertry Inc and the rest is leftovers from freebies or kits from days gone by.  Even the buttons come from my sewing left-overs.

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

I'll be back on Sunday to do a post on my mini recipe book that I'm using when we go camping. I'll also share the easiest pancake recipe ever (it's in my book, of course). I call them Princess Pancakes as the recipe came from daughter-in-law #1 - The Princess!

Have a great weekend and please come back to play on Monday.



My Mind's Eye layout

Good morning Bloglanders

I had a wonderful day until it started to rain.  No walk in the park!  Anyway, I still loved every moment of it and enjoyed the time with my husband, son and friends.

Today I want to show you a layout I did about our past holiday - some of the pictures you'll recognize as I included them in my mini book as well.  Still, my albums are very important to me and I'm sure they'll be the ones that my grandchildren will read in years to come.

From the picture you can see that I did the layout and filed it away and only THEN did I stumble upon this blog post from My Mind's Eye. Now, normally I don't use papers from only one kit.  This is not my personality - I love to make every page I do, a "Hazel" page and therefore I mix and match as I go.  Even though I did it here as well, the biggest part of the layout comes from My Mind's Eye's "Follow your dreams" collection.  I totally love it and have been saving them for a holiday layout and a mini book.  When I saw these pictures of my husband helping my sisters' son fly his kite, I knew the time has come.

What is more is that the challenge wants us to use something to celebrate the middle of the year and you wouldn't believe me - the pictures were taken on the 1st of July 2012!! 

I've got another picture of the layout for you.

It's a rather "old school" page with two half pages flipping over the main ones.  I totally love the look even though I haven't tried it before.  I also did some stitching directly onto my album pages. What I like as well is the hexagons that was left over that I glued onto the half pages.  The chicken wire on the page is a stamp.  I know that I'm not good at stamping but this worked very well.

Now you know - it helps to be Bloghopping as it turns out that great minds think alike!  Hop over to My Mind's Eye's blog to see the other entries.  Have a great day and tomorrow I'll be back to show off one of my pressies. Please come back to play.

Not my imagination

Hi there Bloglanders

Today is my son's 24th birthday and as I only got married once, only had one child and was born only once - I'm taking these days off!!  To tell you the truth, his birthday is the most special day of my year.  I'm so glad I had him!

It is a beautiful spring day outside (and it's only July in sunny SA) and I plan to go for a walk in the park, have breakfast outside, a nap after lunch with my cat curled up on my feet and then off to dinner at a friend as my son and his girlfriend have other plans for their evening.

I have some great stuff to share with you but as they are all gifts, I have to wait until the recipients have opened them up before I can show it on my blog.  Sorry about that but part of a gift is the surprise.

Now for something different. You know how I'm always complaining about bad light and my lack of photo taking skills.  Well, here is the proof that I'm not entirely wrong:

On the left you have the picture that I shared on my blog for the CPS card challenge last week and when we had better light, I took the picture on the right - same camera, same card, same me (without the photo taking skills).

That's it from me. I'm off to spend some "me time".  Have a great day and tomorrow I'll share one of the pressies as it will be opened today. Please check back here to see.