Mug jersey / The Play Date Cafe

Good morning Bloglanders

I hope you had a wacky weekend!  I just love color.  I keep my pens out on my desk, my knitting needles in a see through jar, my rolls of tread on a tray because I love to look at them. Not that I do knitting - that's the one thing that I only do if all else fails.

So, when all else failed, I decided to knit a jersey for the enamel mug on my desk which holds my pens.  And this is what it looks like now:

I actually want to use it to serve cheese straws or bread sticks at a real South African braai but in the meantime, it looks pretty fab out on my desk.  I love purple and therefor, loved this weeks color combo from The Play Date Cafe.  Here it is:

And a close up of my crochet flowers:

If you want to hop over to The Play Date Cafe to check out the other entries, just click here.

That's it from me. Have a marvellous Monday and please come back to play as I'll be sharing some more crafting fun right here on Play as U Go.

Color Throwdown

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you are having a fabulous Friday.  I had a hectic week and can't wait to kick up my heels and relax!  BUT, before I go - I'm here to share my project for this week's Color Throwdown:

The stamp is from Technique Tuesday and I just love the "old school charm".  The inspiration for the challenge looks like this:

While you are hopping around, please hop over and see the rest of the entries. Just click here.

I made a notebook as well and it looks really great but the picture I took, is terrible.  Sorry about that and when I get around to it, I'll re do it - in the meantime, here is a peek:



I plan to give sets with a notebook, some tags, envelopes and a few cards all boxed up and wrapped in pretty paper for Christmas gifts to friends and family.  Sounds good to me!

Please come back to play as I'll be sharing some more crafting fun right here.  Have a great weekend!

DIY Washi Tape

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you are having a thunderous Thursday!  I know that I am - while walking in the park my overlocker started sewing on its own and when I got back after an hour, it was totally jammed.  I had to take it to the technician in Somerset West and am anxiously awaiting a quote for the repair.  Now I've seen it all - a "runaway" overlocker!

Yesterday I told you how I do my daily journaling books.  Currently I'm finishing off last year's DD.  This system really works for me.  All my journaling cards are in chronological order and my pictures printed.  I just have to bind them together and it's done. The best part is that I get to re-live last year's festive season and this gets me into the spirit to start on this one.  While sorting through the journaling cards, I came upon this one with home made Washi tape.

You might find this weird as Washi tape is readily available but may I remind you that I'm from sunny SA and up to July this year I couldn't find a single roll locally!  So, this is what I did to make my home made Washi tape:
Stick double sided tape to the back of tissue paper. Leave the peel back strip of the double sided tape on.
Cut the tissue paper the width of the double sided tape.
Peel back the backing of the adhesive strip and position your "tape" on your project.
Easy Peasy!
Just a tip: Start your double sided tape before the edge of the tissue paper.  This is the perfect place to start peeling back your home made washi tape.

Washi tape my IMPERFECT way!

That's it from me. Back to my shop orders.  Please come back to play as I'll be sharing some more crafting fun right here on Play as U Go.

Gratitude made Easy

Hallo Bloglanders

In Sunny SA we don't do things like the rest of the world.  I've already told you that we don't do Halloween but we don't do Thanksgiving either! 

A few years ago I invested in a Gratitude journal from Monika Wright's Etsy shop and I try to record something positive every day.  If I don't get to it - no sweat but since I started, I have developed a habit of seeing the positive in small things around me. I do tend to let silly things get the better of me but if I page through my Gratitude journal, I see the cloud's silver lining again.  Now, this is what I'll be doing towards Gratitude for the two weeks up to Thanksgiving:

I've selected stuff from my stash and will be writing on a journaling card every day.  My system is quite simple - I keep all the blank cards in one container and once they are done, I move them to the second one.  I do this for my December Daily as well. Like this:

I still haven't decided whether this will become a mini book / if I'll incorporate it in a layout or just glue it into my Gratitude journal but as I've started  "My life, My way" on 1 November - either way, it will eventually end up in my album.  I'll be using my "printy dater" as I really don't have the time right now to make tabs or to get my stamping equipment out.

The two containers fit into one another and sits on my desk with finished cards in the bottom one and the unused ones on top ready to be filled out.

Why don't you join me in recording all the positive things in your life?  I'll be back here to share more of my stuff with you. Please come back to play!

Some more wine bags

Hallo Bloglanders

I told you yesterday that I'll be making some more wine bags for my wrapping station. Yes!  I do keep stuff ready for wrapping anything from buttons to wine and boxes of cookies. Whenever I have my tools out, I do some extra stamping, die cutting and sewing and when I need to pack something in a hurry, it's all there.  Here is a pic of the rest of the bags:

And the cards to go with:

Whenever I need one, I only have to add a sentiment and write the message. Normally I don't do earthy colors like these but The Play Date Cafe inspired me to try them and I love their "manly" look. I think my rosette stamp is from Jenny Bowlin, the die cut from Cottage Cutz and the little dove from Papertrey Inc.  I don't keep my stamps and dies in their packaging because it is not really important to me and therefor I can't track them back. Sorry about that! Maybe I should share my system some time. It really works for me.

I'm off to my Etsy order. Hopefully everything will be done by the weekend.  That's it from me. Please come back to play as I'll be sharing some more crafting fun right here on Play as U Go.

Hazel

PS. The minute my orders are in the mail, I'm starting on my Xmas decor! You don't want to miss out.



And I did it again!

Hallo Bloglanders

And I forgot to post on my blog on Friday! Again!  Maybe I'm just too busy but everything will soon wind down and hopefulle I'll get back into my daily routine.  Sorry about that.

I've already mentioned that my hubby and I are winemakers and therefor we give a lot of wine as thank you gifts or even as Christmas and birthday pressies. To give wine in a box just looks awful so I came up with the idea to dress even our wine bottles!

This is what I've done:

I've used scraps of organza left over from other projects to make the "dress" and then added a dimentional card. Here is a close up of the label:

And I just love this picture:

Organza just gives that bit of bling to every project.  For inspiration, I've used the colors from The Play Date Cafe.  Hop over there and have a look. Just click here. And for those of you who are in a hurry / lazy / snowed under (like me), here is the "mood board" they supplied:

Enjoy the rest of your day and please come back to play! I'll be showing the wine bottle family tomorrow.

Another Layout.

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you are having a wonderful Thursday. Only one day to go before the weekend!  Can you believe that I've been so busy with my shop orders that I totally forgot to blog.  Since February this year, I got up every morning and wrote a post while my husband made us some coffee.  By the time he has finished the coffee, I've wrapped up my post and we have a chat while we drink it - in summer outside on the "stoep" and in winter snuggled up on the couch.

You might think that I do quick posts but that's not the case - we make real coffee - grind the beans and use a red enamel pot with a fabric bag.  We have tried everything and this works best for us.  Maybe I should do a layout about our good old coffee pot. That's for another day.

I normally do layouts whenever they happen - I'm an album maker and not a real scrapper.  Some time ago I noticed that I have pictures of myself in front of the Eiffel Tower taken in the 80's, 90's and 00's and as I totally love France, I made this layout:

OK, this is not the whole story. Actually, I wanted to convince my hubby that it's time for another visit to the city of  love.  Maybe next year.  While making this layout, I re-lived every visit and it was wonderful. In the middle is one taken in 1999 with the countdown to 2000 on the tower.  That's what I love about scrapping - the memories makes you smile. In 1999 Pieter was only 10 years old and in the same year Wernich's mom died and he came to live with us shortly afterwards.

There I go again!  You see, I just loved to do this layout.

That's it from me.  Enjoy the rest of your day and it's back to my sewing machine for me.  Please come back to play as I'll be sharing more of my crafting fun right here. (and the stories behind them.)