Over at Craft Storage Ideas

Hi there Bloglanders

Today I'm over at Craft Storage Ideas with my solution to preserving memories - Project Life!!  Those of you who have been regulars at Play as U Go might remember that I really didn't want to convert to this BUT in the end my family made me change my mind. Read all about it (and more) over at Craft Storage Ideas.

OK, I know some of you don't like to be redirected but it is easy and it will be worth your while. I promise!! Just click on the word "link" below and you will be redirected.

LINK

A lot of you might be laughing but I had a very, very old friend of my mum who called me up to tell me - please write everything in your post - I don't get this "link thing". I didn't even know that she owned a computer!! I'm still grateful that she reads my blog and will try redirecting her with these red links. To those of you who do the "link thing" humor me and click on the red LINK.

Have a Fabulous Friday and enjoy the weekend. I'll be back to share some more of my crafting fun right here on Play as U Go. Please come back to play.

April showers Bookmark

Good morning Bloglanders

We have the most beautiful late summer's day and I just want to be outside to enjoy it all!  I have some office work but I'm going to get that done NOW and then I'll be off to Sushi in the park for lunch and some time in my garden. But, first things first. We had a lot of rain yesterday - yes, it's getting winter in Sunny SA. Everything was grim, cold and wet and then I saw this challenge from The Twinery:

Now, I'm not a knitter but I have a stash of knitting needles that I inherited from both my grandmothers. So, out came the twine and the needles and this is what I came up with:

Yes, I'm still in bookmark mode and as I decided to make some for my Xmas gift stash, I think I'll be "on this page" for a while. (hie hie hie) The whole effort took less than an hour and suddenly the day wasn't that grim any more.  (Die from Clear and Simple stamps). Between you and me - I just love, love, love them.

And another pic:

And who wouldn't open a book if this lurks inside the pages?

This book was actually on my desk for another purpose. You still remember that I'm a winemaker??? Well, when I got the picture ready for this post, I saw that it is Vredendal's winery.  I grew up in Vredendal and my family still lives there.  Small world. Maybe the "Fly away" on my bookmark is symbolic!

That's it from me. Thanks for visiting my blog and please come back to play as I'll have some more crafting fun to share with you right here on Play as U Go.  I'm off - have a Terrific Tuesday!

Ring-a-ring-a-Rosie

Hi there Bloglanders

First of all I would like to thank all of you who have been visiting my blog.  Suddenly it has taken off and I'm having 10 times more hits!  Especially welcome to the Russians - for the past week you were the biggest part of my audience. I'm grateful to all of you that you take the time to check out what I'm up to - this makes it worth my while sharing what I do with Blogland.

Now for today's project:

A while ago I told you that I showed my friend's daughter how to make flowers out of leftover fabric or felt. Well, the ring was her favorite.  I've used the Die-namics Rolled Rose to die cut the felt, rolled it, added the beads and leaves and glued it to the blank ring.  Good old hot melt glue gun.  Even Alexa's little fingers did the rolling all by herself and even though I didn't want her to use the glue gun for fear of getting hurt, she uses it at home with a lot of confidence. Looking for the rocks on someone's road again!! IMPERFECT ME.

And the ring even fits my hand:

It would make great party favors and even decorations for presents.  I keep all left over fabric and felt and use it for stuff like this where I only need a tiny piece.  When I have time, I'm going to do some more die cuts and give it away as DIY gifts.  

Well, once again thanks for visiting my Blog. Please check back as I will have some more crafting fun to share right here.  Have a Wacky Wednesday!

   

Mini Book and Mini Layout

Hi there Bloglanders

It's Terrific Tuesday and I'm back to share some more crafting fun.  Today I have a mini book and a mini layout  that I've whipped up in no time.  I find that using "home made" notebooks brings a smile to my face and I love giving them away as pressies as well.  First one up is my mini book with a photo and it's for MME's April fool's challenge.  Hope that there IS a challenge otherwise I'd be the fool. Anyway, I'll still have my notebook and that's enough for me.

I've told you before about this picture that my friend Marelize took on a camping trip. It perfectly describes my marriage. Wynand never knows what to expect.  Good thing or bad??? Don't know but it works for us. Here it is:

We work together and this will be my official office notebook.  Maybe I should rename myself  - UNEXPECTED IMPERFECT ME.

And I made another one for the MME layout challenge.  With Project Life, my layouts are a lot less. I still do layouts because I love them but I find that I'm doing smaller versions.  If I only have 1 picture, I'll size the layout to 6x4 or 6x6 and include it in my PL album. You need much less paper and it's a quicky. Love it.  This is what I did - I'll add the picture once I get time to go to the printers.

For my non South African Bloglanders - the title is "Onthou die Datum" - it is like "Save the Date" in Afrikaans. I plan to add a little journaling tag behind the paper squares as I don't want to spoil the serenity of my layout with my IMPERFECT handwriting.

And the sketch:

I love the flower lace that I've added.  It just gives dimension and a girly twist to the layout. It will be perfect for my picture of  Pieter and his Princess. I suppose at this stage you can guess what the journaling would be about??? That's what I like about being an hybrid scrapper - I've used leftover paper from my scrap stash, lace from a sewing project and the staples are ex the office. No cost at all - just reuse, recycle and repurpose in my PERFECT world.

Please hop over to the MME blog to leave some comments. Just click here to be redirected.

That's it from me for today. Thanks for visiting my blog and please come back to pay as I've got a lot more crafting fun to share right here.

Bookmark FUN

Hi there Bloglanders

I hope you had a marvellous weekend.  Once again, I had some time to do some extra crafting.  I'm working on my house - making curtains, organizing, purging and painting but do try to keep the creative juices flowing.  So, this is what I made:

I read a  lot and not only one book at a time. In front of my bed, I've got at least 4 books and I read as they take my fancy.  In between I have to keep bookmarks to remind me where I am. This is what I've done to make this bookmark:

I used spray on starch to stiffen a piece of  leftover lace trim.
Added some beads and it was done!

And my color inspiration came from: The Play Date Cafe (of course!)

I love the colors and now they will be the last I see every night before I go to sleep.  

Last year I worked on my Xmas pressie stash every month and it made a huge difference - when I got to 1st of  December all I had to do is wrap them. This year, I've been working on revamping my house and haven't been that effective.  All that is going to change right now!  I'll start out by converting all my leftover trim to bookmarks. This would be great gifts to neighbors, friends and teachers. What is an added bonus is that it's flat - easy to mail off to that special friend who needs some Xmas joy.

That's it from me. Please hop over to The Play Date Cafe to see what the rest of Blogland did with the same colors. Just click here to be redirected. Thanks for visiting my blog and please check back as I've got a lot more crafting fun to share. Have a Marvellous Monday!

Girly Layout

Good morning Bloglanders

As promised:  My secret weapon for making a washed out girly layout!  It actually didn't start out as a layout. I had to do some party favors for a stork tea and as I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, I decided to do paper doilies in yellow, pink and blue to pretty up my white party bags. No buying custom made when I have a stash of white ones in my cake decorating box. (I don't do cake decorating, but I'm going to try - one day!) Only one problem, I don't own any color sprays or mists and the only ink that I have is black!

First up: My layout:

And a bit closer:

AND my inspiration came from this Page Map:

I don't normally do circles so when I saw this sketch, I immediately thought about my colored doilies and the rest is history. Want to hop over to PageMaps to see for yourself? Just click here.

Now back to the beginning.  I keep about 6 shades of  fabric dye as I do a lot of sewing and sometimes (actually, a lot of times) I can't get lace or trim to fit my project and I dye it. I only make up about a quarter of a cup at a time as my projects mostly are rather small.  So, I poured the dye into spray bottles, diluted to where I wanted the washed out color to be and ta da:

If you want to try as well: I used 1 teaspoon of dye powder in a quarter of a cup of boiling water, stirred until dissolved, cooled it down, diluted where necessary and poured it into spray bottles.

Here you can see my stash:

The best part: dye is cheap and readily available everywhere in Sunny SA.  I will be buying a few more colors and use it on other projects as well.

That's it. Something ordinary used in an extraordinary way! I'm off to finish my stork tea party favors. Thanks for visiting my blog and please come back to play as I'll have some more crafting fun right here to share. Have a great weekend!

Don't look for the rocks on my road

Hi there Bloglanders

A layout to share?? NO.  I'm sharing the story behind the layout.  My fellow South Africans can read it on the layout but as I have a lot more non-South African readers now, I will translate. First of all - this is a very, very old layout and it still hangs above my desk. Wanna know why? To remind me to let the boys be boys (more like men be men).  

As Pieter grew up as an only child (Wernich joined our family  when they were about 13 years old), I was very, very protective of him.  I  used to warn him about things all the time - didn't want him to ride his bike alone, swim alone or go near unfamiliar dogs / people, the list can go on forever. 

One day (he was about 7 years old), he came running into the house - super excited and screaming "I've hurt my toe, I've hurt my toe, I've hurt my toe". I asked "didn't you look in front of you?" and he replied "no, and I've always wanted a  plaster on my toe like all my friends have but I never get one because you always look for the stones on my path."  That day I decided to let him BE!

It is hard and after nearly 20 years I still struggle with it but as both the boys are all grown up, I give my opinion and then tell them to decide what's right for them. I hope that if they are sorry for things that they have done, it will be their own doing and not me looking out for the stones on their paths.

That's it. I hope you have enjoyed my story. I'll be back with some crafting fun tomorrow.  I will give you a hint - I'm coloring some paper doilies but I don't own any mists so I've come up with a workable alternative. Please check back and all will be revealed.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting my blog.