Share some love

Hi there bloglanders

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was hectic and my craft desk is still full of bits and bobs that have to be finished ASAP.  I’m sure all your Valentine’s Day projects are finished and hidden away ready to be used tomorrow.  Over the weekend I read what Lisa Ottossan said on WCS blog about gorilla love.  Do you know what it is?  Well, I didn’t but decided that I will get ready to spread some gorilla love this Valentine’s Day and that is why my projects aren’t finished. Click here if you don’t know either.

Here is my last Valentine’s Day project to spread some more love.  Hearts cut out of ordinary baking paper stitched together leaving an opening on one side.  After practicing my stamping skills, I filled them with jelly tots (I’m on a diet – that’s all we have in the house) and sewed the openings up. Easy peasy, - free Valentine’s hearts for all my loved ones.

Have a wonderful day. Spread some love and remember to play as U go.  See you again tomorrow in blogland when I will share a mini album I made for my mum’s friends. All 25 of them (and counting). 

True to my word

Hi there bloglanders

Yesterday I told you that I'm using the bigger cards that I make for notebook covers. Also, I was looking for something yellowish for girlfriend #2.  So, without further ado my yellowish notebook cover ex a card experiment.

I used scraps of office paper for the inside as well as a very old paper pack from Creative memories that I bought in bulk years ago when they decided to leave South Africa. I keep a file next to my desk in the office and when I have paper with clear parts, I put it in there. When I sit in front of the TV, I cut it up and just keep the white - even save on shredding time! When I do a mini book, I just cut them to the desired size. Our company invoices has a lot of writing on top and the bottom but the middle part only has a few lines. They don't bother me at all - actually I prefer to have them as they divide my page and makes my horrible handwriting appear neater. I also include pages from old school books and envelopes - whatever I have.

I used my Zutter to bind it all together and now I have a beautiful mini notebook to give away to someone special.

It's a beautiful (and cool day) and I'm off to have some pictures printed for projects on my table. When I come back I have some sewing to do, a layout to finish and the final things to do for my Valentine's day pressies. I hope you enjoyed my take on reuse, repurpose and recycle.  Please come and play again soon. I love play dates.

It's all in the cards

Hi there bloglanders

As I told you before, I’m not a “cardie” but it is such a nice, small project to exercise your creative ideas on that it’s growing on me.  I’m still a “taggie” but have extended my repertoire to ATC sized cards (they are a bit bigger for a message at the back) and even if I do bigger cards, I use them as front pages for mini albums. While I’m experimenting, my stash is growing!

Today I’m sharing with you two small cards I’ve made for my Christmas present stash as well as one I’ve entered in the Enmarc card challenge here. It was a lot of fun creating this and I didn’t use a lot of goodies, - only toys that I already have and scraps from my stash. The pink one is going to be converted into a mini notebook for my son’s girlfriend (the princess) for Valentine’s Day. I’m still working on an idea for my other son’s girlfriend but as I call her sunshine, it will probably be something a bit more yellowish.

The idea for "hi" came from here.  Mine isn't nearly as sophisticated as Alexandra's but it was great fun to make. I used normal white paper as I didn’t have anything else in my stash.  The watercolor paint is from 20+ years ago when my son was still crafty. (Only cars and computers now)

 

The idea for "A little bird told me" came from a shop bought card and I only used the toys I already have – stamps and some scraps.

What a versatile title that is - "A little bird told me" that

- it's your birthday

- you are going on a trip

- you are feeling sad

- you have moved into a new house

I'm sure you can come up with a lot more than that.

Time to say goodbye to blogland.  Hope you enjoyed our play date.  Please check back.  I will be posting some of my weekend creativity when its done. Until then, Play as U Go!

On the go

Hi there bloglanders

Who doesn't like traveling and exploring new places? As South Africa is so far from everything, we do that a lot - travel locally as well as abroad - for business and pleasure. Half the pleasure comes from planning the trip and the rest from the actual one and today I'm sharing with you a way to get extra mileage out of it.

During a trip I keep notes of people who shared in the fun, the birds, animals and trees we've seen and keep it in a pre-made notebook. Once home, I add pictures and I have a mini book for the "travel basket" on my coffee table. Whenever I have time, I will page through one and relive the good times. Even friends come over and ask if there is a new trip in the basket.

The one I'm showing today was a camping trip to the Orange River.  Lovely friends, sunshine and lots of fun. I even included some of the jokes we shared and every time I page through it makes me smile. 

To me it is not only the opportunity to enjoy things but also the good (sometimes even bad) memories that makes you smile afterwards that makes life good. My grandma used to say that there is something good in everything and this is one of the "words I live by". Someday I will share the "words I live by" (yes, I keep them in a journal) but it's in Afrikaans and a lot of my "bloglanders" won't understand so I'll have to start on a translated version. So much to do, places to go, people to meet!  Thank you for coming to play. Please check back tomorrow as I'll be sharing a tag for my Christmas present stash.

Playing with my albums

Hi there bloglanders

As promised, I'm sharing a layout today. Nothing special about a layout - not like a mini album or hybrid project which inspires you but to me as an album maker - the most important part of keeping my family's memories alive.  Maybe there is something wrong with me but I always feel that photos and layouts are only important to the people whose memories it represent.

Last year I tried to do 52 projects and it worked very well - I kept pictures and descriptions of everything but missed the story behind what I've done. That is why I started this blog - to motivate me to get things done / keep record of it / and share with you if you want to play with. Still, my albums are the most important part of all this.

To make my layout a bit more interesting to my playmates, I shall add the story behind it. We have a 19-year-old cat and every time I look at her I feel truly blessed that she is still with us.  She was a birthday present for my son's 5th birthday.  He is 24 years old now and living on his own but Tossel (Afrikaans for pompom) stayed with me as I work from home and therefore have much more time to spend with her. When I sew, she is lying on the sewing table, when I scrap, she is on the layout, when I work in the office, she is on the computer. Everything I do, Tossel does. (OK, she doesn't like swimming)

When I go for my daily walk around the park, Tossel will sit in front of our gate and wait for me. These pictures of her sitting there patiently were taken by my husband and I decided to dedicate a whole page to them. Nothing special about my layout but I will always love the story behind it. Hope you did as well.

Tomorrow I'm onto my systems and will show you a vacation mini album. Please come back to play!

Snack packs

Hi there bloglanders


Remember I told you I'm going away on a trip last week.  We went camping in the Cederberg mountains. Very, very hot this time of the year but never the less we enjoyed it as we were three couples (with children) and therefore spent quality time sitting on the edge of a rock pool while the children swam most of the time. Good company, good food (a South African braai) and good wine. What more can anyone ask for?

As I don't have small children any more, I packed snack packs for the children going with.  Inside was a small juice, a packet of biscuits, a very small packet of sweets and a cereal bar. More than enough to shorten the 3 hour drive.

I used ordinary white paper bags, folded over the edges and jazzed it up with a scalloped circle, paper strips, a bicycle cut out and a sentiment. Wouldn't you like to receive a snack pack like that when you go on a camping trip. I know that I would love it.

I'm still trying to get into a system with my blogging and thought it would make sense to blog about a layout once a week.  With all these mini books and hybrid projects it seems that there is no time left to do my albums and that's no good. Therefore, Wednesdays will be my Layout day.  Please come back to play tomorrow!

Playing with Love notes

Hi there bloglanders

As promised I'm sharing with you the mini, mini love note books I made for my friend's girls.  I made four - three for the girls and one for me to use on Valentine's day.  You will see that they are all different colours as I only used scraps and recycled paper.

For the front page I punched a heart with a spellbinders die and then used a smaller one for the inside cut out.  The idea is that you can write the mini book's title on the first white heart peek-a-boo style.  Inside there are 10 white hearts and the back page is red once again. A small binder ring keeps them together but I plan to do some for a craft market and intend to use ordinary key rings as they are much cheaper. Just make sure that you punch the holes on all the hears in the same place. I used a cropadile to do a small hole through the whole stack and then made neat ones over them with a normal office punch. (Tip: use clothes pegs to keep your stack intact)

If you don't have a heart punch or die - just cut a template and you're off.  For the front page you can loose the peek-a-boo and glue a smaller white heart onto the red one for a title.  Printed paper will make beautiful hearts as well but I used office scraps for the inside and I actually love the simplicity of the red and white.

For the girls I  packed their mini, mini love note books in small glassine envelopes and jazzed it up with a few scraps of paper and die cuts. They loved the books as well as the packaging.

I packed mine in a tin recycled from last year's Valentine's day.  My idea is to write a love quote on every page and give it to someone special. To me this is a much more personal gift than chocolates and cheaper too! Once again, an idea to reuse, recycle and utilize the tools you already have in your stash.