Project Life Freebie

I fell off the band wagon a bit with Project life, but I plan to catch up and carry on.
Preserving memories for my family, my children is very important to me and I know one day, they will have something to look back upon, as will I, and smile about.

Here is another sheet of FREE project life journal cards for you.
Please note they are only for personal use and may not be printed and sold or sold as a digital item under any circumstances.
You can download the sheet here.

Crochet: Cowl/Hood

It is Autumn here and the weather is starting to change. The mornings are dark and cooler as well as the evenings. I wanted to make a cowl that could also be used as a hood for myself for this winter, and set about searching on pinterest for ideas.
I soon found this gorgeous cowl.
I just had to make it! I loved her original colors but wanted mine to be a bit more blue and grey as I have a lot of those color clothes.

 

It only took me two days to complete. 28 granny squares. 7 squares in each row. 4 rows.

I did the edging dc of pink and a dc of the dark grey. All using a 4mm hook.

For joining, I used Lucy's method .

 

I can't decide if it looks like I'm wearing a blanket on my head or if, in some sort of way, it is kinda cool.

I might make another one using only one color and dc stitches. I think the big joining bit also needs to go at the bottom where it isn't noticeable.

 Ha ha! the more I look at this, the more it DOES look like I've just wrapped a blanket around my head!!

 Oh well...i still love the coziness of it...

 and It looks okay as a scarf/cowl ?

so, if you can't crochet or don't have a cowl, throw a blanket on your head. looks about the same! haha!

crochet: Custom orders-Tea cozies

I had two custom orders for tea cozies recently. The First one was made using pastel shades: pink, lilac and purple. Very soft and vintage looking.

 

The Second a very bright and colorful one using salmon pink, orange and blue.

They could not be more different!!

crochet: Owl Blanket

Earlier on this year I gave one of my niece's this little lap blanket.
I couldn't make something big as she needed to take it on the plane, but I thought a nice little lap blanket would be nice-for when she is watching movies and snuggling with her mom on the couch.

 I like the colors, sort of not too girlish but not too boyish.

 Completed it with a shell edging.

 I really wanted to make this a big blanket but she loved it and that is all that counts. :)

As brief as I can manage.

 

I remember when I was a little girl feeling like life stretched before me like a never ending book. There was no "the end" when I thought about life, my future or the future of others I loved. As I grew up, however, that notion of a never ending life vanished. Sometimes I wish I could have the protection the naivety of a child offers one again...
Loosing a loved one is a very hard experience. Probably one of the hardest we, as humans, have to face at some stage in our lives.

I've been struggling to gain the courage and strength to write this post. I do not like to talk about my personal life, I do not like to share things that I am struggling with or going through. This blog is supposed to be my little sanctuary, my "get-away" place. Somewhere I can share my creative side, a place I like inspires others. A happy place. We all have lives, we all face problems and issues on a daily basis. We all go through the loss of a loved one at some stage. So it's been hard, because I don't want to ignore it just because it is too hard to write about and at the same time,I don't want to bring everyone down reading this. Balance...sigh...

So let me be brief as brief is about all I can manage.

As some of you know my oldest brother passed away 4 years ago. Sadly, my other brother (and my last) passed away recently. I do not want to go into detail of how it happened as I feel it is too personal but I did want you to know why I have been so quiet.

I am doing a lot better thanks to the support of loved ones.

I want to get back to sharing things on my blog and I plan to do that soon. I just needed to do this first.

teeny Tiny crocheted things...

My sister is soon to be a granny. Her Grand daughter is due in July. She ordered a whole lot of baby crocheted things from me. I was so excited, I made 3 hats, 3 headbands and a bunch of flowers in two days! I still need to do a baby blanket which will take me a few weeks.

I just totally adore this hat. I love the colors and the tassels and flowers. I am going to make a bigger version of this one for my daughter for winter.
I made all the hats and headbands so that you can simply slip the flowers onto them, that way the flowers are interchangeable or you also don't have to have a flower at all.

 Here, I used the grey flower with the single pink flower-the possibilities are endless!

Another little ear-flap hat, love the colors too, reminds me of summer or a fruit salad! Olive green, salmon and peach.

 Or with the salmon flower.

 Of course, no baby girl's wardrobe would be complete without a traditional pink hat! This one has a grey flower.

 But the green goes nicely too!

Moving onto the headbands now. Only three headbands but the possibilities are so much more with all the flowers to chop and change between! A headband to match every outfit!

 All the hats and headbands are made to fit a newborn baby.

 I made some adult size headbands too, wearing one today, so comfy! I always find shop bought headbands made from synthetic materials to make my scalp itch! Wool does not! Yay!

This is what the headbands would look like on a baby.

Feeling so broody after making all of these....I wish I had known how to crochet when my daughter was a baby, she would of had all of these cute things!

I haven't forgotten about the crochet photo frame tutorial! I will be taking photo's and writing one up for you. I have had visitors. But I will get to it soon. So check back!

Thanks for popping by and if you leave a comment- thanks in advance, always love hearing from my readers!

Simply Crochet Blog toot!

Hello!
Just quick little post.
A small toot...hee hee...can't help it, I was so excited to see my crochet Jar covers made it to the Simply Crochet Mood Board

Have you heard about this magazine?
It's from the same people who do Mollie Makes. For anyone who loves crochet, this is a must. It is packed full of projects and delightful crochet photography! Your heart will skip a little beat!

For my fellow SA bloggers, you can buy the digital version online here and Mollie makes MUCH cheaper online too here.

Have a super day!
We are having rain at the moment -so glorious after such a hot spell. The grass is finally green again!
Love that "just rained" smell.

Crochet Photo Frames (Tutorial)

Hello!
Thank you for the nice comments on my memory files! I hope it inspired somebody to be adventurous and try their hand at making some of their own! They really are lovely to make easier to store so many more photo's!

Today I wanted to share some crocheted photo frames I made.

These are EASY-PEASY to make. All you need to do is cut a frame of any shape you desire-rectangle, square, oval or circle and make it a 1cm width all the way around. I used cereal box's for my card board but you could use any card as long it is sturdy enough.

You begin with a slip knot and then double crochet , moving the stitches down as you go along. You really have to play with it as you go along, depending what size your frame is-determines the amount of dc stitches. Just don't bunch them up too much as your border won't lie nice and flat.

Once you have gone all the way around with your dc st, end in the first dc with a sl st, ch 1 and begin your border of your choice. Before you end your border, chain at least 10-15 st for the little loop to hang it by, or if you are doing a larger frame, ch at least 20, but see how it looks and then end off with a sl st and tie off.

It is that easy! Super quick and lovely gifts! I think each frame took me less than 10 minutes to do!

I bought some thick transparent plastic-good quality thickness and cut out a piece according to the shape of my frame. Then you can use double sided tape around the edges or transparent drying glue to stick it down.
Then you take a piece of cardboard and do the same, leaving a gap big enough at the top to slide a photo into. With the circle or oval frames, I only glued half way up the sides and the square and rectangle frames I left the top side open completely.

I then put my iron on steam and steamed ironed them just to get them to lie really nice and flat. Just be careful not to wet the cardboard while doing this, I normally just spray the water on and then iron.

If you would like me to write up a proper tutorial with instructions and photographs, just let me know, if I get enough asking for one, I will write one up for you!
Thanks for popping by and have a great day!

My First Memory Files

Hello!
I sit here in a bit of a daze. I have a head cold at the moment. Stayed in my PJ's all day apart from when I had to fetch kids from school and zap into the shop!  Hubby took the kid's to school this morning and came home to drop off some hall lozenges for me. (sweet man).

I wanted to share a new craze of mine. I recently discovered memory files. I am so inspired by the ones Jamie of On Today creates. Of course there are also lot's of ideas on Pinterest.
I've been looking in our local shop for the Heidi Swapp memory files, but to no avail.
So in the meantime, with a bee in my bonnet, I made my own!

The first two were trial and error but I love how the third one came out.

This was the first one I did. I used brown craft board which I covered only the outside of both sides and the inner left hand side. I used a piece of brown craft board to make my own spine which I bent and then sewed onto each cover. I used a piece of scrap booking paper that had the bracket shape already to obtain the cool bracket shape which I cut out.

I first made a mini book by using only double sided paper (different lengths and widths) and some double sided Journal cards. then I stitched it all down the middle with my sewing machine.
This memory file was for January 2012 vacation when my family from New Zealand came to stay for a few weeks. I had a lot of photo's to scrap, and they were special to me, so I knew I had to a mini album and the memory file system worked out so well. I had all my photo's printed small, (2 or 4 on a 10x15cm)

Once I had my book done, I glued the back page to the back of the inner cover and began working in it.

I did some accordion books,

Flaps that open up

This flap had more photo's behind it and a hidden journal pocket.

The same with this flap. I wanted to give some interest to the album.

This is the second file I did. Made a bit of a mess with the stitching. I think I had it on the wrong setting.

This is the inside of the file. I put my mini memory book I made inside. (glued to the back inside cover)

This is what it looks like when the book is open. Lot's of photo stacks, accordion photos, and tabs.

My third attempt. I love how this one came out. I found (yes-found) a whole packet of unopened file folders in pink in my studio (I have no idea when I bought them or what for!)  I cut a piece of scrap booking paper in half and joined it with a middle section. Here is the front

and this is the back. To give a cohesive look to the whole file. Inside the cover on the back, I used the same yellow card.

For this album I knew exactly the colors, theme, about of pages I would need and so I made three different books for photos. This memory file would hold all my holiday photo's from September in which we went to stay half by family and half in a little cottage we rented by the sea! So lot's of color, vibrant and fun paper!
It was a favorite time of mine last year and so once again, I had a lot of photo's I wanted to scrap that a 12x12 scrap book page wouldn't hold!
The inside I didn't mind the pink so much as it fitted with my color scheme.
I cut out a piece of card I had been saving for "in case" and finally I could use it.
It says "a cottage by the sea...how sweet it would be"!

For the front of the book, I used a sturdy piece of plastic (perspex?) cut out a heart shape and stuck the plastic behind and sewed it on.

The heart I cut out of the paper, I turned over and glued to the next page.
I made my own edges on the papers by using gorgeous stickers pasted to the edge and cut around.

Some ribbon and lace trim on the bottom of the book.

Here is a little stacked book.

After with all my photo's in it and some embellishments.

I love layers!!

And lastly, the little photo stack booklet I made. I used some home made brackets which I sewed on just to give the booklet some interest.

Well That is it for now! I don't know how much the real memory files cost or the little already made photo-stacks are etc, but one thing is sure that it is a lot of fun making it all myself and also making it to suit my needs. I didn't buy a single thing for any of these memory files. I used supplies I had in my studio!

I would love to hear what you think! So do pop a comment in the "box" to say hi! and have a super day!
Happy creating!
(feel free to pin  but please link back to here)