Cards For My Loves

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here in the States. Everyone is starting to deck the halls, and our little apartment is feeling more Christmassy by the day. 

Anyway, every year I like to kick it old school and pop a bunch of Christmas cards in the mail to send across the seas to all my loved ones that are scattered across the globe. I've been trying to learn the lost art of hand-lettering, so this year I bought some plain cardboard, got out my marker pen and drew up some of my own Christmas cards and had the most fun doing it. Is there anything better than creating? 

So here they are, my little festive season creations

My shorts fetish

Since the beginning of the summer I have been scavenging around thrift stores (mostly Goodwill) to find that perfect pair of mom jeans that I can transform into Daisy Dukes. I've loved this summer's cutoff shorts trend so much so that I've gotten a bit carried away with my scissors and my $3 jeans. 
I can' resist a little D-I-Y project nor can I resist new clothing items, so here they are, my collection of Daisy D's courtesy of Goodwill thrift stores, a pair of scissors and a serrated knife. 

Bunting and Duvet D.I.Y

So I did a little post the other day with pictures from my fabric shopping escapade at Waste Centre (click here to view said post), well you are currently looking at the follow-up post that contains the evidence of what became of those pieces of lovely fabric.
I've always wanted to make a fabric bunting, and although they are ridiculously easy to master, I never attempted to sew one until this week. My aunt Cheryl and I joined forces in her craft room and we pulled out the sewing machine, scissors, pins and material, and got our D.I.Y on.
I'll be moving into a new apartment when I return to California, so I wanted to pretty it up a bit, and so I made a mint and white striped duvet cover and a floral fabric bunting. They were both so easy and we were finished before you can say "Bob's your uncle." We were rather proud of what became of our endeavors and I wouldn't mind going into the sewing business, I find it such fun.

I stupidly forgot to take photos of us making the duvet cover, although here are the pics of the bunting-making process:

Organisation and Inspiration Station

I bought myself a much needed pin-board from Target the other day and had myself a fun afternoon decorating it with everything that is both organizational and inspirational. My lovely new board is now full of prophetic words, letters, a self-made calendar, postcards, and favorite quotes. I love waking up in the morning and being able to glance at one spot to see the date as well as be reminded of the fact that I am loved by Jesus, and can look forward to his promises being fulfilled each and every day. 

I "did it myself" this Christmas

A shoestring budget and a crafty mood saw this Christmas being a very D.I.Y one. 
I spent endless hours at the dining room table, cutting, sticking, painting, glueing, and these were the Christmas gifts that became of all my efforts:
- An old book convert into a jewelry box by cutting out the inside of all the pages (Tedious and time consuming but oh so rewarding)
- Mason jar candles
- Jar of words of encouragement, scriptures and prophecies
- Framed cutouts of map pages. (My friend Hannah was born in Kentucky but is now in Redding, so I cut out the map of Kentucky and the map of Redding and framed them both. Just a little sentimental something for her to hang on her wall)
- Framed water-colour paintings done on doilies.


Materials Used:
- Thrift store frames
- Old Fairytale book from thrift store
- Doilies
- Water-colour paints
- Old maps of the USA (Thrift store)
- Mason jars
- Various colored ribbons
- Stamps (from cutetape.com and Cavallini & Co.)
- Scissors
- Box cutter
- Glue
- Modge
- Paintbrushes
- Old book pages
- Cath Kidston craft tape

Letters to loved ones...

When it comes to goodbyes, they are never easy. I will be saying goodbye to my family for a whole year soon, and in preparation for my departure, I've made them all these little letters.
Sticking with the 'travel' theme, I used old maps, polaroids and airmail envelopes, and here are some of the pictures below.
Ps: I'm hoping none of them see this blog post before they see their letter in person. 

Journals: USA Travel Diary

  I am relocating to California in a matter of days {22 to be precise}, and have been working on a diary that will accompany me on my travels and house all my special memories. 

Last year when I went to Australia I made a travel journal {click here to see images} out of a blank-paged diary that I paid a lot of money for. This time around, I have taken a slightly differnent route. For my USA journal, I have taken an old book that I paid next-to-nothing for, and recovered it to create a personalised diary. It's pages are full of pre-existing text as it is a story book, but I will just stick images etc over the printed  pages.

At this stage of the game, I have only completed the first few pages of the diary, and here are the before and after images as well as the journal-making process.

I will continue to add more pics to my blog as each new page unfolds, and I cannot wait to see the outcome at the end of my journey.

 I found this old book at the SPCA Charity shop in Ballito, and I thought it would make the perfect 'shell' for my travel journal as it has a thick, hard cover and old stained pages which adds a lovely vintage-type effect. And it only cost me 10 bucks - Score!

 Inside the book

 I have decided to keep the pages and their text to provide a nice background for my journal. I will be sticking all sorts of things over the pages, but I like the effect of the text in the background.

(This is what the inner page looked like before I got gluing and sticking)

 End Product - The Cover

 Text on front cover: "The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." (I thought this pretty little saying rather appropriate.)

 This is the back of the book, and I printed out a map of the USA, and then cut it out to make a puzzle. The border was done by cutting up airmail envelopes.

As you open the diary, there is an real fold-out map of California on the inner cover. I found this map in a travel book at the charity shop, and it may even come in handy if I decide to take a road trip around the Orange County.

 If you look carefully on the map, you will see a little dot called 'Redding.' This will be my home for 9 whole months. I can't wait to live in the beautiful countryside surrounded by mountains, lakes and trees. Aaaah.

For the introductory page, I used my typewriter to print onto a page of tick tracing paper, which I then stuck over a colourful background that can be seen in some of the images to follow.

 

 Good old Underwood 18. You have done me proud.

 This is the background that I made for my introductory page, and then placed the transparent sheet over it.

 The Introductory page reads as follows:

This is a diary. This is my travel diary. A place to document a journey. A journey over the seas. A journey to a foreign land. A journey through ever changing seasons of life, and a journey along the road of dreams fulfilled. 

This diary is not planned. There is not table of contents. It will be left to grow and evolve as the life attached to it grows and evolves. This will become a home to photos, souvenirs, memorabilia, and tales of unforgettable moments shared with new friends in places unexplored.

Dedication: To dreams. To hope. To adventures. To Jesus. To wanderlust. To family and friends being left behind. To a new 'family' and friends that await me. To learning new things. To growing up. To flying the nest. To love. To music. To scissors, glue and craft supplies. To embracing change. To letting go. To bliss, glory, and joy unspeakable. To living by faith. To blossoming and growing. To thoughts, ideas and revelations. To writing. To laughter. To heaven, destiny and God's plans for me. To life, and living it abundantly.

 This is an image I made on Photoshop that is actually going to be the title image for a new page that I am starting on my blog entitled 'California Diaries.' You will be able to click on this page and see all the posts and pictures from my new life in Cali.

 I had loads of fun doing this part of my journal. Basically, I made copies of my passport and visa page, and then made a mini passport that can open and close, and it reveals my visa inside. It reminds me of some of the books I used to read as a kid that had flaps uncovering hidden pictures.

From these photos, my hand-made passport actually looks scarily life like. Mission accomplished.

 I couldn't resist making a 'USA Bucket list,' with all the things I hope to do whilst over there. Some of the things include:

Go to Disneyland. Try authentic Starbucks. Go on a roadtrip. See a famous person. Snowboard. Attend Coachella 2012.

 Yes, I like to mess!

Craft Supplies Used:

Old Story Book

Brown wrapping paper

Tracing Paper

Old atlas

Old travel books

Vintage Postcards

Airmail Envelopes

Wrapping paper scraps

Lisa and Jo stamps

Scrapbooking Paper from 'Imagine That'

Typewrier

Glue

Scissors

Sticky Tape

Journals: My Personal Daily Journal

"She had always wanted words. She loved them, grew up on them.

Words gave her clarity; brought reason, shape." - Michael Ondaatjie {The English Patient}

These wonderful sentences sum up why I am such an avid journal keeper. I love writing. I love words. I love the sound of a beautifully constructed sentence, and I love sitting down with a pen and paper in an attempt to organise my often 'all over the place' brain.

I made this journal last December from an old notebook. I covered it with pages from an antique book as well as all the other bits and bobs you can see in the pictures. If I am dead honest, I decided I would give daily journalling a bash, half expecting to throw in the towel after a week or two, but lo and behold, 9 months down the track and I still write {almost} every single day.

It is such a mind-blow to flick back to previous weeks and months and see how much I have grown as a person and how every bump in the road, every conflict, every new adventure has shaped and fashioned me into a different version of myself. It is both amazing and sad to see how the paths of different people can intertwine with yours for a season, before your roads diverge again and you head off in different directions. 

This journal of mine holds my deepest thoughts and feelings as well as both exciting and mundane daily events. I love it. 

There are only about 15 pages of this diary that still remain blank, and I have already bought another old notebook in which I will cover and decorate so that this journalling momentum is not lost.

 

If you are also a journal keeper, send me your pics, I would love to see how other people around the world keep track of their lives and memories.

Journals: Australia Travel Journal

 I took a much needed gap year last year after I finished my final year of school, and headed down under to explore Australia. It was my first overseas trip, so there was great excitement and many unknowns. I made myself a travel journal a few days before I left South Africa, and almost every day of my 3 months in Aus, I journalled my adventures. The pages of this journal now hold the most special of memories from a place close to my heart. It holds stories of times spent with new and old friends, and tales of the discovery of new places and landscapes. It is also home to all kinds of memorabilia, such as bus passes, photographs, clothing tags etc, and I still open my journal {which ended up becoming more of a scrapbook} every now and then and smile as I remember my unforgettable trip.

Ps: I know that this post is about a year too late, but with my California trip coming up, I was looking for inspiration for my USA travel journal, and I figured going through my own personal 'archives' was the best place to start.