International Charm Day - A South African version

We hosted our second “International Charm Day” on April 28th, 2011 at my studio in Centurion, South Africa.

(Or as Amber Dawn from Inventive Soul calls it - International Handmade Art Charm Day!)

Guests were treated to Turkish Delight and Passion Fruit cupcakes in honour of our blog name!!

(Elna and I did a whole lot of baking on Wednesday!?)

Ina brought her friend, Tessa, along for the day.

Eretha, Teighler and Jeannie proudly displaying their “Bobbin Fairies”!!

Donè, Dawn, Marnè, Maryke and Rita relaxing after a very creative morning!!  Dawn decided to bring her daughter, Maryke and her two granddaughters with for the morning.

Dawn and Rita attended our workshops at Soul Sisters where they caught the "Bead Bug" and, if you look closely, you will Rita wearing her Soul Sister "Fiber Watch"!?

Guests made a "Bobbin Fairy" - to keep and...

... a "Message on a Thimble" which was swapped out for one made by another guest.

Maryke, Dawn and Marnè trying hard to get the split-pins attached to the ribbon-clasp!?

The studio was a hive of activity with ladies scratching for beads, ribbon and fibers.

Oh, what fun we had!!

A huge "Thank You" goes out to Amber Dawn for starting this wonderful opportunity to share with others!!

Please hop on over to the International Charm Day website to see other related events...

Reviving an old wooden coathanger

For a long time I have been wanting to do this project. It is fun and easy and the best of all I can now organize my everyday jewellery in a better way!

I saw some old picture frames covered with dictionary paper and

decided to cover the hanger in the same way.

You will need:

a wooden coat hanger

some fancy drawer knobs

a bookplate

dictionary paper

gel medium

glitter spray

rhinestones

two small nails

Do your layout and drill the holes for the drawer knobs.

Cut or tear the dictionary paper into workable pieces.

 Start at the bottom section of the hanger and cover the undersides first.

 Then do the top, rounded sides. Gel only the piece where you want to put down the paper.

I like working with my fingers, so I rub out the air bubbles by putting gel on my fingers and smoothing it out by hand.

Then, cover the back of the hanger.

Let each section dry before you carry on to the next section.

Lastly, cover the front section. I layed out the pieces of paper, did the incisions and the started glueing them down one by one. Cut into the paper that needs to cover a rounded area, it will be easier to get an even and smooth look by doing this. Give the hanger a final coat of gel medium just to seal it.

When everything is dry, find the holes and open them up with an awl.

Spay the hanger with glitter spray and let dry.

Screw on the drawer handles and adhere the bookplate with stamped image.

I also adhered a charm to the bookplate.

 Lastly the bling! And TA... DAAA !

International Charm Day Sneak Peek

Elna and I have just finalised our planning for next week's International Charm Day on April 28th...

This is a sneak peek at what our guests will be making - "Bobbin Fairies" and "A Message on a Thimble".

Cannot wait!?  On Wednesday we are going to bake cupcakes with Passion Fruit or Turkish Delight Icing for our visitors - will post photos...

Thank you for visiting...

A story to tell

This morning a friend phoned and after a while asked me what is happening in my life. I replied, "not much at the moment, I don't have a story to tell you...." That was this morning, by 3 o'clock this afternoon it was a different story.

My dog ate some ant poison, my car had a flat battery when I wanted to take her to the vet, so my friend that was here for class had to rush me to the vet. The dog stayed to be treated, my husband came to fix the battery and asked if I could "mom sit" my mother in law tomorrow afternoon and that he had to take refreshments to work tomorrow, because it is his birthday this weekend.

Benice was here at that stage and I could hear her laugh. That is about all you can do when all of this happened in a matter of 4 hours. And in between all of this we are both busy with a project for the Bead Book that needs to be finished by tomorrow! Luckily we are not going to work on the beehives tonight! (yes, that was also on the cards!)

****

This weekend we are having Fibre Watch Class, so I thought I would show you a picture of what mine looks like. I decided to go for white, grey and pink.

Ok, my dog is fine, for which I am very grateful! The Bead Book projects are looking lovely and

I will buy, and not bake the necessary refreshments for tomorrow (and I have taken some Rescue Remedy), so everything will be ok.

SA's International Scrapbooking Convention

Don't you think this will look good as our new logo?

Benice and I attended the Convention on the 2nd of April and we really enjoyed it.

We were blown away with this new paper from the girls' paperie range!

We were suppose to make a double page, but we don't do that any more,

so we used Margie Romney-Aslett ideas and layout, but spread it over 3x8"x8" papers.

Benice came up with the idea to put the three layouts

 onto box canvasses and the display it in our studios.

During this class we worked with Distress Stains for the first time and I love it.

We sprayed just about everything with the new Glitter Spray, both products are from Ranger.

I painted the sides of the canvasses with glitter spray and finished it off with

some paper and ribbon. Everything from the same collection.

Double sided tape and Mono Multi glue were my weapons of choice

 to adhere the paper to the canvas.

For this charm, I used Mono Metal glue and a brad which I put through

the paper and the canvas, to make sure that it doesn't come off.

From both Tim Holtz and Margie Romney-Aslett, we learned a lot and we really enjoyed the day.

A little shrine

Sometimes I collect things because they mean something, sometimes I just take it because I like it so much. By taking it, I really mean picking it up or taking it from the veld, the dessert, the beach or the forest.

When I cleaned out the studio and moved things around, I built this little shrine from things I have collected. (or received as gifts)

In the little bucket at the left, is some sand from a beach near Mosselbay,

where we spend our holidays.

In the other bucket is some sand from the Kalahari dessert.

A friend of ours has a farm there and the night skies are just magical.

The days are hot and the nights are cold, but the campfires are mesmerizing.

Then in the white vase, I sometimes lite a candle for a friend who needs a prayer.

At the back is a piece of drift wood, also from a place that I love.

The orange crate is an old Ginger beer bottle crate from an antique store in the Cape.

 The little heart was a gift from a friend.

I believe that if I lite a candle for someone... it can make a difference.