RECONDITIONED CARDS ON SCRAPBOOK PAGES!!

Hah...bet you never thought of this?! Read on...

I belong to a lovely group of crafters that always used to meet at Hospice and now meet monthly at a church in Môregloed, Pretoria. We do all sorts of crafts, but with the majority of us being card makers, we tend to do paper crafts more often than not.
It was my turn now in September and way back at the beginning of the year it had been decided that I would teach Scrapbooking. In trying to decide what to do, Desiré said that some of the ladies wanted to do reconditioned cards (see my other post), so I bravely designed a scrapbook page to begin with, having a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do with the cards; this was more of a challenge.

I was thinking of a Serendipity type of approach and hit on the idea of mosaic...take a couple of cards, cut them up randomly, stick them to a panel and voila, a reconditioned scrapbook page! Getting a little complicated, I decided on the width of my outer panel and cut out the centre with a craft knife. I then took a separate A4 white and cut it 21 x 21cm to fit and overlap the hole. I then stuck 2 strips of coloured paper around the edge and randomly glued the gaudy commercial card pieces into place. Then I attached this all to the back of the hole, using many double-sided tape 'plasters' to keep it in place. I would make it simpler next time! Then I stuck sequins in the gaps to compliment the gold on the mosaic.
This page is perfect for the single photo taken at an event back in the old days when we were so 'snoep' (stingy) about using up a spool!

This page just happened: I found this card with an apple and books and thought of doing something similar to the first page, except on a single panel. Then I thought of the many photos from my son's growing up years that need scrapping. (For the un-crafted, that means to scrapbook, not to throw away!!) Apple...books...school...YES, I have old school photos. Hey! Nice coincidence that the straps of his school bag are also red!

Hmmm...khaki clothes...Creative Memories Journalling Boxes have those kind of colours...and a pack of pre-cut Legacy strips...YES, this page is happening.
Oooh...and I'm sure I had some school type embellishments stashed away somewhere...aha, a mini blackboard & apple embellishments, ruler and calculator buttons...have blackboard, will write on it...white marker...write his full name...oh no, his surname won't fit! But his first name, Grade 1 and year does!
Stamped background - Hero Arts Old French Writing stamp & black dye ink. Sponge and scarlet ink smudged in-between rounds it off nicely. I'm chuffed, hope you like it, too...I'm sure Trev will approve.

Now it's my other son's turn. Over in Canada the school photos are somewhat bigger than the ones done here (or maybe they're similar these days!) and we have a whole lot of pics from Gav's kids. Just wish I'd remembered to write date/year and age! Jeffery, help!!

I've used the same Paperchain stamp I used on the Rhino card in my one previous blog. I learned an interesting way of stamping - do the top row from left to right, then start the second row from right to left so you don't get the same letters underneath each other.
Instead of worrying about mitering the corners of the black frame, I left them long to overlap - and cut them different lengths.
As a final touch and to add a bit of colour, I took an underwater scene painting from a Mouth & Foot Calendar, cut circles from it and stuck them randomly, picking up the colours from Jeff's clothing and the background of the photo.

I saw these very big Disney Christmas Cards in one of my many boxes. I've been collecting old cards forever and some years ago sorted most of them into categories...these were in the box marked Animated Animals. Then I found these two photos taken in the same year when Trev was 4 (1991). It was appropriate to put them with the stamped music background, as the bottom photo was from the Christmas Concert of Tiny Tots Pre-Primary School Trevor attended in Sunnyside when we first moved to Pretoria. It was predominantly Afrikaans and Trev had to learn "Betlehem Stêr", amongst others. My mom & I convulsed in laughter at the emphasis these kids put on certain words, obviously having been coached by the "Juffrou".

The last page in this particular series has been sort of planned for a long time ago in my head. I love cats and am very sad that due to my asthma I may no longer keep one as a pet. But when Trev was little, there were always cats around. These are just 3 of many pics!
A few years ago in Durban we were taken to an amazing shop called Everlastings (it sadly burnt down recently!) that stocked lots of everything including scrapbook goodies. I bought some see-thru stickers featuring cat paws and words...with this page in mind. I couldn't resist these kitty cards & I love the way this page has turned out. I'll probably do an opposite page shortly.

The Jammer Lappie!

For those who don't understand Afrikaans, the term Jammer Lappie needs some explanation: directly translated, it is "Sorry Cloth" but let me tell you the story I heard way back when...

Back in the days when families were big and farmhouse kitchens were huge and had a scrubbed wooden table in the middle, the whole extended family would gather there, around the table for the Sunday meal, which was usually a couple of roast chickens and all the delicious trimmings. Everyone would tuck in and the kids, as we all do, would eat off the bones using their hands. Well as you can imagine the faces were just as greasy. The Mom or Ouma, in desperation, probably grabbed the nearest wash rag and as she wiped the hands and mouths of each child, would say "Jammer, my kind!" ("Sorry, my child") as she scrubbed the dirt and grease away!

Thus was born the "Jammer Lappie" which is a communal cloth used to clean things, in our case inky fingers and stamps! Many years ago when I was at the beginning of my teaching days in 2001, my friend Violet gave me a special bowl in which to display a jammer lappie.
Now I have a personalised lappie specially embroidered for me by my friend, Soera Lötter to store in it - thanks Soera :-)

RECONDITIONED CARDS

You think of reconditioned cards and "yuk" often comes to mind! I have seen some neat cards done by some of the churches, but for the most part they are made by little old ladies with poor eyesight and not much creativity. The pictures are often cut out badly with pinking shears {shudder} and sometimes the personalised written wording inside has been covered with really old computer paper - ugh! I have even seen pictures that have been roughly stuck onto a piece of paper folded in 4!! No, no, no!!!!

I'd like to believe that I have taken reconditioned cards to a new level and want to share my stylish creations with a bit of explanation:



As I am an avid stamper, I decided to first stamp a background onto the folded square card. I stamped the BRS swirly stamp with dye ink, trimmed the picture, backed it onto black, then onto the card. The embellishments were added into the four corners and on some of the dots of the swirly design. Plain, simple, but striking!



As we started out years ago making the A6 cards (A5 folded), I decided to show that one can apply the wonderful new techniques on the smaller cards, too. I stamped the same swirly as above, but this time decided to edge it with a sponge dipped into a black inkpad.
This girl with roses picture came from an old Mouth & Foot Calendar, where various disabled painters feature their artwork. As it is a thinnish paper, I stuck it down with acid free tape to prevent it showing through at a later stage. I then created a frame with the aid of a ruler (to keep the lines straight) and peel-offs. The flat pearls on the top corners hide the overlap, the flower arrangement the bottom left and the quotation which was with the picture on the calendar, the bottom right corner. This was also framed with a swirly peel-off to compliment the stamping. A feather was added behind the flowers to soften the tone.



The crackle background stamp is from Niki Zipp of Paperchain in Johannesburg. The lovely scalloped black border is a die made by Nellie Snellen. The background within the scallops was made with the shaving foam technique.
I sewed the fibre directly onto the buttons and attached them to the card and ribbon with double sided tape.
I make all my square cards 14 x14cm as you can make an envelope for them from a paper cut 21 x 21 cm. Make a template square of just over 14 cm and fold the corners over it. If you have a ScorPal, place the paper diamond-wise at 15 cm and score at 22 cm, turn, score, repeat. Nick off the corners, fold and glue.



Another Mouth & Foot Painting...plain & simple again and enhanced by feathers and flat pearls.



This background stamp is also from Niki Zipp. It's been in my stash (I won it in a prize) for absolutely ages and quite honestly never appealed to me until now! It has a deliberated aged look about it and is almost fuzzy once stamped, but don't you agree it makes the most awesome background? Because of its boldness I felt it was better suited to a manly type image and what better than a wild animal?! As rhinos are in the news a lot at the moment what with all the nasty poaching going on, I felt this would be most appropriate. I think this picture came from yet another calendar! The subtle gems in the corner are the only embellishment suitable, although a black ribbon across a corner could also have worked.



This card was made by one of my students, Cecily Wilson, under my guidance. What a gorgeous interpretation!

New Revived Reject Cards

Those who have known me for a long time now know that I seldom throw anything away - especially 'blapses' (cards with mistakes on them!) I have a friend, Jools who has been helping me make Florist cards for quite a while now and as happens with handmade items, there are sometimes smudges that happen with the stamping, or a bit of unwanted ink appears. I told Jools that we have a Reject Florist Cards box that I started a long time ago and that she must just add to it and not feel guilty!

Here's an example of one of our ranges of Florist Cards...we get our cardstock cut to size, run them through the computer printer with our details at the back, then wrap them together with a No. 2 Seed Envelope in a Polyprop bag. They are very popular as they are small & say what they need to say.



Well, I've been promising myself that I WILL get to that box one day, and the other day was the day! These were the results:



That lovely loopy square is one of Nellie Snellen's Die sets - I love it! The marbelled paper is made with the shaving foam technique and the layer paper on the card itself is scrapbook paper left over from a long ago project.



That centre flower is handmade - Paola taught us how :-)
The lovely pearly embellishment is known as Bridal Garland - really improves the card, I think. This card would work well as a Wedding, Engagement or Anniversary Card.