Off the page: 52 Reasons that I love you

My boyfriend just left for China for two weeks, and I wanted to make him something to take with him that would remind him of me. It had to be inexpensive to make, and also small enough to sneak into his suitcase.

The "52 Reasons that I love you" deck of cards is an old idea I saw on Pinterest a while ago, and I decided that it would make the perfect gift for the occasion. This is by no means an original idea of mine and I can't take any credit for it.

I decided to keep this project extremely simple, as guys don't always seem to appreciate the effort and small scrapbooky bits that us girls love to add to everything. It was quite a challenge to keep myself from adding hearts and using punches, but in the end I am satisfied with how it turned out.

The font I used is called Londrina and it is available for free download here.

I also thought it would be hard to come up with a list of things I love about him, but it ended up being really easy, and I had to limit myself to just 52 things. I'm adding a translated version of my list at the bottom of this post if anyone is interested.

I hope that he will be able to limit himself to read just a few reasons each day, to make them last his whole trip, but if he is anything like me, I highly doubt that will happen!

If you are interested in making your own deck of cards, you can find detailed instructions here or here.



52 Things I love about you

1.  How you nudge me out of my comfort zone to try more adventurous activities
2. That you can easily chat to anyone about anything anywhere
3. That you are a really good mountain biker, but never boast about it.
4. How you know something about almost every topic anyone would like to talk about
5. Your unshaved face...
6. Your freshly shaved face
7. How you always try to hide your nails from me when you've been chewing them
8. How I always feel safe and protected when I'm with you
9. That you always play with my hair when I ask you to
10. How sexy you look in your office clothes
11. How passionate you are about some things
12. That you can always make me smile even when I am grumpy
13. How you look after and care for my mountain bike as if its your own
14. How you always amaze me by telling me interesting facts about random things
15.  That you don't mind helping and teaching me and never get impatient with me
16. That you always check with me before making important decisions
17. That others might think you are hard, but I know that you are actually a big softie
18. How you remind me about my Faith when I start to doubt myself
19. How easy it is for you to make new friends
20. How you always stay calm, even in difficult situations
21. That we never have awkard moments
22. That you know how to keep me calm when I am stressed or upset
23. That you love animals
24. How you laugh at me when I've accidently said or done something funny or stupid
25. That we can always work together as a team in everything we do
26. That you don't always let me have my way
27. That you still open the car door for me
28. That you always reach for my hand in church
29. How you always call me strange and funny names
30. That you always help me carry my bag
31. That you always say I look pretty even when I don't feel pretty
32. How easily you take really awesome photos
33. The few gray hairs you've got: they just make you more handsome
34. That you always comfort me when I'm sad
35. That you take me out of my comfort zone, but never make me do anything I really don't want to
36. How you sometimes believe in me more, than I do in myself
37. That you are and act so mature
38. How you order Rooibos tea at restaurants...
39. And then slurp it up!
40. How self confident you are
41. How you love and care for your family
42. How you always pose and pull faces when I want to take a photo of you
43. That you can drive extremely well
44. How you can fix anything if its broken
45. That you are so practical
46. That you don't mind being silly and stupid with me once in a while
47. How you are good in almost anything you try doing
48. That you also allow me to teach you things sometimes
49. That you trust me and believe in me
50. That you're never afraid to take a chance
51. That it was actually quite easing writing this list!
52. Every little thing about you that make you unique!

Looking back: Christmas 2012

This a layout I finished this morning, The photo was taken on the day before Christmas 2012. A little late, but at least it's done now!

We spent Christmas time at my aunt and uncle's beach house on the West Coast. They have a tradition to do a DIY stir fry barbeque on the night before Christmas. We put up the ready cut veg and meats and everyone gets a chance to fill their small bowl and then to stir fry it on the hot plate over the coals. In this picture, my sister and I are busy cooking our food. It was great fun and almots everyone went for a second round.

This layout is scraplifted Studio Calico's featured layout of the week.

It was great fun putting this together and I enjoyed working with this colour scheme.

I used a variety of papers for the layering including some Basic Grey paper and light blue polkadots and charcoal zig zag paper from the Seen & Noted collection from Pebbles inc. I also added some paper doilies.

 I decided to use the My Mind's Eye Indie chic collection Citron 'What a day' card next to the photo. The colours matched those of the papers perfectly and the sentiment summed up our Christmas day experience. It truly was a wonderful day!
 I made a cross with washi tape on a piece of grey cardstock and used foam blocks to adhere the card. I love how it almost resembles a gift.

I am always so jealous of all the Silhouette owners, so I tried cutting some hearts and arrows from glitter cardstock by hand. I am please with the result and might use the technique again. It's surprisingly easy to cut those arrows!

In between the photo and the card, I used some stickers form the Basic Grey Hopscotch collection. I pulled apart a few circle stickers and placed them so that they overlap. I wish I had more of them to cover the whole background of the photo's. But I am happy with it as it is.

"Krismis" or Christmas, is the title of the page. I used some American Crafts thickers and lightly dabbed them with turquoise chalk.

I used some washi tape as a border for the page to round it off.

I think this is one of my favorite pages thus far. I really love the layers and the colour scheme.

Sun, sea, sand and sisters

This is another photo from our family breakaway to the West Coast. Here I am (right) with my beautiful sister. We spent the day at the beach swimming and suntanning and of course watching
other people!

This is a really simple layout and was really quick to put together.

I used the back of the Playful Banner paper from Echo Park's Sweet Day collection as my background. I have been saving this paper for a while and I am satisfied with using it on this layout. I paired it with paper from the Seen & Noted mini block from Pebbles Inc using vellum as a frame for my photo.

I love finding uses for small scraps of paper that I just don't have the heart to throw away. I used some of these to cut out the cute hearts and to create the circle embellishment.

I used my last label sticker from My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline (by Jen Allyson) collection along with a summery element sticker from Echo Park's Sweet Day sticker page to create a cluster around the photo.

I added some washi underneath to echo some of the colours from the Pebbles Inc paper.

The brads were used to add dimension to the layout. I find it hard to randomly place things like these: I always end up creating a pattern! But I am pleased with the result.

The title was done with Classic Calico (Studio Calico) cardstock stickers.

I added some stitching detail to finish of the page.

This layout is so bright and cheerful it puts me in instant holiday mode!

x
Arné

Free Pretty Things Giveaway

The lovely Keren over at Free Pretty Things for You is giving away a wonderful $100 washi tape gift certificate to spend on Freckled Fawn washi tape.

Who doesn't love washi?!

Entering is simple! Hop on over to her blog and follow the super easy instructions. Leave her a comment for extra entries.

You can also follow Freckled Fawn on Pinterest and like them on Facebook to better your chances of winning.


Good luck!

West Coast holiday & first blog post

Wow! What a lovely time we had on our quick breakaway to the West Coast (South Africa). This is where we usually spend Christmas time, and with the sunny weather that is characteristic of our beautiful country, most of our time is spent lounging on the beach (or on our way to the beach as in the photo!).

The layout I am sharing today contains a whole mix of goodies from different suppliers. I used some leftover stickers (the sun and the cloud) from the Echo Park Springtime collection. I am so happy that I have eventually found a use for them!

I paired the sun with a circle sticker from the Basic Grey Hopscotch collection. Also an oldie but a goodie.

What is summer time and time at the beach without ice cream? These lollies are from the Echo Park Sweet Day collection. And what a sweet day that was in the picture!

I was also quite chuffed to have found a use for the wave sticker from the Echo Park Splash (by Bella Road) collection. It fits in neatly with the beach vibe of the layout.

I have used some washi tape (mostly form Typo) paired with some colour coordinating paper scraps to layer underneath the photo. The polka dotty page is from the Seen & Noted collection from Pebbles inc. I added some Stickles (colour Crystal) to add some dimension. But who needs an excuse to use glitter anyway?

The thickers are from Typo and the smaller alpha-letter are from the American Crafts remarks range and it's called Apollo.

I love working on plain white backgrounds and adding pops of colour. I had so much fun putting this layout together. And I think I might be a bit obsessed with using all shades of blue these days!

x
Arné