Lara

My dear brother André and his lovely wife Bettie share my love of animals. Any dog who is lucky enough to end up with them, will have a lifetime of  endless attention, luxury and more love than the Third in Line to the British Throne!

It was therefore devastating when their Rottweiler Lara was diagnosed with cancer and had to be euthanized.  It was all the more difficult as she was only 7½ years old.

This is a dedication to a wonderfully unique and highly intelligent dog who brought joy into all our lives.

The book is inspired by Judy Hayes' Vintage Book from her blog: Creating ......My Style

http://judyhayesdesign.blogspot.com/2011/07/spellbinders-get-knowledge-blog-frenzy.html

Lara loved sleeping on her back! 

I left some space for André and Bettie to write down their own memories of Lara

The little kennel folds open into a mini booklet.  Lara (of course) never slept in a kennel!

I used faux leather paper for the covers and stitched around the edges.  

I used my We R Memory Keepers Cinch for the holes and the wiring.

P.S.  The story has a happy ending.  There is a beautiful new Rottweiler puppy being spoilt as we speak.  More on the boisterous Luga in another post!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Exploding Box

My boss turned 70 in September 2012, and instead of buying a present, I decided to make him an Exploding Box with memories of his past.  I had secret meetings with his wife and contacted his sister who lives in Johannesburg a few months before the event. Both gave me lovely stories relating to the photos, some of which he could not remember ever seeing!  It was quite a mission and in the end I could almost not close the box!  Try and fit 70 years of living into a little box!  I added little fold-out and loose mini albums to maximize the space available.  

I used cardboard boxes to cut the different layers which I glued together with a glue gun.  I then distressed the box by tearing off pieces and chalking it with Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

The box consisted of 12 single pages, a mini fold-out album with 4 pages on each side, a small booklet with 6 pages, 8 single and 5 double-sided tags, 5 mini tags, a matchbook with 2 pages, 6 certificates, a holder with 6 photos sewn onto ribbon and a 3- tiered jacobs' ladder made of wood and ribbon.  

The Closed Exploding Box

Open view from the top

The Lid (The newspaper is a copy of a paper printed on his birthday in 1942)

I had four themes inside the box (small to large pages) - His Childhood & Family, Life in Rhodesia, Life in England and Life in South Afirca.

Above is part of his life as a policeman in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)

Yes, it is true - while staying in London, he was given the Freedom of the City, which gives him to right to drive his sheep and cattle over London Bridge while carrying a naked sword!

This is part of the fold-out booklet.  The photo on the far right is of his little brother Dawson, who passed away as a young child.  It was especially emotional as he had never seen this photo before!

The tags were nice to capture snippets of his life.  Such as being granted
permission (by the then President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda),
entrance for one day into the country to get married!

Another view.

Before I started this blog, a very good friend mine in the USA whom I met through scrapbooking (of course) posted an article on her blog of my Exploding Box.  Here is the link to Carolyn's Creative Corner:

http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com/2012/09/exploding-box-extraordinary-from-south.html

Following her blog is a bit like having a private teacher at home!  She explains every project meticulously. Please feel free to join her circle.

Thank you for visiting my blog. 

30th Birthday Card

I am very fortunate that my son is engaged to a wonderful girl.  She recently turned 30 and I loved making her birthday card to celebrate the occasion.

I also made a matching 'x-mas cracker' to use instead of gift wrapping. After some trials and errors,  I decided that I liked the square cracker the most.  I attach a template for easy reference.

Use a normal 12x12" scrapbook page.  Score on the vertical and horizontal black lines and the dotted line behind the diamonds - at 3" and at 9".

Fold each vertical line separately - the diamonds will now become triangles - cut out.  These diamond holes allow the 'neck' of the cracker to collapse.  Cut on the red 3/4" line as indicated to allow a flap. It is not necessary to cut a flap, but it does make the cracker look neater.

I did not want to spoil the lovely paper, but it also looks lovely to punch the two edges with a nice pattern.

Thank you for visiting my blog!   

Tim Holtz Tags inspired Birthday Cards

I have been a bit quiet lately, but everyone who works an eight hour day will understand that it is a monumental task to keep a blog going.

I try (as far as possible) to attend Bella's Tim Holtz Tags classes.  If you don't know it yet, I share her love of all things Tim Holtz!  Thank you for your ongoing inspiration Bella!  You should be in the Tim Holtz Hall-of-Fame by now!

These are the two tags we did in the class.  

These are my Birthday Card versions of the one tag.

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