I’ve been green since I was about 17, long before it became fashionable to reuse and recycle.

This translates into me reusing every bit of paper or cardboard – I use them for lists (!), my husband has a stack for shopping lists, etc.

I’d cut some cardboard for my mini-scrapbook and there were strips of cardboard about 5 – 6 cm long.

I decided they’d make the perfect mini-cards for gift tags or to just leave a random note on someone’s desk.

I LOVE simplicity and non-fussiness so all I added was a piece of fabric tape with thank you on it.

Done!

In about 15 minutes I cut, folded and stuck the tape and then I had a set of 10 gift tags.

This would also be a lovely little gift to give someone.

You could punch a small hole in the corner, string some baker’s twine or ribbon and package 6 together (why are all cards in packs of 6?) in a cellophane bag.

A lovely, thoughtful present.

What would you have used these cards for?

PS isn’t it crazy I’ve already posted 10 of these crafty posts?! Click the label “Marcia gets crafty” to see them all and pin if you want to do them too

If there’s one thing that makes me sooo happy, it’s reusing containers for another purpose. And when they’re pretty too, well then, my heart just sings.

Supplies

1. clean formula cans or cans that contained food
2. scrapbook paper or other thick paper
3. sticky tape

Directions

1. Measure the length of your can and cut scrapbook paper to size.
2. Cut a piece of sticky tape the entire length of the can and stick one end of the scrapbook paper to the actual can
3. Gently ease the paper all around and use another piece of sticky tape to close the end
4. Voila – you’re done

This is a really easy organising project and if you use the same paper to make a set of cans, it looks neat and is functional.

a matching set of three and a set of two these hold Post-it notes and different buttons for crafts and these hold scissors and lanyards and keyrings

As you can see, I use them for:

• scissors
• pens and pencils
• post-it notes
• buttons
• glue
• party favours
• twins’ eating utensils in the kitchen
• kitchen utensils
• tissues (my kids pull out the tissues from the box regularly and I make them put them back in a bigger formula can so that we can use them without too much bother and fuss)

What other uses can you think of?

Hopefully this has provided some inspiration for the weekend? What are you planning to do this Easter weekend?

I went to Pep Stores the other day and saw they had the most adorable clothespegs.

Slightly shorter and wider than the regular ones and only R6,99 for 24 (less than a dollar).

I took a packet and decided to play with some of my fabric tape.

Supplies

clothes pegs

fabric tape (I bought the two used for this project at Scrapadoodles)

scissors

Ideas for using them

• for categorising paper (red for action, pink for fun, etc)
• for gifts (package 4 together in a cellophane bag and tie with a satin ribbon)
• for keeping family members’ paper separate (one colour per person)
• keeping bags of chips/ peanuts closed
• attach magnets to the back and use like I did in this picture (only use fabric tape on the one side)

How would you use these clips?

PS I went back to Pep and they no longer have the short, stubby pegs.

PPS I made another couple of sets on the weekend which I’ll show you soon

 

• Postcards or other project board (I liked the idea of finally using postcards I’ve been keeping)
• Blank or lined paper
• Elastic band (I happened to have coloured ones so I co-ordinated the colours with the postcards

• Fold the postcard in half
• Choose about 5 – 10 sheets of paper per book. Fold in half and make sure the paper will fit neatly inside the postcard.
• Use your fingers (I don’t have fancy “tools”) to make firm folds in the paper.
• Place inside the folded postcard.
• Stretch an elastic band along the spine and fold close.
• Ta da – as easy as that you are done.

Very green of me, don’t you think?

Who else loves paper?

Do you keep a notebook in the car?

Whenever we used to travel overseas, I’d keep a little notebook with me and divide it into 3 sections:

1. things to do
2. day to day notes – there’s nothing worse than getting back and whole days of your holiday are blank because you didn’t take notes
3. budgets or what we spend daily (we like to have an average daily budget)

Sometime last year I saw a scrapbook travel journal and I was inspired. Hers was a lot more scrapbooky for my taste but I loved the idea of capturing memories on the day itself and just putting the photos in when you get back from your holiday.

After all, I was used to doing the daily writing anyway.

So eventually I had all the supplies and to be honest, I only assembled the book on our first night on holiday but at least everything was ready.

Supplies

1. Chipboard covers
2. Binder rings
3. Two-hole punch
4. Scrapbook paper
5. Cardstock or project board
6. Notebook paper – I used a graph book for the budget papers
7. Stamps
8. Glue
9. Photos
10. Number stickers (before I saw these, I was going to use plain circle stickers and write the numbers on them)

How to make

1. Decide how big you want your journal. I initially used one double spread per day we were away but then later after going through all the pics, added another four pages.
2. Lay everything out first to make sure what’s in your head works out visually too. I had to change some papers here and there because the colours didn’t look good together.
3. When you’re happy, punch the paper and bind with binder rings.
4. I saw the idea for the cover page ages ago (I think on Becky Higgins’s blog) so I made sure to take that photo on day 1.
5. I wrote in my book every night, sometimes I had to catch up two nights.
6. I made a separate folder within my Ballito folder called scrapbook and dragged the pics I needed to print. Sometimes I cheated and made collages when I couldn’t decide on one pic.
7. I tried various methods of sticking the photos to the pages – the one that worked best for me was putting glue on the page and then affixing the photo.
8. A normal glue stick works better than liquid glue, double-sided tape or those sticky dots. Nice to know cheaper is still best
9. And there it is – a quick way of capturing our memories – in all its imperfect glory.
10. We all LOVE it – me, D and the kids keep paging through it and best of all, because it’s not perfect, I’m not at all precious about people (two and a half year old twins!) touching it

bakers twine from In Good Company – I won’t tell you how much I spent when I went but it was three times what I’d budgeted.

examples of the extra pages I added

the “splash” card is a free download from Monika Wright

I had a little man wanting in on the photo action

this is what all the journalling pages look like – words on one side and pic on the other

 

This was undoubtedly one of the best ideas I’ve ever had and I will definitely be making more for gifts and for our future trips.

I still have not blogged or posted pics of half of our travels from 2008 and 2009 but if I’d had little books like these I know they would have been DONE by now! I used to blog ours but it got away from us.

How do you document your travel (international and domestic) adventures?

What do you think of my little book?

PS please spare a thought for my friend, Beth. It’s one year today since her son died so tragically.

After jazzing up the other notebooks with tape, I decided to go all out on these ones.

 

They are super easy.

• Decide which colours of washi tape you’d like to co-ordinate and in which order.
• The planning part for me is the most boring but I found when I started messing up the first one that it pays to plan. Who knew it works even with crafts?!
• Thankfully, washi tape is so forgiving as you can pull off the same piece and re-apply it elsewhere.
• These were jazzed up just a little more because they were gifts for friends (the orange stripey one is mine though) so I don’t have pics of the final versions with the punched circle tags

 

I am VERY happy with how these turned out.

What do you think?

It’s no secret that I love notebooks and paper

I’m not a scrapbooker but ever since I bought my first pad of scrapbook paper, I’ve been hooked.

The colours, the sturdiness, the ease of using it…

I decided to make some scrapbook notebooks after I saw a tutorial for something similar on a blog (in the days before pinterest) otherwise I’d link to it.

What you need:
scrapbook paper
hole punch
twine
gift tag (if gift)

How

1. Take 4-5 sheets of scrapbook paper
2. Fold them in half and tear down the middle. This is a great craft for recovering perfectionists. You will twitch at first at the thought of not cutting neatly but when you put it together and see how cute it looks and how the torn edges add to the cuteness, you’ll smile.
3. Fold all the paper in half again.
4. Punch along the folds (spine of the book) as far in as your punch will reach.
5. Thread the twine through the holes (I’m afraid I was experimenting mostly and I still don’t have the exact method…) – keep going until your book feels secure. I don’t like flimsy so once I think it’s okay, I thread one more loop through.
6. Make sure the twine is on the outside.
7. Tie a lovely big bow and call it a day.
8. I tie a gift tag to the twine with a “made for you by Marcia” note.

Quick, easy and very, very pretty.

What to use it for:

1. A standard notebook
2. A book of lists
3. a year in review book (I’m keeping one this year and it’s been fabulous – I will blog at the end of December)
4. Little scrapbook
5. Journal

(all of these for you or a friend, of course)

Do you love notebooks and scrap paper too?

What do you use scrap paper for besides scrapbooking?

So I’m very slightly addicted to washi tape at the moment.

I get my packages delivered to work.

A package of lovely orange tape arrived for me and I couldn’t wait to start playing with it.

This is why all my boring black binder clips are all sporting orange at the moment.

So quick and easy and I did them all while chatting to a client on the phone

What’s this got to do with organising?

Well, we all know organising is MUCH more fun when things are pretty and when you’re happy to use them.

Do you like washi tape?

Have you decorated any of your office supplies yet?

I found these absolutely adorable name tags and knew they’d be perfect for our kids’ church bags.

I typed their names, printed, laminated, cut and punched.

At this point you could use ribbon to attach them to baskets, school backpacks, etc.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

They would also make very nice gifts for kids if you already added the binder rings.

How have you used free printables lately?

As you know, notebooks are one of my favourite organising tools.

I have a not-so-slight addiction and in fact, I set a goal to give away 37 notebooks over the next year as one of the items on my 37 things list which I made for my birthday in August.

So far I’ve already given away 17 and we’re only three months in. I think I’m going to have to increase that goal to at least 50.

Moving on.

So this is my current favourite obsession.

Decorating notebooks. It combines stationery, one of my favourite things, and a new love, crafting.

I’m using the word “crafting” very loosely as I don’t consider myself creative in this way but I’ll share my stuff nonetheless. It may be inspiration for others of you who are more like me.

Presenting my notebooks

look at the fabric tape

and free printable Ms I found somewhere on the internet (I can’t remember where – if you know, tell me so I can link)

same with these be and love printable circles – free somewhere too

another M notebook – this one for me. I’m in love with the combination of blue and yellow, with brown

and still some more

aren’t those Ms gorgeous? (they’re not all for me – lots of gifts)

pink fabric tape

Do you like notebooks? What have you created lately?