Friday, July 26, 2013

Up to date

Good morgning!
Yesterday I paid for my late night on Wednesday and I fell asleep when I was waiting for my son to do the same, perhaps I even went to dreamland before he did :) So my big plans for scrapping were reduced to nothing and at first I was so disappointed about that but then I realized I had used up my time on Wednesday evening and I obviously needed the sleep.
 
Today I can tell you about a new project that I'll be working with from now. I'm making an album for my cousin's son Matteo. I only have two cousins and this is my kids' first second cousin and he will be 1 year old this weekend. Earlier this week I made a card and sent to the family wishing the little boy a Happy Birthday. With the card I sent a memory card and a return envelope with postage and then I asked them to copy all their favorite photos of the boy's first year to the memory card and send it back to me in the enclosed envelop - and see what happens :)
 
I've given myself Christmas as deadline for this project and I'm planning to make as much of it as possible. I'll do it in 12''x12'' format and use supplies from my stash. It will be fun to work with someone else's photos, I haven't done that before. I'm actually quite excited about this wholeespecially since I got a very happy "thank you" on e-mail from my cousin this morning!  
 
Today I'm sharing three new layouts, made last weekend, and they are #43-45 for the Facebook challenge. These are the final ones that I haven't already shown you. So I'm finally up to date after the vacation. Hopefully I'll be able to scrap some during the weekend and show you all of it on Monday! I really want to reach 50 so that I can replenish my stash!
 
This first layout is with a photo collage from this past spring. I was happy when I managed to get it into a rectangle, I cut away alot of snow with the paper trimmer, I wish it was that easy with shovelling. We had so much snow this past winter!!! I like the washi "frame" I will use that technique again, since the tape is a bit transparent it gives a really subtle effect. The title says "Sun". We live in shadow from October to March, we live right next to a small mountain and during the winter when our days are so short the sun never comes above the ridge, so when the sun returns in March it feels very special.
 
 
This layout is special to me in an almost religious way. I'll try to explain very shortly. I have been a teacher since 2001 and when I had my own kids I started to hate my job more and more and it was slowly killing me and especially my nerves. So when I was getting back to work after I had been on my second maternity leave I crashed. I was diagnosed with depression and an anxiety disorder. It was a horrible time. After six months of sick leave I came to paradise! Now I'm a telephone operator and this layout is about the ten first things I think is better with this new job.
 
 
This is my son - my sun! A couple of photos when he is painting and playing with clay. I used some of the stamped bits and pieces I made the other week (the pencils) and  colored them with my Promarkers to match the background paper that I have painted, sprayed and splashed all on my own :) The title is QK Diesel Classic on dimensional tape. The green dots are brads from my deep down my stash.
 
 
I hope  you'll all have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday! Hugs!
//Åsa
 

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Sorting layouts

Hello!
Yesterday I made a late night at the crafting table sorting layouts! I think I finished just a couple of minutes before midnight. And finished is totally the wrong word by the way, I managed to get everything together including 2012 and now I have a huge pile of 2013 layouts lying on top of my cabinet waiting to be sorted and the probelm is I have only half an album free so eventhough I "moved into" three brand new albums yesterday I need to buy more.
 
I always have problems with finding albums ever since they stopped selling "my kind" at the paper store in town. I'm one of the few scrappers in the world who still uses postbound albums and  I want them black and preferably with fabric cover. Yeah, I'm picky! Now I've been searching the iNternet the whole morning and written a couple of e-mails to shops all over Sweden and hopefully I'll find one that can sell me a bunch. If I need to change brand then at least I'd like at least three in the same style, and they still need to be black! This really annoys me. I don't want to spend time on this, it should just work out the way I want it to! I feel like a spoiled kid. Right now I have my eyes on three albums that I could see myself buying:
 
 
This is the kind I bought this last time and moved in to yesterday:
 
 
I'll try and get my hands on more of that kind, but I suspect it is an older style and they might be out of production. When I got them the packaging was really dusty :)
 
Anyway, it was lovely to sort out the layouts from 2012 and put them in chronoloical order. It looked really nice when I flipped through the albums and I'm so proud of my work and our photos, and especially of the story they tell about our family.
 
Here are some more layouts, the first two I made during my vacation and the other two I made last weekend. First is a photo from 2012 of my daughter. She got a Tinkerbelle dress for her birthday and she still loves it. I dug up some old grungeboard wings, painted them and added glitter.
 
 
This photo is from 2008! My daughter is 11 weeks old and I think the photo is just super cute! I don't know why it has taken me until now to scrap it, but it was one of my finds in my photo box when I went through it in search for oldies that might spark some creativity. I managed to get a huge order of paper copies out the other day and it will be waiting for me when I have finished the 50 layouts with this stash I'm working with now. Can you see the dress on the little wood veneer girl? I thought it was a cute addition.
 
 
These are more recent photos. My kids help their father building a large growing box for our two new rhubarb plants. 
 
 
The photo of this layout isn't the best, I should have taken it in day light but I seem to have taken it during the evening. Anyway, it is me and my kids on our way to day care in the morning one rainy day. The title says "We have color eventhough the day is grey". Under and on top of the photo I've added transparent stickers that look like water splashes. They have been in my stash for ever and now was a nice opportunity to actually use them instead of just collecting them for another rainy day  ;) 
 
 
 These are layouts #39-42 of my second round of the Facebook challenge "50 projects before shopping".
 
Have a nice day! See you  tomorrow!
//Åsa
 
 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Kitchen project

Good morning!
Today I'll be sharing three recipe cards with you for our recipe albums. I know I've written about it in the blog before but it was a while ago. I'm very interested in cooking and baking and for the last 8 years or so I have been photographing new food and pastries we've made in the kitchen (and enjoyed)and made recipe cards. The cards are stored in page protectors in binders. The size is A5 which is half the European standars size A4, almost like half letter size. I have four full binders with these cards and we use them a lot!
 
About one and a half year ago I changed my diet radically and after that I haven't done as much baking as I used to and I don't try new recipes like I used to either. Food isn't as important in my life as it was before but I still love cooking; I studied many years of university chemistry in the 90's and I think cooking & baking brings back the joy of mixing and pouring :)
 
My recipe project uses up my scraps and papers that I really don't know why I bought. I try not to put too much effort or cost into these pages since they the focus should be on the photo and the recipe. There are not much space left after I've added that and a title so I can mix and match background papers  rather wildly.
 
These four pages were all made during my vacation and they are all according to my new diet.
 
Saffron biscotti
 
 
Chicken casserole with mushrooms & bacon

 
 
 Almond & butter balls
 
 
Mushroom soup 
 
 
 In case you are getting curious about my diet; I eat low carb, almost no carbs at all. No sugar, no fruit, no underground grown vegetables and no grain, in fact I try to avoid anything with more than 5% carbohydrates. Instead I'm eating more fat. This has helped me greatly with my digestion and I have reduced all my skin problems which I've had since I was a teenager. I have no hunger issues or cravings, I never get tired after eating and I never get mood swings if it was long since I ate. It isn't fun nor easy to change this much - but I feel great!
 
Tomorrow I have some new 12''x12'' layouts to show you! Take care and have a nice day!
//Åsa

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

30 degrees!

Hello!
Today I want to share how I made a sunburst kind of layout using four different 6''x6'' papers from a paper pad. This is something I have been thinking about for some time but never gotten around to actually doing before and now I'm happy I did it during my vacation because I think the result is fun and it was a great way to use those paper pads which I love so much!
 
First I choose four different patterned papers and decided which part of the paper I wanted to have towards the middle of the sun burst. I used a protractor and divided the middle angles of the four papers in thirds, 30 degrees each.
 
 
 
I placed all the papers together with the divided angels pointing towards the middle and then I numbered the segments like this and cut them out. Then I placed them in numerical order and put them together with tape.
 
Turn it over and suddenly you hadve a unique paper for a special project!
 
My first try with this technique was with a winter themed colection by Bo Bunny. I cut along the edges nad chalked so that I could place my new sun burst on a piece of white paper to have a border.
 
 
For my second sunburst I decided to make a 2-page layout and use half of the sunburst on each page.
 

 
Side by side they look like this!
 
 
On July 10th we got a new family member! His name is Kosmos. He was born on April 17th and he is half Norwegian forest cat and half domestic short-haired cat. We believe he will be short haired when he grows up. He is just the sweetest little guy and he loves to play and cuddle and he is perfect with the kids eventhough they aren't always perfect with him...
 
 
Of course I couldn't resist decorating the pail we keep his food in :) Hubby just shook his head and smiled at me. 
 

So, now you know! In the future there will be cat layouts! I'm so happy!
Have a nice day!
// Åsa
 
PS: I just want to share a great link with lots of sneak peeks from CHA Summer 2013 all in one place! Check it out HERE!

Friday, July 19, 2013

Working my 6"x6" paper pads

Good morning!
Today I'm sharing five layouts made with papers from small paper pads, mostly 6''x6''.
 
This is Yearbook from Studio Calico. It was refreshing to work with these rich red colors, it was a long time ago. The title is rub-ons I found in my stash when I was cleaning out a box I haven't opened in years. I decided to try them on a project I haven't showed you yet and they worked perfectly so now I have them on my desk and I intend to use them until there is nothing left.  

 
This is MME Lost & Found 3 Oliver. I think this is such a nice layout style if you want to use a 6''x6'' paper pad. It showcases the paper in a good way and it is easy to spice it up in all kinds of ways.
 
This is He Said / She Said by Teresa Collins. I used the same starting point as above but I think the two layouts look very different. My sister-in-law took these photos for a photography assignment in school and I think they turned out very sweet eventhough the setting is our livingroom and not a fancy photo studio.
 
 
This is Studio Calico's Yearbook. Here I love the fact that I could mix the Classic Diesel QK-font with the Grand Diesel QK-font and "Robin" fit perfectly between the "H" and the "d" in "Hood". The flowers are metal and have been in my stash for a long time and they have cute velvet brads in the middle. I actually quite like them!
 
 
This is: Simple Stories Sn@p 24/7. My kids eat cookies they got in the mail from one of my penpals and I saved the wrapper to make a scrapbook page with memorabilia, a bit like old school and I really like it. It isn't perfect in design but it sure draws a lot of attention in the album and especially the kids love pages with memorabilia.
 
 
I'm still showing you layouts Í made during my three weeks off from work (and blogging) and I'm speeding up the process a bit because now I have gotten back my scrapping mojo and I will soon have finished round two of the Facebook challenge to make 50 projects before shopping again and I really want to show all my projects and be up to date in the blog when it is time to start the challenge all over again. So tomorrow I have more layouts and some mathematical scrapbooking I made with my protractor and ruler :)
 
Take care and stay healthy!
// Åsa
 
 

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Fantastic Friday

Good Friday morning!
Today I'm sharing four more layouts I made during my vacation. I'm happy I was so productive and creative during my three weeks off because now I'm in a total stand still and even though I have "only" ten layouts left to reach my shop stop goal I have no mojo whatsoever to get scrapping in the evenings when the kids have gone to bed. I hope it will change soon.

First I have a couple of photos from 2010. It is my daughter and my mum's cat getting acquainted with eachother. I must say I'm very fond of the small doilies I bought with my latest embellishment haul! They are really pretty and they were so inexpensive! I'll try and see if I can find more when I do my next shopping. On this layout I tried one of Nicole Jones' (nicolejones911 on You Tube) ideas and used small "knots" of twine in my embellishment clusters. I think it worked out just great and I will use it soon again. I glued it down with my Strong & Precise liquid glue.

 
These photos are from 2010 as well and the goofball in the pool is my daughter. I used the year as my title together with the small lable infront that says "childhood SMILE summer of".

 

 
In March when my daughter turned 5 years old we bought her a bike. We wanted it to be a bike that her brother can have after her so I didn't feel like buying a pink one. We bought a black bike which had some boyish kind of decorations, stripes and cool text. I managed to peel off those since they were some sort of stickers. Then I replaced them with lots of lovely hot pink butterflies. So you can say I actually scrapbooked her bike :) I even had some of the butterflies left for the album page. Isn't that just a happy coincidence?! LOL! It was fun to finally get to use the wood veneer bike. I have lots of new photos with my daughter practising her biking so I will have no problem using them in the future.
 
 
While I had that fun birthday paper on my desk I decided to use some with other birthday photos. These two layouts will not go beside eachother in the album, they are several weeks apart. When I see it now I have decided to add some kind of titel on the lower green strip of paper, I think that will ground the whole thing. The small bag on the left holds the wto candles that my son had on his birthday cup cake in the photos. It is a small zip lock bag and I folded a piece of that green paper over the top and stapled it in place to hide the "zipper".
 
The other day I got a nice coupon offer from the company I order paper copies from and it will expire on Wednesday so I plan to get my vacation photos in order and order a bunch of paper copies during the weekend. That will be alot of work but will result in sooo much fun scrapbooking over the next couple of months!
 
I'm trying to keep myself updated with the CHA Summer releases and I have found a couple of collections that I will look for. Unfortunately it takes agas before stuff comes to Sweden. Perhaps I'll have to treat myself to a box of goodies from Two Peas later this year.
 
Have a nice day and a lovely weekend!
//Åsa
 
 

Thoughts on creativity

Good morning!
Today I'm sharing two different types of layouts I like to make, two of each kind, and I thought I would talk a bit about the difference and my feelings for these different processes.

With thought: First I have two very obvious examples of the style that I try to accomplish after having read blogs and watched You Tube clips made by scrapbookers that I fancy. Usually I start by bringing out patterned papers that I think fit together. I cut pieces and make a startingpoint. I choose my photos and sometimes I mat them. Then I start to incorprate the few design principles that I know and sometimes I go with the rule of three with three embellishment clusters and sometime I do the diagonal instead with only two clusters. When I make layouts like this I feel like I'm following a rule book, a bit like sitting on a train, following the track. I often end up being really pleased with the layouts made with this process.

 
 
Without thought: Then sometimes I start with an idea, something that I want to try, something I've seen or something I just feel very strongly about at the moment. Often the layouts using this process becomes simple and clean because I have no idea how to decorate them since they seldom follow any rules whatsoever. Usually when I make these layouts I have alot of fun and I feel really creative while scrapping, BUT, I seldom get pleased with the result...
 
Here are two examples for this process: During vacation I went through my bag of cardstock scraps and sorted out those that were really tiny and cut them into strips and rectangles to get some sort of order and save some space. While doing that I started to get ideas and I created these two layouts following those ideas.
 
I can't say I'm disappointed with the layouts because I'm so happy I've finally gotten these precious photos (from 2008) in my albums but I still feel the layouts look like beginner's work...
 
 
 
I guess I just have to live with the fact that I'm not a graphic designer genius, not even particularly skilled, and when I try to create on my own I get lost and confused. It makes me sad of course, but I will try to not let it effect me or my creativity.
 
By the way, these layouts are #20-23 of 50 for the Facebook challenge.
 
I hope you all will have a wonderful day! Thank you for all your wonderful and sweet comments! Hugs!
//Åsa
 
 

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Paint!

Hello! I've been longing to do some artsy work for a long time especially after seeing all the wonderful mixed media projects that everybody is creating all over the scrapbooking world. I'm not ready for alot of purchases and even though I'm interested in Gesso I think I will have to explore the world of acrylic paint first and see if I have any talent or feel for the stuff at all.  
 
One evening I gathered my new set of acrylic paints (I bought a set with those small tubes in many different colors a while ago) a large wide paint brush and a pile of white paper. I had no real goal with this exersice other than trying to make backgrounds with the brush stroke effect and colors I like. I think I made nine or ten different backgrounds and it was super fun! I just added more and more different colors to my palette and changed paper when I though I was done. Some papers became mono colored and some got a couple of different ones. I have one of each to show you!
 
Here are two photos of my kids from this spring and I used some Amy Tangerine elements and small strips of paper on top of this home made background in aqua/green. I'm very pleased with the result!
  
 
 
Here are a couple of photos of my son playing with washitape and stamps. He is so patient and can sit for ever with his small projects! I had fun with some washi and made drops with my blue paper pen.
 
 
One of my background papers got a bit more color than the rest and I was about to throw it in the waste basket but then I saw this photo of me and my best friend from my childhood lying on her bed listening to stories or perhaps music on tape recorder. I inked it around the edges with brown to take away the whiteness of the edges of the paper. The fun retro cameras and the flower print worked well with the background and the over 30 year old photo... 

 
I have more of these papers but I haven't felt the true inspiration to use them just yet but I hope I will. Otherwise I'd like to have one of those painting evenings to try and do even better! It was alot of fun and I could let go of every artsy scare I might have had, because this was just paintbrushing randomly across white inexpensive paper and then going a bit crazy with ink splash. Fun fun fun!
 
Take care and see you tomorrow!
//Åsa

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Variety

Hi there! Today I have three layouts to show you which are really different from each other. Sometimes I think my layouts look all the same, especially when I go through layouts I've recently made, but when I look in the albums I never get that feling so I guess I change over time. Since I don't scrap chronological I have no problem at all! I just need to cut myself some slack :)
 
This first layout is a favorite of mine. I love the patterned papers and the photo is quite fun. My kids sitting on the floor of my daughter's room surrounded by a small disaster of mixed toys. In the journaling I told about my theory that they only toys they'll play with are the ones in random piles on the floor or the ones that someone else holds in their hands.
 
I'm a fan of Nicole Jones (nicolejones911) on You Tube and from her I got the idea with the twine behind the butterflies. As a scientist I could not resist the butterflies with the title Chaos Theory, and butterflies goes with everything, don't they?
 
 
I have been saving this paper for so long time and I have had no idea how to use it! I regret buying it! So I ended up cutting it in pieces and using both the A- and B-side on a kraft background. I added some hot pink paper flowers (I need to use up my old paper flowers) and some canvas labels.

 
 
The last layout of the day is a spring time sporting event from the garden. I got the soccer ball epoxi sticker from a penpal and I really like how I could use it here! I guess multi photo layouts is my style and they all hold dear places in my albums. Even if there are very little difference between the photos you get a feeling of action and speed and I think it is a nice addition to any layout with kids.
 
 
Tomorrow I have something completely different to show you since I've been playing with paint! Yeah! Take care and see you tomorrow! 
//Åsa

Monday, July 15, 2013

I'm back!

Good morning! I'm back from vacation and back on the blog! Finally! I've been longing for this moment because I have so much to show and tell you guys! I've had three really lovely weeks and the weather has been perfect! We have had easy times at home as well as some adventures and it's been a great time! I've taken lots of photos and I dare to say some of them are jumping eagerly around on my computer waiting to get on paper and onto my scrapbookig desk!
 
During the evenings I have been scrapbooking like crazy and it has been so much fun! I'm almost done with my second round on that Facebook challenge (only 10 pages left) and my shoppinglist is looong! I have found so much inspiration from this challenge and I have really made a huge dent in my stash.
 
I will show you my layouts in the order I made them and today I have three simple layouts with every day photos of the kids and myself. There isn't much to say about them other than I LOVE MY PAPER PENS!! I've used yellow on my first two layouts here and must say it looks just like the enamel dots, the same shine and no metallic or glitter effect. I have three different colors (yellow, green & blue) and I will buy more when my Facebook challenge is completed and I can restock.
 
I like the washi tape banner on this first layout and I will use the technique soon again! I think it was a nice addition to use the same washi tapes at the opposite corner. I love my small collection of washi tapes! I just wish I could buy all the pretty styles out there! Then my collection wouldn't be small anymore...
 
 
I'm still in love with the wood veneers, they are still novelty items to me I haven't had them for very long and I will buy all types I can find when I shop next!! I especially love the potty people but they are all out of stock here in Sweden!
 
I wanted to try out sequins and I had these old flower ones deep dpwn in a forgotten drawer... I didn't like them... I will have to buy some circular ones and donate these to my daughter.
 
 
On this last layout I used some of my stamped and cut out elements and colored them to add some color. I like them and wish I had made a larger variety. 
 
 

This was all for today but I have more tomorrow! Take care and keep scrappin'!
//Åsa