Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Special!

Hello!
Today I 'm sharing my two most recent layouts. I love this photo so much I can't stop smiling when I see it! I'm really pleased with the layout. What do you think? I love my new feather die from QK/Lifestyle and I will use it alot from now on!
 
 
This next layout is from fall and I titled it "Wonderfall". I wish I had added some kind of longer rectangular shape at the bottom of each cluster here because I think they turned out a bit too circular and not very grounded on to the page. It was fun to take out those paper leaves again, it's been a while!
 
 
 Take care and have a nice day!
//Åsa
 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Merry & Bright

Good morning!
I continue with Christmas photos, this time with Christmas papers and no flowers. The first layout has the photos that I used to make the Christmas cards for 2013. I used my 6''x6'' paper pad and chipboard die cuts from Studio Calico and a thin white cotton lace.
 
When I made the photo collage for the Christmas cards I did some cropping with the photos above and the final photo that I glued in the cards looked like this:
 
 
Here is a double page from Christmas Day when we spent the morning an the better part of the day playing with the gifts the kids had recieved on the previous evening. The title says "The Big Play Day". This is the left page:
 
 
And this is the right page: 
 
 
The holly leave paper hold the pages together and the clusters mounted on the same paper as I wrote the journaling on. On the left page I used the holly paper to create a narrow frame around the edge of a kraft cardstock background. I've seen my idol Nicole Jones do those frames a couple of times and I really like the look. It is also a very frugal way to use patterned paper, it gives the impression of an entire paper and you've only used less than two inches.
 
I'm sorry the photos are blurry, I had no idea before I uploaded them to the computer. I promise you, the layouts were crystal clear on the table :)
 
Have a nice day!
//Åsa
 

Yarn & Twine

Good morning!
It's haul time! Not a big one but one that will be fun to play with and give lots of possibilities! When I bought my albums at Slöjddetaljer I couldn't resist look for other fun things to put in my package. Slöjddetaljer is a crafting company that has been around like forever selling crafting supplies to schools. They had some scrapbooking supplies but nothing that really caught my eye. These two packages of cotton yarn were a great deal I think and the colors will match lots of the project I'm working on.
 
 
Then I found these two packages of bakers twine. They were NOT a bargain but after buying those albums it seemed like a small cost for a fun påroduct. I'm really more fond of the twine from Doodlebug but best quality comes with a price... and I think this will be just as pretty on my layouts.
 
 
I have been using alot of twine lately, in small bows and in curls and I like the effect it gives, the extra texture and movement. Easy and sweet.
 
Have a nice day!
//Åsa
 

Friday, January 24, 2014

Christmas hugs!

Hello!
Happy Monday! Wow, it's ringing like crazy here today! I've taken 179 calls in 100 minutes! Finally it is starting to calm down a bit. You need to fit
 
Today I'm sharing two layouts from Christmas Eve. Here in Sweden we celebrate Christmas on the 24th and we had Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts together with hubbys extended family. On these photos one and the same armchair is taking centre position and there was no chance I could fit it into a Christmas theme. Instead I decided to take inspiration from the pattern and the colors and focus on the Christmas spirit instead, all these photos have alot of it!
 
First I have two very excited kids, totally crazy from all the expectations. It is almost like the photos come with sounds, you can almost hear them! I used up some ancient Basic Grey paper as a background and some ribbons that's been in my stash like forever. The gold dots are Card Candi and I'm pretty happy about those, they make a nice impact and add some dimension and extra finish.
 
 
I love these photos! It is my father in law and my daughter sharing that arm chair. The papers are from Basic Grey's collection Persimmon. I've added sequins, card candi and some other details on three clusters. I grounded the clusters on circles made from embossed and sanded Core'dinations cardstock. Love the effect!
 
 
I've recived my two last post bound albums. I've decided to try D-ring. I've decided on albums from Pioneer and page protectors from We R Memory Keepers. I'll order them from CiLi in Papers as soon as I have filled the albums I have now. 100 layouts. Can't take too long, can it?  :)
 
I will take a photo of the twine and yarn, that I bought together with the albums, and show here in the blog!
 
Have a nice day!
//Åsa

Thursday, January 23, 2014

What does the fox say?

Good morning!
Today I'm sharing some dance layouts! The first two are from my daughter's dance recital in December. The first (left side of the double spread) page is from the group performance and the second (right side) is from the Finale when all danced together to the song "What does the Fox Say".
 
 
The third layout is also about dance. My daughter is making poses and goofing around in her tulle skirt. I'm pretty pleased with the fact that I used small pieces of tulle on the layout itself :)
 
 
Have a nice day! Hugs!
//Åsa
 

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

First Christmas pages

Hello!
Today I'm sharing three layouts with Christmas photos from 2013.
 
First is a page with my daughter sipping her Christmas must (tastes almost like some kind of strange Coke). First I thought that the two different red colors didn't match and I almost removed the washi. But then I decided that the washi lifted the third kind of red which is in the photo and it could stay on the page. I still don't know if it was the right decision but with all those sequins on top it will have to stay forever on the page. I used papers from Carta Bella. Honestly, I don't think I will be buying alot of their papers in the future. I don't like that they are super thick and the texture almost dulls the pattern.
 
 
Here are two photos from when hubby cut down our Christmas tree. We took it from the garden, we had a spruce tree leaning on the play house and we had to remove it anyway so we decided it would make a good Christmas tree! It was pretty special to go out and cut our own tree, I have never done that before in my whole life. But next Christmas we'll have to buy one, we only had one in the garden :) In these photos you can also see that we had a green Christmas, just some ice to tell it was winter.
 
I used papers from Carta Bella (the large horizontal with green trees) and Studio Calico (the 6''x6'' pages) and the chipboard decorations are from Studio Calico as well.
 
 
This last page has photos from Boxing Day when we had dinner with Henrik's parents and sisters & company. I took photos of when the kids played and they were so fun and all of them were blurry so I decided to make a collage and cut out all the people and mounted them on an old piece of  Graphic 45 paper. I added text stickers from 7 Gypsies and some wood veneers. I've done this before, also with many photos of low quality and I think it is kind of fun.  
 
 
 Have a nice day!
//Åsa
 

Monday, January 20, 2014

Lovely daughter!

Hello!
How are you doing today? Today I'm up with two layouts with my wonderful daughter! On both layouts I've been using PL-cards for my layering and I really love them. I have such a varied collection and I always seem to find a bunch that I want to use.
 
 
This layout comes with a dialogue which I have written on the yellow card on the bottom left.
 
Mom (a bit irritated): Aaah! It's like talking to a wall!!
Daughter (looking totally unaware): Eh? A wall? 
Mom: Yeah. You never answer when I talk to you!
Daughter: Oh, I see.
Mom: Can you pleeease get dressed now?
Daughter: Mom? Are you talking to the wall now?
 
 
 
See you all tomorrow!
//Åsa 
 

After-Christmas-Sale Haul!

Hello - my fellow scrapbookers!   :)
This is my haul from the After-Christmas-Sale at Cili in Papers. It came last week but I thought it could wait since I had lots of layouts to show before I started to use these products.
 
This first photo has washi and stickers from Prima's collection Wishes & Dreams. I'm mising a T on the alpha sheet and it is annoying me a bit but not enough to do something about it.
 
 
I bought these washi tapes from We R Memorykeepers. It was really for the wood grain one but I think the broader one is cute too.
 

I love flairs but they tend to be very expensive and I was really happy when I found these from Prima on sale. They can be used pretty much everywhere and I think they are very pretty.
 
 
These are from October Afternoon, ofcourse. The washi with the cameras was a "must have" and I was really afraid it was going out of stock before I could place my order. But, the price was high! It is really quite some price difference between the designer tapes and the Chinese no-name tapes. I love it anyway and I will use it alot! The alphas were kind of a surprise, they have tiny alphas on the back and I didn't know that so I felt I got one item more than I had ordered, sweet!
 
 
This steel die from Memory Box is such high quality! Í love the cut it gives! The edges are so good and the cat itself is super cute! I will have to browse what other designs they have!
 
 
I usually don't buy much from Prima Marketing but this is the third photo with Prima products from this order! I bought the cameras & frames wood veneers. They are OK. Not perfect, but OK.  
 
 
This stamps set from Pink Paislee had a very good price and I couldn't resist ordering it. I love the icons! I hope I can get good use out of it! 
 
 
I used to love every collection that Basic Grey came up with and for a long time I loved their paper so much I almost didn't dare to use them in my scrapbooking! Then something happened and suddenly they weren't even on my top-10 list of brands! I haven't bought a BG-paper in years! Then I saw these two collections, Persimmon and Carte Postake, on sale and I decided they both had interesting colors.
 
 
Lawn Fawn is better at embellishments than paper, I think, and I have really tried to figure out what it is that they do. I think they have one color too little in their schemes to be totally modern. It is something predictable over this collection that makes it boring. I bought it anyway, it has some really nice orange papers and some basic patterns that I will like playing with. 
 
 
One of the ladies at Two Peas' forum Bloggers & Readers, Mary Pat Siehl, is on the design team for Core'dinations and I often visit her blog where she does these lovely cards and scrapbook pages. She has inspired me to try Core'dinations cardstock and I think it is very fun especially with embossing folders! I will need to buy some more embossing folders! This collection was a nice started one with many diferent earthy colors combined with a kraft core.
 
 
Yesterday I  placed a new order. This time I ordered two albums and some twine and floss. I'm about to give up post bound albums after all these years and I'm buying my last two before trying D-ring. I felt I needed to use up the page protectors that I have already bought before investing in a new system. I wills how you the twine & floss when it has arrived!
 
Take care of you and come back soon! Hugs!
//Åsa
 
 

Thursday, January 16, 2014

In love with color!

Good morning!
I'm back at work with some kick-ass coughing medicine! It is snowing, I have a lit candle on my desk and we have more Christmas feelings in the exchange than we had when it actually was Christmas :)
 
Today I have two colorful layouts to share and I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out! Or, I guess, I'm pleased with every single piece of paper that comes from the "The Pier" collection.
 
The reflection made it hard to get a photo of the layout that showed both gold pieces properly, but both the label in the upper right corner and the frame have gold on them.
 
By the way, take a look at the A in "Beach". Notice anything strange? It is a "4" and a quotation mark in holy matrimony =)
 
 
Can you see the action?! Feel the speed? My 2-year old son, still wet in his hair after a bath, in his colorful overall, playing Mario Cart on Wii. I like the contrast between the clean patterned papers on the diagonal and the messy vintage looking background. I also think that I did extra well with the clusters here. The view master reel is a very good foundation for clusters and I'm happy I bought it eventhough it was a bit expensive for such a special die. 
 
 
Please, if you have time, take a look at the post before this one and give me a hint on what you think about the selection of ink pads on my wishlist.
 
The new cough medicine of mine, that I got at the health centre yesterday, is making me light headed, almost a bit tipsy! Thank God I don't have a work where I need to use my brain too much! It will be a strange day... 
 
Take care!
//Åsa

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Stampin' Up inks

I'm thinking of putting ink pads on my wish list for my birthday. I have been doing alot of thinking about this, I mean hours, and I have finally come up with a selection of ten ink pads that I'd like to have as a starter. Here they are:










What do you think? Have I found your favorites? Hubby thought I was missing a purple/lilac pad and he suggested Elegant Eggplant, but I'm not sure I would use it... When do I ever use purple?

Please let me know what you think.
Hugs!

//Åsa

Coughing...

Hello there! 
Today I'm blogging from home. Yeah, the coughing finally got me. I work as a telephone operator in an exchange and you can only cough that much before it effects the whole work situation. It feels like my coughing medicine has stopped working. It worked really well last week, yesterday it was a bit living on the edge at work and then when it was time for bed I couldn't stop coughing at all and I've actually been sleeping with three pillows behind my back, almost sitting straight up. When I got to work it only took an hour to understand I couldn't work at all. So now I'm at home, blogging and watching Nicole Jones process videos on You Tube. Haven't had any coughing fits but talking occasionally to the cat isn't anywhere near talking non-stop on the phone at work. I'm going to the health centre at 3 pm, and I better get some kick-ass coughing medicine or I will cough my eyes out tonight. I have the whole day on Friday working as a meeting secreatary for "the big bosses" and I need my beauty sleep and I must be able to stay quiet!

Baah! Enough about that, I'm just rambling. On to the important things in life - scrapbooking and layouts!

I have three layouts for you today! The first is called "Cause and Effect" and it shows a funny pair of photos of my son and the cat. My son has no idea how to pet the cat, which is surprising after all this time and how much we have talked about it. Basically he just pokes the cat with his little finger in "interesting places" like on the nose, in the ears or under the paws. The cat is soooo patient with Viggo but once in a while he reacts and "pokes back", so to say. Here I managed to get photos of one of those particular moments. 

I tried to make two embellishment clusters but I ended up with two "piles of stuff" and I will learn from this and make better next time. Learning is tough.

 

 Here are picnic photos from when we drove to see my mother during summer vacation. It is a 650 kilometers trip, which is 400 miles, so you need some pit stops to keep the energy up. We always make a longer stop in Old Uppsala which has historical mentions back to the 3rd and 4th century AD and there are impressive barrows there from the 5th and 6th centuray AD. The photo montage at the top of the layout show hubby and the kids walking to the top of one of the burrows. It is too steep for me so I stayed behind with the camera.

I think I did better here with the clusters, they are better grounded and the sizes of the elements are more varied. Yeah, I occasionally know what I'm doing, even when I'm doing it wrong.


Last is a layout with trampoline photos. We had so much fun on the trampoline this past summer!!! I took so many hilarious photos and there is another trampoline layout coming up in the blog in a few days. When I first photographed this layout I thought something was missing and then I added the orange/aqua ribbon and everything became much better, "it really tied the room together" as the Dude whould have said. 

I think I did good with the clusters here too. I just wish I could do good all the time...
 
 
OK then! Perhaps I'll do some scrapbooking then, before I go to the health centre. It feels like some sort of luxery in the middle of all the coughing. Not feeling any guilt about that, whatsoever! 

Have a nice day!
//Åsa

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Freezing!

Good morning!
Today I'm sharing two layout that I made during Christmas. The first one is a bit like chaos and I kept adding more and more because I wasn't pleased with how it turned out. I'm not sure it worked but I love the colors and I will have to buy more of that cardstock, it is my favorite color at the moment. The frames are home made and it was fun to be able to use them. Frames new in my scrapbooking and I'm still a bit scared to put them on my pages.
 
Don't you think it is time for one of the other wood veneer carrying companies to make potty people? I would like to have more, but it would be fun to have a version that is slightly different, just to make them feel new and fresh.
 
 
Hey, a boat trip layout! Been a while, haven't it? This is from when we came back from our boat ride and were unpacking all the stuff, the kids playing on the rocks. This layout I'm actually quite proud of and it will look perfect in our album eventhough it has very little embellishments and such.
 
 
 Now I'm going for a walk with the camera, hopefully I'll be able to take some winter photos without freezing my fingers off.
 
Take care!
//Åsa
 

Monday, January 13, 2014

Christmas scrapbooking gifts

Good Monday!
Guess who forgot the phone at home?!? Yeah, me. So there will be no layouts on show here today and I've been looking forward to blogging the whole weekend. Needless to say, the morning was a total chaos with the soon 6-years old daughter refusing to get dressed for day care...  It was -13 degrees Celsius  (9 Fahrenheit) ouside and she wanted to dress like it was summer, hot and sunny. Yeah, you've been there.

Weekend has been very productive. I got my most recent photos on paper copies last week and I had a couple of hours by my scrapbooking desk on Sunday when the kids were at their granparents'. That was a nice combination and I finished a double page from my daughters dance recital in December, another dance layout, two layouts from Christmas Eve and a photo collage from Boxing Day.

But, no mobile phone - no layouts in the blog. So, on my way to work I started brainstorming what I would blog about instead. Christmas gifts ofcourse! Did you get any Christmas gifts for your scrapbooking? I did!! On Christmas Eve this big boy moved into my cabinet! It is a Fiskars Rotary Trimmer. We haven't become the best of friends just yet, we're still getting to know eachother but I hope this will become a long and successful rellationship!


I got him from hubby together with a cardstock package which was really useful.

From my in-laws I got a collection of ink pads, a large black Memento a couple of small Versa Color ones in pretty colors.

Come back tomorrow for some new layouts! Have a nice week!
//Åsa

Friday, January 10, 2014

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year 2014!
Hello! How have you been? I've missed you so much! I hope the holidays have been good to you and that you have taken lots of photos for your scrapbooks! I have taken many and I got a huge pile of paper copies from the photo company yesterday and I'd love to just dive into my scrapbooking cabinet and create create create!!
 
We've had the flu since before the new year started and I'm sooo tired of being ill and having ill people around me!! Now I'm working eventhough I feel like a wreck and I get by on painkillers and cough medicine. Longing for the weekend like crazy.
 
One special thing is holding me up, I have a package waiting for me at the mail centre, my end-of-the-year-sale purchase from CiLi in Papers! I have ordered all kinds of goodies, a couple of 6''x6'' paper pads, some wood veneers, washi and stamps. I'll show you all of it in a future blog post.
 
Here are two layouts today which I made during Christmas. The first one talks about our snail problem in the garden this past summer and how we managed to get lovely sun flowers against all odds. The sun flower paper is an old autumn one from Bo Bunny and I was so happy when I finally decided how I'd use it. The blue background paper was a hard thing to find. Blue is a hard color I think. I tried maybe 15 papers before I found one that had a blue that was blue enough without any green in it!
 
 
This photo of my son from this summer was one of those where you know right away what you want to do with it. When I was younger I watched Baywatch on TV and I remember those "yellow floating things" that they ran with in the waves. It felt just like the same color as the pedalo boat my son is standing next to! So the title was Baywatch and the second title, Vivassen, is the name of the bay where we were. I put some small sails on the sailing boat wood veneers and I think they became even  more cute!
 
 
 Don't forget to have a look at my CHA 2014 Mega Show favorites! Whish I was there! Have a nice Friday and a lovely weekend! Hugs!
 
//Åsa