Soon there!

Good morning!

It is Friday! Yesterday evening I took care of the pile of finished layouts on the shelf, dated them and put them in page protectors. I wish I could say that I put them in my album but I can't since my albums are full! I wil buy new ones when I'm at that particular store. Until then I'll store my layouts in page protectors in my cabinet.

When I was done with that I sat for a long time staring at a set of green Thickers with very few letters left. I liked the color and I hoped to find enough numbers to be able tp write a date but I had no 2's! This is why I really hate Thickers and alphastickers. It isn't that I don't like to use them, I just wish I could use them all and don't get random ones left. It pains me to see them go to waste. I don't buy alot of Thickers because of this, it is almost impossible to find them here below 48 SEK (approx. US$ 6.75) and that is too expensive in my book.

When I had been meditating for a long time I decided to go creative with the Thickers and spell my daughter's name. I added my journaling on one of those sheers that I had in my stash, they looked really cool when they were new but I seldom use them and they aren't very cool... but hey, you need to use what you've bought - at least some of it...

After I added my titel, my journaling and some embellishments (pearls & pins) and now I have this empty space above the "j" and it is ALL I see when I look at the page. I'll have to get rid of that before I can say I'm completly done.

Then I made a journaling page about a song we've been singing here at home for quite some time. I love these photos! My daughter has her gingerbread dress & cap on and I thought that fitted perfectly with the title!   

 

I had one more layout planned in my cabinet and I took out the papers and photos and started experimenting. I adore this background paper from the Postale collection from 7 Gypsies. I used some oooold grunge board hearts which I colored with fluid chalk and I layered a couple of other papers behind the photos. I will work some more with this one and add some clusters.

 

Btw, have you seen the new stamps from Evalicious!?! I LOVE them!!

Have a lovely day! Hugs!

// Åsa

Multi photos - again!

Good morning fellow scrappers!

I made two layouts yesterday. First I really wanted to do that layout with the photos I prepared the previous night. I wanted the photo block on an angle and I added wood grain print and some retro number print at the same angle. I filled in the empty spots with a wonderful green/yellow polka dot and since I had more of that paper I made circles with a punch and placed them across a loose diagonal over the page. Then I started having problems. I wanted to ad the photo of me and my son but I had a hard time getting balance. I matted the photo with that same green polka dot and it didn't do it. I took away the photo and I put it back. Then I finally took out my pen and ruler and drew some lines. That made alot of difference. The titel is Swedish for "mischief" and I cut it with my QK Diesel CC and added it on foam tape for some extra dimension since I needed to ad some extra weight to the bottom of the page.

Then I took out this set of snow photos of the kids and the red paper. I decided I wanted a strip of different patterned paper at the bottom and I took out that lovely green retro camera print paper that I've been using before but since it had that retro look with cream instead of white it looked really misplaced with the white snow. So I ended up tearing it off and I went on a hunt for something that could replace it. I had some memories of a striped paper that I stored with the Christmas papers but I couldn't find it. But I didn't give up and then I found this diagonal stripe in a collection with Little Boy theme and I stamped it with my stamps from Simple Stories. I added some chevron washi and a bold title with my QK Diesel CC 

Just like the night before I didn't want to go to bed so I took out yet another set of papers and photos. This time it was two winter photos. I lined them up to form kind of a false panorama picture, I used the fence in the background as my common mark for the two photos. I had already choosen the two different text print papers and I added the lace to make the block larger. Brick washi tape and a chipboard house colored with olive green fluid chalk. I will add more embellishment to the washi areas and a title this evening. This will be my 46th layout for the Facebook challenge. I'm getting close to 50!

Have a nice day!

// Åsa

Yeah, sure hun'!

Good evening!

I just wanted to show you what I found on my tour through the children clothes stores on my long lunch break! Mainly becuase you are the only ones who will understand how pleased I am with this super cool t-shirt for my son! Can you believe it!?! I found a camera print t-shirt!!! It made me strangely happy, in a childish kind of way!

 

Here is the pile for my daughter. She is rather picky when it comes to colors and I tried to make both her and myself happy by secretly sneeking in some yellow and orange among the pinks. 

  

Here is the pile for my son. He is only 2 years old so he hasn't got alot of opinions about clothes yet and I choose as much color as possible. 

 

I had a hard time trying to convince my hubby I hadn't chosen our son's clothes to match the All About a Boy collection from Echo Park. I can't really help that clothes fashion follows scrapbooking fashion (or is it the other way around?), can I? What a silly thing to suggest!   :p    LOL!

Now I'm going to watch process videos on You Tube and scrap ALOT! I'll show it all to you tomorrow! Take care!

// Åsa 

Not much empty space!

Good morning!

Yesterday evening I got stuck with my nose in a web shop and eventhough I had plenty of free time I just made two layouts.

The first one is yet another of my multi-photo layouts. These photos were taken last summer when we visited my mother who lives in southern Sweden. We went on a stroll in the woods and picked wild strawberries. I used a green cardstock as my foundation for this page and very little of it shows up since I used some of my scraps for layering and another piece of paper inbetween the rows of photos. I realized I really don't use up much of my scraps when I have lots of photos, there isn't really any room for paper! But when I ordered paper copies this time I didn't order multiple photos from every occasion so I won't be making alot of these multi-photo layouts in the near future. That will make room for both more papers and more embellishments, I'm looking forward to that. I will start using those new paper copies when I start with my new papers. Everything will be new and fresh and I will probably stay up all night for a week... at least!

My second layout is with three really bad photos from my daughters birthday morning. I wanted to scrap them but I wish I had made them black/white. Anyway I'm quite pleased with the color scheme together with these photos and I had no problem mixing red with the pink and purple, I'm wild & crazy that way :)

 

I'll never admit to what time it was when I had gotten this far in my scrapping... But somehow I thought it was a good idea to start looking at yet another set of paper & photos. I choose this set with a bunch of photos of my son and one photo of us together. I cropped the photos to get rid of some of the white wall behind and to be able to fit the four photos of my son on a 12'' row. Then I taped them together like I usually do and then I decided it was time for bed, but I took this photo for the blog before I packed it all up and now I'm just so inspired to continue working with it and actually keep the photos at an angle for a change! Ain't I just the adventurous kind!?!

Now I'm trying to get my steam up for a two hour lunch break when I will raid the town's children clothes shops in search for summer clothes for the kids. My shopping list is looooong! I hope you'll have a wonderful day! Hugs!

//Åsa

Many photos

Good morning!

It isn't every day you manage to cram 9 photos onto a single page but that is what I did last night. The photos are small but it is my way of dealing with the fact that I have soooo many photos that I want to use. A page like this can't have alot of embellishments and I didn't add anything except for a chipboard rabbit that I got a while ago from a friend. Perhaps I can add something in the lower right corner, I haven't decided yet. The photos are from fall 2013 when we had gotten the first snow.

 

My plan was really to make a dozen layouts yesterday but you know how it is. When the bed time routine with the kids was done the effect of my after dinner coffee was already starting to wear off and I wasn't as creative as I wanted to be and I ended up watching two really good documentary programs on web-TV while sitting by my scrapdesk and it was more watching and less scrapping. When I went to bed I felt really good anyway because it was a long time since I got intellectual input like I got from those documentaries. Perhaps I can get some more scrapbooking done tonight!

I hope you will have a very nice day!

// Åsa

Preparations

Good morning! I haven't been scrapbooking since Thursday and I feel kind of crazy about that. But we have had yet one of those summer weekends with perfect weather and we have been outdoors alot. Now it is Monday, it is raining and I'm looking forward to a nice day at work.

Last night I was too tired to scrap but I managed to get that paper copy order out and I planned 8 pages and stuffed paper, photos and even some embellishments in page protectors so hopefully I can get a flying start this evening and do some serious scrappin'!

Have a lovely day!
//Åsa

Friday I'm in Love

Good Day & Happy Friday!

It has been ringing like crazy here the whole morning so I haven't had the time to update until now when I'm on lunch. Infact I'm so tired I'm quite impressed I've managed to work at all. First I did some major scrapbooking last night and got to bed late, then after just an hour or so my son woke up and had a high fever and kept waking up every 1½ hour crying and feeling miserable. It was a tough night and I don't think I woke up for real before I was on the way to day care with my daughter. Hubby is home with our son. Hope this fever thing will go away during the day. But hey, it's Friday! 

My Thursday evening by the scrapbooking desk was really nice and now I have only one full sheet of patterned paper left in my pile of oldies. I still have a couple of layouts to complete before I reach 50 so I will have to dive into my paper folders and look for more papers, or perhaps use 6''x6'' papers on cardstock background. 

Here are my layouts from last night! First is a layout with my son when he started eating solids. He wasn't very impressed at first :) I took out all journaling cards I could find that had kind of a clean design and I added pieces of kraft paper to make a frame around the photo block. At first it just looked crazy but after I had stamped the kraft with word stamps it looked alot better. The background is an ancient paper from Basic Grey.

 

Here are three photos of my daughter playing with color pencils and coloring stamped images. I opened my box of ribbons and collected the ones without patterns and multicolor and cut small pieces which I glued to the back of the photo block. I like the effect and I will do it soon again. I drew some lines with black pen and ruler along the paper edges to hold the whole layout together and I think it worked out well.

 

I'm sorry about this last photo, I will have to replace it with a new shot when I come home, this makes me dizzy. I had a whole bunch of photos of this cutie and myself in the play house and first I thought I would do a double spread but then I cropped the photos instead and crammed them all onto one page. I used a wood clock from Prima to make a sun/flower with strips of patterned paper. I stamped with word stamps to mat the "sun".

 

I hope you will have a wonderful Friday and weekend. Sun is shining today so I'm hoping for weather like we had last weekend - summer style! Hugs to all of you!

// Åsa

Just one!

Good morning!

It's really strange how one can feel inproductive when "just" finishing one layout in an evening but I needed to do some other things for my future scrapbooking so I didn't have the time eventhough I pushed my bed time yet another evening...

This photo is from 2010. It's been waiting for a long time and I guess it's because it is a single. Earlier I filled my pages with photos becuase I felt intimidated by empty space and then a single photo is a major problem evnethough it is a sweet one. I got some pretty embellishments from a pen friend of mine and I thought they looked perfect for this layout with a nature/outdoors theme.

I really like these background papers I've been using the last couple of days. No big fuss going on but still alot more than a plain cardstock. When I got those Smash sticky-note banners I thought I'd never use them in my scrapbooking but I have used them alot and I really love them! Unfortunately I haven't found any other styles or colors of those so I guess when these are done it's over and I'll cry a bit.

 

So what did I do last night other than putting pretty photos on pretty papers? I took care of my photos. I emptied my camera and my mobile phone camera, sorted and went through everything since last time I ordered paper copies and decided which to choose this time. I still have to get the photos from my hubby's mobile phone and then I'll be able to complete my order. I also spent alot of time putting photography dates on my recent layouts. It was alot of searching! Lately I have saved the folders with the photos I've gotten photo copies of and that makes it alot easier, but when it comes to older orders I still have to be a detective... I don't put away my layouts in albums until they are dated and photographed. I try to always keep to that rule.

I'm starting to look for embellishments that I want to buy and as always here in Sweden you end up frustrated that you can't buy everything you want at one web shop. We have so many scrapbooking webshops but many are small and if you make small orders at different shops you get the annoying problem with the shipping costs adding up to more than you than you'd like to pay for the things you want... When it comes to scrapbooking I'd rather live in the States. I have to order online because there are no scrapbooking stores where I live.

I hope you will have a nice day, tomorrow it's Friday!

//Åsa

Another late evening scrap

Hello!

I confess: I scrap instead of sleeping... Yesterday was yet another late night at my desk. Me and my hubby watched web-TV and did our different projects and suddenly it was way past my normal bed time. But just like the previous nights I got three layouts done, I had a wonderful time and I'm pleased with the result! Perhaps that is just as good as sleep?

My first layout is with papers from my stack of oldies. When I had choosen my papers I thought the color scheme was very retro and then I picked a photo to go with that theme. This is a photo of me and my dad when I was just a few minutes old, over 36 years ago. This photo is very precious to me and I'm so thankful I got all those years with my wonderful daddy <3.

 

For this next layout I took out one of those 6''x6'' paper pads again. This one was from Fancy Pants and is called Time for Spring. I had a whole bunch of scraps from a previous project and I placed them on my white paper and added a couple of whole papers as well to create a colorful one-collection-background. I found a photo of myself from a series of photos of me and my son in the play house in our garden. I had lots of photos from the same occasion so I felt I could take one and save the others for a multi-photo-layout later. I found some ancient alpha stickers and I know the yellow on yellow isn't optimal but it looks alot better in real life than in this night time photo. The flair from Amy Tangerine says Good Times, just like the title.

 

This last page was a quick one with emphasis on the photos. The title says "The cats say meow" and I forced myself to put the photos in ange instead of lining up them beside eachother like I usually do with three photos. Nothing fancy, but it will be a fun page in our album.

 

I've decided not to use my new papers until I have reached the 50 layouts in my challenge and then I will buy some items for embellishment and make 50 more with what I got because it has really been a great source of inspiration and I like the facts that I'm making a dent in my storage.

By the way, I have noticed that it is hard to see that I'm using up embellishments, becuase they still take up the same amount of space when the container/package is half empty as when it is full. I'm going to challenge myself to use something old until there is nothing left so that I can use the space for something new.

Take care and happy scrappin'!

// Åsa

36 layouts out of 50

Hi again!
Just a quick note; I have now made 36 layouts for the 50 layouts challenge at Facebook! I still have papers to go along way over 50, perhaps I will treat myself to a small deco order when I've reached 50 and then continue to 100? I do need to buy a couple of new albums - but that won't count!

I'm thinking of buying a couple of Paper Pens from Viva instead of buying enamel dots, perhaps that is my treat?

Take care!
// Åsa

PS Can someone in an English speaking country tell me if my name show up properly on the screen? There should be an "A with a small ring above", then an "s" and last an "a".

Monday rainy Monday

Good morning!

I was so productive last evening! Three layouts - and I'm really pleased with all of them! The only draw back is that I got to bed way too late so I'm really tired today. But scrapbooking is like meditation to me so the soul is rested and eager to scrap some more!

This first layout has four smaller photos of my daughter. I tried to tie the layout together with my embelishment clusters but I didn't feel it was enough so I added some stamping in a different triangle around the photos and I thought it got alot better.

A while ago I ordered a whole bunch of 6''x6'' paper pads and I got alot of inspiration from working with whole collections. The smaller size was really fun and it was alot "easier" to use a couple of those smaller papers than actually cutting into a bunch of large 12''x12'' papers. For this layout I took out the All About a Boy collection by Echo Park. It isn't particularly boy-ish so I thought it went perfect with these fun photos.

 

The second layout I made is probably the best I've made in weeks, atleast in my own opinion :) I think it is my daughter who has taken the photos, hence the slight "frog perspective". I cut the photos into squares and my first thought was to make it look like those strips of photos you get from a photo booth but they were too large. Instead I matted them on a piece of Simple Stories patterned paper. That paper had a nice dotted backside so I used both the striped and the dotted for the rest of the layout. While I was at it I used my clear stamps also from Simple Stories. I finished with some birdies and white paint splashes.  

 

The third layout was a quick one and I wanted to give the photos as much room as possible because they speak for themselves in a rather dramatic way. The photos are from winter 2010/2011 when we got so much snow we had to shovel it from the roof of our house due to the risk of damage from the weight. I tried to make a red diagonal with the alpha stickers and my daughters red cap in the photo :)

 

I think it is time to count how many layouts I've made for that 50 layout challenge, I think I'm in the mid-30's. It has really been fun and perhaps I'll continue to 100... I haven't even started with my new papers! But on the other hand I'm running low on those fun little things that make the whole difference with the embelishment clusters. I'll think about it :)

Have a wonderful day!

// Åsa 

Sunny day evening scrappin'

Good morning Monday!

This weekend has been truly amazing! We have had summer warmth and been outdoors all the time! We have done so much and had so fun together! The kids have played with water, I've done lots of gardening and I've taken many fun photos! Today the rain is pouring down and it felt really nice for a work day. I just wish I had had the time to carry out the plants (tomatoes & peppers) on the patio because it is really warm eventhough the sun isn't shining :)

Before going to bed last night I finished three quick layouts with photos that I really want to have in our albums. First is a layout with photos from my daughters birthday. The photo of the layout is a bit yellow, the text and the lace is actually white.

 

Here is a layout with photos from last summer. I added the date as a title, a pretty good way of using up those left over Thickers.



 

Last I have a layout from this past winter when we made a snow hut on the porch. I just love that camera print paper! My daughter was a bit disappointed with the hut (but it was amazing, really) 'cause she wanted an igloo like the one Pingu the Penguin has...  :)

 

I really want to scrapbook some more this evening and I hope I won't be too tired after this busy work day. I got a "50 for free" coupon from the company where I order my paper copies and I'd like to use it. I have decided that it won't count against my shop-stop. Perhaps I'll do that photo work this evening.

I hope you will have a nice Monday - it will soon be Friday again! Hugs!

// Åsa



A new color scheme

Good morning!

Today I'm sharing my layout from last night. I cut into my new pile of oldies and choose a color palette that I haven't worked with before. It has such a nice retor tone to it and I loved it together with the soft photo of my son sleeping. This time I gave the clusters of embellishments some more thought and grounded them well. The finishing touch was the paint splashes. It is rather new thing to me to ad paint in that way and I still feel it is amazing what a difference it makes!

 

I made one more layout but I still have to ad the title and perhaps journaling before I show it. It was really nice to start on a new pile of paper, it feels very fresh even though the papers are very old. The B-sides never seem to get out of fashion! Yet another reason to scrap B-sides instead of A-sides. 

The sun is shining, the trees are starting to get small leaves, there are flowers everywhere! Have a wonderful Friday!  

// Åsa

My new pile of oldies

Hello again!

I wrote before that I was done with my previous pile of papers that I've been using for months. I kind of went through my stash and choose papers that I thought looked good. Before that I had mainly been scrapping A-sides and when I started watching Shimelle's videos she opened my eyes to the B-sides and I felt I got a whole new collection of papers that I wanted to use.

So now when my pile is gone I put together a new one that I will work with until I have the courage to start working with my newest papers, the ones I showed you last week. Here is my new pile and hopefully it will inspire me to some kind of "å-some-ness" in the weeks to follow.

 

I have updated my shoppinglist after a productive discussion over at the Two Peas forum and I think I've found some real good stuff!

Take care and have a lovely Thursday, tomorrow it's Friday! Love Fridays!

// Åsa

The art of grounding...

Hi again!

This is my last layot from last night and I was pretty much done with my old paper pile so I went into my paper folders in search of a paper to use with these rather old photos of my mother and my sleeping daughter. When I went to bed this is what I had accomplished:

 

It is the first time in a very long time that I'm using a pre-decorated paper like that, an A-side with lots of things going on along the edges. It felt very strange. I will not buy these kinds of papers in the future. This is a pretty paper from Kaiser Kraft. I added a flair, some enamel dots and a couple of mullberry butterflies. The journaling cards was hard to put on that patterned paper but I felt I had to.

Already when I took the photo I felt something wasn't OK with the layout and I didn't like it. I liked the papers and the photo but the layout looked like a beginner's work and I don't want to feel like a beginner after all these years. "Simple style" is OK, but not "beginnner style"!

While trying to fall asleep I thought about what I could do and I decided it was my clusters that were floating around in empty space and it was disturbing the whole layout. While I drifted away into sleep I decided I would pick up my clusters and ad them onto paper for some grounding.

This morning my son was an early bird. He called for me at 4 am and I lifted him over to our bed and he was calm for almost an hour, but didn't sleep. At 5 am I guess he was tired of just lying there so he started screaming like some kind of alarm so I went up with him. That gave me "some extra morning time" and when I had but my son in the sofa with his morning bottle of gruel I ripped away those dots and butterflies from the layout and added some ledger print paper and put everything back together. When I left for work it looked like this:

I'm much more pleased now. This will look fine in my album! Perhaps I can ad some splashes of paint, I'll think about it during the day. What do you think about my morning scrapbooking changes? The morning photo is alot better than the one I took last night, but that's a matter of day light :)

I'll be back with yet another post soon. Hugs!

//Åsa



Late evening scrap

Hello!

Yesterday evening I was in such a good mood for scrapbooking and I prepared in my mind while I put the kids to bed and then I was ready to go! My first plan was to use my new QK hexagon dies. I pulled out all my scraps and started cutting. I arranged the hexagons and added a photo of my son painting. I stamped with my set from Click Click Flashback Clear Stamps by KI Memories and added some splashes of my home made "acrylic paint soup".

 

Next is a really simple layout but I wanted to have this photo in my album and I wanted it to feel home-y. 

 

This is, I think, the last layout from my old pile of paper. I guess I could have embellished this some more but apparently I didn't :) it was getting late and I felt pleased after adding those smash book sticky notes and the journaling cards.

 

I have more to show you but I will do that in another post.

See you soon!

//Åsa

Rays of Sunday scrapping!

Hi there!

I hadn't the time or energy to upload this yesterday so today I'll be an early bird! Actually I was so tired yesterday I fell asleep on the sofa when I was keeping my daughter company while she played Wii. Then I fell asleep while waiting for her to fall asleep in her bed and then I downed two cups of cold coffee and went straight to bed, fell asleep before I even started bothering about the odds of falling to sleep after drinking coffee. So I guess I have slept 10 hours and I feel perfect!

Sunday evening I just didn't want to go to bed! I am in such a good scrapbooking spirit at the moment, perhaps that is why I felt soooo tired yesterday :) Anyway, I remember seeing a video from Two Peas of a lady making such a wonderful layout with rays over the whole page. I thought that would be a perfect use for my last scraps in my "pile" before I start on my new pile.

I took one of those white 12''x12''-papers that I get when I buy page protectors (I have so many, sometimes I use them instead of cardstock) and I decided on a point on the paper and then I drew lines from the edge of the paper (3'' apart) to that point. Then I numbered the different segments and cut them apart. I traced the different segments with odd numbers on patterned paper and glued them onto a patterned paper that I had sprayed with ink. I brown lined the edges of my rays and added my photo, journaling and title. This is a layout for my Book of Me.



 

With the same template I made this next layout of me and my son. I'm really pleased with this one!! It was a bit more complicated with that striped paper but since I always had an outer edge to hold on to I managed to get it straight. First I made rays all over but it was too busy so I added that orange paper instead. I'm especially pleased with the clusters here and the new Thickers matched the whole color scheme.

 

My goal is to get some more scrapbooking done this evening, I really want to dig into my "new pile", I think I will take a photo of it before I start so that you can see what I'll be working with. We'll see how long it will be until I want to start scrappin' with those papers I got the other day, I still need to touch and pat them some more :)

Have a nice day!

// Åsa

One more from the weekend

Good morning!
I wanted to share the last of the past weekend's layouts! It has photos from almost a year ago and I have been longing to put them in our album because I love them so much!

I'm already longing for my next creative time at the scrapbooking table!

If I were you guys - I would wonder why I haven't used any of my new papers. Yeah, that is really a good question. In fact I've even put together a large pile of old papers from my stash which I thought looked interesting and thought of using them next, before I start with the new ones. I guess I just want to "hug, touch and feel" the new papers some more before I start cutting into them... yeah, perhaps I'm a scrapbooking nutcase, but I do love my papers - especially these ones :)

Have a wonderful Monday!
// Åsa

PS. The dance recital was wonderful! I have photos! I want to scrapbook them now!! Hugs!

Saturday's layouts!

Good morning!
Today is a big day over here! In the afternoon we're going to the concert hall to watch our daughter's dance recitals! I'll have my camera with me!

Last evening I played around some with ink spray and completed four layouts!

First I have a layout with photos from the 2012 Lucia celebrations at day care. I started of with four photos but ended up just punching out my daughter with a circle punch from two of the photos, they were just to similar to use them all. 

 

Then I have a page with rabbits! The title is a quote from "Despicable me" which we have been using alot here at home. Very funny movie, btw.

These papers have been in my stash for a long time. They even ended up in my pile of pretty papers that I wanted to use but nothing happened. So now I cut out that label shaped sentiment and I used the dog tooth as a background after a go with the spray ink.

Here is a layout for my Book of Me. I stamped the title when I had my foam stamp challenge the other day because I had paint left. The title was actually longer and I had trouble finding room for it with the photo. I'm pleased with how it turned out and I like the little saying under the photo.

Hopefully I'll be able to do some more scrapbooking today. I feel really inspired!
Have a wonderful Sunday!

// Åsa

Polymer clay [hearts] scrapbooking!

Hi there!
On Thursday when I was waiting for that gold acrylic paint to dry I rolled again on my 100-challenge. This time I rolled #50 Text stamps. I had been talking about polymer clay with my hubby and also seen a haul video online of a lady who had made a wonderful deal on Sculpey, so in my head I already had an idea of using polymer clay in my scrapbooking, something that I did long ago.

I took out my magnetic stamps from MM and started kneading my white clay. It was so hard, I was so tired in my hands when it finally started to become soft! I used my hands to make the clay into a thin sheet, I guess you can use a rolling pin if you want it a bit more perfect. Then I stamped words in the clay and cut them out with a knife.

When I had set the clay in the oven I adventured into my hubby's cabinet and borrowed his Liquitex inks and made myself some vibrant ink sprays with ink and water in some Ranger mini misters and sprayed on a couple of my new word embelishments.

My original idea was to wipe off the ink that had pooled on the small plates and keep the ink that was stuck in the stamped words but when I saw the water color effect of the ink on the clay I decided to let it dry like that and see what happened - and I LOVE it!! I can't wait to use these on a layout!

But then today when I got some scrapbooking time those words that i had inked didn't fit with the photos I wanted to use so I ended up inking a new set in the same way.

This is a layout with my son dressed up for Easter costume day at day care. It's the traditional Easter Witch outfit with a head scarf and freckles since his sister had that and he wanted to be the same, ofcourse.The title says "Happy Easter".

In my embelishment clusters I also used enamel dots, washi tape and wood veneer birds. I colored the birds with the same ink spray which I used for the polymer clay words. I finished my work by drizzle some of my home made "acrylic paint splash" over the layout.

What do you think?
Now I must scrap some more! See ya!
// Åsa

A little bit of Christmas

Hello again!
Now I'm back with a new layout. Last night I made a roll on my challenge list and I got #21 Bring out your foam stamps! Wow, those haven't been exercised in a while, that's for sure! But I'm really reluctant to get rid of anything so I've kept them for all these years and the fonts I have are really pretty so I decided to give it a try. When I made that layout of me as a kid I found another photo from my childhood which I thought was really sweet so I decided to make a layout of that.

I stamped the title with gold colored acrylic paint on black cardstock and when I was done I had some paint left on my tray so I painted some chipboard snowflakes with the same paint. Since the paint then needed to dry I couldn't finish the project until today.

I cut out the letters for the title, layered a background with papers from my pile (which is beginning to look rather small, btw) and glued it all together to look like this:

In case you wondering about the outfit, it's the traditional Lucia costume. On December 13th we celebrate Lucia in Sweden. It's kind of a celebration of the returning light when we are in the darkest season of the year.   

I started yet another project yesterday and I'll try to finish it now. See ya!
// Åsa

My different paper crafting projects

Hi there!
Today I got strong "scrapbook-supply-shoppingravings" when I saw that Two Peas had a nice sale on all their stamps. But I'm on a shop stop so I'll be a good girl.

Instead I thought I would tell you guys about my different scrapbooking projects going on.

Chronological album
I scrap our family photos in 12''x12''. I put them in black fabric covered post bound albums and I have some kind of an idea that I should put the layouts in chronological order but you guys know how it is with post bound... My intentions are chronological and I try the best I can to rearrange and put in order when I make new layouts. I have no goal, however, to scrap in chronological order. I scrap the photos I feel for at the moment and it is mostly the most recent ones. When I flip through my small photo box without finding anything that interests me I usually take out my larger photo storage and look for older photos that inspires me, at the same time I put away more recent photos that I don't get any vibes from at the moment. This usually leads to a rather drastical change in my photo box and I can get layouts done that have been waiting for a long time. I order paper copies in large batches, preferably when I have a nice cupon code or or something like that.

Grandparents' albums
I make 8''x8'' layouts with photos of the kids for their grandparents. I must admit that this project is a bit forgotten at the moment, I have so much fun with my 12''x12''-layouts. I am not particularily fond of 8''x8'' but I thought 12''x12'' was too big for this kind of project and the grandparents are mainly interested in the photos anyway.  I usually make a bunch of quick layouts in time for Christmas and birthdays and give them as gifts so that they can fill up their albums.

Recipe scrapbook
I have a lovely project going on with recipes for food we like, cookies, bread, cake and such yumminess. It is in European size A5 which is about half-Letter size. Every recipe card has a photo of the dish and I store them in page protectors in binders in the kitchen. Rarely a day goes by when I not use these in my cooking. I love this project and the rest of the family too. The last year have been slow in this project since I have drastically changed my diet and now my hubby has too so we haven't been baking alot and not tried alot of new recipies either but I love the work that is already done and it is such a lovely part of our daily life.

Book of Me
I have a special album for layouts that are a bit more privat to me, layouts from my childhood and personal journaling that I rather not have just anyone reading, this is an album that I only show to family. When this album is full I plan to separate my childhood photos into a different album and continue my BoM without them.

Cards
I make cards, not many, but I make all the cards that I need including Christmas cards. I use almost only Magnolia stamps and stamps from another Swedish company called hÄnglar & stÄnglar. I color with Promarkers.


Yeah. I don't have time for all this but I love it! I guess that is the situation for most of us :).
Have a nice Friday!
// Åsa

Scrap during quiet time

Hello!
While my son was taking his nap I managed to put a layout together!

I rolled #74 Photo(s) of you, and I found a photo from my childhood which I think is really cute. I guess most of us born in the 70's have one of those photos from our childhood, sitting infront of the record player with the huge head phones on.

I wanted to make the layout match the time on the photo and since you can see the wood veneer TV-set in the photo I got the idea to use wood grain papers and I had an old Sassafrass paper that resebled the wall paper so I started with that and added more wood and more orange.

I used my new Thickers for the title, stamps from Kimberly Sabel for Hampton Art, wood tweets, puffy accents from Amy Tangerine, some washi and bits and pieces from my box.

Hopefully I'll be able to scrap some more later, I feel really motivated! Now I'm off to the kitchen for some dinner preparations. Have a nice evening!

// Åsa

My package arrived!

Hello!
You know I've made myself a challenge to make 50 projects before I shop again and that is still true but I had one more order coming in, already paid for, and it arrived today! Happy! I guess you guys have already had these papers for months and they are old to you but to me they are fresh fresh fresh! I have seen so many wonderful projects with Amy Tangerine paper, Studio Calico papers, Dear Lizzy, Pebbles and other brands and I have just not bought any because I have been going through my stash and working with B-sides in a way I have never done before! Now I have new, fairly current papers in my stash and it feels awesome!

They had a mid-season sale at one of my favorite web shops and I can't understand why these papers hadn't sold out long before they came on sale! They are gorgeous! Let me show you what I got!

These are from Dear Lizzy:

The paper with the arrows have some really pretty birds on the other side and the strawberry paper has a nice circular print o the backside but other than that these are the sides I'll be using.

These are from Jillibean Soup:

I should have bought two of that camera print! It has a wonderful orange/yellow flower print on the backside which I think would be super easy to use! Other than that I think these are the sides to mention.

These papers are from Echo Park, House of Three and Crate Paper:

The heavy patterned paper second from the left has a nice cream on yellow polka dot on the backside which is wonderful and the strawberry paper has a grey wood grain on the back, I will use both sides of those paper!

These darlings are from Pebbles:

These can definitely be used for both sides! Wonderful!

These beautiful papers are from American Crafts:

Love these papers! I could have bought two of each! But I didn't...

These are from Studio Calico:

I'm totally in love with that rainbow &-sign! I will cut those cards apart and they won't grow old in my stash! These are the sides I will use.

And all the rest are from Amy Tangerine:

Wonderful papers! The bamboo print has a nice tiny grid on the backside and the purple grid has a whimsical kind of travel themed backside. The chevron has an orange-brownish wood grain and it will be hard to choose which one to use! I will have to cut them all apart and use bits and pieces here and there.

The journaling cards are to die for! Love love love! The aqua chevron has a lovely city print on the back and the black chevron has a happy, colorful camera print on the backside. I'm crazy about cameras and I can't figure out why it took the industry until 2012 to figure out it was a perfect symbol for scrapbookers! Isn't that obvious?!?

The speech bubbles have a nice orange circular print on the back, the house print has also circles on the back but in green and the wood grain has a nice red-ish grid. Very easy to use!

I also bought three packs of Thickers because the price was kind of good... I never buy Thickers because I think it is crazy expensive and I always end up with half a pack of consonants and then I feel I've wasted my money. But these were resonable, I paid 22 SEK which is about 3,20 US-dollars. That is really alot too, but I was giving myself a treat. 

I paid 354 SEK for the whole order including shipping, that is 50,80 US-dollars.

So, this was fun! Just in time for my free day tomorrow. It's national holiday on Ascension Day in Sweden. Hopefully I can do some scrapping!

Take care and have a nice day! Thanks for reading!
// Åsa