Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Prompt #1

Good morning!
Today is my first show and tell for my challenge Ten to the power of Å-some! The first prompt I chose was:
 
Use template together with art medium
First I thought I would go to hubby and ask to use some of his art medium, gesso and primer and all kind of fun stuff he uses for interesting texture to his projects. But then I thought that was kind of like cheating with the challenge borrowing his stuff. Perhaps I could use some of my own stuff? In my paint box I found two old tubes of effect paint called Gloss Touch and I decided to try that as my medium.
 
 
I found a perfect tool for the job in my kids' clay bin and then I started with my projects. Thgis is what the first page looked like when it finally dried! It worked perfectly and the shine looked so cool!
 
 
This first sheet of cardstock turned into this layout with photos from last sumer when we visited the activity house of Mulle Meck (a popular child book character) with the kids.
 
 
 
Needless to say I didn't stop with that first stencil project! I had to use the pink paint as well and I made a messier background with a brick stencil and that resulted in this layout with my daughter playing dress up :)
 
I also made a sheet with a camera stencil that I later turned into this layout with scrap paper as rays.
 
 
As for this prompt I think I'm done! It was fun and I made something I've never tried before!
 
Did I get any shopping urges? Of course I did. I'd like to buy some stencils that can be used over and over again, perhaps some dots, chevrons and fun small patterns. Will I be buying any modeling paste or art medium? Not right now. I'll see what I can find in hubby's stash first and play around a bit.
 
Have a nice day!
//Åsa
 

Monday, April 28, 2014

Birthday party!

Hello!
I'm back at work, feeling like crap. But at least I'm here and doing my best taking as much calls as I can. Soo tired!
 
Let's spice up our lives with some party pictures! These three layouts are from my daughter's birthday party when she turned 6 years old in March. I went with playful and colorful and I think I captured the atmosphere quite well :) shall we call it sugar rush?
 
I have started my Ten to the power of Å-some challenge and I'll show the result of the first prompt later this week. I've only made one challenge but it resulted in three layouts. Hopefully I'll be able to work more with this during the week. It is hard but fun.
 
 I hope you'll have a really nice week with lots of sunshine!
//Åsa
 

Friday, April 25, 2014

Ten to the power of Å-some!

Hej!
That's how we say hello over here! You should learn something new every day and now you know how to say hi in Swedish =) Sweet!

The last couple of days the content in my box of photos has grown more and more boring to me. But I really want to scrapbook so I've decided to kind of shift my driving source for creativity from the photos to the techniques for a while.

Yesterday I watched almost all of Carlie Hamilton's videos on You Tube and she has a project going on where she has made prompts for herself to make a Month of Me album. I don't think a Month of Me project would do anything for me, since I already scrap alot about myself but I got very inspired by the prompt idea. So here is my take on the whole challenge yourself kind of thing:

Ten to the power of Å-some!

The mission - if you choose to accept it - is to create ten layout using ten techniques that you wish you used more often OR that you have been wanting to try out for a long time. You may not spend any money on more supplies during this project!

I hereby solemnly accept the challenge!

Here is my list of teckniques, in no particular order:
  •  Embroidery on paper
  • Splatter ink/paint 
  • Use template together with art medium 
  • Make a pocketed style layout
  • Stamp stamp stamp stamp
  • Tearing paper
  • Use a sketch
  • Do a scraplift
  • Use the sewing machine
  • Go creative with Paper Pen paint

So now I'm off to start my first project!
Have a nice day and a lovely weekend!

Hejdå!    
Oh, there you got some more Swedish, that's how we say bye!

//Åsa

Coughing Friday

Good morning!
Yeah, I'm still at home. I'm not getting better, almost the opposite, in fact. Hubby is picking up the antibiotics for me today, I need to try it during the weekend and hopefully I'll be abe to go back to work on Monday - but I honestly doubt it.

Today I'm sharing four layouts! I made the first one during Easter and the other three yesterday! So fresh from the scrap table!

This is a really simple layout for my Book of Me. I used some of those beautiful cards from Teresa Collins and added a lined paper for some journaling about the huge differences that was made in my life during 2013. The photos are from New Years Eve, me working in the kitchen before our guests arrived. So what happened in 2013, you wonder? Basically I got a new job and new medication. Believe me, those two things can totally give you a whole NEW and BETTER life.


Yesterday I watched You Tube videos the entire day while scrapbooking and I saw  Ashley Laura's video where she used some strips of paper going down one side of her layout and I decided I needed to do something with my collection of cut of branding strips - the kind that has decorative borders on the other side. You know, you cut them off and save them but it is hard to actually remember them when it comes to using them. I went crazy with strips and made a whole background. Then I went on a photo hunt and found this family photo where we all are peering towards the bright sun. I think the top cluster saved this whole layout but it was fun to use up all those border strips so I have decided to be pleased with it.
 

Then we go multi photo. It is really my style, mainly because I want to ad many photos to my album eventhough the event itself isn't worth more than one or two layouts. Perhaps it is a sign that my photos can't tell the whole story on their own? Anyway, I've decided that this is my style so I stick with it when I think it is necessary.

These photos are from a surprise visit we did to the Tropicarium in Kolmården last summer.
 

This is a fun one. The title/journaling says: "Wait! Please don't play mum's Lego to pieces before I've taken a picture!" and that pretty much explains the whole thing. We play alot with Lego here and when I sit with the kids I often end up designing an every day scene, trying to find all the right details to give the right feeling and then I populate the scene with figures to make it "real". After I photograph it I give it to the kids to play with :) So here you see the food court, the dentist, the bank, the beauty salon and a couple sitting in the food court on a date.
 

I have a plan for today's scrapbooking. The photos in my photo box are getting very boring and I need to find my inspiration elsewhere and challenge myself to make some more pages before it is time to order new photos and/or dive into my stash of older photos. I'll be back with those thoughts in a while. 

Have a nice day!
//Åsa 

Thursday, April 24, 2014

At home again

Hello again!
I'm at home on a week day again. I had to leave work after lunch yesterday because I was coughing so hard I vomited. I went straight to the health care center to see a doctor and she gave me a prescription for allergy medicine because she thought it might be allergy. If this doesn't work in the next five days I'll get antibiotics incase I actually have pneumonia. I feel like an experiment in chemistry class and I just want to get well and be able to work and earn my money!

I'm sharing a couple of layouts from my Easter scrappin' and first is a page with my son and his auntie. I love the photo and that camera paper is just lovely so I thought they fit perfect together. I was left with some uncomfortable white space between my paper and the clusters so I added some old tissue tape from Tim Holtz and it worked well, tape can be such a layout saver!

Next is a layout with my daughter. The photo is from her birthday but since it isn't themed in any way, you just see her from the side, I took the chance to tell the story of how talented she is in language. Neither hubby nor I are very talented in language, I needed to practice quite hard  and for very long to get where I am today in English and some days I feel I'm just a beginner. My daughter on the other had loves language and she has an incredible memory not to mention the feel she has for sound. She picks up pronounciations and entire dialects in seconds and she can drive us crazy talking for a whole evening like someone she's heard on TV. 

I liked the paper with the alphabet a lot and made it the centre of the page next to the photo. I went monochromatic on this page, it is a safe one for me and I don't mind falling back to it from time to time.


Hubby smiles at me when I talk about the bridge. I guess he thinks I'm nuts. But I just love bridges! And they have just finished building such a beautiful bridge here in Sundsvall where we live. It won't be ready to travel on for yet some time but now you can see what it will look like and I'm so impressed! It is so delicate and sooo beautiful! 

The bridge reaches over the bay from the south side of town to the north side of town and we live just by the south side. It will be the preferred road passing the town, it is built to direct traffic away from the central town hopefully improving air quality a lot.  

The work name if the bridge has been "Dubbelkrum" which means something like "Double crooked" and I will call it that for ever because no name can be better than that, describing just what it looks like as it is twisting so beautifully over the water! Yeah, you understand why hubby is smiling - I am a tiny bit crazy about that bridge.

The area is still an ugly construction site with lots of machines and cranes but I needed to document it and get it in our album.
 

Now I've watched all Nicole Jones' new You Tube videos so now I'm ready for some scrapbooking on my own. Hopefully I'll be back with new layouts tomorrow!

Hugs!
//Åsa 

Haul from PY Hobby

Good morning! 
Yesterday I got to pick up a box at DHL and in it was my tape haul from PY Hobby. I did some research before ordering there because I really wanted a good deal on the double sided tape since I use it alot. I compared the prices for ordering directly from Asia on Ebay but I really needed the tape right away so I decided ordering from Sweden and PY Hobby had the best price, no other store came even close. I paid 15 SEK (US$ 2.16) for three rolls of the 5 mm tape and 19 SEK (US$ 2.73) for three rolls of the 8 mm tape. And I bought three sets of each. They will last me a while, I love that!

This shop isn't one I go to to buy embellishments or papers. They really don't have anything that I like, their style is more to the vintage style and cute card making and I have tried that and it isn't my thing eventhough I can admire the work some people do within those styles. 

They did have some afordable washi tapes. I paid 12-19 SEK each for these rolls and that's OK.
 
  
My collection of washi is growing and I'll soon reach the cross roads where I need to decide how to store them in the future. Up til now I have them on two loops of heavy string, but that will only work for a rather small number of rolls and I don't see myself getting enough any time soon... 

I'll be back in a minute with a layout share!
//Åsa

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

More cats!

Hello!
Today I'm sharing three layouts that I made during Easter. They are all multi photo layouts and they don't have as much layering as I like to use when I have only one of two photos.
 
First is my son and mum's cat, Nisse. Nisse has left us now for cat heaven and this was the last time we got to see him.
 
 
Here are 2014 photos, I think they are from end of March. We had lunch out doors and the kids got their favorite food, noodle soup.
 
  
Last is a layout with our own Kosmos. When we first got him we tried having him wear a collar and a leash. Yeah, that was OK for a couple of minutes, when he tip toed around the lawn, a bit unsure of what to expect of this new place. Then when he felt the breeze of freedom he simply slipped out of the collar, easy as pie, and run off. Luckily he was easy to catch, way too cuddly to be able to resist his human mom sitting on the lawn waiting for him :) This layout is about that time. Nowadays he is allowed out whenever he wants to and he returns home in time for putting the kids to bed - every night!
 
 
I have more layouts for you tomorrow, so lease come back then!
//Åsa 
 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Spring time!

Hello!
I've been busy in the garden over Easter but I have also done some scrapbooking!
 
First is a page with our cat wildly chasing a fly inside the lamp above my bed. I'm really pleased with the washi frame, I love the fact that it is almost transparent and the kraft color shows through.
 
 
I didn't know the photo of this layout was so bad before I uploaded it here. Anyway, it is a multi photo madness, typically my style.
 
 
I managed to cram three photos onto this one too. It is not blurry in RL.
 
 
Purple is not my color, I think it is very hard to work with but I thought it looked OK with these sunny snow photos of the kids from a couple of weeks ago.
 
More layouts tomorrow!
Hugs!  
//Åsa 
 

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Happy Easter!

Hello & Happy Easter!
How are you doing? I'm happy, I work short day today and can go home already at 1 pm, won't be back until after the holiday! I'll pick up our dear daughter on my way from work and hubby is already at home with our son who is still ill with a cold, but doing much better. This morning we decided that we'll have afternoon tea together and make scones and that is almost the yummiest I know! And after tea we will go out and decorate the garden with colored feathers and then we'll pretend it's Friday and have tacos for dinner! AND the sun is shining! Can't be much better!
 
I'm a bit surprised that I've been able to post so many layouts this week and I'm extra happy to share three more today! It is sure a happy day!
 
This is an old style layout of my daughter. I used a couple of pages from a 6''x6'' paper pad and a really old checkered paper. The journaling is a small interview I made with my daughter the other day. The flags are made of two strips of washitape that I put next to eachother on white paper and then cut out.  
 
 
This is something very different in my book! The papers are both from my Studio Calico 12''x12'' paper pad (Wanderlust). I fussy cut the flowers from the paper and added along the edge of the background paper. It wasn't as much work as it might seem! It would have been really nice to put the flowers on pop dot but I didn't. The folks in pictures are my mother and her fiance, they are planting the apple tree we bought them in engagement gift.
 
 
Last before Easter is a bright layout with a boy who loves the tablet we bought for Christmas!  
 
 
Two hours left until Easter holiday leave starts! Won't be back until Tuesday! Hopefully I'll have lots of layouts to share and many new photos for future layouts! Take care of you and have a lovely long weekend!
 
//Åsa
 
 

Melted beads

Good morning!
Today I'm sharing the beads I bought from Perler and what they looked like when I melted them.
 
 
The perlecent ones got a color problem when melted, the pigment kind of formed a ring on top. I will try later and let them be in the oven a bit longer and see what happens then. The solid colors are gorgeous and the striped ones even more! I LOVE them!
 
 
I ordered from the EK Success Brand store and the shipping to Sweden was really reasonable!
 
 
I'll be back in a while with a couple of layouts. Take care!
//Åsa
 

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Three more pages

Good morning!
I continue showing three layouts in each blog post but I'm quickly runing out of layout photos so when Easter comes I hope I'll have time for more scrapbooking so that I can post layouts next week too :) Blogging has been a real inspiration for me, it is a bit like writing and editing your own magazine and it is fun to browse thought "the magazine" and feel pleased with what I have acomplished and documented.
 
These layouts are from last week when I was home taking care of my soar throat.
 
First is a photo of my daughter and I. I increased the contrast value and made it black/white before printing - I like that style, especially for portraits. The black/white allows me to go crazy with color, so I did just that :) The title says "You are my mammoth" and I've used a Maggie Holmes paper, cut off the edges and matted it on a white paper. I added the thin washi I bought from Hong Kong and I like the color effect.
 
 
I made a grid with papers from the BG Knee High series om black cardstock and added my daughter in her new Belle-dress. I got the butterfly stickers from my daughter for my birthday.
 
 
No, I have not been to the US :) but I love the stars and the stripes, especially for marine photos, and I got myself a paper pad with Americana patterns which I thought looked really nice. I will use them for my summer layouts from the coast.
 
 
I hope you'll have a very nice day! Hugs!
//Åsa
 
 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Long day away from home

Good morning!
Today will be a long day, first work until 5 pm and then two hours meeting after that, but my little family will come and pick me up after the meeting and that's sweet!
 
Talking about the family, here are three new layouts with the gang, made with lots of fun new supplies! It is really inspiring to have lots of fun stuff to work with and I'm also very happy for the paper grab bag I got and the 12''x12'' paper pad so that I have some new "surprise papers" to spice up things with.
 
First today is a crazy series of bathing photos of my both kids crammed into a plastic box filled with water. Needless to say this event ended in a tears after a massive water fight and eventhought my son asks over and over again for a rematch my daughter says firmly no  :).
 
 
Here is another family chaos. We wanted to take a family selfie with the mobile and tried getting four happy faces onto one photo, hence the blur. I love the die cut chipboard pieces, I colored them white with an inkpad.
 
 
This is a mix of ancient and new. The background paper is an old Heidi Swapp paper that has been sitting around for sooo long and on top of it is BG's collection Hipster (papers and stamps) and a recent photo of my son slowly falling asleep on me in the sofa claiming all the time he wasn't.
 
 
Thanks for visiting! Have a nice day!
//Åsa 
 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Longing for more scrapping!

Good morning!
Finally I'm a bit more up to date with my layout share in the blog! Here I've started using my new stuff!! Fun fun fun! I'm also using up some ancient stuff and that is fun too! Making room for more goodies!
 
This first layout has two selfies of me! What a silly thing to do!! It is sooo 2014!! I'm not the flower patterned type normally but I think this was a perfect time for some girly girl roses and many shades of pink. I love the stamp and the cork and the cameras! So many nice tools and supplies!
 
 
Here is a real oldie, both in style and supplies, but I felt I needed to make it! Hubby and I love strategy games, computer games, card games and all kinds of games really and naturally it has rubbed off onto the kids.  
 
 
I made a background of PL-cards and it turned into a pink/yellow stack of boxes.
 
 
I still have plenty of layouts to show you, I made a whole bunch during my sick leave and during the weekend! I'll be back with more tomorrow!
 
On Friday I got the beads I ordered from Perler and I tried melting them in the oven and it worked PERFECTLY! So now I've ordered a pail with a multi colored mix of the same kind of beads and I will make "plastic dots" to last me a life time! The brand I used before, Hama, was a lot different from the Perler ones. Hama beads are softer, a bit more like rubber than hard plastic. When I see the difference in starting material I totally understand the difference in result! This is so much fun and I'm so happy I ordered the Perler beads! 
 
Have a nice day!
//Åsa
 

Friday, April 11, 2014

Happy Friday!

Hi there!
It's Friday and I'm back with another layout share. This time it is a mixture of quality that I'd like to talk about today before I get back to my scrap table and hopefully continue making more of what is quality scrapbook pages in my opinion.

Let me start with two sample of layouts that I'm not even close to pleased with, and which therefor will symbolize what is low quality to me. 

This first layout was made from the idea that the sunburst layout is fool proof and that you can take a collection pad and just cut those rays and have a layout that works. That's obviously wrong. I tried saving this layout with a cute photo of my son and his toy lawn mower, even added a heart shaped doilie that would make anything perfect but it still doesn't work. I will probably take apart this layout and fix it, for example remove the red rays, cut off a small strip around the edges and mat the whole page on a different background. Maybe ad a couple of PL-cards on the right side of the photo. Yeah, it can't look like this.


This second layout has a very precious photo of me and my Granny from when I was about 5 years old. My Granny and I played alot of Scrabbles and we solved cross word puzzles together and she started my passion for words and writing by introducing me to these things. The Scrabble tile alphas have been in my posession for years and so has the cross word puzzle paper. I've saved them for this very special page - of Granny and me. Memory wise it is a lovely layout, I will never change it and I will always look at it and remember the feeling of sitting by Grannys kitchen table, my forearms sticking to the plastic table cloth, Grandpa's crooning, the constant smell of garlic and Granny making sounds of being in serious game problems while she was actually probably winning.  

Quality wise, this is a horrible in my opinion. But I had saved those stuff and it was a very long process leading up to actually putting that layout together and now it is in my Book of Me.
 
The next three layout today are those that I could show to anyone wanting to know my style of scrapbooking. 

The next three layouts today are of the type that I gladly would show to people who wanted to know about my style of scrapping. When I make layouts like this I feel that I've made progress, that I have done good and that I've finally understood the few design principles that I've paid attention to. I try to stay up to date with the current fashions and try out the new techniques and styles that come around.  



Look at this one, can you see the film strip plastic ribbon? Way back when Ranger released that product I HAD to OWN it and I remember spending lots of money on that little jar of ribbon, but then I haven't used it :)  I think it came to good use here. 




Here is a photo of my daughter wearing my old glasses. Family who has seen this photo say she looks just like me and I must say that's the best compliment a mum can get! The title is something like "ready for school" and she certainly is. She is starting "Grade 0" of school in August and she is really looking forward to it. I'm a bit worried she will get bored and understimulated since she already reads and understands numbers very well but I will do my very best making her into a "book reader" and then she'll always be able to find new challenges on her own. 

 

These layouts, atleast to me, look like modern pieces of fun scrapbooked memories. I've used things that is fairly new and I have mixed in some REALLY old stuff from my stash. The pages look different from eachother and they are easy to look at from a design point of view. The photos are precious and they tell a story or the love of a place in time. That is high quality to me. What do you think?

Have a wonderful day!
//Åsa 

Twine heart

Good morning!
Today I've promised myself to be super productive in the scrap corner! I want to make beauty! Have you ever done this? A twine heart? I think it is so pretty!


 It is not hard! You only need two knots and and a twist :)

1. First you tie "the dimple knot" on one strand of twine.

   

2. Then you fold the twine and tie "the pointy knot" on the two strands of twine. 


3. Last you grab "the dimple knot" and  twist it into the loop. Done!
 

I think this is my way to wish you all a very happy Friday!  
Hugs from Åsa

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Swedish stamps

Hi there!
I was surfing 'round the usual web shops when I came across a new line of Swedish stamps. I still don't know if I will buy any of them but I felt I had to tell about them in the blog and at least show you how super cute they are!


 

The company is called Vilda Stamps and they've been on the market for quite some time but this is the first time I've felt any real shopping urges :). Those cameras would really look good in my collection!! What do you think, are they more for cards?

The texts are the Swedish version of all the texts you see on scrapbooking stamps these days - sayings, words, expressions and such. 
//Åsa

My own backgrounds

Hi there! 
Today I'm back with a new themed layout share! The theme is that all SIX of them features papers that I have stamped myself!  

This camera paper is already old :), I made it in October. I showed it in this post and I have used it already on a layout in this post.


The rest of the layouts have papers that I stamped with my new Stampin' Up ink pads, papers that I showed in this post. 

First is a layout with a photo of me and the kids. I picked up on the green in the camera paper and went through my box of PL-cards and choose a few to form the layering under the photo together with a couple of 6''x6'' papers. On this layout I made yarn hearts for the first time and I love them!! I've also added some of my own melted-bead-dots. The washi tape with the sentiments is also new a favorite!


I covered up most of this paper but it has so much color and bubbles going on you pretty much understand the whole page just by looking at this frame. The photos are from a walk in the woods.


This layout is my favorite in this bunch. I love the colors and the photos are so precious!



Here is a similar layout with a photo from the building of the bridge. I love the marine feeling that the tri-colored tread gives.
 

Look at this darling! A blessing in my life! 
 
 
I hope I have been able to inspire you to try making your own patterned paper AND use them.  
Have a nice day!
//Åsa