Heritage Photo - Familjen

Hello, hello!

Welcome back to the final installment of my friend's heritage photo project series.  If you've missed the first two layouts in the series, you can find them here and here.  Today we're checking out the last layout, which features a fabulous photo of Bertil with a handmade toy bow and arrow, a portrait of him and the family together.  I have to say, I absolutely adore that bow and arrow photo!

Background is again from Webster's Pages.  This teal woodgrain paper has long been a favourite of mine so it's pretty special that I'm giving the last I have of it away but it was just too perfect with these photos to not use.  This LO also used up the last of that cute ruler washi tape but I managed to eek it out across the bottom.

That little gap in the title between the l and j was the perfect opportunity to add a little embellishment.  I unfortunately hadn't brought my heart punch with me and after many failed attempts at drawing a symmetrical heart the right size with which I was happy, I decided to go for a funkier heart style instead.

Embellishment cluster above that awesome bow and arrow photo - just look at the expression on that adorable face!  The cork star on the right had been an embossing attempt that I wasn't thrilled with on another project but I liked the look of for this one - you have to love when that happens.

And a bit of embellishment at the bottom of the photo to tie it all together.

And that's it!  My friend will be giving these to her brother as a belated birthday gift and I'm eager to hear what his reaction to them is.  Birgitta is thrilled with them at any rate.  Next year we'll work on the lock of hair and photos for her sister.

Heritage Photo - Syskon

Hi again!

Today I'm sharing the second layout in my friend's heritage photo project.  If you missed the first LO, you can see it here.

This second LO features photos of the three siblings together.  The original photo of Bertil holding their baby sister was very small, dark and a bit damaged but the photo development company did a lovely job at scanning, enlarging and reprinting it and in such a way that the lighting now helps to draw your eye into the two children.

The background papers are from Webster's Pages by Adrienne Looman.  The embellishment clusters feature arrows and hearts and I purposely put down the washi tape so that it counted up to three to reflect the number of siblings.  I also used some stamping on this LO, even though it's in English it fitted the theme well.  Birgitta may go back and write on the journaling card so I've left it open for her, should she decide to do so.

Pink chevron arrow is from Crate Paper; which I chose because of the aged look and the weathered cello tape accents.

The stamping for the arrows was done on a branding strip, which was the perfect size.  Hearts and rhinestones with gold lame spatters are layered up on the embellishment clusters.

The bottom embellishment cluster features three arrows, again symbolising the three siblings, and a little stamping with a roller stamp that fitted well with the photo of brother and baby sister together.

Thanks for stopping by; be sure to come back for the final LO installment.

Hello 50 Birthday Card

So last week a friend at work turned the big 5-0.  Naturally a special card was in order.  I was excited to break into my new supplies and itching to use my new Pebbles From Me to You collection.  And since this was a special milestone card, gold was a must!

Hello 50 Birthday Card

October Afternoon's Cakewalk papers mixed really well with the Pebbles collection so I dug out some scraps to use up.  I just love how cheerful these OA papers are (and to be honest, I've been hoarding that star paper for some time now).

I used the Pebbles sticker and chipboard accents to embellish.  I also wrapped some gold metallic sewing thread around the green banner - it's very thin and subtle but just the right weight to balance out the design.  And the chunky gold glitter Thickers are the Maggie Holmes variety by Crate Paper - I just love them!

Melanie absolutely loved the card, I'm pleased to say.  She gave me a huge hug and kiss and said it was the nicest card she's ever received.  Awww!  Isn't it wonderful to give someone the perfect gift?  Totally made my day.  Heck, it made my week.

Picture Day 2008

So you may remember that over the summer my LSS hosted a scrapbook LO contest.  I entered three of my pages but sadly I was the only contestant!  The up-side, of course, was that I also turned out to be the winner, albeit by default.  Anyway, it's taken me about two months - perhaps more - but I finally managed to get down to the shop to pick up my prize pack:

A mini-kit called 'Paris' by a small (unknown to me) manufacturer name Vive Gade (I think).  The black, white and grey-themed kit contained:

• 6 double-sided papers
• 2 washi tapes (one is Christmas-themed)
• 3 designer ribbons
• 3 wooden heart embellishments

While not all of the designs are really my style, I definitely do need more black, white and grey paper in particular so this worked out well.

So as you would expect, I thought I should use some of these new goodies and make something!  I decided that I would continue to scrap my series of class photos.  The darkest black patterned paper caught my eye, as it has that chalkboard blackness to it and in white there are maths equations written all over it.  Seemed like a good choice for a school-themed page.  I also thought the numbered washi tape would work well on a school LO, too.

I wasn't able to find my original photo from my first ever class all on my own.  I think I may have given it to my parents; my step-father finds the whole international schooling concept amazing - he calls it my 'UN class' and every year I have to show the class photo and go through all of the nationalities present.  It's sweet, really.  Luckily, however, a friend had a copy, which she scanned and emailed to me (thanks, Anya!).  My photo developer doesn't print the same size as the school photography company but I enlarged it a little to a 6x8 size, which let me play with a different layout design, which was a nice change of pace.

Picture Day 2008

Here you can see I've layered the black maths paper and a light blue EP paper under the photo and I've run the numbered washi tape like a border across the page.  The background paper is one that my friend Anya gave me a few years ago and I've been saving it for a LO such as this - it even has a very subtle tone-on-tone print of children's game names in the red section at the top; if you look really, really carefully you can just make it out in the photo.

I used the Kensei chipboard Thickers that I've been crushing on lately - it's just such a fun font.  I have, however, taken to gluing them down with a little touch of Crackle Accents by Ranger, since I find chipboard Thickers are notorious for popping off.  As you'll see in the next photo, I'm continuing my trend of including some sort of camera motif on all of these photos and I re-inforced this with a CP slide frame, which I stamped with little potty people to mimic the class photo.  Cute, right?

The journaling card is from Carta Bella's Hello Again collection - the blues just worked really well with the blues already used in the rest of the LO and I thought the 'Let me tell you...' line was a good lead in to the class stats I've been recording.  The little eye glasses and 'looking back' is from the same stamp set as the potty people and the chipboard camera is from CP's The Pier collection.

Pinspiration Sunday

It's Sunday again and I'm trying to breathe some life back into this blog and well, my life.  After six weeks of renovation I'm starting to itch to craft again so I've been returning to finding inspiring blogs, checking out Pinterest and just getting back into the groove again.  So, go grab your hot beverage of choice and come enjoy a little inspiration.

Oh, and to my fellow Canucks, Happy Thanksgiving!  I've unfortunately had to put off my usual Thanksgiving celebration this weekend due to not having water or a bathroom but my thoughts are with the rest of you enjoying your stuffed roast turkey and pumpkin pie (I'm soooo jealous!).

Currently:

* watching - Tabitha Takes Over
* reading - Papercraft Inspirations, September issue
* making - shaped cards
* eating - gnocchi (total YUM!)
* drinking - rationed water
* wearing - jeans, jumper & cardie
* weather - rainy, 11C
* feeling - tired of dirt and arguing with contractors
* wanting - renovations to be complete (just 2 more weeks...)
* needing - running water in my flat again
* planning - autumn holiday in Stockholm
* thinking - not much; too tired
* loving - getting back to some crafting again
* enjoying - Oskar time this weekend

Oh, Canada! Pattern

Seeing as it's Thanksgiving weekend, a little patriotism seemed in order and I love the shape of these maple leaves and the fun colours.

Scrappy Leaf Tutorials

I really like these scrappy little leaves and I think they would make fun quilt blocks in a quilt as you go method.  Would be great just for autumn or again, some Canadian love.

Quilted Drawstring Bag

How cute is this little gym bag?  I love the patchwork and the little zippered pocket

 

How To: My Month in Numbers

I thought this twist on memory keeping was fun and fresh, even though I'm not really a 'numbers person'.  Some fun ideas to change things up and challenge yourself; it's worth a look into whether you love or hate math (and I promise, as a person who hates math, you needn't worry!).

Cityscape Card

I really like cityscapes as a design element and I especially love the use of typed book pages on the black background for this card.  Would be perfect for a missing you sentiment or even for a new home owner.

Paper Doily Stitching Template

From Creating Keepsakes, this tutorial shows how you can use a doily to create a stitching guide on your scrapbooking pages or cards and you know me, I'm all for stitching on my creations.

Ice Cream Palette

One final summer hurrah colour palette.  There's something about this mix of greens, blues and a grey neutral that really appeals to me and it makes me think of Crate Paper's The Pier Ferris Wheel paper (b-side).

Haberdashery

I broke back into my new box of goodies for a second LO and decided to work on a photo from this summer.  Now, as you may recall, I live in Sweden and belong to the local quilt guild.  There are many lovely ladies in the guild and recently one of them decided that she wanted to practise and improve her English further and what better way to do that than to create a small sewing group where we all speak only in English for the meetings?  Naturally they needed some native English speakers to help so myself, my best friend Ingrid and her mum (Swedish but lived abroad in the UK and English-speaking military bases most of her life) were also asked to join.  We have such a great time together - language is so much fun to play with and use.  Anyway, it only seemed fitting that we should be called the Haberdashery group - so that's the little story behind this LO.

 Haberdashery

So in planning out this LO, I realised that Carta Bella's Hello Again collection would be perfect with all of its cute speech bubbles, friendship quotes/sayings and patchwork hearts.  The sticker sheet was great for those little accents and I also used one of the pink papers in the layering.  I also loved this watercolour floral from Crate Paper's The Pier and decided to put it center stage for the background - you know I must love it because I'm so not a floral person, normally!

You may also have been wondering, after I spent all that time last month gushing over my 'new-to-me' manual Olivetti typewriter, when I would finally start using it with my LOs.  Well, this is the one; the big debut!  I thought it would be fun to add a definition of 'haberdashery' under the title so out came the typewriter and I merrily typed away on some vellum.  I really liked how it turned out.  I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that these green flocked Thickers (that I have a secret loathing towards) perfectly matched - I'm always so thrilled when I find something I can use them on and I usually enjoy them more once they're part of a LO.  And no LO about a sewing group is complete without some stitching, of course.

I have to admit, my embellishment clusters were more eclectic than they usually come together, especially this top piece.  I really loved that twisted arrow with the text and I was over-joyed when I found a small doily (just what I'd been looking for to add there).  I added the red geo tag to bring out a bit more of the red in the background paper, then felt the red needed more balancing in the bottom cluster...

Hello, enamel dots!  The perfect embellishment when you just need that small pop of colour.  You'll notice I also added in buttons and tufts of thread to again re-inforce the sewing theme.

In the center of the page I did a little DIY embellishment.  The speech bubbles sticker was too large to fit so I cut out a set from the paper, then added the 'chit chat' with my Olivetti and layered it up with some other bits and bobs.

And this may sound silly but my favourite part of the page (along with the vellum typed definition) are these little dates I typed onto the journaling card.  I was just so chuffed with myself that I got them lined up so perfectly on the faux tape detailing and they really look like part of the original card.  Small things.

I shared this LO on my FB so many of the ladies in the group have seen it and they're all so tickled about it; none of them scrapbook (it's not overly popular here) and they asked me last month to bring my current album, which was fun and different.  Sharing my creations with others is always such fun!

August Haul & Amsterdam Title Page

Well, I'm happy to say that the first week of classes is over and it's the weekend!  Time for a much-needed rest and a return to crafty goodness.  I have two things to share with you today - the first is a video of my August 2Peas box of goodies (AKA the 'haul' video) and the second is a layout using several of these new supplies - yeah!  So, let's get started, shall we?

My latest purchase has focused on two collections: The Pier by Crate Paper and Hello Again by Carta Bella with a mix of embellishments that will compliment both of these collections and easily be rolled into my existing stash.

Note: My apologies for some of the funky shadows - everything looked fine when I was setting up and of course during filming huge clouds rolled in and blocked out the natural light.  And a freight train chose to pass by half way through, too - the unpredictability of living on an active railway.

And now a new layout using some of these fun, new supplies.  This is a title page to go into my travel album for my Netherlands chapter.

Amsterdam

It features a photo enlargement from Keukenhof Gardens and I chose the large, rainbow chevron paper from The Pier to compliment and draw out the beautiful colours of the flowers in the photo.  I also used the Kensei chipboard Thickers for the title and layered them on top of my photo in some white space.

I wanted to keep the embellishments somewhat simple so as not to detract from the photo but I just couldn't resist clustering in some slide frames.  I backed each of them with coloured paper and layered up stickers, flair and a cork arrow.  I also used a few more of my Amy Tan Yes, Please vellum stickers - the tree was just too perfect for this LO and I loved how perfectly the 'delightful' sticker fit into the frame and paired it with a 'memories' phrase sticker, which leads nicely into the title further along the page.

And that's it - just keeping it simple today.  I feel like I've been out of my scrapping routine for some time now am feeling a little rusty so this was a nice warm up to get back into the groove.  Expect more soon.

WIP Wednesday

Is it only Wednesday?  This week was the start of lessons with my new class for the academic year and I'm exhausted.  It's been an extremely rough start to the year, I'm sad to say.  However, the one shining star this week was the arrival of my new 2Peas order - yeah!  I'll see about getting a little video together later this weekend to share with you.

In the meantime, I've started pulling some supplies for a new layout I have planned, although I just discovered tonight that I haven't printed the photo like I thought I had.  Hmm.  I'm not the type of person who makes layouts without the photos - I like to work from the photo first, then choose papers and then finally embellishments.  However, I'm sure I can manage for just one layout and it will be an interesting exercise for myself.

Supplies pulled so far:

Buried on the bottom of this pile you might be able to make out this lovely photo-realistic chalk pastels paper by Allison Kreft for Webster's Pages.  I've been wanting to challenge myself to use this side of the paper for a layout for some time now and this is it!  I've also pulled a number of goodies from my new goodie box - exclusive 2Peas star paperclips (smaller than I had assumed), SC cork embellishments as well as FP cork arrows, Thickers in the funky Kensie font, SC Sundrifter die cuts, CP The Pier stickers, MME enamel dots, labels and tile phrases - just to name a few!

I was really hoping to get started on this layout now but after the day I've had today, I just need to sit and veg for a bit.  Look for an update come the weekend, though (with any luck).