Making progress...

Finally I think this stupid illness is starting to turn. I feel a little better today so I'm trying to force myself (not the best perhaps - I know!) to get a bit ready (with having lost a week!) for the Christmas journal class which I'm taking. It's starting tomorrow!! Aaaaah! If I hadn't become ill I would have been fine, but as it is now I'm just that bit stressed...!! LOL!

So I needed to make some envelopes. I'm doing a mixed sized journal (with pages in different sizes) and I want some to be just envelopes. Never having done a mixed one before, I don't know how many envelopes I will want/need, so I only made four. Two white ones and two with patterned papers by Rhonna Farrer. I found my envelope-making-board which I bought a while back and I was really impressed. It will definitely be used more :)

Then I needed to get the title done for my album cover. I just wanted a simple "Xmas 2007" so I dug out some chipboard letters by Heidi Swapp and started painting them in red acrylic paint. Then I covered them with Stickles glitter (my favourite glitter, stays where it should and doesn't leave horrible dried glue marks on paper/card!) This is the state of them right now...lying drying on the paper I used to paint them on to catch any mess. Think I will leave them overnight to be sure...

Christmas cards...

Have you started making your Christmas cards yet? Or maybe you buy them? :) Last year we were super organised and they were done by the first week in November. This year...let's just say for every week that's passed I have felt more and more panic about it LOL!

I might not be feeling well at the moment but there's nothing wrong with my head - so lying down having a rest yesterday, rather than starring at the ceiling, I started to plan some ideas for our cards. I'm still thinking about some of the finer details, but I hope to get started on them very soon. Will of course show you pics here once they are done too :)

Supplies: Scenic Route papers and arrow, the chipboard stars are by Making Memories (I think!), Chipboard letters by Heidi Swapp and Queen & Co, stamps by Autumn Leaves and October Afternoon plus of course the obligatory (for me!) doodling, buttons and staples.

Oh and some questions/comments I have got:

Marja - you asked about the border around the photo on the layout I posted yesterday and if it was done freehand. Yes it was. I find my biggest problem when I mess up my doodling is that I start drawing thinking "I'm going to mess it up, I'm going to mess it up", I tense up and guess what happens? Yes you do mess it up! LOL! So my best tip is to think something like this before you start putting the pen to paper "It doesn't matter if it doesn't end up perfect...and if I make some big mistake I can always cover it with a chipboard flower (or whatever)" also be sure that your arm and hand are relaxed before you start - that way you get a nice flowing movement with your pen :)

Tessberrs - you wanted to know what my top three scrapping books are. Good question. Almost impossible to answer...but from what I can think of at this very minute when I type this: Elsie Flannigan "52 Scrapbook Challenges", Ali Edwards "Life Artist" and "Freestyle" by Autumn Leaves...though I have to say I also looooove "Doodling For Papercrafters" by Maelynn Cheung.

Judy - ...says I'm in big trouble for posting about my Scrap-Room kits making her go and subscribe too. Well...that can kinda happen can't it?! LOL! And hopefully you're not too seriously upset with me ;)

Wednesday...

Still not feeling any better and the antibiotics don't seem to have kicked in yet... so another quick update I'm afraid LOL! Thought I could show you a layout I did last week as part of my stash diet. And talking about the stash diet...my total is still at 41 out of 50 layouts. On the other hand, I haven't really felt well enough (!) to shop either, so no damage has been done LOL!

Anyway, here's a layout made with papers by A2Z, Bazzill cardstock, Heidi Swapp chipboard, October Afternoon stamp, Doodlebug Frills plus some buttons and my fantastic white Signo pen :)

Still not well...

Sorry there will be nothing fun in my update today. :( I'm still not well. At all. No better. Even 5 minutes on the computer makes me get hot and weak and my heart races like crazy. Not nice. And it drives me a little mad LOL! My head/brain is all alert & thinking and wants to do things, but my body just can't cope with anything.

I have done lots and lots of reading either lying on the bed or on the sofa. Finished a 600 page book in 2 days :) Even sitting at the table to eat something for 5 minutes has me totally exhausted. Yesterday I finally gave in and went to the doctor. The bad news is that I have several infections (chest infection, ear infection and sinus infection) plus a virus that makes me feel really weak, shaky and makes me heart race. Oh joy! No wonder I am feeling so incredibly weak. The good news is that I have got some antibiotics for it all...but it could take quite a few days before I feel much better.

Anyway, I will try my very best to keep updating my blog daily though (and I have lots of layouts from my stash diet still to show you! :)) even though I had to go and rest in the middle of this post LOL!

Got my Scrap-Room kit...

Yay finally got my Scrap-Room kit today!! :) Seems like I was one of the last few to get it this month. Not sure what's happening really. Before the summer I always got my kit very quickly...but since then my kit has always been very late. I guess it only works out fair in the end though. LOL!

Still feeling really unwell so it's another short update today - sorry.

Not well...

Sorry this is only a very quick update as I'm not well at the moment. Just typing this is making me feel really hot and weak. Still, I wanted to post something, so I'm leaving you with a layout I did earlier in the week...

Supplies: Sassafras Lass papers and diecuts, Bazzill cardstock, Doodlebug paper frills, October Aftrnoon stamp etc

November class...

Please head over to A Trip Down Memory Lane to check out my latest class :) Thank you :)

My Christmas Journal is starting to take shape...

Basically from the start I knew I wanted to do a mixed size Christmas journal. Some full size pages, some half size pages, some envelopes and maybe some pages which just consisted of a photo. But that still didn't solve the size problem. I needed to figure out at what size I wanted my *largest* pages, to work out what size I needed to make my covers. So I sat down today with a pencil and paper and drew lots of different sizes. Result: I'm going with 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 inches). Though I doubt too many pages inside will actually be this size.

Then I made my covers from scratch. Each cover is made by using 4 sheets of cardstock glued back-to-back and then covered on the inside and outside. The front cover has this really pretty green paper with lots of glittery white swirls and blue stars. The back has a more plain (no glitter) green paper on it.

And the inside of both the front and back cover look like this. All papers are by Rhonna Farrer.

I have not decorated the front yet, but I think I want something fairly simple like a nice chipboard title in the bottom right corner or something. Also I will not bind my book until January when I know how thick it turns out. I'd like to bind it with my Bind-It-All....but frankly there's no chance the biggest wires would have bound my book from last year (and I didn't even scrap very bulky at all) so I don't dare pre-binding it! LOL! This way I can always use bookrings if needed :)

Back scrapping...

I had a day without (!) any scrapping yesterday. That felt seriously weird! LOL! I have been scrapping so much since I started this "stash diet". I think there hasn't been a day this month when I haven't made at least one layout, if not multiple ones. Needless to say I'm back scrapping today :)

Oh and for those of you who are wondering where I am on the stash diet, the current total is: 40 out of 50 layouts done. And as I am typing this, I'm about 2/3 through another layout - but of course I can't count that just yet ;)

Supplies: Scenic Route papers from the "Salem" collection, Hambly transparency, rub-ons by October Afternoon (owl) and Rhonna Farrer ("Serene" text), October Afternoon stamp, Heidi Swapp chipboard heart...plus some ribbons, buttons and staples.

Cake...

I'm soooo tired today. It's been really dark here now for three days in a row and it really affects your energy LOL! So I'm leaving you with a pic of my cake from yesterday to look at instead. Seriously yummy and we have lots left too :)

Oh almost forgot:

Kara - the stamp you asked about is by CatsLife Press. Hope you'll be able to get it :)

Having fun...

Since it's my birthday today I thought I would do something fun. No let me re-word that. That sounds like scrapping isn't fun. Which it is.
So ---> I decided to do something different - that sounds better LOL!

I was really inspired by this advent calendar that Jen Hall did a little while back. I didn't think too much more about it since, being in a different country, I thought I could never get a similar calendar. But then I ran into one about 2 weeks ago. Today was the day to have a play with it. Using "Noel" papers, stickers, rub-ons etc from "Love Elsie". This was what it looked like before I started:

...and this is how it turned out. (Please note that I take no credit for the design concept as such - I have only scraplifted what Jen did LOL!)

And a quick stamp on the back of it. The surface was really shiny so I thought I would totally blur the image - but it turned out ok.

I have to say that I'm really happy with how the calendar turned out and it's definitely something that we'll use every Christmas.

Not long now...

I managed to do 4 layouts yesterday and another 2 today so far - so I think we can safely say that the stash diet is going well still. My total pages done since the 31st of October is now 38 (!)...I'm thinking instead of counting up, I could actually count down now LOL! 12 pages doesn't sound too bad...does it? :)

Supplies: Bazill cardstock, Sassafras Lass papers and diecuts, October Afternoon stamp, Doodlebug jewel plus ric rac, buttons, ribbons and staples.

Sunday...

What a day...it's so dark and rainy here you need to keep the lights on all day. Crazy! LOL! We were hoping to go out for a nice long walk in the afternoon but the rain keeps on smattering against the windows. Not nice at all. Let's hope it clears a little later...

Stash diet update: 32 of 50 pages done. And I'm still being a good girl and not buying any stash. Even though I'd really like to get some things for the Christmas journal I'm going to do, and I could do with getting a few patterned papers for our Christmas cards. Oh well...

So I'm thinking about my Christmas journal. I'm pretty sure it will be a rectangular format. I don't work as well with square format. But what size? A5-ish is pretty good (say about 15x20 cm/6x8 inches) as that means you can get two pages out of one sheet of 12x12 cardstock. I like that :) Not as much waste. I'm also very, very tempted to go for a mixed size album...so some pages will be half size, one might just be an envelope etc. That would be so much fun - I just need to work out a clever way of doing it. At the moment I'm thinking of making my covers from scratch and not using page protectors. Need to think more...

Supplies: Scenic Route papers, Bazzill cardstock, October afternoon stamps...plus some ric rac, buttons and staples :)

Back up and running (we hope)...

Well the bad news is that my harddrive has errors (so called "bad sectors" - but they have now been marked and blocked) the good news is that I'm up and running again with my computer. Yay!! Love having a man who can fix computers!! However we don't know how stable it is yet, so fingers crossed that it will behave :) If I "disappear" you know what's happened LOL! As of last night everything on my drive is backed up so that at least is a good feeling in case something happens again.

Onto happier things...

I got my parcel from Magnolia today. The November/December stampclub. You don't know what you get at the point of ordering and this was my first parcel so I was very excited. I have to say I'm rather impressed - love all the little cute stamps like the parcels etc!! (And before anyone asks, sorry you can't get them anymore, last order date was the 15th of October).

And I'm still working on my stash diet and being good. I have now reached 31 of 50 layouts. This one below is made using "Love Elsie" papers, stickers, chipboard etc from the "Roxie" collection.

Andrea - you asked about my Christmas journal from last year (you can see it if you look back in the archives of last year for Nov, Dec and Jan). It was in a landscape format and I think about A5-ish. Roughly 20x15 cm or 8x6 inches I think. Will probably do a similar format this year too - haven't quite made my mind up yet.

For anyone looking for me...

Just in case anyone is looking for me, or waiting for e-mail replies etc: my computer doesn't work. It just continually loops on start up. So at the moment I'm without my computer/e-mail/internet/forums. Will be back as soon as it's solved...

Mmmmm...

Today is a good day :) Today I got the parcel which I have been waiting for ever since there was news about the "Love Elsie" collections this summer. I really can't wait to create with these collections. And if that wasn't enough - my parcel also contained the two new collections by Scenic Route. Yum, yum!!

~prepare to drool~

And then I want to say THANK YOU to grungedandy who created this for me because my blog was one year old on the 13th:

Mmmm...Yankee Candles...

Stash diet update: I'm past that magical middle figure of 25 and I have finished layout 27 out of 50. Yay!! And here is one of those:

Supplies: Scenic Route papers (wow do I love SR papers!!) and chipboard, Bazzill cardstock, Autumn Leaves and October Afternoon stamps plus some ribbon, jewels and staples.

I loooove Yankee Candles. I just wish they were not so expensive LOL! So far we have only used those little wax tarts. But now I have treated myself to one of those little baby (105 gram) jars. It feels so special!! :) I'm going to have it in my window in my scrapping room and light when I just feel like I need a little extra inspiration and uplifting. :) (pic borrowed from the internet - unfortunately mine's not this big *sob*)

Happy Birthday to my blog...

184690 visitors from 95 (!) countries and 338 posts later and my blog is ONE year old today!! Wow! I can't believe it. I think most of all I find it so intriguing about the visitors from so many different countries. That is really nice!! So thank *you* for stopping by today. :)

Stash diet update: 24 of 50 layouts done.

Supplies used for the layout above: Scenic Route papers and chipboard, October Afternoon and Autumn Leaves stamps, Rhonna Farrer rub-on, Junkitz brad + anchor, Prima flower plus some buttons, ribbon and staples.

Right I need to reply to the questions I have got, so here we go:

Vanessa - I have sent you a private e-mail with the info you needed.

Grungedandy - Yes I have finished reading "Life Artist" by Ali Edwards. From reading on some forums it seems a lot of people do not like this book. But I really enjoy it and it's one of my favourites. :) Glad you liked it too.

Anna - sorry the shop I ordered my stamps from are sold out of them. But they are by Autumn Leaves so hopefully that will help you find them somewhere else. Good luck!

Judy - sorry I have the same answer for you as for Anna. The shop sold out of the October Afternoon stamps within 24 hours I think. Wishing you luck in finding them somewhere else.

Christmas journaling...

Last year I did a Christmas journal/scrapbook. I took an on-line class by Shimelle and really enjoyed it (if you go back to Nov/Dec last year in my blog posts you can see lots of pics of my book/pages). I'm going to do it this year again since I enjoyed it so much and a bonus on top of that is that she lets you take the class for free for future years (once you have joined and paid the first time). So I'm sitting here thinking about a format for the book I'm doing this year. First I was thinking square and pretty big, but now I think I might have gone off that idea as I work better using a rectangular format. We'll see... More thinking needed! LOL!

This is a layout I did of my dad the other day. It's not often I say so about my own work, but I was really pretty pleased with how this turned out.

Supplies: Scenic Route papers, October Afternoon stamps, Making Memories rub-ons, Maya Road and Heidi Swapp chipboard.

Stash diet update: 22 of 50 layouts done.

Food shopping in IKEA...

So how many people go to IKEA specifically for food?!? We do. LOL! But then again, it's not so strange really when I'm Swedish. It's nice to get some Swedish food. We quite often go there with the single purpose of buying food. LOL! Though today we had one more reason...we needed some spare light bulbs. :) *giggle*

And here's yet another layout done as part of my "50 layout" stash diet target. I've now reached number 20...5 more and I'm halfway... I had fun playing with one of my new-ish circle punches.

Supplies: papers are by My Mind's Eye...so are the rub-ons (I think), chipboard arrows are by Maya Road and stamps by October Afternoon & Heidi Swapp.

Marathon scrapping...

This morning I set myself a scrapping goal for the day. A goal that I was 85% sure was unrealistic and not do-able. At all. But I wanted to test myself and see if it was possible. Possible to do 6 pages in 6 non-stop hours. Pages that were not rushed together for the sake of it, but in my usual style. Could I do it...? Could YOU do it?

After 5 hours and 27 minutes I had 6 layouts finished. SIX layouts!! :) And I'm beat. Totally worn out! But I did it!! LOL! And even with time to spare too :)

For one of the layouts I set myself a little challenge. I thought I'd post in here in case some of you would like to do it too. Make a layout using a minimum of:

* one piece of chipboard
* 2 stamps
* some buttons

Supplies used: Bazzill cardstock, October Afternoon stamps, Maya Road felt and chipboard and a black Dotta-Riffic pen. Sorry I can't remember who makes the piece of patterned paper I have used.

*** I have just realised that I was even quicker than I thought. The 5 hours and 27 minutes also included having lunch and phonecalls of nearly an hour in total. How was that possible?!?

Thursday scrapping...

Been wanting to scrap this photo of my mum for a while. Think it's pretty cool. We were practicing air rifle shooting, at some empty tin cans, two summers ago at my parents' summer house in Sweden.

Supplies: Chatterbox papers, Autumn Leaves stamps, some rub-ons which I don't know who makes them, ric rac, stamps and buttons.

I wanted to use my cute owl stamp on this photo with it being a nature one. But I didn't dare in case someone would take the layout totally wrong as if we were aiming at owls - which would just be too sick. So my cute owl stamp has to wait until another layout instead LOL!

Stash diet update: 14 layouts of 50 done.

Found some stamps I love even more than Autumn Leaves...

Stash diet is still going strong LOL! I've just finished layout no 12 today. I'm trying to think of it in terms of how many layouts I *have* done, rather than how many I *haven't* got done yet. 38 layouts to go sounds an awful lot LOL! So I have done 12 - and that's what I'm happy about. Here's another two that I did the other day:

Supplies: Chatterbox papers, Making Memories shimmer chipboard heart, Autumn Leaves stamps, I think the heart brad is by Queen & Co and then finally some ink and jewels.

Supplies: Making Memories papers, Autumn Leaves journaling stamp, Dotta-Riffic pen, ribbons and staples.

I thought I seriously loved the Autumn Leaves stamps. They were my favourite stamps by far. And I still really love the AL stamps - and always will. But I have just discovered some stamps that are just as good - if not better. Just before my stash diet started I ordered some "October Afternoon" stamps from the US. They arrived yesterday. Lots of different journaling ones. And I'm in looooove - they are just so great!! I can see myself using these a lot :))

Layout 10 out of 50...

Still working my way towards the 50 layout target. I have now done 10 so I'm one 5th of the way there :) Here's one I did the other day...

Supplies: Making Memories papers and stickers. Not sure who makes the photo corner - sorry. Then all I have used is some staples, buttons and lace.

I had some questions the other day which I totally forgot to answer.

Grungedandy - to be honest I have no idea if minibooks can count towards my stash diet target of 50 layouts or not. I guess it's up to me really LOL! I haven't made one since I started with the stash diet so I don't know yet. In a way, yes you would think you could count them (but how...they generally take a lot longer time than a layout) on the other hand...you could just continue counting when you do layouts again. So simple answer is: I don't know LOL!

Naomi M - the date stamps you asked about are by Banana Frog and it's from the set called "postage".

I've been shopping but I have NOT broken my stash diet...

How does that work? "I have been doing stash shopping but I have NOT broken my stash diet." Simple. If you check back to my post on Thursday, my stash diet has one exemption: I'm allowed to buy the new Love Elsie "Noel" and "Zoe" collections plus her new book. I have been waiting for these since the summer so there was NO way I was going to miss out on them. Therefore I have been shopping on-line from the US and bought stuff from Elsie's two new collections (nothing else though...not even a single brad - so I was being good!!) Apparently the book will take another few weeks until it's released.

I really can't wait to receive my parcel from the US!! Have I told you that I love Christmas? I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! :)))) LOL! Love all the sparkly trees, baubles etc. And these just make me smile:

Anyway, where were we...ah yes, stash diet. It's going well...I'm slowly working towards the target of 50 layouts and I have just finished layout no 9 this afternoon. This is one I did on Friday:

Supplies: Papers, flowers and stickers are by Making Memories. Not sure who makes the grey transparency embellishment...might be MM too (?). Not much more added to the page apart from some staples and some doodles/journaling.

Sunday...

I hope you're all having a great Sunday...wherever you are. :) Here the sun is shining and we're having a pretty nice day.

The stash diet is going well too. I managed to resist 28 (!!) pages full of new uploads since yesterday (!) in my fave on-line shop. So I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I have also managed another layout this morning and I've now done 7 out of 50 layouts.

I have had reports from Marja (who I was/am doing this with) that she failed (at least she owned up) and bought stuff this morning. *sigh* But she's being good and putting her layout total back to zero and starting again today :)

Supplies used: SEI papers and stickers, Doodlebug paper frills, Autumn Leaves stamp plus some staples and ribbon.

*Tired*...

Been out shopping for nearly 6 hours and I'm exhausted after trying on loads of things LOL! I haven't bought any new clothes in ages and I was in desperate need of a new winter coat (like as in could have needed a new one two years ago LOL!) and some new trainers.

Had a bit of a nightmare trying to find a coat. After three shops and about 15 different models, it quickly became apparent that I would struggle to find one with sleeves long enough. God that makes me sound freakish LOL! I'm just tall. My arms are not very long at all, but being tall I guess they are longer than average. Anyway, suddenly we found a shop with several coats that fit. So I found a great one and I'm soooo happy!!

Also I needed some new trainers for walking. My current Skechers ones are getting a little worn but I L-O-V-E them to bits!! They are the most comfortable shoes I have had in my entire life.!!! I'm not joking. So imagine the happiness when I, for the first time ever, found an almost identical pair to the ones I already owned. And then I got a different pair of Skechers too! They were supposed to be £50 each and I got them for £20 and £25!!! All in all a very expensive day of clothes shopping for me, BUT I got exactly what I needed :)

As for the "stash diet" I've reach 6 layouts out of 50 so far :) Here's another one to show you...

5 done out of 50...

Well the "stash diet" is going well so far. Haven't bought anything - but that was hardly a challenge since it's not even been 48 hours LOL!

I have done rather well with my scrapping though. I've just finished my 5th layout since this started. :) "Only" 45 to go....LOL! I managed 3 layouts yesterday and I have done 2 today. Though I don't really feel very creative today so I doubt there will be any more done this afternoon.

I have also set myself a little challenge on top of the "stash diet" and that is go use up some of my already half-used Scrap-Room kits. So far I'm making good progress and have already finished 3 kits :)

Wishing you all a great weekend...!!

Layout 1 of 50...

Have you ever done a stash diet? This is my first time. I need some space in my scrapping room. Like seriously! The room is tiny as it is (I can reach the opposite walls at the same time if I stretch out my arms - in either direction) and I simply have no space left. So a stash diet it is.

Maybe some of you are wondering what this is? Basically you set yourself a goal. Either X months in the future or X amount of layouts. During this time you are not allowed to buy any new stash. Apart from glue of course. If you run out of that, you can never reach your target LOL! So my goal is to make 50 layouts (!) before I can buy anything again. I do have one exception to the rule though: I am allowed to buy the new Elsie stuff which I have been waiting for for months :)

*waves to Marja* (who I'm doing this together with) No cheating Marja - I'm keeping an eye on you!! LOL! ;)

How long is this going to take me? I have no idea. But I have made progress. I have just finished my second layout for the day and here is "layout 1 of 50" (not had chance to photograph the second one yet). The baby is my brother's little baby girl.

And I had some questions:

Kara - If you look in previous posts, you can see the inside of the minibook you asked about.

Ligiane Panosso - The swirl stamp you asked about is by Banana Frog.