Work In Progress...

I love visiting people's blogs for inspiration! The most obvious thing is of course to see lots of yummy layouts and projects. But I also really, really love to see photos of people's scrap room/area/space or photos of people's work in progress. I can look at them for aaages...

As I was sitting here scrapping a few minutes ago, I realised I never stop and take any photos in the middle of what I'm doing. Only of finished layouts. So I figured I might not be the only one enjoying seeing people's workspace (am I?) and got the camera out.

This is my "work in progress" today. I really have NO plan or strategy when I scrap. Honestly!! None at all!! I mean that. Seriously! I start with my background. The pick a photo. I glue some patterned paper in place. No idea what will go next. Then I pick something else and put that in place. Still no idea how the finished thing will look. I just add one thing at a time as I come up with it. Crazy? Maybe! LOL! But it works for me - that's how I'm most happy when I scrap. Not knowing what the next step will be or what I will use. So I don't know how this layout will look when it's finished any more than you do. LOL! We'll see... :)

More Scrapping...

Just a little update with some more scrapping to show you. :) Felt a migraine coming on this morning so I took tablets straight away and thought I had caught it in time as it went away. But unfortunately it came back again this afternoon so my head is not feeling great now. Being on the computer (looking at monitors/TV screens etc) makes it a million times worse so I'm off here after I have posted another layout.

Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, Basic Grey papers, Maya Road chipboard arrow, October Afternoon and Autumn Leaves stamps plus lots of jewels, inking, doodling etc.

A Happy, Happy Day...

The *only* photos I have of me/family are the ones from the last few years, you know, digital ones. All proper photos and baby photos etc, my parents have in albums in Sweden.

So today, totally out of the blue, I just got the best gift in the post ever!!!! :)

Dad secretly had bought a scanner for slides and scanned loads and loads of slides from when I was a baby/young and sent a USB memory with them (as a gift too rather than putting them on a CD). Baby photos of me, baby photos of my sister and brother, and also (very precious) photos of my grandparents on both sides of the family (no longer with us). This was just the *best*!! I'm just sitting here with a HUGE, HUGE smile on my face!! :)))

And of course I threw myself on the phone to mum and dad straight away!! :))

Busy Morning...

Wasn't sure if I would manage a blog post today, but here I am. :) It turned out to be a busy morning for me. Found out that Kate Hadfield will be releasing some new digital stuff on the 1st, so I got the chance to work with some amazing digi stash this morning. Will post my work on here once the products have gone live :)

I'm really enjoying doing Design Team work at the moment. Some months it can be harder and some months it can be easier. At the moment I'm really loving it :)

This is a layout I did a few weeks ago as part of my Design Team work for Make The Moment Last. Papers are by My Minds Eye, Bazzill cardstock, Cosmo Cricket rub-ons, Maya Road ribbon, American Crafts Thickers alphabet, Doodlebug jewels and Rhonna Farrer chipboard journaling block.

A Nice Surprise...

Guess who got an e-mail from Ali Edwards yesterday?! Cool eh?! :)))) I was like ---> "I got an e-mail from ALI EDWARDS!!!" *jumps up and down* LOL! Okay so I had written to her on Saturday evening, but...well, I guess we all have had that thing when we write to someone and kinda expecting not to hear anything back...so this was really cool and I got a really helpful reply. :) *smiles*

So I scrapped yesterday evening. No big deal you think, right? Well, I scrapped yesterday EVENING! I *never* scrap in the evenings!! LOL! I normally have my best scrapping ideas in the evenings and it's normally the time I feel most like scrapping, but I don't. I prioritise as I prefer to spend my evenings with Ross. Yesterday he had a few things that he needed to get done, so I did some scrapping and came up with this:

I guess we're all very quick at criticising our own work, and I guess in a way you shouldn't point out things to people, but in this case I really must say that I do NOT like the "First" part of my title. Unfortunately the stickers made glue marks on my background so I had to keep it like this. Oh well. Supplies are: Scenic Route "Roxbury" papers, die-cuts and chipboard, American Crafts Thickers alphabets, Autumn Leaves stamp and Doodlebug jewel.

Love My Scenic Route...

So which paper line can't you get enough of at the moment? :) I think for me it's Scenic Route. I have to say I'm not too keen on the latest few lines (sob!) but the ones before that are seriously yummy. My all time faves are "Laurel" and "Metropolis". But I also like the latest Halloween (which I have used below), Christmas and Valentine's collections a lot. It's just these newer ones I'm not too sure about...might change my mind when I see them in real life though :)

This layout is made using lots of the papers from the Salem (Halloween) range by Scenic Route. Who says you have to create a Halloween layout with them?! :) Also some stamps by Autumn Leaves and Scenic Route, Junkitz photo anchor & brad, Heidi Swapp chipboard heart, October Afternoon rub-ons plus lots of staples and some ric rac.

Maze Book...

Just a quick update today. My cold is much better, but I feel absolutely exhausted and hot as soon as I do anything. So I guess I'll have to try and take it easy (something I'm NOT good at LOL!)

Here are some pics of a mazebook I did a while ago which never made it on my blog:

...and if you have no idea how to make a maze book, I have a very detailed step-by-step tutorial for how to do them HERE - please take a look :) It's all very clever - the inside is made of one (!) sheet of 12x12...very cleverly cut and folded. A nice little project for the weekend :)

And a big THANK YOU to those of you who leave comments. I always read them and enjoy them a lot - so thanks for taking time to write - it's very much appreciated :)

Guest DT work...

I want to say a big THANK YOU to Mel & Jill at A Trip Down Memory Lane for having me as their guest Design Team member for the month of February. I got some yummy 7 Gypsies goodies to play with and had lots of fun. :) You can see a few sneak peeks here:

...and you can see my finished layouts if you head over to A Trip Down Memory Lane, here ("First Time"), here ("Cute One") and here ("Say: Cheese!"). Thanks for taking the time to drop by :)

I hope you're all having a good Friday :) I'm still battling with my cold. Felt quite energetic yesterday but today I'm just feeling hot and exhausted again as soon as I even attempt something minor. Oh well. A nice cosy weekend might do just the trick ;)

A Little Christmas in February...

Yes I know it's a little "wrong"...or maybe I should say ---> "strange", to show Christmas stuff in February... I have been going through my harddrive backing things up (have you done yours lately?) and came across this little project which I did as part of my DT work for Make The Moment Last at Christmas. It never went on my blog back then, so here we go:

It's made using lots and lots of Fancy Pants supplies...papers, ribbons, die-cuts and buttons. Plus some Stickles glitter glue, embroidery thread, a snowflake punch and some chalk ink.

Off to tidy my desk after doing some Design Team work and then I'm going into the kitchen to make some meatballs for tonight...

So, What Are *YOU* Waiting For...

I'm sure we have all seen the websites over the last few weeks showing us all the new scrapping products that were shown at CHA in the US. Lots of yummies, right? :)

Some things will not appeal to us, of course, because we all have different taste. A lot of things we think "mmm that's nice", then there are the things that we just know we have to buy (for me, I just can't wait for things like: Sassafras Lass, Love Elsie, October Afternoon and Scenic Route). And than that final thing, the thing that just shouts "I'm made for you - buy me"! Know it? What is that that one thing for you?

For me it's the so called "Easel Albums" by Narratives. The colours, shapes, everything just screams "me"!! The most yummy of yumminess :)))

Oh Dear...

How I got myself out of bed this morning...I have no idea. Throat hurts, head hurts, nose is full of cold. My whole head just feels "hot and inflamed"...(I'm sure you know what I mean). My eyes are watering and I'm soooo tired. Going back to bed sounds like such a nice idea, but I hate the way you feel after you have slept in the daytime, so I'm trying my very best to avoid it. We'll see...

Sitting here with my head in my hands and a DT kit beside me, trying to scrap. Thought I would do a little blog post first as it really doesn't work. I can't focus LOL! Will do another attempt when I have posted this. :)

Another DT layout done for Make The Moment Last. Supplies: Fancy Pants papers, buttons, transparency and die-cuts, October Afternoon stamps plus some staples, doodling etc.

Back to my scrapping attempt...

Monday...

Bleugh! I feel rotten. Felt a sore throat coming on yesterday and I've woken up with it being 20 times worse. My head hurts & feel hot and my nose feels like a cold is going to start imminently. Yuck! Let's hope it's just one of those one-day-things. We'll see...

This page was made as part of my Design Team work for Make The Moment Last. Supplies: Bazzill cardstock, Fancy Pants paper & felt, College Press stamp, Maya Road chipboard arrow...plus some rub-ons, flowers, jewels and staples.

lutingobelin - you asked about the photo course I'm taking. I'm using Photoshop Elements 5 and I'm taking an on-line course by Adrienne Looman. I'm pretty sure she's going to re-run the course in March, so it might be worth sending here a little message. Hope that helps :)

And having mentioned Make The Moment Last above, I have just got a new DT kit from them which I'm off to have a look at now...

What A Day...

I have been spending 7+ hours non-stop tidying (heavy lifting/reaching all the time) and I'm exhausted. Back is aching/burning and I feel like my body has been through a marathon LOL! I'm going to collapse in the sofa with a huge glass of cold water now!! But first I just wanted to share these items (card & bookmark) with you:

I put the card on black to take the photo (to make the white edges show up) - the black background is NOT actually part of the card.

Kate Hadfield released this really cool Funky Junky Spring Fling collab kit together with Rachel Young and Michelle Godin at the Lilypad on Friday. I got the chance to work with it earlier in the week and came up with the two ideas above.

Hope you're all having a great Saturday :)

Fun With Photos...

Busy tidying my little (and it is TINY!) scraproom today. Wouldn't be half as bad if I didn't struggle with where to put things, but it being so small...it's bound to happen. LOL! Still I have managed to throw a big bag of stuff and rearranging some other stuff. Will have another go later.

Anyway, I wanted to show you some cool editing stuff I've learnt so far from Adrienne Looman's photo editing course that I'm taking. The first photo you see is a "before" photo and the second photo is an "after" photo.

First we have some colour washes...

Then some warping (have fun here!!)...

And finally some outward warping...

Happy Valentine's Day...

I hope you're all having a great Valentine's Day! I know I am :)

I have been busy making some little Valentine's Day releated items using some super cute animal doodles by Kate Hadfield. Firstly a sweet little bunny card:

Made using the Animal Pal Doodles by Kate, together with some cardstock and jewels.

And then some cute little notecards. Again using the same Animal Pal Doodles.

Kimberley and Samm, you asked where I got my last lot of stash from. It was from A Million Little Things in the US. Please mention my name if you head over there for some shopping. Thank you :)

Yummy Stash...

Feels like it was ages ago since I bought some stash. Yesterday was a really stressful day with lots and lots (and lots!) of things to get done. So it was nice when a little parcel from the US turned up in the afternoon. Glitter & metallic Thickers (yum!!!!), some chipboard, MM journaling books, a scalloped paper and several Fontwerks stamps :)

I think I have got a lot better at buying stash and actually concentrating on what I *will* use... Rather than buying things for the sake of "love the colours", "cute pattern", "I just neeeed etc". Going back a year ago, I tended to mainly buy patterned papers. They are relatively "cheap" as far as stash goes and it feels like you get a lot for your money. But of course you then find yourself missing things for titles, embellishments etc when you scrap. Took a while for it to sink in LOL! Anyway, slowly, with time I have learnt what I use and not. So I'm trying to be good and think "how much will I use this?" before I add something to my shopping cart. And I'm getting there - the technique really works...

I was sitting the other day trying to list what are featured on most of my layouts and came up with a list smiliar to this: Thickers (often a mix of two types), staples, ribbons, chalk ink, general stamps, journaling stamps/blocks, doodling etc. Now compare this to my shopping above! Pretty good, eh? Thickers, journaling stamps and journaling pads. :) I use them soooo much since I started trying to avoid my printer for journaling and doing it buy hand. I hate my writing, but somehow writing within a stamped journaling block is so much easier!!

Baby Gifts...

Wow today has been a busy day and I have only had the time to sit down and do my blog now. Phew! LOL! Been busy doing baby stuff. A very (yes VERY!!!) simple & quick card using some cute Autumn Leaves giraffe stamps which I watercoloured:

And some baby books. I made three identical ones and totally intended to take a photo of all three of them together. But do you think I remembered this before or after I wrapped two of them?! LOL! So only one is on show. Really cute gift to do. I just have the photos printed in black & white. Then I put them back to back with a chipboard sheet in between (to make the pages nice and thick), print a transparency with the baby info and bind it all with my Bind-It-All machine. Oh and I cover the last page on the back with a nice sheet of Bazzill and a stamp with info about it being handmade by me. :) One book is for me to keep and two of them are already heading abroad as I type this. :)

New "Love Elsie" collections...

Yum, yum!! Elsie is releasing four new collections at CHA. Claire, Cody, Daisy and Forrest!! Can't wait - this will be expensive shopping LOL!

You can see lots more pics at Elsie's blog if you want :)

*** Edited to add:
I have got two questions which I forgot to reply to when I originally made this post...

pjsarefuzzy - at the time of me typing this, you can buy "The Doodle Formula" book from ScrapInStyle. Hope that helps :)

Joey - the "handmade" stamp that you asked about (used on my Christmas journal) is by CatslifePress.