My Home Town...

...that was the subject for Friday's prompt of the "Home" class that I'm taking. Making a minibook featuring photos of your home town. Not the easiest to get photos with me being in a different country (!) to my home town, but some old photos together with my friend Google solved that pretty well :)

But I wasn't going to make it that easy for myself now was I? Instead I had this "great" idea of double-challenging myself. Silly girl!! LOL! So not only did I have the minibook prompt to guide me but I also decided that it was a great (?!) idea to challenge myself into NOT cutting into a single sheet of new paper or cardstock. All I could use was my scraps.

I wanted to see what I could make using only minimum supplies. So I created a book using only paper and card scraps, stamps and 4 alphabet stickers! And I kinda surprised myself with what you can actually achieve with such limited supplies - which was great :) Try it - it makes you feel great :)

The last picture shows a few sample pages from the book. It has 20 pages/photos inside and I just couldn't be bothered to take photos of them all - sorry. LOL!

Home Sweet Home...

Okay so there will be lots of "home" related things on my blog for the next few weeks due to taking the "No Place Like Home" class. Hope I won't bore you...LOL! I'm really happy that this is a Monday-Friday class as it suits me perfectly.

Anyway, onto the next thing I made. On Thursday it was time to make a layout again. Some of you might recognise the photo I used for this layout (a photo I took and edited during the photography editing class I took in March) - so glad I got the perfect opportunity to scrap it now :)

Supplies: Fancy Pants papers, die-cuts & rub-ons. American Crafts (I think?) alphabet stickers, Jenny Bowling journaling label, Maya Road ric-rac and some super cute Love Elsie stamps (perfect for this class!) that I only got the other day.

Daily Doors...

I had to adapt the subject, to suit me, a little bit for Wednesday's minibook class by Shimelle. I ended up naming my minibook "Daily Doors".

I used my Bind-It-All machine to make my little book (the covers measure 10x10 cm). The covers + pages are cut from chipboard to fit what I wanted to do (lots of little half sized pages inside etc).

I used mainly supplies from the "Jack + Abby" line by "Love Elsie" plus some Bazzill cardstock, American Crafts Thickers alphabet and a Catslife Press stamp.

The first few inside pages show pages of our house doors plus this cool purple door which I walk past a lot (have no idea who lives there LOL!) and it always makes me smile.

...then we have a photo of our local shop/post office and our library. It finishes with a pic of the door of the village clock tower which we affectionately have named "Big Ben" (as it looks a bit like Big Ben in London...well kinda...or not really...but still! LOL!)

When I took the photos of the doors and I saw how they turned out I was thinking it was an impossible project. Just really "boring door photos". Seriously. Really bland and boring. I thought I could never scrap and make something decent with these. But there I was wrong. I'm really pleased I did this project and I'm very happy with how my little minibook turned out. I think it taught me a good lesson, you really *can* scrap *any* photo - it's all about what you make of it. So I'm really grateful for having got this prompt and learnt something along the way...

Have Fun...

Yay it's Friday! :) Love Fridays! And Fridays also normally mean something new and cool by Kate Hadfield at the Lilypad. Earlier in the week I made this card for my mum (which should hopefully reach her today if the post is behaving like it should). I couldn't post it on here until today when the doodles are released in the shop.

Supplies: white cardstock, some old Basic Grey background paper, my very much loved Slick Writer plus Kate's yummy Pretty In Punk doodles. She's also got some mega cute baby doodles released today which I can't wait to have a play with.

So what else? I'm busy doing the 5 week class I'm taking by Shimelle. I totally love it so far! I'm always surprised at people who sign up to a class and then they think that means they will "magically" make lots of things & then complain how they can't be bothered etc. Instead of saying that you "don't have time" or "can't be bothered" - spend that time being creative :) You'll be surprised how much you can get done. Just because you sign up for a class doesn't mean the stuff gets automatically done. You need to put a *lot* of time, effort and determination into it to get the most from it. That's probably the best lesson I have taught myself from taking several classes. So that's what I'm trying so hard to do. I'm up-to-date so far which feels really great. I just need to get off here (and find some good light for photos as it's really dark and rainy here LOL!) and take some photos of my finished projects.

Wishing you all a great Friday! :)

It Always Happen Doesn't It...

...you're waiting for some things to turn up in the post. Nothing comes. And nothing comes. Days pass and nothing. Then everything turns up at once! Right, you know it too? That always happens to me! LOL! So anyway, a big post batch turned up. Some non scrapping things plus both my Scrap-Room kit and another stash parcel...

This is the latest yummy Scrap-Room kit (Scenic Route, Making Memories, SEI and Bo Bunny):

...and the embellishment kit. Love the SEI "puff stickers"...though I'm not too sure what I think of this font. The stitched rub-ons are seriously cool though.

...and the stamp add-on to the Scrap-Room kit. I really, really love the little journaling stamp. Scrap-Room come up with some great stamps:

Then there was my other stash parcel which of course *had* to turn up on the same day (would have been nicer to have it on a separate day. But I guess I shouldn't be complaining about stash LOL!) Just some random mix of papers (Scenic Route, Sassafras Lass, KI Memories etc), some Maya Road felt, some rather funky K & Co (never thought I'd say that!!) photo corners and some seriously yummy Scenic Route frame stamps :)

Then onto the new collections by "Love Elsie". I have to say I'm a little disappointed in how themed the collections are. Like "Cody" (below) is extremely sports themed. Now I might not have much to scrap with that fit baseball papers & stickers (in fact I have nothing at all to be precise). So a little disappointed in how extremely themed the collections are. Which shows by how few items I bought from the "Cody" collection:

Then we have the new "Claire" collection by Elsie. Again another themed one (girly/shopping) but at least this is a little more "general" (with some super cute ribbons!!) so I got a bit more from this collection:

I have ordered stuff from the brand new "Emma" and "Josie" collections by Elsie and really can't wait for these to turn up - hopefully in about a week if I'm lucky. Pretty sure I will like "Emma" best :)

And something totally cool before I go: Big thanks to Latharia for letting me know I'd been very lucky and won a prize at the Making Memories blog. I had no idea until I saw your comment. Yay! So exciting :)

A Great Start...

I think I posted about signing up for Shimelle's new class "No Place Like Home" a few weeks ago. In any case I did. Sign up that is. And Monday was the start & preparation of the class. Yesterday was the first proper prompt and a layout project. As the title of the class suggests, it's all about "home" and little projects about or for the home. My layout is about the house and town in Sweden where I grew up.

I used lots of "Love Elsie" supplies from the "Jack+Abby" range (love the cute little houses in that range!), and no...your eyes are not going mad: I have blocked out a few words in my journaling, on purpose, so it does look a little messy there in the photo - sorry about that. Can't wait to see what project is waiting for us in today's prompt...!!

New Class...

Hope you all had a great Easter weekend! We certainly did - even though it was strange with all the snow LOL!

My latest step-by-step class is now on-line. It's totally free, so why not take a moment to pop over to A Trip Down Memory Lane to take a look at it? Thank you for taking the time to visit!! :)

Meet My New Gadget...

I had some birthday money left from my parents (yes from back in November LOL!) I didn't want to buy little bits (you know...a book here, a CD there etc). Instead I wanted to buy a "proper thing"...so I saved my birthday money until I could think of something fun to get. And yesterday afternoon was the day. Please meet my new gadget:

I have got a graphics tablet and I'm loving it! Honestly, I have no plans for what I will do with it at the moment (crazy?) but I just love sitting scribbling and drawing things for the fun of it. Yesterday evening we challenged ourselves by telling the other person to draw something. I'm sure you can imagine how much fun it turned out to be? We were laughing so much tears were running down our faces! Great fun!!

Happy Easter...

Wishing you all a Happy Easter weekend!!!

I'm sure some of you are thinking "isn't she one day ahead?" Maybe. I guess. It depends. We have decided to go with the Swedish Easter traditions (as far as you can call it Easter traditions as we're not religious and all we do is Easter eggs LOL!). The big Easter day in Sweden is the Easter Saturday (also known as Påskafton = Easter Eve). I know here in the UK it's Sunday that is the big day and the day for Easter eggs...

And talking about Easter eggs. They differ between Sweden and the UK too. In Sweden you typically have these cute cardboard eggs (with bunnies, chicks etc on them) filled with lots of yummy candy and chocolate:

...but in the UK all Easter eggs seem to be hollow chocolate eggs (see pic below). In fact the one below is the one waiting for me in the living room right now. And you know what? We're going by the Swedish Easter traditions. Which means: eggs on Saturday. Which means? I can have mine now!! Yum!!! LOL!

Inspiration Journal...

If you visited my blog yesterday you will have seen this post with a photo of my desk and work in progress. I promised to come and show you the finished project today. I have made an inspiration journal using some yummy Sassafras Lass papers and my Bind-It-All. The title is made up of American Crafts Thickers and I have also used some Doodlebug jewels.

The inside is just a mix of white and black cardstock pages. I thought it was cool to do a mixture of white and black pages (I included less of the black ones) in case I wanted to experiment with different pens/white pens etc. I'm basically going to use this as a fun journal to scribble down little cool design ideas as I see them in magazines, on the internet etc. I wanted to create a cover that makes me smile - and I succeeded :)

Excited...

Well the weather outside might leave a bit (!) to be desired today (it's dark, dull, cold and rainy!), but I'm happy. Tomorrow is the start of a 4 day long weekend and I can't wait!! We haven't got too much planned yet (waiting to see how the weather turns out LOL!) but I'm sure we'll go out some places if we can :)

I thought I'd share this photo:

It's my desk about 5 minutes ago. Something is in progress...but what? You'll just have to wait and see tomorrow when it's finished (sorry to tease LOL!)

Hoping that, wherever you are, you also have an extra long weekend to look forward to :)))

Not Liking Papers...

You know when you just don't like some scrapping papers - they are not *you*, you think you just can't scrap with them, or they don't inspire you? And then you get them in a kit and there's nothing you can do. Do you still scrap with them? I try to. To use them up. Most of the time I end up doing something that I'm not so keen on when it's finished. At other times I surprise myself.

Yesterday was one of those days. I have had these Cosmo Cricket papers for a while which just seemed soooo dull and boring. So I wanted to use up the papers and get them out of the way LOL! I decided to go a bit mad and totally cut up a paper and follow the shape of the pattern. The result? I'm pretty happy with it considering how much I disliked the papers to start with LOL! So what did I create? This:

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket papers, the frame is made with Bazzill cardstock & Uniball white pen, paper strip is from a Scenic Route paper, Autumn Leaves, October Afternoon and Sassafras Lass stamps plus American Crafts Thickers (of course!)

So why not pick up those "dreaded" papers you have and try to scrap something today? :)

Photo Fun...

I got this great magazine yesterday (and yes I know Creating Keepsakes have a tendency to call them "books" - but sorry, to me, they are definitely magazines LOL!)...

"Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking 2" by Jessica Sprague. I got the first issue (though this seems to have done a disappearing act on me and I'm going to start "part 2" of my hunt for it in a little while. "Part 1" too place this morning and gave no result. LOL!) when it was released and enjoyed it a lot. This issue I got yesterday in my parcel from the US. So I'm sitting here, flicking through, reading, trying out a few of the tutorials in Photoshop Elements etc. It's great!! I just wish it was 4 times as thick LOL! Not that it's specifically thin or anything, just that I'd love lots more similar tutorials.

Oh and I almost forgot: several of you asked me where I got the stash from that arrived yesterday. This parcel was from AMLT. But before you run off really excited ---> they sell out of stuff fast, like really fast, so I doubt much of what I had in my parcel are still in stock. Sorry to disappoint you about that. :(

A Big Parcel...

Just got a big parcel from the US which was sent last Wednesday (wow that was fast!) Lots of yummies that I have been waiting for so prepare to drool if you have similar stash taste to me...if not, at least prepare for a lot of photos LOL!

First some always-useful-stash:

Then some Sassafras Lass yummies... HOW 3D does that owl on the left look?!? I am seriously impressed with these papers and they look even better in reality!!

More Sassafras Lass. Again lots of happy colours and patterns. That deer is just too cute! Hope to use that paper on an album or notebook cover.

I love this clever idea that Sassafras Lass has come up with - to make the little strip at the bottom become a nice edged border for you to use (the back of the strip has the paper/company details just like usual). The perfect idea!!

Lots of little bits. Some cute Jenny Bowlin stuff for journaling. Some Cosmo Cricket "backboard" books. Check out that scalloped one!! H-O-W cool?! :) Making Memories journaling book - always useful and two Bingo cards. I love the look when people use bingo cards. But I also have a feeling it's something that will be trendy for a very short time (and then you'll be seriously fed up of them LOL!) - so I tried to be good and only bought two single ones :)

Some Dream Street papers. Loooove the colours of these. The things you can see to the left are little mini pages to create a minibook from. Cute!

More Dream Street. Very cute bird patterns & nice colours etc. I'm not 100% sure I'm so keen on them in reality as I was when I bought them on-line. Hard to explain. The patterns are a bit "boldly printed" and I guess I just expected a little more details maybe. Still - they make me smile :)

Some magazines - "Cards" is a very beautiful magazine and I can't wait to read part 2 of "Computer Tricks".

And finally some happy pastel Making Memories papers...

Out For A Walk...

Been out for a little walk to a place called East Riddleston Hall today - so I thought I would share some photos. Not the ideal weather for photography and I haven't had the chance to edit them at all, but still...

More Easter Stuff...

We're not religious at all - but I do *love* all the cute things about Easter...the eggs, chicks, bunnies etc :) Just makes me smile.

So of course we have to have some of those LOL!

I also wanted to show you this thing that I have made called Påskris. It's a Swedish Easter tradition.

You take some branches (normally Birch) which you put in a vase. Then you decorate it with special Easter feathers (they have a piece of metal thread near the bottom which you wind around the branches). You can also hang up little eggs etc. When you're in school you might make some Easter project with felt...chicks or bunnies etc to hang in your Påskris too. Hope this doesn't sound too mad! Anyway, for me it brings a bit of happiness and colour into the house so it's a nice thing to do for Easter I think :)

Cute Easter Boxes etc...

Yesterday I kept doing little projects with a big smile on my face. Why? Because Kate Hadfield has made this super cute pack with Easter toppers, pillow boxes etc which got released this morning. I couldn't resist the pillow boxes yesterday and I just have to show you how cute and easy to make they are...

First pick your items from the pack and print them out (I printed onto white smooth cardstock):

Then take your favourite scissors (mine are green - of course!! LOL!) and cut out:

Score on the lines, put a little glue on the flap and fold together in 2 seconds:

Yep that's how simple they are!! And then come with nice PDF instructions too. So cool! And if you need these, which I'm sure you do, just pop over to the LilyPad and get the Easter Treats package :)