Gone Fishin'...

Wow they were not joking when they said on Sky News' weather this morning that the weather today was going to be "uncomfortable"!! Hot, humid, rainy and foggy. Like seriously hot and sticky! I feel so "bothered" and you can't even escape from it. And it's only just past 11 in the morning. According to what they said it's going to get much, much hotter (and more humid!) still. Yuck! If anyone have a good tip on how to feel better in the humid weather I'm very happy to hear it... :)

And no, I'm not going fishing as the title says... I posted yesterday about having to make a male birthday card. And male cards are the....well, no ---> male cards AND presents are the hardest! For women you can always fall back on nice bath/body products, jewellery etc if you're stuck...and pretty flowers for cards. Men? That's H-A-R-D. Anyway in the end I decided to go down the hobby route and since my sister's boyfriend is into fishing, amongst other things, I made what I believe is the very first fishing birthday card that I have ever made :)

[Supplies: Catch Of The Day - Julie Billingsley, (font) Brittany - Darcy Baldwin (both from SSD)]

Also, Shimelle's latest colour challenge was to make something using "writing in colour", so I decided to match the title of the card (grattis = congratulations in Swedish) to the card rather than going with a black title.

A Photo-Less Post...

A post without photos - that does not really happen very often for me (as I personally enjoy blog posts with photos a lot more, so I try to always have one/some in mine too). But I'm super, super busy today and I just figured it was an option between no blog post at all, or a blog post without photos. So a blog post without photos it is, for a change. I promise the next one will have an image again :)

So today... first I'm really pleased to say that my foot seems to have recovered quickly this time. Hopefully I hadn't irritated the old injury as badly as I'd first thought. I'm still being a bit extra careful, but at the same time I'm not avaoiding walking, so that feels great :) I'm really, really pleased about this as I dreaded a few weeks of not moving much.

Today is definitely a housework day (yuck!) and I'm in the middle of cleaning toilets - don't worry, I have washed my hands for this post :) - as I type this. Double yuck! Still it's things that need to be done. Apart from that I'm making a birthday card which I must get off in the post to Sweden by tomorrow!! A male card. Yes ---> sigh! Male cards are the hardest... ever. So I'm busy thinking up ideas while I'm tidying.

Pastels...

I love pastels. Especially quite bright ones. Give me the option of pastels or brights and I will nearly always pick pastels. Unless we're talking green. Green I will do in any shade and any brightness, of course :)

Anyway, I spotted this sweet summer kit in Kay Miller's shop:

...and the colour challenges that I have been following on Shimelle's blog during the last month fit perfectly ---> "scrap in pastels". Couldn't be better :) So I downloaded the kit and started playing around. The result is this card:

[Supplies: Ocean Adventure by Kay Miller]

Right, that's me off out in the garden to do some work. Lots of plants that need watering and we've got the lawn to cut etc. Just wish the sun would be out instead of this hot, cloudy and humid weather....

Annoyed...

(Warning: rant time) About a year and a half ago we were out on a walk. It was dark and the streets were full of fallen leaves. A pavement came up and I did not see the edge for all the leaves. I stepped funny and pains shot through my foot (on the top, going from the toes back towards the leg). I had to limp home and my foot hurt for weeks afterwards. Then it stopped. Until yesterday when the pain came back. It hurts when I walk on it and when I sit down it aches for a while afterwards.

And I have done nothing except for a bit more walking than usual the last two days. I'm soooo frustrated!! I guess what I need to do (?) is to rest it better but you have so much walking that you NEED to do in a day anyway and I really want to be good and go for walks too...so I'm really annoyed about this and I don't know what to do. Grrr!

Enough complaining. Time for more hybrid stuff instead and this card which I made with some cute kits from Sweet Shoppe Designs:

[Supplies: Everyday Play - Krystal Hartley, A Beautiful World - Krystal Hartley (from SSD)]

Cuteness...

I've spotted yet another super cute kit by Kay Miller. This time a bit more boy themed with primary colours. I'm normally a bit more drawn to (bright!) pastels, but this one was too cute to resist. Don't you agree? :)

If you, like me, just neeeed it - you can get it from Kay Miller's shop here. And what have I made with it...?

I, on purpose, decided not to put a title on the card. That way it can be used as birthday card or a general greeting card. Great to have a few of these type of cards ready to grab and write when you suddenly need a card without any notice :)

I'm out clothes shopping this afternoon. Desperately need at least one pair of jeans and a pair of capri. Wish me luck... :)

Rainbow Fun...

This layout was very much inspired by this layout by Shimelle. As soon as I saw it, it just made me smile. So much happy colour in one little space. So I had to scrap lift. A perfect layout to document our fun summer plans. :)

Sorry for no update yesterday. I'm mega busy working on my contribution for the second issue of Sweet Shoppe Designs' magazine "Simply Sweet". It kept me busy all day yesterday (ideas etc were sketched way before then) and I know I have a lot to do on it today too. So on that note, I'd better go and get started...

Not Sure That I Like This...

You know when you do a layout and nothing works? Well this is it...

I started off doing this layout for Shimelle's blue colour challenge as the photo is mainly a blue background. However I never got it to work. I added a few bits, removed a few bits....everything look cluttered...nothing stood out...everything blended into one big busy messy look. I left it for a day. Added some more. Still not happy. In the end I decided to finish it but I still don't like it.

At first I was not going to add it to my blog. But then I thought: why not? I think it's good to show that we all have these days when nothing works on a layout and no matter what you do it's doomed. For me, the biggest problem with this one (apart from the photo) is that it has no focal point. It's too busy and nothing stands out. I think if I was to redo it I would change the background. Still have a patterned paper but a more calm one. Maybe an orange one with little white dots or something...and then I would fit in a title above the photo, near the "totally special" stamp. With this background it just wouldn't have worked and it would have created even more of a mess LOL! :)

Another Hybrid Card...

Still got some of my Creative Team assignments to do for Sweet Shoppe Designs this month so I'm continuing my hybrid cards...

[Supplies: CNY (Bundle) - Lliella Designs , PJ Kids (Bundle) - Lliella Designs, Font: Brittany - Darcy Baldwin (all SSD)]

The month of May saw a new designer arriving at SSD - Lliella Designs. As I have said many times before, cute kits are definitely my preference for making hybrid cards. Anything cute and I'm sold. And Lliella Designs definitely fit that category. Total cuteness. Then add in owls like this and I really can't resist :)

Green Crafting...

Isn't it great when you can accomplish two things in one go? I wanted to continue Shimelle's colour challenges but at the same time I had some SSD Creative team assignments that I wanted to get working on. As it turned out, one of the kits from SSD that I wanted to work with was pretty green and I had a green colour challenge to do. So that was perfect. Challenge and CT work done in one go. I came up with this card:

[Supplies: Froggie Luv - Sara Amarie, It Starts In My Toes - Shawna Clingerman (both from SSD)]

I thought the frog in the "Froggie Luv" kit was just too cute and perfect for a hybrid card. And I mixed it with a rather pink kit by Shawna Clingerman. I really love the combination of greens and pinks together. I think that's my most "happy colour combination" of all at the moment :)

Scrapping In Red and Pink...

I fully intended to write this blog post yesterday but my cold turned for the worse again and there was just no energy left to deal with the internet. I feel pretty much the same again today, like those first days of a cold, but I'm making myself sit down and get this written now before I have a little rest. I don't get colds too often, but when I get them I get them bad. Yuck!

[Supplies: Totally Rad Alpha - Nancy Comelab, Remnants 2 - Anne deJong, Starry Dates And Names - Amy Martin, Ice Ice Baby Alphas/Cool In The Pool - Amy Wolff, Template Pack 7 - Kaye Winiecki, Old Things - Vinnie Pearce (all from The Lilypad)]

This layout was made with some new Lilypad releases and fitted well both with the latest Lilypad blog challenge and also Shimelle's challenge to scrap something using the colours "red and pink".

By the way: has anyone seen summer? It's past the middle of June already and it definitely does not feel like summer. Cloudy, grey and 13 degrees today. Where's the sun???

My Favourite Colour...

I'm continuing with the colour challenges and one of the scrapping challenges has been to scrap a page using your favourite colour/about your favourite colour. Well, that didn't take much thinking :)

Obviously: green. I also decided to go with accent colours of pink (a colour that I have started liking only a few years ago) and white because I really like the combination of these three colours together.

Instead of going with a photo (or photos) of green things that I own, I decided to just pick a random photo from my developed photo pile that gave you the general feeling of "green". Then I journaled about why I love the colour, that it's always been my fave colour etc. I'm really pleased I have done this layout as it's these kinda "obvious & common facts" about us that we often forget to make part of our albums. :)

Light Shades...

Oh yuck, I have come down with a terrible cold. Just sitting at the desk here typing this makes me totally exhausted & shaky. Bleugh! Something tells me there will be a lot of resting and reading books for me for the next few days. I don't get colds too often, fortunately, but when I get them, I get them BAD!

Anyway I'm a little behind on the colour photo challenge by Shimelle so I made a huge effort to get the camera out this morning to capture the next lot of colours ---> light & pale ones :)

Firstly, a quick photo out of the window of some pretty clouds :)

Then my current handbag. I like to change it often so I have quite a few that I swap and change rather than having one for a few years, throwing it and buying a new. I love changing my bag every few weeks and just pick whatever colour I feel like at the moment. I can see myself swapping to one of my brighter bags very soon.

The book that's currently lying on my desk at the moment. Bought in Tesco before the weekend. I love the deal they have on new paper backs (2 for £7). Nice to be able to buy new books without them costing a fortune. :) The other book I got was the latest one by Tara French.

...and finally another thing lying on the desk next to me. My iPod Touch that is charging. I bought a set of (very cheap!) silicone covers for it on Ebay a while back. One of those really cheap purchases that turns out to be really great. At the moment I'm using the white cover but I'll be swapping to the green one soon as this one has been on for a while now.

Okay I'm off to get some rest. I hate summer colds...

ill...

...enough said.

Blogging About Blues...

The next colour to to be picked for the photos is blue. For those of you who don't know, I'm following Shimelle's "A Month Of Colour" where she, at the moment, encourage us to find and capture colour in our everyday lives. If you go back through my posts from this week you can see the previous colour picks. Anyway onto blue...

Blue for me is a pretty blue sky. Blue sky and sun shine (pref in combination with the beach near my parents' summer house in Sweden!) is always guaranteed to put a smile on my face. Not matter what your mood is, a blue sky makes you feel better. Love it :)

...so after taking a photo out of the window this morning, I ventured into the living room and spotted our blue tea light holders from Sweden. I love the design by the Finnish company Iittala and have them in several different colour combinations (yes, green too of course).

Next a very blue book which is part of one of my most favourite book series - The Earth Children by Jean M Auel. I have the complete series (or as complete as it is today...who knows when book 6 will come out) in both Swedish and English because I like it so much. My only other books like that are the Harry Potter series. The Swedish collection is so much nicer/more special looking (I mean the hard covers) than the UK one.

...a pot of Liz Earle Superbalm. I'm not really one for sticking to a particular beauty or hair range, instead I like to mix and match. But Liz Earle's range of products is one that I come back to time and time again.

...and finally my blue little box. This is where I store any tiny paper strips or left over little bits of stash. Basically anything that doesn't go into my 12x12 ziplock bag of cardstock scraps or my ziplock bag of patterned paper scraps. I use little bits from this box every time I scrap.

...and with that I'm leaving you for today as I'm off to fetch myself a big glass of cold water - it's rather hot in here & then I'm going to sort some cardstock.

Hope you all have a great Friday :)

Blacks & Greys...

...oh and shadows. But that will be impossible for me here today because of the light (well I could have rigged something with lights inside...but there is a limit to how much time I have LOL!) So I'm sticking with the "blacks & greys" colour subject for today. If someone is wondering what I'm on about, you can read more about it here.

So...blacks & greys...that was tricky. Not really colours that I would every choose. Nor do I wear very much blacks and greys. Greys occasionally but hardly any blacks at all. So this one definitely had me thinking a lot. The first thing I came across was this necklace which I got the other week.

...then my eyes fell on my grey Tatty Teddy/Me To You bear. I totally adore these bears. I'm not sure why exactly. But I do find them rather pricey for what they are so I normally just admire them in the shop window :)

Then this super soft suede-kinda-feel (or is it even suede?) notebook. Going back a year or two, WH Smith stocked this super soft range of stationery. I always looked at it and wanted one of everything. I do think I ended up buying a notebook after many months of admiration. But then they decided to retire the range and put the remaining stock up for sale. So I bought a few and still have some left...which makes me so happy each time I need a notebook for something and I can use one of these super soft ones :)

My pretty grey owl bag from Paperchase. I'm in love. Enough said :)

And finally my computer mouse. I had one of those mini/laptop mice, as my standard everyday mouse, for years and years. Totally loved it. And once I got used to it I really couldn't stand using the normal sized ones as they feel so bulky. Then one day it died. Like totally died. I spent ages trying to find an identical one but no, they didn't sell them anymore. Instead I found this Belkin one (again a mini/laptop mouse) and decided to take a gamble - which paid off :)

Reds And Pinks...

Following on from yesterday's post of "A Month Of Colour", the next colour pick is "pinks and reds". This proved a lot harder for me that green. Obviously. Red is a colour that I don't use very much at all. Not really sure why. And up until a few years ago pink was the same...though lately I have started liking pink a lot more...

When I read the colour pick on Shimelle's blog, the first thing my eyes fell on was a few bottles of OPI Nail Lacquer next to my monitor. Pinks. Perfect! I really really love OPI and I have a little bit of a collection of OPI bottles. Okay, quite a big collection really. But, shhhh... you did not hear that :)

Then I thought of the bookmark in my book, which I remembered being very pink from taking the photo of the book for the "green photos". By this time I was already starting to get a bit stuck for what to take photos of until...

...I just happened to look down and spot my pink striped socks. Snap! Those definitely count for this colour challenge.

My mobile is kinda a dark shade of pink and my little mobile phone charm is definitely very pink :) Shame it didn't come in green though...

...and finally a photo taken just outside the front door - a pot of petunias, which most of them are very pink.

Looking forward to seeing what colour is up next. It will certainly make for a rather interesting collection of photos by the end of the week :)

A Month Of Colour...

I'm not sure if you have seen the "A Month Of Colour" inspiration at Shimelle's blog but it's certainly given me some inspiration!

Over the last few days she's posted some scrapping challenges, some of which I have already done but not taken photos of yet (there's a surprise!) and this week it's all about colour photos. She encouraged us to find colour in our spaces. To get the camera out and snap anything we saw in the specific colour. The first colour is: green!

Now green is NOT a very hard colour for me to find. It's my favourite colour. Always has been and always will be. If there's a choice of colour, I pick green. Even the lids on our plastic food boxes are green (I wonder why? :)) and the first photo is a, not very fun one I guess, photo of my pasta salad for today's lunch. But really, most coloured things in our kitchen are green: mixing bowls, plates, colander...even as far as the potato peeler & ice-cream scoop!

Next I went into the living room and spotted this Yankee Candle. I love Yankee Candles in general and this is actually one of my top 10 favourites.

...the book that I started reading yesterday evening is mainly green on the cover and totally green on the spine. I can totally promise that I do not pick my books after colour though...LOL!

My Cuttlebug! I can not forget my Cuttlebug. I love it and I love the green colour. Seriously I was so pleased to see that someone decided to make it green. If there had been a colour choice I would have picked this anyway :)

My little iPod Nano which I got, quite a few years ago now, from my mum & dad for my birthday. Despite me having an iPod Touch now (which is technically a big upgrade) I still keep using my pretty green Ipod. It's on my desk playing music through my little portable speakers every day.

...some Sassafras stash which just happened to be lying on my desk in a pile - from my scrapping session yesterday.

...and finally, as I was taking these photos my camera ran out of batteries. Time to add some newly charged ones and, you guessed it ---> they are green. :)

I'm looking forward to seeing what the next colour is. As I said, green is VERY easy for me. Give me yellow or purple (or indeed a lot of other colours) and I might really start to struggle...we'll see...

Thanks...

Wow what a day! It's only just gone past lunchtime and I'm already ready for bed LOL! My to-do list is so long I don't even want to look at it. And I've got a pasta salad that I need to cook things for soon so it can all cool and be ready for tonight. Must not forget!

I spent some time this weekend backing up all my photos and other files on the computer and came across the layout above. For some reason I forgot to post it on here when I made it...quite a few months ago now.

Thanks to Berlynda for giving me this blog award. Requirements upon receiving award are as follows.....

1. Thank the person who gave me the award and link to their blog

2. List 10 honest things about myself. I'm Swedish, I love green, and sparkly things, a blue sky makes me smile, cats are my favourite animals, I'm intolerant to gluten/wheat/lactose/eggs & some nuts (!!), my fave food is pizza (and yes that is not good considering the fact before this!!), I hate snakes, I'm bilingual, I studied Chinese at University.

3. Put the award on my blog

4. Pick 7 people to give the award to.

Right that's all from me for today. I'm off to try and get a challenge done for the Lilypad blog which needs to be completed by today...

Golf Crazy...

Yesterday disappeared in a blurry cloud of not feeling well and sleeping. I woke up just after six in the ecvening to the food being ready which made me feel a bit better. I had a very slow evening, watched Big Brother and then went to bed again. Slept pretty bad but I still feel a lot better than yesterday. Even though I have woken up with a migraine so I'm getting off this computer as soon as I have made this post.

The title...golf crazy. Not me. But my parents. They love golfing and when I saw some new super cute golf doodles by Kate Hadfield (they were released on Friday) I knew I had to dig some old photos out and do a golf layout...

[Supplies: Scrap Pad Polly Love 2 - Amy Martin, Press Play - Amy Wolff, Swirly Twirly Doodles - Jenna Desai, Notebook Papers - Jenna Desai, Par For The Course - Kate Hadfield, Strung Out Alphas - Natalie Braxton, Random Pieces - Vinnie Pearce, Designer Papers - Vinnie Pearce (all from The Lilypad)]

A New Fun (?) Toy...

I've really enjoyed a morning full of paper scrapping today and my day has just gone even better...as this arrived in the post:I've been doing Weight Watchers since January and lost 15,8 kilos (36 pounds) so far but I have found that the last month has been slow and I think I have hit the dreaded plateau. Yuck! I'm doing everything right and still not really getting anywhere. So anything to motivate you to move more, right?!

I've had my eye on this DS game ever since it was announced and pre-ordered it last week. It was released today and turned up in the post 5 minutes ago. So I'm really looking forward to have a little play in a little bit. If it's fun enough and if it makes me walk even more than normal then that can only be a good thing :)

Playing With Colour...

Colour play such a huge part in our scrapping. It's easy to stick with your favourite colours or the colours that are "picked for us" by using a certain paper collection etc. But sometimes it's fun to break that pattern. To make something using colours that are randomly picked for us...

Yesterday I read a blog post where Shimelle gave a link to a very cool colour picker. As they say themsleves: "Spin The Wheel and get a selection of three random colors. The color wheel randomizes among some 16 million colors. And since each spin produces three different colors, that gives endless combinations. (or 2 to the power of 70 or so, which is a very large number). Enough to keep anyone busy for a while."

These are my first 4 spins. Pretty cool, eh? Pick one colour as your main colour and the other two as accent colours. I think these combinations are all very scrap-able. The 4th colour combination is definitely most "me" in terms of colours that I like...

...but I'm very intrigued by the 2nd spin. The teal/aqua, peach and red - I think that would work great on a layout. It's rather tempting me at the moment and I might just have to hunt in my stash for those colours sometime :)

If you like the look of this, try ---> SPIN THE WHEEL :)

Scrapping With Jewels...

Well it looks like that is the end of the nice weather :( I have checked a 10-day weather report on the internet and it doesn't look good. We were planning to visit a zoo on Saturday but I guess we'll just have to wait and see & check the weather before we make any final plans.

[Supplies: Little Mr. Big Man - Traci Reed (SSD)]

The card above was made as part of my Creative Team work for Sweet Shoppe Designs. As soon as I saw the kit (read: cupcakes!), I just knew I had to work with it. :)

Now why have I chosen the title I did for this post? Because that's what I'm doing right now. Paper scrapping with jewels. Something that makes me very happy. :)

No matter how much I enjoy digital and hybrid scrapping, it never gives that exact same feeling of happiness that playing with real paper and embellishments do. And that is something that I have been missing over the last few months. My paper scrapping seem to have had to come last...which ultimately means that I have no time or energy left for it. And that makes me sad. So I have worked out that I need to prioritise it a bit more. Somehow. It's just HOW and where to get the TIME from...? If you're in the same situation and have some great ideas, please share :)

West Midlands Safari Park...

We had the most amazing day out at West Midlands Safari park yesterday. The weather was fantastic. Blue sky and sun all day and 25-26 degrees (am I glad we have AC in the car when you drive through the exhibits where you have to have windows closed! LOL!) We set off early and got there when the park open. Queue were already forming at the tills.

We did one lap around the safari park and then stopped for lunch. We'd brought a picnic, yummy sandwiches and lots of chilled drinks. It was heaven sitting there on the blanket in the sun just enjoying the day :)

I'm always very partial to tigers and lions. In fact, cats in general. And I was really looking forward to going to this park (even though we have been before a few years ago) due to the fact that they have some rare WHITE lions...

I took like a million photos yesterday. Well, okay not a million...more like 400 or something and I'm really pleased with how great some of the big cat photos turned out considering they were taken through the car window. :)

Even thought the photo below is by far not the best I took of lions yesterday, it really makes me smile so much as it makes me think of Aslan and Narnia somehow :)

And, apart from the white lions, my other favourite part of the safari drive (or maybe indeed more favourite than the white lions even!) was the part with the WHITE tigers - yay!

We came home pretty tired but so pleased that the day had turned out so great. We ended it with a nice BBQ and plans to go back and visit after the summer as they handed us some free tickets for a return visit when we paid for our entry fee :)