Day 18...

And we're already onto Day 18 in my journal. Not to mention that we're already at the very last day of January! Aaaah! LOL! Where did that month go?

On the bottom left, we first see a photo of my parents' kitchen window with the Christmas curtains up and the traditional Swedish electrical candle holder on the windowsill. So cosy!

Day 18 is just a photo of me & Ross taken at a shopping centre. It was rather busy, but since we'd already finished our Christmas shopping it was just nice to have a walk around the shops in Sweden :)

Day 16 +17...

Can I just say that I love my Kindle 2!! I bought a few books yesterday and I'm already half way through my first one. Just love it :)

On a few occasions in my Christmas journal I decided to add in some extra half-sized pages. Just basically photos glued back-to-back because I wanted some extra photos to go with certain journaling.

Day 16 was such a day. The photo you see in the image above on the right side is such a page. It continues in the image below with the birthdaycake photo on the left side:

Day 17 is just the little red page you see at the bottom right, the photo belongs to day 18 and the page behind that. It works so well in reality but is so complicated to explain in words LOL!

Day 16...

First of all, please let me have a little celebration:

*******************************
~*~*~ My Kindle 2 is HERE ~*~*~
*******************************

...yay!! From Amazon US to me in 1 1/2 days!! Talk about incredible service! It's charging now and I really can't wait to play around with it later :))) And Marja - thanks for the comment you left regarding the Kindle :)

...and, to swap subject completely, we're onto the spread of the 15th/16th of my Christmas journal. The back of day 15 (which is just the top photo on the left side) is the famous bubble wrap playing LOL!

Day 16 is Ross' birthday, so it features some photos of that (more to see next time I blog about my journal) and I'm writing about the fact that we ended up celebrating his birthday on three (!) different days.

Right, I'm off to browse Amazon and decide what book(s) to get for my Kindle 2 to start me off :)

Soooooo excited...!!!

I love reading! Always have done. And I love getting new books. But this causes a problem sooner or later... Storage of these books! As I said, I love books and therefore I can't really part with books. For a few years now I have joked at Christmas/Birthdays that "I wish for THAT and THAT book, plus a bookshelf to keep it in AND a place to put said bookshelf". LOL! See the problem?

You say: libraries? I say: I love libraries! Only ours is TINY and unfortunately charges a fee per book from any other library, even within the same council. So you pay for "nothing" (ie. nothing to keep as such). At least if you buy cheap paperbacks you have them to keep...

So then we're back to the "I love reading but you can't just keep buying books forever" problem. Which means I need books that take up no space. Which means... e-books.

I love books, you know, actually having the book... so I'm a bit unsure on how I will actually feel about e-books... it's just a file. Not a nice crisp book to love. But I figured I kinda need to try this route (and I can always still buy some "real books"... like special favourites). So after some research I ordered this last night...

The Amazon Kindle 2. I'm soooo excited! I also love the reviews about it where it mentioned that people with dry eyes etc find this great to read on as it's not drying like a normal computer screen etc. So considering my severe eye condition and all the treatment/medication etc that I'm going through at the moment, I figured this might be very good for me. It's supposed to have the page look of a real book :)

I also did some research on other options like the Sony version etc (the Sony Touch Reader) but since that suffers from glare, it was quite obvious after a while that the Kindle was the one to go for.

Even though you search via the UK Amazon site, it sends you to the US site, where you go through and pay for the UK VAT (tax) etc - very clever. I only ordered it just before ten last night and it's already (!!) shipped, I have UPS tracking to follow. I just paid for the standard postage (the only option) but it seems really good as it's sent on "UPS Express" service according to Amazon. No idea how long it takes but it's already moving within the US and I actually think it won't be many days at all. I'm seriously excited about this!! :))))

Rainy Days...

It's easy to choose to scrap "fun" things, "positive" things etc... but there's definitely nothing wrong with scrapping ordinary things (maybe THE most important things to scrap!) or even slightly boring things. Now rainy days... they are not always my favourite (as they often tend to be very dark and I'm one who needs some proper daylight)... but why not scrap rainy days too sometimes? :)

[Supplies: Polka Dot Umbrella - Lliella Designs (from SSD), Stuck Together Three's A Crowd - Karah Fredricks (from the Lilypad)]

When I saw this cute kit by Lliella Designs, I decided that I just had to scrap a rainy day...

But I decided to scrap about positive rainy days, therefore the title "Rainy Days ... Don't Always Have To Be Bad" - a good reminder of trying to stay happy even in the dark & rain :)

Lions...

I'm definitely a cat person. Small cats, big cats - I love them all! If I had to pick a pet it would be a cat. If I had to pick my favourite animal at a zoo it would be a tiger or lion :)

...and since we went to a Safari park this weekend we had the greatest time! The lions were so active (I think we picked a good time!) and we got some great photos which I couldn't resist scrapping straight away. There were no sign of the tiger which is normally there, but the lions definitely made up for that.

[Supplies used: Zodiac - Kaye Winiecki, Dawn Inskip, Snapshot - Gina Miller , Project 365 Templates - Gina Miller, Animal Doodles Wild - Kate Hadfield , Safari Malarky - Kate Hadfield
(all from the Lilypad)]

I used some new kits from the Lilypad which really fit the theme and colours of my photos and had lots of fun creating this.

Right I'm off to do some more digital scraping :) Have a great day! :)

Day 15...

Two things today...

(1) A (possibly) important reminder. I have spent some time today backing up a lot of my hard drive. The very precious photos of course, but also other important files inc my digital scrapping kits. So if you haven't taken the time to backup your photos recently, maybe this is a good time to sit down and do it? :) Tomorrow could be too late...

(2) More Christmas journal pages:

Day 14 (small yellow page on the left) shows a rather messy suitcase in the middle of being packed for travelling. Day 15 is another half page (green page, top right). We spent a few days looking after my little niece after the wedding and I was journaling about how the best toys of the moment was not something your could guess ...not teddybears or building blocks...but ...wait for it!!! ---> bubble wrap!! :)))

Day 14...

I hope you enjoyed the little links about Lucia yesterday :)

The backside of Day 13 (the little blue page on the left, starting just above the row of gingerbread men) is my journaling about the day, the Lucia celebration and how we all were a little tired after the wedding celebrations (which continued way into the night).

Then we jump to Day 14 (the small page on the right, with the Scenic Route diamonds background paper and the Ali Edwards journaling square). This was mainly a day of (still) being tired, everyone suffering with colds in various stages and lots of travelling on top of that. Not so much "fun" to make a page about, but looking back at some stage later you'll go "ah, yes, do you remember how unwell we all were feeling...etc" ...it all makes up memories, so even "simple" things like that are nice to document every now and then :)

Day 13...

It's Christmas journal time again :) (Can you see how it's taking shape if you look at the pages behind...on the right side? Yay!)

So let's talk about the photo above. The right side is the back of Day 12 and features two photos of my family. It's taken in the church just before the wedding and before all the guests arrived. It's kinda the same photo, just me and dad taking turns in taking them. So I'm on the bottom photo, second from the right.

Move to the other side of my journal and it's the page contained in the red frame. December 13th is a very special day in Sweden - Lucia. We were celebrating with glögg and lussekatter while watching the Luciatåg on TV - soooo cosy!

Day 12...

I made myself get the camera out this morning and take some photos of my Christmas journal again - of the pages I'd done since I last took some photos. It's a pretty bad day for photography here today as it's so very dark and very foggy. But it was something I'd been putting off for a few days so I'm glad I did it anyway...

Day 11 (which is the little white page you see on the left hand side with the scalloped edge & Christmas tree) is just some journaling about our travel to Sweden for the Christmas holidays.

And Day 12 (right side) is the reason that we left for Sweden much earlier. My sister got married on the 12th and we had the most perfect day. Great company, great location, great ceremony & reception and fantastic food. They had professional photos taken down by the beach before the ceremony and the photo in my journal is one I took at the same time. My sister wanted me to come to the professional photo session and take some extra photos so they got lots. I really enjoyed it :)

Ali Edwards' class...

If you follow my blog you might have wondered why I have not posted any more work from Ali Edwards' BPS class. Again it's the same thing as for my Christmas journal, being abroad during December made me having to postpone finishing the class. And just like for the Christmas journal I knew this ahead of taking the decision to do it. However Ali's class was something that I'd been looking forward to about a year before it started (when it was first announced) and there was no way I was going to miss that :)

So I have a few weeks of catching up on that. But I'm fine with that. It was a great class and I know I will complete it for sure. I hope to sit down and go through the next lesson some time in the next few weeks after having done some more Creative Team work etc.

The layout above is from week 6 of Ali's class and something I finished before we went to Sweden for Christmas. A very photo intense double layout featuring photos from your life. It was very hard picking photos for this (as even though it has many photos, it's not that many when you talk about your whole life!) but I totally love the concept of this layout and I'm so pleased to have it in my album :)

Day 11 + a celebration...

Yesterday I sat down and worked on my Christmas journal for a few hours and made great progress. I don't plan to scrap this weekend (I rarely do scrap at the weekends) but I hope next week brings on another such productive day for my journal. :) I still need to take photos of my latest pages but, in the meantime, here's one that I sorted earlier:

Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of me starting Weight Watchers and I'm now a whole 26 kilos (61 pounds-ish) lighter!! I'm so pleased with that and I feel SO much better for it. I have a little left to go to get to my goal but not much now :) Yay for me - I'm so happy :)))

Looking forward to hopefully going to Lush a bit later today :)

Remember...

I love these cute photos that mum & dad e-mailed me from Sweden. They had about -12 (brrrr!) degrees and the sea was completely frozen in the fiord. Photos are of my mum & little niece playing on the ice. (And don't worry it was completely safe and the water would only be to your ankles where they are LOL!)

I played with a new page template and some gorgeous winter papers that Shimelle released over Christmas. I fell for the paper colors straight away as they went so well with these photos :)

[Supplies: Remember Page Template - Shimelle Laine, Wrap It Up - Shimelle Laine (both from 2Peas)]

"Eating Out" Layout Class...

I designed this class as part of my on-line class work for A Trip Down Memory Lane. Please feel free to use these instructions to make your own layout. You are free to link to this page from any forum etc if you wish. Please do NOT copy this information and/or photos to use for your own classes/forums/webpages without permission.

Supplies needed:
Scenic Route – Sonoma Collection – Madera Drive
Scenic Route – Sonoma Collection – Scrap Strip 2
Scenic Route – Sonoma Collection – Sonoma Labels
Bazzill Kraft Cardstock
American Crafts – Thickers – Red, Daiquiri #42834
American Crafts – Thickers – Green, Gift Box #42762
Autumn Leaves Stampology “Journal” stamps AL3189
Kaiser Scrapbook clear rhinetones
StazOn “Blazing Red” ink pad

Also needed:
Scraps of white cardstock
Glue (I use Herma removable)
Black journaling pen (Zig Millennium)
Charcoal Chalk Inkpad (optional)
Woodware 3” scalloped round punch (optional)

Start by cutting your “Madera Drive” paper to size. We will be using the brown patterned side as the base for the layout. I scrap in true A4 size, so I cut mine to 29,7x21 centimetres (cm). Please feel free to adapt to another layout size if you prefer.

Pick your photo. I have a 15x10 cm landscape photo which I have printed in black & white and cut into three strips. (Make sure when you plan your cuts that you don’t cut through someone’s face.)

Cut your Kraft cardstock so it’s 1 cm smaller on each edge than your main background (in my case: 19x27,7cm). Round the corners, chalk the edges and create “fake stitching” around the edge using a black pen. Cut the red and green strip from the “Scrap Strips 2” sheet.

Glue the Kraft cardstock in the middle of your layout. Add the red & green strip (chalk edges if you wish) starting 5 cm from the bottom of the layout.

Add your photos, at different heights, to the right of the layout trying to keep the spacing between them even. Then stamp the round scalloped journaling stamp, in red ink, onto some scrap white cardstock. Cut around or use scalloped punch. Journal and attach to the layout using the photo below as a guideline.

Make up your title using a mix of American Crafts Thickers stickers.

Cut out some word strips from the “Scrap Strips 2” paper and put these in the bottom right corner. Add some jewels to the edge of the red & green strip.

Finish by picking a sticker from the Sonoma sheet, add your date on it and place near the top left of your layout.

I hope you enjoyed my class! Wishing you lots of fun creating your own version!

Fun Weekend...

My new camera arrived late on Friday afternoon and I have had a lot of fun playing with it, experimenting with taking different photos and reading the manual during the weekend.I'm sure it will take me a good few weeks before I can have a really good opinion on what exactly I think of it. But I'm really pleased to report that I can already say for sure that it's definitely loads better than the Fuji rubbish that I bought last year LOL! So that makes me smile :)

Remember on Friday when I told you about the big BYOC release at the Lilypad? And that Kate Hadfield had released the cutest snowman kit but uploaded it after I'd made my layout? And that I said I definitely had to get my hands on it and work with it soon?

[Supplies: A Little Glitz - Dawn Inskip, Punched Sentiments - Dawn Inskip , Froggy's Remnants - Gina Miller, Stuck Together Every Day - Karah Fredricks, Cookies For Santa - Kate Hadfield , Snow Day! - Kate Hadfield , Sunny Santa - Kate Hadfield, Green Jelly - Kaye Winiecki (all from the Lilypad)]

Well I did this morning and had lots of fun playing with it. The only thing is that I can not decide whether the black background is cool & different or really just too dark & depressing when it comes to a Christmas layout. I can't help thinking that it's too dull and maybe I should have gone for another colour... say green (!) instead...

Day 10...

This follows on from yesterday's post a bit, with another photo from one of the Christmas markets that we visited on the left hand side. The right side, and start of Day 10, is just some pretty Christmas stash. On the backside of this you will see me scrapping about Christmas CDs... but that's for another day...

Day 9...

I'm really pleased to say that I have got some more time to work on my Christmas journal. The plan with working it all out on paper and figuring out all the photos ahead of the scrapping worked really well. (If you're "behind" with yours - try it!) My photos arrived on Wednesday and I was all ready to start again.

The left side (backside of Day 8) shows a photo of me and Ross working on the Christmas cards and Day 9 is all about the cosy Christmas markets that we visited in Manchester before Christmas. Definitely a tradition that I would like to keep up next year too (even if it's in another city maybe).

Lilypad January BYOC...

First of all - thanks for all the nice comments you left on the Copics post. I tried to create the type of post that I would have loved to find when I was looking into buying my first Copics and if I have succeeded in that then I'm very happy. So thank you for taking the time to leave those comments. I'd love to hear if any of you went buying (Kat?) and what you went for please? Also I was thinking about maybe making an additional post with some more colours to go with after the "basics", so I'd love to hear if there's any interest in me doing this...?

Now...

It's that time again... the monthly Lilypad mega release is today - BYOC time! Yay! And if you're a regular reader of my blog, I doubt you've been able to avoid finding out that I totally love the colour green. This month's BYOC releases are very green. Adding pink to that (...which is probably my next fave colour) and I'm hooked LOL! So this month's release could not contain a better colour combination for me. :)

I got some kits yesterday and came up with the following layout for the release today:

[Supplies: Scrap Pad Designer Love Amy Wolff - Amy Martin, Gleeful Garden - Amy Wolff, Little Labels #2 - Amy Wolff, A Little Glitz - Dawn Inskip, Punched Sentiments - Dawn Inskip, Stamped Snowflakes - Emily Merritt, Froggy's Remnants - Gina Miller, It Pays To Believe - Kaye Winiecki (all from The Lilypad)]

As usual I have tried to pick out 3 kits that are my favourites from the monthly BYOC selection (and as usual it was very hard!), so here we go...

This is just too cute! Unfortunately it wasn't added by Kate until after I had made my layout but it's a total "me" kit so I will definitely get my hands on this very soon and create something. Too cute to resist :)

This one I picked because I love anything to do with little word strips. I don't know how many times I have used Making Memories "Wordfetti" stickers and these dymo-type-sentence-strips are just so useful to add to a layout.

...all I'm going to say about this one is: check out the owl!! :)) "Me neeeed" was all I had time to think before I started downloading it :)

Have a great weekend everyone! :) I'm off to work on my Christmas journal.

The Lilypad

Copic Colours For Beginners...

Following on from the post I made earlier, here's my personal opinion and advice on Copic markers when you first start off...

I made a *LOT* of research on Copics before deciding to invest in some and also before deciding which type of marker to go for. Below is a photo of my Copics at the moment. I use Copic Sketch markers. I haven't counted them but I think I have around 3 figures at the moment.

First of all, the difference between Ciao and Sketch markers:

* Sketch markers are oval so they don't roll off the table like Ciaos do (big thing to me as you pick up and put down your markers a lot while colouring!)

* You need the Sketch markers if you ever want to use the Copic Airbrush system

* Sketch markers hold more ink than Ciao markers do.

* Sketch markers have the colour name + code marked at each end of the pen (on the caps) which Ciao markers don't (very useful to have this info when you're looking for a certain colour)

* Sketch markers come in the complete (as of right now) colour selection of 334 colours while Ciao markers only are available in 144 colours.

Me? I went for the Sketch for several reasons. The info at each end and the fact that they don't roll off the table. I also think they both feel better in the hand (shape) and look better. And (maybe a bit silly) but I like everything to look the same and I would have been very unhappy to start buying Ciao markers only to want some colours not available in the Ciao collection and therefore having to mix in a few Sketch pens anyway. LOL!

The only negative thing I can think of where the Ciao is better than the Sketch is that the Ciao is cheaper. On the other hand, the Sketch markers hold more ink... so per ml of ink, who knows, it might work out the same anyway...?

Now onto some suggestions for what colours to buy as a beginner. It's a bit tricky because the main point of Copic markers is of course the pretty blending & shading you can do. And to do nice blending you need several shades of the same colour. So you can't really recommend 10 markers to start with as it might only be 3 colours or so. But I'll try my best to limit my choice :)

Please keep in mind that I have only had my Copic markers since October (or was it early November?) so most of the images I have coloured have been Christmas images. Therefore I have mainly worked with skin colours, browns, greens and reds. But anyway...below are my suggestions on what markers I would recommend to buy first, based on what I have used most.

Colours I used most/recommended for beginners:

Red: R27 + R29 (R24 also if you want a third) plus R20 (which is a great blush colour for cheeks)

Orange: YR04 + YR07

Yellow: Y13 + Y15

Green: G17 + G29

Blue: B21 + B24 + B26 (if you want some nice light muted denim-type colours try: B41 + B45)

Brown: E33 + E35 + E39 (very useful browns I think!)

For light skin colours: E50 + E51 (plus E11 if you want a bit deeper shading), or if you want a slightly more pink skin tone then go for E0000 + E00 (and E11 again)

Grey: N0 + N3 + N5

I could easily go into pinks (RV23 + RV 25 are nice) and purples (BV02 + BV04 + BV08) too, but I think the ones I mentioned above are a bit more important to get when you start off. Also I would say, do not do the mistake of buying a black marker (which I did!) as you really won't need it. What's the point of having pure black if you want great shading, right? If so, it's better to go with a darker grey and also add N9 to your grey set :)

Right that took some thinking (and writing!) LOL! I hope that was of some help to some of you out there, and Kat in particular. Please do not hesitate to ask if you want to know something more. I'll do my best to help when I can :)

Copic Blog Post Coming Up...

Just wanted to let you know that I'm working for a large blog post on Copic markers which I should have finished later today.

I got the following questions from Kat at Christmas (sorry I have not replied earlier due to being abroad and having pre-schduled blog posts!):

"Was wondering ... which Copics do you use? Ciao or Sketch? I believe there are differences with the quantity of different numbers, and also Ciao is not working with the Airbrush, while Sketch is?"

And also the other day:

"Oh ... was wondering if you could suggest some "basic" Copics for me, Anso? Which would you suggest? Much appreciated! :)"

So I'll be back with some info later - lots to think about :)

The Plan Is Made,,,

I posted yesterday about how I had a lot of work to do on my Christmas journal due to being abroad most of December...

ShellyDee - thanks for the comment that you left on that post. It felt nice to know that I'm not the only one out there trying to get my journal done :) And I'm also very glad if my idea of planning for the remaining pages helped you too. :)

When I woke up this morning with a migraine I could have easily used that as an excuse to not getting started. Instead I took some medicine, waited for that to work (though I can feel it coming back now so I better get off this computer soon!) and then sat down with a paper, numbering it 8-31 for the days I have left in my journal.

Referring to my photos folders for the month of December made it rather easy for me to map out what subject + photos I wanted for each day. I spent the whole morning finding and picking my photos. I got a total of 39 photos for my journal. Some of these have two pictures to each photo as I wanted some smaller ones too.

Then, unfortunately, I spent most of this afternoon battling with ordering them from Photobox. The site just kept hanging on "checking out" no matter what I did. I have just now *finally* got my order confirmed - yay! :)

Conclusion:

Positive: I feel really pleased that I made a good start on my journal despite easily having had a "good excuse" not to start today.

Negative: I'm absolutely exhausted from picking, editing photos and battling with the Photobox site today that there's no energy left for anything else scrapping-wise. Oh well. Let's focus on the positive :)

If you're doing a Christmas journal I would love to hear how it's gone for you? Finished? Lots left to do? If you are not finished, what are your best strategies for getting your journal done rather than taking the easy route of giving up?

Day 8...

Well I think it's time for another page from my Christmas journal. And this is (shock & horror!) the last page that I have done in my journal! Yep...that's some confession to make LOL!

But then again, I always knew this would be the case a long time ago...

The last few days before our trip to Sweden it was just way too much to do with preparations, buying Christmas presents and sorting our packing that I made a decision not to work on my journal. Also, due to my sister's wedding, we left for Sweden a lot earlier than we normally do for Christmas. So I have rather a lot of catching up to do to get all my pages done now LOL!

Still, I came back armed with loads and loads of photos taken so I don't think it will be a problem to fill the pages in my journal. I just have to find some time to sit down and work on it. And of course it's very easy to procrastinate & put things off...

Anyway, my goal is to hopefully start a bit this week and the first thing is to sit down with a big piece of paper, list all the (remaining) days (ie. 9th-31st) for my journal and then sketch out roughly what each day will be about and which photo(s) I need to print for each day. Once that is done the task of "catching up" will feel a lot better and more "under control" I think :) Hope...

Happy New Year's Day...

...can you even say that? LOL! Well I just did :)

Hope you all had a great night last night and a good start of the New Year today. Last night was a weird night for me as it was the first time ever that I spent New Year's Eve in the UK!! I really missed my family in Sweden (though we had a great conversation with them on Skype yesterday evening so that made me feel loads better) but we had a perfect evening anyway.

...and it was cool watching the fireworks live from Big Ben and London at midnight on TV :)

Today it's a cold day here. -2 degrees right now and it's so pretty with a few snowflakes flying around in the air... :)

Have a great day everyone :)