Wanna Join Me...?

I realised that I was very unhappy about my paper scrapping. And in a totally different way that you think. Not the results but rather that I didn't have (take?) any time to do it. Everything else got in the way or got priorotised. I've been swamped with digital Creative Design Team assignments lately. And between that and my Christmas album (which mainly consists of smaller page protector pockets of several different kinds) it seemed like I never got the chance to do paper scrapping (full size layouts) anymore.

And this makes me sad. As paper scrapping makes me happy :) So, as it felt like it was weeks & weeks since I last sat down and did a "paper" (as opposed to digital) layout I have decided to set myself a challenge. And a pretty big one...

A layout a day! Yep that's right. I'm going to do a "paper layout" every day. :)

Anyone want to join me? I'm doing 3 weeks minimum, 4 weeks at the most. I'll decide a bit later. I already started on Saturday and I have just finished my layout for today (=layout no 3). Yay - go me! I'd really love it if some of you want to join me on this adventure please - or indeed just cheer me on (I might need this some days LOL!)

Here's layout no 1 from Saturday...

If you feel like joining me in this challenge, I'd love it if you'd comment below...

It's going to be fun :)

Christmas Journal - Day 24...

The BIG day...

Christmas is celebrated on the 24th in Sweden. The day when you have your special Christmas food, Santa comes etc. And yes Santa really comes to your house (none of this down-the-chimney-in-the-night thing) - check out the photo to the right in the middle row!! Love it! And yes it was a snowy and just perfect day :)

For the day I wanted maximum photos - which meant minimum journaling. And that was fine as Christmas Eve is very much about the traditions and it's been covered a lot in my previous Christmas journals. So this one was all about the photos and the 9-pocketed page protector was perfect for this.

Christmas Journal - Day 23...

Firstly I will post another page from my Christmas journal, but...

...Kat, you asked a question about my Project Life album kit. Please keep reading (or see below) and there will be a reply for you :)

Okay, Christmas album first. The 23rd was a very calm day for us. The day before the "big day" in Sweden. Everything was ready and prepared and not a lot needed doing. So we mainly had a cosy day in. I decided to take the time to photograph some of Mum & Dad's Christmas decorations etc which have been part of all my Christmasses. Something that is normally taken forgranted and forgotten in photography so I'm glad I decided to document these. Like the Christmas table cloth which Mum embroidered when I was very little and which is very much part of Christmas.

Okay now ---> Project Life. Kat asked "How/where did you get the Project Life stuff, Anso? Not that I am allowed to buy it this year(might do some of it on my own), thought they don't offer it to the UK? "

True, as far as I'm aware, the Project Life kit is not available IN the UK. However it is available TO the UK. As a UK person you're recommended by Becky Higgins (who invented & designed Project Life and the kits) to order from this site. And yes it's NOT cheap. And yes the shipping is... (I'm trying to think of an appropriate word here!) ---> R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S... I think pretty much sums it up. A fortune! It totally put me off. Off. Off!

Then I tried to look at it from a different angle. Rather than seeing it as kit price + ridiculous shipping, I saw it as a complete total. Was I happy to pay $xxx for the kit?! Well ---> NO! However I did do it last year (I actually ended up buying it from a seller off Ebay as I believe then there was only US shipping options from Becky) and it's an AMAZING thing to have. Such a cool, cool album to look back upon. And I think the one I will treasure the most in the future of all the albums I have done! So that adds a huge "value/worth" for me.

I also knew (from last year) that it was HUGE project to take on and a HUGE commitment to keep up for one year. Anyway, because of just how great an album it is to have for the future (and because I, against all odds, managed to keep up, no matter what, last year) I decided to bite the bullet and order it despite the cost. I figured it would easily be the best scrapping item I'd buy this year... :)

Good Night, Sleep Tight...

A little break from the Christmas album today, but lots and lots of Creative Team work going on here in my little (TINY!!) room. I've been working with so many cute kits. Most of them are not yet released so I have to wait a few days before I upload to the relevant galleries and can post here on my blog, but this one I can...

[Supplies: Sleep Tight, Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite - Sara Gleason, Fruitloop Sally
(from The Lilypad)]

... a photo from abut 3 years ago when my little niece was just about a month old! Awww!

Oh and I want to thank ShellyDee for the nice comments you left on my Christmas album. It makes my day to hear that something on my blog can inspire someone! So thanks for that - I'm so glad you like it. :)

And yes I will *try* to update my blog on my Project Life 2011 project. I say "try" as last year I intended to and Project Life was so much work that I really didn't get around to blogging about it on top of making the album. But we'll see... I intend to blog about it at least every now and then this year... :) Stay tuned...

Spring...

...has arrived early in our garden it seems!

I'm busy, busy, busy working on lots of Creative Team assignments...

Christmas Journal - Day 22...

Kate - thanks for the comment you left on the Project Life post the other day. Yes I will try to blog about my Project Life (and maybe even get to take some photos of my album this year unlike last year!) when I think of it. As I said, I have been good with my photo taking and keeping notes so I'm ready to go...

But I have a mega busy week ahead of me (lots of Creative Team work to finish, birthday cards to make etc) so it might not be until next week when I get the chance to start catching up on it. First thing will be to go though all my photos for January and February and then picking 7 photos for each week...

Above is my page for 22nd of Dec in my Christmas journal. The day we took in the tree (it's tradition... and I think most Swedes do it on either the 22nd or 23rd of December). A rather funny story. Because of the tree having branches VERY low down it was like the leaning tower of Pisa when we put it in the stand (it didn't go far down into the stand because of the low branches being in the way) - check out the top middle photo LOL! But Dad got the saw out and had it sorted in no time :)

Project Life...

YES!!! I'm so excited! I finally got my Project Life kit this week. And yes it was only dispatched the day before Christmas Eve (!!)... not sure if it's taken several trips around the world before getting here or something LOL!

Project Life is actually not something that's new to me. I did it last year too. And yes I realise that I totally forgot to take photos of my album as I worked on it every week and I totally forgot to blog about the project... not even once it made my blog LOL!

Anyway, my kit for 2011 is finally here. I got my point & shoot out as I opened my box so I thought I could share some photos here...

It was a HUGE box that arrived...

This is what it looked like when I opened the box...

The inside box. Very stylish in white with a nice logo. Shrinkwrapped with a Project Life sticker on the front.

Above is the box with the shrinkwrap removed. A very decent box to store the materials while working on it perhaps?

The individually wrapped things in my parcel...

I played around with the shopping cart when I ordered it and noticed that the astronomical (!) postage did not change if I added a pack of extra journaling cards and two packs of (different) divided page protectors. So after much thinking I decided to add these extras too.

Opening the box... The Project Life kit comes in two versions. And I had SUCH a hard time trying to decide which one to go for. I really liked both versions so much. Yet you can of course only work on one album. So a decision had to be made and in the end I went for this one...

...simply because the pattern contained more green :) Inside the album you found a cardboard insert that held all the card boxes. Four (!) boxes of journalling cards and lots of other bits and pieces.

You get dividers for the months, really cool ones (similar to last year) which are transparent. You also get some extra matching 12x12 papers. I never ended up using these for my actual Project Life album last year, but who knows what will happen this year...

And finally you can see inside the big "extras" box. Loads of diffrent sticker sheets. A title card for each week where you put the date etc, extra large foldable journalling cards and much much more including a great date stamp too :)

The whole kit contains hundreds of pieces - very impressive!! :)

I've taken photos every week and kept a paper where I have made notes weekly. So I have all the info + photos but it will still be a huge project to catch up on considering it's getting towards the end of February already. Still ---> I can't wait :)

A Great Day...

So how was your Valentine's Day on Monday? We had the perfect day. Totally loved it :)

Anyway I realise I'm a little late adding this card to the blog, but hey...

I got to play with some new stamps too! :) Felt like ages ago since last time. The background stamp (used on some old blue patterned paper from... Heidi Grace I believe) is a new stamp by Hero Arts.

The circle stamps are all from the January kit of the Ali Edwards stamp club - these round stamps are so useful!

...and finally the super cute hedgehogs are the new Valentine set by Penny Black. I love these hedgehog and cat sets of clear stamps that they do for different holidays :)

Come back tomorrow to check out a new, very cool (and huge!) project which arrived this week...

Christmas Journal - Day 21...

I've hardly been on-line at all during the last week. In fact I have not got much done at all on-line or off-line. Last Tuesday... one minute I was fine, the next my back was cramping up in agony... I dragged myself off to lie on the bed and then I couldn't get up again!! Baaaad back pain. And I have NO idea what I have done. It came on out of nowhere.

So the last 7 days have been spent getting very little done and looking at the ceiling an awful lot! :( It's still not good. Some days are better and some days are worse. Today is as good as it's been so I'm taking shorts bursts of trying to get things done and alternating them with longer bursts of resting the back. I'm hoping it's finally turning for the better so fingers crossed!

If you have any good tips for back pain please do leave a comment as I'm getting a bit fed up of it now (and stressed about the stuff that's piling up that I need to do!!!) It's on the right side of the spine... kinda below and going up around the shoulder blade (near the spine).

Okay better get off this chair. Putting page 21 of my Christmas album below. A very quick page based on photos... kinda appropriate for a day when you can't do much anyway LOL!

Christmas Journal - Day 20...

Feel great as I have just finished some much needed going through of some clothes drawers and thrown out some out stuff. I find this very hard to do (I need to be in a very "determined" mood!) but I love it afterwards :)

Anyway onto my Christmas album and Day 20...

Actually no, first a thank you to Stephanie who left a comment on Day 19 of my Christmas album. And yes please DO join me in getting your album finished. Take one day (=page in the album) at a time and it will soon be done. Don't think of the whole project (= "ALL the pages you have to do to get finished") - then it will feel far too overwhelming. Instead thing of it as "I'm just doing one page" and then "I'm just going one page" again :) Please let me know how it goes :)

Okay, now --- Day 20:

It features one of those fun page protectors with a flap that opens. Above you can see the page protector as it would look in the album (shut) and below you can see it with the flap opened up.

Some photos of playing a game (which is actually from when I was little - I remembered it as soon as Mum took it out of the cupboard!!! So cool!) with my Mum and little niece. And then some Christmas toffee making + wrapping later in the evening. A great relaxed day :)

Christmas Journal - Day 19...

OMG that Lemon yogurt is just... too good... amazing! I could seriously have eaten the whole pot (and it's a big pot - 1 kilo!) of yogurt in one sitting. I didn't of course LOL! But it was very hard not to. I can see that this will definitely be one of my favourite flavours. Just trying "Greek & Coconut" also at the moment and it's really nice too.

...and we've got more from my Christmas album today (Anyone still with me? Anyone trying to finish it still?) I just LOVE these 9-divided page protectors. They are so much fun to work with - totally cool. Anyway, on December 19th we had my nephew's Christening and a nice reception with family afterwards. A really great day! :)

Time For Party...

Thought I'd make a little break in posting things from my Christmas album today and instead post a layout done for The Lilypad. But first...

Thanks Kat for the comments you left on the EasiYo post :) Really appreciate that! Got two sachets of the drinking yogurt stuff (Mango and Berries) so I'm looking forward to trying that. And I think we might have a pack of the Greek too. We bought a selection pack so I can't really remember exactly what we got in it...

We're already making our THIRD batch as we speak. Lemon. I LOVE lemon yogurt so I'm really looking forward to trying this :)

The first one, Strawberry, was really nice! The second one we made was a Light Vanilla. It really smelt of vanilla but didn't really taste any different to a natural yogurt I think. And it was rather tart... but a bit of sugar or jam easily sorted that. So Lemon coming up next to try...! :)

[Supplies: Tea Party - Kate Hadfield, Seeing Spots - Amber Clegg, Little Bot - Gina Miller, Cuppy Cake Love - Jenn Barrette, Splatteriffic 4 - Karah Fredricks, Journal Graph Cards - Sahlin Studio (all from The Lilypad)]

Made this layout for the Lilypad BYOC release on Friday. So many goodies this time and I really love the colours! My favourite kit was (of course!) the one featuring cupcakes by Kate Hadfield called "Tea Party" - well worth checking it out :)

Excited...

Bought something fun which got delivered early this morning...

We're so excited to try it and have only heard very good reviews about it! :) Have you got one? What do you think? What's your favourite flavour? Or not so favourite?

We bought a selection pack so we can work out what we like best etc... And we have just started off a strawberry yogurt in it. Should be finished tonight and then we'll chill it overnight to try it for breakfast tomorrow. Should be interesting and fun ... :)))

Christmas Journal - Day 18...

More from my Christmas album. We're onto the 18th of December...

A day where I had already pre-planned to use a 9-pocketed page protector as I knew I wanted to use more than one photo. Our first full day in Sweden of the Christmas trip and a very day when we visited my sister and her family.

Isn't the cat too sweet? Wanted to cat-nap it over Christmas and New Year but wasn't allowed LOL!

It was SO much snow all the time we spent in Sweden and the driving conditions on this particular day (even with winter tyres) were very bad. We got totally stuck halfway up a hill and had to roll the car way back down and try again to get up!