Closer to 50 than 40

Yepp, it's the truth...

I remember when my father turned 50. I thought he was so old! I'm sure I'm not as old as he was at my age!

All material except white cardstoch (Bazill)s: The Paper Bakery April Scrapbooking Kit (Papers WP/Alison Craft + AC/Dear Lizzy. Alpha: Jillibean Soup. Die Cuts: Crate Paper. Feather: Bella Blv. Washi: Prima.  Flair: The Paper Bakery)

Some details:


Btw, the paper with arrows is from Studio Calico's April Card Kit
Photo taken by scrapping buddy  Petra Offrell/Pysselpetra at her place  

Journaling says: " I might as well face it: I'm closer to 50 than 40. I can see retirement hitting me fast! But as it seems as "The 60YOs are the new 50YOs", there might be lots of good years ahead."


As you might know, there are two DTs at Once Upon A Sketch (OUAS), team A and team B, which alternate every second month. I'm on team B, and May is Team A's month, so I'm not up on the OUAS blog this month. But I couldn't resist plying with this month sketch and theme, and the layout above is my take on the challenge.

Sketch:

Theme: Numbers!!!

This month, we ask you to include a number , ANY number, on your layout. It has to be VISIBLE on your layout and it can be in your title or part of your journalling. It can be a date, an age, a house number, an anniversary, the number of children you have, the number of pets ....anything you like. But please make sure that there is some explanation through your journalling, somewhere on your page or blog about what this number means to you.

 

I replaced one of the photos with a tag, but still did stay pretty close to the sketch. And yes, I journaled about numbers - my age.

 

 

What do you say? Do you want to give the challenge a try?
Please head over to the OUAS blog to see more fabolouse exambples from the DT and to see who this month's sposnsors are!

Cards for Memory Maze

This month I have a post at the Memory Maze blog about 3D Stackum Sheets. Not do Memory Maze only have a large range of chipboards in the shop, but they do have a large number of 3D Stackum sheets, too. They are printed A4 sheets, ready to cut, layer and embellish as you wish. They are originally design for cards, but who say you can't use them for OTPs or layout, if you want to?

In the blog post I give examples on how you can pimp up your cards by changing backgrounds and adding other embellies. To see the supply list, and to get the entire tutorial, please visit the Memory Maze blog post.

Here are the cards I made for the post and some close up photos showing details and layers:


Fairy Card:

Happy Birthday Card:

Dancer Girl Card

Have you ever tried using these kind of cut out sheets to make cards or embellies?

Tap Water - Yum! A new The Studio Challenge is up!

Mercedes is my fourth cat, but she is the first one I have had who drinks from the tap.

The second April challenge at The Studio Challenges is get messy by using masks and stencils.
I have given up mist, but stencils and ink work perfect for me, as well as masks and modelling paste.

Petterned paper: Little yellow Bicycle. Ink: Ranger. Masks/stencils: Prima (dotted), ClubScrap (arrows)
Raindrops & washi: Unknown. Modelling paste: Panduro. Pen: Zig

All dots (except the transparent rain drops) are made with the same mask (Prima). I have inked, doodled and used modelling paste to make the patterns and texture. The same techniques are used with two other chevron stencils: I covered parts of them with washi tape to make an arrows pattern.

Do you want to get messy with us at The Studio Challenge? Visit our blog to see more examples from the DT and to learn how you can win the prize by our sponsor Bellaboo.

Greetings from Krakow

A week ago hubby was in Krakow, Poland - business. As the good man he is, he bought his family presents. The the boys got some cool t-shirts from hard Rock Cafe, and I got these fun, hand made chocolates:

I just love how they are decorated, and believe me: they taste soooo delicious. I have never seen anything like them around here, so I snapped a photo of them, so I could keep a memory of them, far after all of them were eaten.

I also knew I wanted to scrap them using bright, happy colors:

Background paper: Kaiser Kraft. Black patterned paper, enamel dots & tabs: Studio Calico.
Other patterned papers: Glitz Design. Green alpha: Sassafras Lass. Other alphas: Adornit. Bling: Prima.
Flair: Aflairforbuttons. Pins, ribon & twine: Unknown.

Details:

I got the the idea for the design, when I saw this fun sketch (Sketch #1) at The Paper Bakery Kit Club and I decided to play along.


Thank you for taking your time to stop by! Tell me, do your husband bring you gifts when he has been out of town?

A forgotten winter layout - CSI #65

The company I work for has some cabins the employees can rent. The cabins are popular: twice a year there is a raffle and if you are lucky you get a cabin for a week during the next period. This season it was my turn to "win", and the "prize" was a cabin in a ski resort mid March for a week.

Can you tell from this photo what kind of weather we had?

Cardstock: Bazill. Patterned papers, ribbon & tags: Studio Calico. Alpha & brads: unknown. Pen: Zig

The nights were very cold, down to -15C/5F, but the sun was shining all day long, so the days were lovely. The entire family took a few days off work and school, and during those days there were hardly anyone out in the perfect slopes. The weekend wasn't too crowded either, probably becuase it was just one week before Easter break started.

I got the inspiration for this layout from CSI Case File #65:

And here is how I solved the case:

Colors: all five used
Evidence: Ribbon, mini brads, white space
Testimony: story spread cross three spots
The three journaling spots say (from upper left corner and downwards):
-Winter 2012/13 was bad at home. There was hardly any snow, but on the other hand not very cold
-We were so lucky we could borrow the company cabin at Beitostoelen (a ski resort)March 13th . 17th
-The nights were dead cold, down to -15C, but luckily the sun shine at day time, so it was just lovely.

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Speaking of CSI:

You probably know I love the CSI challenges. The journaling prompts in the CSI challenges often give me ideas to tell stories I haven't thought of, but which are there when I think about it - they are right in the middle of my everyday life and are so easy to forget. They might seem without importance right there, but they will be great rreminders about our real lives when we look back in the future. And of course there is the cool color combos, too!

So guess who's happy and proud to have this badge in the side bar, starting as from May?

Money Transaction - Kid Style (CSI File #66)

My kids have a wish list longer than any grocery shopping list I have ever had and it changes every day. Sounds familiar? The www is a great source for kids to find even more gadgets they "need", and they truly wish they had free access to my credit card. Sounds familiar, too?

The kids were browsing web shops the other night, nagging about buying this and that. I repetedly told them that as long as they didn't have any money, it was out of the question. Then my DS13 suddenly said: "Hey, look mum, I have the solution". He had grabbed my wallet and stuck a USB cable to it...

Patterned papers, washi, stickers, tickets etc: Teresa Collins. Alphas: SEI (red), unknown (black)
Pins: Maya Road. Bottlecap: Estrella (a Spanish beer brand). Buttons & flair: unknown

Some details/close ups

Doodling - and buttons

The purpose of the flair (exept for beeing decorative)? I love to have my camera
in reach so I can capture these moments

The bottlecap is from a beer bottle - I would buy this beer just to get my hands on the bottle caps!

This layout came alive when I saw challenge #66 at CSI.

This is how I "solved the case":

Colors: All five used (it might be hard to see, but some of the papers have both light and dark grey, like the damask patterned paper)
Evidence: Buttons, flair, white background, draw/doodle
Testimony: something funny (I found DS' idea funny)

Do your kids come up with this kind of "clever" ideas?

Magic Mirror In My Hand...

...who has the prettiest feathers in the land?

Feather embellies: The real Kiwi feathers :-)

Answer: my budgie Kiwi :-)

Budgies molt (as cats and dogs shred) and there is an amazingly large number of feathers on such a tiny little bird - you notice when they land on the floor. Most of the feathers are small, down feathers, but there are larger ones too, like the flight feathers from the wings and tails. Those are multicolored on lots of budgies, like Kiwi's. And I collect them as I think they are so pretty.

Patterned papers: Basic Grey, CSI Coordinates. Chipboard: Maya Road (bird), Imaginarium Designs (the reest). Rubons: Basic Grey. Stamps: Kaiser Kraft (grid), unknown (script). Jewles: Scrappers Choice.

 My other budgie, Fluffy, is a white winged/tailed bird. His large feathers are all white and make super cute embellies, too!



I got the inspiration to this layout when I saw CSI case # 64:

Colors: all five used. My dominant color is lime green, found in one of the the CSI coordinates patterned papers: the bird is covererd with it and the title tiles made from the same paper.

Evidence: Bird, stamps, rubons, pen work, jewels
Testimony: Verbs (the words on the white "tiles": Molt- toss - fall - grow- renew


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Do you collect any "weird" items?

Spring? - ( New challenge is up at The Studio Challenges!)

Hello!

Thank you for stopping by (this poor, neglected blog)!

As in large parts of Europe, we have had a cold, late spring. While the farmers around had the carrots weeds in the gound this time last year, today the ground is frozen. Neither the winter jackets or boots aretucked away yet and I haven't even started trimming the bushes in the garden. But actually, it's quite normal for early April - it has been like this many years before. We just seem to forget if we have had one year with early spring...

Chipboard painted with acrylic paint.

But the kids doesn't care much. They have had the trampoline up all winter and jumped the entire season. They have shuffled of the snow, put on wool socks, and jumped away. It's rather interesting seeing them jump with winter jackets, bonnets and mittens :-)

So when is it really spring? Is it on a certain date? Is it at a certain middel temperature? Is it when you can jump in a t.shirt only or wear crocks? The photo on this layout made me ask myself these questions (this is my journaling, too).

Patterned papers: Basic Grey, Crate Papesr. Chipboard: Maya Road + other unknown. Alpha: AC

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This layout was made for this week's challenge at The Studio Challenges (TSC). This week we have a color challenge for you:

The DT has whipped up some lovely creations to inspire you, and we have a new sponsor for April, Bellaboo, so why don't you come over to the TSC blog to play with us?

Once Upon A Sketch April Challenge

Hi. I hope you all have had a happy easter! Have you been fooled today, btw? Not me - so far *lol*


Today is the first day of the month, and that means a new challenge for you at Once Upon A Sketch (OUAS). Here is this month's theme and sketch for you:

Theme: Best day of your life

The best day of your life!!!!! Everyone has at least one or two! Tell us anything that you can relate this title to.

Ideas for journalling: child's birth, wedding day, anniversary, meeting someone special, buying a new home, changing jobs, a holiday, a special celebration.. there is no right or wrong. Its YOUR day!

Your layout must incorporate this theme and the sketch below.

Please make sure that we see some sort of journalling on your layouts and please tell us where your journalling is . You are allowed to journal in any language but please tell us where on your page we will find your journalling. Remember journalling has to be a bit more than a title, or a generic comment. Hidden journalling is perfectly fine.

Here is my take on the challenge:

My journaling is on the tag stuck under my photo and it says: The best days must be those where you can, after rough periods, can say: "Hey, it went OK - we survived - and we are ready to take more".
I honestly love those days.

Papers: Prima. Alphas: Basic Grey. Zipper: Maya Road. Small flowers: Petaloo. Large flowers & tulle: Unknown.

Please visit the OUAS blog to see the rest of the DT & guest's examples, to see the wonderful prizes from our sponsors, and to play along!