A conflict

I'm sure some people always get the most postive feedback on their favorite scrapbooking layouts. And then there are some others, like me, who rarely like the ones best that gets the most comments in the galleries. It's a funny thing. It almost never adds up for me. And I'll be honest and say that it causes a bit of conflict in me. I don't want to be on a DT ( I tried it and it was too stressful for me) and being published is nice, but not that important to me either. But I do like getting positive feedback. I love all the sweet comments I get in the SC gallery. And I love when people tell me exactly what it is they like about my work, because it's nice to find out what your strong sides are. So at times I struggle with the dilemma of making what I, and a few likeminded, enjoy looking at and what usually gets more attention.

What I like about a layout is when it really feels like me. I decided to look back at my SC kit layouts of this year, to see which layout got the most comments and which one is my favorite from that particular kit. It would be fun to see if ever the two are the same! So here goes:

County Fair

 most comments       my fave

Daydream Believer

Story Hour

most comments                           my fave

City of Lights

most comments          my fave



  35 mm    

most comments           my fave

So Cal

most comments           my fave

Elmwood Park

most comments         my fave

Summer of '69

 most comments      my fave

/Magdalena

Just for fun

/Magdalena

September kit recieved

And it may be my favorite kit ever. I love the colors. I'm definately a fall girl! Here are my first Central High layouts:

 

/Magdalena

December Daily inspiration

December is now only 2,5 months away! Over at the Studio Calico forum there are already several discussions on the 2012 December Daily. If anyone does not know what December Daily, or DD, is find out from it's original creator right here.

I finished my December Daily in February this year. I know that if I don't get to things right away they stay undone. I never actually posted my last batch of pages, because I figured in february noone was interested in seeing them anymore. But here are the ones I posted:

• Day 1
• Days 2-5
• Days 6-10
• Days 11-14
• Days 15-19
• Days 20-24

I know I wrote down my thoughts on how I would do my next DD somewhere, but not on my blog it seems. What I did good last year:

• I pre-made a foundation
• I kept up
• I like the size, the overlay first page, and the baseball card page protectors.

What I will do differently:

• I will end it at day 25, rather than at day 31. I kept up until Christmas, and then I pooped out a bit. Christmas was over, and I wasn't as motivated.
• I won't make such an effort for every page. I'll have a simple idea and stick to it.

I wan't to have a place to collect all my favorite DDs from last year. They are not links to complete DDs but just enough to get a feel of what their albums are like.

@ Paislee Press
Marcy Penner
Alison Waken
Lisa Truesdell
Vee Jennings 

Please share links to your favorites with me. I'd love to have em all in one place!

/Magdalena

Banana walnut cupcakes with cookie crumble topping

My little girl helped me make cupcakes this Sunday. They're my favorite cupcakes ever. So delicious! I thought I'd share the recipe with you. Makes 6-8 large cupcakes.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a small bowl:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

In a larger bowl, in the following order, whip together:

• 125 grams of butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 tbs creamy peanutbutter

Add the dry ingredients and stir lightly, just enough to mix. Slice 1-2 bananas. Add 6-8 paper liners to a cupcake tin and add batter and banana slices in layers, with batter last.

To make the cookie crumble topping mix together:

• 50 grams of butter, at room temperature
• 4-5 tbs flour
• 4-5 tbs granulated sugar

Sprinkle over cupcakes.

Bake in oven at 390 F (or 200 C)for 20 minutes. You can add frosting if you like. I mix vanilla flavoured marshmallow Fluff with cream cheese for mine.

Happy baking!
/Magdalena

My currents

Borrowing this idea for a Friday post from Tina Aszmus:

Seeing: a bag of fresh out of the dryer laundry that needs to be put away
Smelling: clean sheets (we have doctor's orders on changing them every day until my son's strep infected wound heals
Hearing: my daughter talking herself to sleep "Poop, poop, poop, poop..." I guess it's a new version of counting sheep?
Having: a sugar craving
Eating: nothing
Drinking: a cup of hot saffron chili tea
Feeling: deeply impressed that my son takes his 2x3 antibiotic pills a day without complaints. He's only 4!
Wanting: a raging metabolism

And I was so sure my Central High SC kit would arrive today. My fellow Swedish subbers got theirs yesterday. I even went to the mail depository and asked them to look for my package. They're not allowed to do that without me bringing the package slip, but they did anyway. That's a perk of living in a small town I guess! It wasn't in there though. Disappointed! I had scrappy plans for the weekend. Better luck on Monday I hope.

/Magdalena

Feeling the "next kit coming" stress

At the arrival of the next Studiop CAlico kit is getting closer I always feel a stress to kill something off before I get yet another unfinished kitbag in my kit stash box. This time I pulled out Daydream Believer, and made this:



I hope you haven't missed the Blow Out Your Stash challenges for fall? You will find them right here! This is my "fabric and stitching" layout.

/Magdalena

Pop off the page has started

Jen Jockisch' Pop off the page class at Studio Calico has started as of September 1st. I've been wanting to pick Jen's brain since I started scrapbooking in 2008, and now it's finally possible! The class PDF's have been amazing, and I'm looking forwards to the challenges. I put this layout together after reading through the PDF's for the first time.

 



I took so many pointers from Jen when putting this together. For me the best tip so far has been how to place the different colors on a layout. Another class tip I used is the one from Amy Tan to always pick up colors from the photo. I struggled with adding pink somehow, but felt that I had to. It's the only strong color in the photo. I finally added the brad and the washi.

This layout is for the first POP challenge:

For this I took out my 35 mm kit again. The title is an Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday stamp. Love it!

/Magdalena

Fall is on the way

The summer that never came, has turned into fall quickly this year. After the coldest and rainest summer in Sweden since the weather recordings started 220 years ago I'm hoping for a beautiful fall at least. Fall is my favorite season.

I haven't blogged in a while now so I have a few layouts for Trendspotting to share.

Neon

Banner

Mist

Materials: SC kit Summer of 69 with addons Five & dime and Drive-in., plus Mister Huey's in Piglet and Leaf, BG Clippings pad, Versafine ink.

/Magdalena