PINK

So I actually made an entirely pink layout. Very unlike me! There has been a lot of "unlike me" recently. If I do it enough I guess it won't be unlike me anymore, hehe. 

Another very simple layout. At first I had intended to use the floral side of the patterned paper but it competed with the photo, so I turned it over. Luckily it had this monochromatic diamond pattern on the back. I also added some black for a bit of punch, and I even brought out my sewing machine. 

So do you have your bikes out yet?

/Magdalena

March PL

I've started on my March Project Life spreads. The kits from Studio Calico is so much fun to work with. The first page of the month contains photos of the two new baby cousins that's just been born, so I won't share that page on my blog, but here are the rest of the pages:

The pretty bird card on the second page is cut from a piece of junkmail. I used a lot of these Paislee Press templates. I recently bought a 2" circle punch, and I love using that for PL. 

/Magdalena

THE LIEBSTER AWARD part one

I recieved a happy e-mail yesterday. I have been nominated for the Liebster Award by Aimee who runs the blog Betwixt & Between. You really should visit her blog and see the beautiful pages she makes! And do read her Liebster Award posts to get to know her a bit, and also to visit the rest of the blogs she nominated. I'm in the company of some amazing ladies. Thank you so much Aimee!

 

There are two parts to this nomination. The first part is to answer 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you. The second part is to nominate 10 new bloggers. It’s meant for bloggers with less than 200 followers on bloglovin. I need to think a bit on who to nominate, but lets get started with the questions right away!

1. What is your favorite breakfast?

It's one I've had every morning since I did the WW program last year. Plain lowfat youghurt with a sliced banana and sprinkled with powdered ginger.

2. What’s in your handbag right now?

First I want to share where I got the bag I carry. I got it from this Etsy shop. In my bag I have...

my wallet
two chapsticks
worndown nailfile that needs replacing
lipgloss
2 sets of keys, one for home and one for work
bag of gum that constantly gets raided by my daughter
a few pieces of gum that's fallen out of the bag
hairclip I thought was lost
2 packs of tissues
sunglasses
actual glasses that I always forget to put on
2 signed slips that I need to hand in to the kids' preschool
handcreme, I go nowhere without it!
anti-ageing facial creme that had forgotten about, and it's receipt
ibuprofen
an eraser I think is from work, not sure how it got into my bag or how long it's been there

3. How did you come to join the blogger world?

I started my blog in 2010 to share my scrapbooking projects. I really wish I had the energy to learn how to make a "real" blog with good design. Maybe some day!

4. What is your biggest accomplishment and why?

I guess that would be giving birth to our daughter. I was really proud of myself for that.

5. What inspires you to create?

The kit from Studio Calico that is delivered to my door once a month! I sub to the scrapbook and PL kits. The fresh products and the perfect mix of papers and embellishments inspires me to create more than anything else. I don't think I would've stuck with my scrapbooking if I hadn't become a subber in June 2011.

6. Do you have any creative rituals?

Well, me and my 4 year old daughter have a kit unpacking ritual. Every time a new kit arrives I cut open the box and she does the rest. This has been her job since she was 2. She knows what everything is and how to use it. She oohs and aahs over the products and will sometimes convince me to share some of the embellishments with her. She also likes the stamps, and knows how to attach them to a block and  stamp them off after use.

7. Best advice you ever got?

In scrapbooking it's "Always use your favorite items first!" That was something Amy Tangerine shared in her Stretch your kit class.
I think that's really good advice. I never hoard anything. If you do, the things you saved will go out of style and you will end up not using them at all.

8. What is one product can’t live without?

I think that would be my Tiny Attacher if that counts as a product. I use that thing all.the.time!

9. Is there a particular skill you worked hard to teach yourself and why?
Wow, I don't know. Learning English, perhaps?

10. Book that changed your life?

This will sound silly but The Stand by Stephen King is a book that had a huge affect on me. It really is a book everyone should read. The extended version at a 1000+ pages ofcourse. First of all I truly believe it is how the world will end. Some epidemic that will wipe out the population. It's no happy reading, but it gets you thinking. If this happens in your lifetime, who will you be? How will you act? It's also why I'm such a huge TWD fan, because it deals with the same issues.

11. If money and time was no object what would you have done today?
I would take classes to learn photography and graphic design. That's something I really would like to do in my own time. If I had the money to support myself I wouldn't have to care if anyone liked what I did either. How good would it be to work from home in your jammies everyday?

Stay tuned for my LIEBSTER AWARD part two post, and find out who I've nominated and what questions I will leave for them.

/Magdalena

ACCIDENTAL TWOPAGER

I've been trying lots of new things lately. First it was two layout with crazy floral paper, and now I've made a twopager. My third since I started scrapbooking in 2008. The first two were for challenges. This one made it self accidentally.

I finished the page on the right first. The photos took up a bit more space than I had planned, so I couldn't fit in any journaling. After I decided I had to make another page it took my a while to figure out how I wanted the second page. I wanted the two pages to feel like one layout, but I didn't want it too matchy matchy. I tried adding patterned paper to the cardstock and another golden clip, but it was too much to fit my style. So I ended up just using the tag with that bottom stripe and then bringing in a bit of yellow with the stitched button. I really like the result. I'll have to make more twopagers in the future.

/Magdalena

OFFICE HOURS

My Office Hours kit is on my scrap table, and this month I only have the main kit to work with. It'll be fun to see what I can get out of it! I really like the b-sides of these papers. Lots neutral patterns for backgrounds or for journaling spots.

Here's a photo that's been used for PL already. I took a series of photos at our son's 6th birthday party. The guests posed happily for the camera and I got some fun pictures.

I mixed in some items from PL kit. The numbered journaling card is from the shop. 

/Magdalena

CHANGE OF PLANS

There has been a change of plans with the unpacking of the kit video. Due to the unpredictability of 4-yearolds the video has been postponed to next month. Let's hope for better luck in April!

There was also a change of plans with this layout. It was finished as a 12x12, with a title using the green foam thickers in the SC Office Hours kit, but I didn't like the title placement (which was to the far left) and the fact that the thickers were the brightest thing on the page. They took away from the photo. So I cut it down to letter size. Which forced me to reprint the tag because the former one was now too long. Then I had to reprint the tag again because of a silly misspelling. 

Luckily it turned out to be worth it. I love the layout and the story it tells. My son has asked for a baby brother for years, and he's not getting one. Luckily he just got two baby cousins instead. He was so excited to go see my sister's baby for the first time. He was so proud to get to hold him, and he had this big smile on his face and kept caressing the baby's cheeks. So sweet! He would hardly give him up when it was time for a snack. (He later ended up eating five cinnamon rolls in one sitting, but that's another story.)

/Magdalena

WHAT I DO WITH BAD PHOTOS

Most of my photos have been taken with my iphone 4, and the camera isn't very good. Just a little bit of bad lighting and the pictures come out really grainy. My tricks for still being able to use them on layouts and in PL is to either turn them black and white, or to make them tiny. That's what I did on this layout:

These are photos of my daughter unpacking my SC box, which is something she does every month. I will tell you more about that later in the week. The plan is to make a kit unpacking video tomorrow when my kit arrives.

When making the layout above I was inspired by this layout by April Foster, in her Copper Mountain gallery.

As of last week I have an iphone 5s, so hopefully my photos will be better. I love how sharp the photos of the layout turned out.

Happy spring people!

/Magdalena

TRYING NEW THINGS

Online classes are a great way to learn new things. There are always a tip or two that sticks with me after taking a class. Something that stays in my mind without having to go back and look it up. My favorite class tip ever was from Amy Tangerine. She said to always use your favorite pieces of a kit first. Catherine Davis got me to try and use patterned paper with crazy patterns with her "Process" class. There's no way I would have used the tiniest piece of this floral paper otherwise!

I don't have a 12x12 printer, so I printed the journaling on a piece of vellum, and stapled it on. I used Prima chalk ink in Teal Damask to color the mistable thickers. At first I tried misting the thickers with Audrey Mister Huey's. That was not a good idea! The adhesive backing came right off, and I had to toss the thickers. Meaning I have no R's left now. If you're going to use mist I recommend using a paint brush on them instead. 

I have a post with another layout ready for tomorrow, so drop by again on Monday!

/Magdalena

12 IN 14 MARCH

It's time for the "12 in 14" challenge for March. The prompt for the month is ombré, and here is my project:

This layout started out as a 2x2 grid design, but ended up completely different. I love it when that happens! All products are from the SC Sugar Rush kit and addons. 

Click on the "12 in 14" link on the right to learn more about the challenge, and to win a prize! You also get to see what the rest of Stromsvigt DT has made. And this month's projects are amazing! 

/Magdalena

FAIRY DUST

One Saturday morning the kids decided to put on a play. They dressed up in costumes and practiced. I just hade to use the starburst paper from SC Sugar Rush kit for this photo of my daughter dressed up as Tinkerbell.

I had no plan besides the paper, so I adhered the photo in just the right spot before I cut down the paper. Then I built the layout from that. The black stitching was added after I photographed the layout, but then felt that it needed some more black to match the star strip on the bottom.

And for those of you who has ever wondered what would happen if Tinkerbell and Darth Maul got into a fight, the answer is that Tinkerbell would win. Ofcourse!

Tomorrow it's the first Monday of the month. That means another "12 in 14" post. The March challenge is ombré. If you would like to know more about this Stromsvigt DT challenge, click on the link to the right. And drop in tomorrow to see my full layout, and to play along and maybe win a prize!

/Magdalena

LOTS OF DIGI

I've tried to learn more about using digital products for scrapbooking and PL. Youtube is a great source for tutorials on how to do things. I'm still not very good at it , but I'm learning. 

My February PL pages are finished. This is page number 6, that pairs up with my son's birthday party page:

The "yes please" and paint splatters are digi brushes from the SC Toolbox class. I used the color dropper to match up the color with the "sweet" printable card. I also added splatter to that card, plus journaling. I had issues with the colors not printing the same from PSE and pdf-files, and I haven't completely solved that problem. If you have any tips, I'd gladly take them! I also used several oplder SC digi brushes and a template that came with the Antiquary kit. 

And this is my last spread for February:

Again I used the frame templates and a free collage template from Paislee Press. The last to pockets is about our family trying some of the new icecream flavours for 2014. The photos of the icecreams came out really bad. Instead I found these high resolution png-files for downloading GB Glace's own site. Gotta love that!

/Magdalena