GRIDS GRIDS GRIDS

Is what I do when I don't know what else to do design wise. Because a grid aaaaalways works.

Two-square grid:

For me a page without a living thing is too boring. So for this autumn quote page I added this photo I took of a Mourning Cloak butterfly I found inside a hollow branch. Isn't it beautiful? I used gold ink on the veneer heart and then I wanted to sew the twine into golden rays coming out of the heart. I later noticed it looks more like a spider. But hey, it goes with the bug theme, right?

Four-square grid:

This layout is about a trip to the city to visit grandma. The pumpkin photo is just for added interest. And I love that happy little fox! It goes well with the smiling cloud and the picture of our daughter. I did some off-stamping because I didn't want the title to take center stage. The veneer leaves are cut from a wreath that came in one of the SC Walden addons. The strip on the bottom is navy, and matches Nea's sweater. And yes, that mango cheese cake was delish!

Six-square grid:

These photos are from the same occasion as the top layout. We had a picnic in the meadow next to our house. It's used for grazing sheep in the summer, and full of large rocks and fallen trees, and so much fun for the kids play with. Initially I wanted to do a digi stamp title and had a nice one that said "wonder" - I think it was from a class taught by Shanna Noel. The stamp never made it onto the layout but the title was already in my head by then. I also took a tip from Nicole Samuels and traded one of the letters for an image. 

All materials are from the Walden kit and addons.

/Magdalena

AMAZING FALL COLOURS

I love the colors of the Studio Calico PL kit for October. They went so well with my photos for the month.

I have two more pages for October to do, before I start in on November. It's such a hard month for photographing. It's SO dark here in Sweden nothing really turns out good. Last year I only managed two pages for the entire month. Looking forwards to some snow falling to lighten things up!

/Magdalena

CAPSULE WARDROBE

Putting together a capsule wardrobe is the best thing I've done clothing wise in my whole life. It's amazing! The idea is to have a closet filled with just clothes you need and like for the current season. To open the door and be able to pick anything in there - wow! It takes so much stress out of getting dressed. Everything fits, everything goes together, everything is right for the weather and temperature.

So how do you do this? You start by sorting your clothes in piles. One for worn out or damaged items. Throw them away! One pile to donate and/or sell. Be honest with yourself! Does it fit? WILL it ever fit? Do you actually wear this? The next step is to put away the clothes that doesn't match the season. Pack them in a box and put into storage.

You are supposed to end up with about 37 pieces. This does not include pajamas,workout clothes, underwear or accessories. I decided not to include things I need to wear because of rain or extreme cold and such either. I don't wear those things to look good. (And I don't, believe me!)

Now some of you will have too many items by now, and some of us (me!) will end up with not enough. If you have too many, pair down again. If you don't have enough, look at what you have and write a shopping list. What is missing? 

The reason I ended up with not enough clothing (especially pants) was because I decided to get rid of my "when I become skinny again I will wear this" clothes. I was sad to see some of it go, but I feel so much better now when I don't have to look at those tiny little pants and think about what I need to do to fit into them. Let it go!

To learn more about this I recommend the Unfancy blog. That is where I found the capsule wardrobe planner, which is very helpful. I printed it out on sturdy paper and cut the pages down to 5x7,75". I didn't use all the pages but picked out the ones I felt were useful to me. I stapled them together and glued the last page to a piece of packing for rubons by Crate Paper. It has a punched hole at the top which means I can hang it on a nail in my closet. Perfect!

I used the Stylebook app to keep track of my capsule wardrobe clothes, and I love it. You photograph your clothes and it easily removes the background from your photos. I then used PSE to put together a collage that I taped to the page. So much easier than writing everything down! 

I'm all about comfort and have a tiny budget so it's not a fancy wardobe at all. Just clothes I love and feel comfy in. I'm no fashion blogger so I won't share my wardobe here unless anyone is interested. If you are, put a comment below!

If you put a wardrobe together I would love to hear about it!

/Magdalena

12 IN 14 NOVEMBER

The challenge for November is "Black and White". There were a lot of black and white PL cards in the October PL kit from Studio Calico so I decided to do a PL spread for this challenge. 

Stromsvigt Design is now Paper Nerd Design, and have a lovely new set of PL cards out called the Day Dream Pocket Journaling set. The bottom right card is from that line. I will be using more cards from that set in future spreads for sure! You can find it here.

To take part in the challenge (and win something) visit Nina Christensen on her blog.

/Magdalena

SOMETIMES I MAKE CARDS

Because I like to fill my stash of grab and go birthday cards and such. Whenever I sit down I make lots of them at once, because it's not my favorite scrappy thing to do. I got the Poet Society card kit so that is what I used this time, plus whatever other leftovers was on my desk from other kits. I made a batch of cards, but I'm only sharing my favorite four.

/Magdalena