HELLO FALL

My favorite season is here! I love everything about fall - the temps, the food, the drinks, nature, the cozy darkness, scary movies  and books coming out. All of it! I was lucky enough to recieve Tina Aszmus' Fall journaling cards as part of my September guest DT spot goodies. Last month I ordered her Halloween kit, too. Looking forwards to using more of that in October.

Nea got a movie ticket for her August birthday and wanted to go see Despicable Me 3. On the way home we got caught in a crazy rainstorm and had a good laugh about that. We also went shopping for new tea flavors. The seasonal blends of fall are my favorite. We got Choco Chili, Earl Grey Spice (which smelled just like cinnamon buns) and Autumn Embers (a mix of black tea, cardamom and grapefruit). 

The autumn sky photo was taken by Nea on the way home from a friend. I've also documented getting carded at the liquor store. I'm 44 and the legal limit in Sweden 20. YAS! I'm sticking to my scary reads. Two books in September. Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King was a good short story but I don't know if it deserves getting published on it's own. It would've sat better in an anthology. The other book is the third and last part of a trilogy by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I suspect it'll be awhile before it comes out in English.

The next page is all new cards paired with older embellishments from my stash. Barbequing at my brother's and silly kids playing around. I have the world's cutest niece! You'll just have to take my word for it. :)

More scary stuff! I've been watching FTWD in wait of TWD premiering in mid October. I cannot wait! The other night I dreamt Daryl turned into a werewolf and had to be put down. Me and hubby went to see It and it was everything it's been hyped up to be. Loved it!

The last page for September is all photos from a day in the woods with grades 4 and 5. It looks like I was alone but I had four classes and seven collegues with me. I just made sure to keep them out of the frame so I could publish the pictures without asking for permission.

And that is all for September. Enjoy whatever season you're having where you live!

/Magdalena

A NEW ALBUM

With the start of July it's time for a new Project Life album. I'm staying with the 9x12" format, which works perfectly for me. I searched around a good while for some title page inspiration. Finally I settled on this design.

 

We each picked a Snapchat filter and then I dipped into my stash for older cards and embellishments. I even used up my very last "Currents" cards by Tina Aszmus. 

The new album opens up on week 27, which started July 3rd. When documenting a week in my pocket album I don't stick to any certain number of pages. It all depends on how many photos I have. Week 27 took up three pocket pages, and I've also made two layouts that I mix in among the pocket pages. 

I knew I would find the Studio Calico July kit hard to work with (not my colors) so I had stocked up on digital products. This page features Hyannis by One Little Bird. I got both the journaling cards and the elements pack. At the beginning of the week we visited my mom and my brother and his family came over also. 

For the second half of week 27 me and the kids were on our own, with hubby off on vacation with a friends. We spent one day hanging out at a public pool. Digitals from Paislee Press (Summer Vibes Elements)(Pocket Guide No.8)and One Little Bird.

And here is the layout that goes with the pocket page. I designed it from sketch 1C in the Summer of Sketches class.

During the week we also spent a day in the city and hung out at the library. Digitals by One Little Bird (Chapters elements)

For those of you that have read and enjoyed "A man called Ove" by Fredrik Back I can really recommend "Britt-Marie was here" by the same author. This time the main character is a middle-aged woman forced to start a new life after divorcing her husband. It's not the type of book I usually read but I really loved it. It's both funny and beautiful with loveable characters.

If you want to read more from Swedish authors keep your eyes open for Mats Strandberg. He writes really creepy horror novels in the spirit of Stephen King. His first book "Blood Cruise" comes out in English next year. His second book "Hemmet" (The Home) was just as good. It revolves around a home for the elderly where the patients are being possessed.

At the moment I'm working on documenting the roadtrip we took during week 29. There are lots of photos so it takes a while to put it all together. I'm using the Scenic Route and Tour Guide digital kits from Paislee Press. I'll be sharing them as soon as I'm done, but here is a peek of the first page.

/Magdalena

INSPIRED BY NSD CHALLENGES

Here I am again to share a few pocket pages, and a scrapbook layout that I made during the NSD weekend. I was really inspired by the challenges posted on the Studio Calico blog. If you haven't checked them out, you should! You'll be too late to take part in the challenges but inspiration is worth so much more than a $10 prize.

Most products in these pocket pages are from the "Written In The Stars" documenter and scrapbook kits from Studio Calico. This page is for week 16, when we went to the mall for burgers and for the kids to spend their Easter money, I decided to start running again and I tried out a pinspired hairdo for Nea.

Somehow I didn't take a single photo in all of week 17, so here we jump to week 18. This week includes a visit at me and hubby's childhood pool (I haven't been there in 25 years!), my haul from the book store and buying sandals for warmer weather. Bibliophile digi stamp by One Little Bird. I've finished with two of the books below. Visit my 2017 Reading Challenge pinterest board to read some short reviews.

Week 18 continued with babysitting and with the arrival of Tina Aszmus' first zine. The "start" card came tucked in a pocket inside the zine. The Spring 2017 zine is sold out, but the Summer 2017 edition will be added to her shop sometime in May.

As promised I am also sharing the page from Spring Break I hadn't finished. I wanted to document what we'd been watching during the week. These red thickers are from the now closed down Basic Grey company. The thickers were included in the "Summer of '69" scrapbook kit that came out in the summer of 2012. I had to stich them down because they had lost their tackiness, plus I had to write "film" instead movies because I was out of E's. I love the color and font of these!

Inspired by this pin I made a layout for the Line It Up NSD challenge. I wrote about how the Reading Challenges has brought me new authors to read and enjoy, although I'm still sticking to the same genres I've always been reading. I often use lists such as "The scariest books to come out in(year)" to know what to look for at the book store. If the book was written in English I prefer to read it in English. I've always felt that a book loses something when it gets translated. 

Did you get any crafting done for NSD?

/Magdalena

REWORKING WEEK 12

We've all been there. Trying to put a spread together that. Just. Won't. Work. It's so annoying! You move things around, do your journaling, pick your cards. Hate it. Start over. Again and again. Right?

That was my week 12. I don't even remember how many times I went back to start over, trying to move things around to see if I liked it better. I ruined a whole bunch of cards and photos and I suppose I could've just left well enough alone. It's about the memory keeping, I know! But for me it's about pretty products as well and if I don't like what I make it feels pointless. 

I finally made it work when I put all the blue tone photos on the same page and went to find cards with the same dark blue tone on them. I didn't have enough dark blue cards to let the color carry over onto the second page so I went with baby pink for that one. 

I really like the quote cards from Studio Calico. One side has color and the other side is black and white. The tiny printable is cut from a card included in this set by One Little Bird.

I had also printed a book review, another One Little Bird product, but it smudged in the printer and I couldn't make it work with the rest of the products. Instead I added a folded piece of washi tape as a pull tab and tucked it behind the book photo. 

And, if you are looking for a nonstop exciting read I recommend this trilogy by Peter May. It's a murder mystery and a relationship drama connecting the present and the past twenty years back. And you'll learn a little Gaelic, too!

I've liked and pinned lots of colorful pocket pages lately and I really love those! But what made this spread finally work for me was picking a color and going with it. There are so many talented memory keepers out there who manage to get the multicolor layout to work for them, but I'm not able to do that. I'd love to find out what the trick is, that's for sure. Just look at these pages by Catherine Davis, Kelly Noel, Nancy Damiano, Jippo and Confettiheart. 

Multicolored pocket pages - that's a class I'd take!

I'll have another weekly spread up tomorrow, so drop by then. 

/Magdalena

A DO-OVER

Spring is upon us this weekend! The sun is shining, the spring flowers are poking up their heads everywhere and our winter clothing is coming off. In the last five weeks we've had a lot of sickness in the family. Everyone has been sick - fevers, coughs, swollen glands stomach bugs... You name it. I really the spring weather brings health to us!

I've started in on our Project Life pages of March.  I'm sticking with my plan of using this Alpha card set from Studio Calico as my monthly cards. I love the clean look of them. The other two cards are from the Oh Happy Day card set from Paislee Press. All embellishments are from my freshly organized stash. The entire page documents cousin Tim's 3rd birthday. Happy birthday, sweet boy!

I finished page two and three of March, photographed them but only published page number two. Then I stumbled upon Amy Gretchen's youtube channel. After watching the video about her scrapbooking journey where she talks about how she regrets not adding enough journaling, I realized why I didn't like the pages I'd just made. There were just photos and filler cards and barely any journaling. I took the pages apart and did them over. Page number two originally looked like this:

After rearranging the cards and adding lots more journaling, pages two and three now looks like this:

Most of the products came in the Birds and the Bees kit from Studio Calico. I made my own journaling card by using an old SC digi brush and cutting up one of the filler cards from the kit. The pattern on the card and the heart sticker mimicks the snowfall we had last week. I really hope that was the last breath of winter! 

I reprinted the book photo and used a digi brush from Kellie Stamps to write out a book review. If you're looking for some cozy mystery books to read I recommend Scottish author Peter May. The Week in review card didn't print right so I cut it down and matted it with a patterned paper from the October Afternoon space collection. Remember that one? I think it came out in 2011! The "making things happen" is an actual stamp, everything else is digital.

My next spread will be all in green because of this challenge. And I'll keep including more journaling from now on!

/Magdalena

FEBRUARY POCKET PAGES

Another month has gone by and I've put together nine pages of February photos. I've got two layouts mixed in with my pocket pages. If you're a maker of scrapbook layouts, as well as a Project Lifer, do you mix them in with your pocket pages or do you keep a seperate album? I started keeping all my projects together in one album about two years ago. These days I make as many layouts in a year as I would make in a month.

My February kit from Studio Calico, Confidant, was very late so I started in on my monthly pages without it. I picked out this F card to start out the month of February, and I love how it turned out. I've decided to stick with that idea for the rest of the year. You can still find this card set in the SC shop. 

My daughter made these bumblebees from toilet paper rolls. Adorable! I let them set the tone for the entire page. 

I recently went through my scrapbooking stash and took all my old kits apart and sorted them through. I have this big bowl of veneer that I never ever use, although I like what's in it. I decided it was purge or use! 

On the page below I've used Oh Happy Day journal card set from Paislee Press, plus the 4x6 Photo Templates volume 6. The stamps are from Kellie Stamps, but only available in the digital version right now.

 Misha Collins - how I love thee!

I jazzed up some of the cards by cutting strips from the pattern samples of the Confidant kit promo card. The "brave" digi brush is another Pailsee Press product called "High Five". I got the digital elements pack and both journal card kits, 1 and 2. I've used them in the pages below.

So, this was how I spent the Sports Break - a week off school. Next to my son in bed reading a ton books. He had a high fever for four days straight. Not how we planned to spend the week! But I got to read the entire Maja Grå series by Amanda Hellberg -crime novels 
with a supernatural twist. If you can find them in English I highly recommend them!

 A walk around the city of Uppsala and an art exhibition in church. Art by artist and priest Kent Wisti. This guy! <3

I'll be sharing my February layouts on the blog tomorrow. See you then!

/Magdalena

NEW YEAR, NEW ALBUM

It's been another six months and it's time for another title page and another album. I'll continue with a 9x12 format and I'll keep my former guidelines for Project Life as well. You can find out what they are i9n my Pocket Page design class for Big Picture Classes. The class has tons of inspiration when it comes to designing your pocket pages throughout the year. I'll be talking about seven different design principles and I also give several examples of each. 

If you are looking for a fresh perspective this year there is also my brand new Joint Effort class that introduces you to new ideas on how to bring family and friends into your memory keeping.

I'm in love with the newest 4x6 templates edition from Paislee Press and I've used it throughout my January pages. I love that it combines two 3x4 templates into one 4x6. So versatile!

I used the washi strips in the Roman Holiday DK from Studio Calico to tie the two 4x6 cards in our title page together.

Are doing the 2017 Reading Challenge? I've read two books so far this year. I highly recommend "Entry Island" by Peter May as your book set in to different time periods. It's a Canadian murder mystery that ties back to the deportations of 19th century Scotland. Interesting AND thrilling! If you'd like to follow me through the challenge this year you can revisit my blog or follow my Pinterest board for the 2017 Reading Challenge.

 Dante adores his little baby cousin!

This is my second book read in January. It's by Swedish novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist. It's a collection of classic horror stories that's appeared in Brittish and American anthologies. Many of the stories are in production for TV and movies this year. Looking forwards to seeing them on the screen!

Now onto documenting the month of February!

/Magdalena