Im moving on...

Yes, I actually made it through the 4th round of the European Scrap Battle, which means I've reached as far in the quarter finals in the card an layout categories! The competition at this level is extremely tough, and the girls I'm up against in both battles are extremely talented with cool styles that are completely their own. I can't wait to se what the challenge for the next round is.

Here are my contributions for the 4th round:

Have a nice weekend!

Some more projects for the European Scrapbattle

Hiy'all!

Fall term is rolling along, and apparently, I just cant get around to updating as often as I'd like to. Bu today I really must share some items I've made for the European Scrap battle. Round four is ip for voting right now, and I'm still in on the card and layout categories. So please, jump in here and vote!

Here are my contributions for the previous two rounds:

Round #2 card:

Round #2 layout:

Round #3 card: (this was a really tough one, you were supposed to use colors, colors and colors again, but no black, and no white!)

Round #3 layout: (Here too, there was to be no black or no white. I did it, even though I had to stray extremely far from my comfort zone.)

Round #4 proved to be a little easier - at least at first, because the challenge was to use as many flowers as possible. I used to be quite the flower girl, but not anymore. However, I managed to squeeze quite a lot of flowers onto my card and my layout, and still feel pretty good about the way they turned out.

Have a great day!

August layout for Riddersholm Design

It's Monday today, but I had to stay at home from work with Albin, who has caught a cold. It's always like this - two weeks into the school term the bugs attack, and someone gets ill.

I have a layout to share today with the Fall Flea Market collection from Riddersholm Design. The photo is from this summer, and the days we spent in a rented beach house in Småland. The weather was perfect those days, and we spent a lot of time hanging out on the cliffs by the sea. I sometimes wish I had a house like that, on the beach, to spend warm summer days in. Actually, we do have a piece of land stretching down to the shore, and one day, I hope to be able to open up the woods out there just a little bit, and build myself a tiny cabin with a sea-view, and a path leading out to the little island that is part of our property. I know there are tons of rules and regulations that most likely will stop this from happening, but still... I might just park a litte vintage camper out there to use as a beach shack. I don't think anyone can stop me from doing that.

OK, enough with the dreaming, and let's just get back to the layout. I totally adore this sunburst paper from Riddersholm design, and the best thing is that I have it in both 12X12" and 6X6", so I can use it a lot... You will se a card with it in a few days.

Have a great day, everyone!

The European Scrap Battle

Well, as you can see, there hasn't been a whole lot of updating going om during the Summer... That is mostly because there hasn't been a whole lot of scrapping going on either. The weather has been way too great, and my mojo decided to hang out on the beach with me instead of working for me. However, I did stumble upon the registration form for the European Scrap Battle while briefly surfing the web on a Summers evening, and I decided to register for the Mixed Media, Layout and Card categories in hope of having my mojo back by now. I'm glad I did, because it turned out to be a major creativity boost. Here's what I did for battle #1 in the Card and Layout categories:

 

I was fortunate to move on in both categories, and yesterday the Mixed Media category also kicked off, so for now, I'm in on all three, and I'm almost ready to send in my work for battle #2. Wish me luck!

This is for Denmark

This week has been all about the Eurovision Song Contest in our house. The kids and I love the whole thing, and we have been listening through the songs over and over again. Our initial favourites were Hungary (a bit of a surprise, there) and Iceland. Eh, well, Agnes has been crazy about the Finnish Bridezilla since she heard that song for the first time, but of course, that song would be right up a seven-year-old girl's alley.

We loved Denmark's song too, of course. Who wouldn't? It's amazing. We're extremely thrilled that Denmark won the ESC, and I think it's hilarious that the contest next will be held only 20 minutes away from where it was yesterday. The fact that Emmelie is half Swedish doesn't hurt either. WTG, Denmark, and congratulations, dear neighbors.

What way would be better to celebrate this occasion onm the blog than with a couple of things from the amazing Danish manufacurer, the design team of which I am a little bit extra proud of belonging to today, Riddersholm Design. So here's a layout and a card for you today.

 The layout is made with the fabulous Chantilly Dawn collection.

The card has papers from the Bello Pastello collection.

Once again, congratulations Denmark, and I can't wait to see the show on the other side of the bridge in a year!

Mr Grumpy-face

Here's a layout I made with a sketch from Skissedilla.

Yup, that is Mr Grumpy-face. Luckily, we don't see him that often, but when we do, it's most likely because we won't let him use the computer, or something like that. Lucky for him, he's adorable even if he's grumpy.

A different take on the same sketch

As it turns out, Berry71bleu has a challenge this month in collaboration with OUAS, using the same sketch. So, I made another layout based on it. The journaling is on the back of the tag under the photo. I really wanted it hidden, and the tag is double sided, which suited me perfect.

Berry71bleu also had a rule to use chipboard on the layout, and a few of the pennants under the photo are chipboard ones.

Also, it's really a perfect day to add this layout to the blog, because today is that little man's 10th birthday! Happy, happy birtday, my bright, sweet, amazing boy. I love you 4ever!

OUAS May challenge

Hi!

I have a layout for you today, which I made for the May sketch at Once Upon A... Sketch. The theme was numbers, and the title reads: 10 little fingers. I also put on some washi tape with numbers, that I had left on my desk after using it on another project.

Of course, the ten little fingers belong to my nephew Samuel, and I have some hidden journaling tucked away behind the photo.

Have a nice day!

//Jenny

It's my week...

...as a guest designer at the You Do blog. I have had tons of fun working with their products, and here's just a couple of things I've made. Please, visit their blog for more projects and information about them.

//Jenny

This little boy...

 ...has stolen the hearts from us all in this family. Just look at that sweet little face.

The sketch is from Skissedilla, and the papers are Prima's Engraver collection, which I have fallen completely in love with :) It's beautiful, isn't it? I love the coordinating tapes, washi and fabric, and the stickers that go with it.

Here's a little closeup. I've used white pen, pigment ink, gesso, texture paste and different masks to create the background to my photo

Have a nice day, everyone!

//Jenny

Mattis

Meet Mattis! He is our biggest furbaby, and he has got a mind of his own. When it's snow and freezing outside, where would you find Mattis? Not in the warm, cozy sofa corner, but out there in the snow refusing to go inside. He's mad that one.

The sketch is from C'est Magnifique Kits.

My Mind's Eye April Challenge

Here's a layout today that I made for the April sketch challenge at the My Mind's Eye blog. I saw the sketch, and since I had just bought these papers, I saw the perfect opportunity to use them.

I have mixed papers from Boy Crazy and My Girl, and as usual, cutie pie Samuel is in focus. He is six months now, and he discovers new things every day. The journaling says: "Hello, sunshine! Are you ready to discover all the fun stuff the world has in store for you? It's time to dig into the big smorgasboard that is life."

I did some fussy cutting in a couple of the papers, and decided to use pop dots to make the cut-outs stand out a little bit. I just LOVE these lines!

//Jenny

So, I won...

...a couple of challenges I've participated in over the last few weeks, and I realised that I haven't shown you the layouts I made! I was supposed to, but something got in the way... and then something else... and then all of a sudden two weeks have passed by, and I haven't updated at all! Shame on me. Anyway, the first one was made for the Easter crop at Svensk Scrapbooking, and the challenge was to create a layout in the shape of an egg.

The second challenge was from Lektyg & Hantverk, and it was a sketch challenge with a photo inspiration twist. This layout earned me a gift certificate, and I am really happy about that.

So, I've been extremely busy these past couple of weeks, with my job, working on assignments, attending sports events with my kids, and I've even managed to spend some time in the farmhouse, clearing out the laundry room, which has been turned into a junk room since it's basically the only room in the house we aren't redecorating. It will be converted into a passage to the extension we are going to put up anyway, so until then we just have to put up with the hideous 1970s style in there.

Have a great week, everyone!

Farm Girl Friday April

It's Farm Girl Friday again at the Riddersholm Design blog. The DT was challenged with a spring theme, light colors, and recycle a bit, using their favourite non-scrapbooking accessory. Here's what I made:

 And here's my favourite non-scrappy item to use - tiny lightbulbs, coming from an old electric candlestick. They are adorable to tuck in here and there between flowers and other embellishments on a layout or a card.

 

So, be sure to check out the Riddersholm Blog and leave a comment on the FGF post to be in for the drawing of the monthly giveaway.

Happy scrapping!
/Jenny

My lovely girl

I never get tired of photographing my daughter. She, on the other hand, never gets tired of posing in front of the camera, but some of the best photos taken are the ones where she doesn't realize that I'm taking one. Like this one. She wanted to show off the easter decorations, and I pulled out the camera. This was the last photo I got, after she thought I was done. Isn't she lovely?

The layout was made for this month's first challenge at the Challenge Me Happy blog. I loved the colors that were the inspiration for this challenge, and they just seemed perfect for this photo. All of her favourite colors at once.

Have a nice Thursday!
//Jenny

Cybercropping with YouDo

Have you seen that there is a cypercrop at the YouDo blog? If not, you'd better get in there and check out the challenges.

I am extremely proud to say that I will be guest designing for YouDo later this year, but I have already made some contributions to the cybercrop, in hope of inspiring the contestants a little. This is what I've made:

For the "Let it glitter" challenge:

 Here's a layout for the sketch challenge:

 One for the scraplift challenge:

 And a card for the challenge "Anything but square":

So, are you inspired? I hope so. The cybercrop is open for international contestants, and you have until April 14 to link up your creations at the YouDo blog.

Happy scrapping!

//Jenny

Agnes

Hi everyone!
The Easter break has begun, and I started it by going straight to bed and sleep for twelve hours. I guess I needed that pretty badly...

Here's a layout I made with the Huntington Garden collection from Riddersholm Design.

I also used some of the Ink It flowers with it:

Have a nice Easter, everyone!

Cutie Pie

Here's a quick post today with a layout made for Lillblomman's sketch blog.

There are some feathers here too, just like on my last layout. Well, since Easter is just around the corner, there are feathers everywhere in our house. I grabbed a few from Agnes, who was busy decorating the twigs we picked for the kitchen table, and added them to my layout.

Natural born crafter

My daughter is crazy about crafting. She doesn't scrap so much, but you often find her sitting with paper, glue, scissors and all sorts of things whe wants to recycle. Toilet paper rolls is all the rage right now, mostly because there is a television show on every saturday where the characters are toilet paper roll dolls, crafted and sent in by kids. Lord have mercy on the poor soul who dares to trow an empty roll away, because he och she will be scolded by Agnes, be so sure. So, we save the rolls for her, and (almost) everything else she claims she needs for her crafting, and slowly our dining room is turning into a dump from her stash. Only yesterday, she and I had a serious argument over an empty candy bag, which she really, really needed. I barely won that one, and the greasy bag ended up in the trash.

Here's a layout I made for challenge #42 at Challenge Me Happy. I was inspired by the colors in the photo, and the feathers, and since I had some papers from Pion Design's "Alma's Sewing Room" on my desk, with exactly the colors I had in mind, I could get right on it.

Have a great week, everyone!

Graphic 45 Design Team 2013 Audition

Didn't see that coming, huh?

A few months ago, I got a package with some brand new Graphic 45 papers. I opened it, and it hit me. You know, that scent of new, freshly printed Graphic 45 papers. I swear, there's no other brand out there that smells even half as good as Graphic 45. It wasn't just the scent that hit me, but also the notion that I need to give it another go, and try to get on that design team once again. So, here goes. I'm taking the plunge.

I've got seven brand new projects to showcase for this audition. The first one is a layout with a mixed media background, featuring Once Upon a Springtime.

Next up is a layout, also with mixed media background, where I've used papers from the Olde Curiosity Shoppe Collection, and some metal decorations from the Staples Collection.

 The next one also features papers and cut out butterflies from the Olde Curiosity Shoppe Collection:

I have two canvases to show too, the first one fairly simple with Once Upon a Springtime:

The second canvas is embellished with some metal flowers and chipboard buttons from the Staples Collection, and letter stickers from the Olde Curiosity Shoppe Collection.

I just had to make a spread in my art journal too, with some G45 stamps, and various Staples stickers. The patterned papers are from the Curtain Call collection. I had no idea where I was going with this spread when I started, but it turned out a tribute to Graphic 45. That's what I love about art journaling - when you start you never can tell where it's going to end.

 And last, but not least, a clean & simple-style card, featuring papers from Curtain Call and Le Cirque. Voila:

 It IS a bit scary, putting myself out there again, but I simply can't miss out on this chance. Graphic 45 is one of the best DTs to be on, and even though I know the chance is very slim, the dream of making it came true once, proving that amazing things can happen, so what's there to lose?

Have a fabulous day, everyone, and I would really appreciate if you could spend at least a couple of seconds of it keeping your fingers crossed for me. Thanks :)
//Jenny

Farm Girls Friday, March!

This month we are kicking off with a new event at the Riddersholm Design blog. We have a theme each month, all the DT girls will showcase something, and if you leave a comment on the FGF post, you are in the drawing for a very nice giveaway! How about that?

The theme for March is clean & simple Easter cards, and here's what I made:

Hop on over to the Riddersholm blog to check out what the other girls created, and be sure to leave a comment there to be eligible for the giveaway.

Have a great Friday!

My Heart of Joy projects

I participated in Inzpira Magazine's Heart of Joy contest earlier this year. I really loved the challenges, and I ended up in 8th place in the contest. That made me really proud, and I just realized I haven't showed you any of the things I made for the challenges. So, here goes.

For the first challenge, I created a spread in my art journal, made from an old schoolbook. I went a little crazy with my mists and pens, and I used quite a lot of techniques with paper, for instance drawing, fussy cutting, paper weaving, etc.

The birch tree was actually in the book when I started. I coated the pages with gesso, but I made sure not to leave the tree, because it fit so perfectly into the theme for my pages, and I really liked it.

I cut out a hole in the page, and kind of lifted it a bit with 3D-dots from the page behind. That's where I placed my photo, of the farmhouse. I also coated all of the embellishments with gesso, to make them blend in and stand out at the same time.

For my second project, I went bezerk with a big canvas. First, I covered it with pages from an old bible (yeah, blasphemy, I know... but to my defence, it was falling apart already). Then I started layering - multi medium, modelling paste, gesso, acrylic paint, watercolor, mists, aluminum foil, masks, embellishments, metal, chipboard etc...

I also covered the edges and worked my way around them using even more paints and inks, and embellishments. There is a lot of texture on this canvas, and I relaly like how it turned out. It still sits on the shelf above the couch, where I photographed it, and I think it will stay there.

And for my third project... well, let's just say I'm not happy with that one. Not at all. It didn't turn out the way it was supposed to, but I didn't have any time left to make something else before the deadline. I just felt wrong, somehow, and wasn't happy at all about sending it in. So, I'm not going to bother you with it...

OK, it's time to hit the sack. Today has been a long day filled with things to do, and tomorrow will just as intense, I suppose.

Good night!

A determined little lady

Here's a layout with the Huntington Garden collection from Riddersholm Design. It's Agnes on the photo, having fun in the rain. I really like how she combined her raincoat with those tiny little shorts and wellies... She's such a crazy, silly girl, that one.

You can pop over to the Riddersholm blog if you would like to read some more about the layout.

We've had a really calm and nice weekend. The sun has been shining a lot, and as usual, the first real sunny days of spring have revealed something horrible... my extremely dirty windows. I hate cleaning windows, mostly because I'm no good at it. I just can't get them clean enough, and there's always some annoying stripe or stain left when I think I'm done. Of course I won't notice it until the next time the sun comes on. Ugh... Anyway, I caved in and cleaned the kitchen windows today. That was all I had time for, but it feels good to have at least that done. Now I only have the rest of the house... and then the farmhouse on top of that. Sigh.

Anyway, tomorrow's Monday, and a new week full of adventures awaits! Have a good one!
//Jenny

On top of the world

Good morning!

Today is a wonderful day - the sun is shining and the skies are wonderfully blue against the white snow. We are going to spend it in town to do some shopping, and going to see a movie.

Here's a layout I made for a challenge at En Liten Butik. The challenge is based on a bingo grid, where you get to choose one column and use the tings in it on your layout. The column I chose had Glimmer Mist, pins, fabric, and a star.

The background is a navy blue cardstock, which I primed with gesso. Then I used some punchinella and multi-medium to create some texture, and then I cut out some square pieces of a thicker cardstock, stamped a bit on them, and glued them onto  the background. Then I misted the paper with Dylusions mists in blue, purple and orange, plus some Glimmer Mist in Iridesent Gold, which I put on to make the Dylusions mists blend and run a little bit. It also made them more transparent. I could have used water for that, but I wanted the background to glimmer a bit.

The photo is from one of our favourite places in the world, Kåseberga in Skåne. We went there last summer, the kids and I while P was working (as usual), and lucky for us, the weather that day turned out to be perfect for paragliding. So we had our picknick surrounded by these paragliders, and the kids thought they were so cool. Later, Agnes climbed up on top of one of the big rocks of the stone ship, and I got this lovely photo of her. She had been a bit grumpy getting up there, because the paths are very steep, but when we finally got up, she loved it, and having an ice cream in the little fishing village below the hill made her grumpiness go away completely.

Have a great day!

Another layout!

I found a challenge att Månadens utmaning. I was inspired by the colors of the picture, and this is how my layout turned out:

It's a photo from this summer, when the weather finally was nice enough to hop into the boat and go for a ride. We have a tiny little boat in the creek, and it takes us less than ten minutes to reach the sea from there. Unfortunately, this was the only boat ride we did last summer, because the weather wasn't so great, and P worked all the time. Still, it was lovely. We found a small bay, with a small beach, which used to be very nice, according to P, but it was totally overgrown now, so we couldn't go for a swim there. It was perfect for a picknick, though. P is the one who's familiar with the area, and I wouldn't dare going out there by my own, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to find my way back home among all the reed in the rivermouth. Still, maybe this little captain could learn to find the way better than me some day.