SST 2014 Grand Finale

Here's just a shortie for you with my layout for the Grand Finale of the Supreme Scrap Tournament. I've been just a bit too busy to produce something I can be proud of. I don't feel good at all about this one. Plus it's really poorly photographed and processed. I just can't get my head around this double layout thing!. But, it is what it is, and I finished. On time.

 Here's a version, with all of my "trash stash" numbered and accounted for.

1: 1 plastic bag from Lisbeth Dahl, Copenhagen
2: 1 small chunk of wood wool
3: 1 piece of a broken yardstick
4: 1 black paper clip
5: 1 swan feather
6: 1 piece of ball chain 

7: 1 piece of silver-colored string (from a prize tag)
8: 1 page from a broken dictionary
9: 1 sheet of tissue paper
10: 1 lid from a glass jar
11: 1 chrocheted doily 

12: 1 white ribbon
13: 1 tyre from a toy car
14: 2 tags
15: 1 wine bottle cap
16: 1 cork 17: 1 piece of denim fabric
18: 1 odd end of T-shirt yarn 

A: Kraft cardstock

B, C, D, E: four sheets from MME Chalk Studio.

So, that's it. Now I'll go packing to head off to Austria in a couple of days. See ya!

I've been scraplifting

I made a couple of layouts the other night, and since Design in Papers had a blog hop with a scraplifting challenge, I decided to enter. So, first up is a layout based on one I found at Petra's blog:

 I loved the whimsical style of Petra's layout, and I was inspired by all the layering.

The next layout I chose to scraplift was Alex':

What I loved most about her layout was the composition of elements, and how she had worked diagonally, so that's what inspired me to make this layout.

SST round #5 - the final!

I moved on to the final round of the Supreme Scrap Tournament! Out of 212 participants, only 10 are left. However, there is still one final challenge, and believe me when I say that this one might be the hardest one yet. Only... noone is quite sure yet what's to come. The first part of the challenge was to make a selection of papers and "trash" - things that you would normally throw away, and upload a photo of it. Lucky for me, I am a hoarder... I roamed the cupboards and drawers, and this is my "trash stash" for the challenge.

Now, all I can do is wait for Monday to see what the second part of the challenge is, because for now I haven't got a clue what to do with all of this.

Finding peace

Sometimes it feels like you are about to seriously freak out, because of all the things going on in your life. Like now, for instance, when I'm trying to make everything work out between work and home, and spring is just around the corner with tons of activities popping up just because of that. Also, in two week I'm off for a few days in Austria, to visit a school there and try to make connections for future projects. There is tons of fun coming up, but also tons of worries.

In moments like that, I turn to nature for finding peace. I disappear into the woods, or out to sea, and just clear my mind from everything.

Like this. The sun, the wind and the sea. The open views. There's nothing quite like it to take your mind off of everything. I need my sea "fix" at least once a week, and then I'm fine with everything else. I wonder if a mountain "fix" can do the same thing when I'm in Austria?

The layout is based on a sketch from Hobbyworld. I've been toying around with it for a bit, but I think most of the sketch elements are still visible :-)

Happy scrapping, everyone!

SST round 4 #Layout

Yes, I'm still in :-)
But there are so many contestants having left the Supreme Scrap Tournament, and all of those still in are extremely talented, so I am pretty sure this will be the last round for me.

My layout was done many days ago, but I've been just a bit too busy at work this week to get home in time to photograph it in decent daylight. Today, I finally made it, after a day full of lesson-planning and teaching. I suddenly found myself trying to juggle a names-in-a-hat-app on my iPhone, a bluetooth remote for the computer (for changing pictures in a digital presentation) and a sheet of paper with main points for that presentation, in an effort to teach a class of tired 14-year-olds something about strategies for writing... That's when you realise it's time to go home, enjoy your weekend and try not to be a teacher for at least two days. AND photograph your layout while there's still daylight.

So, the challenge this round was to make a double layout with at least eight photos and three hidden elements. I added four hidden elements, two of which contained hidden photos. The first one is a small box which opens up...

 ...to reveal a piece of paper with some journaling on it. The lid is on a hinge, to allow it to be opened and closed, while still attached to the layout.

 

The next one is also based on a hinge, with a photo which opens up to reveal another photo beneath.

This one is pulled out, with some journaling written on it.

  

Last, but not least, a spinner that, if you pull the little paper flap,reveals yet another photo.

I guess I don't have to tell you that I had tons of fun makin this one... I love challenges like that!

Have a great Friday night, everyone. Myself, I 'm going to pour myself a glass of red wine and celebrate the fact that it's Friday. ;-)

SST round #3 Layout

Well, I went straight out of the card competition last round of the Supreme Scrap Tournament, but I'm still in the layout contest. Here is this week's layout.

The challenge was "Doodle it", and so I did. I took out a kraft cardstock and a navy Zig Writer and got down to business. I've been meaning to get into hand lettering for a while now, and finally here was my chance to actually try since the title had to be handwritten directly onto the layout.

The quote "I refuse to sink" means a lot to me, because in my opinion, one can only do so much as oneself allows. If I allow myself to "pause" the world around me for a while, and escape into some sort of happy place, then I can achieve so much more the rest of the time. I have many such happy places, and I recently discovered another one, a rugged, swampy, moss-covered island with access only through a narrow bridge and a kettle gate. Once you pass through that gate, you are in another world, one I hardly knew existed here, so close, only a few months ago. This island has it all - breathtaking scenery, wild, spiky cliffs, and also smooth polished ones, similar to those on the Blue Maiden island where I went for the first time last Summer. It has mysterious hollow oak trees, bunkers and other remnants from when Sweden was a highly fortified country hunkered down under the Soviet Union during the days of the Cold War. Over all of this, the wind blows hard, and the sea roars loudly, and the smell of salty water lies heavily. I LOVE it! Just wait until tomorrow - I'll put my wellies on an off we go, to the happy place. Well, I kinda promised the kids a picknick on those cliffs if the weather torns out OK, so that's where we'll be.

SST Round #2 Monochromatic card

In the nick of time, I managed to get my crad ready for round #2 of the Supreme Scrap Tournament. I chose the color brown, which is a favourite of mine to work with.

The card is a pop-up card, with a cityscape inside. I have used Bazzill Kraft cardstock, brown cardboard, brown paper string, and Distress Ink in the color Tea Dye. All brown, and all hand-cut.

I am not going to get more chatty about this card, since I am using my son's laptop, and that thing and I don't really agree on everything...So, I will be keeping this post short.

Have a nice day!

SST round #2 Monochromatic

I made it to the second round of the Supreme Scrap Tournament, and since I've never been a fan of double layouts I almost dropped out when I heard that the second round was also to be a double. But, well, here it is. I'm not half as pleased with this one as I was with the last one (with which I, by the way, won the first round in my group).

The theme for this round is monochromatic, and I chose to work with the color blue. I've been using different blue shades of papers and embellishments, and I have also used different blue pens and mists to add even more color.

The color products I have used are all different shades of blue - Dylusions Ink Spray Vibrant Turquoise, Heidi Swapp Color Shine Navy, Tombow Dual Marker No 443 Cyan and Zig Writer Navy.

The photos take me back to last Summer and the beach house we rented for a few days. They were perfect Summer days at a perfect Summer location, and looking at them bring back the sound of the waves and the wind outside my window at night, and the lingering warmth of a smooth sunkissed cliff after sunset.

It really makes me long for Summer... and for that place. I hope I'm able to return some day, because I really found peace of mind there, where the sky met the sea. There's something about staring out at the horizon, as far as the eye can see, and let your mind go. Don't we all need that once in a while?

Oh, and that felt lace ribbon. I know it almost look kind of purplish in the evening light. But in real life, it's a perfect match.

Wish me luck!

SST round #1 ATC

I don't think I've ever made an ATC before. Never. But since the card challenge of the first round of the Supreme Scrap Tournament was to make an ATC I kinda had to... So, here it is.

Oh, gosh, it was awfully difficult to squeeze in all that I wanted on that tiny little card, and still be true to me and my style (I've actually been going BIGGER in the card departement lately, since I like to add some white space to my cards, but how on earth would you make an ATC with white space?) So, well, no, I didn't get hooked, and I will most likely never make an ATC again, unless I have to. I have no illusions of moving on in the card contest. This just wasn't my thing.

Home is where the ocean is, it says. Well, I have, for most parts of my life, lived close to the Baltic Sea. The smell of salt and rotting seaweed is a very homely smell to me, and that is part of the reason to why my family and I decided to settle near the sea again, and buy our beloved farm. On a very quiet night, you can hear the waves from afar.

Last summer, I rented a small cottage just by the beach, with some friends and our children. We stayed for one week, and falling asleep to the sound of the sea every night was amazing. I dream of the possibillity to build myself a little beach shack on the part of our property that is right on the coast, or at least get myself a tiny little camper to park out there since getting planning permissiong that close to the coastline is virtually impossible, and stay over occasionally, just to be able to fall asleep to the sound of the waves. So, home has always been where the ocean is for me.

SST round #1

I'm alive... I bet you all wondered, since this blog hasn't been updated since October. But yes, I'm here, and I have some things for you today.

I've entered the Supreme Scrap Tournament, and yesterday, challenge #1 was launched. The theme is "1000 steps from home", so I decided to focus on all the wonderful things we have within a thousand steps from our beloved farm (click the picture to make it larger).

All the photos are taken on and around the farm, and the most spectacular one, the one in the corner, is that of the White-Tailed eagle that paid us a visit last weekend. Pretty amazing, huh? 

Here it is, sitting in a tree just across the road from our house, accompanied by two youngsters soaring in the sky. When it took off, I managed to snap the photo for the layout.

There's so much more than the eagles and their buddies (hawks, buzzards, red kites and various owls) that make our farm such a special place. There is the creek, where you can catch a perch or two if you are lucky, or a couple of minnows for the cats to feast on. There is the sea within just a short walk, and there is the island with the mighty oak tree, where you need wellingtons and really low water levels to go (which rules out getting there most of the time, but when you are able to get there, it's an amazing place to be).

There's the typical farming landscape, with red barns, fields and meadows. There are woodlands, valleys and rounded hills. There are cows and horses, accompanied by moose, roedeer and boar who venture out of the woods occasionally. It's a paradise, simply the best place to live, and really, there would be no need to go anywhere else in the world just to find peace of mind.

However, there are snakes in all paradises, and in our case, the snake is a HUGE noisy wind turbine, newly risen within a thousand steps from home, that covers all of this in a constant rumble, very similar to that of a battle plane that looms at the horizon and never goes away. I'm OK with the sight, it really doesn't look that bad, but the noise has taken over everything. There are no other sounds to block it out in our peaceful and quiet little corner of the world, and it affects us all living out there more than anyone could have foreseen. So, our paradise seems to be a little lost, and that saddens us. That's why I really needed to make this layout to remind myself of what it was like before they put up that monster, and what we are fighting to get back.