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Ok, so here’s a silly thing: I like sketches, but I’ve hardly ever done a layout based one. It’s a bit like when I’m cooking; I LOVE inspiring recipes but I hardly ever use them when cooking. I just wing it. But I felt like trying it out some more, and found this sketch challenge on a new Swedish sketch blog, lillblommanskissar.se. Fun! Perfect timing, too! The rules were quite lenient, I could twist and turn the sketch and add or withdraw element, as long as it shows that the layout is based on the sketch.
As I dug through my box of printed photos (I have a stash of photos I love, just waiting for the right moment) this photo of my friends Sara and Cecilia jumped out at me. It was a wonderful summer, many years ago, when the three of us spent a week together at Sara’s summer cabin. It was the three of us, hanging out in the sun, going to the beach, cooking good food, drinking some wine, having a little summer vacation together. You know that feeling when summer is so intense and perfect that you can just close your eyes and smell it and feel it on your skin? That was what it was like. This is my friends on the steps to the main house, having ice cream:
On the same steps we also had some perfectly chilled Russian champagne and smoked shrimps. It leads up to a small nook of the house that is called a “Punch Veranda” in Swedish, which could be translated as a Punch Porch, or a Toddy Porch (ha, I love that!). Anyways, it was a very happy time, and I just live the photo with it’s sharp sunshine, the old steps, the bare feet, the roses growing wild.
I wanted the layout to feel fun and carefree, like that week, so I played around with some paper tape, colour wash and some watercolour splatter.
Here are some details:
Thank you for coming by and reading my blog *s*. Hope you had a great weekend. Tomorrow is MONDAY! Onwards and upwards, my friends!
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I’ve been trying to organise the photos on my hard drive lately, and the other day I came across some photos of the first scrapbook layout I ever made. Well, the first layout in the sense that I had just heard about the concept of scrapbooking here in Sweden. This was back in the end of 2007, or early 2008.
I had no idea where to start, what photos or products to use, what events to scrapbook, what journaling was, how to embellish a page, not much at all, really. I knew I liked swirly patterns, and that was about it. Me and a friend just decided to try it out, and we found a scrapbook store in Stockholm, got some paper, and off we went.
When I look at it now, I cringe a little, of course I do! At the same time, I’m glad I did it and that I kept the layout. It’s a small gem of a memory from a happy time in my life!
The photo is from my university campus. I went there for four years, and during those four years I walked that path almost every day, hurrying to get to a class, or meet a friend, or go study in the library. I admit that in the end I was pretty fed up, but now, many years later, what wouldn’t I give to be able to go back to school? To get to spend that much of my time studying and learning? It’s hard work but so rewarding.
I didn’t do a lot of layouts after that, but mainly got into paper crafting, card making and photography. I’m much more into it now though; it’s all coming together, my love for photography and memory keeping.
 The Lemming Track - My first scrapbook layout form January 2008  Close-up of handwritten journaling  Title, handwritten with black Sakura Glaze pen  Sixxten the Cat makes a guest appearance. Always being nosy!
No, I didn’t have time to post anything yesterday, but I still did something creative, so, yay me, that was 14 days of that project! I prepared some journalling for a layout I wanted to do today, and also I took some photos of two dear friends, Hanna and Janne, photos that no doubt will end up in my 2012 book. Me, Jed, Hanna and Janne geeked out yesterday and spent the better part of the day and evening playing a board game I love, “Arkham Horror“. Awesome! We beat the big beastie in the end, but it got darned close! I had such a great time. There’s something about playing a good ol’ board game, everyone sitting around a table cursing and laughing.
So, today is day 15 of the project to do something creative everyday for 365 days. This weekend I took a small pause from the prompts and just went freestyle *wink*. Today I sat down and created a layout with a photo I’ve been wanting to use for years. I actually have a sketch in an old notebook using this photo, and I am sort of glad I never had a chance to make it back then, it would have been horrible! (Seriously, think total scrapbook newbie like 5 years ago). I like how it turned out today.
I’ve noticed that often when I sit down to start on a layout I dig through my stash and pick out a pile of embellishments I like. But then in the end I often don’t stick them on. But it takes some time to NOT stick them on, because sometimes I feel like I should, if you know what I mean? I’ve come to a point now thought where it feels ok to just stop and say “You know what, this is enough for me. Glue stick down.” Because I’ve come to a point where it’s more important what the layout is about.
This is a photo of our cat Sixxten, from when he was about 1 years old. He has this habit of finding new places to sleep all the time, and he never moves or makes a sound when you can’t find him and go around the apartment looking for him, no matter how much you call. He is like a nap ninja!
Many years ago my grandmother knitted me this wonderful, super-warm jumper in a grey, Swedish wool (much needed during our winters). I had left it on the bed one day, and for some reason I noticed that the cat had been uncannily quiet for several hours (he’s normally very talkative). So I started looking for him, but couldn’t find him anywhere. I looked in cupboards and bags and closets, under the bed, under the couch, well, everywhere. I called and coaxed, but no sound or movement.
It was just by chance that I went into the bedroom one last time before completely panicking, and there he was, all bundled up in my wool jumper.The jumper was almost exactly the same grey colour as the cat. He’d been sleeping in it for hours, al snuggled up, and he was radiating an enormous amount of heat. He hardly woke up as I went to stroke him, he was in such a warm snooze-coma.
So, that’s what I created today. Overall a nice, lazy Sunday, but tomorrow is the start of another week! Stay safe, have a good one!
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Today I didn’t follow the daily prompt in the creative diary. It had to do with going outside, and since there is a storm going on right now I didn’t feel to compelled to do that, hehe. So instead I stayed in my crafty corner and put together a layout based on the journaling I created yesterday. Since the project is about creating something every day, with no boundaries or rules, and I managed to do an entire layout in one sitting (I’m not a fast scrapbooker) I’m pretty pleased with myself. Yay me! Day 4 is done!
Reflection: It’s weird how I find myself constantly using yellow and blue, when these are my least favourite colours. What’s up with that?
Another reflection: It took me a LONG time NOT to put a lot of extra stuff on this layout. I realise it’s not very well balanced and that the upper left corner could have used something, maybe, but in the end I, after rummaging through my entire stash, I settled for splashing some blue watercolour up in the corner. So there you go. Sometimes it’s more about the story than the pretty shiny things, I’m learning *smile*. And this layout was really about the journaling and the story in the photo.
Hey, if you want to read the text I did a poor attempt at translating it yesterday, and you can read it there if you’d like. Thanks for stopping by! Happy scrappin’!
It doesn’t have to be the most fantastic photo that makes you remember, and it doesn’t have to be from the most special occasion. Of course even the every day things can be just as memorable as the big events.
Going through my photo stash I came upon this photograph; it is ten years old, a friend of mine took it, and it’s a photo of me in my early twenties. What struck me about this picture were two things: It was a picture of me just being myself, and it was a photo of me in my first apartment.
Seeing it made me remember a thousand things in a matter of seconds. It reminded me of what I used to wear, of my favourite necklace, of my nose piercing, of my first SLR. It reminded me of moving away from home, of my small one-room studio and all my favourite things in it.
I lived for almost eight years in that small place and a lot of things happened there. It was a place where I wrote stories and made up new recipes, and a place to invite my friends to.
So that is what I wrote in my journalling:
I couldn’t find a paper I thought went with the photo and the sentiment, so I painted this pattern by hand on a piece of recycled paper. There are some better photos of the details in my last post. I also embossed the clock and filled in some of the details with some acrylic paints.
Overall it feels great to have gotten this photo out of the dusty box it used to be in. I sort of represent that whole time in my life. Yes, this layout took quite some time to finish, but it was a happy project to complete.
Stay safe, everyone!
I started on a new 12×12 layout the other night, and I sat for quite some time going through my stash trying to fins something I thought went with the photo. I couldn’t find one.
The photo is one of myself, about10-11 years ago. A good friend took that photo of me, sadly though we lost touch many years ago. I think that photo of me is one of the few from that time I really like. I was in my early 20′s, an sure, when one is young and pretty (harr harr) of course there are a couple of nice looking pics of you, but at that age it’s not often one poses on a picture as oneself. This photo though, is just me in my messy room in my first apartment, holding a camera. The colours are sort of murky (so was my apartment) and there’s a lot of clutter (MY clutter) and I look rather scruffy. But it’s me, at that time.
I felt that none of my patterned paper really matched. So I started to paint one of my own, on a piece of 12×12 recycled, unbleached paper. I’m not quite done with the layout yet, but thought I’d show a few pictures. Hope to share the whole thing with you soon!
Stay safe and thanks for stopping by!
This layout is all about me embarking on a deeper journey into the art of photography. I’ve had a camera pretty much since I was 6 or 7 years old, took photography in high school, and got my analogue SLR in my early twenties. The step to digital was a big one, and I sort of fell out of the habit. I had the camera for many years without really using it to it’s full potential, but then something changed in my life, and now I’m feeling more inspired and creative than I’ve ever have. All I want to do now id to photograph everything. EVERYTHING. All the time. And get better.
The best thing about this layout, for me, is that it was such a surprise. I remembered the sketch challenge a bit last minute and pulled a photo from my stack of prints, and this self portrait is what I grabbed. The stripy paper is a leftover scrap from one of my old favourite papers, that I’ve sort of kept safe for a rainy day (yeah… I know…). The journalling is done on a page from an old book, after I wiped some gesso on it. I used another page, torn into tiny squares, for the title. The dotted ribbon I love, and I think it was one the first ones I ever bought. Awesome to finally get to use it!
The composition of this layout is inspired from this sketch at the Swedish webzine Allt om Scrap, and is a part of their summer competition. Great fun!
I’ve managed to take a lot of photos of Tricks this summer, and some of my favourites is from the weekend when she visited my parent s and me at the summer cabin. We had a lot of sunshine and spent some time relaxing down by the water, talking about life and love and plans. As she tried out the water I took a few shots, this is one of them.
The spot where she’s standing was my favourite spot when I was little, because it’s full of soft, green, luscious sea grass, and it isn’t too deep, so you can just stand there and let it tickle your toes. Somewhere deep in my stash I found this old patterned paper from Basic Grey, which I think originally is a Christmas paper, and from one of their retired collections (Figgy Pudding). It’s been one of those papers I’ve loved so much that I haven’t used it. But I just thought it fitted well as sea grass and sea weed.
This is what the journalling says:
“I remember how wonderful it felt when I first got the opportunity to invite my best friend to the summer cabin for the first time, and get to show her the place I think is the best on earth, to show her the place that filled my childhood with so many adventures. It became an instant tradition, and now it’s not even a proper summer if Sara doesn’t visit.”
I’m really glad I took the time to scrapbook this photo. I have so many great ones from all the years we’ve been friends, it’s really time to make them more accessible.
The composition of the layout was inspired by this sketch,
which is originally from a sketch challenge at the Swedish scrapbook shop Scraphuset.se.
The Swedish webzine “Allt om Scrap” publishes an inspiration issue every Sunday, and last Sunday they posted some layouts from a challenge they did. I didn’t have time to do it last weekend, but I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, so I took some time yesterday to do it, since it really did feel like a challenge. Listen to this:
- May only contain patterned papers. Must use acrylic paints and 4 different stamps. Have to have one type of overlay and at least 3 tags. And finally, it must have sewing machine stitches.
- Can not include flowers, ribbons or lace. No corrugated cardboard allowed, and may not contain anything white!
Well… Only patterned papers and nothing white? Hello? I haven’t really done a traditional, full-size scrapbook layout before, so why not start with something difficult? Go big, that sort of thing. I got the perfect idea and I wanted Tricks in it, so this is what happened:
Yes, we like our dots ;) I really had bite my tongue plenty of times, not to reach for plain one-coloured papers, keeping the white details out, not using any string. In the end I’m pleased with the result, I wouldn’t have thought of this idea if it hadn’t been for the specifications in this challenge. Thank you, Tricks, for doing the photo shoot with me! You look really beautiful in that dotty dress!
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Summer is drawing closer and so is one of the best holidays in Sweden: Midsummer. For me it’s the kick off of summer, and even though it’s usually cold and rainy (typical Swedish Midsummer) you can still feel the promises of warm and lazy days to come. I get to spend it on my favourite place on earth, out by our summer cabin, and I get to spend it with friends and family. It is much more relaxed than any other holiday I know; there is no time schedule, no worries about finding the right gifts for people, and instead of serving the same food as every year my mother, my cousin and I try out a lot of new stuff. It’s about having a cold beer in the sun and fighting off mosquitoes and having a weekend of barbecue. And maybe a dip in the sea, if you’re brave.
It is a tradition by now that Tricks comes along! It wouldn’t really be midsummer without her (and my mother would not have it any other way). We’ve spent a lot of good days out there!
Last year we decided to surprise my mum by making a photo album for her, with photos we’ve taken over the years. And it had to be done quickly, because we came up with the idea a bit late and we didn’t have a lot of time. So we decided on a format, bought an album and some papers, decided what pictures to use and then promptly split the project in half. So Tricks made half of the layouts, I made the other haf, and then we ended up gluing it all together out in the cabin, on a sunny midsummer afternoon.
We are both very proud of this project, because it was the first where we really used some of all the photos we love. And also, it really seemed to be an appreciated gift. It was passed around the table, and my family and relatives got to see pictures they had never seen before, that they never knew existed. You know how it is, you take a lot of photos of your family and friends and then you forget to show them. A few years later it’s like finding an unknown treasure and memories come flooding back.
Tricks took some snapshots of the entire project just before we handed it over to my mother, but we forgot to post them here, so here they are:
 "Skäret" (The Skerrie), with one of the several rusty old hooks my grandfather pu up a long time ago  A view of the cabin from below  "A quiet moment". My cousin's hubby Hasse and my dad chilling out for a bit  The gang having midsummer lunch  Dart tournament! Mum and cousin Eva were the winners! (Eva got a Bulls Eye)  Sunshine and coffe! 
 Summer girl Tricks  Our old dog, Chief. He loved the summer house and the sea  My dad and Chief, best of friends  Dad and Hasse, getting the old boat ready  My dad's favourite old boat, "Mulle"  Jen - Queen of the Sea
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