TCR #60 My Girls - Melissa Frances 5th Avenue

Gee, time really flies so incredibly fast! Once again it's Friday, which means release time over at both TCR in Australia and CCG in the US.

TCR palette #60 is a sweet and romantic one, just savour Barely Pink, Lilac, Rose Bud and Pale Mint. Miss Marple is in heaven!

Having written that, I got an image flashing in my mind; do you remember the 1990's BBC sitcom "Keeping Up Appearances" with brilliant actress Patricia Routledge as the main character Hyacinth Bucket (who insists her last name is pronounced "Bouquet")? I just loved it! Hmmm ... Hyacinth or Marple?!

With romance and the sweet mild hues in the palette in mind, I thought I would scrap one of our wedding photos from May 2000. The photo shoot took place in a sun dappled glade just off the little chapel of Djursholm in Stockholm when Mother Nature was basking in the glory of her own delicate abundance.

Here's my second layout as RDA:



Well, it's obviously me to the left and DH in the middle. The girl wearing the wreath is Emelie, my stepdaughter whom you've seen in some of my pages before. Here she is only 12 years old, a gawky very long-legged girl soooo deeply disappointed that I didn't have a loooooong veil and looooong train just the likes she had seen princesses have on TV .... but she was rather pleased with her flower wreath and the ring pillow she was entrusted with. Spreading rose petals during our exit also made up big time for not getting to carry my train. :))

All the papers used are from the Melissa Frances 5th Avenue line. Couldn't help piling it on ending up with a rather chunky page despite little distressing treatment made.



We recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in what else than - pink champagne of course!

This time I only fussy cut the flowers in the top, used 2 of the same paper and pop-dotted the cut-out detail over the same detail. Some Prima blooms and a snippet of an old Prima Holiday Lights. I just love Webster's Pages new stick pins, got one stuck in together with a pearly one in this cluster.



More Prima's in the cluster.





I was rather worried when the Icelandic vulcano started spewing out its clouds of ash and the air lines in northern Europe started cancelling flights. Seems things have calmed down now though. Monday sees the Sandbergs on their annual trip to swinging London, UK! YAY! Will be back next Friday folks!

After a bonanza of romance, I would like to leave you in a glorious explosion of bright, dazzling colours and a lingering sweet taste of spices. Dear friends, come with me on a magical visit to India and the blog of my sweet scrappy friend Anupama, just click HERE for a tour with the First Lady of scrapbooking in India!

Much love xxx Eila

CCG 193 + Once Upon A Sketch - and A Day In The Stockholm Archipelago

First of all I would like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for all the the incredible feedback that I have had since Friday when the news about my appointment as RDA of the month together with Lindy over at TCR was out!! I am absolutely overwhelmed by the love and kindness that has been extended to me through emails and comments from all over the world - I get goose bumps just thinking about it!! Believe me, I am so grateful and so very very happy! xoxoxo

Friday 23 May Swedish time saw the release of gorgeous palette nbr 193 over at Color Combos Galore (or CCG to those of you already initiated in the lingo).

This week, we have a soft palette with the addition of black to add a bit of drama, and our Designer's Challenge is Focus on Journaling and inspired by the lovely inspiration photo: Tell a story on your page through journaling.

Ever since the über talented Nadia Cannizzo launched her superduper site Once Upon A Sketch I've been itching to try one of her sketches. The Carnation Pink and the green of the Leaf Through the Pages in the CCG palette together with the story prompt, immediately made me think of some really ooooooold BG papers that I knew were at the very bottom of my stash - Sugar Rush - and a photo taken of our sweet and spunky friend L on her wedding day. I had to giggle when I saw Debbi Tehrani's layout; she had used Sugar Rush and ... participated in OAUS's challenge! Great minds indeed think alike LOL!

Here's Debbi's take. Isn't she just pretty with her fantastic eyes and that sweet smile!

And here's mine:



1 August 2009 was not only L and D's wedding day, it was also her 40th birthday. In the photo, the beautiful bride L had just grabbed a glass of champagne and was thoroughly enjoying her first chance to sit down since early morning. They had huge buckets filled with ice and bottles of champagne. The sound of corks popping added to the festive feel, which had hardly subsided at midnight when the feet of this old and tired woman screamed for mercy and begged to be driven home. Some of you might recall that I was a disco chick in the 1980's and loooove shaking my booty.



If you look from the side, you can see that I have actually used 6 layers of papers stitched one on top of the other. The elements were then layered and pop-dotted to get some height.



I used a mask from Crafter's Workshop to mark out the position of the dots and markings of the double circle. They were then Stickled in Black Diamond.



And now to the awesome site Once Upon A Sketch that you find here

Saturday, May 21, 2011

**GIVEAWAY TIME**

For our current challenge click here

Hello there!

How would you like to win one of these?

The absolutely gorgeous May kit from My Scrapbook Nook??

Once Upon A ..Sketch is giving one, right now!!

All you need to do is this..

1. Follow the Once Upon A ...Sketch Blog
2. Copy this exact information and post about this on your blog, together with the May kit picture and a link back to Once Upon A Sketch.
3. Make sure you also post the information about the current offer at the Nook listed below.
3. Link your post using the Link Tool at the bottom of this post!
That is it! You have until the end of the current challenge, which is midnight May 31st, Australian Eastern Standard Time. I will draw a random winner soon after.


My Scrapbook Nook is offering a wonderful offer for a limited time only!Sign up for 6 months and receive the May kit for free......great deal!

Or Sign up for 12months and get the 13th kit free!!!!!!!!!

Kits value between $31- $34 – Yours for only $29.50. This way we ensure that you receive a fully loaded kit each month. We will also offer combined shipping with any add-ons or goodies from the store you need.
http://myscrapbooknook.org/kit-club/

Tell a friend and if they sign up email us at orders@myscrapbooknook.com and give us your friends name and we will give you a $5.00 store credit. Good only while supplies last.


Go for it!

This is the first time I link back anything on my blog, so fingers crossed that it works. If not, I would really appreciate it if somebody would please holler and let me know! Thanks ladies!

Yesterday our entire management team at work spent the whole day out in the Stockholm archipelago. What started on a dismal note with rain splattering on the window panes, turned into a beautiful late spring/early summer day. Here's to give you a hint of what it was like:

And with these typical Swedish images fresh in your mind, I bid thee farewell for today! Thank you for popping by and having a peek! xoxox

TCR # 59 Prince Valiant AND big news! I AM RDA FOR THE NEXT MONTH WOHOO!

WOOO HOOO and WOOO HOOO again! Finally I can let the bubble burst and let you all know the secret that I've been keeping for a while. It still hasn't sunk in entirely that I have been chosen RDA over at The Color Room, teaming up with my wonderfully talented and sweet friend from Brisbane - Lindy Gillespie!! I am so floating on clouds!

And here's the gorgeous shabby palette #59 inspired by Scrap That's May kit and Pink Paislees Butterfly papers. What do you say about the colours; Pale Eucalypt, Buttercup Cream, Wild Mushroom and Pink Dusk. Delicious enough to eat I say!

At times I feel that the shortage of the perfect photos or photos that are good enough for cropping, really puts a lid on my mojo. Not this time, I have some new ones taken a couple of weeks ago. I thought this one of my hubby Bengt was kind of cute. He can wear pinks or powder blues and still look every inch the man he is, and he likes when I use flowers on pages that feature him. No hang-ups about being perceived as feminine!



I used some of the papers from Scrap That's May kit (they are sponsors over at TCR this month together with Imaginarium Designs); Pink Paislee's Butterfly. For a gal who loves her fussy cutting, there was nothing else but to pull out my crafters' knife and set out to cut. Oh happy days! I spent 5 hours cutting 3 doilies and the birdcage which I left intact on the paper. Here's a close-up of the pretty doilies:



Handstitching adds a fabulous touch to any paper craft I think, it is so worth the time it takes and the prickled finger tips. I spent another 1,5 hour stitching the border and the 3 squares used for matting. I always use embroidery thread as I just loooove the range of colours available.



Here you might spy that the background under the birdcage is actually pink. I glimmermisted the cardstock in TA Vintage Pink and Tattered Rose leaving teeny splatter here and there. The bars are Stickled in Gold and touched up with white acrylic paint. It's hard to see, but the bird cage hangs in a golden chain.





Here's a small doily peeking out under the Prima's. I misted the originally sheer bloom in the same TA pinks that I used under the birdcage, and touched up the petals in Stickles Gold and white acrylic paint.

It's still very early Friday morning here in Stockholm and another working day is waiting before I can kick-off my court shoes and wriggle out of my suit. Really looking forward to that glass of rosé at the end of the day. Wishing you all scrappy friend a fabulous weekend!

So before rushing to work, thank you warmly for your visit and take care! xxooo Eila

TCR #58 Laundry Day

Do I adore this week's palette over at TCR or what!! just up my alley! and here's Miss Marple speaking again, see what I mean ...

Buttercup, Eggshell Blue, Bright White and Woodland Green, it's like a smörgåsbord of wonderful, soft colours!

Some of you who've been around for a while, might remember that my MIL trained to become a nurse in the very early 1950's. This photo is from her photo album and has been waiting for the right colours and papers. By lucky coincidence, the postman had just brought me K&Company's latest paper reveal Watercolor Bouquet so the page more or less scrapped itself.



All papers are from the K&Co stack, I handstitched around the borders of the yellow/white dotted paper and fussy cut the blooms at the bottom.



The photo is quadruple matted first with a piece cut out from a BG lace doily, then with 3 pps from the K&Co line. Lately I've become rather fond of buttons, I thought the plain white and wooden ones remind of the ones used of old, they also evoke a feel of cleanliness to me.



The mini clothes pins, the twine and the muslin tucked in at the bottom sort of go with the theme, as do the the buttons hung up to dry. I often find that twine has a life of its own, it never stays put where I place it. A tip I read on Leeann Pearce's blog (or did I hear it in a tutorial over at Lydell Quin's blog? I'm sure it was in a context with Hellmar, sorry girls, I've forgotten which) was to smear glue onto the twine, and then form it to a shape of your liking. I promise, it sticks where you've put it but make sure to work fast!



And finally, here's a small tag with the torn off threads from the muslin. My journalling is allways at the back, the tag only states place and who's in the pic.



Thank you so very much for your visit! I cherish all of your comments, they really brighten my day and are infinitely appreciated! Have a superduper week.

xxx Eila

192 CCG - Just Moi making a frightful mess on our kitchen table

Stockholm has been kind to its inhabitants this weekend, despite overcast skies the rain has been a mere sprinkle. Mother Nature does her work at a rapid speed and the kittens have spent many hours on our balcony checking out birds and bees. Alice, the b&w one, strikes out with her paw and stuns both bumble bees and wasps before they know what hit them.

I was all itching to pull out all my scrappy stuff and DH had maintenance that needed to be done on our computer. So we struck a deal, his was the computer and mine was the kitchen table for a whole day. Said and done, I set out to create something for the CCG palette 192 that was released on Friday morning Swedish time.

Debbi had chosen a palette with crisp and lovely spring colours, but in a rather challenging combo with purple.

There are so many artistic ladies out there who use modelling paste and Gesso with a fabulous result. Well, I've had a tube of the paste staring at me for almost a year and never quite known what do with it. So I decided this weekend was going to be a messy one, I also wanted to try more of the misting and perhaps in combo with the modelling paste. I had decided to make a rather graphic and clean page, but as we all know, pages have a tendency to take a route of their own. When stash raiding didn't come up with anything remotely close to what I had planned for, plan B had to be launched ...



The photo is of me and was taken some weeks ago on my birthday. I kind of like the colour of my kaftan and with the lush spring green background, the photo chose itself and the main colour to be used.



The papers are DCWV Linen Closet, Martha Stewart Lace Doilies (striped green&white) and K&Company Watercolour Bouquet for the strips and bottom circle. The white and teal doilies are a gift from sweet Leean Pearce (thanks!). I used TA Dragonfly and Aquamarine mists for the matting, the fabric alphas in "moi" and for tiny splatter. The tiny floral/butterfly sticker next to the green lace is from K&Company Flora and Fauna emphemera pack.



Here's my first try with the modelling paste and template.



The previuos layout didn't have anything of the misting and as I liked the modelling paste, I decided to make another one based on the same photograph, but this time with purple as main colour.



I didn't know whether to use the modelling paste first and then mist on top of it, or vice verse. This one's made with the misting afterwards and on very wet cardstock. The purple mists that I used are TA Spring Violet + Timeless Lilac + Lavender Fields. The green is TA Olive Vine. I had great fun squirting and spraying but as Bente often says, it's not due to skill that it ends up where it does, more to do with pure luck LOL!



The florals in the circle and the darker purple as well as the torn strips, are K&Company Watercolour Bouquet. The green solid matting is DCWV Linen Closet and the lacey one is Martha Stewart Doily Laces.



My friends like to tease me because I just looooove English crime novels and TV series. Inspectors Morse and Lynley, just my kind of coppers! and because I read sead catalogues in bed and love flowers, they nick-named me Miss Marple. Hence the title for this second layout.

If I may say so, I am really pleased with the white fabric bloom and its button centre from Girl's Paperie. I touched up the button and the petals with some Shimmerz Olive Branch and TA Olive Vine on a cotton bud. The British darling garden fairy that sent me the TH Tattered Floral layers is Doreen, aka Tinkerbell. Thank you my sweet lady!! The other blooms are Prima and Petaloo. The glazed brad is from Danish Panduro.

Well that sort of sums it up for today folks. Have a layout almost finished for this week's TCR palette as well. Will upload it either on Monday or Tuesday our time. I am still trying to find out how to get the uploads in a decent size and what pixels to use. Thanks Rebekah for the tip, it saved me buckets of time! What pixels do you use?

Thank you very much for bearing with my long ramblings and upteen uploads, your are most patient and generous with your time!! For those of you on this side of the puddle, enjoy what is left of the weekend and for the rest of you, nightie night sleep tight!

xxx Eila

TCR # 57 Dreams on Wheels

Both TCR and CCG released their new palettes this morning Swedish time, but that will be another post later.

As it is my Friday off from work, I had time to mess up our kitchen table again and work on last week's palette from TCR # 57, beautiful colours for His Room; Deep Red, Barely Beige, Totally Taupe and Rich Brown.

Once again it's MIL in the photo. It's taken in the glorious summer of 1956 when she and FIL got engaged. I know it's Midsummer because there is a birch twig stuck into the grille of the car. That's still a Swedish tradition in many places. I also know that it is their very first Renault followed by a great many others over the years to come. That's why I called my layout "Dreams on Wheels".

I started by misting white cardstock around the edges with TA Burned Red and then stitched on the paper from Glitz after having scrunched and tweaked the edges. The photo is matted with papers from Glitz Love Nest, Basic Grey Curio, Prima Jack & Jill and Swedish Pysselgumman at Pion Design.

Flowers, bling and leaves are Prima. I poured TA Glitter Glam in Golden Goddess on the leaves and some splatter to the left but it looks like I've accidentally dropped dollops of mustard instead LOL. The green splatter on the lace is TA Glimmer Glam in Organic Garden. The ligher cream colours splotches is Shimmerz Candle Light. So disappointed none of the painterly effects looks like it does IRL.

Thanks for your visit, lovely having you! till later, xxx Eila

All the way from Brisbane

How frustrating to have Blogger down for several days, due to maintenance they say. Grrrrrr! Fingers crossed they won't have more of that in the near future.

The postman brought an absolutely wonderful surprise yesterday; the most gorgeous birthday card ever and the sender was the Queen of Cardmaking herself; Lindy! My gosh what a beautiful card it is, such a piece of art!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Mrs G!!! Mwah! Here it is:

Just look at the tiny sweet rolled flowers and the delish scrunchy ribbon, aahhh!

xx Eila

Overnight House Guests Are No Good For the Mojo - CCG 191

Darned! Just as I had laid out all my stuff for a glorious Saturday of scrapping, the phone rang. As nice as it is to have friends visit, I would kind of like them to give just a weee bit of notice, at least if they are counting on board and lodging. Down with all the stuff in my IKEA storage boxes and hide them in the bed room. Bye by said Mojo, see ya next Friday!

Well here is last Friday's release of the CCG palette # 190, a rather challenging combo of yellows and green.

Happy Mother's Day weekend!! This week's Designer Challenge: Focus on Topic - Mom! Mother's Day is this Sunday, so we want to celebrate our Mom's and your Mom, and just being MOM! Create a project about the best gift you have ever received or given to your Mom or as a Mom. If you are a card maker, follow our topic this week and create a Mother's Day card!

I just very quickly made a card this evening, not happy with the last-minute work but here it is anyway. It is for my mother who left us far too early.

Green dotted Bazzill cardstock stitched onto white dito. Patterned paper is Swedish designer Pysselgumman at Pion Design, really sweet and shabby Lilly of the Valley pattern. I know Vicky Alberto is a huge fan of the papers, she is also a DT over at Pion. How awesome is that, a Canadian gal on a Swedish DT!

A wide green silk ribbon under the lace and then I grouped white lilies, tiny yellow and white roses and larger yellow&white roses onto the lace. Too bad once again that the Glimmer Glam in Golden Goddess that I just brushed onto the blooms doesn't show in its glittery gloriousness. Dipped my finger into Gesso and just lightly touched up the roses. The cardboard chippies were originally white and glitter fabulously IRL. I misted them in TA Glimmermist Marigold. Doesn't show too well either. Sigh!

Thank you ever so much for all the fantastic comments on my win of the Imaginarium Chippies!! I am over the moon with happiness!

Todeloo! xx Eila

One lucky gal in chippy heaven

Judge of my surprise when I earlier today got a message from Lindy G hinting that I should check out the blog of Imaginarium Design. This is what I saw:

Sunday, May 8, 2011
The winner of this weeks GIVEWAY is .......
I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day and Thanks to everyone for my birthday wishes!

Jane and I drew the winner this morning for Imaginarium Designs Chipboard giveaway on my Happydaks blog and on here!

So ........ The winner of this weeks GIVEWAY is .......

*****EILA******

Eila Sandberg said...
What a brill tutorial, TFS! have just discovered your blog through TCR as well, am a follower now and will be coming back for many visits henceforth. Really fantastic layouts you have, truly awesome! and congrats on the GDT spot over at TCR, sooo happy to see you there! have a fab weend Nat, cheers! Eila

Eila, can you please email your details to ..
sales@imaginariumdesigns.com.au

WOOOT WOOT!! sooo surprised and soooo happy!! their chippies are just divine! thank you so very very much for picking my name out of the hat and thank you Lindy for giving me the tip! What a fantastic start to the week.

Wishing all my scrappy friends a wonderful week wherever in the world you may be.

xx Eila

Old cards and where did that spring go?

First of all - THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to all of you wonderful ladies that have visited my blog already. Amazing to find that I even have followers! I am so happy that you wanted to have a peek and it is truly fantastic to read your kind comments!

Spring had really sprung in Stockholm at Easter with tulips abloom and trees with green sheer crowns of leaves. Great was therefore my disbelief earlier in the week when pulling up the blinds and it was SNOWING!! yup, it was coming down buckets of eeky wet sleet! had to go down to the basement to get my winter coat back and some gloves.

It's Friday in my parts of the world and The Color Room and Color Combos Galore have released their new gorgeous palettes. While I am waiting for my mojo to catch up with me and my stash, I am sharing some of the cards that I made in the early beginnings.

The first one is for my ex FIL on his birthday, bright teal and yellow Webster's Pages:

And the second one is a pick-me-up card for my friend J. The text is on the inside. The pps are Webster's Pages:

A really girly and romantic card is next. The pale green pp is DCWV Mariposa and then a bonanza of Prima blooms:

Hope you will all have a beautiful and sunny weekend, cheerio! xxx Eila