TCR # 117 Wakey Wakey and June Meg's Garden page

Hello dear friends near and far!

I have been more or less absent from blogland these passed few days. Spent them in the animal hospital with our fur baby Max. He has a kidney condition and we know that eventually the moment will come when we will have to let him join our other fur babies in Rainbow Land.



I won't get into the details but he had IV liquid transfusions for 8 hours per day for several days. The number of tests that were taken are many. He was such a good good boy all the time despite all the pulling, pricking and tugging at him, didn't say a word when he was x-rayed and I had to keep him still with a rigid grip on all his legs.

I was worried sick for him and actually sat by him all these hours. I bless my boss for her understanding and the hospital for letting us occupy an entire cubicle to ourselves instead of Max being put into a cage all on his own. I know we were both a lot calmer for having each other nearby. Our Max is now on the road to recovery. His kidneys were not the problem, he has an infection that can be treated. YAY!

So a little late, here's the TCR # 117 palette designed in cooperation with the Swedish scrappy magazine Inzpira. Bold, juicy and vibrant summer colours!

Well, I wouldn't be me if I didn't add something to the page that isn't all about pop crackle and fizz even if I truly adore vibrant layouts that others create. Here is my take that I have called "Wakey Wakey", not difficult to guess what inspired me to the title :))  
The backing paper is MME of course and I have used subtle techniques to get the extra shabby effect. Washed it with a small wet sponge and diluted cream acrylic paint for starters, dabbed on diluted gesso, misted in Wheatfileds and Concrete and Slate.
 
This Prima bloom is the melon part, so difficult to have it photograph properly. Cut-out blooms from a Crate paper and branches from a Prima paper. Stickles Cinnamon on the chicken wire chippie.  
The little girl peeking over the fence is fussy-cut from Swedish Pion Design's newest collection called Grandma's Schoolbook.
 
The frame was a plain white cardboard passe partout frame from a hobby shop. I primed it in gesso and then modelling paste before using mask/modelling paste for the cherry blossoms/branches. Then I misted everything in Wheatfields (one of my top 5 fave mists) and smearing out glass beads texture gel. Finally I wiped over the blossoms with a finger dipped in gold acrylic paint.

 

Mr Rooster is a mighty handsome creature, just look at his plumage! the other photos I looked at, had a parade of chicks and hens. Totally adorable! So this one is not one of my own, I found it on a Swedish gardening site.

 
More fussy cutting from the same Crate and Prima papers as above.
 


 

And now to my June DT page for Meg's Garden that is called "Laughter", although I completely forgot to stick down the title on the page, sloppy me!


This is once again my scrappy friend R and her darling husband E on their wedding day back in March 2012. Beach, Florida, sand, sun, family and friends, in love, the bride was barefoot and had blingbling around her toes, a lot of reasons for a really really happy LAUGHTER in other words.

I will just upload the pages without comment, adding some background text before I do to give you an idea of what I've done on this page.

I wanted to show how the romantic papers can be used in a rather modern but shabby way by adding mixed media techniques to them. It is very easy to get stuck in just fussy-cutting them, which I think would be a pity as there are quite a few scrappers out there who don't do fussy cutting but who could be inspired to use the papers anyway by adding other elements to them.

I started by misting in different shades of blue, teal and sand, and then used modelling paste/mask on it.

Two layers of frayed and misted calico were scrunched and placed under the double layer of photos before strips of chunky lace were tucked in. A couple of tears on the sides and left over pieces of patterned paper placed in the tears.

A bed was made of muslin, lace, strands of hessian and skeleton leaves before placing an abundance of flowers on top. A string of pearls and a butterfly trinket. The smaller cluster up to the left was created in the same way, with some fussy-cut forget-me-nots added at the base.

As a finishing touch, gesso, modelling paste and gold acrylic paint were randomly smeared out with my finger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Things will have slowed down considerably next week as the majority of Swedes have begun their summer holidays. I have another week to go before mine starts, but I will telework from home. Yeeehaw! saves me 2 hours of daily commuting not having to go to the office.

So I'm having high hopes of being able to finally repay ye faithful friends who have come for so many appreciated visits and left beautiful beautiful comments for me. Till then, have a really wonderful weekend!

Toodeloo! xoxox Eila

Happy Prima News and CSI # 25 The Old Homestead

Today I am basking in shere egotistic joy! I sent in 2 pages for the Prima May PPP and one of them actually won! the other one got featured together with a number of gorgeous other projects.

Congrats to my dear scrappy pals Lindy and Maja Stokk, as well as to  lovely fellow OUAS DT members Keren Tamir and Jolaine Frias who all were featured!

Here is first the bold and vibrant colour prompt:


And this is my winning page called "Wellies". I made it in my very early days of experimenting with mists, paints and different mediums and remember how fun it was to splat, mist and smear the stuff onto the pages.


 These are not my photos, I found them whilst browsing around different French and Swedish sites.

 
Different stamping with TH Distress Inks in Black Soot + Wild Honey + Broken China.

 
First my beloved Winsor & Newton Glass Beads Texture Gel and then Stickles and golden acrylic paint.

 


 
Just looove how that chippie swirl turned out. Slabbed on gesso, misted in awesome autumnal Cranberry Zing + Black Cherry + Juneberry Wine. Then the gel beads and gold acrylic paint. The teal is Stickles in Turqoise.

 

 

and next the featured page that I have shared earlier:



After these Prima goodies, I also have my page for the CSI #25 case file to share.
I got so caught up in the photo that I found on a Finnish site, that I actually forgot all about fitting in evidence. Have to see if I've veered off totally from the whole prompt! Here it is, my "The Old Homestead".


This photo of a timber house up in the north of Finland, austere and without frills, is so very very typical of the country houses of old. Some are still in use. It reminds me of the old faded b&w photos I have seen of my maternal grandfather's farm close to the Russian border. It also looks very much like the little house my mother grew up in together with 12 siblings.

 
A chilly, windswept autumn day with threatening gray skies and mist lurking in the woods nearby. The history of my maternal ancestry was brought up in my memory by this photo, it also gave me the title of the page.

 
Now let's see about the evidence: foliage tick, architectural and wood elements - well that will have to be the MME paper and brick stamping and the photo itself so let's say tick on that one too. Gold? naww, but does metal count? have some clouds in the photo too.

 
My main colours are definitely the milder hues of the palette with some added gray, cream and brown. There are hints of the greens and the blue, but admittedly not much at all.

 


 


 

There is quite a selection of paper collections layered in there; Prima, Glitz, MME, Pion, book page, handmade paper from India with grass, misted canvas, a crocheted doily and some other bits and bobs.

 
This fussy-cut mother and children is from Swedish Pion Design's newest collection Grandmother's Schoolbook.

In the village located in the remote forests near the Russian border where my mother grew up, everybody were related to each other by blood and inter-marriage. The whole community was very religious and confessed to a conservative lutheran movement which can still be found in Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, British Columbia among a few states in the US and Canada.

In 1902 many families left the village and started a new life in Detroit, Michigan. Among them were my maternal grandfather's aunties. In Detroit they built a new homestead, a replica of the old homestead in Finland. Also the new house was overlooking a lake and surrounded by forrests. I have met a few of my distant American cousins who have curiously followed in their ancestors' footsteps back to the village.

My mother's stories of these relatives echo like whirls of dust in my memory and I so wish I had listened more attentively when she told them to me time after time. But then they were only faceless names and had no part in my own life as teenager. Today I know where I come from and who I am, I know my own place in the story of our family.

 

Once again dear ladies, you have patiently listened to my ramblings and kindly looked at my photos. Thank you warmly!

Have a really great rest of the week! Take care!

Toodelipip! xoxo Eila

TCR # 116 Spring Bouquet

Happy Midsummer!

Yesterday was a wonderfully balmy day with blue skies and sunshine, just perfect for the typical Swedish midsummer celebrations that call for out-door activities. Sooo many times over the passed years that the skies have opened up and we have huddled indoors while the rain has been pouring down in buckets. The Norwegians have their national day called 17 May, an equally important celebration as the Swedish midsummer.

Here's a link to YouTube and a short film on the traditional celebrations with a flower-bedecked pole (looks like the British May pole) and traditional costumes and dances.
The place in the film is called Skansen. It is an open air museum founded in 1891. It's the most quintessentially Swedish that can be found and tourists come in millions each year to experience it.

MIDSUMMER AT SKANSEN

Midsummers Eve passed over in night and it was still not dark. Hubbs and I sat on our balcony drinking a last glass of wine and then when the sun started spreading its pink glow over the skyline of Stockholm, we called it a day and went to bed. Woke up this morning to a freshly laundried Mother Nature and raindrops still on the balcony railing.

Anyhow, enough of my ramblings on nature. Here's the TCR palette # 116, the last one based on a collection of very unique papers from Feature Art.



No beating around the bush, the colours were hmmm .... interesting and I procrastinated for ages before coming up with this;



I made the background by using the very top layer of serviettes and pasting the scraps onto my cardstock with matte gel medium. Masking/modelling paste at the bottom and then ripped pieces of doily, pieces of handmade papers from India with flowers, others with grass and also torn pieces of vellum with white-on-white floral pattern. At the bottom I have also a circular shape cut out from one of the Pion Design papers of Grandma's Schoolbook.

 

A cut off piece from a DA chippie branch with birds, coated in cream acrylic paint and then dabbed in TA Glimmer Glam in Organic Garden.

 

The bouquet of fantastic spring flowers in different shades of purple, white and lilace is from a Swedish gardening site. Prima resin shutters.  

 

The yellow on my page is kept to the very minimum, it can be found on the chest of this bird.

 

DA chippie flourish treated in the same way as the birds on a branch.

 

When in doubt, pile on Prima blooms! a trinket in there too and some bits and pieces from KaiserCraft and Petallo as well. Tiny violets fussy-cut from a Pion Design paper.

 

There it is, my Spring Bouquet!

In my next post I will share my DT page for the CSI case file # 25. Some of you have already seen the palette that was released yesterday, if not  - here's a peek!


Wishing you all a really great weekend! DH has vacuumed the apartment while I've been writing this, I've promised him to do no more blogging today (well perhaps not till this evening ...) so bye for now!

Toodelipip! xoxo Eila

Winter Warmth CSI Case File # 24

Hello friends near and far, happy Tuesday!

Scandinavia is counting down to Summer Solstice, or as we call it, Midsummer which is on Friday. An occasion as celebrated as Christmas over here. Poor tourists who are in Stockholm this upcoming weekend, not a Swede in sight and so many restaurants closed.

Last Friday was release day over at CSI, the 24th case file can you believe it!

First the palette and prompts.

 
And then the beautiful coordinates created by our talented Michele Singh.

 

My take looks like this.

 
The only thing I could think of when I saw this week's palette was something really cold but also very warm; snow/ice and mulled wine! I also remembered seeing a really cool and cozy photo on a Finnish site that I had to find again, and I did!

So lots of shimmer, silver accents, sparkle and gesso were the things that I chose as evidence and then some masked/molding pasted circles/dots and a few pops of red.

My journalling is from the Queen's Meme and nothing personal at all. CLICK ON THE TEXT AND IT WILL COME UP LARGER.








 

Molding paste/masking + Winsor & Newton Iridescent Medium + dito Glass Beads Texture Gel + Stickles in silver. Stamping in the palest of pink chalks. Also smeared out the same pink and some silver grey chalk randomly along the borders, and smudged it out with my fingers.

 

The red dots are liquid pearls.

 
More of the Iridescent Medium on the lace and the flowers.

 


 

Prima goodies everywhere of course + beads and jewels.

 

A couple of more days of work and then an extended weekend yay!

Thanks for your lovely visit, hope to see you again!

Toodelipip! xoxo Eila