CSI # 47 Dirty Fingers

My goodness how time takes to super sonic speed! Me thinks we all feel the pre-Christmas pressure building up. I mentioned putting up advent stars in our windows in my previous post and some of you wondered what on earth I was talking about.

Well, as it gets so darn dark so early in Sweden at this time of the year and Christmas trees are not put up until 23 December, we need all the artificial lights we can get. Beginning next weekend, which we call first of advent, we put up electric candle sticks and hang big star-shaped paper ornaments in our windows. 

The stars are mounted with a lightbulb in them and as the stars have beautiful cut-out patterns, the light from the bulbs comes out nice and soft. Here's a photo to show you what I mean.

Here is another kind of advent star and you can also see one kind of candle stick. This one has got candles, others have electric light. 4 advent Sundays lead up to Christmas Eve, and as in most European countries, Christmas Eve is on 24 December.

Well, enough of the Chrissie talk for now. Time to share my DT page for CSI case file # 47. First the prompt. 

 

THE SCHEME (USE ALL 5 COLORS)

• Red Carpet Welcome - red, taken from the fabric draped over the chair on the left--194.73.65
• Stop By Beige - yellowy beige, taken from the walls--239.224.185
• Wood You Like to Come In? - medium brown, taken from the side of the coffee table--132.100.62
• Blue Etiquette - blue with a hint of green, taken from the chairs on the left--165.203.206
• Polite White - white, taken from the window frame--254.253.248

EVIDENCE (USE AT LEAST 2 ELEMENTS)

• patchwork pattern
• stripes
• floral pattern
• frames
• greenery/foliage
• gold metal accents
• mesh (inspired by the chair in the foreground)
• fabric
• flourishes (inspired by all the curves on the furniture)

TESTIMONY (USE AT LEAST 1 ELEMENT)

• Document a visit to someone else's home or someone who visited you.
• Write your journaling as an etiquette guide to whatever your situation is that you're documenting. Could be humorous.
• Write your journaling in the form of a welcome message.
• Add flourishes to your journaling spot
• Write an ad for your home as if you were listing it for sale.
• Inspiration Words: visit, manners, welcome-- use these as inspiration for your journaling, not just as a title

Here is my page that I have called "Dirty Fingers"; 


All the papers are from the Basic Grey Lucille collection.

My journalling was prompted by the words visit and manners. 

Always wonderful to have visits by little friends and their siblings. Preferably not more than two at the same time though. Our home is perfect for explorations by little people and my scrappy nook is almost irresistible to them. A treasure trove full of things to doodle on, rip apart and dismantle.

Better be safe than sorry, still remember little angel Missy E aged 1,5 and her mother sticking a chocolate éclair into her eager little hands. At that time we had WHITE very chic sofas and I was a tad too late in seeing where the little princess was heading with her trophy while her mum was happily chatting away and totally forgetting how quick little people are. Might I say my smile was slightly strained when the little toddler smushed her éclair filled little hands on the .... yup, my precious white sofa never to regain it's original pristine state.

Lesson number one learned, never ever serve anything with chocolate to others than adults. Dry biscuits are excellent for young visitors. Lesson number two learned, don't buy white sofas. Lesson number three, make sure to lock the door to your nook before the guests arrive. Et voilà, spilled fizzy drinks or misplaced clots of jam on the sofa are no big deal thanks to IKEA and washable sofa covers!

 
The evidence used are patchwork pattern, fabric and floral patterns.

 



 
This little dog and his friend standing on the red ball two photos below, are both dimensional stickers from Norwegian Tilda.

 
Talking about dimension, this page has lots of it!

 
Here he is the other doggie from Tilda.

 
And with this photo we have come to the end of this post. Thanks a bunch for your visit, really so lovely having you! I'll be back on Saturday to share a surprise page. Till then have a wonderful week everyone!

Toodelipip! xoxo Eila

TCR # 138 Summer Shoes

Drizzle and rain this grey Saturday in Stockholm. Feeling zero Chrissie vibes despite all the displays of bling and glitter everywhere. We'll put up our advent stars in all windows next weekend. I love the scent of hyacinths and buy them by the truckload. Cannot have poinsettias because of the cats, the white fluid in the petals is poisonous to them. Not a  tree comes up in a Swedish home till the day before 24 December.

Dear hubbs managed to lock me out from several sites on internet with his passionate quest for fool proof security measurements. Not that I don't truly appreciate his safety precautions but when I get kicked out from Facebook, Blogger and many other places, things get a wee bit, shall we say frustrating ... Back to business again now though and lots of commenting to catch up on. Visiting every day so don't give up on me if I haven't been to your blog in a while :))

Today I'll share my DT page for palette # 138 over at The Color Room, but first the palette itself. Neutral, dark, earthy and rich colours

 

I felt the rich muted colours needed a photo that adds more colour as contrast and found this one on internet. 

Here is my page "Summer Shoes";

 
The background paper is Basic Grey Serenade. Fell for the sweet birdies on a branch down to the right and the stripey borders.

 
At the moment am looking at what the Polish scrappers create and find inspiration from their messy stamping and wonderfully free artistic expressions. I am faaaaar from getting anywhere near them in my own scrapping but picking up little bits and pieces and adapting them to my own style.

 

 

 
The sticker alpha is from Basic Grey Lucille. Stamping from lots of different places.

 
Ripped some canvas and misted in TA Old Lace + Wheatfield + Walnut Gold. Found some beaded stickpins in a drawer. That bingo card is old as the hills.

  

And that's it! short and sweet this time! 

CSI released another awesome case file last night, I can promise the colours are beautiful! I'll be back on Tuesday to share my DT page for case file nbr 47.

Have a wonderful weekend wherever you are and whatever your plans are!!

Toodelipip! xoxo Eila

CSi # 46 Unspoken Words of Love and a surprise from Poland

Hello my lovely dovelies!

It's Tuesday again which means I have a new page to share with you. This time it is my Color..Stories..Inspiration page for # 46 that I have called Unspoken Words of Love.

We've heard it a million times: "I hate purple!" "Purple scares me!" If you've ever said these things aloud or even had these thoughts cross your mind, we're convinced this week's Case File will change your mind.

As always, Michele has created a gorgeous set of printables for you! Check out the groovy purple woodgrain paper and adorable animal accents Michele made for us this week! We can't wait to see how you use the Coordinates this week!

In November, our thoughts turn to the holidays and getting together with family and cozying up in our homes, so our theme that will tie our Case Files together this month is "Coming Home."

THE SCHEME (USE ALL 5 COLORS)

• Purplicious - purple, taken from the purple cubes - 149.62.141
• Pale Purple Quirk - lilac , taken from the pillow - 236.217.236
• Green Whimsy - medium olive-y green, taken from the left bottom corner of the painting - 142.151.84
• Chartreuse Surprise - yellow-y green, taken from the painting - 211.207.97
• Sunglow - bright yellow, taken from the lamps at the top - 252.228.122

EVIDENCE (USE AT LEAST 2 ELEMENTS)

• grid design
• animal accents
• frames (inspired by panels on door)
• pom-pom trim
• painting
• woodgrain pattern
• textured element (inspired by the rug)
• translucent elements
• something that shimmers or glows (inspired by those lights in the top cube)

TESTIMONY (USE AT LEAST 1 ELEMENT)

• Write something that surprises you about your topic.
• List 18 things about anything. Need ideas? Check out these prompts (it says 100 things, but I'm only challenging you to write 18).
• Put your journaling inside a translucent pocket.
• Write about a pet (or other animal)--could be a current pet or one you had in the past.
• Inspiration Words:  quirky, glow, surprise--use these as inspiration for your journaling, not just as a title

I got so inspired by the pretty purple and lilac that I started creating without a thought about evidence or journalling, my mojo got me totally carried away. Dear sweet Debbi Tehrani gave me special permission to upload my page to the DT reveal even if I didn't have any of the requirements on my page. 

Really don't want anyone to think that I can take myself liberties when nobody else can, but just this once Debbi wanted to show that purple can be pretty too and I thank her warmly for her generosity in doing so. 

Here it is; 


All the papers are from Swedish Maja Design.

 

 

 
I have no idea who the people in the photo are, I found it on internet and thought it had such a wonderful feel to it.

 

 

 

 

 

Many of you no doubt know who the fabulous Polish mixed media artist Ayeeda is. She creates magnificent textural pages both on paper and on canvas. Ayeeda is my team mate both on The Color Room (TCR) and Color..Stories..Inspiration (CSI) and creates nothing but stunners week after week.

Ayeeda, or Aida as her real name is, has just released her own first paper collection under her own brand 13 arts. The collection is called Frosted Life.

 

Beautiful beautiful papers in gorgeous hues! You can buy them from 13 arts' own webshop that you find HERE

The postman brought me a heavy package with Polish stamps on some time ago and in it were not only many copies of all these papers, but also a surprise. You could have pushed me off a chair with a feather when I saw what this kind and generous girl had sent me - a gorgeous canvas!

Just look at this, isn't it utterly heavenly!

 

 

Finally I could touch with my hands and feel the amazing texture that I have previously only seen online. It is every bit as fantastic as you can imagine. Totally out of this world! 

What can a girl say when presented with such a fantastic gift but THANK YOU and THANK YOU again! 

On this note of gratitude I also want to thank each and one of you for the amazing comments I received on my Where Angels Tread layout. The page has now been framed and hangs on the bedroom wall of J.

Before signing off for now, I wish you all a blessed week and if you want to, see you guys on Saturday again!

Toodelipip! xoxo Eila

OUAS November DT page - Where Angels Tread

Planets shift and astronomers find new galaxies. We know that the moon changes the tide and the sun has storms that impact Mother Earth.

Sometimes that happens to us humans too; we meet somebody who changes the path of our life.

3 years ago I met a young woman, everyone told me how incredibly young she was. On the outside she looked kind of interesting, very modern in black hair and black clothes. The second she looked at me with her mild and wise-beyond-her-age eyes and spoke to me with her gentle voice, our lives interlocked.

Sometimes angels do come to visit us humans on earth and they assume the form of one of us, live our lives, speak our language but yet, nothing is ordinary about them. They seem to have a larger than life heart, their love for humans and animals extends beyond comprehension and their generosity and friendship is like that of innumeral Dalai Lamas or Mother Theresas combined. Yet this person is but one.

Because of this amazing woman, my life is so much richer. I am truly incredibly blessed.

My page "Where Angels Tread" is my tribute to her. Your inner light comes from the stars and your soul soars further than the galaxies.

This is J.




Time for the second half of the DT to show their inspiration for the OUAS November challenge.

I based my page on Nadia's beautiful sketch;

 

Theme: Anything Goes..

Yep! You read right.. No theme this month. You are free to create a layout based on whatever theme you like.  

You can journal as little or as much as you like, but your layout must include SOME journalling AND the sketch above. 

Please make sure that we see some sort of journalling on your layouts and please tell us where your journalling is . Hidden journalling is perfectly fine.

 

We would also love to welcome as a Guest Designer the winner of the September challenges Heather Jacob, who already is part of the OUAS  family since she was one of our very first Designers here. 

Welcome Heather :) Nice to have you here even just for a short while!!

Here is Heather's take on the sketch; 

 

And here are the close-ups of my page;

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to come for a visit! I will be back on Tuesday to share another page with you. 

Enjoy the weekend!!

Toodelipip! xoxo Eila

 

October Prima BAP and CSI # 45 Harmony

Feels sooo nice to walk from the bus stop around the block, look up at our living room windows and see the lights. It gets dark around 4.00 p.m. over here and I mean it's like putting a lid over everything, pitch black! We have timers set on all our lamps to make it nice and welcoming to open up the front door to our home.

This Tuesday has been absolutely wonderful, sunshine and the mercury has been hovering around +-0C, a bit of a bite in the air but not bad at all. Shops are starting to dress their windows in Christmas themes but the big "window dressing" Sunday is not until the last Sunday in November.

Back to scrappy business.

Time to share my OCTOBER Prima BAP with you. The colours I have used are quite a bit darker than those I normally use. I've mixed several different collections on this one. Here it is, I've called it "Dusk":



 
The photo belongs to Miss Kelly Faber, who lives in Wellington, New Zealand. The one and same young lady whom I scrapped in both my October Prima PPP and my TCR # 136 that you can see in my previous post. The photo is from Mahia Penninsula, New Zealand. Just look at that sky painted pink!

 
Very subtle script embossing in white.

 
As quite often happens, very nice splatter or background work gets covered up by everything that I pile on top.

 

 
The Prima 2012 CHAS flowers are all just delicious, very very pretty. I've been re-stocking several times since the release.

 


Last weekend also saw the release of CSI case file # 45. Another mega inspirational and gorgeous release! Quite somber and subdued colours. The theme is still something "home".

And the absolutely gorgeous printable coordinates that our own amazing Michele Singh has created for us.

THE SCHEME (USE ALL 5 COLORS)

• Lodge - medium brown, taken from the brown pillow - 108.81.62
• Abode - cream, taken from the wall - 247.239.220
• Domicile - off-white, taken from the sofa - 253.250.243
•  Hearth - taken from the tray on the table - 205.192.186
• Sanctuary - grayish green, taken from the green pillows - 183.178.146

EVIDENCE (USE AT LEAST 2 ELEMENTS)

• trees
• wood/woodgrain
• book pages
• buttons
• silver metal accents
• lantern/lamp accents
• windows
• vintage text element (e.g. ephemera)--inspired by that poster in the background
• textured paper
• mostly cardstock with one patterned paper

TESTIMONY (USE AT LEAST 1 ELEMENT)

• Document a favorite room in your house. Include details about why you love it.
• Weave a tale (inspired by woven furniture) - Write  your  journaling so that it sounds like a tale.
• Choose a prompt from here to write about your family.
• Add a button to your journaling spot.
• Include several family member's perspectives about your topic.
• Inspiration Words: family, comfort, home--use these as inspiration for your journaling, not just as a title

This is my take on the case file - "Harmony";

 
Both the stone/cream/off-white and checkered cream/white background papers are from Swedish Pion Design.

 
Can anyone guess why this is my favourite spot in our home? with the exception of our balcony of course, I'm talking indoors.

My cozy nook surrounded by light from the windows, something to put up my feet upon, a fleece blanket and a big cup of coffee and then something to read. Here I can relax, listen to music and have visual contact with most parts of our apartment. Really so nice to sit and muse while hubbs is doing whatever he's doing close by and the cats curl up either in my lap or on that white bench that can be seen on the far left.
 

 
The evidence that I have used are; bookpages, silver accents (well these cogs were kind of shiny before I smeared gesso on them), ephemera and lamp accent (I used Tim Holtz light bulbs at the bottom of my page, next to the wooden Prima ticket).

 
Prima packaging and fussy cutting from packaging too.

As always when I have used lots of strong colours, I feel the urge to use milder hues and if I have used quite a bit of mixed media for a period, I feel the need to go back to my roots i.e. work with paper. 

My next post will be on Friday when I will share my OUAS November page with you. It is time for the release of OUAS Team B's pages on 15 November Australian time.  A page that I dare say has all the acoûtrements of a classic Eila page.

Till then, have a really really great rest of the week!

Toodelipip! xoxo Eila