TCR #91 Sunny Days and a card for a very dear friend

By the time some of you read this, we will have entered into a brand new year - 2012. Wherever you are - a very Happy New Year to you all!

I am really so overwhelmed and infinitely grateful for the beautiful cards and generous gifts that I received from sweet sweet scrappy friends for Christmas. You know who you are ladies!! THANK YOU! Mwah mwah mwah!

Today is Friday and release day over at TCR, we have palette #91 with wonderfully vibrant and happy colours. How about Sunflower Yellow, Poppy Red, Powder Blue and Sunny Orange!

I won't be longwinded, here is my page:



After having made quite a few multi dimensional pages and a substantial number of Christmas cards for the passed few months, I felt like creating something one-dimensional and flat for a change. When I flipped through these October Afternoon papers, I just fell for the cute little old-fashioned country houses and went from there.



There is a Swedish lady who has the most fantastic blog where she writes about her ancestors and their lives. Wonderful research done, colourful encounters with people long gone, and fantastic photos that tell lots of stories too. This photo is from her blog and shows her grandmother and her grandmother's brother sometimes 1910-ish or so.









And then a card for a very special and dear friend.



A little package made from a 20 x 20 cm square doily.



Unwrapping the layers and revealing the card itself.



The doily and the papers are from the Australian online store Meg's Garden which you can find HERE

Meg's Garden is the January sponsor of The Color Room and each week during the month of January, one of their DT girls will be featured with the layout that she has made for that specific palette. The DT of The Color Room will also be showing what we have created with products from Meg's Garden.



Stickles in Star Dust here and there gives a lovely shimmer.



And here you can see the full card with its doily front.



Only a week left to 6 January and the launch of CSI - Color, Stories, Inspiration

The excitement is building up, soon soon soon ... Even before we have gone live, members are increasing in number by every day. The news is spreading in blogland! and the fabulous thing is, I'm on the DT of this new awesome challenge site owned and run by the one and fabulously only Debbi Tehrani.

The challenges consist of three parts: colours, inspiration, and journalling (that's the story). Plenty to set your mojo on fire in other words!

For those of you who cannot wait, here's a top secret sneak preview of our first challenge:

I will remember 2011 as the year when I made so many wonderful scrappy friends throughout the whole wide world. Thank you ladies for your loving support, steadfast encouragement, many giggles, invaluable personal chats, and so many tips and tricks on how to. Simply - thank you for being you!

Hello 2012 - watch out, here we come!

xoxoxo Eila

OUAS 15 December challenge "Sweet Nothing and something just for me

So we've spent the passed few days eating, taking a nap, eating again and drinking some coffee before eating again ... Always love Christmas and am equally happy to see it wave farewell till next year.

Feels good to look forward to an entirely blank page just waiting to be filled with happy new memories and beautiful colours. I just know 2012 will be an awesome year!

Even had time to make a page between taking naps and checking the content of the fridge. It's for the 15 December challenge over at UOAS.

I flipped the sketch and went horizontal instead. I also moved the title more to the right.
So here's first Nadia's sketch and then my page.

Journalling Criteria/theme: Our Christmas traditions.

We would love to hear how everyone spends Christmas Day. Even if you do NOT celebrate Christmas, what do you do on Christmas Day?

Here's our Miss Alice in her favourite chair by our bay window. Just look at that little tummy of hers! This certainly is a picture of total relaxation. Alice makes the most adorable little sounds when she sleeps, almost like snoring.



Christmas Day is the day of Sweet Nothing, we do as little as possible and do it together. Read our new book, see a film on the box, take a bath, drink more coffee and each chocolates.



All the papers on this page are from October Afternoon's Holiday Style.













And then a little something that I made waiting for Christmas, hence its title; "Waiting". It hasn't been shared anywhere before.



Here all the papers are from Maja Design's Vintage Winter collection.



We normally have plenty of snow for Christmas and that's what I thought we would have at the time that I made this page. Nope, none was to be had. It was a sunny day and about -3C, but no snow in Stockholm.

I used the Crafter's Workshop branch and bird template that I have used on several layouts before. Smeared molding paste through it and sprinkled plenty of fine glitter on it before it had dried. I also used a hefty amount of Stickles Diamond and Star Dust around the page to get an icy feeling.



A Dusty Attic chippie frame that I painted in chocolate brown acrylic paint. For matting I used cardboard that I first touched up with TH distress ink in Aged Mahogany before smearing lots of Stickles Gold on it.



I made a little book from white cardstock, it's about 3 cm wide x 4 cm high. The cover I made from brown paper from a paper from Pion Design's Waiting for Santa collection. A Prima trinket and diamond. The key is from Tim Holtz.

The angel wings I bought at a local store, Panduro. The white flower is first a couple of really old plain white Prima Pillar paper flowers that I've touched up with Stickles Star Dust, and then I added a Prima silk bloom on top.



Some Prima leaves and Stickles and white pearls as seen from the other side.



A couple of small brass bells tied together with an organza ribbon in gold and a cut off piece from a Prima winter branch.

I've been asked how long it takes for me to create a page and how I store my layouts. Well, I just pile them up in IKEA cardboard boxes that have a lid. It's impossible to keep them in binders as they are so bulky. As to my creative process, a page normally takes a minimum of one day to create, more often two.

Hope you're having a wonderful time with your families, enjoy the moments of Sweet Nothing!!

I won't wish you Happy New Year not just yet, I'll be back on Friday!

Till then xoxox Eila

OUAS 1DEC in the top 5 among featured pages and TCR #90 Family Tradtions

Here in Scandinavia we are counting the hours till Christmas as we celebrate on Christmas Eve 24th rather than on Christmas Day 25th. DH is doing the last round to the supermarket and I'm busy cooking. The cats are certainly feeling that something special is coming up and are more mischievous than they normally are. Been chewing on my hyacinths and sitting vigilance just outside the closet where I keep the pressies. Who says cats aren't clever?

To my utter delight and surprise my "Snooze" page was among the top 5 featured pages of the UOAS 1 December challenge. Erin Blegen from US won with her amazing layout called "Putting on the Spritz". Congrats to all ladies on your fabulous work and thank you DT for voting on my page! This is such a wonderful pre-Chrissy present!

Here's my page:

Today we also have the last palette of Christmas inspiration over at TCR. A very sophisticated and elegant palette of non-traditional colours:

We're working with Magenta, Silver, White and Black in Her Room.

This is my layout:

In my family it is tradition to write Christmas letters and lots of Christmas cards to family and friends near and far. The photo is of DH doing just that. I myself have more than 50 cousins who live all over the world, so it's quite a pile of cards that waits to be written :)

While we write our cards, we have glögg (recipe in one of my previous posts) and nibble on the first batch of Christmas cakes. Have some Christmas music playing in the background and lots of lit candles to get us in the right mood. This part is one of our most treasured Christmas traditions.



I have used papers from Teresa Collin, Basic Grey Black Dress and other bits and pieces that I had in my stash. I punched out circles of the different papers for the baubles, dressed them in snippets of Prima bling and lace. Cut out the tiniest little squares of black cardstock and placed with a tiny pop dot on the bauble before adhering a pearl and then "drawing" the hanger in Stickles Gold rather than glueing a ribbon or twine.

The grey alpha stickers are October Afternoon and the black ones are of course my faves at the moment - Prima. The silver "23" is American Crafts.



The little toy bear and bunny peeking out from the cut out quote and frame, are from Danish Tilda. Once again silver "25" from American Crafts. Little white liquid pearls dotted around the cut out "Christmas".



Some more baubles. I also smeared out a thin layer of glue on the baubles and poured both fine glitter as well as Shimmerz Enamelz in Jack Frost for some additional bling.

A scrummy stick pin from Meg's Garden and an acrylic star pin tucked in there on the left next to the photo.



Cut off snippets from a Prima script branch, a rose from KaiserCraft and a Prima jewel.



It's not easy to see, but there are two Prima chandelier jewels "hanging" to the far left. I've "drawn" their hangings in the same Stickles Gold as I did for the baubles. If you click on the photo, it'll come up bigger and you might have a better view.

A close-up of my DH.

On the front page of TCR are also some of the Christmas cards that I have already shared with you here but also some from the last and final batch that I promised to share with you today.

I made some tags that I then used to make cards with. Here are first the tags and then I show you what the finished card looks like. Everything on the tags and cards is from Danish Tilda.
























With the words of Emily Matthews I ring the Christmas bells and say Merry Christmas to ye all!

"From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another
The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other."

xoxox Eila

TCR #89_Enjoy The Moments That Make You Smile, more Christmas Cards and the launching of CSI

The evening has embedded Stockholm in a soft layer of snow. It's still not cold enough to make the snow stay very long, but it looks oooh so pretty floating down from the sky.

Only one week to go and Christmas feel is definitely in the air. Invited my hubby out for breakfast out on town yesterday and this morning. Certainly gives the day a rather nice start and we sure needed it, gosh the crazy crazy mob out there!

Thank you sweet ladies who took the time to visit my blog and to leave such beautiful love on my previous post despite the busiest of time!! it really warms my heart and makes your comments even more precious to me! Thank you!

Another beautiful un-Christmassy palette was released yesterday over at TCR. Here it is:

The inspirational photos are from the advent calendar that super-talented and super-sweet Julie Winks made for TCR's Christmas Inspiration. Here's the gorgeous calendar for you, just click on the photo and it will come up bigger:

Absolutely dreamy! Now to my TCR #89 that I have called "Enjoy The Moments That Make You Smile". As you no doubt understand, it was created quite some time before the 15 December challenge was posted over at UOAS. What is it they say, great minds think alike! I promise, I have not had any sneak peaks of Nadia's pretty sketch.

Over the years and as I've grown older, it is always the little moments in life that bring me the greatest joy. This photo is not my own but it still reminds me of my childhood and my mother's battered and stained recipe book. She loved to bake.



What looks like little specks of blue, are flakes of Shimmerz Enamelz in Jack Frost that I have misted with TA in Electric Blue and mixed before sprinkling onto the page on top of a thin layer of glue. It has THE most fabulous glitter to it IRL!

The chippie title from Dusty Attic I painted in chocolatey acrylic paint and left it without any other treatment. The little silver foil stars are mounted on pop dots and covered in Stickles Waterfall.



All papers except the music sheet, are from Swedish Maja Design's collection "Vintage Winter" that I have used before but then with patterns in blue.

The strip of caramel lace and bling is from Prima. The little white doily cut in half is from Martha Stewart.

The flowers are Prima. There is a little felt circle with a punched out butterfly topped by a jewel nesting on the right. It comes from Precocious Papers' Etsy shop that I have written about before, check it out HERE

I made a ginger bread figure from brown felt. Took a cookie cutter, touched up the part that cuts with white liquid chalk and pressed it on the felt before cutting out the figure. Then I took Waco pearl maker in white and traced the cookie, looks like icing when it has dried.



I used a Dusty Attic French Flourish under the flower cluster, it looks like THIS

I first lightly and randomly painted it in Adirondack dabber Snow Cap. Before it had dried I misted it in TA Electric Blue and sprinkled fine glitter on top, then I zapped it with my heat gun. Another heavy spray with the mist and another sprinkling of glitter.



I repeatedly stamped a Christmas flourish in gold ink before placing the chippie title on top of it.



Some blue brads from MME Lost&Found 2 around the title.

Here's a cute little measuring "spoon" or whatever it's called from a toy shop. Some star anise and dried cloves for that extra feel of baking. Here you can also see the Christmas flourish that I have stamped in brown around the page.

Here are some cards that I made earlier this month. I have the last batch to share with you in my next post just before Christmas.



This one is for a very very dear and close friend. The stripey paper is MME, the fussy cut pointsettias are from last year's K&Co Evergreen Christmas collection. The gold flourish is from Dusty Attic, I have just covered it heavily in Stickles Gold. A pair of small golden Christmas bells with a silk ribbon and then a cluster of Prima and KaiserCraft flowers. The silver alphas are American Crafts.



I've used papers from Meg's Garden for the next 4 cards. Lots and lots of fussy cutting on all 4 of them.







On this one I dabbed snowpaint to give some more feel of snow on the roof top, the tree branches and around the card. Leaves, ice blue flowers and a snippet from a jewel branch, all from Prima. The white rose is from KaiserCraft.





Very unusal colours for Christmas but oh so yummie!







And now on to Danish Tilda for the last two cards.





On this last card I have stitched strips of fabric, lace and ribbon onto a piece of canvas before cuttting out the heart shape. I made that little rolled fabric bloom and burned my finger real bad, beware of glue guns!





PSSSS .... The word is spreading like bush fire in blogland, something is happening on 6 January 2012.

Word is absolutely right too! A new challenge site called CSI - Color ... Stories ... Inspiration will be launched and boy are we in for some great challenges!

There's a sneak peek for you HERE

Sooo wonderful to see so many familiar names on the list of DT members, YAY!

Anna Karin Evaldsson

Debbi Tehrani

Eila Sandberg - that's lucky me!

Fi Kenward

Jenny Evans

Keandra Perkins-Willis

Nancy Burke

Shaunery Wharton

Susan Stringfellow

Sylvia Mellander

Tina Walker

Wendy Kwok

If you are a scrapbooker who loves a great challenge, be sure to sign up as a member of CSI and stay tuned for our challenges to begin on January 6, 2012!

And on this very happy note, I have come to the end of this once again long post. Enjoy the days that are left to Christmas - remember to breathe, stop for a second and just enjoy all the little things!

Much love to you all, xoxoxo Eila