Earth shattering news - I've been accepted as DT member at TCR!!

This is indeed a time of miracles! The excitement of keeping the news to myself during the past few weeks have been really nerve wrecking. As the news was released over at TCR this morning, I can let the cat out of the bag too - I'VE BEEN ACCEPTED AS DT!!! I have no words to describe the joy and pride I feel having been given this second opportunity to work with the awesomely talented ladies of the DT.

I am very humbled by the faith they show me and extremely nervous to play in such stellar company. Still, I cannot be but who I am and if anything of what I create can bring the ittiest bit of inspiration or pleasure to anyone, I am truly truly happy. I thank you all!

The other DT member to be announced, is the talented Kerry Murray. She makes the most lovely lovely floral pages imaginable.

So, firstly to the palette #67 itself. We are in the Family Room this week and the colours are Chamois Brown, Mint Green, Cement and Charcoal. Rather challenging at first glance but boy can you create something wonderful using more or less of some speficic colours as you will see if you check out what the girls have come up with HERE ON TCR
 

This is what I came up with.



The lovely lovely wisp of a girl in the photo is the daughter of our friends. I made the LO as a gift to her parents.

I have no clue what the papers are, had them in my stash without any reference to the line. MME?



Recently I've invested in some chippies from Dusty Attic, Imaginarium Designs and Maxine's Melange. Fabulously fun to alter them with mists and paint and whatever comes up in your mind.

The flourish that I've used here is from DA. I started by misting it in TA Sand + Crème de Cocoa + Suede + Patina + Clover to get as close as possible to the Chamois of the palette before touching it up with Shimmerz Blingz in Jilted Jade and Stickles Waterfall.



A centre of Prima blooms to start with, some golden stamens tucked in. Then I cut-out leaves from Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden and paired them with chippie twigs from Maxine's Melange. The chippies I first painted in TH crackle paint in Peeled Paint before touching up the leaves with chalk in Chestnut Roan. It gives them the matted effect that I wanted. The buttefly is from Imaginarium Designs and I've only used Stickles Gold on it.



The chippie frame at the bottom is from Imaginarium Designs and here I used crackle paint in Picket Fence and Rock Candy before adding some Shimmerz Blingz in the same Jilted Jade as on the flourish. The alphas forming the title are Anna Griffin Francesca.

I also want to share a card that I made for my MIL's 86th birthday, which was yesterday. We drove her to special places that she wanted to visit and it was a day of many memories, some really sad and others very happy ones. Even being close to 90, the wrongdoings of her childhood are still very painful. Good thing is we also visited places where she had spent the happiest moments of her life as newly married with the light of her life, her newborn, only child (my DH).



The papers and ribbon are all from Danish Tilda. The white fabric bloom is a TH Tattered Floral and a gift from my lovely scrappy friend Scrapbooktiner aka Doreen in the UK. Thank you darling!



I misted the centre and some petals of the fabric bloom in TA Tattered Rose. The centre is a left over carnation from a Prima vine. A green organza ribbon and some golden stamens.

Well, I think that's enough of groundbreaking news for today. It's Friday and the fridge is echoing empty. Time for major grocery shopping with hubbs, not much exciting happening in my life today. Wish you all a wonderful weekend wherever you may be! Thank you so much for having a peek! will be visiting you soon, promise.

xoxoxox

Gruesome Murder and Sweet Birthdays

Weather forecast obviously got it entirely wrong, the sun has been showing her dazzling face since our hols started only temporarily clouded by a couple of short and light drizzles. Just the perfect weather for picknicks and cheery outings with friends.

Just before the weekend, one of our dear friends had his birthday. As hubbs and I have absolutely no character at all when it comes to calories and a jolly good time, we happily tugged along when the partner of the said friend suggested we take him out on spin in the country side.

Said and done, we started off his day by having breakfast at a bakery cum very chic café only a stone's throw from where we live. Nothing beats a really strong latte with a couple of extra shots of espresso, croissants & bread rolls almost straight out from the oven and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Here's the birthday card I made for him:

The papers are from Swedish designer Maja. Clocks are cut-out from a WP mini pad, put them there to tease him about the fact that time flies and next year he'll hit the "big oh" celebrating his bi-centennials he he he. The paper with pears on also has a subtly printed recipy for a pear crumble. The very chocolate brown felt and lace bloom is from Precocious Paper on Etsy, don't be scared of their brights, just scroll down the page and you'll find lots of other colours too if you click  HERE 

Tummies full we then drove out to the coast and a visit to the 16th century castle called Gripsholm. It has a very colourful history of imprisoned royalty and gruesome murder, but also an enchanting 18th century theatre and absolutely divine 18th century rooms within its impressive stone walls.

This is what welcomes you when entering the grounds.

Castle Gripsholm is located in the very heart of what used to be prime viking territory, located on the shores of lake Mälaren. The rune stone is a reminder of this. For those of you unfamiliar with these stones, they are letters or memorials to loved one and often tell of a father or a son departed to far far away countries, never to return home.

The part of the coast where we live and the cities around lake Mälaren, are incredibly lush as you can see from the next photo. Reminds me a lot of some parts of the British Isles. The grass and trees stay pretty green all summer through with the proximity to water.

Finishing this trip to Castle Gripsholm with two more photos with a feel of the Tudor quarters of Hampton Court palace outside London. Love the burned tiles of different hues and the lead windows. The scrummie end to our day will follow in another post.

While I'm at birthdays, here's a girly birthday card to my friend Margareta. She's all into shabby herself.

Papers and the little vintage maiden are Melissa Frances 5th Avenue.  Leaf trinket pins Maya Road, and white crocheted doily from Leeann Pearce's Chip Chop Shop. Blue gardenia was originally white and is misted with TA Glimmer Chalk in Cornflower, peach roses, scrunchy seam binding and lace from my stash.

Now off to pick strawberries and a leisurely lunch under the apple trees in an orchard before bracing myself for a tour to the world's first ever and now largest IKEA, which happens to be only minutes away by car from where we live. HAVE to get some sorts of little scrap nook in our tiny spare room as the stash is flooding our bedroom and things are getting rather desperate.

Be good, be well and have a wonderful start to the week folks! Thank you so very much for visiting and having a peek!

xoxoxox Eila

TCR 65 "Sommarbad" (summer dips in the sea) and TCR 65B "Stockholm In My Heart" and the page I tried to upload yesterday

The colours in the palette that TCR released on Friday are among my absolute top favourites; blue and tan with a hint of mint. Here's the gorgeous palette:

The tan made me think of old and battered sepia photos and as you all know, I love old photos. This one is from MIL's photo album and shows DH's two cousins with their dad one summer in the early 1950's. DH spent all his childhood summers with his maternal relatives on the Swedish island called Gotland. It has the most magnificent fine-grained sand beaches but also a coastline of soft, round cliffs. THE perfect place for mainland holiday makers, even now.



I used craft cardstock on top of a patterned blue/tan/newspaper print paper from Swedish designer Pion Design. I dry brushed Gesso and misted with TA in Suede before I used a heavy hand to distress the edges.



The big alphas were in craft before I misted them in TA Glimmer Chalk in Cornflower and then glazed them. I really like the shine to them, reminds me of the surface of water.



Some flowers that I snipped of a bouquet of silk flowers and the golden puddle is Universal Ink in Gold. Just like the moonshine on a clear night and the reflexes of the sun in water.



This one is to show you the "snowpaint" that I've used before. It's like Gesso mixed with very fine sand. Gives a fantastic texture IRL.



And the WP lighthouse that so many have used before me.

As I love any hue of blue, I couldn't resist making a second LO for TCR #65. I called it "Stockholm In My Heart". Any Swede immediately starts humming this song when they hear the first bars being played. It's an ode to my hometown Stockholm and how beautiful she lies between the bracken waters of the Baltic Sea and the sweet waters of the lake Mälaren. As I've mentioned so many times before, it's all about water in Stockholm and no wonder, the thousand-year-old city is built on 11 islands connected by bridges. Enough of geography.



The pic is of me and hubbs on a balmy summers evening a couple of years ago, we're having pick-nick with our best friends and the skyline of our hometown can be seen in the background. I handstitched around the whole page and also stitched some leaves and flourishes along the left side. The alphas are Prima and originally green, so I altered them by dabbing some Sky Blue and Chestnut Roan on them.



More gorgeous Imaginarium Design chippies, just love them. I started by chalking the flourish in Chestnut Roan, then dabbed it with Sky Blue before I Stickled in Cinnamon, Waterfall and Patina. Some minty pearls and jewels to finish it.



All papers are from Swedish designer Inkido. Dotted lace/netting from WP.



And a close-up of the pic and the misting. Mask from Prima. I would like to suggest you click for a larger image so that you can really see the blue/cream/green floral paper under the tan one. I just adore those brand-new papers from Inkado! I fussy cut loads of the roses and layered them along the left-hand side of the page on top of the stitching and in the cluster at the top.

Yesterday Blogger wouldn't let me upload a page that I had made just for myself. Let's see if it works now instead.



More typical Swedish summer images. This time the photo is of grass straws of wild forest strawberries, sweeter than any cultivated strawberries, laid out on the soft round cliffs found in the Stockholm archipelago. Even though its very late in the night, the cliffs are still warm from the sun earlier in the day. Here you can also see some of the famous summer light. Remember we're talking of almost midnight here!



All the papers are Anna Griffin Franscesca. Absolutely divine, soft, mild greens, blues and pinks. Here I have experimented making accordion flowers for the first time ever. Lesson learned is to use really strong glue and not fib with the pleats ;))





Just like old wallpaper! and a sweet posy of a Prima branch, scrunchy seambinding and a trail of fussy-cut blooms from another line by Anna Griffin.



Dear me, now I must have bored you stiff with my florals and fussy cutting. Hope you scrolled down and skipped the uninteresting pics. For those of you who have actually, yet again (boy, this is getting a habit) come all the way down here - cudos to you! and a really really big humble thank you!!

Should you generously also want to leave some comments or tips on how I could have made them better, I thank you a second time!!

Wednesday is coming to its end over here, it has been a really warm and sunny day. I think we'll settle for some Italian antipasti and cantaloupe for dinner. Some rosé of course and Doreen, if you read this - here's to you sweets! psss, I have had a couple of them Mojitos too ...

Cheerio for now! xoxoxox Eila

CCG 198 "U1253" and something summery just for my pleasure

It is the second day of my summer hols and I've spent a couple of days making a frightful mess of our kitchen after a weekend of sleeping, sleeping, eating and sleeping again. Finished my take on CCG 198 this evening - Janet's prompt is to use something vintage. I heard you, something vintage coming up!

First the palette itself so you have the colours fresh in mind. The DT call allowed for brown, black, white and craft to be used in addition to the four colours of the combo. Am a bit hesitant about whether it still applies, went for some additional brown anyway.

I did find the Retro Red rather challenging, but I managed to squeeze in hints of red in the Prima jewel branch and a touch of smeared out liquid pearls on some leaves. Not near any Retro Red though.



The inspirational photo made me think of what the US in the 1950's and 1960's stood for; dreams, hopes, everything is possible, super fridges, super markets, super malls, hamburgers, jeans, checkered shirts, music, and freedom. Rather than concentrating on an actual 1950's car, I thought of the feeling having a car gave MIL and SIL in 1952. The freedom it gave them and the feeling of a bright promising future.

This is MIL (to the right) and her best friend Inga (to the left). The same Inga that I scrapped in my CCG 175 "Memories of Inga", another summer around the same time as this photo was taken.



The papers are all from G.C.D. Studios Ella Blue. Fussy cut layered flowers and some Primas and Maya Road trinket leaf pins. The brads are from a local store, have no idea what brand they are.



Oh heavenly bliss! the much longed for postman arrived this morning with a padded bag from Australia and in it were my precious chippies from Imaginarium Design. I simply HAD to have some of it on my page! First I painted it in white acrylic paint, then I smeared on some TA Glitter Glam in Esspresso Bean before applying some dollops of something that is like Gesso mixed with very fine grained sand. Then a squirt or two of TA mist in Sand to finish off the look. Me likes it big time!





Here you can see the third layer of paper the edges of which I have folded over. IRL it gives a really neat effect of almost a shadow box, adds wonderful depth. I have also applied liquid pearls around the rim/frame of the whole page.



Delicious Imaginarium Design chippie corner!



Have to show you a close-up of the alphas. They were originally craft and I misted them in Shimmerz Concrete several times before I glazed them. "U1253" stands for the number plate of the car.



Oh happy days indeed!

While we're on the summer theme, I also made a page just for me. But because Blogger is suddenly having issues again, I cannot upload the pics. I will try again tomorrow.

I thank you dearly for staying with me this far. Your comments are truly precious to me, thank you so much for any you may want to leave!

Have a fantastic week! off to feed the felines of our household or else they'll be up to some mischief for sure.

xoxoxoxo Eila

TCR #64 Special Childhood Memories and release of new DT at CCG

Finally - last day of work before blissful summer freedom! Having a late start to the day and am working from home yay!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I absolutely adored TCR's palette #64 but got seriously stuck with my mojo deserting me. Good thing was I got to play just for fun making the other two pages. Anyhow, as I got home from work yesterday evening, our cats had pushed down some papers that I had sitting our kitchen table onto the floor. As soon as I saw what had come up on top my mojo banged me on my head and demanded some action. I normally NEVER have any energy left to scrap during weekdays but now I got such an extra energy boost from nowhere that dear hubbs and cats just stared at me in wonder. They all quietly retreated to the family room ..

Here is what my frenzied tearing, cutting and pasting resulted in after an hour (seriously no joking, I NEVER produce anything in less than 4 hours!!):



I bought this floral Glitz paper just because it is so pretty, had no project in mind at the time.



Isn't the Imaginarium Design chippie title just the yummiest?! their products are out of this world gorgeous! I started by dabbing it entirely in Sky Blue. Then misting it with TA chalboard Cornflower. Traced some Shimmerz Blingz in December Sky around the edges and finished off with Stickles Diamond. The pearly shimmery effect is divine IRL, as always nothing of it photographs any good.

I've placed an order with them for some more of their amazing lovelies, will start stalking the postie next week. Absolutely mind boggling stuff!  If you haven't checked them out before, please do!! You find their BLOG if you click HERE and their webshop if you click HERE



The flowers and leaves are snipped off from a bouquet of silk summer blooms that I've had for ages; buttercups and forget-me-nots - what can be more summery than that! The duckies are cut-out from October Afternoon 5&Dime and the resin frame is from my stash. Some mini Basic Grey buttons, and Maya Road trinket pins.



The dotted yellow&white pp is from K&Co Water Color Bouquet, the sky blue is from Martha Stewart Lace & Doilies, the music sheet is an old MME, the red&white dotted is Crate, the soft floral to the far left and right is and old K&Co. The cherries I cut out from the K&Co Flora & Fauna. A snippet of left over lace, the fabric brad is from Danish Tilda, the small white doily and the large yellow one at the top are bought from Leanne Pearce's Chip Chop Shop on Etsy that you will find HERE



Just had to show you a close up of the girls!



Both TCR and CCG released their new palettes this morning, CCG using the same one that they had for their DT call last week;

This week's Designer Challenge: Focus on Style - Retro, Shabby or Heritage. What is your style? Bring it on!!! Use a vintage design in your projects (layouts or cards) this week.


*DRUM ROLL* I am truly happy to see soooo many familiar names on the list of CCG's new DT members, so many awesomely talented ladies!

Continuing from our 2010 Team:

Bente Fagerberg - Sweden
Debbi Tehrani - USA
Kaori Watanabe - Japan
Kim Moreno - USA
LG Belarmino - Philippines
Maiko Kosugi - Japan
Nadia Cannizzo - Australia
Ria Mojica - Philippines
Sarah Klemish - USA
Susan Dupre - USA
Susan Stringfellow - USA
Wendy Kwok - Singapore

And Introducing….

Cynthia Lloréns - Brazil
Eva Pizarro - Chile
Fi Kenward - Australia
Helen Tilbury - South Africa
Jasmine Shea - Australia
Kaori Fujimoto - Japan
Karen Watson - Australia
Kelly Holbrook - USA
Lilith Eeckels - Belgium
Marilyn Rivera - Puerto Rico
Melinda Thompson - Australia
Milagros C. Rivera - Puerto Rico
Nancy Burke - USA
Nomura Tomomi - Japan
Tanya Tahir - Australia
Tina Walker - USA

WOOT WOOT!! CONGRATS TO ALL OF YOU!!

Well, time to push in the last few hours of work. Ta for taking the time to have a peek, you know how much I love reading your comments so thanks in advance for any you might want to leave again!

Wish you all a fantastic weekend! Weather forecast has promised rain, rain and some more rain in Stockholm.

xoxoxo Eila

Winter Sailing and Frozen Days - no challenges! just for my own pleasure

After a smorgasbord of sunshine and rain during Midsummer, the summer is officially inaugurated. Today saw almost mirages in the asphalt jungle of Stockholm, the mercury hovered at +35C (95F) at 4 p.m. when I got home - that's as hot as it gets here!

This week's palette over at TCR is absolutely lovely dovely, who doesn't adore Bright Red, Baby Blue, Lolly Pink and Buttercup Yellow?

I find it fascinating to see how different all pages look depending on what colour has been used as main. So many of the pages uploaded have used Crate Emma's Shop and Girls Paperie papers, I spent over a day pulling out papers and embellies without getting anywhere, so I just gave it a rest.

CCG are having a DT call, so no uploads in the gallery, only applications submitted. I wish all applicants really really good luck!

With a day to scrap at hand I simply dived in and played for my own pleasure. After a period of creating multi-layered romantic and shabby layouts, I really felt like doing something less elaborate but very Scandinavian. As I had the whole stack of papers from the brand new line from Swedish designer Maja almost untouched, the choice was rather easy peasy.

I used photos that were taken last winter together with the very summery maritime papers to remind me of how incredibly we long for summer when the snow piles up and lakes freeze over.

Here's the first one that I've called Winter Sailing. It's taken by my friend K and shows the marina with the jetties and red buoys that pop in the blue-white landscape.



I had some anchor and star shaped charms in my stash that I used together with the rope- like white thick silk twine.



Some pearls that I stuck in crackle paint and heated to get out the cracks, mimicing ice.



A plexi star and papers with summery motives; sailing boats and red floats so typically used for leisurely summer angling.



Here you can see the crackle paint again.

And the second page I called Frozen Days. It was the fluffy reed in the photo that made me go for the orange in the papers. Orange is by the way the colour most Swedish life wests have.

The photo is of people skiing and skating in the Stockholm archipelago. On a sunny, wind-still day it's really a wonderful experience, though I prefer to sit on shore having my coffee and sandwiches. Simply enjoying a glorious, peaceful moment in life doing absolutely nothing.



The fluffy brownish/orangeish/creamish ribbon is just so touch-me-please yummie IRL. I had to rescue the reel from the cats several times while working on the layout. They loved it too!! Thank you sweet colourful Rebekah Krueger for the gift!



Here you can see it close-up. White acrylic paint, both dry brushed and splatter à la Lindy. My DH said it looked like the stuff seagulls leave behind ... have to admit he's not entirely wrong ;)



I used a Crafter's Workshop mask and misted with TA Gold + Lemongrass + Suede for the flowers that I also cut out. Some Stickles Cinnamon, white acrylic paint, iridiscent and white embossing powder on a cut-off Prima jewel branch that I zapped with my heat gun. Hoped to get a feel of snow and ice on a dry twig but it doesn't come across that well in the photo.



Killed two seasons with one stone; winter and summer! Hope you enjoyed having a peek at what winter looks like over here. Really loved having you for a visit, thank you! Please do come again if you are in the neighbourhood.

xoxoxo Eila