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

OUAS 1 December 2012 challenge - "Snooze"

I promise you this post is a very short one! I only want to share the page that I made for the OUAS 1 December challenge with you.

The journalling criteria/theme is: The thing I look most forward to in December.

Write at least 2 sentences on what you look forward to in the next month. December is a festive month so your journalling could be about the Christmas season, the holidays, the presents or if you do not celebrate Christmas what does December bring for you that you look most forward to? Note:You layout DOES NOT have to be about Christmas! It can be about anything December brings.

Other ideas for journalling: an annual holiday or celebration, a specific event such as putting up the Christmas tree or pre Christmas traditions you might have leading up to Christmas, family time, snow covered fields or warmer weather, time off work, school holidays, change of weather, new season fruit.

And here is Nadia's lovely sketch:

I called my page "Snooze", quite self-explanatory if you read the journalling and look at the photo to the left tee hee! :))

All the papers are from The ScrapCake. Gorgeous and just beckoning to be fussy cut!!

The photographs are not mine, I found them on internet while I was browsing. Just adore the white on white and whitewashed and cream. My own alarm clock is far from this fancy, nor are my felt slippers this pristine ...




The word "merry" and the little snowflakes are from the Prima North Country stamp set.




The pine twig and "snow berries" are cut-off from a flower arrangement that I've had for ever. A chandelier vine in burgundy and cut-off piece from a yellow MME peal swirl to mimic Chrissy tree bling.



And that's it! Thanks ever so much for looking at my page!

Have a soupah doupah week folks! xoxoxo Eila

Have you seen my new blinkie? and TCR #88 Joyeux Nöel and some Christmas inspiration

Another week to tick off in the calendar and we're another week closer to Christmas. If work can get any crazier than it was in November, we certainly are approaching hurricane status at the moment.

Have you seen my new blinkie over there to the right? CSI - Color .. Stories .. Inspiration.

If you're curious to find out some more about this new challenge site that will be launched on 6 January 2012, go have a looksie  HERE   You might find some familiar names if you check out the list of DT members!

Friday also means release day over at TCR. This week we're in the family room with Shimmerz as sponsor, which means we have wonderful shimmering colours in the palette: Santa Baby, Egg Noggin, Frosty's Got the Blues and Grinchy Green. Don't you just looove those names!

Here's Lydell's fabulous inspo picture:

I totally fell for the Grinchy Green and the Egg Noggin, and of course I had to have some Santa Baby too.

This time I haven't used the multiple layers that I normally do, instead I let the tree be in focus. I fussy cut the pointsettias from last year's K&Co Evergreen papers. The toy parade at the bottom and the little squarelets to the left, are also from the same collection. Got to be my all-time fave Christmas collection! full of old-worldly charm and details.

Show any Swede one of the chocolates in the photo, and they will instantly tell you its name. They come in two layers in the box, and each family has its own rules for whether it's permitted to start picking from the bottom layer while the not-so-popular chocs are still left on the top layer. I say GO FOR IT! ;))



The chippie title is from the French online store Embelliscrap that I have mentioned several times before. I painted it in Shimmerz Frosty's Got the Blues and then I sprinkled generously with Shimmerz Enamelz in Jack Frost and zapped it with my heat gun. F-a-b-u-l-o-u-s glitter IRL!



The Dusty Attic snowflake was covered heavily in Stickles Diamond and then I sprinkled large glitter flakes on top and let it dry. When dry, I glued a Prima button on it and finished with a large diamontée jewel.



And finally, the tree itself. I cut a styrofoam cone in half using a very sharp knife. If your knife is dull, you'll have styrofoam pieces flying just about everywhere!

Then I dressed it in white lace German scrap alternating the layers with punched out strips of green paper from the K&Co Evergreen collection. Instead of tinsel, I wound strips of scalloped German scrap in gold. Stars with bling centres and pearls in white and the creamy golden colour of Egg Noggin.



I have also been making Christmas cards these passed few weekends. This week I'll share some old-fashioned ones with you. At the end of this post I will also give you the recipe for the "glögg" that I mentioned in my previous post.



Papers are from Swedish Pion Design. I made that little book, can be anything from a hymn book to a book of Christmas tales.



You have no doubt already guessed that the "God Jul" is Swedish for Merry Christmas. The "god" is pronounced with a long "o" just as the English word "food". So no religious connotations whatsoever. The "Jul" is pronounced with a long "u" just like in the English name "Julie" but skipping the "ie".

In Finland we say "Hyvää Joulua"!



More from Pion Design. Dusty Attic chippie flourish covered in white acrylic paint, glitter and Stickles. The roses are from KaiserCraft and the small white crocheted doily is from Leean Pearce's Etsy shop now closed for Christmas.

Do you see the white button that I have used as centre in the white rose? it's handmade by wonderfully talented Ivana Camdzic and can be ordered directly from her. Her email address is in my previous post. 



Papers from another Swedish designer, Maja Design. A chippie flourish from Dusty Attic and brown Prima alphas. The white stuff around the card is my much loved "snowpaint".



More Maja Design. The roses are from KaiserCraft, the lace at the bottom is German Scrap from Australian online store Meg's Garden, also mentioned in my previous post.





Going back to Swedish Pion Design in this one.



On this one I've used molding paste and a stencil to get the relief effect on a very heavy handmade cream coloured paper.

Aaaaand if you'e made it to the very end, here's the recipe for glögg:

For about 6 servings, you will need 2 dl (200 ml) of unflavoured pure vodka and 1 bottle (75 cl) of red wine. The wine doesn't have to be an expensive one, but it has to be soft and fruity, not spicy. Lots of bramble, raspberry, fudge, vanilla tinges in other words.

On day 1 take a container that has a lid and can be shaken without the liquid coming out. Pour the vodka into the container and add 3 pieces of dried whole ginger snapped in pieces, 2 dried pieces of bitter Seville orange (not the peel from 2 whole oranges!), 4 whole cinnamon sticks, 1 small coffee spoon of whole cardamom seeds and about 12 pcs of dried clove. Shake and set aside. Shake a couple of times a day for 2 days.

On day 3 remove all the spices, you need to squeeze the orange peels to get out the liquid. The liquid should be rather dark golden brown by now. Pour the alcohol liquid which should measure roughly 1,5 dl (150 ml) and the bottle of wine into a saucepan. Add 2 dl (200 ml) castor/granulated sugar and about 2 table spoons of vanilla sugar/powder. Bring to simmer, not boil. Taste to see if it's sweet enough for your taste, some like it rather sweet. Pull aside and let cool before pouring it into a bottle with a cork/cap that can be pulled tight. You will need an additional small bottle as you will have 75 cl + 15 cl of liquid. Let mature for about a week.

Before drinking, gently heat in a saucepan. It is not to be drunk in wine glasses or tea mugs as one serving is normally only about 6-8 cl. Put some raisins and peeled almonds in your cup before pouring the glögg on top. Beware! highly addictive and a splendid remedy for insomnia! Do not drive after you have drunk it as this beverage is 30% pure alcohol.

With the warmth of the glögg, scent of hyacinths, shimmering candle light and a photo of a typical shabby Swedish country window dressed for Christmas that I found on internet, I promise I have come to the very end of this looooong post!

Enjoy the weekend and 3rd of Advent! xoxoxo Eila

TCR #87 Together At Last and TCR #87 New Home card

So it's finally here, the month of December. With each year, time seems to go into warp 6 and Christmas knocks on the door almost before the replicator has finished making cards, buying gifts and the zillion other things that are on my to-do-list.

I love Christmas and save some extra vacation days only to be able to slot in a day off from work here and there up to Christmas. My friend Barbro says I have to be the only person on earth who writes Christmas letters with a fountain pen and still sends paper Christmas cards rather than electronic ones. Well, that may be so, but doing these things give me the genuine fuzzy and warm Christmas feel in my heart and I can only hope that some of the love sent is felt by the recipients.

Having said that, today is the the first in a line of December Christmas palettes over at TCR. It's a sunny and happy palette of the colours Candlelight, Blue Ribbons, Linen White and Silver Bells. Such wonderful names *sigh* and such gorgeous colours *even more sigh*. Absolutely fabulous work by Lydell putting together this, thank you so very much!

I am such an infinitely slow scrapper, but my page really scrapped itself even though it took a few days before everything had dried. I absolutely adore the colours! This LO is also the second heaviest page that I have ever created, the heaviest is the TCR #82 Christmas Wallhanger.

The title of my LO is "Together At Last". The photo is of my MIL and FIL on their wedding day in 1960. Some of you might recall that they had to wait for 5 years before they could afford to get married. It certainly was a day of great joy when they were finally together as husband and wife. My DH was born less than a year later.

All papers are from the BoBunny Welcome Home collection.



I handstitched in cream on the die cut shaped stripey layer. On the backing paper I used 2 threads each of cream and blue, gives the stitching almost the same effect as bakers twine but so much easier to stitch with. I'll come back to those frosty leaves under the brown Prima jewel swirl a bit later in my post.



I learned how to make the gingham ribbon flower in a tut by the beautiful sweet and awesomely talented queen of shabby chic, Ivana Camdzic.

That gorgeous white button is handmade by Ivana and made on order. She hasn't got an Etsy shop yet but she has told me that if you send her en email, she will send you a convo and pics of the buttons that can be ordered.

Check out Ivana's blog, you'll come to shabby heaven:      Paper Girl Crafts

Here's her email address:                                                  ivc689@mail.usask.ca               

Not only that, she is also featured GD for December over at UOAS!




Chunky layers, lace and lots of Prima.



A close up of the happy couple.



Do you see that yummie pearl pin nesting on the frosty leaves? It's a Majesty jewel pin from another totally fabulous online store, Meg's Garden in Australia. Click  HERE    for some fantastic browsing!

Meg is the most sweetest and loveliest lady ever, her service is super quick and smooth. I am sure you recognize a couple of talented ladies that are on her DT - Gayle Price and Adriana Bolzon. You can see their gorgeous work if you have a browse of Meg's Garden blog  HERE




So back to the frosty velvet leaves which I bought at Meg's Garden. When I bought them they were pale green. I started by taking a generous dollop of white Gesso on my fingers and simply rubbed it into the leaves. Then I repeated the process with my beloved Snow Paint. Before these two coats had dried, I dunked the leaves into glitter and Flower Soft in Polar White. When that had dried, I generously dabbed Stickles in Crystal on them and then sprinkled some more glitter on them.



The DA baroque chippie frame is more or less covered in the flower bonanza, IRL you can see more of it between the blooms. I wanted this flourish at the top to show however. The raw chippie looks like THIS
before it has been worked on.

I covered it several times in DH dabber Snow Cap, but instead of dabbing on the colour I used a brush and really slabbed it on. Then I covered it in TH crackle paint in Picket Fence. When that had dried I used oodles of Stickles Crystal on it. You should see it in candle light IRL - AHHH! that's glitter and shine for you!



Chunky, chunky! I have layered two different chippies from the BB Welcome Home collection on top of a TH ornament plate and then a resin frame. Blue jewels for some bling. Down in the left bottom corner you can also see a key from the BB Welcome Home collection, a cut-off snippet from a Prima Jewel branch, and a cut-off piece from a chandelier vine. The chandelier vine can be found in several places between the flowers.



Bling bling!

While I had the left overs from making my page still on my desk, I made a card for my friend L in the UK. She has just moved into her new home and has told me she's had her kitchen entirely fitted with units from the Swedish mecca of IKEA. Yup, there's one in Manchester too.

This really is a long post, so an extra big thank you to those of you who have actually made it to the end!

Wishing all of you beautiful kind people a truly wonderful weekend! I have a few Christmas gifts to buy, others to wrap in and some more cards to create. Looks like another super busy weekend but ho ho ho - that's how it should be in December!

Mr Chakotay - take her into warp 6! ;)))

xoxoxo Eila