Darling I'm home! catching up with TCR and CSI releases

It's Monday and I'm back on home turf. My goodness, I am totally bowled over with all the comments on my previous post! sooo many! THANK YOU so so much!! and yes, hubby was mighty chuffed reading the praize tee hee!

For the first time in the odd 30 years that I've been going to London, I've now actually seen it snowing there. Really so weird seeing snowmen in Hyde Park.

England being England, it was smouldering hot and stuffy indoors in the conference room and freezing outdoors though the temperature was a mere springlike -3C or so. Back home we had sub zero temperatures of down to -30C up north.

Even if the aim of my trip this time was not shopping, I can still report that colour blocking very much à la Mary Quant op pop 1960's, and unusually fruity and vibrant spring colours alongside with classic navy/red/white/creams and black/amber/dusky blue/creams were filling all the shops. Stripes are definitely hot hot as are dots.

And yes, I really did meet with sweet Doreen aka Tinkerbell! here are a couple of shots to prove it.

My colleagues and I had booked a whole pod on the London EYE for ourselves so of course Tink and I had to sip some bubblies together with the other ladies. L-O-V-E-L-Y!!

Yup! that's me to the left!

After our ride, Doreen took med to the former town hall of London, now converted into a posh hotel, where we had yummilicious champagne afternoon tea. Think I was a bit tipsy having drunk more than 2 glasses of the golden drops tee he ;))

Time truly flew and before we knew, the London sky turned pink and the lights across the Thames shone like fire flies and it was time for us to say good bye. Words don't describe how fantastic it was to meet Doreen IRL and with the flutter of her gossamer wings, off she went on the Jubilee line. Next time Doreen, next time we'll make sure to have more time!! Thank you so much for a gorgeous day!

With a little peek at the nook of the breakfast room of my hotel - cosy huh! - I temporarily say farewell to London. I will share some more pics in my next post.

Catching up with both TCR #97 and CSI #6 releases, this will be a longish post.

First the inspo picture from CSI:

We are astounded by the response we've had to our little challenge! Debbi actually had to create a second album for Case File No. 4 because we went over the limit for the number of photos that fit into an album! We had over 100 layouts for that challenge. Thank you so much for your enthusiastic participation!

We have Boys Rule Scrapbook Kits as our February sponsor. If you haven't had a chance to check out their kits and their cool concept, you must. And you must play with us this month because you could win one of their awesome kits!

We continue our February theme in honor of Exotic Vegetables and Starfruit month with another gorgeous color scheme that is making me wish for summer to get here. We're sure you will find the colors very versatile. This week, we've arranged our team's layouts by dominant color or background, according to the order of the colors in The Scheme.

CSI Members, get out your forensics kits and get ready for some sleuthing as we reveal Case File No. 6 . . .

Detailed clues, as promised...

COLOR DETAILS & RGB CODES

goldish-green: 220.213.82 - curtains
orange: 244.153.13 - oranges
brown: 164.134.78 - front of table
yellow: 253.240.111 - lemons
brownish-black: 40.26.3 - lamp

EVIDENCE DETAILS

Choose two (or more)of the following elements to include on your layout:

glass or wood transparent elements
wood or wood-grain accents
combine two different patterns that have the same colors
fabric
pleating
metals

JOURNALING DETAILS (TESTIMONY)

Choose one (or more)of the following to inspire your journaling:

Tell three things about your subject.
Use a transparency or vellum "container" to hold your journaling.
Illuminate your subject: shine the light on something the viewer wouldn't know by just looking at your picture.
Inspiration words: clear, comfort, shine. --Use one or more of these words as a jumping-off point for your journaling.

I have to admit I have always found orange a little bit challenging, so this week's case file was quite tricky for me. Even though I'm not pleased at all with my page, this is what I eventually came up with:



Only 6 months ago I would not even have considered buying Jillibean, but here I am, with a couple of her collections represented on this page! And check out - no Prima blooms on this one either!



Everything except the buttons, the two small chippie hearts and the wood leaves are from Jillibean.



I made the accordion bloom from the same orange paper that can be seen under the photo for instance. The leaves are from KaiserCraft, I cannot remember where the buttons are from.





I suppose it doesn't come a complete surprise to you that DH is mean with the vacuum cleaner. He had the whole apartment cleaned when I came home yesterday. The cats were brushed and they stood all on parade when I fell in through the door last night. Oh the joy of coming home to loved ones!



I have seen so cool multi-layered hearts on internet, but when I tried making them, they turned out anything but cool. Also my sewing machine decided to give up on me with a big bang, almost shredded the pleated paper.

Now over to TCR #97 where we are in His Room this week with colours bearing yummie names like Royal Blue, Chocolate Brown, Cool Cream and Dusty Burgandy.

It is the second week that Swedish Maja Design have sponsored the DT with papers, this time from their fabulous collection called "Vintage Winter". Marie, the owner, has been unbelievably generous with her donations - we are not having just one RAK at the end of the month but one RAK each WEEK (the same collection that is featured respective week)!!

Here is my page:



Looksie - I finally got to stick down some Prima blooms on my layout! :))



The boy rolling a big snowball and the snowman on the other side of the chippie flourish, were cut out from one of the papers. The stamps are BoBunny and from my January kit from Swirlydoos, as is the brown glittery horizontal strip.






Yummie dusty Attic flourish that I have painted in white acrylic paint and doused thickly in Ice Stickles Crystal Ice and Star Dust. The white rose is from Prima and I very very carefully just touched some of the petals with a cotton bud dipped in Tattered Angels Midnight Blue before drenching the whole rose in Tattered Angels Dazzling Diamonds to make the blue bleed. Also the rose got several layers of the same Stickles as the flourish.



Once again the photo is not mine, I found it on Finnish internet. It could have been though as this is exactly what can be seen here in Stockholm. Only thing is I don't have a red tricycle sitting on my yard!



Beautiful Tania Martyns once had an overlay that she had stamped with white swirls and flourishes. I had this stamp from BoBunny sitting on my desk and found a sheet of acrylic in one of my drawers, the result was this big snowflake stamped with Gesso. I really like the effect if I may say so.



The flowers are from my January Swirlydoos kit. I also misted some gauze in different blue hues before kneading and pulling the gauze. My goodnes, it must have taken me 3 days to get rid of the blue stains from my hands! note to myself: use rubber gloves next time!




The cross stitch letters forming the word "snow" are from Marianne Design.

Et voilà! we have reached the end of this post. Absolutely wonderful having you for a visit, you know how I read and treasure every little word you leave for me! Thank you so much for taking the time to have a look at my pages!

Have a souper douper week! Toodelipip! xoxox Eila

OUAS 1FEB2012 Mon Amour and an experiment

Hi there!

If it's Monday, 6 February and if this actually comes up it means Blogger has done what it's supposed to and my husband really is as I describe him in my page for the 1FEB2012 challenge over at Once Upon A Sketch - Mon Amour (My Love).

It means this darling wonderful husband of mine has actually helped me upload my page to the OUAS site and checked that my post has gone live while I am physically in London! Thank you Bengt! I know he's having a peek :)) Promise to get you your fave chocs from Heathrow!

And thank you Helen T for guiding me to the right place on Blogger!

So here's first the Journalling Criteria/Theme: LOVE

February 14th is Valentines Day here in Australia and in many parts of the world. For this challenge we would like you to create a project about the one MALE you love. And we do not mean just your partner or spouse. We mean any male in your life.

Ideas for journalling: You could journal about the love you have for your son, father, grandfather or a special person in your life or any pet.

Remember that you are allowed to also create a card or altered project based on this sketch and instead of the journalling criteria you need to use a quote.

You must combine our journalling criteria/theme with this sketch:

Well, there are two boys in my life but this kind, generous, warm hearted and incredibly understanding and supportive man is the love of my life. May I present to you, my husband Bengt:



Everything, except the Prima alphas, on this page come from my January kit from Swirlydoos. Fantastic kits with gorgeous flowers and anything you can wish for to match the papers. The only downside is that I live in Sweden and the kits are sent from the US, which means they take for ever to reach me.



Do you see the soft white snowflakes tucked in here and there? They come all the way from South Africa and are a gift from sweet sweet Helen Tilbury. Thank you darling!



This pic of DH was taken back in 2006 when we had an extended weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was February back then as well and truly freezing. Just like Stockholm is right now. The schnapps and beer that we had with our delicious Danish smörrebröd knew their place and the warmth they created was certainly well needed. Lots of coffee breaks and lots of assorted Danish sustained our rather painfully cold sightseeing around town that weekend.



The man who gets teary eyed when at weddings or cuddling our cats, when seeing a romantic film on TV or thinking about me being away for a whole week, has lots of emotions but those who don't know him, cannot see any of it. Instead he takes to doing practical things to show how much he cares. After our 12 years together, I know him inside out and the intake of breath tells me what he is feeling. He is such a soft and tender man, but incredibly fierce and fearless should he need to protect his family.






In the kit from Swirlydoos was also something I've never tried before; Mica Flakes from Melissa Frances. I have my belowed "snowpaint" that I've mentioned umpteen times before, these flakes are really a new discovery worth trying again. Love the glittering fluffy flakes!



And there we are at the end of this experimental post. Thank you infinitely for taking the time to come for a visit! See you in a week!

xoxoxo Eila

TCR #96 Life's Simple Treasures and sponsorship by Swedish Maja Design

Happy Friday to all of you wherever you are!

Stockholm is freezing with temperatures around -12C (that's 10F)and snow coming down in thick sheets. Had to go and buy myself knitted leggings to pull over my thin nylons or else I think the nylons would have been frozen solid onto my chubby legs.

Cold weather gives a perfectly good reason for eating comfort food and high energy desserts, just think what seals would do without their padding! ;)) Come to think of it, I am rather spool formed at the moment but as most people look like Russian babushkas wrapped in woollen layers, nobody sees any difference anyway ha ha!

Today is release day over The Color Room and we have a new fabulously generous sponsor for the month of February; Swedish Maja Design! CLICK HERE and you'll come straight to their Store Finder and with another click, also to their brand new blog in English.

Scandinavians are already very familiar with their gorgeous double-side papers of an unprecedented lusciously thick and supreme quality and now they are expanding their business over the puddles to the US and Australia. Marie, the owner, told me she is currently in negotiations with several interested Australian and American retailers so you ladies will soon be able to buy them on your home turf! A little bird also told me there might be a scrapbook store in Adelaide soon to offer them too ...

This week's palette is with pretty pretty Lolly Pink, Cool Cream, Powder Blue and Celery Green. Talk about promises of spring!

Here's also the inspo photo and Lydell's gorgeous sketch:

Maja Design has sponsored the DT with a MOST generous pack of the loveliest of papers for all 4 February palettes. I promise you ladies, you will be absolutely stunned seeing them and the versatily of the DTs projects created!

Not only that - we will be having WEEKLY RAKs donated by Maja Design! each week one lucky randomly drawn winner will win the featured collection of that special week! you only have to play along and use the colours as close as possible on your project!

All February palettes have been specially designed by Lydell using 4 different collections from Maja Design. The collection that inspired this week's palette is called Crea Diem.

This is what I came up with:



The photos are not my own, I found them on internet. That's a major problem now, I simply don't have enough photos of my own as we don't photograph much in winter. Can't you just smell those raspberries still warm from the summer sun and deliciously juicy. Pour some ice cold double cream on them and sprinkle some muscovador caster sugar on top - aaaahh! that's life's simple pleasures for you captured in a bowl!



Resin flowers and roses from KaiserCraft.



The square, heart and wings were plain raw chippies from Australian online store Maxines Melange before I dressed them in papers from the Crea Diem collection. I have also lightly tapped on some TH Black Soot around all edges.

To my great sorrow Maxine has had to close down her online business as it was impossible for her to work fulltime and then pack all orders at night. Totally understandable but what a loss to us! I so hope Maxine will continue to show us her stunning work in other places, that girl really is on a planet of her own where her star shines the brightest of them all!



The cherry blooms and branches just called out to be fussy-cut and who am I to resist!



All the Maja papers have beautiful beautiful patterns, some very delicate and subtle. I really couldn't cover up all of this beauty - just look at those swirls and flourishes! I stamped the itty bitty dusty pink bloom and the brown mini doily print here and there on my page.



More raw chippies from Maxine's that have been dressed in Crea Diem papers. The strips at the bottom are actually the back of the manufacturer's strips from the bottom of the papers. All Maja papers have the most wonderful prints at the back of those strips. Here I've combined strips from 3 different papers.









I am leaving soon for a combined pleasure and business trip to London where I will meet sweet Doreen Spencer, also known in blogland as Tinkerbell. As I haven't figured out yet how to make Blogger release time scheduled posts, I will alas have to leave blogging for a week.

Hubby and cats will reclaim the sofa, the remote and rely on take-away dinners from Mama Thai while I'm away. Well, I'll enjoy every minute I have in London. Have pre-booked tickets for a fabulous exhibition with Cecil Beaton's photos at the V&A as well as to the Museum of London where they have a splendid exhibition celebrating Dickens' 200th birthday anniversary.

I know for sure there will be cause for drinking champagne at at least one occasion too! So by all means hubby, you go and have your tin foil containers of Massaman Curry at Mama's, I'll think of you fondly when I nibble my little hoeurs d'ouvres.

So time's up, thanks for popping by! wish me bon voyage and chat again after 13 February. Till then, take care, be good and have fun!

Cheers! xoxoxo Eila

CSI #4 When Day And Night Are The Same

Hello lovely ladies!

This post will be short and sweet, at the moment I am working with 2 conferences that run in parallell and do practically nothing else than sleep, eat and work this week.

So, the leisurely ponderings on life will have to wait until my next post. I'm taking you straight to the release of Case File 4 of CSI which was released last weekend.

It's hard to believe January is winding down so soon! What a fantastic month it's been, and we're looking forward to another fantastic week as we wrap up our January theme. As we approach our fourth week, we already have almost 400 members and 234 beautiful layouts in our gallery! We continue to grow each day. We can't wait to see what's in store in the coming months. Please help spread the word by sharing our site with your scrappy friends.

If you haven't yet had a chance to take a crack at our Case Files, you will definitely want to make time this week so you'll have a chance to win a prize from our generous January sponsor, The Dusty Attic.

We've been so inspired all month by our guest designers from The Dusty Attic, and this week is no exception! Mistra Hoolahan and Michelle Grant contributed amazing layouts again this week. And our special Guest Detective, Nadia Cannizzo, is back with another gorgeous page.

We're very excited to announce that Brit Sviggum has joined the CSI design team and she's now an official CSI Detective! Brit's unique style captivated us, and we knew we had to have her join the team. We will be growing our team in the coming months, and we plan to have a design team call at some point, so if youwould like to become a part of the team, be sure to keep playing along--you might just catch our eye like Brit did!

Our final Case File celebrating Lewis Carroll's January birthday is inspired by a fascinating remix of Alice in Wonderland by Elena Kalis, who does amazing underwater photography.

Now, CSI Members, get out your forensics kits and get ready for some sleuthing as we reveal Case File No. 4 . . .

COLOR DETAILS & RGB CODES

TIPTOPE IN THE TEAL - 2.136.130 - the wavy part of the water on the left
GILDED FRAME - 207.149.67 - reflection of her legs (I think) in the water)
PATENT LEATHER - 14.9.6 - her shoes
BOUYAN BEIGE - 245.238.220 - water reflection highlights
WATERY TEAL GREEN - 138.175.162 - mid-tones of the water

Please check out all the prompts for JOURNALING DETAILS (TESTIMONY)and EVIDENCE DETAILS on CSI - looooots of inspiration there for your!


The deadline for completing Case File No. 4 is Sunday, February 5, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Thus, you have a week plus the two weekends to complete your layout.

If you haven't visited CSI yet, go have a peek HERE


And here's my page:



In my post on the OUAS 15 January challenge, I wrote that I want to explore other aspects of scrapbooking than just scissors and paper during 2012. This page is the first of these explorations where I have used gesso and lots of mists.



The title "When Night & Day Are The Same" comes from this photo. It was taken in the Stockholm archipelago at midnight - YES at 00.00 - on a Midsummer's Night some years ago. You can see that hubbs and I are rather bundled up with double fleece sweaters and scarf, so the light and the water give a false impression of warmth.





Some KaiserCraft Madame Boutique yummies in there and a white painted Dusty Attic flourish.





Love the swirls and puddles of the glimmer mist on the gesso. Used a flourish stamp on the semi-wet gesso before misting. Lesson learned, use a larger stamp or else the pattern won't come across. I very very lightly dabbed the surface of the gesso rivulets with a finger sponge and TH distress ink in Black Soot to make them come out just a tad better.





But I wouldn't be me if I didn't finish with some flowers :))



Thanks so very very much for still wanting to come for a visit even if I haven't shown you the same courtesy in a while, I have all of you in my heart!

Have a lovely week! see you on Friday!

Much much love, xxx Eila

TCR #95 Picking Mushrooms

Still dark, still cold, still snowy, but yay it's Friday! Treated myself to something called "semla" which I suppose would be what is also called a cream bun. Only ours are cut in half, filled with almond paste before a generous dollop of cream is added on top.

Eating them is serious business, Swedes are divided into those who want to put this de luxe bun on a plate with hot (yuk) milk and eat it when it's all soggy. Others say the right thing to do is to eat it as it is with a glass of cold milk on the side. And the third group insist on having a cup of coffee with it. Well, I leave it to your imagination to guess which fan club I belong to, I can say as much that I certainly don't like soggy buns LOL.

They look like this:

Friday doesn't only mean eating "semla", but also release day over at TCR. It's the fourth and last of the palettes specially designed by Lydell Quin for Meg's Garden. Lovely Meg has provided the DT with papers to work with and we thank her warmly for her generosity!

How about Chilli Pepper Red, Musk Stick Pink, Gum Leaf Green and Licorice Black for yumminess! makes me want to go out and buy my fav salty licorice candy. Just look at that sketch, don't you just itch to scrap it!

The DT certainly did and boy have they created fabulous pages! Here is what I came up with;



I found the photo of this little girl called Gudrun, 3 years old, in the archives of our county museum on internet. It was taken for an article in a local newspaper in the summer of 1954. Little Gudrun has her dolly pram full of the forest gold - mushrooms!

The "frame" is simply TA mists in Olive and Mel's Diner (red) that I have traced on white cardstock with the nozzle, straight out of the bottle.



All the strips were leftovers sitting on my desk. Of course it wasn't April when this photo was taken, but I thought it looked cute anyway. The heart shaped buttons are from my stash.



A DA chippie fern peeking out there under the Prima autumn leave, a small white doily from Leeann Pearce's Chip Chop Shop on Etsy. Fussy cut buds and blooms from a Meg's Garden paper.



I just love the mushrooms which can be found on another paper (Embossed Silk & Satin) than the one featured for the current palette (French Bird Cage). As a matter of curiosity, the brown ones are edible and the red ones with dots take you straight to the morge, but they are pretty to look at :)



The bird cage is fussy cut from the featured paper called French Bird Cage. I think both the red/white dotted paper and the black/white papers are by Crate but cannot remember which collection/collections as those squares were what I had in my stash without reference.

The red floral paper is also from Meg's Garden and is called Ramling Rose.



Go have a stroll in Meg's Garden, you will be enticed and seduced by what you see! Click HERE
and you'll find yourself straight in her delightful online store. There you will also find the link to their blog.

Happy browsing! and with that I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for your visit and hope to see you again! Cheerio!

xoxoxo Eila