Moved my blog!

I have now moved my blog to a new blog host that I am generally more satisfied with than this. The new address is
http://annescraps.wordpress.com/

I hope this won't cause any inconvenience for you, and that you will still follow my blog :)

Birthday Card

A card I made using papers I was given by a friend. I was in a bit of distress trying to use Sassafrass Lass papers from a kit from Studio Calico. Pretty happy with the result as simple as it may be. The text running along the pictures says 'congratulations' in Norwegian. Thanks for looking and enjoy the summer :) 

Difficult stamps!

I made this card recently in a desperate attempt to use the gorgeous stamp seen on the left. I'm not completely satisfied with the result, but happy about how the stamp itself turned out. The coloured stamp is from Crafty Individuals, the corner stamp and the top butterfly is from the Create-a-Frame from Prima, and the two other butterflies are from Tim Holtz.

Thanks for looking :)

P.s.
Would love to see others using Crafty Individual stamps. If you could post a link to something you have seen or made yourself that would be deeply appreciated :)

Oh, how strong!

I made this layout earlier this week showing my son at his first birthday party. He loves attention, and while we sang for him on his birthday, he tried to keeps everybody's attention for as long as he could by showing off his different 'tricks'. This is one of them, he flexes the best he can to show how strong he is. Adorable!
The layout on the other hand ended up nowhere near what I had first imagined. One mistake after the other became the result you can see here. Though not too happy with the result I am still satisfied with the rescue work ;)
I made this based on the Skissedilla sketch no 64.

Background techniques

I made this card trying out different techniques. The background is thus made by yours truly. I inked some plain white paper (a bit thicker than regular printer paper) using Ranger's distress ink (probably old paper) and covering the stamping using 'perfect pearls'. I also stamped the flowers and tried making some swirls using 'dimensional pearl'.

Thanks for looking :)

A few cards for those I tend to forget...

I made a few cards to keep at hand for when I'll suddenly need them. Simple cards, but nicer to give than a store bought. Hope you enjoy.

Birthday Boys

A wee lad in the house also attracts other wee lads, and with wee lads come birthdays. There aren't any wee lassies in our circle of friends yet, so I made a few cards to use for future birthday parties. Simple and easy cards. Hope you like :)

Still Alive

Yes, I am still alive and thus apologise for not posting in ages. I can try to blame my absence on essays due at uni, and life in general, but I have been scrapping and have quite a lot to show. I am however not happy with the photos I've taken of my scraps, and will try to get some better ones before posting them all. 

My class mates are finishing their degrees this week (I am spending one more year after taking a year of after having my son) This card is made for one of our lecturers to say thank you for everything he has done for us during the two years. 

I followed a sketch from Sketchy Colors and a colour challenge from Scrappekammeret. Hope you enjoy :) 

Skissedilla #52

Story to follow, must post to reach deadline!

First Passport

Finally got something to show again :) Haven't scrapped much lately, been doing a few small projects, but things have either not been finished, or I haven't been happy with them and thrown them away... But now! ;) Another page for our son't baby album! It was made following sketch no 42 from Skissedilla

According to new laws all Norwegian citizens going abroad need passports, small children are no exception. Before flying to Berlin in late Novembre our little boy needed to get his photo taken for his passport. I thought it would be a fun thing to keep in his baby album along with the story of how he got it, why he needed it and the reaction we got at the hotel in Germany when we showed the passport (according to them, Germans don't need personal passports until they're 16...)

Anyway, it's good to be back and I hope to have a new layout out later this week :)

Some inspiration at least...

Sorry for few uploads lately. The Christmas season is always a time of many doings! Well, some time back I searched the net for ideas for cards, and I came up with quite a list! As I don’t have anything better to post (the cards given to my parents were sent without being photographed, so I’m awaiting photos from my dad…) I’ll at least see if I can give you some inspiration…

http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=420&Itemid=1
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=567&Itemid=1
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=527&Itemid=1
http://www.scraphaugen.no/designsider/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=158&Itemid=29
http://inkingaddict.blogspot.com/2008/11/backpack-tutorial.html
http://www.scraphaugen.no/designsider/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=29
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/backpackbox/

http://kreativhobby.no/page_info.asp?CategoryId=5374
http://www.kreativhobby.no/page_info.asp?CategoryId=5369
http://www.kreativhobby.no/page_info.asp?CategoryId=5366
http://bodilsscrappeverden.blogspot.com/2009/03/tft-konvoluttkort.html
http://www.kreativhobby.no/page_info.asp?CategoryId=5360
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=427&Itemid=2
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=408&Itemid=2
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Itemid=2
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=394&Itemid=2
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=393&Itemid=2
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=371&Itemid=2
http://www.kreativesider.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=2
http://min-hobbyblogg.blogspot.com/2009/09/tutorial-box-with-4-drawers.html

I’ve only tried a few of these myself but hopefully some day I’ll work my way through the list!

Father's Day

Father's Day is celebrated on the second sunday in November here in Norway, and it being my husband's very first father's day I had to make him a proper card. I've started a monthly crop with a few friends. They're all new to scrapbooking and wanted me to make some cards for them to lift for father's day. I googled a bit and found some folding cards that looked interesting, and not too difficult and set out. My mom's birthday is on the 7th of November, so, with the card for my husband, my mom and of course also one to my father I had three different cards to make. Using new techniques is always fun but also time consuming. I had all my cards done for the crop, all I had left was to decorate them, but two of them still aren't done.. :S

Well, here's the one I made for my hubby. (I haven't seen my parents yet and thus haven't either had an opportunity to give them the cards... and no, they can't be mailed :P) And the rest will soon be added :)

Rumble in the Jungle (skissedilla #31)

I've started working on Arthur's baby book and his "jungle" deserves a page. My father bought this when Arthur was only a few days old, and he loved the blinking lights and the sounds. Now some months later he couldn't care less about the lights, but all the animals are grabbed and pulled at and of course, put in his mouth. I'd like to make the baby book pages clean and simple, and have here managed to use nothing but paper and scissors! :O

The papers are "wild things" from imaginisce (where I've cut the animals from) and "little sprout" by fancy pants.

The font is "african" found at urbanfonts.com and were cut with my lovely little CraftRobo :)

Hubby turned 26

Not much to say about this. I made a card for my husband when he turned 26 earlier this month. I found a sketch for a card somewhere online (a quick google search for card sketches) and took a picture of it with my phone. Have no idea where I found it, but it inspired this:

Not quite how we imagined..

Ok, the story I promised... 
I realised after I had posted the layout the first time that the title of it (not the title of the post, the two lines picked from the song) can make it seem like a very depressing layout, but it does have a happy ending.
Two days after my baby boy was born was diagnosed with appendicitis and had to have my appendix removed. Only day after giving birth (normally with any complications – except for losing a bit too much blood) I got a fever, started throwing up and had severe stomach pains. 

Two days after, one day before we were supposed to go home, I was “readmitted”. Sondre had to go home and our little baby boy was sent to a different ward. As I lay in bed that night awaiting surgery, all alone, only two days after becoming a mum; I texted Sondre two lines from a well known Norwegian song. Loosely translated it means ‘this isn’t how we pictured this would be’. I knew that one should never expect anything giving birth for the first time, and it will never be anywhere near how you imagine it to be, but this, well, I never imagined it would end up that way.

I soon started thinking about a therapeutic scrapbook layout I would create as soon as I started scrapping again. Some weeks ago Scrapping the music – In Norwegian had the song, that those two lines were from, as their challenge for this month. I knew I had to get this layout done and submit it. And here it is :) The paper roll on the left side holds the story of what happened and how we managed to cope with the following weeks (as my husband left for work – offshore – only a week after I was back home..)
Well, thanks for reading

Lost in translation...

There's a long story behing this layout, but it's getting late and will have to wait till tomorrow. The only reason I'm posting this today is because of the challenge I made this layout for. I've been planning it for just about six months and Scrapping the Music - in Norwegian set Bjørn Eidsvåg's "Skyfri Himmel" as their song of the month I suddenly had a due date. The title was set two days after my gorgeous baby boy was born, but, it was six months in the making...
Anyway here is the result, the entire story behind it, as well as better pictures, close-ups and a card I made will be posted tomorrow :)

I love Ebay!

I went on a bit of a shopping spree on ebay while my hubby was at work… I should feel guilty about this, but actually didn’t spend as much as I thought I had spent. I bought 10 small spray bottles identical to Tim Holtz’s “Mini Misters” but without the logo and they work perfectly! I got 160 flowers (which I didn’t expect too much from, but they turned out to be gorgeous!) those were scrapbook paper flowers btw.

And I got some new stamps!! :) I bought one set of clear stamps from Inkadinkado, with cats. Cost me half of what it costs in Norway (and the seller was really sweet as well!) Tim Holtz got a new range of clear stamps out, haven’t seen them here in Norway yet, but I love them! I bought 6 of them, but haven’t had the chance to use them just yet. Here’s a picture:

 

Sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while.
Will sit down and scrap a bit now, and hopefully I’ll have a few things to show tomorrow :)

Chocolate

here

A friend of my aunt gave us a big box of clothes for Arthur some time back. They were clothes her son had grown out of, but as it is with small kids, he had barely had time to use them all once! I wanted to give something back, but didn’t quite know what. I settled on a personalized box of chocolates. I went to a candy store, picked up a fancy box of exquisite Belgian chocolate, then bought some chocolate coloured stuff at ScrapShop and went home and created this:

I used:

Bazzill, flowers from Nille – painted with tea dye distress crackle paint, flowers from Prima – inked with gold, ribbons from ScrapShop, ‘sjokolade’ is ‘Porky’s’ font cut with my lovely little helper – Craft Robo, the gold in the centre of the flowers is Liquid Pearls Gold. The base under ‘sjokolade’ was stamped with a flower stamp from Itobpl, then covered with Perfect Pearls, the dragonfly and the flower are from this gorgeous Inkadinkado clear stamps set I just bought (it is just so full of details and just so gorgeous!) they are stamped with Cat Eye ‘Chestnut Roan’ and inked with Distress Ink ‘Tea Dye’. The text I found here.

Grandad(Farfar)'s turning 80

I started a card for my grandfather about a week ago. He’s turning 80 and I wanted to make him a special card. However, I would never be able to finish a special card, as I would never be happy with it. So I ended up with quite a clean and simple one:

I’ve used green bazzill, Autumn Leaves’ clear stamp swirl, a Basic Grey rub-on and a tekst stamp from North Stamps. The butterfly stamp is an unmounted stamp from ScrapShop, but the brand is unknown to me…

I spent some hours today taking a few friends to a scrapbook shop in Stavanger. I’ve convinced them to try scrapbooking so we went to get them some stash today. The plan now is to meet next Thursday and then once a month in the future. I hope they get hooked :)

Handy woman :)

My hubby left for work today and will be gone for a fortnight so the clever gods of irony and mischief thought an hour and a half after I had driven him to the airport would be the perfect time for some nice men to deliver our newly ordered sofa! Only two weeks before we were told we’d get it! I love my new sofa, and of course it’s nice to get it before we were supposed to (we even got a complimentary cushion!) But having a five-months-old and being home all alone, it’s also a bit annoying to suddenly have 7 humongous packages in your living room.

But the reason I write this is because I put it together all by myself! I had a friend come help me lift one part onto another as that was absolutely impossible with only one set of arms. And the result: