Little Corner of Ania

Loook what a gorgeous, feminine line the Neapolitan collection from American Crafts is!
*lovelovelove*
Truth to be told, I’m not always *that* fond of premade embellishments that’s put together in advance sorta (I sort of feel that defeats the purpose of *creating*), but the embellishments in the AC-line? *loves* Hands down!
So when I got the Neapolitan line from AC for the Glue Arts collaboration, I was in awe – such a generous amount of products and so so pretty!
I truly adored what we got to work with from American Crafts, and whipped up three cards in no time! The huge array of premade embellishments makes it so easy for the busy scrapper to put together a card that isn't only fast to create, but actually looks thoughtfully put together! Love that!
(ok, enough giddying….=) )
First: The two regular cards:

One for a colleague turning 40…

A card for a babygirl (see the bling?? Doodlebug-bling that’s like, 4 years old or more! Go me for trying to use old stuff!)

Couldn’t help but sneak in these Maya Road-kraft owls! My cousin and her s.o. are both avid birdspotters…working in the field of ornithology :)
Now, this exploding box:


So easy to create! Especially with the premade embellishments from AC!

First: Create your base. I made mine so that I could use 3" squares of patterned paper to create the sides of the box. Score the sides according to the picture if you want the same sized box as mine. Cut out the outer corners so that you get a "cross" for your actual box.

I've seen an increasing popularity in creating such folders for giftcards or money in regular cards, but it wasn't until I saw this idea by Zuzia (LINK:http://blog.thescrapcake.com/2012/05/amazi...-idea-by-zuzia/ or to my pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/71424344060697834/) I realized I should combine these two ideas into this one.

To do so, start with a sheet of patterned paper in the same pattern as the inner pages. If you're following my measurements, these are the measurements for this one (see picture).

Fold…

..and cut w/a circle puncher. (Thanks for borrowing me this one, Eli! =) )

And as for the box topper, just cut a square and score as following in the picture.
Snip/cut in the sides, fold and adhere so you get a little box.


Hurry over to the Glue Arts blog, you can enter to win a AC-goodiepack (if it’s like the one we got you’re totally in for a treat!) and some adhesive-goodies :) And not to mention – even more inspiration from the other gals :)

I suppose you could call this layout that!

As part of our last adventures with the Prima design team 2011, we were challenges to lift/get inspired by one of the other teammembers. I got Heidi Kelley, which both yielded the reactions WHEE! and EEKS! from me. She’s amazing with mixed media, and one of those fearlessly mixing paint, mist and you name it to create pieces of art.

Here’s her layout which was my starting point!

And here’s what I wrote about my layout:

When I think of Heidi Kelley...I think of her little scenes, no matter if it's on a layout or a shadowbox, where she hand cut her photos, staging a whole new stage for her protagonists...and then there's paint, lots of paint, and colors, and usually a whole little mix of flowers....While I had her recent layout "Blowing kisses" as a starting point (her two focal points on the layout are the two clusters, I've mimicked them on mine)...I additionally had her whole style in mind when creating my lift, especially the playful side of her creations, it's like she's carefree and happy when creating, exploring the artsier sides of scrapbooking and painting and art journaling, happily bringing them all together. 
I'll admit..I was terrified...I still am...I like to think I'm handling most styles well, but hers really is one I don't go exploring too often! But once I started...I had fun during the planning stage, thinking....what would Heidi do now....in the end I just had to jump in and get started before I regretted things too much! :D Heidi, I hope you approve!

 

I whipped out my what, 5 year old, maybe more – moulding paste which I’ve used like, three times top….grabbed one of Primas huge array of masks…this time an old one, one really flowery one….added gesso upon the paste when dry then just added stuff on it :)

Here’s the other cluster…love clusters!

I suppose I should have added more flowers to the bottom of the “mound” on the layout, ahwell! It was fun though, having an “excuse” to play with a style I normally don’t explore! :)

Oy. There’s a bloghop where Glue Arts and Want2Scrap have combined forces, and here’s my contribution :)

Want2Scrap specializes in baby bling, shaped chipboard albums, laser designs, ribbons and much more!

Among the items I received, I knew I had to use this tricycle-silhouette! Having no die cut machines of my own I sure appreciate when having access to such intricate die cut designs I can only dream about cutting and fussing on my own! And the half pearls are the perfect accent to any card :)

Did you know that you can cut in your raisen's with ease? It's a quite simple way to get even smaller pieces of dimensional adhesive for your project: Simply cut the adhesive while the protectionpaper is still on. No annoying adhesive stuck to your scissors!

 

Right!

Here’s a blurb from Glue Arts about this blog hop – you need to go to their blog and comment for the chances to win:

Please be sure to post a comment and enter to win a GlueArts prize package of...

a Glue Glider PRO+ and one PermaTac Cartridge, our Adhesives Squares and our 3D Combo Pac! Be sure to post a comment each day this week for more chances to win.
And be sure to stop by the Want2Scrap blog to enter there too!! It's a must see and stop on your Spring into Summer Blog Hop!

 

GA supplies:
Glue Arts Glue glider pro w/Perma Tac
U cut it 3d foam
Raisen's
Other:
Want2scrap pearls
Want2scrap silhouette tricycle
Dear Lizzy papers
Lawn Fawn clear stamp: Sophie's sentiments

So, there’s a Mixed Media Day over at Prima. Now, I’ve never really counted myself as a mixed media kind of gal, not the way I see mixed media sort of. But I do love adding tiny little bits of mixed media to accent the work.. nevertheless….for this one had one bottle of Crackle Paint (distress fence) that was almost empty and about to go bad….so I figured..what the heck….I have a new bottle ready to be used…let’s just get the best of this bottle while it’s still good =)

The flowers and leaves here are all mixed from various sorts of fabrics…from canvas to leather to felt to paper to fabric…:)

I really like the effect the crackle paint yields used like this on the box…

And I LOVE the flower used on the side here, by the handle. LOVE. (Solitaire jeweltone..it comes in four different colorhues though)

You may remember this box (here’s the other one). I just didn’t bother dressing the insides for this one…besides..the colors aren’t that much off this time.

So. No idea what to use this for yet, but we’ll see! Probably some kind of minor gift.
Maybe teachers gift if I haven’t figured out better ideas or time to do much about it by that time.

And here’s the card I made for the Card Day Blog post over at Prima. Cute, hm?

Love to add colors to the resins!

Supplylist box:
tweet vine quail – 553722
Charme rose doodle deux – 555795
Gillian cinder – 553029
charlotta parrot – 552787
Laredo nuevo – 556389
Fabrique Lakeshore - 557881
Flocked rub-ons – 550844
Printery – signature 843519
Vermont – brown 553630
Solitaire – jeweltone 552282
Art tiles – alla prima 551261
Supplylist card: Fairy Belle Collection – La Spa 950125, Le Toulle 950118, Marcelle 950132
Pixie Glen Collection – Dartmoor 843236
Tweet Vine Quail – 553722
Firefly Stone 551711
Fluid chalk – cold ice 891145, Old rose 891213
Pankita Rose – winter mix 557584
Tivona rose – small 557157
Resin small birds - 890773
Other: Ranger – stickles: crystal, diamond; liquid pearls: buttercup; enamel accents white, tattered angels – iridescent gold

So, there’s a giveaway going on for those of you who’d like such stuff – this time Glue Arts has teamed up w/Lily Bee & Epiphany Crafts to give away stuff from all three…pretty cool, huh?

 

I decided to take the sketch provided by Lily Bee with me to a crop with some friends. Struggled some until one of the said friends suggested to just rotate or flip the sketch. Uhm, DUH. Been a while since I worked w/sketch, can’t believe I forgot to do something that simple to look for possible solutions. I’m getting old.

So. Got to work with the Handmade collection. LOVES – just right up my alley! And oh, so perfect for these pictures of my nephews baptism!

 

Cropping w/friends meant that they could take photos of me while doing the tutorials for Glue Arts! Look ma! Two hands! (as opposed to no hands..or at best one hand….)

Added some Maya Road embellishments to the layout, as well as pearls from Want2Scrap.

Yesterday was the Norwegian Constitution Day.

I wore my Østfoldsbunad in the beginning…(no Constitution Day is complete w/o it!)

Sorry for looking blurry & silly. I normally don’t snap photos of myself so I have no idea how to do that right sorta!! Cough.

…before swapping to nice clothes for a bit (the bunad became too warm to wear indoors)…then I opted for regular slackerclothes as soon as the last guests left.

 

Right. Oh, if you wanna, drop by the Prima blog for just a lil bit. Trudi Harrison lifted one of my layouts, whee!

rosemary Said,

4:33 AM

Hey its cool that you are playing diablo 3 as well! Are you playing with your kids? I hope you are enjoying it... other than the server problems on day 1 I think the game is really fantastic so far. I've had a long history with bliz games too (since warcraft 1)

It’s fun, isn’t? I like it so far – much better than I liked Diablo 2! For us it’s become quite the family activity, haha. I am sharing acct w/my daughter, and whenever I am playing she keeps bugging me…right now she is playing w/her cousin and brother. I don’t recall playing WC1, hmm. I did a bit of WC3 though. But I was more into Diablo & the StarCraft games, and ofcourse WoW later on when it comes to Blizzards games.

Mkay pardon me for using this silly pun in the title.

But yeah, well. Here’s a tag for you – created w/Prima lushness. I love tags when done right, but unfortunately – despite its small size – I find these hard to create. But I’m getting there methinks…I was happy with how this one turned out, at least! Check out Primas tag installation. LOVE especially the tags from Karola – so so so…lovely! (eloquent, me, mmm..)

So.

Not much happening around here atm. I’m slowly working my way though the CHA-S stuff to be done for Maya Road. Have wrapped up all my obligations for Prima. Tried to get ahead on the new few deadlines for various DT’s, to pave the way for this:

 

Ahhh. Diablo. I think it must have been the very first *graphic* PC game I played in my youth. Hm. No wait. Heroes of Might and Magic was the first game I became addicted to, but Diablo was the first one where I could play with others. Oh, the countless hours w/Diablo – either played alone, or at private LAN-parties. Fun fun! Never really got into Diablo 2 (can anything really beat the original Diablo??), but now that Diablo 3 is here….. we’ll see…! :)

Also trying to finish editing the photos of my (not-so)recent trip to Oslo, but it goes ever oh-so-slowly…sigh…here’s some of them though…

 

My oldest niece. Love her room – I think it’s fun to photograph peoples rooms. Hm. It’s a nice idea for a future photodocumentary maybe…

My nephew! Loves!

I got to visit grandma! It was one of the main reasons I went to Oslo for a quick weekend-trip. Love her so much, but don’t get to see her too often…sigh…

Those blue eyes are another good reason…

This trio..

Trying to photograph them all together & nicely wasn’t easy by the way. Ack!

Sis in front of her laptop (duh)

And my sis & mom. Blurry and not a perfect photo, but I hold it dear nevertheless…

Right. The stupid boss in the game doesn’t wanna lie down and die nicely, and I’m tired of dying over and over again so I’m gonna go work on one of the CHA-projects in the meanwhile!!

And I’m supposed to bake a cake for tomorrows National Day and stuff, right!

See yas…

I love the little tin boxes I got from an earlier colleague. I dread the day when I run outta them *sigh* Nevertheless. Here’s the giftbox created for my nephew, the one who got confirmed the other day. I must say. There’s not much to chose from if you want to create a masculine-ish card / layout out there.
But there’s something at least! I used papers from October Afternoon and DCWV, and embellishments from Maya Road. Like the Kraft Journaling tags, the Roadsign-chipboard and the transparent ticket border.

Happy Sunday, and Happy Mothers Day to those celebrating it today! :)

So.

My nephew got confirmed last weekend. That’s this handsome dude:

(Yes, I had to lug the camera for such an event. Duh.)

He’s also featured in tomorrows newspaper, speaking about why he chose to do non-religious (civil) confirmation and stuff. Go dude! (And no, I didn’t know he was one of those who got interviewed until I was gonna help proofread the story. No nepotism there! :) And please don’t yell at me if there’s still mistakes in tomorrows story…today I was just supposed to proof the technical stuff, like alignment and font and stuff!*cough*)

Now, when celebrating a gamer one needs a proper cake. Enter proper cake. Bonus points for those who knows that this is.

And when the kids all are in nice dresses and suits = must take advantage!

Like here..

Or here..

Even managed to get the oldest nephew & his gf! Whee!

Love the gaze he gives her :)

It didn’t take long before the kids were acting up.

In front of my camera, natch!

Can’t do much but play along now, can I?

I mean, they’re sort of hilarious.

Sort of.

 

Then they started jumping.

One by one.

This dude is a pro at this.

Even the older ones had a go at it.

Ha! Fun you say?

I dunno.

But my camera thanks you for the action :)

NOw. Looking through the photos makes me miss my camera. It’s at service for a much needed cleaning and *shudder* repair (sigh).

I miss my baby :( Get well soon!