scrapbooking

It is the last day of the month and the last day to snatch the digi files for the month of October. I had so much fun playing with them, and I want to share what I made with the files. Thanks for looking
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* HELLO FALL! *

Credits: papers, alpha and elements from Isn’t She Lovely by Zoe Pearn | template by Yin | font: Pea Annie and Herculanum | Words: I went for a little walk yesterday and brought my camera. I’ve really not been okay saying farewell to summer, but now as September is here I feel that I’m ready to embrace the new season approaching. Yesterday I tried to find the beauty in the changes. Thankfully it was a warm and sunshiny day, after so much rain in August it felt almost as a relief. I guess we have more rain coming, but just now I want to enjoy this new month and the new season. Hoping for good things to happen.

Photos taken from this blogpost from September 2nd of this year. I knew the photos had to be included in a scrapbook double spread somehow and I am so glad to have made this. I tend to scrap quite a few of my blog posts, sometimes it is the words that is important to me other times, like with this page above, it is the photos that inspires me.

A few days ago Katie wrote a post on The Daily Digi about this; journaling from blog posts and status updates. Go read it and use it for some easy journaling in your pages.
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* BE ME! *

Credits: alpha, papers and elements from Authenticity by Secret Stash Designs | font: Pea Sugar Noodles | Words: Sometimes I’m not so happy with who I am. Sometimes I doubt my self. Sometimes I think the world don’t need me. Sometimes I feel like I need to change in order to be loved and met with understanding. Sometimes I try to be someone I’m not. Sometimes I forget that I was created unique. That I was meant to be me.

Photos from last year, taken in our hallway mirror. The elements from the kit inspired the words. I really, really want my life to be like the words on the tag by the big photo. And to be true to my self and what I am is a daily joy and struggle.

I love to scrap about my kid and the farm and more, but every once in a while I try to scrap about myself, I can’t scrap all this pages about us as a family and then say nothing about me, now can I? And who else can tell my story better than I can?
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* YOUR HOME IS WHERE YOUR HEART IS *

Credits: papers and elements from Innocence by Wild Blueberry Ink and Every Day of the Year by Sugarplum Paperie | font: Gimme Space and Pea Sugar Noodles | Words: I pass this heart (every day) on my way to and from the office. The first time I saw it I caught my breath and was amazed, both about the simple beauty and by the strong symbol for everyone driving by. Later it got me thinking about this saying I love: Your home is where your [heart] is.

I’ve been driving by this heart so many days. I am so glad I finally got time to stop and take a little photo of it. It deserved a page all to itself! Love all the thoughts this heart gave me over the weeks.
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I am so happy to be a part of The Daily Digi Team and so glad to be working with the files every month (we do this early, so these pages were done in the beginning of September). As mentioned about this is the very last day these files are available, so if you want to check them out click the banner below (affiliate link, using it supports this blog – THANKS!) and jump over to The Digi Game before midnight. There is also a giveaway going on at their blog, be sure to put your name in the draw and comment on this post.

Lastly here are a few links to my favorite posts from The Daily Digi site this month:

* The Friday Funtastic posts (I’m linking to the last one, some of the deals are still available).
* Digi Scrapping Monochromatic Layours
* Digi Scrapping Your Job
* Organize Your Bookmarks
* Why I Don’t Delete Photos
* Designing Word Focused Pages
* How To Photograph Spooky Halloween Photos

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Wishing you a good and sweet Monday!!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while. And if you care about scrapbooking. My guess is that you’ve noticed that I’ve been on a couple of Creative Teams. The one I’ve been on the longest is the team working with Sweet Tomato Designs product, and I’ve loved my stay there. Sadly Cara, the designer, have decided to step down from designing. I’m really going to miss her and her bold colors! Luckily she doesn’t retire as an online friend

Here is a page done with her latest kit Fallish:

(Click image for credits and journaling)

Right now she has a huge sale at her store, but there is only one day left(!)

Here are a few of my favorite kits:

Please run over to her store and give her a good goodbye sale! Thanks.

Sweet Tomato Design is out with a beautiful fall kit. I used it to scrap one of my favorite weekends in September. The one where we went up to the mountain and visited my friend and her cabin. So nice to spend some time together, so nice to talk and drink coffee and be outside in the fall weather. I really love the feeling of the mountains, it makes me feel free and happy. I should go there more often!

credits:  Fallish by Sweet Tomato Designs; fonts: Gimme Space by Darcy Baldwin & Lauren Reid + Blair md ITC TT.

journal:

a couple of special days in the mountains with our good friends. 

loved the break from our everyday and busy life. 

the mountain air makes me feel so happy and free. 

we’ll be back for sure! 

soon.

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Have a wonderful weekend!

Sometimes it’s the iPhone photos that I love the most. And as long as I keep them small they do very well on a large layout. I can’t wait to print this and put it in my album Love all the patterns and colors as well in the papers and elements here:

credits: papers, alpha and elements from September Blooms by Che Yang Designs as part of The Digi Files for September 2011

I’m not a morning person. I sleep in as much as I can. So early morning glory is a sight I seldom see, at least when the sun is up more than down during the lighter half year here in Norway. But even though I’m not a morning person I love the look of morning. Especially a sunny early September morning like this. I’m so glad I captured it with my iPhone on my way up and out. Loving how the mist and damp plays with the sun rays – and love, love. love how the early sunshine falls on our beautiful pine tree. Well, good morning to you too!

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I just knew, that all the thinking and photographing of Favorites back in August, would be food for my scrapbook pages for months to come; in fact I made this one below after only three days of capturing – and I can feel a few more coming along as the fall sets into a new winter.

This first part of September have been rather busy as it always is when everything starts back up again. Lots of good conversations and plans in the making at work, though and lots of photos to share and memories to capture on digital (and traditional) scrapbook pages as the light day time gets shorter and the dark evenings gets longer here in the north. I’m so glad for belonging to a couple great Creative Teams and I get plenty of inspiration for my scrapbook pages from my fellow team members. Love that.

credits: papers and elements from All About Me collab by Scrap Orchard Designers as part of The Digi Files for September 2011, font: Gimme Space

I have a favorite place to sit down. It’s the front step on the farm house back home. It brings back so many good memories from both my childhood and adult life. It makes me feel calmer and more at peace.

I’ve been sitting here talking with friends or members of our family more times than I can count. I’ve been sitting here in the morning with my coffee and a book, happy for a little time on my own.  I’ve been sitting here in the summer as the sun sets behind the mountain, enjoying the last few rays of sunshine. I’ve been sitting here gazing down over our fields, just letting the thoughts wander.

Today I barely had time to sit down and make MT take a photo of me before it got too dark. But I’ll be back one of these days preferably with a cup of coffee in my hand or a book to read. Trying to grab what’s left of the summer feeling.   [August 2011]

This time I used products from this month’s Digi Files, from The Daily Digi. I’ve been a follower of the site since it launched and love all the great information found there as well as the new products available each month. I’m now on the creative team for the site, and love it there!

If you want to get to know the owner, Steph, a little bit better you can listen to an interview she did with Tim Conley of the Foolish Adventure, or you can listen to the digi podcast she produces, The Digi Show. I love that show and can’t wait for new shows starting next week Feels like I’m talking to some good old friends about the passion we all share for scrapbooking. Off course, they can’t hear me talking to them, but still, I share plenty of laughs with them non the less.

So, where do you go for inspiration to feed your passion?!

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If you aren’t already a subscriber to the digi files, check out the options here (click image):

I’ve really been into scrapping with real paper and glue this month. Not because I don’t like digi scrapping any more (because I DO!) – but because I found a bunch of photos from when MT first entered my life and it’s been so inspiring and fun adding a few stories to paper and putting them to good use as a scrapbook page. It doesn’t hurt that I have some beautiful papers to use either

This photo I nearly put in the bin, but then I remembered the first weeks we had together. How the weather were nice, but a little chilly. How we were stuck in our little town because my car didn’t have the back seat put up, neither did we have a safe stool for MT to sit. How we had to use what we could find. Like this scarf around his neck to keep it warm while we went walking along the fjord side.

You came to Norway in October.
I should have thought about it being fall.
You had both jacket and hat -
but I hadn’t found a scarf for you.
So you had to borrow mine.
It was a little to big, but you didn’t care.
Thankfully.

Here we are out walking together with Grandma and Grandpa. It was their first time visiting us . It was so nice having them for a week. One get to know each other well that way.

22. October 2005

Made with Shimelle’s Starting Point.

I’m so glad for catching a few words or glimpses here and there from what MT is saying or doing. I really should be better at writing them down when they happen. I will not remember later on, apparently, because when I went to Flickr to take this layout below from private to public (since it’s featured at the daily digi today), I found something unexpected when I took the time to read my journaling. I wrote it a little over a month ago, and while I’m quite used to thinking about Whuzha (MT’s favorite stuffed animal) and knew the page was about it, I had already forgotten that I scrapped this because I heard him talking to his friends about this. So so glad for capturing that detail, and for getting it on my page. Yay.

credits: papers, alpha and elements from Close To Heart by Designs by Kat as part of The Digi Files for August 2011. font: Junction

While having our friends here visiting I heard my boy and their girls talking about their favorite stuffed animals. I guess they were looking at a few of them from his collection and I heard him say: ‘Yes, this is one of my favorites, but the one I like the most is Whuzha*. It’s a dog and it’s at my Grandma’s right now’. I smiled hearing this. And I know how much he loves that dog. He got it from one of my friends when she came to Addis Abeba to help bring MT home to Norway. For a long time he kept it with him wherever he went. At home, on holidays, in the car and in his bed at night. He played with it and cared for it.

I’m so glad he still thinks that Whuzha is his favorite stuffed animal. That he still care even though he’s a big boy now.

* as far as I know Whuzha (my spelling, it might be wrong) is the word for dog on Amharic, the language MT spoke when I met him.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed with all the stories yet to tell or with all the little moments that passes us by because we doesn’t pay attention, but I will rather be happy about the glimpses and stories that are actually told than worry too much about the rest.

Have you told a story about your life – or a loved one lately? Please share

I got home late tonight. Tired and worn after a long, long day at work. Instead of just vegging in front of the TV computer, I decided to create something nice. So I found a couple of old, sweet and lovely photos and started playing. It took a few minutes (ok. several!), but this is what I made:

I used Shimelles sketch of the week as inspiration.

Tomorrow is another crazy busy day at work, so I need some sleep to manage it all.

Hope you have some sweet and lovely in you life as well. Cherish it.

It’s been a lot of scrapbooking talk here lately – and here is yet another post. Kind off. Sorry.

Tattered Pear is show cased at The Daily Digi today – with their contributing kit Bookmarked. I loved all the whimsy doodles, the sayings and the colors. I found the kit perfect for a page about our love of books, no, about the FARM. LOL, I love to stretch a kit!

journal:
This summer we got to spend a few days  @ The Farm all by our selves. We loved it. So nice to have some time to just be at that lovely place that is so much a part of us (and in the future will be our home). The Farm is placed on a hilltop and the houses face straight south. It’s always somewhat windy, but the sun (if it’s not a cloudy day) shines all day long. It’s a calm and quiet place with breathtaking view. I love spending time there. I love that the farm do produce organic grain (oat, rye, wheat), and I look forward to get my hands dirty (literary) with the plowing and sowing. A farmers work are never finished and it’s a lot of things that needs fixing or someone’s attention, I feel worried about the finances and the big load of work related to keeping the farm alive. This is me hoping to find a way to refine the grains (or other produce) on the farm in  the future and sell it directly from our own little farm shop. Ask me in 10 years if I managed to do it!! 

To be honest, I’ve been thinking a lot about the farm lately, I’ve been saying I want to take over – and I do – but now that the time to do so draws closer I’m getting a bit scared. Can I do it all? Can I produce anything else than weeds? Can I plow snow in the winter? I’m not sure all of these has a big YES to them…, some might even have a big NO instead – and how do I handle that?

You get the idea? Lots of thoughts going on. And let me tell you this: my word for this year is FAITH and it is for sure about what I believe to be true; my Christian faith – but it is also very much about this; daring to have faith in my decisions and abilities. Daring to follow my dream.

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It’s been a few years since I lived in the Western part of Norway and I quite love living close to family, but still sometimes I long for the fjord, the mountain and the people of the West.

Especially this summer. When we haven’t traveled over the mountains to meet our friends, when it’s been raining like the west here in the east all summer long, when I haven’t had a ferry ride in ages and when I’ve been fortuned enough to have friends come and visit us – making me miss living close to them ever more.

This is the last page I’m posting for one of Shimelle’s challenges. It’s been so fun making all these and joining in on the fun at Shimelle’s site (as much as I managed during a busy weekend + week at work). This page is for the Half Page challenge.

It’s been a scrappy kind of day today, I’m having the weekend off and spent most of my day yesterday moving stuff from our old house. Today I’ve just done whatever I wanted (= a lot of scrapbooking) and relaxed together with MT. Trying to recharge for a busy week ahead.

So, did you manage to enter Shimelle’s challenges?

Maybe you don’t scrap as much as I, but I do hope you share your stories. At least a few of them. Maybe capturing your every day life with your camera?! We forget so much so fast and I’m so glad for the moments I’ve shared here, in my photos or in one of my scrapbook pages. And yet there are so much more to tell! See you soon!

As I started this page I planned on using far more Hot Pink that I ended up using. I will still post it for Shimelle’s Hot Pink Challenge, because it was there it started

I love the mood of this photo of a place I lived for a couple of years (almost ten years ago now), the photo is not sharp by any means but it has a fairytale quality. At least to me. It’s taken late in the evening, the sunset is giving everything a tint of pink. I love how the road gives my eyes a path to travel; to the timber house where I used to live for a few years ten or so years ago.

Made with papers and embellishments from recent Studio Calico kits.

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I have one more layout to share. Look for a new post soon!

For Shimelle’s 3 Is A Magic Number I scrapped a few photos from when we had cows on the farm back home. I used 3 tags as my three embellishment grouped together, that’s also where I put my journaling.

After 20 years without animals we had some cows for a couple of years at the farm. I liked that so much – and do hope we don’t have to wait another 20 years before there are animals on the farm again (it might not be cows, but still).

Papers and embellishments from recent Studio Calico kits.

It was so much fun finding these photos again, I just had to scrap them! Good thing Shimelle has a perfect challenge for this: Let’s Go Retro Challenge.

I remember our trips to our shabby cabin up on the mountain back when I was a teenager. Sometimes we were only two going up, other times we were several. Every time we had great fun and lots of laughs.

The mountain is a great place to be, I feel so free there, here we have walked up from our cabin and are enjoying the view. And look at our smashing style. LOL. Late 1980s.

Papers and embellishments from recent Studio Calico kit(s).
For Shimelle’s Let’s Go Retro challenge.

Just when I had put my finishing touches on my Saturday Feeling layout using a grid design, Shimelle announced that her next challenge was a Grid It Up challenge. So here I am with another grid and I have to admit I love using grids on my layouts I did not opt for her double page example, though.

I still had a few iPhone images laying around and they were perfect for this layout all about the massive rain we’ve been having this summer. It’s been totally crazy with rain almost every day. I got out my mothers old blue type writer for the journaling. It’s so fun to use it, but my fingers hurt after just a few sentences and mistakes are bound to happen.

I placed the word(s) summer rain on the left side and the word(s) rain summer 2011 on the other side since as I’ve been longing for some sprinkling summer rain instead for the rain summer we been having. Sigh.

I loved the bold colors. Everything is from recent Studio Calico kit(s) + stamp by Ali Edwards.

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Next up some old memories

I’ve been scrapping more traditional layouts the last week than I ever thought were possible (at least for me), but it’s been fun. Most of the time (a few times I’ve been staring at the canvas not sure of what to do next or thinking that the last move what not a good one – a few not so fun moments). Nothing like learning something new and getting inspired to be crafty on a few everyday kind of days. A big Thank You to Shimelle for throwing out all these challenges and giving me the push to try my hands on real paper (and not only the digital kind, which I already knew I loved).

Since this is the last day to enter the challenges, there will be quite a few scrapbooking post following this. So let’s get this party starting. Here is my contribution to the Color Story Challenge:

I found some old photos from when MT was all new to me and we just had become a family through adoption. I couldn’t remember much about the situation, other than I guess it was quite some everyday stuff. I do know his face expressions, though, both his happy come play with me and his more demanding we have to go out now! It’s still so much a part of him 6 years after. I also did notice the hood, MT loves wearing sweaters with hoods and he often will put the hood up. Apparently that is a pretty common style for him

For this I used mostly recent Studio Calico papers, stamps and embellishment + some of Ali Edward’s word stamp.

Thanks for looking. See you soon