Angelica's scrap-blog

A Birthday Card and some Christmas Tags...

2011-12-23T19:30:00.000+01:00

It's the day before Christmas Eve and I'm sitting here listening to Spotify (Christmas music) and making the last arrangements for the gifts, wrapping them and making tags. I'm quite enjoying myself, DH has brought me some sweets too:)

I've made a birthday-card also as we're going to celebrate my mom on Christmas Day. I've used Kraft Card-stock (Bazzill) and stamps from Martha Stewart (Doilies), a Swedish sentiment stamp and a pink felt flower.

Here's a pic of one of the gifts with a tag I've made. I've used a background stamp with hearts (YouDo) and papers from Echo Park.

Some of the other Christmas tags I've made.

Wishing you all a great holiday:)

More Christmas Cards...

2011-12-15T14:38:00.002+01:00

Thank you so much for the all the kind comments I got after my last blog-post. Hugs to you all! I've finally finished the last Christmas card and mailed them all today...

Here are some of them.

First a Kraft card-base that I've stamped with different stamps, the houses comes from clear stamp-set "City by the bay" by My Little Shoebox, the snowflakes from Nellie Snellen. I've used Clearsnaps Color Box in Frost White, it's perfect for stamping on Kraft! Small self adhesive pearls are the finishing touch. Clean and simple:)

These cards are also very simple, I made a couple with similar design (you have to simplify things when you have a lot of cards to make). Patterned papers and chipboard accents from "Season's Greetings" by Echo Park. You can blame Designer Kristina Werner for my frequent use of white pens, LOL.

Here I've used clear stamps from Martha Stewart for the background, Versa Mark and then clear embossing-powder. ("Doilies" by Martha Stewart). Also a clear stamp by Inkadinkado; "Decorating Rabbit Mini". Snowflake and brad by Echo Park.

Finally the last card... Here I've used a grey card-base and embossed with silver embossing-powder. I really like the effect of silver on grey card-stock! I've punched out the circular stamped greeting with a circle-punch 2" and I've also used a heart-punch and some Christmas red Stickles.

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Finally some Christmas Cards...

2011-11-24T14:31:00.000+01:00

Sorry about my long absence...
I haven't been blogging for a long while due to health issues but now I'm finally doing something creative... I've done a couple of Christmas cards these last few days.

I love working with kraft cardstock (bazzill) and I thought these stamps from Nellie Snellen was really cute. I stamped the snowflakes with Color Box pigment brush pad Frost White Ink.

This card was inspired by one of Kristina Werner's designs (shown in "Sketchpad" by Kelly Purkey). Papers from Echo Parks "Season's Greetings".

And finally a glimpse on what I'm currently working at... Stamp by Inkadinkado; "Decorating Rabbit Mini". I'm using Dove blender pen and ZIG brushables. I've put on some glitter too, but it's hard to see:(

Now I'm looking forward to light the first candle on Sunday, celebrating Advent with my family. Wishing you all a great weekend:)

Another Folded Card...

2011-09-13T11:43:00.001+02:00

Here's another folded card, the idea comes from Kristina Werner's latest Friday Focus. She's such an inspiration! I used papers from Echo Park's "Summer Days" again and their "Dots and Stripes" 6x6 paper pads. Circular clear stamp from Martha Stewart, "Doilies", and a Swedish sentiment stamp, Carpe Diem.

I thought it would make a great card for a package of homemade cookies that I
planned to give away.

So, enjoy your day. Thank's for looking:)

A card for a dear friend...

2011-09-10T08:15:00.000+02:00

Here comes another card with inspiration from Kristina Werner, I wish I had a small portion of her creativity. I'm amazed every time I visit her blog!
Anyway, this is my take of a card she made a while ago. The sentiment says, "You're the best in the world!". My stamping skills aren't the best obviously as I managed to press a bit to much on the left side of the journaling line stamp I used.

The patterned papers comes from Echo Park, Dots & Stripes, from both Candy Shoppe Collection and Metropolitan Collection. I can really recommend these 6x6 paper pads, they're great basic papers for card making.

The sentiment is stamped with Versamark Ink and then embossed with white embossing powder.

Thanks for looking:)

A Folded Birthday Card...

2011-09-06T17:31:00.001+02:00

With inspiration from Kristina Werner and one of her new fabulous Friday Focus videos, I made a Birthday card today, it didn't really turn out the way I imagined though. I wanted to use my "Summer Days" 6x6 paper pad from Echo Park but lacked in coordinating cardstock so the result was a bit too many colors, I think.

The tiny bumblebee that locks the card is cute though, it's a brad from Doodlebug Designs. The striped yellow paper comes from"Dots and Stripes" Candy shoppe collection 6x6 paper pad by Echo Park and the pink in the back is by Crate (Pink plum collection).

Thank you for looking:)

A Simple Template Freebie...

2011-07-16T10:29:00.005+02:00

Hope you all are having a great time, enjoying summer! I'm still here even though it has been a long time since I posted anything. Sometimes there's not much to write about but today I've made a simple layout template, an idea from a CD-cover I saw the other day. Here's a layout I made with it, a gathering in my mum's garden.

And here's the layout template itself. I thought a cosy Sunday morning with American pancakes or blueberry corn muffins would be great to show off with this template with light close up photos, what a fantasy, I'm drooling, LOL. But I haven't got to it yet, perhaps next weekend. I've got a great recipe for blueberry corn muffins, simply delicious.

Perhaps you can find use for it? You can download HERE. Wishing you all a relaxing vacation:)

Oh, and I forgot to tell you that I've used a free font called Walkway Bold that you can find on Dafont for the title. The cursive font I've used in my own layout is Desyrel, also a free font.

A Freebie for Hybrid Card-makers...

2011-05-24T14:03:00.004+02:00

Last week I wanted to make a birthday card for my sister with a cupcake on it, she loves cupcakes... I didn't have any cupcake stamps though, but then I remembered the cupcake doodles I made in Illustrator a couple of years ago. (I made them for a kit about friendship, my part of the kit has for a long time been a freebie on my blog, you can find it here)

I chose to print out the cupcakes on white paper, my paper was not as thick as cardstock but thicker than copy-paper. I then colored the doodles with ordinary pencils (I tried ZIG brushables too, but didn't like the result on that particular paper I used). As I now had a lot of cupcakes I made two cards. Both cards have Kraft paper as base.

Here's the freebie, a small collection of doodles, that you can print out and color any way you want to. You can even color them in Photoshop (or any other software that can handle png-files) and then print them out. You can download here.

Have fun:)

Some Birthday Cards...

2011-05-10T17:01:00.000+02:00

I've haven't done much scrapbooking lately, only these two birthday cards.

The first one with papers from Melissa Frances (Candie) and Bo Bunny (Crazy Love). White embossingpowder, Fiskars punch and fluid chalk (chestnut roan). Kraft cardstock, Bazzill.

The second one, for my nephews 9th birthday, with papers from Studio Calico (Elementary Collection). Thickers; Cinnamon by American Crafts. Grey cardstock base.

At the moment I'm eagerly waiting for a package with papers and embellishments that I've ordered the other day. Mostly October Afternoon stuff; from their new collection 5&DIME...

Making Cards for Easter...

2011-04-12T17:57:00.000+02:00

It's spring in the air, soon it will be Easter! As I'm planning a dinner at my house for Easter Day, I'm making invitation cards for the event. This is the first card I've made...

I've used clear stamps from Viva Decor, a German company, "Easter Eggs and borders". I stamped the eggs in black on white watercolor paper and colored with Zig Brushables, for an extra accent I've used Glossy Accents, Ranger. The background stamps, from the same collection, are clear embossed. Also the title is embossed, with Zing embossing powder (aqua) by American Crafts.
White pencil for the border; Uni-ball Signo broad.

Wishing you all a Happy Easter:)

Where to find great, free fonts!

2011-03-28T21:45:00.002+02:00

As a scrapbooker, whether you're a digital, hybrid or paper scrapbooker (even a paper scrapbooker goes hybrid sometimes), you're always looking for new, fun and preferably free fonts. There's a ton of places on the web with free fonts but today I wanted to share my favourite ones, Dafont and Tackorama.

Tackorama is specialized in retro fonts, from Art Nouveau to the 90s. They've also got free retro clip art, custom shapes, tiles and photos.

Here's an example of a 1950s font:

This is a fun 1970s font:

At Dafont there's thousands of fonts in many different styles. Here's a couple of fonts I like and downloaded recently. All three have European letters too!

Here's the direct links to Crackin, Just the way you are and Made with B if you want to download them.

Have fun:)

A Birthday Card...

2011-02-15T09:17:00.002+01:00

I made a birthday-card last weekend for my little nephew Edwin, he celebrated his 4th birthday. It's a simple card, a stamped sentiment on a card base of Bazzill Kraft paper and then I used a patterned paper by Sassafras Lass (Vintage Yummy), the edge also comes from that paper. I punched out a circle of turquoise card stock which became the base for the number four (Thickers by American Crafts, Daiquiri white).

Anyway, Edwin was happy with the card and the chocolate cake I'd baked for his birthday. The cake didn't last long:)

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T16:50:00.001+01:00

I'm wishing you all a wonderful Valentine's Day! Enjoy the moment and take the time to be with your loved ones. I know I will, I think DH has something planned:)

It's in many ways a big commercial event, and one can argue that it's all about money, but perhaps we need to be reminded to show appreciation for each other? Anyway, I enjoy this day...

Another Card for Valentine's Day...

2011-02-10T16:51:00.001+01:00

Here's another card for All Hearts Day, as we call it in Sweden.
This time I've stamped both the sentiment (Happiness is... to have a friend like you) and "Henry the Hedgehog" with Color Box Fluid Chalk in color Dark Brown. I've colored the hedgehog-stamp with a blender pen and fluid chalk, some parts are colored with ZIG brushables.

The patterned papers comes from "Crazy Love" by Bo Bunny and the card base is Bazzill Kraft. Border Punch by Fiskars.

DH and I are going for a short walk to the local cafe now, I'm longing for some good coffee and perhaps a cookie or two. It's snowing madly outside though, isn't it time for spring soon?

Making Cards for Valentine's Day...

2011-02-08T12:36:00.000+01:00

Hi there! Sorry about my long absence, my health issues makes me a really bad blogger. I haven't done much creative stuff lately but today I finally have something to show, a card for Valentine's Day. I'm in the process of making some cards for the big day, next week.

For this very simple card I've used a 6x6 paper-pad, "Crazy Love" by Bo Bunny. These small paper-pads are great for card-making! Big patterns are often difficult to use on cards, here the patterns are smaller and it's also economical, a 6x6 pad doesn't cost so much even though you get a lot of different patterns.

I've used a 2" circle punch to punch out the two larger circles from the same paper, I cut out with a scissor the smallest one. The sentiment (Thinking of You in Swedish) is stamped and then embossed with gold embossing powder.

I've turned into a paper scrapper at the moment, it's so fun!
But I've not forgotten about digi, I promise:)

Finally, all Christmas cards posted...

2010-12-16T16:50:00.001+01:00

Today, I finally posted all the Christmas cards I've made, so now they're on their way to family and friends. Here's a couple of them. All the patterned papers comes from "Jolly by Golly" by Cosmo Cricket. On the first card I've used white embossing powder (the snowflakes and the snow on the trees). I've used quite a few rhinestones too...

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit...

2010-12-08T15:14:00.000+01:00

Here I am, sitting with my desk full of card making supplies, stamps, embossing powder, papers and so much more. Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun and really getting into the Christmas spirit. With a cup of "glögg" (similar to glühwein but sweeter and mine is free of alcohol) and Christmas songs playing it's not so hard to find that feeling. Outside it's lots of snow too...

Here's a pic of one card (made of kraft cardstock), I've stamped the golden flakes with Versamark Watermark stamp pad and then embossed with golden embossing powder. The patterned paper comes from Jolly by Golly, Cosmo Cricket. I also used a border punch from Fiskars.

Wishing you all a great December:)

Making Cards for Christmas?

2010-11-15T15:41:00.000+01:00

Check out Kristina Werner's Holiday Card Series at her blog, 25 days of Holiday Cards, with a great video each day showing how to make the card. A great source of inspiration!

If you're like me, new at card making, here is so much to learn... She even made me start stamping and embossing, who would have thought that with a digigirl like me?

Free Online Class with Jessica Sprague...

2010-11-08T16:18:00.001+01:00

Don't miss this FREE online class with Jessica Sprague, Inspiration Everywhere.

Visit her website here.

I hope you've had a wonderful IDSD (international digital scrapbooking day) and that you've had the opportunity to buy some new inspiring digistuff, not to mention all the blog hops with great freebies to download...

A Little Freebie...

2010-09-28T17:19:00.001+02:00

I made these brushes a while ago, intended to use behind photos, as a background (I painted and then scanned them). Here I've used them on a simple layout.

They come all 5, both as PNG-files and as ABR-brushes, made in CS3.

You can download HERE

Thank you so much for your support:)

2010-09-24T19:46:00.001+02:00

Celebrating my birthday a couple of weeks ago, my nephew Wilhelm helped with the presents.

And I got hair at the moment as you can see, not all chemo treatments make you loose the hair.

I'm so very touched by the response I got after my last blog post! Thank you!!! After reading your comments I thought some about how important it is to work with those feelings and thoughts you have about death. All people who know they're going to die soon have them, it's very normal, and being able to put words to them or expressing them in other ways (art, poetry, dance, drama) you can manage them much better. You're mind needs to get it outside yourself and then it's easier to deal with, I hope I make sense here...

Anyway, making that layout felt good for me even though I understand that it can make other people worried.

I'm very fortunate in many ways, I know that. I live in the west in a country with really good medical treatments and hospital care. I've got a caring family and close friends that support me. Yes, I am fortunate indeed.

Reflections...

2010-09-14T20:21:00.001+02:00

Just some personal reflections that I felt I had to express, I've been living now for a couple of years with spread breast cancer and there are a lot of thoughts that goes through my head from time to time. Particularly when I've got an upcoming visit with my physician as I've got at the moment...

I've been treated with different kinds of chemotherapy for 5 years now, there's really nothing left to try if the present one isn't working. But I've had a lot of fun too during these years, so everything isn't as black as it seems here...

Journaling: How much time is left, when will it all end? Minutes and seconds goes by, faster all the time. I thought in my ignorance that I would get used to the thought that I will die, but it doesn't work that way, you'll never get used to that. It doesn't feel like that long time ago when i was a child with an eternity of time in front of me. Now death waits around the corner and I can only silently accept that time is running out...

Credits: Art Play Palette Fall Nr1 and Artsy Clocks No3 by Anna Aspnes. Doodled Stuff 5 by Jesse Edwards Designs. Everything from Designerdigitals.

Remembering Summer 2010

2010-09-02T19:04:00.000+02:00

It's hard to grasp that it's already September! And it's getting colder by the day. I sat a while today in the sun, enjoying a homemade cappuccino, but I had to wear a thick jacket. It was sooo cold:(

I got an espresso-machine the other week from my sister and it's great to be able to make your own cappuccino. I really got the sweetest sister!

Now is the time to scrap all the summer pics, if you haven't already, remembering the summer of 2010. I made a layout today with a photo from our midsummer celebration using some of the gorgeous stuff I've bought lately from Sahlin Studios at Scrapmatter. She's got some really great freebies too on her blog.

Credits: Almost everything by Sahlin Studio (Scrapmatters); Vintage Vouge Kit, Everyday Kit and an add-on (freebie) to Vintage Carnival Kit which you can find here, on Krista Sahlins blog. Brushes: Onthecorner Nr1 by Katie Pertiet at Designerdigitals.

A Wedding Card...

2010-08-15T18:28:00.000+02:00

I've been away from my computer for a long while now. Probably not bad at all, although it wasn't by my own free will... Computer troubles hit me hard, but it's all fixed now. I've got a new hard-drive and it all seems to work. I was so lucky that I'd made backups on all important stuff, both on DVD:s and on an external hard-drive.

It took some weeks though before the computer was fixed and back home so I've been doing some hybrid work instead. I've got a laptop with Photoshop Elements so I used that for some parts, but honestly it was no fun scrapping on that small screen, and I missed my Photoshop CS3.

Here's a wedding card I've made with Prima Paintables, my local bookstore had some of them that probably have been lying around for a while as it seems that Prima has stopped producing them, makes me sorry... I really loved bringing out my watercolors and paint some, it was a while ago since last time.

It's so fun to be back by my big screen that I feel like designing some digi-stuff. Perhaps a freebie later on...

Midsummers Eve...

2010-06-28T16:48:00.003+02:00

We (swedes) celebrate our National Day on June the 6th, but Midsummer's Eve is really much more celebrated, this year the 25th of June (last Friday). Children and adults dance around the midsummer's pole, singing all the traditional songs, having a lot of fun...

My nephew Edwin (above) was so tired though that he preferred to sleep on dad's shoulder. His older brother, Wilhelm, disappeared in the dancing crowd with a friend, so I've got no photos of the actual dancing.

But when Wilhelm turned up again he wanted to jump in the "jumping castle" (not quite sure if that is the correct English name for it) and after that he looked like a red tomato, sweat pouring all over his face.

He even had to lay down for a while and rest, his little brother was very concerned....

Edwin played a lot with his new green ball which he won in a contest, it was quite the right size for him.

Credits: Layout Template by Tiff Keetch (freebie here), papers and buttons from "Summer Romance Kit" by Eva Marina (freebie here), flowers from kit "Softer" by Heather T. (freebie here), alpha: "Little Wooden Letters" by Misty Cato (freebie).
Font: DJB JenniferK.

Join a Free Class at JESSICASPRAGUE.COM...

2010-06-14T18:51:00.001+02:00

Want to learn more about making hybrid cards? Join Jessica Sprague in "Computer Tricks for Cards"... It's free and registration begins today!

Jessica's site is also celebrating their 3 years with a birthday freebie blog hop, so don't miss out on Friday, June the 18th.

Some Cool Freebies...

2010-06-08T14:34:00.001+02:00

Sometimes I stumble over some interesting free stuff and want to share my findings... Well, today I happened to visit Lisa Whitney's blog. She used to sell her designs at Scrap Artist but then gave up designing and at the moment she's very generously sharing her work at her blog. I love her stuff, much of her work is handmade and in any case very original. You can find this cool Stamped Alpha and many other freebies on her blog.

Do you use a wacom tablet? Even if you don't, visit Pen scrappers and download Michelle Coleman's (Little Dreamer Designs) beautiful free kit "Wild Hearts". You can then scrap with the kit and enter their contest and win a wacom "Bamboo Craft" tablet, isn't that great?

My Beloved Teddybear...

2010-06-03T12:33:00.004+02:00

Just look at this shabby teddy bear, so worn... I got him by my parents already in 1962, the year I was born. I couldn't sleep without him, my beloved teddy bear "Kalle". He's got sort of a sad expression I think, I still feel like I should hug him to comfort him, crazy huh?

Credits: Layout template; blog freebie by Timounette. Brown background paper and white paper; Card stock Neutrals by Juno {designs}. Striped paper; Kit Too Cute Boy (blog freebie) by Purple Tulip Designs. Little piece of paper with heart from "a story of friendship add-on" (blog freebie) by Sahlin Studio. Safety pin by FEI stuff. Fonts; Windsong and Walkway Bold.

Royal Wedding Chocolate...

2010-06-02T10:45:00.002+02:00

Mm, I love chocolate so I just had to buy this box, celebrating the big event of the year in Sweden; the royal wedding. Our crown princess Victoria is getting married in a couple of weeks, the 19th of June to be precise, and the wedding is all the talk at the moment, media is full of it. Not that I'm especially interested in royalty, but nevertheless it's a historical event so I will watch it on TV. Victoria is also very much loved and respected by us swedes, even by those who want a republic actually. She's an honest and open person, deeply dedicated to her work.

This chocolate box was one of the smaller versions, it would be too dangerous to buy one of the larger ones, LOL, for my weight that is. I also liked the three different kinds of chocolate cream in this box; hazelnut, blueberry and lingonberry. The one with blueberry (and vanilla) was best I think. Hm-mm, it's not much left in the box now...

Finally a Photobook!

2010-06-01T09:55:00.000+02:00

I've been working a long time on this book for my sister, 36 pages with my layouts about her two sons; Wilhelm and Edwin... so you can imagine how happy I was the other day when I finally got to see the final result.

Although I noticed some minor differences in how I perceived the colors on my screen and how it looks in the book, the overall impression is very good and I love the size, 28x28 cm (ca 11 inches), and the binding is great, as you can see in the photos; the book lies flat on the table and you are able to see the whole page, nothing disappears in the middle.

It was difficult to choose the company that would print the book but I think Ifolor was a good choice in the end.
It's a European company which you can find in the Nordic countries; Norway, Sweden and Finland but also in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

About Cooking...

2010-04-10T23:22:00.002+02:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about the importance of learning as a child or teenager, at school and home, basic cooking. Reading about Jamie Oliver and his new American TV show and watching parts of it on YouTube made me reflect on the subject. I really admire the sincerity in his struggle.

Somehow I've been taking it for granted as we've been taught that for a long time in Swedish schools, even my dad had cooking lessons at school in the late 40s. I'm really grateful for all the lessons I got myself during my school years and the time I spent with my parents, watching them prepare food.
Of course, I do know there are other aspects that matter when it comes to eating healthy but I believe this is an important part anyhow.

We've (swedes in general) imported some really bad eating habits in recent years, all kinds of junk food, but fortunately it's not being served in schools.
I guess a big part of the problem is a stressful life, not having the time or energy to cook yourself...

Credits: Everything from Deca Designs freebie "Letter for Mom" which you can find in the Apprentice Gallery at LittleDreamerDesigns, except photo frame by Katie Pertiet, freebie at Designerdigitals and white paper by Kate F. freebie at her blog. Fonts; Capture It and Jane Austen.

A Spring Freebie...

2010-03-22T13:00:00.000+01:00

It's kind of the beginning of spring over here in Sweden, well, we still got a lot of snow of course but it's melting slowly. That's a good sign! I haven't seen any spring flowers yet though...

So I thought of this little pack of 13 hand drawn doodles, colored with crayons and water color, that has been sitting on my hard disk for a long while. I made them after a vacation in a small cottage on the Swedish countryside.

Hopefully you can find use for them, you can download here.

Photo book project...

2010-03-01T13:33:00.001+01:00

I have been busy working on a photo book for a while, still have a lot to do... 36 pages doesn't sound like so much but it IS! Here is the latest page, templates are great when you're in a hurry.

Credits: Template by VM [squared] designs (freebie at ScrapMatters blog), kit "In Good Company" by Paislee Press and Leora Sanford, Oscraps.

Treat Bags for Valentine's Day...

2010-01-28T10:47:00.002+01:00

I made some treat bags with yesterdays freebie, the treat toppers... So easy, you just print out (I used photo paper, satin-matt), cut the pieces, fold and fasten with staples. Before I printed out I also wrote a greeting in the white frame. I now have to hide these away until Valentine's Day.

Treat Toppers...

2010-01-26T21:29:00.005+01:00

So I made some treat toppers really quick, you can download here.

And if you want to make your own, you can download my In Love Doodles here.
I'm off to make some treat bags with toppers for my DH...

Working on a Photo book...

2010-01-26T19:22:00.001+01:00

I've been a really bad blogger for a while, sorry:(

I'm working on a photo book for my sister, all about her two boys. It takes a lot of time though... So that is what I'm concentrating on now. (While making cards in between, lol)

(Layout Credits: "Blessed" kit by Sahlin Studio at ScrapMatters)

I was thinking of making some treat toppers for Valentine's Day with my In Love Doodles, I'll see if I can make that into a freebie for you all.

Hybrid Birthday Cards...

2010-01-11T12:37:00.002+01:00

Since I discovered Kristina Werner's design blog I've become more and more interested in card making. Her weekly card making videos are fantastic and SO inspiring! I wish I could do cards like her, well, she's a pro and I'm only a newbie:)
And she's got lot of tools and material I still don't have, but want of course. I'm drooling over clear stamps, embossing powder and corner punches, lol.

So I'm doing it the hybrid way, (for now anyway)... Peppermintcreative has this gorgeous paper pack, Birthday Boogie.

I used the paper with the cupcake pattern on my birthday card below. The pink ribbon has golden edges but it's hard to see on the photo. The font I used on the circle is Euphorigenic which you can find at dafont for free.

I'm off now to check on some of Kristina Werner's old videos, I haven't watched all yet:)

A Year in Review...

2010-01-09T23:45:00.001+01:00

I found a beautiful free collection of PSD-templates by Jessica Sprague today on the Shutterfly blog, templates for all twelve months of the year. Even a fancy front page, so you can make a book of it. Check it out:)

Oh, and use the first download link above the photo, the other one doesn't work!

Some Clean & Simple Freebies...

2010-01-06T17:47:00.004+01:00

Hope you all have had a wonderful Holiday Celebration! I've had some great days with my family, rather relaxed actually which is nice. No stress here:)

The new year has already brought some changes to the digi-world. I've been a big fan of Ikea Goddess and her freebie list for a long while, and I'm SO going to miss her great choice of freebies. But I totally understand her, I admire her for sticking with it as long as she did, it's a huge assignment!!! Fortunally there is a new one now, Digital Daisy's handpicked freebies.

I'm not going to turn into a freebie hunter myself but as I've found some really good one's this week I wanted to share them with you. Enjoy:)

1) Three Paper Peonies

2) Paislee Press

3) Sandra Cheng

4) Therese Rydström

5) Jennifer Barrette

6) Misty Cato

If you're a fan as me of the clean & simple style and still havent found Cathy Zielske's blog Bits&Pieces you're in for some great reading and a lot of inspiring designs. You can also find her work at Designer Digitals! She's got a great sense of humour, don't drink anything while reading, lol. I've got personal experience of what it can lead to...

Making a Gingerbread House...

2009-12-25T18:01:00.001+01:00

We had a lot of fun making a gingerbread house yesterday... me, DH and my youngest sister who is staying with us over the holidays, that is. It became a fairytale house this year, from the story about Hans and Greta. I bought the parts ready so it was only to glue it all together with sugar frosting. And we decorated with a lot of candy of course.

I know my small nephews will have a blast breaking this house to pieces after Christmas with a hammer (traditionally on the 13th of January when we dance out the Christmas).

Merry Christmas to you all:)

A Cold Winter Walk...

2009-12-19T21:28:00.001+01:00

Finally we've got some snow where I live, hopefully it will stay until Christmas. Today me and DH took a long walk, enjoying the sunny weather. Though it was really cold, brrrr...

As we've had such cold weather lately, large ice crystals had grown like flakes on the old grass. Really fascinating:)

Making Christmas Cards...

2009-12-17T15:30:00.005+01:00

This year I wanted to scrap some Christmas cards, never done that before. And I felt so inspired by Kristina Werner design blog, wow, she make such cute cards, and at the same time clean & simple which I love:)

But I had a really hard time finding christmassy papers! The local stores in my little hometown had nothing except the patterned paper you can see above on the card. And it was too late to order over the Internet. Sooo, I did my best with what I had at home... I used my new 2" circular punch for the first time ever for a holiday greeting I made in Photoshop and printed out, so it's kind of a hybrid card. Even my scallop border punch came to use.

(I know what you're thinking now, why didn't she print out a digital paper? Well I would have if it is was just a couple of cards I was making but I realised I had to do so many that it was cheaper to buy papers.)

It was so fun that I've already started on a birthday card. Miss Mint's new birthday boogie paper pack that I bought the other day will come to good use. I've probably been bitten by the hybrid card fly, lol.

A little Christmas Gift...

2009-12-13T13:06:00.003+01:00

I wish you all a merry Christmas with a little Christmas mini-kit. I've been baking some lately, Christmas cookies and cakes... so I guess that was my inspiration for drawing a baking angel. Sitting on a cloud making the sweetest cookie dough, lol.

I also made a baking angel-sticker which is not on the preview but in the download though and a clipping-mask for your photo so it can fit into the frame.

Below is a quick layout I made with the mini-kit, a Christmas cookie recipe. The stitches are by Syrin, a freebie from the last issue of DST Insider. You can also find her products at Catscrap, she's got some really great collections of stitches.

I also want to thank all my blog readers, I love reading your comments:) Thank You!

You can download HERE

Update: I've been asked about the font I used on my page, it's called Gruenewald and it's free. You can get it here.

God Jul till dig också Maiku:)

Mom's latest creative project...

2009-12-01T15:09:00.001+01:00

My mom has always loved to create things, even though she's almost 70 and her eyesight isn't the best she still make things like this, an Advent Calendar. Well, she bought the plant but otherwise she made all the boxes and she decorated it herself. I just had to take some photos so I could show you, I thought is was such a great idea, haven't seen an Advent calendar like that before.

The last photo of the Advent Calendar is in daylight, that's why it looks so different. We celebrated 1st of Advent too, Sunday evening. I gathered my family for coffee and Swedish Christmas cakes and cookies; like ginger snaps and saffron cake. We lighted the first candle, it's such an impressive moment, the beginning of all the celebrations of December.

My mom's old doll...

2009-11-27T22:59:00.001+01:00

I'm scrapping in a VERY simple way these days, ha-ha... square and simple. As usual I'm using papers by Andrea Victoria at Designerdigitals; Pina papers, word art by Jessica Sprague. It's my mom's old doll, I think she got it after the war, grandma made the dress anyway. It's been through some really tough times, even crossed the Baltic Sea in a storm. It's a miracle it's still in one piece.

We're celebrating 1st of Advent on Sunday here in Sweden, lighting the first candle. Time is passing by quickly now...

Have a great weekend:)

Holidays in Hand, my book of prompts....

2009-11-23T18:53:00.000+01:00

I'm in Jessica Sprague's class Holidays in Hand and finally I've got something to show, although it's obviously not the December Album that "hopefully" will be the final result. But I made a book of the 31 prompts we've received from Jessica. I printed them out and also made a cover. It really helps you to get in the creative mood, giving you lots of ideas. I'm writing on the back of each page answers to the questions about past Christmas's and present ones. There's also great suggestions on each prompt on what to photograph each day.

Jessica, I love your class! XOXO...

Lovely patterned papers...

2009-11-22T20:37:00.000+01:00

Andrea Victoria is one of my favourite designers. Her papers are so beautiful or should I say stylish and modern... I bought these, Autumn Air - Paper pack and Autumn Air - Solids, a while ago and love them:) You can find them here.

I know I will use them a lot.

In my page below I've used them and also a stitched frame by Anna Aspnes (Stitched by Anna No. 1 White) and a flower by Katie Pertiet (freebie). All from Designerdigitals. The word art I made myself and the font is Arno Pro.

Vintage Photos...

2009-11-16T23:06:00.000+01:00

I've blogged before about Jessica Sprague's photo editing class (Photo Editing; frame-ups and special effects) that I attended this summer, it was great; so much fun to learn and a lot of awesome downloads including material from "House of 3". This self-paced class is still available at JessicaSprague.com, at the moment for $25.

Inspired by these lessons I made the photo above in vintage style, you can see the original below. I used one of Pioneer Woman's free action sets, action set 1 which you can find here, to make the vintage look. I used the action called "vintage", but lowered the opacity a bit. There's also a "quick edge burn" I used and "boost". With one of Photoshop's default brushes I made some stars. The font is Chopin Script.

As you can see I worked on the eyes too, to make them pop you can use a couple of different ways but this video tutorial is also great.

Check out Pioneer Woman's action set 2, it's also free:)

Free Class at jessicasprague.com!

2009-11-04T15:36:00.000+01:00

You wouldn't want to miss out on this class!!!

Another Scrap lift...

2009-11-03T13:36:00.002+01:00

I found another interesting book layout today that I wanted to scrap lift, the cover of a cook book (Meze, mm... I like that). Finally it became a page about a visit to a little cafe somewhere on the Swedish countryside.

I also made two templates, one A4 and one in letter size. The grey border on the journaling card is on it's own layer and the color can easily be changed or you can drag a paper on top of it and use the ctrl+alt+g command. The drop shadow I put there can of course be removed. The font is Arno Pro, you can use Times New Roman instead if you want to.

You can download HERE.

Scraplifting Book Layouts...

2009-10-29T13:06:00.009+01:00

Sometimes I really get inspired by the layouts on books and CD:s.
While looking at new book titles at my favourite Swedish Internet book store I noticed one about historical leaders (below). I loved the cool graphical layout at the front page so much that I made a scrap lift, a page about my dad. I used papers and elements from Nia Kit by Michelle Martin at Designer Digitals and the font Arno Pro.

I also made a layout template in lettersize, 8½x11, a PSD-file. If you want it you can download HERE.

My own layout above is made in international size A4, so that I can easily print it out. Download A4 size template HERE.

Crayon Doodles...

2009-10-26T13:28:00.001+01:00

I've got a freebie for you today, a pack of "Crayon Doodles".
It's fun to try different kinds of artistic mediums, in this case I've used soft pastel pencils and soft pastel crayons on a light brown paper.

You can download HERE

Learning is fun...

2009-10-20T15:12:00.001+02:00

Any of you attended the free Photo Editing: Frame-ups & Special Effects class at jessicasprague.com this summer? I did, although I got pneumonia at the same time and had to spend over a week in hospital, not to mention all the weeks of recovering that was needed afterwards, sigh... Anyway, it was a great class, jessicasprague.com is the place to go if you want to learn some new scrap booking skills. She's got many different classes, for beginners, intermediates and skilled scrappers.

Fortunately I was able to go through the video lessons later on, lucky me. In the layout above I've used the photo that was the result of the first lesson, all about png-frames and word art.

Credits: Photo frame by House of 3, included in the class. Word Art from Word and Flower Stickers by Jessica Sprague. Photo prongs by Designs by Anita. Owl from Autumn Blush freebie by Jennifer Barrette. Background paper; my own design.

Crumpled Watercolor Photo Mats...

2009-10-14T11:30:00.001+02:00

This is some watercolors I made last autumn, all with rather rough edges and they're also a bit crumpled. Yes, they've gone through a hard time, ha ha...

You can download HERE

Handwritten fonts with European letters

2009-10-13T15:55:00.004+02:00

As most scrappers I like to collect a lot of different kinds of fonts. My problem, as I’m Swedish, is that I also need the letters å, ä and ö. It can be really difficult to find fonts with European letters. The other day I was asked by a Finnish digiscrapper if I knew of any handwritten fonts with Scandinavian letters. I’ve looked in my collection of fonts and got a couple of suggestions today.

Please feel free to comment if you know of more handwritten fonts with European letters:)

The images are linked, so you only have to click at them to find the place to download. The three first are free and can be found at Dafont.com, the last two are by designer Darcy Baldwin and can be found at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

Darcy Baldwin has got many great fonts in her shoppe and quite a few with European letters, they’re marked with Euroready. At the moment DJB Writes a lot is on sale for $1.39. Popular DJB Angel Baby costs $1.99.

In Love Doodles...

2009-10-07T10:48:00.001+02:00

I know, Valentines Day is still far away, but I got a special request about these so here they come:)

As you can see in the pic above I've used them while doing treat-toppers. The red paper with the pink hearts I used here I've also included in the download (but not on the preview below).

They're great for hybrid projects, and even though it's a couple of months before Valentine's Day I hope you can find use for them...

You can download HERE.

Sleepy Doodles...

2009-09-24T22:27:00.000+02:00

Here's another doodle-pack, Sleepy Doodles, silly name, I know:) Just did'nt know what to call them... They come in two versions, with and without a white edge. You can download HERE.

Wishing you all a great weekend:)

Birthday Doodles 2...

2009-09-09T15:08:00.000+02:00

Here's a little doodle pack and some backgroundpapers I've made. This was part of a freebiekit last year at twolittlepixels so you might have it already. If not you can download HERE.

Always on the go...

2009-09-07T15:56:00.001+02:00

Well, it's not about me, lol. I'm a rather lazy person really... My DH on the other hand is a very restless man. I wish I had a little of his energy, he's always on the go. When it comes to cleaning the house too, which I really appreciate:)

By the way, I think there will be a freebie uploaded on my blog by the end of the week. Thank you so much for all the sweet comments, love to read them!

The papers I've used on the layout comes from my blog-friend Cindyrelly, she's very generous with freebies on her blog, you can find it HERE.

Credits: Papers from freebie kit "Grungy Garden" by Designs by Cindyrelly.
Wordart: "Unscripted no. 3" by Taylormade and brushes from "Different Strokes nr 4" by fei-fei's stuff.

Circle of Friends...

2009-09-03T13:01:00.002+02:00

This is a pack of doodles I made for a collab at twolittlepixels, all about friends... And what is nicer than having a good time together with your friends, perhaps with some coffee and cake. Yummy!

You can download HERE

Autumn Doodles...

2009-08-28T13:42:00.003+02:00

Here's some doodles I made last year, A Walk in the Woods...

As I'm Swedish it's obviously a rather Scandinavian touch on these, but I hope you can find use for them anyway:)

You can download HERE

Birthday Doodles...

2009-08-19T16:25:00.004+02:00

A pack of Birthday Doodles for you all...
You can download here

There will not be any more freebies this week, but I'll try to get something up next week. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments, love to read them:)

Some Inspiration...

2009-08-19T11:47:00.005+02:00

Do you need some inspiration?

Suzanne, better known as sbaird in the galleries, in the twolittlepixels creative team, made a beautiful layout last year with my Sunny Doodles. I think the dark background makes the elements and photo really pop! For credits and a closer look at the LO, go here. (DST Gallery)

Another Freebie...

2009-08-18T11:34:00.004+02:00

Since the summer soon will come to an end, here's another flower doodle pack. Enjoy:)

You can download here

Garden Doodles Freebie...

2009-08-17T15:34:00.006+02:00

As I've promised there will be some new freebies on my blog, here is a pack of Garden Doodles. Hope you can find some use for them:)

You can download here

Hybrid scrapping...

2009-08-09T19:18:00.006+02:00

Have you tried hybrid scrapping?

I haven't done much hybrid scrapbooking before but recently I made some Thank you-cards, this one my sister asked me to do.

I printed out the black frame and written words on kraft paper which I folded, I then printed out the photo in the right size on photo paper and glued on the card. A paper flower and some felt leafs became the final touch. Very simple layout, but I like simple:)

Credits: Corner brush from "On the corner brushes No 1" by Katie Pertiet/Designer Digitals. Frame brush by Jesse Edwards, Web Challenge Freebie at Designer Digitals.

Alpha by me, font: Euphorigenic.

Enjoying Summer...

2009-08-06T10:53:00.003+02:00

I haven't been blogging for a while, health issues (as usual, sigh...) have come in between. I've been in hospital for pneumonia, among other things.

But now I'm feeling better and I hope it will stay that way. Today I'm fully enjoying summer, it has been such lovely weather these past few days where I live. (The photo above is from my mum's garden, she loves gardening...)

I want to thank you all for the encouraging comments you left me at my last blog post. It meant a lot to me, so {{{hugs}}} to everyone!

As I've not been able to produce anything to twolittlepixels in a long time due to my health problems I've decided to stop selling, my part of the shoppe is closed now. I will miss the wonderful team at twolittlepixels though... both the designers and the creative team.

I've decided to delete most of my old freebies here on my blog, so if you want any, be quick, in a week they'll be gone. But there soon will be some new, as I'm not selling anymore I will now and then put up one of my doodle packs as a freebie.

Wishing you some great summer days...

Long time since last post...

2009-06-17T14:33:00.005+02:00

Finally summer's here! Yesterday I enjoyed this little piece of cake, really yummy:)

It's two months since my last post, a long time... My cancer started growing again and I've just gone through two periods of radiotherapy and I've also started with a new chemo therapy as the one I've been on these past three years doesn't work any more. So that's what my life has been about lately, living one day at a time and wondering if it's all going to end soon. I still don't know if it's working, have to wait for the next x-ray. Well, that's life... good days and bad days.

Recently I've been feeling better and it feels like I'm getting back my urge to do creative things, that feels so good!

Wishing you all a great summer and all Swedish friends a beautiful Midsummer:)

A New Improved Twolittlepixels (+freebie)

2009-04-11T18:48:00.008+02:00

Happy Easter!

Isn't it wonderful when spring finally arrives and you don't have to wear that old, warm winter coat or jacket anymore? Well, if you're living in the northern hemisphere, or in Sweden like me you know what I mean. Today it's sunny and 15 degrees Celsius where I live, what a change, it's only two or three weeks since it was bitter cold and a lot of snow...

Twolittlepixels has also gone through a change, it has moved from Zen Cart to X-Cart for a much better shopping experience. Now you can see each designers latest product at the top of the page and the previews are larger so you can see all the details better. If you're already a customer at twolittlepixels you need to re-register though.
So go and have a look at the new, improved twolittlepixels!

There's more than 20 new products this week and three new designers; jot & scribble, Ana Reis and cherpea designs. So much new exciting stuff to be inspired of!

And since it's Easter, here's a freebie, some Rough Solids, 5 backgrounds. You can download here.

A New Collab From Twolittlepixels...

2009-03-27T17:05:00.005+01:00

All the designers at Twolittlepixels have teamed up and made this collab together, "Creatively Speaking", over 200 MB digital goodies for you! Beautiful shades of pink and brown.

And it's 20% off for the first 24 hours, so be quick:) You can find it here.

This is my contribution (Designs by Angelica E.)

by Creashens

by [ksharonkdesigns]

by Click Photo LieN

by Pure Scrap

by Ange

by cherpea

by Natasha NaSt Designs

I wish you all a great weekend:)

Fascinating Artistic Blog

2009-03-25T23:17:00.003+01:00

Lately I seem to stumble upon a lot of interesting websites, this blog by Magic Jelly aka Karena Colquhoun, is so fascinating. She's an australian digital artist and if you're into mixed media and a bit of retro you have to go visit her blog.

I was so inspired by her work...

Hundreds of Free Retro Fonts, Clip Art and Photos...

2009-03-24T08:58:00.005+01:00

TACK-O-RAMA is the place to go when you're looking for some great, free retro fonts! I stumbled upon this site while looking for a 50s font for a layout and was so delighted with the amount of free fonts, clip art and photos.

http://www.tackorama.net/ has retro fonts from the beginning of the last century, like Art Nouveau, with fonts for every decade until the 80s. And the black and white photos and the clip art are free to use on websites.

This is a place I will return to often.

We have a new fab collab, 20% off for 24 hours!

2009-03-13T12:46:00.006+01:00

We have a guest designer for the month of March at twolittlepixels, Lynne-Marie! And she's uploaded some really great stuff, if you're like me and LOVE chocolate you should take a serious look in the shoppe. Lynne-Marie has an awesome kit with that theme, but that's not all....

We also got a fabulous new collab for you too, we call it "Circle of Friends", and you can get it now, for 24 hours, for only AUS $8.80! It's over 170 MB gorgeous stuff to play with. You can find it here.

Below you can see what each of us have designed.

I made a doodle pack, 14 doodles, all hand drawn by me. If it's something I love, it's inviting friends and family over to a cup of coffee (or often cappuccino or coffee latte) and something home baked. Or sit down and chat at a cafe (for hours, lol).

By Sharon [ksharonkdesigns]

By Shen, Creashens.

By Lynne-Marie.

Our creative team has made some awesome layouts too with the kit, even hybrid birthday cards. You can find them in the shoppe and in our gallery at twolittlepixels.

Have a great weekend:)

Crazy about cupcakes....

2009-03-10T11:16:00.006+01:00

Foto: Bluebox.com

I have to admit I've got a "thing" for cupcakes, well okay, I LOVE cupcakes..... They're so fun to decorate, not that I am some kind of expert on baking cupcakes, I'm only a beginner :)

So when I found these small boxes of lip balm on a Swedish website, www.bluebox.se, I just drooled, LOL. They're only 29 SKR each and for all swedes, you can find them here.
I found them on a lot of American and british websites too, among others http://www.ripeshop.co.uk/ below the headline "toiletries", each at £2.99.
Also http://www.fredflare.com/ have a set of four for $18 though I found a much cheaper set of four lip balms at http://www.prettylikeme.com/ for only $9.99.

There's a lot of blogging going on about cupcakes, a Swedish favourite blogger of mine is Eva Blixman. She's a professional photographer, so her blog is not all about cupcakes. But there's a lot of photos of cupcakes anyway and I have to say they're really works of art! So even if you don't understand Swedish, you can find a lot of eye candy at her blog. You can find her cupcakes here.

And if you have'nt found Bakerella yet you should have a look at her blog too:)

A little freebie from a bad, bad blogger...

2009-03-09T13:12:00.004+01:00

Oh, I'm such a bad blogger :(
I haven't posted anything since the beginning of February! So I whipped up a little freebie for you as an apology, some papers I made a while ago when I did the layout below. The word art and those small hearts comes from Creashens wonderful element pack "Rewind 2008 Decorated word art" which you can find here.

At the moment I'm working on a collab, you'll find it at twolittlepixels at the end of this month, so it's still very secret. Collabs are really fun actually, it's so inspiring to work together with other designers using the same theme and color swatch.

And here comes the freebie, rather bright colors. If I get the time I'll do some elements too that matches the papers. Any suggestions? Well, we'll see...

You can download here

Some great Photoshop actions...

2009-02-03T20:31:00.008+01:00

As you can see from my blog header, I love to play with photos in Photoshop, and there are also a lot of free actions, that make stunning results, on the web that you can download. Actions makes it really easy:)

Above you can see some of my favourites; urban acid gives the photo a lot of drama and contrast. You can find it here .
Funky and Soft glaze are two actions that photographer Michelle Black lets you try for free before you buy whole sets from her. She got some really good actions, so check her out! At the moment she got a sale, 25 % off everything! (Use the code she highlights).

Depending on the photo, actions give different results, what suits one photo may not suit another, so you have to keep trying... In my layout below I've used Soft Glaze and that worked great with those photos I think.

So have a try with some actions:)

Credits: Layout template by Vinnie Pearce, background paper, paper heart and staples from "I Live For freebie" by Vinnie Pearce. Paper from "Moments of Wonderful" freebie also by Vinnie Pearce. Word Art from "Rewind 2008 Decorated Word Art" by Creashens at twolittlepixels.com.
Date brush from "Make it a Date - 2" by Catrine, Catscrap.
Font: Esat Hoxha NRML.

Make Valentine Treat Toppers...

2009-01-31T12:24:00.008+01:00

I showed you in my latest post my new "In Love Doodles", and the treat toppers I did with them. I thought that I should show you also how I did them. As you can see in the picture below it's very easy to make. The size of the topper depends of course on the size of the bag. In my case it was 16 cm wide and I decided on 12 cm high which I later folded so it became 6 cm. We use the metric system in Sweden but the canvas is about 6,3 and 4,7 inches. I drew a line at the middle as you can see so it should be easy to see where to fold. I then printed out on photo paper and that worked great.The red paper I used as background you can find as a freebie in today's newsletter from twolittlepixels.com, you can download it at Sharon's blog Artistic Musings.
It's a fantastic newsletter Sharon [ksharonkdesigns] made, full of freebies, great tutorials and a lot of inspirational layouts. Nisha in out CT-team, made a wonderful hybrid project; Valentine Cards with my doodles. So don't miss out on the goodies:)
You can find my In Love Doodles here.

New release; In Love Doodles...

2009-01-30T13:08:00.006+01:00

I have a new doodle pack in the shoppe; In Love Doodles! Just in time for Valentine's Day...

It's a pack of 14 doodles, all made in Illustrator and Corel Painter by me. They're made digitally but I still call them hand painted as I made them with the same technique as when I paint in oil, though I didn't have to clean my brushes, LOL.

You can find them at twolittlepixels here. And at the moment they cost only AUS $ 2.00 as it's 20% off!

I also got a freebie for you if you download twolittlepixels newsletter tomorrow at Sharon's blog, Artistic Musings. The newsletter should have come today but Sharon have had serious computer problems, a real crash actually, I feel so sorry for her...

I made some Treat toppers for Valentine's Day with my new doodles. It's really easy to do, just measure your bag and decide how big topper you want, scrap as usual and print on photo paper, then fold and staple on the bag. It's a great gift:)

For scandinavian scrappers; you can find the bags at Panduro.

Wish you all a Great Weekend:)

All creashens products 35% off this weekend!!!

2009-01-24T13:04:00.004+01:00

Shen (creashens) is celebrating her birthday and all her products, both on twolittlepixels.com and catscrap.com are 35% off this weekend! Have you seen her new products for the week? Rewind Stock & Stash and Rewind Element Pack are both great, so beautiful word art and the papers are so versatile, with wonderful texture to use over and over again.

You can find Rewind Stock & Stash here

And Rewind Elements Pack here

Have you seen Sharon's [ksharonkdesigns] new Simple Sets #47. So classy and clean design, great for that book you want to do about those every day moments of 2008, or any other clean and stylish layout you want to do. Let the photos shine!
You can find it here. And it's 20% off at the moment!

Have a great weekend:)

A Little Christmas Freebie...

2008-12-21T20:33:00.007+01:00

It's just a couple of days until Christmas and it's a busy time for most people. There's a lot of things to do, preparing for the celebration. Some things are so boring, like cleaning the house. But there are fun things too...

I made this little house today and it was really fun, until I tried to put the roof on. It just wanted to slide down, lol. Finally the sugar icing dried and now I think it will stay in place. I usually use melted sugar in a frying pan for this, it holds much better, but I always succeed to burn my hands so this year I used thick sugar icing instead. And the pieces of the house I bought ready made, made it much easier.

I made a little Christmas freebie too, just two hand painted watercolor frames and a painted background. You can download it here.

I wish you all Happy Holidays:)

New Lucia Freebie...

2008-12-12T18:25:00.008+01:00

(Included are 3 papers, 1 photo frame in several versions, 1 large frame in several versions, 4 doodles and 1 word art in several versions. It is NOT a quick page!)

I realized the other day that people are still downloading my Lucia freebie from last year, and I felt so embarrassed, lol... as when I looked inside the kit I saw all the flaws, I think I've learned some things since then. Actually I painted those doodles with the mouse in Photoshop, have you ever tried painting with the mouse, rather difficult I'd say. Nowadays I draw and paint either by hand on paper and then scan or with my wacom tablet in Illustrator. The doodles in this new Lucia kit are made in Illustrator, so no stray pixels this time.

All elements are not shown on the preview, I've made several versions of the word art and the frames.

For Norwegian and Danish scrappers; there's a png-file with just "Sankta Lucia" so that you can make your own word art as I don't know the lyrics of the songs you sing while celebrating Lucia.

In Swedish: Hoppas att ni kan få användning av det här Lucia kitet, allt som ingår syns inte på bilden, jag har gjort flera versioner av wordarten och ramarna. Jag önskar er alla en trevlig Lucia helg:)

For all of you that are new to "Lucia", you can read about St Lucy here. We're celebrating her tomorrow, Saturday the 13th of December, with gingersnaps and saffron buns and a lot of beautiful traditional Lucia songs. She lights up December for us, it's so dark right now here in Sweden.

You can download here. Have a great weekend:)

New glitter swirls and a little freebie...

2008-12-05T12:24:00.005+01:00

Finally Friday and a new product in the shoppe, a pack of glitter swirls this time. I've been working in Illustrator for a little while now and made some swirls there, and a flower overlay. As it's almost Christmas I thought a little bit of glitter would be fun...
You can find it here at twolittlepixels.
Don't forget that you can change to US $ or to European € even though the default currency is AUS $...

And here's a little something for all my loyal blog-readers, a glitter freebie (3 glitter frames and 1 paper) you can download here.

Have a GREAT weekend:)

Black Friday Sale!

2008-11-28T08:52:00.003+01:00

It's Black Friday and twolittlepixels is having a big sale! So come and have a look, and don't forget to visit Sharon's blog Artistic Musings for a look on the new products of this week, some gorgeous stuff I promise:) And perhaps a freebie also?

From now on you can also choose among three currencies, AUS $, US$ and European €.... Ah, why are we still using Swedish Kronor over here, we've lost a lot on that since the financial crisis began. I want EURO! LOL...

Making photos look old in Photoshop...

2008-11-22T23:40:00.006+01:00

This is a photo from my vacation this summer, some old fisherman's cabins by the sea. I wanted to make an old-looking sepia photo of it and found a very interesting tutorial in a Swedish magazine that I partly used, the result is below. I'm not especially good at making tutorials but I will have a try here to describe how I made this.

There are of course many ways to do this in Photoshop so this is just one way, where you concentrate on the dark areas in the photo.

At first I made the photo black & white, in my case I used the green filter preset in Photoshop CS3. (You can click on the screenshots to have a better look at them.)

Then I clicked on the channels folder in the layers palette, as you can see on the screenshot below . Press Ctrl and click with the mouse on the RGB thumbnail at the same time, (by the red arrow at the screenshot below) There will now be marching ants around all the light areas of the photo.

But it's the dark areas we want to work with, so go to select in the menu and choose inverse (or Shift+Ctrl+I). Now the dark areas are selected.

Go down to the layers palette again and create a new fill layer, choose solid color.

You can now choose a color of your liking, I chose a brown tone as you can see.

It looks a bit funny now, but choose a blending mode, multiply or overlay work well.

I choose multiply here and kept the opacity 100%, but you can decrease it if you want.

Then I opened a texture and placed it over the photo. There are a lot of free textures you can download on the Webb. Test different blending modes, like overlay which I used here, and change the opacity until you are pleased with the result.

Well, that's it:)

At the beach...

2008-11-21T13:30:00.007+01:00

I've been playing all day with [ksharonkdesigns] new "Beach Play Kit". You can find it here.
It's Friday again and twolittlepixels got some new goodies in the shoppe, we've got a new designer too, the famous Leiko Beck, yes it's true!!! She's got a new gorgeous alpha in the shoppe... And Creashens got a new awesome Christmas kit, in lovely pastel colors. There are so many new products every week now it's best you have a look yourself in the shoppe, we're 10 designers at the moment!

Sharon's kit is so fun to play with, it may be winter up here in the north but I've got some photo's from this summer that I wanted to scrap for a Christmas gift I'm doing for my sister, so I hope she doesn't read my blog, lol.

Credits: Everything from the new kit "Beach Play" by [ksharonkdesigns] at http://www.twolittlepixels.com/ except the staples, from the kit Something Springy by Anna Aspnes, (the kit is still a freebie at Shutterfly's blog). Fonts: Century Gothic and Rage Italic LET.

This week went by so fast, sort of surprise that it's already Friday. At the moment it's snowing outside (despite all the talk of summer and play at the beach, lol) and in a while my nephew's will come and we've decided that we're going to bake ginger snaps, can it be more christmassy? I know, it's only November, but we're longing for Christmas:)

Have a great weekend!

Friday, and a new Doodle Pack...

2008-11-14T14:09:00.005+01:00

Finally Friday and this week I've got a new doodle pack; Sleepy Doodles, in the shoppe at twolittlepixels. You can find it here....

Don't forget that you can change the currency from AUS $ to US $ in the shoppe!

All 12 doodles are hand drawn and hand painted by me. And if you like the background paper, you can download it from my blog, look below "My freebies", Lucia kit. I made it last year, but I thought it looked good with my new doodles, a typical Swedish winter sky, lol.

Twolittlepixels creative team has been playing with these, have a look at these stunning pages...

Layout by Suzanne, Kaitlyn.

Layout by Jodie, A little peek.

Layout by Alissa, Little fingers.

So much has been happening these last few weeks at twolittlepixels, 3 new designers joined last week, Emily Giovanni, Pure Scrap and Natasha NaSt Designs. And this week Click Photo Designs by Lien and Opal Scraps.

Jump over to Sharon's blog, Artistic Musings, to have a look at all the new exciting stuff from these designers. and as it's Friday Sharon has a gorgeous freebie too. Hurry over and grab it before it's to late. But STOP, I almost forgot to tell you about our new open gallery, where YOU can show your own beautiful pages with designs from twolittlepixels. We would love to see how you use it!

Have a great weekend:)

Vintage Minikit Freebie...

2008-11-13T10:46:00.003+01:00

I've had this little vintagekit laying on my harddisk for a long time now, I made it for some of my own family photos from the 20:ies. But perhaps there is someone who it can be useful for, so if you want it you can download here.

Below is one layout I made using it.

Credits: Layout template by Micheline Martin (blogfreebie, no longer available) paper and elements from my vintage minikit. Font: Isla Bella (www.dafont.com).

Celebrate with us, a free Collab kit and more...

2008-10-31T14:10:00.006+01:00

Come celebrate with us at twolittlepixels! There's a huge collab freebie kit (over 100 MB) and all our products are 30% off. Sharon has got a awesome grab bag and our guest designer Syrin has some fabulous stitches, don't forget to check out Creashen's new birthday kit also, its beautiful...

And of course the creative team have also been busy, lots of great layouts to get inspiration from. So what are you waiting for?

Have a great weekend:)

Happy Birthday Twolittlepixels!

2008-10-27T23:55:00.003+01:00

Can you believe it? Twolittlepixels is turning 1! And it's going to be a great celebration!

One week sale, 30% off... and a fantastic freebie collab kit... and Sharon have a huge grab bag you really shouldn't miss ... and we have a secret guest designer...

I think I lost my breath there, what a sentence!

Check out Sharon's blog Artistic Musings on Friday and join the celebration:)

Designer Call...

2008-10-26T13:35:00.003+01:00

Just a short note...

If you're an established or beginner designer here is your chance... so don't hesitate, send Sharon an email and tell her about yourself, twolittlepixels is a great place to be.

Watercolor Photo Mats and a Freebie...

2008-10-10T16:47:00.007+02:00

So it's Friday again and I have a new product in the shoppe at twolittlepixels. This time it's a pack of 7 watercolor photo mats for your photos, a bit crumpled and tattered by me (yeah, that part was fun, lol). You can find them here.

Our creative team have done some beautiful layouts with these...

[layout by Jodie, credits here]

[layout by Lynn, credits here]

And Sharon has been really busy, she's got three new products this Friday!!! First this one; Small packages - Frames 8, so beautiful and she's done all the work for you, so easy to use... You can find this package here.

And here's Just the Basics Quick Album, you can find it here...

And some great papers too, Paper Essentials - Sacha, you can find them here...

And then finally, a little freebie... As you may know, I have breast cancer and struggle with chemotherapy, some days it's really tough. But on the other hand, I've never appreciated life the way I do now! So I still have really good days too...

This month, October, you can support Breast cancer awareness and buy pink ribbons, I think this is the case all over the world. Here in Sweden there's a lot of different ways to support it... And if you know someone with breast cancer, a friend or a relative, you can perhaps give them some of your time... Sometimes people avoid sick persons just because they don't know how to behave, or what to say. That's sad...

You can download this freebie here, have a great weekend:)

(The painted background is a png-file and it's black when you open your download but it can easily be recolored, in Photoshop by using Color Overlay, one of the layer styles in the layer menu, you can also find it by clicking on fx below the layers. In PSE I think you use Hue/Saturation in the layer menu. Something similar in other programmes. I you want it to be white as in the preview you can use Invert. Naturally you can also make a brush out of it too.)

A Beautiful Autumn Wedding...

2008-10-06T17:54:00.002+02:00

Credits: Paper from Downunder Minikit (freebie), stitching's and ribbon from Fresh kit by [ksharonkdesigns] at twolittlepixels.com. Word Art from kit Fallback by Creashens at twolittlepixels.com. Leaf doodles from A Walk in the Woods Doodles by Angelica E. also at twolittlepixels.com. Font: 1942.

My cousin got married this Saturday and it was such a beautiful wedding that I wanted to share the photos with you. It was a double wedding, two couples, the grooms are brothers. And my cousins oldest daughter, Olivia, is blowing bubbles in the photo as you can see, actually we were all doing that, quite fun... so no rice to throw.

My cousins youngest, Elsa, looked so tired, it must have been all the action in the church I guess.

Credits: Paper from Downunder mini kit (freebie) by [ksharonkdesigns].

Elsa thought the wedding ceremony was rather boring so she made a thorough investigation of the church instead, made a big candle fall with a crash and made us all laugh. So it was definitely not a stiff wedding:)

Time for September newsletter and freebies...

2008-09-26T19:32:00.003+02:00

It's already the end of September and time for the monthly newsletter from twolittlepixels. And there some goodies there FOR YOU... 3 freebies, from me and [ksharonkdesigns] and Creashens. You can find the newsletter at Sharon's blog, Artistic Musings.

And there's some new, fresh products too; I've got a new doodle pack, it's small but costs only 1.50 AUS $! Could be great for those late summer photos...

And Sharon has something really FRESH for you, Fresh kit... so gorgeous colors...

And Creashen's new kit is packed with charming papers and elements, even an alpha with Scandinavian letters, isn't that great!!!

And there's also a great tutorial by Sharon, about how to edit your photos in Photoshop. Don't forget to check this out, I've tested it and it made such a difference on my photos!!!

If you want some inspiration, check out our gallery at twolittlepixels, our creative team have a lot of great pages to show you there.

Wish you all a relaxing weekend, with lots of time with your families:)

Okay, why am I doing this?

2008-09-22T11:32:00.002+02:00

Me in 1964, talk about bad eyesight...

Are you just like me, doing a lot of unnecessary things when you really should be doing something else, but you're just not up to it? Well, I got stuck at yearbookyourself and had so much fun, you can yearbookyourself from 1950 until 2000. I had to test my DH too, he wasn't that enthusiastic though, hahaha...

Another site for those with time is Wordle. You can make really fun word combinations in different colors and shapes. AND use it for scrapbook pages.

Now I HAVE TO do something else, no more games for me...

Have a good time:)

What a grab bag!

2008-09-19T12:59:00.011+02:00

So, did you buy Sharon's [ksharonkdesigns] huge grab bag at twolittlepixels.com? Well if you didn't, it's too late now... She's revealed it on her blog, Artistic Musings, today and let me tell you, it was loaded with goodies.... My personal favourite is this paper pack; Paper Essentials - Tattered. Just look at these gorgeous papers, awesome!

And have you seen Creashens new kit, Afternoon Cha? It's full of beautiful and charming papers and elements, so much to play with here. You don't have to be an avid tea drinker like me to appreciate this kit, it can be used to a lot of different kind of photos. All this can be found at twolittlepixels.com.

I couldn't resist playing with all these goodies, so here's two layouts I did with them. The first one I made an English version of, otherwise I scrap in my own language, Swedish, of course.

I love autumn, for me it's like in my layout, a time for stillness and reflection. Long walks in the woods, it's so quiet and peaceful at this time of the year. You need those moments of reflection, and afterwards a nice cup of tea, lol... And when it's raining and blowing it's so cosy to light a candle and sit down in you favourite armchair, reading a good book. In Sweden it gets really dark outside these days, in December it will only be a couple of hours a day of daylight. Ugh, that's not so nice actually, rather depressing, that's why we love candles so much...

For credits look here.

My tea drinking mom got a layout also, she loved that tea cup at a cafe we visited this summer.

Credits: By Creashens at twolittlepixel.com; Paper, frames, stitching, butterfly, circular brush and teabag tag from Afternoon Cha. By [ksharonkdesigns] also at twolittlepixels.com; paper from Paper Essential - Shadowed. Overlay from Worn Photo Overlays, set 2 by SomethingBlueStudios at Catscrap.com. Fonts; 1942 and ChesterfieldAntD.

A Walk in the Woods....

2008-09-12T11:52:00.007+02:00

This week I have a new doodle pack in the 2lp shoppe with a autumn theme.... it's called "A Walk in the Woods". You can find it here.

At this time of the year many swedes are out in the woods picking mushrooms, mostly chanterelles (we love those yellow ones) but also a lot of other kinds of mushrooms like cep for instance, we call it Karl Johan mushroom though. It's a great family outing for the weekend, kids love to play in the woods and are so proud when they find some "gold" (chanterelles). And fried mushrooms are delicious...

Most families fill their rucksacks with sandwiches, coffee and hot chocolate and I promise you that it tastes wonderful after a couple of hours in the woods (forest?). We got something called "allemansrätt" in Sweden which means you have the right to go anywhere you like even if someone else owns the land, but not in private gardens of course, and you have the right to pick berries and mushrooms and other things that nature offer but you also got obligations, not to cause any damage on nature or hurt the wild creatures that live there.

So this was the inspiration for the doodle pack...

Our creative team at 2lp have made some great pages with the doodles....

This is by Carol

This is by Suzanne

You have to check out Sharon's [ksharonkdesigns] huge grab bag too. It's packed with goodies, over 200 MB for 3 $!!!!! It's only up for a week so grab this one quickly. At Sharon's blog, Artistic Musings, you can also find a beautiful freebie. So what are you waiting for...

I wish you all a GREAT weekend:)

My 50th blog post...

2008-09-03T11:25:00.004+02:00

See full credits here

I just noticed that this is my 50th blog post. Already?
Well, lately I've been busy with so many other things and that dreadful cold I wrote about in my last post has disrupted all my planning. So now I have to excuse myself to a couple of people... I'm so sorry you have had to wait for this.

I begin with Ruth, she made the beautiful layout above with my Summer Doodles v.2, you can find them as a freebie here on my blog. You can visit her blog here.

Then there's Kerrandda, who's made the fun layout below. She's used my "White painted alpha" in the title work (You can buy them at twolittlepixels).

See full credits here

And then I got this award from Doris in Austria, thank you so much Doris! I feel so honoured and happy that you like my blog... Please, go and visit her, she's got some beautiful freebies over at her blog, many more than I have actually.

According to the rules of this award I should choose 7 new people to be awarded but you know how I feel about choosing, its just to hard for me. But I will answer the questions... (Although I've answered them a while ago when I got this award the first time. I have to find new answers this time:)

Ten years ago: I got engaged at Christmas eve that year. A memorable moment...

Five things in today's "to do"-list: Well, make myself lunch, do some painting and drawing, have a walk in the sun (its beautiful weather today), prepare the weekly shopping list (DH wants to go shopping today) and yes if I get the time I want to surf around a bit. Hm, nothing exciting really, huh...

Snacks I enjoy: Um, when I answered this the last time it became a whole novel, so it will be short today; vegetables in different forms, salads and cashew nuts.

Places where I've lived: Only in Sweden...

I got an award from Mel in South Africa too. So sweet of you Mel!

She also got a lot of great freebies on her blog and she's just begun selling her designs... I'm so happy for her. Thank you so much Mel for this award, this is the second I get from you. You're a very generous gal...

Oh, I sincerely hope that I haven't forgotten anything now... Hugs to you all:)

Birthday Doodles and a freebie...

2008-08-29T12:51:00.017+02:00

I haven't posted for a really long time now!

But I've had a bad cold, with a high temperature, thought I never would recover... And this week I've been drawing and painting and scanning so there would be a product in my shoppe:) And I celebrated my birthday too, so now I'm 26, no, just kidding...

46 is more accurate, lol.

So that is why I made some birthday doodles, 19 of them. All hand drawn and hand painted. I used my new "Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils" for this and are they colorful and intense or what? I love them, they're great. You can buy my Birthday Doodles here.

And if you jump over to Sharon's blog, Artistic Musings, you can download 2lp

August Newsletter and get two great freebies, one by me and one by Sharon, [ksharonkdesigns].

I wish you all a GREAT weekend:)

White Painted Alpha and a freebie...

2008-08-08T14:30:00.004+02:00

Is it Friday already? This week went by so fast.... it's like that some weeks. I've got no doodle-pack this time, only an alpha. I painted characters with white acrylic paint on a colored paper and then outlined them with a black pen. The result is a rather grungy alpha, so if you're looking for a painted, slightly grungy alpha, you can find it in the shoppe here . The drop shadows are for preview purposes only.

I made a freebie also from the alpha; a word art. I wanted to encourage you to scrap about yourselves; to stop for a moment and think about what makes you YOU....

It's 1 paper, 1 word art with drop shadow, 2 flower doodles and 1 photo frame with drop shadow that you can download here . Have a GREAT weekend:)

A New Doodlepack and a lil' freebie:)

2008-08-01T14:03:00.006+02:00

It's Friday, hooray, and I have a new doodle pack in the shoppe:) You can find it here. And a little freebie also...

I spent my holiday in a small countryside cottage and when I came home I made these doodles, a bit inspired of the cottage I think. The girls in our creative team have played with these and look what they came up with...

By Jodie, see credits here

By Carol

By Alissa

See credits here

And finally I had to have a try too, I only wish I was as talented as our creative team:)

And here's the lil' freebie, you can download here