Sneakies of latest publications

I just got the newest Creatief met foto's magazine in the post the other day, and in it were 4 of my layouts and 2 cards, all made on assignment and with one of the newest Basic Grey collections, Lime Rickey. I really love all the papers and embellishments, and the colors are just beautiful. I made 8 layouts and 4 cards in one weekend, and that says it all, doesn't it? Thought I could share some sneakies of the layouts that are published here, just to get your attention:). This will be my last article with CMF, as I have decided not to work for them anylonger.

Have a great weekend!!!!!

Hipp hurra!!!! For mamma har bursdag i dag!!!

Today my mom turnes 29 for the 31st time!!!!!! (okey 60, but hush, don't tell anybody....) Happy birthday Mamma!!!!!! This of course means, that I have made something special for her, and what is more special than a homemade mini showing what a great mother and grandmother she is? For the journaling I used pages from my grandfathers old accounting book, partly with his handwriting on it, and I used fabric strips from an old bed sheet that I used when I was a little girl. Makes it all a little bit more personal and special. I used mainly the March add-on project kit from Label Tulip for this album with a few add ons from my own stash. No more rambling, here's a peak at your book, mom! Hope you have the bestest (yes, I did make that word up) day (which I know she has, just relaxing and enjoying Sicily and the beach:))

Another month has passed...

...since the last little word at Scrappemania, so today you get a new word and a new chance. The word this time is GLAD or HAPPY in English, which I think most of you should find some use for. We also had Dina Wakely with us for this challenge, so be sure to check out all the cool and happy layouts Dina and the design team put together. And check out that price!

We got sponsored by Nunn design this time, which gave me an extra challenge. I am not known to use a lot of charms and metal accents on my layouts. However, the charms were really cool and I especially loved the little frame. They definitely made me come out of the box and do some new stuff in new ways. Also very happy with the way my lovely glue dots holds the metal perfectly. Although I am NOT happy with my layout this time, it has more to do with color choice and over all design, than it has to do with the different techniques and products. The background paper is a printout of one of the digital papers from Sausandesigns Zapp paper pack, which I really love, and I love the half hambly frame and the pics and the fabric strip and the letters. Actually, I think the only thing I don't like about this layout and I feel ruins it, is the black painted edge, which doesn't go with the happy theme. Sort of ruins my happy feeling about it.....

And to explain a bit of my low spaced blogging a.t.m., my scrapbook mojo is pretty much not present at the moment. I am tired and worn and can't seem to find the motivation and energy I usually have. I guess I just need a break, so I am concentrating on doing some other stuff at the moment, taking some online classes, re-organizing different areas of my house, spending more time with the kids, and then I can hopefully find back to the old scrapbooking me again :) So anyway, here's the layout with my two little strawberry kings, showing off their strawberry filled tummies

Did I already mention that I love Label Tulip?

This is a good month for me as a member at Label Tulip. My layout was chosen for this months member lift challenge, so all the designers have lifted the layout shown on the right here. It's a real honor, and I love ALL the lifts! Gorgeous! Thank you so much girls!

And then I just found out that the layout that I made for the March challenge (use packaging) was chosen for the member spotlight post on the Label tulip blog. Thank you, Julie! Since I never showed this layout before, I thought I could share it now. It is one of my favorite layouts at the moment, partly because it is made by using one of my favorite products, maya mist. The layout is about a little part of my life where I went non-blond and how I could not get used to it. I am a happy blond again now:):) I used products from the Label Tulip february kit, the letters are from October Afternoon and sprayed with maya mist (took ceveral days to dry....) and the green accent is from a prima packaging (I guess most of you recognize it). Anyway, just some positiveness on an otherwise "rainy day".

Sausandesigns cookiebags and a cute little girl in "bunad"

Like I posted yesterday, we celebrated Norways constitution day, and in Norway that partly means dressing up and waving the Norwegian flag pretty much all day long. Beeing the only Norwegian family where we live, we didn't go around waving the flag, but we did get dressed and went out to eat in the evening. Lotte even got dressed in her new Norwegian "bunad", which is the traditional Norwegian costume and she looked SO CUTE! And boy did she get attention. And boy did she love it... You can see how cute she looked on the pictures further down, but first I wanted to show that I am doing something creative still. Yesterday I made these cookiebags for Mats' teachers day, as they are celebrating a joint birthday today. It's all Sausandesigns products; the papers are from the singspring collection, blue blossom and spring song, acrylic stamps from the flower set and the fake stiches set. Even the frame around the pictures are from sausandesigns (digital collections).
And then I got my son, Mats, to make and write the cards himself using the sausandesigns' stamps, Karl und Karla. I think they ended up really cute, the boy represents himself wishing happy birthday...


..and he used the tv stamp on the envelope.

...and here is more cuteness.......she made all the neighbours come out and go "ooooooh!" and "aaaaaaah!".

Congratulations Alexander!!! and happy birthday Norway!

Today is May 17th and Norway's constitution day - our birthday! Happy birthday Norway. And what a better way to celebrate it than by winning the Eurovision song contest. And what a win! Congrats to cute Alexander.



Have a great day! Og fin 17. mai feiring til alle norske! Her regner det i dag, så det spøker for vår feiring...

Pictures from my classes..

Hi, I'm just popping by to say I'm still here. Been a bit busy lately, and working a lot with photos and other stuff. Thought I could share some pictures from my classes last weekend. I learned one thing, and that is to take more and better photos of the participants creations next time. They made SO much good stuff, so I am sad I can not show more now. These are pretty much the best pictures this time around, the rest turned out a bit "blaah". So if you feel your picture is missing, I'll do better next time. Sorry!

First up is a pic of one of the participants from my Friday class, where I taught about using basic design principles when you are designing/building a layout. The participants could choose from 3 different sketches and make a layout based on it using the principles. All participants were beginners (at least that's what they said), but they all made really awesome stuff, so I'm not sure I believe them... Look at this cool layout...I love it!


And here is Vibekes travel journal. I love her version of it...


And here are some layouts from the glimmer mist class. The participants made SO much awesomeness, all in their own style, and I wish I had more samples to show. There are just no limits to what you can do with spray paint and glimmer mist. On the first layout Vibeke sprayed the frame around the layout and stamped the tree with a paper tree with mist on it. It looked like it was painted with water color and looked really nice and artistic. I can mention that the layout is not finished yet on this pic, so it was even better

and this is a glimpse of a beautiful feminine, pinkish, flowersish layout, first using the handcut flowers as mask, then including the masks on the layout. She wasn't done when I took the pic, so that's why I couldn't make a better picture.
and here you can spot (if you look closely..) the layouts of one participant who managed to make 2 layouts with one mask, one boyish and one girly.

Thank you everybody who participated in my classes. Hope to see some of you again in August... I'm off to see to the kids who have been watching tv with Tom & Jerry. I can hear them giggle all the time..... Have a great weekend ...and don't forget to vote for Alexander and Norway tonight (Eurovision song contest....)

ScRapp # 5 - Nora and back in Holland

Hey, I am back from Norway and Bergen and rain and wind and beautiful nature and loads of great scrapbooking ladies and classes and meeting my grandmother and cousin that I haven't seen for many years and having a great time and already planning my next workshop weekend......*out of breath*

I had a great time, and as far as me goes, my classes went well and I enjoyed myself and had a really good time. It was SO nice to be able to see my grandmother as well, even though it was briefly (I had a very patient and nice driver, driving me 1 hour outside of town, so I could spend a few hours with my grandmother before teaching the classes). I'll share pics later from the classes, to show off some of the participating talent, but today I have another share:

We have a new ScRapp on the ScrappeMania blog. We lifted Noras cool layout this time, and you definitely should take the time to check out all the fantastic layouts the other girls did here. Lucky us got sponsored by 3ndypapir this time, so most of my layout is containing papers from their newest collection (all except the thickers in the title and some hambly frame scraps).

Class information - informasjon vdr. kurs denne helgen

The following information is only interesting for Norwegians participating in my classes at Papirgleder in Bergen, Norway this weekend. Looking SO much forward to this....

Kurshelgen nærmer seg og jeg håper dere som har meldt dere på er klare og fulle av motivasjon. Hvis det er noen som har lyst til å bli med, men enda ikke er påmeldt, er det fortsatt mulighet for det. Bare henvend dere til Papirgleder. Jeg lovet mer info om hva dere skal ha med når kursene nærmer seg, og særlig nærmere kan det nesten ikke bli....Her følger derfor litt mer informasjon vdr. feriejournalkurset på lørdag. Ang. kurset på fredag, kan dere se her og teknikkurset på lørdag er godt nok beskrivet hos Papirgleder her. Husk at eksemplene som vises bare er eksempler. Det er dere som skal designe layoutene slik dere vil, jeg viser dere metodene og teknikkene.

Feriejournal (lørd. kl 14 - 17)

Her er det litt endringer i forhold til produkter. Det har vist seg at papirene jeg ville bruke fra My little yellow bicycle ikke kan leveres før i juni, så jeg har måttet finne alternativer. De papirene jeg har valgt å bruke i stedenfor er fra Cosmo Crickets nye colleksjoner, kjempeflotte designpapirer og nydelige farger og passer veldig bra til journalen, så ingen grunn til bekymring.

Det du må ha med deg av utstyr er:

en god saks
svart stempelpute
hobbylim til å lime både papir og stoff (helst hvitt lim på flaske)
crop-a-dile (hvis du ikke har dette, får du låne:))
Punch til å lage runde hjørner
baby wipes
papirkutter
stiftemaskin
gjerne sirkelpuncher i forskjellige størrelser, men dette er ikke nødvendig dersom du ikke har det.
godt humør:)

husk: du trenger ikke bilder til dette kurset!

Ellers henviser jeg til mitt tidligere innlegg ang. disse kursene her. Hvis dere har noe dere fortsatt lurer på, er det bare å sende en mail til meg på mariannehope@msn.com. Gleder meg masse til overimorgen og overioverimorgen....

Crab-maniacs and birthdays...

My sweet little baby boy is 6!!! On April 30st our Jonas turned 6 years old and boy were the weather gods on his side. We had a perfectly sunny and warm day, had lunch in a restaurant in Tønsberg (outside of course) and ended the day picnicking at the beach with good friends, eating brownies and fishing for crabs. Just a few pictures to get you in a summery mood... Tomorrow vacation is almost over and we head back to NL...







Mats is fanatic about his crab fishing, and wont stop before we make him. He caught 57 (!) crabs this time....

1 year anniversary and a visit from overseas....

Big things will happen on the ScrappeMania blog this month. We celebrate our 1 year anniversary so we will have loads of giveaways throughout the month. And first out we have the talented Dina Wakely visiting us and giving us a fun challenge. She shows us her 3 all time favorite layouts and our challenge to you is to choose one of them and lift it. The maniagirls already did the lifts, and I am blown over by all the fantastic layouts the other girls created. SO much gorgeousness.. Here is my humble try:



..and check out the price! My favorite kit club, Label Tulip, is giving away the March kit to the lucky winner this time, so no reason to jump this challenge...