creatively me

Teachers appreciation gifts

2011-12-22T00:08:00.001+01:00

This years teacher appreciation and neighbors gifts:) These are very simple selfmade cellophane bags, decorated with 3ndypapir Christmas papers and fabric ribbon:) I have made other variations of these gifts before and you can see them here if you are curious.

And the winner of the second set of 3ndypapir christmas collection is.......

2011-12-20T23:15:00.000+01:00

Desiree-ScrapDees

Congrats Desiree! You won 3ndypapir's christmas collection! E-mail me your address so I can send it to you asap:)

Guest designer at Scrappehuset

2011-12-17T16:29:00.000+01:00

I'm a guest designer over at the Norwegian blog called "Scrappehuset" today, and all through December up until Christmas they've had and will have cute little tutorials from loads of talented, both national and international guests for you to enjoy every day. Although the text is written in Norwegian, I'm sure most of you non Norwegians can get a lot out of just watching the pictures.

Anyway, my tutorial is about how to make some cute mini gifts from chocolate bars, which is something I love to make and give as birthday treats, teachers appreciation or just a little gift for whoever. I have had a tutorial about this before that you can see here and another version here. It's a great way to use up older papers and stash that you don't know what to do with, so get started and get creative!!

Marianne:)

This years Christmas card

2011-12-14T08:30:00.000+01:00

Just like last year, I made a digital design for this years Christmas cards. And like last year I used Sausan designs digital products. The background and the star elements are from the Jing-a-link kit. As I was running out of time in these hectic times, I kept it simple. Maybe not quite "less is more", but definitely a fast design. And like last year I ordered the cards at Postkaarten.nl. Received them in the post 2 days after I ordered them:):)

Marianne:)

Happy St. Lucia day!!

2011-12-13T08:30:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we made Lussekatter, very yummy buns for the celebration of St. Lucia today. Here are some facts about December 13th and the St. Lucia day, and here is a movie showing how it is celebrated in Scandinavia. And if you want to make these delicious buns, here's the recipe:

Recipe for "Lussekatter" or saffron bread in English

150 g butter

5 dl milk

50 g dry yeast
1/2 ts saffron (not necessary)

150 g sugar

1/2 ts salt

2 ts cardamom
13 dl flour

1 egg and raisins for decoration

Grind saffron with a little sugar in a mortar and pestle. Melt butter, add milk and heat to 40 degrees (too hot to keep your finger in), add salt and saffron. Mix dry ingredients and gradually add the hot milk mixture. Knead the dough. Place in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise til twice the size. Knead again. Divide the dough into 30 parts. Roll into traditional shapes, add raisin decoration and place on a greased sheet. Let rise 15 minutes. Brush with beaten egg. Bake 7-10 minutes at 225 degrees.

Bon appetitt!

Marianne:)

A sneak peak and GIVE AWAY!!!!!

2011-12-12T23:04:00.001+01:00

This is a sneak preview of my tutorial of something christmassy and fun over on the Norwegian blog Scrappehuset that will be published later in the month. They are having a guest designer and a tutorial/inspiration every day in December all the way up till Christmas, so it might be worth checking out, even if you don't understand Norwegian, you'll be able to "understand" the pictures:)

Also one more and last chance to win the christmas collection from 3ndypapir. Leave a comment here and visit the 3ndypapir blog and you're in (sorry European participants only). Double your chances by sharing on FB, blog or twitter. You have until Monday Dec. 19th and this is what you'll get:

And the winner of the 3ndypaper paper pack is......

2011-12-02T15:38:00.001+01:00

Annelies

CONGRATS!!!!! Please e-mail me your address so I can send the papers to you asap. Thank you to all who participated. There will be one more chance to win these papers, so stay tuned in the coming days:):)

Getting ready for December Daily 2011

2011-11-29T14:35:00.001+01:00

December is almost here and for once I am ready. At least when it comes to this years December Daily (DD) project, a concept invented years ago by Ali Edwards. I came up with my own take on the concept last year, as I was doing DD for the first time. This is such a busy time of year for me, and I'm guessing also for most of you out there, so I needed to come up with something that wouldn't be too time consuming, but would stay fun all through December. I also wanted a book containing my favorite Christmas recipes, pages with our family traditions and sample of a Christmas card every year, a book that I could use and extend, and just change the DD pages every year. So, I decided to keep it simple and used a basic album and page dividers that I painted with gesso and pre-cut pages from Creative Cafe (Creative Imaginations). The DD pages are very basic, with a simple journaling stamp and a number of the day sticker, using scraps form different older alphabets. I plan to use iphone pictures, one or more per day and add them as I go, sometimes with design papers.

This is the front of this years set of DD pages. I used some old rub-ons, some cut out felt hearts and cut out a figure from 3ndypapir's "juleglede" paper

Some images of the empty pages in this years DD

Here you can see the dividers with the sections "recipes", "traditions" and "Christmas cards" at the back.

I painted the recipe pages with red paint on the top as background for the pictures and used little mini alpha stickers for the title.

The Christmas tradition pages I made a bit more playful and used scraps and different elements. I plan to add to these every year.

This is the front of the book, which I made last year.

I took out last years DD pages and made a book with them by adding 3 book binder rings.

One of the pages from last years DD...

...and one more from last year. You can see more from last years DD here.

So, December 2011 can come! I'm ready:)

Marianne:)

Christmas papers, Christmas cards and a trendy give away:)

2011-11-23T17:14:00.001+01:00

Trendy as in 3ndypapir. Would you like to win a pack of these romantic, Norwegian designed and vintage style scrapbook papers, designed by Gudrun Loennecken? If you leave a comment here and on 3ndypapir's blog you have the chance to win the hole christmas collection 2011. If you share this post on FB or on your blog you get a second entry to win, but you have to let me know about it here. You have until Nov. 30th to enter and I will announce the winner on Dec. 1st. As you know, Christmas is closing in on us, so I started the preparations by making a few Christmas cards using Gudruns papers. They work so well together, don't they? Have a wonderful week and enjoy these busy times as much as you can:)

Marianne:)

An iphone edit tutorial, using camera+, filterstorm and instagram

2011-11-15T09:00:00.000+01:00

The making of a streetphotography in Eindhoven. The first picture is SOOC (straight out of camera), the second is edited in camera+ (shade in scenes + lo-fi in effects + commit edits). I then used the clone stamp in Filterstorm to clone out the little triangle to the right of the man (I'm a perfectionist and it bugged me, what can I say...:))

This is edited once more in camera+: cropped to a square, then flash in scenes + lo-fi in effects + round white border and saved to camera roll. I added the border to get the right crop in instagram with the earlybird filter and frame.

And this is how it looks after I added the earlybird filter and frame.

This is an alternative edit and crop. Can't decide which one I like more:) This is the black & white filter in effects in camera+ on top of the color edited version of the picture.

Good luck in experimenting with my favorite apps, camera+ and filterstorm.

Winnars of my Poppydesign giveaways are.....

2011-11-15T08:30:00.000+01:00

Which means Torill aka Screppa:) is the happy winner of the Poppydesign paper pack, while Wenche wins the stamps. Gratulerer jenter!! Håper dere sender meg adressene deres raskt, så skal jeg få sendt premiene til dere asap.

Marianne:)

My iphone business cards are here!!

2011-11-12T12:47:00.001+01:00

Yes!! I got something in the post!!! And it's the best set of business cards ever! I LOVE them! As I mentioned before, I ordered my business cards from Moo.com, (see post here) and you can design them yourself and have them all printed with different design/photos. This is my set of cards all made with iphone pictures and they look even cooler in real life than expected!! Very, very happy!

I promised you more give aways.....

2011-11-10T14:37:00.000+01:00

...so, here is some scrapbook goodness for whoever would like some unique and norwegian designed papers and stamps, all from Poppydesign and Vibeke Spigseth. There might be 2 lucky winners this time, one to win the papers and one to win the stamps. All you have to do is leave a comment here and on Poppydesigns blog and you're in. Only European residents though, sorry about that... You have until Nov. 15th. to participate.

And as you can see, I have had a little fun with the papers myself as well. Love those frames and plan to use them in a minialbum as well. Just need to find some more time first....

Who would have thought.....

2011-10-31T20:04:00.001+01:00

...that little me would ever be in a big article like this? Check out Instagramers to know more:) Guess I have no secrets any more....

Have a great day!

Marianne:)

Iphoneography tips - Big lens app

2011-10-30T23:09:00.000+01:00

A short while ago I bought an app for my iphone called Big lens. It's an app to imitate shallow depth of field, but it also has some pretty cool filters to choose from. You can choose f-stop from f3.5 to f1.8 and you can choose what shape you want your bookeh to be. I find it a pretty good imitation of the real deal (being a DSLR with a good lens:)) and it can change an ordinary picture to something more interesting or even quite stunning. Definitely worth the price of 0,79 €. If you want to know more about the app and its functions, you can read all about it in this article. These are just some of my own try outs:

Coolest business cards EVER!!!!

2011-10-26T21:45:00.000+02:00

I dare say I just ordered the coolest business cards EVER!!! Many of you have probably already heard of Moo, but if you haven't, take a look at these. At Moo you can order business cards with a different photo or design on every card, you can choose rounded corners or not, orientation, photo on the text side or not, what paper to use AND they have mini cards as well, which you just have to check out for yourself on their site. So many creative ways to use this, and one of them is to show your best pictures as sort of a hands-on portfolio. I ordered one set of iphone cards and one set of picturely spoken cards:) I can't wait till I get these in my hands!!!

Marianne:)

Photography class - Notice the little things

2011-10-25T13:04:00.000+02:00

I've been a photo-maniac since I was 14 years old, always noticing things and motives that most people don't even see or recognize. I see the world in rectangles or squares:) My photographic journey from photographing with my first analogue SLR at 14, to where I am today has been a long and interesting one. I am 100 % self taught and many many hours have been spent figuring things out, learning about the technical stuff, learning about composition, light, communication with my subjects and how to best enhance the pictures in Photoshop. There is so much to learn and know, and no matter how many hours you put in, there will always be new things to learn and find out about, especially in today's constantly changing digital and social media dominated world.

General photography class

No matter if you  have a big DSLR camera with fancy functions, a compact camera or just a  telephone, the possibilities of taking good and interesting pictures are there. It's all about seeing and noticing and that's what I want to talk about and teach in my classes. I will  talk about the technical basics, but my main focus will be on the  creative aspect of photography,  composition and design rules, how to take better pictures by noticing the light and how it will effect the subject, or by just using a different angle. I will talk about  seeing the beauty around you and in our every day life, how to treasure  "the little things" and notice what a wonderful world we live in. 

Price: € 40,- (must be payed ahead to secure the spot)

Iphoneography class

This class is meant for those of you who have an iphone, and would like to learn more about this new way of photographing. You will learn how to make best use of the camera function, how to take better pictures with it,  what to do in difficult lighting conditions and how to enhance your pics on the phone. I will talk about most of the things from my general class, but from an iphoneographers point of view. And I will talk about my favorite apps, how to use them and what they are for. 

Price: € 35,- (must be payed ahead to secure the spot)

All classes will be small groups, not more than 8 participants, so you will be able to ask questions throughout.

For the coming weeks I have put up a list of possible dates for classes. I might not host a class on every date, but if there is enough interest I will. The possible dates are:

29. Oct.: 14:00-16:30

5. Nov.:  14:00-16:30

6. Nov.:  14:00-16:30

13. Nov.: 14:00-16:30

So, if you are interested in taking one of my classes, send me an e-mail (mariannehope@msn.com)indicating what type of class you are interested in, what times you would be able to join/attend, what kind of camera you have and how much experience you have. If you live in Amsterdam or other areas not too far from Blaricum, there is a possibility for holding a class there as well. Let me know if you are interested. 

I will be posting some "behind the scenes" pictures from my other classes on my FB page, Picturely spoken, so check in later if you're interested:) 

Marianne:)

Article about instagramming in Het Parool

2011-10-24T17:51:00.002+02:00

Read the hole article

I guess there are some milestones that are bigger than others. Having 5 of my pictures and being called an instagramcelebrity in a Dutch national paper Het Parool, Saturday Oct. 22. 2001, is definitely one of the BIG ones!!! The newspaper brought out a 4 page article about instagram, instagraming and the #instagramwalk020, and I just now finally saw the article myself. This definitely beats my only other mention in a newspaper ever, which was about a basketball match where I played well when I was 15!!!!! Haha! In a local Norwegian paper:)

And the winner iiiiis.........

2011-10-24T13:29:00.002+02:00

...Fauve!!! As in Fauve van Maanen! Congrats Fauve! You are the winner of the cute little lunch bag from Poppydesign. Email me your address and you will have it to use as you wish asap:)

If you did not win this time, watch out for more giveaways from both Poppydesign and Gudrun Loennecken's 3ndyPapir.no later on.

Marianne:)

2011-10-21T12:05:00.000+02:00

Picturely spoken

I finally did it!!! I made an official and professional facebook page, Picturely spoken!!! I'm a tiny bit proud today, after days of going very late to bed (3 am at the earliest!). So, if you like what you see, please take a moment to check it out and "like it if you like it":) Greetings from sunny (!!!!!) Holland!!

Marianne:)

Iphone app for scrapbookers

2011-10-20T23:05:00.000+02:00

I think many of you already know how much I love my iphone and the new hype iphoneography. I have spent a lot of time getting to know my iphone camera and quite a few of the many apps one can use to enhance them. Although the iphone camera can not in any way compete with a DSLR camera technically speaking, it has many other things going for it, such as size, easy handling and availability (one tends to always have ones telephone close by:)). The very biggest advantage however is all the amazing, incredible, inspiring and fun applications one can buy for very little money. It has opened up a hole new level of creativity for me when it comes to photography with 100s of different filters and effects to use and combine. And, the best thing is, I can take a picture and edit it on the spot, where ever I am, maybe while waiting for the dentist, or at the hair dressers or on the bus. I can use all those little moments to do something I really love. This post is about one of those apps, namely one that is perfect for scrapbooker: Notica (btw. I'm not being sponsored here, although I certainly feel I should after being the reason many of my friends and class participants took a liking to both the app and the iphone:))

So what is Notica? It's kind of a diary with pictures. The app allows you to make little cards like the ones you see here. You can take a picture with the app or upload one from your camera roll, use one of the 9 integrated filters, add text and geo tag and voila, you have a card like this. You can practically scrapbook as you go. Like the second pic above; I took the pic, edited it and made this little card while waiting for the train. The third card I made while waiting for my plane on Schiphol. Then, if I want to, I can upload the cards to facebook or twitter or I can e-mail it to a friend or I can upload it to my computer, print it out and scrap it:) Can you see the coolness of this? Btw. do you recognize the pic in the first card? It's the photo I used to make my new blog logo:)

I hope you will leave a note if you find this interesting or if you have any questions. Please let me know on mariannehope@msn.com if you have any technical issues with my blog or with leaving a comment. And don't forget my cute giveaway in my last blog. All you have to do to win is leave a comment:) Have a nice evening still!

Marianne:)

NEW BLOG DESIGN! and a litle giveaway:)

2011-10-18T23:13:00.000+02:00

I believe congratulations are in order! The last couple of days I have been designing, encryptioning, reading, googling, researching, re-organizing, deleting, HTML-ing, gadgeting and tearing my hair off, so that I could finally get my beloved, but oh so neglected blog up to date and looking loved again. Hope you like it too... I've followed my favorite motto "less is more", which was definitely not the case with my last design. And to celebrate this re-launch, and hopefully make me connect with most of you again, I am going to host a give-away, sponsored by the one and only, inspiring and ueber-creative Vibeke Spigseth and her Poppydesign. I actually have more give-aways coming in the following days and weeks, but first out I am giving away one very cute alternative to the regular lunch box. I guess you could call it a "lunch bag", home made, self designed and home sewn by Vibeke. I told you, she is creative:). As this bag is only being sold in Norway at the moment, this should be a unique opportunity for those of you not living in Norway. I'm sorry however, the give-away is for European residents only.

SO! To be entitled to win this lunch bag, you will have to leave a comment on this post AND on the Poppydesign blog (post of your choice). Also you can double your chances of winning by posting about this on either your facebook page, google+, twitter or on your own blog. You have until Saturday October 22nd and I will be drawing a winner on Sunday 23rd.

Like I mentioned, I am planning to be more active here again, and I have more giveaways coming up so I hope to see you back soon:)

Greetings Marianne:)

It's a socialmedia life and my trip to Austria

2011-10-15T11:41:00.013+02:00

I'm a bad bad blogger!!!! I'm really struggling to find time to all the social medias, photography workload, family, fun and real life sociallife. I need to come up with some time effective way to do it all. Any suggestions???? The last months I have spent most of my time on photography related things, like iphoneography, Instagram, photoshoots and workshops. I assure you its all fun stuff, so I'm not COMplaining, just EXplaining:) I have learned more about photography in the 6 months I have been active on Instagram, then I have learned my hole life!! You can't beat that, can you? So, like I said; NOT complaining! One of the big things on this fun-filled list was my trip to Moerbisch am See in Austria to teach at "Designtage der Scrapqueens" a few weeks back now, and I wanted to show some of my favorite pictures from the workshops, and from the trip itself:

This is the hole group of scrapping and photographing ladies, flocking together on the stairs of "Galerie und Weingut Zentgraf"

From my photo workshop, demonstrating one of my favorite iphone apps, while talking about "The little things"

My co-teacher, Gudrun Loennecken, who is such a sweethart and who made the stay even more enjoyable:)

An evening walk by the Lake with hostess Karin and Gudrun

Paparazzi attack!! These are my students in action, during my "learning by doing" part of the photography class. I was teaching them about light, defined light and silhuettes.....

....and this is the subject or motive they were photographing:)

These are just some of my favorite pictures from the place.

I think you may have guessed by now that I had a great trip! Thank you Karin for inviting and having me, thank you Gudrun for sociallizing and wining and dining with me and thank you to all participants for giving me this experience!!

Photography class here in Huizen/Blaricum

2011-07-04T14:57:00.006+02:00

Finally! I've had a LOT of requests to hold photography workshops the last years, and as much as I have wanted to do it, somehow I just never could find the time to actually go ahead and arrange one. But wait no longer, this may be a bit short notice, but I decided to give 3 options of days and evenings and just hope that some of you will find the time to join me. Otherwise I'll just do it again after the summer. You will have to notify me per e-mail (mariannehope@msn.com) or on FB, and let me know what time suits you best and what kind of camera you would use. The pictures you see here, are all from our little corner of the world, Huizen. I took these on a bike ride around the village. They are all taken and edited with my iphone, so you can see that you don't have to have a fancy DSLR to take good pictures, just some imagination. Here are the times I'm offering:

Sunday 10.07 14:00 - 17:00 or 18:00 - 21:00
Tuesday 12.07 18:00 - 21:00

The price will be €35,00 pp

Hope that I will hear from some of you in spite of the busy times and short notice, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me here, on e-mail or on FB:)

It's all about the little things.......

2011-06-15T09:00:00.000+02:00

I will be teaching photography and scrapbooking at Scrapqueens workshop weekend in Moerbisch am See, Austria, September 23rd to 25th. Also coming and teaching is Gudrun Loennecken, so this will be all fun. Looking immensely forward to it. In the following a few words about my workshops:

Photography class: It's about the little things - how to capture true life moments that you will treasure for years to come
The pictures in this collage are all taken with, and edited on, my iphone, so you see, you don't need fancy expensive cameras to take precious pictures:) In today's digital photographic world, there are so many possibilities for anyone who has a remote interest in taking pictures. No matter if you have a big DSLR camera with fancy functions, a compact camera or just a telephone, the possibilities of taking good pictures are there. I will talk about some technical stuff, but my main focus will be on the creative aspect of photography. How to make them better digitally by enhancing them afterwords, what are actions and how do they work, composition and design rules, how to capture emotions. I will talk about seeing the beauty around you and in our every day life, how to treasure "the little things" in life that really matters. I hope to end class with some hands-on learning by doing, but time is the limit so we will have to see how far we get. There will be opportunity to ask questions throughout the class, so it could be wise to write down any specific questions you might have ahead of time. You may also e-mail me questions ahead of the weekend, so that I can appoint them in class.

scrapbook class: Less is more - a guidance to more confident and time efficient scrapbooking

We will be making 1 or 2 (dep. on time) layouts based on the principles of design. I will talk about the basic rules to creating a good design and show examples of how they work. We will take fun photobooth selfportraits in class that we will use and we will use sketches as base for our designs. After taking this class you will have more knowledge about design, more confidence through the scrapbooking process and scrapbooking will be more fun and time efficient. My goal is to have you all feeling like graphic designers at the end of the day:) If you are curious about the photobooth pictures, I encourage you to test it out before class, as that will save us time. It's a site on the internet and its called "The photocabine". You can also get it as an application on your iphone (it's free) if you are so lucky to have one. So all you need is a computer or laptop with camera or an iphone/ipod touch and you can try this at home. It's great fun. If you print them out at home, you will have more time in class to do scrapbooking:)

If you have any questions regarding my classes or about the topics, you are welcome to write me on my e-mail: mariannehope@msn.com or comment here.

Fish soup - cooking with kids again....

2011-03-29T20:45:00.003+02:00

Here's another one of my favorite recipes, one you can make with or without your younger family members:) It's tasty, it's healthy and very easy to make, so no excuses... You can prepare the soup well ahead of time and leave to let all the tastes mix, then add the fish just before you serve. The "aioli" gives the soup a kick that will have you asking for seconds..... I'm not using exact measurements in the recipe, as it depends on how many your cooking for, and it also is a question of taste. Use your head and imagination and combine as you feel like. You can of course use other vegetables instead or as well.

What you need:

tomatoes (you can also use a can of tomatoes)
squash
fennel
onion
lime
garlic
some tbs of mayonnaise (1 tbs per person)
fish (use any kind you like, or even shrimps and other seafood)
2 cubes of fish bullion
salt and pepper

First prepare the "aioli", which I am making very easily by mixing mayonnaise with squeezed garlic. You can of course make the real home made aioli, but that's a lot more work and I'm not sure it's worth it for this purpose.

Then cut all the vegetables and the fish, just like Lotte in the picture. Squeeze some lime juice over the fish and add some salt and pepper. Keep the green from the fennel to marinate the fish and decorate the soup.

Cook the onions in some oil, then add all vegetables and the bullion cubes. Add some water if the tomatoes don't add enough liquid. Let simmer on medium heat for at least 20 minutes. Add the fish 5 minutes before serving. You can add some more lime juice if you like the taste. Prepare the plates with a tablespoon of the aioli (see first pic beneath), then fill the plates with soup and finish of with some green fennel. Serve with bread and enjoy. My kids really love this soup, so I hope yours will too.....

Waffles with a twist

2011-03-08T13:25:00.003+01:00

I'll be the first to admit that I am not a huge fan of waffles. I know I'm the odd one out, and most people love them, but they just haven't been my thing. That was until I tried this recipe; pumpkin waffles. They practically melt on your tongue and taste absolutely fantastic. And I would like to think that they are a little bit healthy as well with the vegetables in it:) Anyway, here's what you'll need:

1/2 - 1 pumpkin (smaller, sweeter ones)
pepper and salt
olive oil
250 g flour
20 g baking powder
2 tbs sugar
2 ts vanilla flavored sugar (vaniljesukker paa norsk)
2 eggs
450 ml milk
100 g melted butter
confectioner sugar for decoration

First peal and cut pumpkin meat into squares, drip some olive oil, salt and pepper over the cubes and bake them at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes (until they start to darken and the sugar in the vegetables start to caramelize. Take it out of the oven and let it cool. Run the cubes in a foodprocessor until smooth.

Start making the batter by mixing all the dry ingredients. In another bowl, mix the eggs, milk, melted butter and the pumpkin puree. Mix the dry with the wet until a smooth batter.

You can either use a waffle iron to bake the waffles or you can bake them in a pan, like mini pancakes. I tried it both ways, and both was very good and definitely a hit with the kids. All they could say after shuffling down two hole plates each, was: do we have more, mummy????

Fun and colorful birthday treats

2011-02-14T16:17:00.007+01:00

This is a little tutorial for a fun and easy project. I made these little envelopes together with my oldest son (10 years), so this is something you can do with your kids or even have them do for you:) Anyway I had the idea, after making pumpkin soup and keeping the seeds (I just hate throwing them away), that seeds are actually something most kids appreciate. The fact that it's free, doesn't make it any less interesting for them; it's something they can sow by them self, take care of and nurture and see growing, and maybe - if they are lucky - they get to harvest a pumpkin or two. As Mats was going to 2 birthday parties last week, we made these envelopes to add to the bigger present. They can be given as birthday treats as well or just for fun.

So here's how we did it. First I cut out squares of 13x13 cm. I used the Funky Funky papers from Sausan designs, that I still love, love the bold colors and the fun patterns. I cut of the corner of the bottom corner (see pic), and folded the right and left corner like in the first picture. If you need measurements, they have to be folded to the middle of the square, so you can mark it 12,5 cm from all sides. Then I folded the bottom corner up until it made a good looking envelope and glued it with Aleene's tacky glue (my favorite adhesive).

Then I folded the last corner and the envelope was finished. For the "label" I used one of the stamps from Sausan designs Karl und Karla set. I cut it out and glued it to the front with 3D tape. Easy peasy...... Hope this inspired some of you to keep some of those seeds you can collect for free and make someone else happy:)

Very simple, very good apple cake - cooking with kids

2011-02-11T09:37:00.000+01:00

Lotte and I have been busy again, and this time we made apple cake. It's very easy to make, just see here:

You need:

200 g butter (room temp.)
200 g sugar
4 eggs
200 g flour
2 ts baking powder
salt, muskat
2 apples

Like Lotte is showing you here, you take 2 apples, peal them, cut them in 4 pieces.

you cut each piece like this (slices but not all the way through). We used the egg slicer, but of course you could do this with a knife.

To mix the batter, you first mix butter and suger until it's creamy and almost white. Then add one egg at a time. Mix in the dry stuff and voila the batter is finished.

Then of course you have to taste the delicious batter....mmmmm!

Spread the batter in a baking pan and put the apple pieces on top like in the first pic. Bake at 170 degrees (Celsius) in 45 - 60 min. and then you have the finished cake. Perfect for a Saturday or Sunday tea.

My absolute favorite project - ever!

2011-02-09T10:35:00.000+01:00

So, here is another project that I have never shown here, and it happens to be my all time favorite:) I couldn't show this mini back in Dec. 2008, as it was to be published in the Norwegian magazine Vi Scrapper, and after that I kinda forgot - until now. And since it is my favorite mini, and it is about my lovely husband, I think it deserves it's own post. I made this book for my husbands birthday and called it "7 reasons why I love you". The cover is made of a piece of fabric that I inherited from my late mother-in-law many years ago (I think she might have made it herself as a little girl), so it represents something special. The pages are different scraps of papers, packaging and even wall paper samples. It's clean and simple and it's fun and sentimental (if you read the text) and Till always keeps it close, right next to his bed - you know - as a reminder in our everyday life:)

My birthday in pictures:)

2011-02-08T14:37:00.006+01:00

I had a fantastic and very relaxing birthday yesterday. I was pampered like a queen and got the best birthday presents I could wish for: breakfast in bed, home made cake, drawings from my kids (Jonas drew a cook, because I'm such a "good cook" he said), a husband who took time off from work to spend with me:), first sign of spring (crocus), phone calls and birthday wishes in many different languages and dialects and best of all; fairly well behaved children:)

A fun notebook made of left-overs

2011-02-06T20:39:00.004+01:00

This is something I made for my niece Mercedes' birthday, quite some time ago, but I never got around to make a post about it. It is one of my favorite projects ever, so I thought it should be shared, hopefully to inspire some of you to use your leftovers and make something useful and cool. This is a sort of a notebook, one to put pictures in, or poems, or have friends write something in it, whatever you like, really. There is also a little envelope to keep little keepsakes in. The cover is made of a piece of fabric that I found amongst my mother-in-laws stuff many years back - thinking it could be useful some day:). Well, what do you know.... I especially liked using this piece of fabric for Mercedes' book, as she was very close to her grandmother (my MIL), before she lost the battle against cancer a few years back.

I also used leftover pieces of ribbon and fabric, paper scraps and tags, even packaging. There really are no limits to what you can use to make something like this, and ANYBODY could make it, scrapbooker or not. SO, today's message is: use your stash and make someone happy:)

Quesedillas - cooking with kids

2011-01-31T08:30:00.004+01:00

So I guess this is another entry in my new series "cooking with kids":) And this time we made yummy quesedillas. First time I tasted quesedillas was when we lived in Portland and I have loved it ever since. It's REALLY easy to make and kids LOVE it. It's perfect for when you have left overs or you want a quick but tasty lunch or dinner. So here goes:

What you need:

tortillas
grated cheese (a lot)
grilled chicken
creme fraiche or salsa of your choice (I made my own with plain yogurt, mustard, creme fraiche, mayonnaise, ketchup, lime juice, paprika powder, salt and pepper)
any other ingredients you might have on hand:), it's just a question of taste and imagination

First you take a tortilla and smear it with the salsa or creme fraiche:

Spread the chicken, and any other ingredient you might choose. We added some spring onion that we had left over and some ruccola

Add the cheese - plenty - and then it looks something like this (the second pic):

We made a quesedilla with only salsa and cheese as well (the vegetarian choice). Finally add another tortilla on top, and it's now ready to go into the oven.

Cook at 200 degrees (Celsius) for about 5 minutes, slice like a pizza and serve. Bon appetit!

The five of us managed to eat 5 - FIVE! hole quesedillas. The boys ate more than me......:)

Favorites minis....

2011-01-28T19:14:00.000+01:00

Like I wrote about in this post last week, I make a little mini album of my favorite photos every year, and here are the two first albums I made. The 2005 album is made in Ali Edwards' class way back when we lived in Portland and contains only 5 photos. In the later minis I have used more than 5 photos - so hard to choose:) and the 2006 mini is made with scrap papers all in brown tones. Now I need to start planning my 2008, 2009 and 2010 album....

My favorite pumpkin soup

2011-01-26T16:39:00.004+01:00

So I bought this beautiful pumpkin the other day, to make soup. And yesterday, with the help of my very cute and professional kitchen assistant, we got to work. The recipe is so simple, anyone can make it and in the following Lotte will show you how:). Lotte asked me today if we could make the soup again....:)

First you need:

1 pumpkin (you can use other types as well)
1 onion
1-2 tbs vegetable oil
2 cubes of chicken broth (or 1 liter liquid)
1 liter water
1 tsp paprika powder
salt and pepper to taste
a few dashes of cream
fresh thyme to decorate

First you cut the pumpkin in 2 halves, then take out the seeds. We keep the seeds, dry them and will saw them later (or you can roast them and eat them:)). Then you peal the pumpkin.....

...and slice it to small cubes. Slice the onion and cook it in oil for 2 minutes.

First add the paprika powder and roast for a minute (this brings out the taste), then add the pumpkin, the water and the broth cubes. Let boil/cook for 15 minutes. Use your hand-blender (if you have it:)) to smooth the vegetables and liquid to a creamy soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a dash of cream and decorate with fresh thyme. And here are the final results; a heart for my hubby (Jonas' comment: you get a heart daddy, because mom loves you:)) and a star shape for the rest. All I can say, it was a huge success!

I know Christmas is over....

2011-01-24T16:19:00.006+01:00

..but I finally finished and photographed my December daily 2010 album and I know some of you wanted to see the finished product. So, here it is! I actually made a book that I can use year after year, only change the daily pages. I have a department for recipes that I will add to every year, one for the yearly Christmas cards/pictures and one for Christmas traditions, that I also will add to as I feel like. I used a Creative Cafe book and CC chipboard tabs and binder papers as a base, added paint, rubons, letterstickers and papers, but kept it very simple and timeless.

Yummy sharon salad with apple grenade and ruccola

2011-01-21T23:06:00.001+01:00

After making the weekly trip to the local Turkish shop today, I ended up buying a lot of fun fruits and vegetables like apple grenade, sharon, pumpkin, plantains (steke banan) +++. It's so inspiring seeing all that delicious food, and for SO little money:)

As we were having salmon for dinner, I decided to make up my own fun salad with sharon fruit (I love the sweet taste with the salmon). I had my own little assistant doing most of the job:). And it turned out a huge success with the little ones, so I thought there might be more of you out there with kiddies who might appreciate the recipe.

1 piece of sharon fruit
1/2 lime
a handful of ruccola
1/2 apple grenade
white balsamic cream vinegar
fresh mint

Slice the sharon fruit and spread it on a plate. Marinate with lime juice. Spread the ruccola over the plate and sprinkle with the cream vinegar. Decorate with the seeds from the apple grenade over the top, use as much as you prefer. Finnish of with some fresh mint on top. Bon appetit!

The verdict:)

My 2007 favorites

2011-01-19T08:15:00.000+01:00

After taking a class with Ali Edwards way back in 2005 when I lived in the USA (making a mini with my favorite 5 photos of that year), I started the tradition of making a mini album with my favorite photos of every year in the same format. The only problem is I only ever got to make it to 2006 :). I finally managed to pick my favorite photos for 2007 and I was ready for another year. The kit I showed you yesterday inspired me to make this album, and I am in love with the colors. And the papers. As you can see, the design of the album is very simple. I just combined different strips of papers and embellished with stripes of felt and a few Hambly rubons. I stamped every page with a calender stamp and titled the photos with mini letter stickers from Adornit. My favorite part of the book - apart from the photos - is actually the back cover, where I used the confetti pieces (from punching the holes) to frame the calendar stamp. I told you I like to use my scraps.....:) Anyway, I'm off to checking out my 2008 photos......

Use your stash part III

2011-01-18T12:30:00.001+01:00

Here is another kit I made of my older papers and stuff and tomorrow I will show you a mini album that I already made with the kit. I really love the color combination....definitely a favorite at the moment....

A fun layout...

2011-01-17T20:36:00.002+01:00

I have been quite creative lately, and it feels good:) With the kit I put together myself and showed you here, I made this layout about Lotte and her friend. Using fun stuff, fun colors, fun LO and fun pictures, I think it turned out kinda......fun...:)

Just found this on the CK site...

2010-12-29T08:53:00.000+01:00

Dette var jo litt moro da...... It's an article about using grids and my layout is in it:)

Use your stash, part II

2010-12-28T15:28:00.004+01:00

Hi, I hope everyone are having a good holiday and getting ready for the new year. I am in Norway, enjoying (and somewhat suffering) the cold, cold winter and lots of snow:). Some posts ago, I mentioned going through my older stash to find inspiration to start scrapbooking again. I found a lot of cool papers and left over stuff from different kits and older shopping sprees, and I decided to put together my own kits to hopefully get me going again. I will in the weeks to come show some of these kits here and maybe it will inspire some of you to use your older stuff too. Right now I can't wait to get back to the Netherlands and start creating with this kit. It might have a somewhat unusual color combination, but I like it and think it will work fine for a mini album. We'll see....

Gratulerer med dagen, Mats!!!!

2010-12-20T08:00:00.000+01:00

I find it hard to believe, but today my boy is 10!!!!!! How can the years have gone by so fast????? 10 years ago, you were a tiny, little baby, exactly the size of a baby born doll. You were born in Fredrikstad, and today, 10 years later, we will celebrate the day back in Fredrikstad, at least for a few hours. A happy happy birthday to you, my boy:) Gratulerer masse, masse med dagen, Mats! Mamma og Pappa er kjempeglad i deg:):):)

Birthday treats

2010-12-17T08:00:00.000+01:00

Mats' birthday is coming up soon, and I made these treats to give to the kids. It's chocolate bars that I redecorated with Christmas paper (Basic Grey), torn fabric ribbon, a ticket and a button. I gave a tutorial about this last year, that can be seen here.

Neighbours' Christmas gifts...

2010-12-16T08:12:00.001+01:00

...are also homemade this year. I made these cones and filled them with sugar roasted almonds.

This years teachers appreciation

2010-12-15T07:18:00.002+01:00

..is again eatable and homemade. I used cup cake liners to keep the cookies in. I glued two liners together to obtain more stability and to get the design on both sides. Then made a bag of cellophane and secured them with a piece of older Basic Grey christmas paper. The Christmas greeting "God jul" is Norwegian and is a stamp from Papirgleder. Easy peasy:) You can find earlier projects similar to these that I made for other occasions here and here, including a tutorial.

More December daily - day 11 - 13

2010-12-14T12:06:00.003+01:00

After some busy days, I am catching up on my Dd pages. Here are pages 11 to 13. Yesterday I made made "lussekatter" and took to school as a treat. When I later came to pick up the kids, the kids from Mats' class greeted me very friendly. Kids that never ever said hi to me or even registered that I was alive, smiled and greeted!!!! The buns must have been a success:):):) I also managed to make "burned almonds", which I think is a Norwegian specialty (don't arrest me if it's not). It really is just almonds coated in sugar and roasted in the pan until the sugar is smelted. Very yummy. AND I made some cute teacher and friends appreciations. Will show tomorrow! Have a good day

Happy St. Lucia day!

2010-12-13T08:00:00.001+01:00

Today is St. Lucia day and I will be making "lussekatter" to bring to school. If you want to know all about St. Lucia and the recipe for these delicious buns, you can check out my post from 2 years back where I tell you all about it. There seems to be a lot of interest in information about this day and the recipe of "lussekatter". As they do not celebrate this day here in the Netherlands, I have taken it upon me to educate my kids' school about it and bring them the "lussekatter" every year. Always highly appreciated. While researching for some facts about the Scandinavian celebration of this day, I stumbled upon this film on youtube, and it shows a beautiful picture of how the celebration can and should be done.

For my husband: It's the little things.....

2010-12-11T08:03:00.001+01:00

...that makes me love you. As today is your birthday, I made this little showcase of cute pictures of you through the last years. These show just a little bit of what a wonderful person you are, what a good father, a good friend and how funny you are. And of course the best husband one can ask for. Thank you for being you and mine and ours:) Best birthday wishes and 1000 kisses. I love you:)

thank you for carrying my stuff wherever we are....

sleepy....

Good friends; mr sporty, mr casual and mr suit...

daddy's little girl...

December daily - day 9 & 10

2010-12-10T19:38:00.003+01:00

Had a great day today and what a good feeling it is. Started out with a zumba workout, then having a friend over for a cup of tea (and some cookies:)). Lotte brought a girlfriend home from school, and they helped baking a cake for daddy, who's birthday it is tomorrow. And Mats helped me baking pizza for dinner, while Jonas and Lotte watched "Jul i Svingen" on tv. Anyway, here is my simple solution to this years Dd day 9 and 10, keeping the journaling short and letting the pictures speak their own stories. I still didn't find the time to take quality pictures of the book, but I have some sneaks of my other sections in the book, like the recipe section and the Christmas tradition section.

December daily - day 7, 8 and 9

2010-12-09T21:33:00.003+01:00

I am actually going quite strong with my December daily project this year and today I am actually ajour! What a wonderful feeling! I have used a pretty simple concept, to help me actually complete the project and I love using the cool pictures taken with my iphone and instagram app. Did I mention I L O V E my new iphone):):). Anyway, here is day 7, 8 and half of 9. Will show more of the rest of the book when I have more pictures. I am quite happy with my concept. I have a section for recipes, Christmas traditions and yearly Christmas card photos as well. I plan to use this concept every year and just change the "daily" pages.

iphone and apps

2010-12-08T10:10:00.005+01:00

Just having fun with the new technology of today, like my new iphone and apps like instagr.am:) Needless to say; I love it and especially this app. that make my pictures look cool. Anyway, here's a sneak peak of my December daily that I am working on right now:)

Birthday invitations

2010-12-06T22:08:00.004+01:00

Mats' birthday is coming up, so this weekend Mats made his invitations. He used Sausan Designs' cool retro TV stamps and also the cute little birds and owls set. And for the text, he used October Afternoon small typing stamps. Very easy peasy, but kinda cute, me thinks:). Lotte was his right hand helper to organize the cards, while he was working. It's starting to be a tradition to use Sausan Designs products for our kids invitations, and they really are perfect for it. Here are last years cards, and here are Jonas' invitations from last year:)

German cinnamon stars - recipe

2010-12-04T10:10:00.001+01:00

These are definitely my favorite Christmas cookies of all. I am actually not a bit cookie fan (except for chocolate chip cookies:)), but these are delicious. They are made of almonds and sugar and are topped with meringue. And best of all, very easy to make.

I have done my best to translate my Norwegian recipe to English, but I am using European measurements. To complicated and time consuming otherwise, but I do have the link to an English recipe here (It´s a bit different to mine, so I don't know how it turns out. Sorry!)

500 g finmalte mandler (finely ground almonds)
3 eggehviter(egg whites)
250 g melis (powdered sugar)
2 ts kanel (cinnamon)

Stivpisk eggehvitene, tilsett melis og pisk lett. Sett til side ca. 1/3 av marengsen. Bland forsiktig inn mandlene og kanel i resten av massen til det blir en fast deig.

Kjevle ut til ca. 5 mm tykk (bruk mel for å unngå at deigen setter seg fast). Stikk ut stjerner med små stjerneformer (ca. 3,5 cm) og legg dem på en stekeplate. Pensle på relativt tykt lag med marengsmassen (som du satte til side).

Stekes ved 150 grader i ca. 10 minutter (marengstoppingen skal være hvit). Kakene er best når de er litt seige (minner om kransekaker)

And now in English:

Whip egg whites to a peak. Sift powdered sugar and slowly add to egg whites. Set aside 1/3 of the meringue to decorate cookies. Add cinnamon and ground almonds to the mass left and mix to a dough.

Sprinkle a surface with flour (I prefer this to powdered sugar) and roll the dough to approximately 5 mm. Cut out cookies with a 2 inch star shaped cookie cutter and transfer onto baking pan lined with parchment paper. Brush cookies with the meringue.

Bake at 150 degrees (Celsius) for about 10 min (the topping should still be white).

Bon appetit!

The finished gingerbread house...

2010-12-03T10:00:00.003+01:00

....which I find turned out pretty cute. The kids love it and Mats suggested we do a set up like this for every season. As for the set up I just used what I had at hand; my sweet old angles (that I knitted way back when I was a poor student in Mannheim, Germany), cute little wooden gnomes that the kids made last year, a candle snowman, some cotton and battery controlled lights inside the house. It looks pretty cozy, doesn't it?

Have a good day and drop by tomorrow if you are interested in the recipe for my yummy cinnamon stars....

Keeping busy...

2010-12-02T11:41:00.003+01:00

...and I am sure I am not the only busy person at the moment:). I decided to do a "December daily" project, instigated by Ali Edwards, this year. I have wanted to do this for years, but never quite found the time to. Well this year I'm on. I already made the basic album and pages, so that I can just fill it with the everyday pictures as I go. I decided to combine it with recipes and Christmas traditions as well, so I can use the same base every year. Will show pictures later.

So, yesterday was Dec. 1st, and the kids enjoyed opening the first bag of the Christmas calender. After school, the kids helped me decorating the gingerbread house that I had prepared. After using Ikeas pre-made ones for years, I decided to use my own design this year. Not very complicated, but I quite like it. And the kids LOVE it of course:) They were very good little helpers with putting on and tasting the sweets.

selfmade christmas card kit

2010-12-01T10:00:00.003+01:00

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been going through my old stash, and teamed it up in new kits to get me inspired. I still love most of my old papers and embellishments, and this is a good way to put them to use.

In this kit I put some old Basic Grey and Papirdesign Christmas papers, Elsie fabric paper, some older Daysy D's and Fancy Pants rub-ons, Jenny Bowlin letter stickers, silver glitter Thickers from American Crafts, Christmas stamps from Papirgleder, chip buttons from Elsie and some felt, ribbons and lace to decorate as I please. Now I can only hope I can manage to conjure some Christmas cards from this:)

Felted basket

2010-11-30T10:00:00.003+01:00

As promised yesterday, here is the knitted and felted bag or maybe basket is a more appropriate name. I knitted is as if it was a huge hat (it was really huge before I felted it). I'm sorry that I don't have the recipe for this one either, but if you know a bit about knitting, it really is super easy. I just made it up as I went. I started at the top, and used quite a big round pin and thick wool. When it was finished it looked like a giant hat with 2 holes. It was very exiting to see how it turned out after being in the wash, and I was happily surprised. It had shrunk to a very cute little basket (app. 22 cm in diameter). I now use it for my small knitting projects.

Felted princess crown

2010-11-29T10:00:00.004+01:00

Hey again! I did promise to blog more and show more stuff, so here's today's post. And here is Lotte and her felted princess crown. Can you tell if she likes it? Well, she really loves it and it was made in just a few hours. If you wonder about the recipe, I just made it up as I went (and got lucky) and unfortunately I don't remember exactly what I did, just that I started out with 12 masks and used big pins and quite thick wool. Sorry! It was 60 cm long when finished and approximately half that size after the felting. To felt it I washed it in the washing machine at 60 degrees, and out it came; perfect size. Did I mention I was lucky? Tomorrow I will show a cool felted bag... Have a great week:)

I have been scrapbooking!

2010-11-28T10:25:00.006+01:00

And what a wonderful feeling it is to get creative again after months of paper nothingness. What got me going yesterday, was this sketch on the Crate Paper blog, and the fact that I just got some very cool new Crate Paper papers:) Have a great Sunday! I'm off for a fun family tennis tournament.....

Pepernotjes and stars...

2010-11-26T17:16:00.004+01:00

Hello, anybody still out there???? Let me just say, that there has been so little going on here the last months, that I am very thankful for whoever is still dropping by:) Thank you, you are highly appreciated! And if you are still interested in seeing what I have been doing or making lately, you might find some interesting stuff here in the future. I am happy to announce that my creative energy and juices are starting to pop back. I have been doing some scrapbooking, some knitting and felting and I have re-organized my scrapbooking stuff and made my own cool kits to get me started. I will show you in a later post.... As for today; I baked "pepernotjes" and Cinnamon stars with Lotte and all three kids made sinterklaas and zwartepietjes from marzipan. Quite happy with my day so far...

A walk in the woods

2010-10-19T23:36:00.003+02:00

There are pretty amazing recreation areas around where we live here in Holland and it's all within a few minutes either by car or bike. On Sunday we tested a new area, just five minutes away, and I must say it was gorgeous. Fantastic, huge trees, the ground was "carpeted" with brown leaves, and the walking path was perfect for both walking and cycling. Lotte, who has just learned to ride the bike without side wheels (actually she probably new how too for a long time, but the bike has been broken for months) rode like she'd never done anything else, while the boys (incl. Mats' friend Felix) collected sticks and checked out the bugs and mushrooms.

sign of life....

2010-10-11T15:38:00.009+02:00

sooo, anybody else out there struggling with time issues and lacking creativity???? I apologize for being such a bad blogger (or non-blogger really) lately, but I've had to prioritize my time massively the last months, just to keep afloat. So, what have I been doing you might wonder. First off, having three kids, does require some "work", like cooking, cleaning, washing a never ending mountain of clothes, grocery shopping, shopping for clothes and shoes. I tell you, those feet grow unbelievably fast, and when you have 3 pairs of them who need shoes for summer, winter, in between, for playing, for the beach, for school, for football, for tennis, for school gymnastics and for rainy days, well that mounts to quite a mountain too. And just when you think you've got all the shoes you need, two or more of the feet have grown again, and you have to buy new ones - AGAIN. I just had a massive clean out in some of our rooms, and it resulted in a filled to the brim-car, of clothes, shoes and toys, ready for recycling and hopefully re-use. Boy, did that feel good...

Back to the time managing issues, there is now a fair amount of "taxi-driving" involved in my weekly planning, either for me or my husband, as the boys play football and tennis several times a week, and not at the same time of course. Thankfully Lotte has not started any after school activities yet. Lord knows how I will manage that. Let's just say things are a lot easier when DH Till is working from home and can do his share of the driving and helping out. Does this all sound boring to you? What about ME, you might think... Well, I am working out 3 times a week, I read quite a lot (to get some quiet time) and I still have my photography business, which is doing well, and this represent my ME time at the moment. And then there's the US-time, as in me and my husband, I am trying to use more of my evenings with him, even if it just means holding his hand while watching TV or reading a book. At least we are together (a year ago, most evenings were spent in my scrapbooking room)

I don't know, do you see any time left for scrapbooking or other creative activities??? Well, unfortunately I don't. I did for a while, but there is no question, it did have an impact on my family- and social life. I guess I overdid it, and quite frankly got burned out. SO, now I am prioritizing what I feel is most important right now, and these are it:

So, sorry, if not much interesting is shown on this blog at the moment. I will try to pop by as soon as I have something interesting to say, ask or show:) Think happy thoughts:):):)

I just LOVE this!!!

2010-07-19T12:31:00.000+02:00

A summer layout

2010-06-16T22:54:00.003+02:00

...just to get you in the mood....

Summertime, school and lavender

2010-06-15T19:11:00.004+02:00

Hi again! I know I am not around much anymore, but as I am enjoying the summer season as well as a thousand other has-to-do commitments, that's just the way it is at the moment. Lotte is soon to be turning 4 and is getting ready to start school, the day after her birthday (here in Holland the children are obliged to start school as soon as they turn 4). She's been ready for school for a year already, and is very excited the time is finally closing up. However, with little time on my hands, I have managed to motivate myself for some smaller projects in between, like these lavender cushions, using some very cute fabrics. I love projects that only takes minutes to make....

A tase of summer...

2010-05-02T17:50:00.002+02:00

...and eating ice cream is definitely a summery thing. Here Lotte and her friend are enjoying one in the school sand box last summer.

Believe it or not...

2010-05-01T17:41:00.002+02:00

.. I've actually done some scrapbooking lately. I had a major creative kick last week, and here is one of the layouts I made with some funny pictures of Lotte reading the Norwegian dictionary...

Hipp hipp hurra, for Jonas er 7 i dag!

2010-04-30T13:27:00.002+02:00

So today is a big day here in Holland. The country is celebrating "Koninginnedag" and the flags are out, but for us the big occasion is our BIG little boy. Happy birthday, Jonas. Gratulerer med dagen! Gefeliciteerd!!!! I'm off to finish the cake, just as the sun's coming out...

More sewing projects

2010-04-03T13:42:00.001+02:00

Here are some very easy to do lavender pockets, to make your clothes smell good. The owls are stamped on white linnen.

Easy sewing projects

2010-04-01T16:45:00.001+02:00

I have been using my sewing machine lately, inspired to make a few simple and quick projects with cool fabrics and scraps. Here are some needle cushions. The motives in the middle are stamped using archival ink. I also added some lavender seeds inside, so they smell great. Tune in tomorrow for more project ideas.

Just another simple layout...

2010-03-20T22:04:00.000+01:00

more sausan design...

2010-03-19T19:27:00.003+01:00

Hi, I'm still alive.... Not a lot happening on the scrapbooking front around here (low motivation and energy). However; I did manage to put together these two layouts with the new Sausan designs papercollection, Love generation and the bird stamps (LOVE them). On the first layout I used three of the frames from the collection, the clouds are cut out of one of the borders and the birds are first stamped, then colored and then cut out. Really just as cute like Lotte....

Two wintery layouts

2010-02-08T10:00:00.000+01:00

So, I'm not doing a lot of scrapbooking at the moment, but I did have a creative attack the other day and got 2 winter layouts done. It felt good to do something creative again....

2 years anniversary!!!

2010-02-07T21:50:00.002+01:00

TODAY! Yes, today it's two year since I started this blog and it's my birthday, so I just felt like mentioning it and say happy birthday to me:) Off to watch a movie with my dh in bed.....:)

A little mini

2010-02-06T13:20:00.005+01:00

Hi, I know it's been forever, and really all I can blame it on is busy life and low motivation. I've decided to quit the design team at CASAkreativ and Papirgleder, cause I don't have anything to give at the moment, which is kind of depressing, but nevertheless a fact. Anyway, still going strong for dear Sylvie and Sausandesigns, cause I really love her unique products. I have been working on a couple of layouts, which my dear annoying daughter managed to ruin with spilling dirty water on them (me NOT happy), so now I have to find the motivation to start over. I did however managed to finish this little minibook about the 5 of us, for which I used the love generation accordion album, bubbly borders, and stamps. It's really very simple, but then again I love simple. Have a great weekend.

A fun gift - tutorial

2010-01-10T22:03:00.004+01:00

For my sons last birthday party, we did a different take on the good old "goodie bag". Instead of filling a bag full of cheap and unnecessary stuff, we gave away a fun decorated chocolate bar. I used the new collection from Sausan designs, and I love how cool they turned out. In the following you can see how I did it and how simple it is.

This is what I used:

- papers from Sausan designs Love generation collection
- Sausan designs acrylic stamps (little boy and little girl mini set)
- tacky glue (strong and fast drying glue)
- black archival ink
- stripes of torn fabric or plain ribbon
- feathers
- chocolate bars

First I cut the papers into squares; 6 x 5.5 " or 15x14 cm (if you use a different size chocolate bar, you would have to adjust accordingly, obviously). The 6 inch sized squares on the "happiness" paper are perfect for this project. Then I cut out little tags, stamped them with the girl and the boy stamps, to write the names of the guests and punched holes.

I glued the paper around the chocolate bar, let it dry, then tied the ribbon with the tag and the feather and voila, this is how they turned out:

Fun and simple and highly appreciated.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

2010-01-04T19:05:00.002+01:00

I know I´m a bit late, but better late than never....so here is my favorite shot from new years eve.... I hope 2010 brings you all you wish for and more..

Happy birthday - Gratulerer med dagen, Mats!!!!!

2009-12-20T07:35:00.001+01:00

Today my big, little boy turns 9. NINE!!! I can´t believe it! Yesterday we celebrated his birthday with his friends, and one should think that boys (and girl) at that age could sit still for at least 5 minutes while eating cake or to do some fabric stamping. Well, obviously not. Not even the planned cinema at the end was interesting for some of the guests, so we sent them outside to play in the snow...... It also seems that his friends all had asked him what he wished for his birthday, and he probably told them all the same thing, cause they all (except one) came with identical shaped presents, with identical wrapping paper and.....yes, you guessed right; identical toys inside. Ha, ha, ha. He didn´t seem to mind.....

Have a nice 4th of advent! Christmas is closing in on us....

A teacher appreciation idea

2009-12-18T19:01:00.004+01:00

Some home baked gingerbread cookies, some cellophane, some ribbon, a homemade tag and voila, you have a quick teachers appreciation and Christmas well wishing. Anybody else busy out there???

Snow in Holland!

2009-12-17T21:43:00.001+01:00

Yep! See more here....

making christmas cards......

2009-12-16T00:02:00.004+01:00

Made with My mind's eye papers from the "be merry" collection (set) and stamps from Ladybug and friends (papirgleder).

My present...

2009-12-13T22:31:00.006+01:00

....for my husband, was this book; 40 facts about you. So glad I made it, so glad he loved it and so glad I could use some of my old chatterbox papers.... To actually be able to finish this huge project on time, I chose for a simple design/consept. It works....

And by the way; Happy St. Lucia day!

40 yeas of age!!!!!!

2009-12-11T07:00:00.000+01:00

This cute little boy is no longer a boy, but....

....a man in his best years and today he turns 40!!!! Gratulerer masse, masse med dagen i dag kjære Till! Jeg er så utrolig glad for at du er min. Love you!!!!!

The following pictures show only a few sides of you, but nevertheless some of your best.....

This is Till doing his "Joey-look" (from Friends). Till is very good at imitating others....

Have the bestest day ever! xoxoxoxoxxoxox

Pepperkakebaking

2009-12-09T10:58:00.005+01:00

Christmas time is closing in on us. Anyone getting stressed??? I can assure you, I am. On top of all the usual Christmas preparations, I have one dh turning 40 in two days and one ds turning 9 in ten. One of the Christmas traditions we have, is the making of gingerbread cookies, and the kids LOVE it. Fortunately we managed to find time to do that on Sunday, so now I only have to find time to decorate them. Probably today...... Here are some images to give you some inspiration and maybe motivate you to do some baking. Today's Christmas calender challenge at CASAkreativ is just about that; take pictures of your Christmas baking and try to capture the mood and the emotions. You can see it was a family happening and I think it is pretty clear that they enjoyed it..... Happy baking...

Look what I got in the post the other day......

2009-12-08T00:19:00.004+01:00

New Sausan designs papers, tags, borders, frames, accordion album and stamps. The new collection is called the Love Generation. Now all I need is time to make some cool stuff. These papers and products are AWESOME!!! And those tags are just the coolest ever. My son already got to play a bit with the boy stamps and made some cool birthday invitations. The name sign is stamped and cut out. Mats couldn't let it be to draw some glasses on some of the boys:):):)

Products used from the Love generation, paper: love, border: bully borders, stamp: little boy mini set.

A hand to hold...

2009-12-02T17:57:00.002+01:00

...and this time it's grandma's hand. I cherish moments like these.... Made this layout for a fall article on Kreative sider some time back.

December 1st.....

2009-12-01T22:09:00.006+01:00

..and counting down to Christmas.... Hope you had a good 1.st advent on Sunday and that you all had your candles birning. Today the kids got to open the first present of this years advents calender, and Lotte was very proud to open it and sharing the 3 chocolates inside with her brothers. After school she wanted to open one more....I just might have to keep an eye on her AND the calendar for the next 4 weeks....wish me luck..

Tough guy...

2009-11-30T19:46:00.001+01:00

...is not something we would call this boy 2 years ago, but at the age of almost nine, he is definitely turning in to one. Playing soccer, hanging out with the boys, catching bugs, fish, frogs and other reptiles, playing more soccer, finding pokemon cards uninteresting!!... Another layout I made in Bergen:

Little girl is growing up...

2009-11-29T19:25:00.009+01:00

Hello there! I know it has been very quiet around here lately, but it's so much going on. Sinterklaas is in the country, Christmas is closing in, I have two birthdays coming and I'm doing a lot of photography related things. In addition I have to admit that most of my scrapbooking energy and motivation is absent at the moment. Can only hope it will bounce back one of these days..... Having said that, I did get some stuff done during my stay in Bergen and Papirgleder a few weeks ago, and that felt very good. This is one of the two layouts I finished and shows Lotte coloring inside the lines for the first time. An important moment to document and shows how little girls get bigger all the time, step by step.....

I used an older Label Tulip kit for this layout, mostly cosmo cricket products.

Are you up for a laugh?

2009-11-27T20:56:00.002+01:00

Watch this to see what it´s like to be a Norwegian.......LOL!!!!

November product challenge at CASAkreativ

2009-11-01T20:15:00.006+01:00

Well, today is November 1st, and it´s time for new challenges at CASAKreativ. The Norwegian paper design company, Papirdesign, is this months´ sponsor, and just check out the challenge, the prize and all the great stuff the designers have made here. The papers we got, were all christmas papers, so I decided to make a few Christmas cards.

Papirdesign papers: mens vi venter, julekurver, karens jul, swirls, drømmer, pepperkaker
stamp "julehilsen" from Ladybug and friends (papirgleder)

A visit to the Norwegian opera and ballet in Oslo

2009-10-24T15:14:00.009+02:00

A few months back, during one of our stays in Norway, we went to see the new Norwegian opera and ballet that is located in the heart of Oslo and is quite an astonishing building. As my Uncle works there we were lucky to have him guide us and show us the fun and fascinating backstage scenes and rooms. It was SO interesting to see what happens behind the curtains and get a glimpse of what technicalities and preparations are needed for a show/performance. The outside of the opera is unique and cool, and architecturally and photographically very interesting, as I am sure the pictures beneath will show:

my boys on the "roof"

Mats in the painting room (where they paint the backgrounds for the different scenes)

Jonas between the paint buckets.

when the scenes are painted, they copy little pictures like these and transform them into a huge scaled painting. Not an easy thing to do.

Here are the dresses prepared and ready for the Swan lake ballet. I loooove these....

Mats is looking around the backstage and finding many interesting things to keep an eye on.

Fascinating architecture details from inside the opera

Here is Mats testing one of the seats inside the hall,

and then a fun technical detail from somewhere backstage

And here an overlook picture of the hall. Looks kind of cool without all the people in it...

Mats and Jonas outside. This pic shows how the building is placed close to the water and the buildings around are being mirrored in the windows.

Have a great weekend, dear readers!!!

Bergen visualized

2009-10-21T08:31:00.002+02:00

Two weekends ago there was a Papirgleder designers meeting in Bergen, and this time I was lucky to have beautiful weather and for once NO rain! Yeah! So, on saturday, Beate and I took the bus downtown and acted like tourists (and photographers), took the "fløybanen" (what a beautiful view!) and visited "bryggen" which is a must of course. If you never visited this city, put it on your list of "places to go to", just make sure you have good weather (which can be a problem....say no more). Beate was the perfect model and posed voluntarily on all pictues, he, he.. I posted more pictures from this weekend on the photoblog.

...so here is Beate on "bryggen":

here we are on top of the "fløybanen":

overlooking the fjord and the islands....

inside the "fløybanen". Look at that view....

cutie, putie...

and here the view from inside the "fløybanen" and from the bottom and up to the point of view

and here an authentic fisher man on "fisketorget":

There's a cute new challenge blog;

2009-10-20T15:19:00.006+02:00

....That's just so cute, and this month I was asked to guest and host a mini tutorial/technique for them. So if you are interested in learning a fun, artsy and cheap technique you should check it out here. I figured out this technique myself and it has been picked up by and showed in Creative Keepsakes in "tips and tricks", August 2009 and also in Creatief met foto's Dec./Jan. 08/09. It was an honor to be asked to guest TJSC, and I LOVE the different layouts the design team made, and I am SO impressed by the different ways they used the technique. If you participate in the challenge (make a layout using this technique in any way you choose and with an autumn theme) you are SO in to win this RAK from me:

Thanks for having me girls, and I look forward to seeing some cool designs out there....

And I am happy to have my hubby back with me after 1 week on business trip in Asia....off to socialize...have a good week!

Hi, I'm off to Bergen and Norway.....

2009-10-09T10:05:00.003+02:00

...for the yearly happening at Papirgleder. Just for fun this time and looking SO much forward to it. And really hoping for NO rain this time...., please...Before I'm off, I would like to share this layout I made some time ago, using some of the newest Sausan designs stamps (school set). The picture is of Lotte on her way to her first day of Kindergarden after the summer holiday (and SO very ready for it....:)). I first stamped the images on cardstock and then cut them out to use them as embellisments (added with 3D tape). Have a great weekend!!!!

New article at Papirgleder......

2009-10-02T20:37:00.006+02:00

...so if you are interested in tips about the use of crepe paper, you should check it out here.

And I just posted some pictures of Lotte in her new knitted jacket that I just finished, on the photoblog. She loves her jacket SO much and asked me to take her picture. That resulted in a fun photo shoot just outside our house and the neighbours ugly garage:) Can you tell she enjoyed it???? Cutieputie.....

Big news.......

2009-10-01T10:47:00.003+02:00

....:

It's Norwegian, it's cool and it's FUN! It's a house filled with creative rooms for scrapbooking, card making, knitting, photo, cooking, interior and so much more and the doors open TODAY. There will be competitions and prizes. It's a place to hang out and meet new friends, share, learn, get inspired. If you are Norwegian or you read and understand the language, I hope you will join us in this new exiting venture, so pop over and check out all the creative girls living there.... Most of the time I will be living in the photo room, but you might also find me in the scrapbooking- or the knitting room or.....:)

And I almost forgot; there is a blog as well and a chance to win one of the 8 awesome RAKs at the house warming party. I would pop right over if I were you....:)

Just another layout...

2009-09-24T20:20:00.006+02:00

Hi, not much news around here, except that were having new windows put in and I actually made another layout..... Very simpel; cardstock, a piece of white linen, some spray paint (maya mist), some Sausan designs stamps, alphabet stickers and some buttons. Stamps used: Sausan designs borders, shabby stiches and school (the journaling piece). I sprayed with mesh as mask, to achieve the squares on the fabric. The pictures are of Lotte on her first day to "peuterspeelzal" after the summer holiday, proudly showing off her new backpack.

Hi, I am struggling here....

2009-09-22T10:34:00.006+02:00

Scrapbooking is slow at the moment. I feel like doing other things instead, like reading (a lot, like all the time...), working out, photographing, spending time with the kids, husband and friends.

Having said that, there are a couple of cool things happening, like a layout getting published in Celine Navarros magazine, EntreARTistes and a layout in the November issue of Creating Keepsakes. These are things to appreciate, when times are slow. I'm also having a new article coming up on "Kreative sider" at Papirgleder in a weeks time. And photographic-wise, I just LOVE this photoshoot and it makes me realize that I love what I do.....

I did make this layout about beautiful Lory some days ago, using Sausan Design papers and stamps. I used the mini Funky Funky collection for the little squares and Bloom, Dragonfly and Magic seed papers as layered background, also from the Funky Funky collection. The titel is stamped with the new Miss Peasley clear alpha set, both big and small letters.

Yup! That's about it for now. I am off to pick up my little princess........Have a good day!