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Get off the cross we need the wood

About Me

Maybe-not-really-20-something-anymore from Norway who likes to scrapbook and take photos documentarystyle and dreams of photojournalism when not working as a photojournalist and that's pretty much what this blog is about. And I like it this way.



My Scrapbooking

Been scrapbooking since late fall 2005. Currently fortunate enough to be a part of the design teams for Hambly Screenprints, Fancy Pants Designs and Pencil-Lines. ♥



2/2

~~ I surrender to the one I'll never please ~~

Posted by Ania On Wednesday, October 28, 2009 6 lovely comments
Ooh it's soon Halloween and while we don't really celebrate it I kind of like it! =)
I pulled out some leftover-papers I thought fit with the Halloween-theme, like the Nikki Sivils Boo-tiful papers (Like the bag in the middle front, and from which the hand cut pumpkins&adorable ghosts are from) and mostly Luxe Designs, Prima and Scenic Route papers.

The folding-technique was learned from this Cosmo Criket blogpost, and I cut my papers to 9x9" to make these (the 3" scraps were used for the roofs).

I borrowed Kine's awesome drippy goo punch and punched away during Papirfest. I did it like, whole friday - it gave me an excuse to have something to do (*cough*) and even if I ended up having like, triple amount of the roofs I thought I needed it was good - turned out the pieces I precut was too small so I had to staple together two and two to make these :p) Thank you so much Kine for letting me borrow your punch all evening!! They look awesome here! I also sprayed my olive-green prima-flowers w/Graphite glimmer mist to get a more themy color on them..


Gonna hit work extra early tomorrow and place these on the desk of the colleauges. There's chocolate inside :) Call me silly but when I first got the idea I decided to just go with it. It's now too late to regret and well, although I kept these SIMPLE it still was a heckofajob. Not gonna repeat the feat anytime soon for sure! :p

It´s been a while since I talked about my job here by the way, so I figured it´s ok to mention it again ;p

So here goes:

Personally I cannot express how deeply satisfactorily it is to be a part of a workplace where you sort of feel you belong. Or maybe rather, where you feel you actually do your share to contribute. A place where people apparently appreciates you and maybe more important, your work, and lets you know about it. It´s really nice :)

I feel I have gained a lot of confidence in both myself as a person and the work I produce. Not that I now think "oh, I´m so darn good&pro now, get the fuck outta here", but in the sense that I feel more braver and confident when it comes to suggest and come with input to ideas both when it comes to taking photos, poses or content in the paper. I don´t immediately panic (inside of me :p) when people look to me for "what to do now?" or "how to do this?" when it comes to me being the photographer. I also feel a bit more calmer in worksituations instead of feeling I need to hurry up because people probably have other better things to do instead of waiting for me (taking pictures). A bit more anyways. The feeling is still there though, but I don't feel as stressed as I used to :p In short. I feel good because I feel (right now) this is right for me - I´m on the right path at last.

I´ve even been on a few freelance-gigs that I got because my work recommended me, and I was all alone w/the responsibility and it wasn´t that scary or bad as I thought in advance. And the feedback so far has been positive..will know more for sure in a few weeks when they start to use/look closer at my pictures....

I´ve also started to write some for the paper. Mostly smaller, "easier" cases and only occassionally. Being a "photographer-only" isn´t really a viable option for a local paper - you have to go to the larger agencies if you want to take pictures only and well...that kind of job is sacre these days (with major layoffs in the larger mediahouses over the last few weeks) :/ So if I can write in addition to take pictures that´s a big plus. So in that retrospect I´m grateful for the practice I get writing, and for the feedback.

And well, I really hope I get to work with this or in similar areas when my practice/interning ends.
  • Ok, not everything is rosecolored - I´ve so far learned that I feel somewhat protective of my pictures when it comes to how they are displayed in the newspaper. I know being in a small, local newspaper is a lot different than being in a larger one where you maybe (??) have no control over how the endproduct looks. It´s both good and bad. I.e. sometimes small technical glitches at the desk may make your pictures look like muddy unfocused shit despite them actually being good (like, probably taking a jpg instead of tif and/or forgetting to update the links in the pdf after updating pictures so they link to the old not-optimal-for-print-pictures). I´m ashamed to say but it sort of pains me when that occassionally happens, esp repeatedly in the same issue, because well...the pictures weren´t that bad, promise!! :p
  • Working at a local newspaper means you probably get to see a few familiar faces when on location. Sometimes I go "oh, that´s the dad of X in the kiddos class, so this is what he´s doing for a living" or "Uh where have I seen this woman before" knowing it´s jobrelated but can´t recall from where. And I´m usually bad w/names & faces - cough.
  • I am still supercritical of my pictures despite my colleauges reassurement that I did get the shot. And I tend to leave a lot of air at the upper part of the pictures. Still. Bleh. Ofc sometimes it´s intentional, but when it´s not and not good for the piccie - ugh! And the WB is still bleh despite my attempts to use manual WB. Besides, it´s not always time to finetune the WB, humpfr.
  • Oh, and I´m soon a pro coffeedrinker! I´ve ditched the milk now, and am trying to reduce the sugar I still have to add to my cup of coffees. Yay..? :p Have to grab a cup of coffee once I get to the office and then uh, I maybe drink a lot of coffee throughout the day....my poor teeth :p

Ok this ended up LOOONg and totally long-winded and hm, maybe a bit braggyish, which's NOT the intention of this post - I only wanted to say I'm happy with what I'm doing right now after a few years not really knowing where I'm headed workwise (not that I do atm, but at least I have gotten a sense of direction of where I want to go) and that it's a good feeling ;)

There!
Thanks for reading if you have done so so far ;p

Now off to pick out outfits and prepare myself for the photosession w/some of the girls tonight! :D Pictures to follow........:D


Title: "All Or None" -Pearl Jam


6 lovely comments

~~ insert collective 'aaahhww' ~~

Posted by Ania On Sunday, October 25, 2009 2 lovely comments
(oops! sorry! will put the layout back..if anyone ever remembers about this when it's time to put it back :p)

Aw ;)
A bit ago I found several copies of this photo, and although I believe I've scrapped this one before I decided I wanted to re-scrap it. This picture was on all our "thank-you" cards for the gifts etc received at Amalies baptism three and half years ago. I loved this one because Adrian was in the picture too, showing the wonderful caring relationship between the kids. One which hasn't faltered....yet! :) Amalies baptism-pictures were the ones which made me google "scrapbooking" by the way, that one fateful night long ago... my first box of scrapbooking-stuff were ordered pronto the same evening/night, and well... I don't really show any signs of being tired of this hobby yet :)

Anyways. I'm rambling & digressing. Sorry!

This layout was made for the Pencil-Lines #158, which happen to be a collaboration w/the girls at The Next Step :) I have to admit I sort of *cough* missed the objective w/the collaboration, which was a "trick or treat" theme.....*cough* Um. Eh. Look. The layout is cute? :p

I used Fancy Pants Designs stuff for this one - sweet papers and glitter die cut from the "Little Sprout" line, chipboards and buttons from "All Fall" and some bits and pieces from various other collections. The border was made using my MS doilies-punch.



I don't think I've shared my other October-layouts for Hambly Screenprints...
so here they are...a pretty clean&simpleish one using the wintery transparencies & the new clear stickers....showing my mad driving skills...eh...well.. it was dark and it was snow on the ground and it was my first time at that place (Gry's summerhouse) so I thought they had an awesome extra spacey parking-lot....which turned out to be their garden...under the snow that is....hum. Am returning to that place this weekend with the girls+wine+scrappy stuff.......so looking forward to it...:)

Another old piccie...from two-three years ago..?
Gessoe'd the gorgeous Le Romantique paper, sprayed some Glimmer Mist and chunks of gesso and yeah - layered some rubons (LOVE the alpha-rubons :D) and transparencies. Also used a scrap-piece of a sorta ruined KI Lace paper I had on the desk for like, forever & used a tag from Shabby Chic Crafts as a mat for my photo :)


Anyways.
Just wanted to share a nice little thing I saw at Michelles blog - she did a hybrid-step-by-step for a mini-calendar. I love reading her blog and seeing all the creative stuff she do w/digi and hybrid......still I can't get myself to try it out for real...but..have to admit this post made it look pretty tempting! Keep on posting Michelle! Maybe I'll give in one day haha :)

Have a nice week! :)

2 lovely comments

~~ Me and M&M ~~

Posted by Ania On Thursday, October 22, 2009 4 lovely comments


Me, Mari (who really should blog more often!!!) and her mother (whose name unfortunately escapes me atm - Marte?? *blush* Something w/M which's why the title's like that ;p) decided to have a beer or two at the hotel-bar at Papirfesten. I think it's somewhat amusing (warning: I'm easily amused :p) because us three had one last time we met at Papirfesten too....us three only unless I'm too wrong (I'm gettin' old ya know :p). Anyways. Love the little memories. Loved the company. Hooray for (new? old?) traditions. And so on. :)

Played with the new American Crafts papers (well, not really new, but I bought them at Papirfesten so to me they're new ;P) and some older rubons/stickers/foams/letters aswell :)
Using AC papers makes me happy - love the (usually) bold patterns&colors :)

Ps! Love pink? Hambly? Supporting a good cause? Check this out if so :)

4 lovely comments

~~ Papirfest 2009!!!! ~~

Posted by Ania On Tuesday, October 20, 2009 13 lovely comments
I had the most amazing weekend with the silly (hihi) girls from Bergen - travelling to Stavanger and Papirfest and all the cool, sweet, funny ladies we met there. We´ve been looking forward to this event ever since uh, April - March earlier this year. The weekend ended so abruptly...sigh....well, time to look forward to next year, eh? :)

Mmkay, shitload of piccies incoming - you´re hereby warned.

Eli and her husband picked me up at 6.30am. Way too early ;p
Note to self: start packing in advance....only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep ...yawn..
We dropped by work to pickup a copy of the newspaper.....Eli had both her husband and children pictured in there plus a little surprise-greeting from me and another friend at work because she (Eli! :p) turned so old *smirk* ;p
Had to snap a photo of her discovering the greeting :p

This is how it looks when scrapbookers are on sightseeing...cameras everywhere and you gotta be prepared to be snapped whenever (even if you're the one snapping piccies..eh)..noone/nothing is safe...:p
Jadda Eli ;p

More play with leaves! :)

Eli getting misty & thanking people for the gift for her bday :)

Had to take a piccie of my food - ofc ;p
(yummy - eggplant (aubergine), olives marinaded in olive-oil and fresh mozarella :) )

After the lunch we headed over to Scrappejungelen, did a lil bit of shopping then off we went to the Geo-park. Love how they have put together this industrial stuff and turned it into a pretty cool park for kids (and scrapbookers ;p) :) Trying to pose somewhat cool at the (satelite) disc proved bit difficult w/these heels...cough..
(*think* it was Eli who borrowed my camera here)

Ellen giving the swing-rope-thingie a nonchalant push.

Gotta rope in those crazy scrapbookers..

Trude Julie and Kine met up w/us - and more photos were taken :)

Kine brought along her übercool Fuji Instant....(on my wishlist for Christmas right along w/lotta film and a LensBaby and a photobag and a macro-lens and a 70-200 zoomlens and a diana and a holga and and and ...eh..)

It´s exposing!! :p

Eli hard at work with the other girls ;p

Me, Mari and her mother at the hotel-bar enjoying a drink or two (thank you!! :D) and trying to get a photo of us three together :)

Saint Vibeche....;p

Geddit Marie?? ;p

Attended a class w/Dina!!! :D
Had loooots of fun in her accordion-class....no photos of the class after I started to play w/the paint (so I stole this photo from my fellow messydoer Marie ):

We had just started here.....brushes are for pansies ;)

My desk when we were finished....:P Darn..wish I saved that piece of paper.......

Spent some time w/that goofy American (*wave Dina*) and my dearest Tracie -
after knowing each others for two years plus, talking on the msn pretty much every day in periods...it was really really really great to finally meet her irl :) :) Just wish we had more time together...sigh :)

I´m so embarassed..........:p
(Sorry Tracie but I love this photo of us..me laughing into your shoulder... haha)

Us three (thanks Kristin for the help! :) )

Kine and Eli *loves* :)
The crop..
Lovely Fatima and Linda (Salte) :D

Fatima, Monica, Mari and Linda
Teehee.....just had to add this photo - just look at Linda go WAIT FOR MEEEEE! :D

*cough*
Somebody forgot that the timer on the camera was set to 2 secs.....
twice....
*cough*
(it's now set to ten ;p)
(and Ellen and Kristin...I SEE YOU!!!)
Ps. Shame we didn´t have an organized groupphoto of everybody at the event...that woulda been great....this was just like 1/6 of the ladies attending..

Me, Oddbjørg and Tracie jumpin´:)
(Thanks for the help, Eli! :) )

Eli and Gry oogling Ellens owl-bag at the airport....:p

And that was all, folks.
Well. Almost, but....can´t bore you w/even more piccies..

Thank you so much for the weekend.....loved every single bit of it!!!! Just wish I could have spent even more time with you...esp those of you I didn´t really get to spend that much time with as we´d liked (which's pretty much everybody come to think of it...wish I could split and be several places at the same time :p)...so many people around, so much happening....

PS! For those who wondered. I started on a layout on Friday. I finished the (same) layout on Sunday. YEah baby I DID A LAYOUT!! WOhoo!!! ;p


13 lovely comments

~~ Pencil-Lines Layout & Blog Hop Winner ~~

Posted by Ania On Monday, October 19, 2009 3 lovely comments

Whew!
What a weekend!
But first.
Have to share my Pencil-Lines layout for sketch #157, guested by Wendy Sue Anderson. Yeah. I know. It turned out to be one of them layouts where it might be hard to find the picture sorta, but still...despite that...I love it :) Cosmo Criket baby! Such a gorg gorg line (I got Early Bird). And it features my dear friend Eli - whom I love to tease...just look at the title ;p

Psst. Happy Birthday Eli :D

Right.
Over to the winner of the PL bloghop:

Tam-tam-tam-da!


Congratulations Peggy!
Please drop me an email - just click on the "contact me" link to the right (under "Useless stuff about me" :p) with your adress and I'll get your prize to you asap :)

Psst. I'm not quite sure what you mean with "white noise". Would you or someone else care to elaborate, it sure made me curious :)
Psst2. Thank you so much for your tips, links and advices!

Right!
Ended up with 372 pictures from this wonderful, amazing weekend, trying to figure a way to share them with those who asked to share piccies. Will also share some piccies on the blog very soon - figured I'd do a separate post at least, so if you attended/are just interested - stay tuned. Should have it up in an hour or so. Or tomorrow at least :p

Oh and did you see??
Anna just revealed our secret for the last few months - Pencil Lines, the book!!!!
It'll be out December 14th, just in time for Christmas...and it'll be amazing ( duh ofcourse!!!) and I'm so so so thrilled to learn it'll be a handy, sturdy format made with scrapbookers in mind - that is - made to actually be used - spiralbound (which to me is such a huge issue w/other scrapbooks) and hardback and stuff...YEAH! More info to come re. pre-ordering and stuff as soon as I get the info :) :)

3 lovely comments
Hey!

Welcome if you're droppin' by because of the Pencil-Lines Blog Hop! :)

Why there's a blog hop? Um why, Pencil-Lines is celebrating having been around for three years and stuff :)

So.
The purpose with this blog hop is to give away stuff to one random winner who comments here....but before I share the details about what&how you can win here I'm totally gonna force ya to look at a layout of mine ;p Or two. Or more.

Well....this is about Pencil-Lines, right?
Figured I'd take you with me on a trip down memory lane....I joined Pencil-Lines sometime late summer 2007, after answering to a DT-call.. :) I remember getting the message via a friend on my cellphone because I was at the summerhouse w/o access to the inet back then - feeling quite a bit antsy because I wasn't able to respond to PL in a few days yet :)


This was one of the layouts I made back then, in 2007 - it's sketch #59. I remember doing my own distressing of the chipboards, applying paint, letting it dry then applying vaseline, painting over it then rubbing it off when dry. Very messy, but really cool. The papers are Rouge de Garance. Striking colors- loves!

2008. Sketch #73. Totally one of my faves. Very very very simple - not really me - not this style of simple sorta. But I like it. Once again - Rouge de Garance :)

Right. Movin' on to 2009 and sketch #120. One of the earliest layouts I did this year. Means a lot to me. Oh and I'm so lovin' the combo of Hambly and Sassafras too :D

This one was made to sketch #121. I love the crispiness of this layout and I totally adore Scenic Route (so sad they're no more :( ).


Last fave, promise :)
(I'd love to fave my next two Pencil-Lines layouts, but I can't really share them yet soooooo ;p)

Love the photo and sorta do like this combo of My Little Shoebox and Hambly (waddayaknow, Hambly goes to anythin' *wink*) :)

Right! Hope you're not too bored now - movin' on to the giveaway! :)

I'm adding three of Hambly Screenprints newest release from CHA Summer - Clear stickers :D Also - lovely clips from 7gypsies, rubons from Luxe Designs and a chipboard-album from Nikki Sivils :)

All you have to do is to drop me a comment below and share a nice photo-trick or tip with me please :) Wheter it's technical or whatever - any nice tip related to taking photos, cameras or post-processing or tips to nice photo-links - basic or advanced - please just share :)

You'll have until Sunday 12pm - I'll draw and announce a winner on monday.

Now it's time to travel to Japan and the next one on the Blog Hop List - Yuko! :D Good luck!

Ps! Hmmmmm while I got your attention - The Studio has been inspired by Cathy Zielske's campagin for charity:water, and is arranging a 48-hour online-event to raise money for the cause. I'll quote the site:

Starting at 7pm (GMT) on Friday 13th November we will be hosting a BIG scrapbooking event. It will last for 48 hours and there will be games, challenges, special guests and PRIZES! A new challenge will be posted every 2 hours for the whole weekend! It wouldn’t be much of an event without a grand finale and we certainly have one of those lined up. Cathy Z herself will be setting the final challenge and I, for one, am pretty excited about that.
For more information - feel free to drop by The Studio and click on the CHARITY EXTRAGAVANZA- link on the top of the page. There's more info there plus several guests and awesome sponsors listed. And oh, yeah, I'm one of the guests *smile* Hope to see you there too! :)

70 lovely comments

~~ Shootin' ~~

Posted by Ania On Tuesday, October 13, 2009 6 lovely comments
Did you see the latest Pencil-Lines??
This weeks sketch was made by Sue and our guest was Oddbjørg - YAY!!! :D What perfect timing, as we're soon to meet once again this weekend :) :) And -- I'll finally get to meet Tracie irl aswell as Dina. All three are this years teachers at Papirfesten - and I am so so so looking forward to it. To meet old friends and to maybe be better at finding new ones aswell, as I'm - don't laugh - really shy irl (I know everybody says they're shy but with me it's really the case :p).. I am working with myself to dare do more than just say "hi" and smile stupidly (me, not you! :p) at people I'm not too familiar with :p (oh, and hiding behind my camera. Although. I really do not mind hiding behind my beloved camera :p)

Anyways I digress!! This layout -- the kiddo hasn't really put any interest in basketball despite his father playing and the fact that he's practically grown up in the hall where they play basket. But - over the last few weeks he's been more positive to try it out and mostly he prefers to practice his shooting. He's actually (and I'm not saying this just because I'm his mom *cough*) pretty good at aiming and stuff so maybe in the long run he'll play more actively too..? We'll see, it's all up to him :)

I whipped out Scenic Route (loves!) and - imagine - Jolees for this layout. Haha. :)

Right!! Busybusy week ahead - working on a major issue at work this week (involving a 4 page spread of various photos taken by yours truly :p), attending a class on printing, trying to see if I can squeeze in some freelance-assignments I have to do (probably won't be able to do anything about it until next week tho) and ofcourse - the trip to Stavanger and Papirfesten.

If you're going there - help me out by making me do more than just sheepisly sayin hi sorta ;p

6 lovely comments
Boo!
It's not long till Halloween and I am pondering wheter to do anything about it or not...am not at home for that weekend, but still....

I made this card for the Fancy Pants Designs productspotlight on the Trick or Treat cards and strips papers. I cut out one of the faces from the strip-paper and adhered it behind it - making it look as if he was peeking from behind - complete w/hands and all. Cute, eh? :)

And yes - another card - this time for the Hambly Screenprints tutorial on their blog. Mine is about creating an effect of shadowing w/the fact that their designs are available in different materials (transparency, paper and rubons) and colors. Here is the full tutorial :) And my example involves the design mini chandeliers in brown on creme paper & creme transparency :)


Here's the inside :) I am starting to fancy creating cards w/flaps like this inside sorta. Feels sorta...elegant..:)


Yesterday I was taking a hike up to Kolbeinsvarden for some assignment at work. There's little doubt that it's fall now - the colors all around me were gorgeous and I kept finding small evidences that it's now ..eh....colder :p.

Just look at the frostflakes at the water :)


I am not sure which angle I like the most of these two photos here.
I do adore this little - uh - I don't know what to call it - it's wood laid down where the ground is extra muddy/marshy.


When I took these photos on the way up to Kolbeinsvarden I noticed the images having different intensities of colors. The reason for this was the white balance, which was set to auto. With the weather being mostly hm, very bright and the sun alternating between peeking out between the clouds all the time - well - setting the WB to cloudy proved to give the pictures the extra warmth it needed to make the fall-colors really shine through. I am curious as to wheter this will still be the case in other outdoor light conditions when it comes to fall landscapes - cloudy means that the wb is set to the more warm hue = good for fall colors anyways (aka - a creative choice perhaps?).

Please bear with me - I am not used to care much about the WB because I used to shoot RAW, then I didn't care much because my own jpgs were still salvageable in lightroom and if they werent then go creative - convert to B&W or apply different hues and play w/different presets/actions...but now..I am more concerned about WB because well...let's face it, it's awesome to hit the right/needed WB incamera & it's sorely needed for the work - esp in sucky indoor-conditions...yes I am setting the WB w/grey card when Im insecure but then Im insecure because Im not sure the wb is correct even then..I wish you'd just like - know instantly - this is correct! when it is....I don't really atm :/

Ohwell. Blabbeling again. Maybe I should make a separate blog for concerns about photography and stuff...



3 lovely comments
    -Get off the cross we need the wood-