Little Corner of Ania

 

First – my Pencil-Lines layout for this week.

Our guest this week was Michelle aka MJM :)

Made with Fancy Pants Designs – Kraft Kuts (That Boy) & Rough & Tough. Added Distress Ink (faded jeans) & Glimmer Mist (Graphite & Patina) to this one, aswell as a blue cardstock as mat and paint on the edges of the pp & embellished it w/felt. Gems and ribbon from Prima, chipboard-letters from American Crafts.

I honestly can’t believe I haven’t scrapped these piccies of the kiddo before (I don’t think so at least??) – but – the boy lines from FP really matched these full-of-life&zest-piccies… I have the middle one as a large canvas at home by the way :)

 

Lots are happening over at Pencil-Lines right now – the BOOK is finally done and I can’t wait to get my copy in my hands (I totally love 80% of the layouts I did for that book at least..the rest..I hope she didn’t use them cough) – it contains 40 new sketches from Anna and several interpretations of these sketches by a design team of 11 different international designers – ie – there is sure to be something for everybody's taste in that book w/layouts made by:

Shimelle Laine,
Gigi Kennedy,
Michelle Filo
Sue Deacon
Anne Jo Lexander
Tracie Hudson
Iris Babao Uy
Christiane Muller
Carina Lindolm
Emma Trout
Annie Hafermann

And - maybe – in my humble opinion – the best of it all? The book is spiral bound (that one scored BIG points w/me – spiral-bound is sort of a must-be for craft books imo) and afaik it’ll be coffe-tableish in size (don’t quote me on that one – I’m positive I heard it would be a handy size for crafting but can’t find that info written down anywhere atm). You can preorder your copy here for £14.94 – wholesale-inquiries welcome – just email pencillinessketches@googlemail.com with “wholesale” in the subject-line. It’s expected to be delivered by the end of 2009 – hopefully in time before Christmas!

 

There’s also a Design Team Search over at Pencil-Lines atm!

I’ll just copy&paste what’s being said in the newsletter:

Design Team Search

Here at Pencil Lines we have sadly, said goodbye to Sue Deacon and Annie Hafermann . It now means it is time to look for some new DT members We have handpicked 2 new design team members and are now looking for 2 more members to join our design team!

Requirements:
1. Create a layout based on a sketch from Pencil Lines. Please label your layout with the sketch number and your name.; ie: AnnaBowkis _sketch101
Individual interpretation is encouraged, but the sketch must still be recognisable. Your layout must be made for this design call and cannot be uploaded to any blog or gallery, nor be previously published until after the design team call.
2. A link to your layout gallery
3. Full name, address and email
4. Blog link
5. A list of current DT's you are on
6. Link to resume/short bio
7. A twitter style 150 word , "Why you want to be on the Pencil Lines DT"
All entries must be 12 x 12 or 8.5 x 11. Please keep file sizes under 100kb.
Entries are to be emailed to pencillinesketches@googlemail.com

Please put Pencil Lines Design Team application in the subject line. Entries must be received by midnight EST on December 20th. The Design Team will be contacted by December 28th and will be announced on January 1st 2010.

Expectations:
* Your term will run from the January 2010 until December 2010 sketches.
*Each DT member will be required to submit 3 LOs per month. At the beginning of the current month, I will send you both new sketches for the following month and it will be due late in the current month.
* DT members are expected to remain exclusive to Pencil Lines Sketches for their DT period. We are not able to accept applicants who are current DT members for other sketch blogs / sites.
* DT members will occasionally have the opportunity to  work with product sent by our sponsors.
* Positions will be held for a twelve month period
*DT members should use the Pencil Lines blinkie and promote Pencil Lines where ever and when ever possible!
International scrappers may apply.
If you have any questions, please email them to me and I will answer them as soon as I can.
Look forward to receiving your entries.

Anna and the team
www.pencillines.com

Next month we will announce 2 new members to be joining our team. I know you will love them!

Do apply! Pencil-Lines is well-known for it’s International cast, so being an International really is no disadventage for once!! :D

Gonna share quite a few photos, so suppose I’d show a card first for those who’s here for the scrappy stuff only sorta =)

So.

Made this card for my grandmother-in-law but managed to forget the card at the office the day I was dropping by the hospital…ohwell..I’ll get it to her sometime I hope :p

Punched out butterflies w/my Martha Stewart-punches & used my scalloped scissors around the sticker. Paper&sticker from Pink Paislee, gems from KaiserCraft and letters from Adornit.

 

Right!

Back to the pictures…

Last night I finally got around to meet up w/some of the scrappy girls…it’s been a while!!

First I met up w/Marie, Eli and Ellen. We dropped by Moe, Udd & Tollefsen, who opened their own store at Bryggen. Nice little store & lots of people attending the opening. Cozy.

 

 

There were wine and snacks and Marie needed help w/the wine (srsly! ;p).

Then we detoured a bit & stood outside in the rain liek, just for fun – until someone had to lead people someplace & we ended up at The Scotsman. I think. The small, elegant pub next to the trad. doors to The Scotsman? Which looks totally different and way more chic and maybe it’s always been there & I’ve just been too drunk to notice/care. Like, years ago when I was young. *cough*

Anyways, they didn’t serve Guinness there until 10 (wtf! main reason we went there sniff..) so I opted for wine like the other girls. And sort of got fascinated w/taking piccies of the wineglasses.

 

Until someone had enough & threatened to grab their wines ruining my photos. Hello!!

 

Then we went to Egons & met up w/Ann Hedvig and Anki……soooo many people there and such great entertainment for those who had the view :p

 

Don’t look at me. Ellen and Eli decided to ..eh…refresh themselves or something.

Fooooooood!

♥ the whole evening, thank you so much for the great time gals…

 

Spent today w/the kids….

 

Visiting the Gingerbread Island at the local mall…so fascinating for the kids..♥

 

Adrian found this light-sphere fascinating..

 

…while I thought this part of the Island was most awesome. A replica of the AV-house (my workplace :D) in gingerbread….we’re located at the 2nd and 3rd floor :D Yes, the house is round. Yes the corridors goes around and round (like Eli learned last night :p). The bridge (connecting the island&mainland can be seen to the left, the boat to the right :p)

 

Then there was time for the Frost Princess to read out loud for the kids. Nice atmosphere.

Then we went home & started baking for Christmas :) Kakemenn! W/Hello Kitty! :D

Both kids helped ♥

Gonna make Bailey-balls (uh yeah) & try to get the honey&pecanmix wrapped up later today :)

ISO1600, 70mm, f/2.8, 1/40sec

I have to sheepishly admit that since I got my new camera (well, maybe not so new anymore as I’ve had it since winter) I haven’t really tested it at its highest ISO. Sure, I’m fawning over the fact that ISO640, even ISO800 works out wonderfully in most situations without really seeing that much loss of quality (bit garbled if nitpicky but situational). Compared to my old camera this new (D700) is heaven. It’s so much easier getting nicer pictures when working with better hardware - obviously. ISO1250 has sort of been the upper limit for me, things really are visibly garbled by then, so I’ve been sort of…..not afraid, but haven’t really seen the necessity/need to go higher than that even though my camera can go to ISO6400 and even beyond (uncalibred tho). Even not for just testing/playing around (I´m ashamed to say so out loud..). Anyways.

The above photo was taken one early morning on the way to work. Loved the dark blue sky, the beginning pink at the hilltops and this dude would make a cool silhouette I though, so I snapped a few exposures of him then walking quickly past before he could yell to me what the … I was doin :p. Anyways – fun thing is that when I got to work I learned that they needed a picture for a case on road lights (road posts?) and maintenance and this one fit just perfectly.

ISO2000, 24mm, f/2.8 1/15sec

We had a power-outage last week which forced us to use candlelight only for a while. The kids thought it was awesome, and I decided to see how well the camera would perform under these conditions (3-4 candles at most, NO other light from either the out nor inside). Please please ignore the ugly, close to death herb in the corner. Cough. It keeps threatening to die now that the weathers colder and less sun and stuff, and I keep tryin´to keep it alive just a little bit longer....

ISO6400, 24mm f/2.8 1/20sec

Aaaaahhhh ISO6400!! Usually I´d turn such photos into B&W, I think B&W pictures holds the higher ISO so much better than color ones, but - just wanted to share the camera in all its glory at this level.

Can you tell I love my baby? Maybe I should name it or something. Like, "my precccccioussss" :p

On a completely unrelated note - it´s soon Christmas (duh) and the kids are - ofcourse - into the whole thing. Amalie´s especially into the whole potential re. gifts, and has been eyeing what she wants for Christmas in a toy-catalogue the kids have been checking & double-checking for a while now.

So last night Adrian came to us asking us - "Mom, dad...how much money do I have in my bank account?" "Why", we asked him. "Well, I want to know if I have enough money for this ´Hello Kitty laptop´ Amalie wants for Christmas". Awwww.

• Finally got around to scrap the photos of me & Tracie, taken by Dina – see below.
• Pencil-Lines #162 – tada!:
   
• Sweet Malin Dahlström guested us this week. For my layout I whipped up various old&new Hambly-stuff. Look how well the transparencies matches our outfits =)
• Playing single-mom for the weekend + a day.
• Am feeling both inspired and slightly bewilder-y about my choice of work atm. Inspired because I feel I’ve started to really see and learn about this genre & the kind of pictures I’d love to shoot & feeling more and more like “this is what I want to continue to do”. Bewildered because I’m not really sure where to start (when my time w/the local paper is over), how to really push me into that direction, how and where to really learn more, to move on past the stage in photography I’m currently at atm, how to get to evolve.
• Feeling equally as torn because when shooting some cute kids the other day I felt a slight tug towards wanting to shoot portraits & candids of children, wishing to be a childrens&couples photographer, a portraitphotograper…oh, and my absolute favorite….do weddings!! But – again – no idea where or how to start there. And – when working for the local newspaper I do after all get to do a bunch of various kind of photowork, among them portraits etc and I love the variety I’m allowed to do atm.
• Silently cursing myself for letting myself feel a bit whiney and stuff when overwhelmed by thoughts of my future.
• Little one will be receiving her H1N1 vaccine later today. They are offering the vaccine in the kindergartens, so no need for us to drag her to some strange place having to queue w/lots of strangers. A good initiative methinks. I covered the first vaccination in the kindergarten for the paper last week, so at least I know what to expect and hopefully I’ll be able to prepare her enough to avoid the YELLING & CRYING that was pretty much constant during my visit to that other kindergarten :p
• Baked the first batch of Christmas-cookies last night!!! (although it’s almost empty now – the cookies were too darn yummy *cough*)

 

Pencil-Lines #161 went live – with sketch by Anna and guested by Zarah!! :)

I totally love this simple yet elegant sketch – and I love the awesome-cool look you get by rounding opposite corners on a small square piece of paper. I love how it looks on larger squares, but when done on small ones – the look is just so so cool =) I got the tip from a blog (sigh, I suck at remembering where cool details originates from) which got it from Scrabook Trends I believe. I’ve seen these kind of squares around more lately I think.

You can’t really see it here, but I sewed around the photo and squares. Also, this cute little momiji-sticker is from Lene and Gudrun when they visited my place - I lovelovelove them and have saved them up – but for this one this was just perfect. Love how she looks like my Amalie. Sort of :) Decorated her hairflower with a small gem in the middle – so cute! :) :)

Used mostly Pink Paislee stuff here – both papers, chipboards and stickeralphas. Gems from KaiserCraft. Large chipboardletters from American Crafts :)

The title and journaling explains how she’s becoming so big…. she just swapped out her kid-friendly chair for a regular chair and now insists on using regular fork/knife instead of the kiddieversions...*sigh*

I created this layout for my challenge over at the Charity:Extravaganta event. I used the gorgeous papers from the “All Fall” collection from Fancy Pants Designs, aswell as a glitter die cut, some sheets from the journal book, random leftover-rubons and a sheet from the Mixed Media book (circles). Really love how this turned out (altho a bit too much yellow eh?, but whatev :p)

Usually I just scrap away w/o real plans re how the finished layout will turn out. Sometimes that’ll create a problem when I’m approx done and realize I don’t really have much room for title/journaling w/o ruining the design. Sooo – enter the hidden journaling. This time I made a “door” (sewing the left side to the layout) and added the transparent glitter-diecut frame between the journaling and the photo.

Ooh,

I’m running short of time – Christmas Party Season apparently started (o.O) and I’m off to my boss shortly for the first of many get-togethers.

BUT.

Before I’m off I have to share this with you: The Studio is hosting a charity-event this whole weekend, starting today (Friday), where you can join their challenges and get plenty of chances to win awesome prizes and at the same time help donate to the charitywater.org cause. I’m one of their many guests this weekend hosting a challenge. Mine will be posted early tomorrow (Saturday) – I hope you’ll want to drop by their ning-community just to have a peek and hopefully get inspired to join :)

Here’s a peek of my challengelayout….

 

Oh, and – here’s my layout for the latest product-showcase at the Fancy Pants blog utilizing That Boy die-cut papers and Rough & Tough :) :

Have a wonderful weekend and see ya at The Studio sometime this weekend!! :)

Earlier this week I got to do something really fun.

I got to fly a helicopter.

Whee!!

Now I realize there’s a lot of people who’s involved in helicopters like, every day, or at least on a regular basis. However, I’m not one of them. Hence my “whee!”

It all started with these two oil platforms coming in for maintenance out at Hanøytangen. They get a lot of oil platforms out there, but never two at once. It was sort of a big deal out there, and they decided to rent a helicopter to document the event. Luckily for me, the newspaper got wind of this and even better, instead of asking for press-photos as they initially thought they inquired if there were room in the helicopter for me. If I wanted to go, that is.

Um, hello??

Get to sit in a helicopter for the first time in my life, and be allowed to take photos through an open door up in the air?? Hell yes!!!

They were very nice about it out there, and let me attend one flight. Me and two other photographers – one of their own and one from another newspaper, plus two other people. We split in two groups as the helicopter only had room for five – and as there were only one side that was openable in a way so we could take photos out from that side w/o having to shoot through windows. The whole flight took approx 10-15 minutes, circling around the base. I even managed to snap photos of the main-part of the island (the south part) through the windows on my side. You can see the bridge connecting the island with the mainland, and Bergen city on the other side to the left of the photo above.

But for the mainpart of the flight I was sitting in the helicopter trying to snap photos out from between the other photographer, who was sitting on the open-door side. He was really nice and we alternated snapping photos out through the opening. It was a beautiful sunny day, and even though I was afraid the direct sun would be too harsh I’m glad to find the majority of the close to 200 photos I managed to snap during the trip turn out really really nice. Especially with the sea being so still – got such awesome reflections of the rigs on it – see below.

I tried to mind the horizon and pay attention to the composition but it was kinda tough. Especially when not sitting really comfortable as I alternated leaning over another guys lap trying to mind not getting his legs or elbows or the helicopter in the frame holding the camera as steady as I could and retreating letting him take photos too.

When we were done taking photos we had a deal with the pilot to give us a sort of a “funride” back to the base. It felt like a rollercoaster, only way cooler. And it made me so nauseated for HOURS afterwards. I think I am feeling a little bit sick only thinking of it even now.

But. It was so worth it :D :D :D

I’ve flown in a helicopter!!!!!!!!!!!!

:D

 

Pencil-Lines #160 with aussie Kathie Link and I really really love how it turned out. Just never mind that it doesn’t look like the sketch at all much in the end... Personally I’m all for a sketch giving you just the right jump-start to have a go at your layout. Wheter it ends up looking like the sketch (flipped, rotated, swapped elements, whatev) or not at all – well… in the grand scheme it’s less important when you’ve actually finished the layout and feel happy – just use the excuse that you really made it yours hm? At least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself when I end up with layouts looking like…well, not like the sketch at all :p
(Ofcourse – it’s one thing using the sketch for your own pleasure – do whatever the heck you want. If you’re attempting to join a contest – now that’s another thing. One might argue that being in the DT which’s supposed to showcase the sketch you also should have some restrictions in how to showcase the sketch, but…eh..yeah…) 

Here’s some closeups. During Papirfesten I scored a quite a few papers from a few of my fave manufacturers American Crafts, Pink Paislee and October Afternoon – some of which was discounted – joy =). I feel darn good having used my American Crafts-papers already, and I have specific plans for my OA papers. You know, as opposed to just buying and then storing them meaning to use them “sometime soon” which usually turns into “never”. And now I’ve used my Pink Paislee-papers. Yay! =)

The huge, red flowers were handcut and sprayed with glimmermist (Iridescent Gold, natch – it lays on clear while allowing the gold-shimmer through sorta). Other accessories are some chipboards (also from Pink Paislee) and red gemstones from KaiserCraft (loves). It comes in three different sizes and I decided I’d use all three and repeat them in a visual triangle – the largest on the seams of the papers and the smallest on the cornerchipboard. And as usual – love the small letters from AdornIt :) And look. Once again I’ve used my old Heidi Swapp chipboard-letters. Yay for using up stash! :p

 

Ps! Remember the flower-tutorial I linked in the last post? Found a similar one via Elsie’s blog – made for a really cute DIY project – I can see this being really cute on a scrapbook-project aswell :)

 

Ps2! I cannot for the life of me remember where I saw this neato trick (I’m sorry!! Please link if you know where this originates from so proper credit can be given :) ) but I thought it was pretty genius so when I couldn't refind it I just redid the photos…I know some use a tweezer, and QK has this neat pen for this, but for me..this will suffice… (sorry for the bad photos, dark+heavy camera to hold w/just one hand :p)

 

To easier pick up small gemstones and stuff, just use tackit and roll it to a ball on the tip of your pencap. Makes it easier to pick up gems and to place them where you want it sorta :)

And that’s the last statement you’re gonna get from me when it comes to how I feel right now. I’m really trying to fight against my innate needs to just feel.sorry.for.myself. but that’s boring to read about so there!

Good news is that I felt good enough to scrap the other day..which meant the whole stay-at-home-and-be-sick-thing became a little more bearable for me :p So. I made a card for a person whose party is tonight but because I’m not entirely well enough (+ the reg. babysitter is sick herself :p) I’m gonna stay at home w/the kids. Jeje.

The card had to be large enough to cover a giftcard, which was sorta huge. The dimensions are 10x4,5”. Played around w/corrugated cardstock, glimmermist, cracklepaint (peeled paint..loves!) a sheet of Fancy Pants Journal book (Summer Soiree) and small leftoverpieces I had on my desk – like some Hambly transparencies & kraft stickers (love the sparrow..and the edge-stickers peeking from the rose), piece of lovely Jenni Bowlin gold rubons I’ve saved like, forever… a sheet of K&Co shaped minibook..letters from some old Heidi Swapp alphabets (love the alphas, HATE the socalled “adhesive” on them tho).

I especially love how this flower turned out. I read about this on the CK blog a while ago – credit goes to Tia Bennett on how to make this awesome cute&simple flower. I love how this 3ndypapir pattern sort of fits these kind of flowers – I had a scrap of that paper I couldn’t make myself throw away – now it’s turned into these kind of flowers dashed w/a lil glimmermist (Iridescent Gold). Here it rests on a piece of Making Memories glitterflower, whose color matches the dotty Hambly kraftsticker perfectly.

Some more closeups…..did I mention I love this kraft-sparrow from Hambly?? And the lush gold rubons from Jenni Bowlin…….mm… I painted the K&Co minialbum-sheet w/gesso and drybrushed aqua on it, before spraying glimmermist (Iridescent Gold goes to anything!) over it. When dry I rubbed the rubons on the top and painted the edges heavily w/cracklepaint.

This post is already huge, but I just have to add the photos of my little girlie who kept me company today. No, she’s not sick, just had a day off kindergarten because of some planning-stuff. So, as my dear son told me last night “You’re gonna have some girlietime together!!”. Uh yeah.

Girlietime = me taking photos of her…cause I’ve been missing taking photos!! And I’ve been missing the amazing weather we have atm (just my luck – sunny and lovely outside when I’ve been inside sick).

"Wait, I forgot something!" she said. And returned with her sunglasses.
Hum yeah. I sort of made her wear that tutu. She’ll thank me for that later.
Sorta. Hush.

Struggled somewhat w/the wb here. Hm. Looks a bit bland no? This was in the shade of the house – with WB put to shade. Had to correct the wb slightly postproduction though.

I read that some photographers become sad when their children learns to automatically put on their “cameraface” once they reach for their cameras. I totally get them. She loves to pose, and while mommy thinks she’s still cute mommy’s got lots of these kind of photos so mommy tries to snap away especially when she’s between poses.

Right now she’s sitting next to me on her own pc singing along to Regina Spektor. *love*

I bought her this tutu last Christmas. She doesn’t really like it. She refused to wear it the first four-five months?? Sigh. But hey…she’s growing so fast – one day it’ll be too late for her to put on a tutu sorta (heaven knows it’s way too late for me *cough*) so….believe me, it’s for her own good – now she has some photos of herself in a tutu! :p

I edited this photo of Amalie then went back to the original SOOC-piccie (bottom) and thought. Hm. The SOOC piccie is indeed good. Yet I spend a few more minutes each piccie, trying to find a better way to edit it. Like. Why do I insist on spending so much time editing when I really need to just cut down the time editing? I dunno. I think part of the fun lies in the postprocessing too. To see what you can do with the negative (SOOC). It’s…sort of fun :)

Have a nice weekend :)