Little Corner of Ania

It’s been quite long and weird-ish days at work since the tragedy struck our country past Friday. I’ve been working all weekend plus lots of overtime this week…I’ll be glad when I can take my mind off work this weekend – just have a few small things to wrap up at work tomorrow before taking some time off. All I can say is that I truly appreciate my colleagues and the viewpoint the local newspaper I’m working at have on how a local newspaper should handle such cases.

Leaving you with some iPhone-images from the memorial (? correct word? minnemarkering) from our little Island earlier tonight.

I’ll be back with renewed energy & scrappy stuff next week I hope!

The wonderful thing about being on an adhesive manufacturer (Glue Arts! :) ), is that sometimes I luck out and get to revisit “old” manufacturers whom I’ve been designing for in the past and try out their new stuff when they collaborate/cross-sponsor(ship) with GlueArts. Total win-win methinks!

Here’s Pink Paislee’s Hometown Summer-collection – I must say I was quite satisfied about getting this collection as it was one of my favorites from PP after my term with them ended (although I wouldn’t have minded the colorful soiree either!). Here’s a layout with images from last year’s visit from mom and my niece – had to scrap these before them visiting us again (they left last week).

Cute epoxy-stickers and letters that you could use either as a full sheet or cut out like I did here..to get the dimension here I used UCutIt-foam.. notice the cool border? It’s quickly becoming one of my faves! (it’s a Fiskars-punch)

Fiskars wasn’t the only past sponsorthingie I used on this page along with Pink Paislee, I also used the Epiphany Craft-epoxymakers on the watermelons here..

And here’s Fancy Pants Designs’ fun Beach Babe-collection…I tried a more childish/shapeish approach to this one, mmm…haven’t really decided whether I actually like it or not, but hey..looks somewhat colorful and fun eh?

Love how glittery the stickles make stuff though!

And I love these die cuts…esp the starfish were quite cute! These are attached with Raisen’s by the way, my quickly most fave-adhesive from Glue Arts (yields the perfect dimension – not too much, just as subtle..)

Nevertheless…had fun playing with the newer collections from my old manufs…gotta admit I miss them! :)

I know by experience that whenever something tragic happens in a country/area I “know” people at, I’m anxious to know whether they’re fine or not because I don’t know the country nor them well enough to know whether it happened at their area or not, but I still think of them..

I’m fine, I live at the other side of the country.

Oslo is my hometown though, the city I grew up in… and it’s as far as I am aware my family is fine, and people I know seem to be accounted for..

Not sure what else to say, other than how surreal and unreal this is, happening in little Norway (yes, call me naive..but…nothing like this has ever (as far as I am aware) happened here before, nor did I really think it would..). Right now it feels weird knowing I’ll have to work this weekend!

My thoughts are with those directly affected by this…and I hope that the nation as a whole won’t give in to political, religious or racist hate..

BBC: Bomb blast at the Norwegian government quarter

Oy! Just wanted to share my Maya Road CHA samples now that I got the greenlight to share them! Hooray! =)

First, there’s this accordion-mini which’s my favorite methinks, had great fun pondering and figuring out what to do and what to add to this one. And uhm, lemme tell you – it might look quick and easy and it sort of is, but all the filing and waiting for drying and small details and stuff made this take quite a while to complete still! There’s lots of photos for this one, so I figure I’ll just link the 2peas-gallery post and additionally, embed the galleryslideshowthingie here for the complete images..

The thought behind this? Well, A is for Arrows, B is for Bird, C is for Cup of Tea, D is for Dame, E is for Edible (the pumpkin :p) and F is for flower….I used mostly Pink Paislee, lots of the new stuff from Maya Road and quite a bit of paint, glitter, crackle glossy stuff and hm yeah…that’s it I think.

And then we have this, the wellies boots mini album, dressed up in Crate Paper and lots of Maya Road bits and pieces. 2peas-link here.

This canvas wallet is pretty awesome, but I had no good ideas as to what I’d do with mine I’ll admit. But – just look at Rondas – I’ll try that next time! :)

Lovelove the bejewelled button here…! And the houndstooth-flower!

Then they made us all like, make a canvas about ourselves. Or well, canvas w/pic of ourselves on it. I’m like, whaa…I hate the camera….but hey, look at me – I slapped 8 piccies of me on this one! Haaa! *wink*

Looks pretty easy uh? Well, I’ll tell you – I love these minialphas, they’re superb and perfectly sized for my use – but honestly? All this fiddling with the paint and spray and glitter and stuff and drying stuff? Makes it take oh so long time (sure sure I know – heating gun…well sure, but I’m also lazy – so I just do each word then let them dry while doin other stuff :p Nevertheless. Papers – various Pink Paislee-papers (I whitepainted the background, love the look!).

Some more closeshots:

Hmmm that’s it when it comes to my Maya Road stuff this CHA! Had like 4 or maybe 5 days to complete’em all so I’m happy with how these turned out that considered!

It’s Summer CHA 2011 and here’s some of my favorites from “my” manufacturers, namely Maya Road and Prima Marketing :)

Actually, I’ve created myself my very own Pinterestboard with my faves from CHA this summer, only..I sort of arrived late to the party so I’ve probably missed out on a lot of stuff….ahwell..I only pinned the products, not the stuff created w/them…feel free to share if you think I’ve missed out on great stuff from the various manufacturers out there! :)

Nevertheless…here’s one of my favorites from the papercollections from Prima:

It’s originally a Christmas/Winter-collection, but I think it looks more versatile than that..love the colors!

So many gorgeous flowers …like these..and the leaves in felt…lovely…perfect..versatile…! (image taken from the Londonerry collection)

I have so many favorites from Prima I’m not even sure where to begin..but…I try to pin my most fave stuff to the board, soo… (like, so many gorgeous flowers and leaves (the felt ones are the best!) and resins (which’s designed by Ingvild, how cool is that!) and metal charms and blah blah blah and oh the buttons and the bling….loves…and so much more!

As for Maya Road – check out this peek from their catalog!!

Umm..two of the images here are my stuff! Wohoo! (Sorry, I think it’s sort of thrilling and fun seeing my own stuff in a catalog!) I could let you guess which’s mine, but ok..it’s the left one in the 2nd row and the right one in the 3rd row :)

They feature two of my favorite stuff from this release:

This stamp set – mind you – I’m totally NO stamper, and I guess I can count on one hand the times I’ve stamped this year – but hey, I’ve actually used this set at least six times, which’s WOAH considering we’re talking about me. So.very.cool.stamps! Loves.

And this chipboardset! Love it! teapots and cups and spoons! So very cute and perfect for cards methinks!

Right.

Back soon with images of actual samples. I hope! (I’m dying to share the full images mind you..haha…soon!)

When I got a request from the Norwegian challengeblog That’s Just So Cute about guestdesigning and creating a miniclass for them, I couldn’t say no. I’m just as happy and honored every time somebody wants me to be their guest :) Here´s the post - check out what the ladies did with my challenge, and by all means, feel free to join! :)

As it happened the request coincidenced with me having to create a goodbyecard for the kindergarten for the kids quitting this summer. So I figured I might just as well build upon a former tutorial w/the boxes and expand it to become a box w/lid. Pretty much all the materials here are from Crate Paper but the bauble (Prima) and letters (American Crafts).

You can find my post w/the tutorial and the challenge at TJSC here. Feel free to join the challenge (which’s simply to create a project – layout, card, altered – anything – with at least three different materials. Paper doesn’t count).

Here’s what the winner of the challenge can expect, by the way.

Hope you’ll join :)

“Auntie, how come you always take a lot of pictures of me when I’m here!?” she said, slightly not-all-too-willing. Well sweetie, I only get to see you twice or so a year – so I need to make the best outta the time we have together….

She understood that. That, plus the promises of chocolate when done might have had a say I guess.

Love her to bits I do..

Despite her unwillingness to properly cooperate.

But then I always have my own children. Like Amalie, who wonders why I’m not taking a picture of her because the lens wasn’t centered at her. “But you’re not pointing it at me mommy!”. Artistic choices, sweetie!

And my oldest, who have long learned that he just gotta shut up & play along – the sooner I’m happy the sooner he gets away…

Not sure if I’m happy with the editing here, but ahwell.

Right. Off to make sure the kids doesn’t drown themselves in the bathtub (jokeeee! :p)

Be back before you know it w/scrappy stuff! (darn slow manufs, I wanna share the gazillion stuff I’ve created but can’t until they’re done with their CHA-peeks!)

It’s summer, which means icecream, jumping and bicycling outside and hanging around with friends for the little ones. And, not to mention – times when they have nothing else to do but watching TV…

Well, with empty glass-jars, a few sheets of Accent it All (Vinyl-stickersheets) and various punches, you can keep your little one occupied creating summer-lights at least.

Both the negatives and the punched out pieces can be used to decorate the jars..it certainly kept mine happy and wanting to do more than the three she already made!

You don’t even need to use real candlelight, you can find nifty electronical tea-lights at the market now – perfect for kids to use!

This project was created for Glue Arts, by the way :)

We’ve also created various cards, because she’s been complaining that “only mommy gets mail”…well, so we sent off a few cards in hopes that’ll mean she’ll get a card addressed to herself soon too…

When I saw Jenny Chesnicks post about Crate, I thought it was such a great idea. Wish I had done that for the other manufs I’ve been with..maybe I did, maybe I didn’t…can’t recall =)

Nevertheless…I’ve been with Crate Paper for a year, which’s two terms (as they do 6-mo terms)…it’s been a pure pleasure, and I’ve truly loved creating with their lovely collections. So – join me in this little walk down memory lane, won’t you? :)

This was my very first official project for Crate Paper, and still one of my favorites. Restoration is such a gorgeous collection, and honestly, I thought I’d use it lots and lots but turns out – I don’t really feel I’ve scrapped a lot with this collection. You can find the tutorial and more images from the mini here.

I really enjoy doing small altered stuff my way…one of my favorites are these matchboxes..cute and inexpensive little hostess-gift for the cold months...

One of my favorite layouts…love the laidback feel and the retroish colors and patterns…and oy, that’s like, me in the pictures too! Omg!

Loves…! One of my fave sketches by Emily Pitts by the way, who hosts the sketch challenges at the Crate blog :)

Another sketch-love…

I think this is the first layout I made w/the CHA-W stuff, namely the portrait-collection. Oh, and the very first layout of my nephew! :)

My darling niece – she’s coming over next week! Can’t wait! This one was created for a color challenge :)

I love this card because of two things; Toy Box, which’s a collection I initially didn’t think I would really like but which turned out to be one of my to-go-collections, and because of the small symbols used on this card which’s perfect for the one getting it.

Just gotta add this one, my daughter loved this book I made for her…hmmm..I think this one was a tutorial over at the Crate-blog which I can’t find on my own blog, so I guess I’ll repost it here sometime after CHA :)

Right! You can find the new Crate Paper design team on their blog all this week. Atm only the first batch has been posted, and I'm thrilled to see that Amy Heller is returning, and hope more of my favorites still are on the team :)

Have wrapped up all my CHA-projects now – I just need one tiny nap and then I’ll attempt to clean up. Or something like that. My MIL took her two sons and their kids along with her to Kongeparken…I’ve gotten rapports that everything’s well with them :)

Oh, and by the way? Check out this awesome ring I got in the mail the other day. Thanks so much, Banglamarie!! And yes, I do indeed shoot people! Haaa! :p (it’s a bit large, so it’s resting comfortably on my middlefinger….so whenever I’m showing people this ring, I sort of give them the bird…lovesit ;)