Lists with friends 2014 | My favorite photos from this week

These are my favorite photos from this week. In no particular order. Maybe not a list exactly, but it will do :)

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This post is part of a list-making project called Lists With Friends 2014, an effort to document the year in lists of all types. I love lists, and I love a good project : )

WCS | Scraplift week ~ Inspired by Diane Payne

Amy is blogging about scraplifting this week at WCS. I jumped on the opportunity to be extra inspired by some of my fellow team members. You see, I scraplift often, and have always done so. In my early days of scrapbooking it was a perfect way to try out different techniques and designs. When I had finally found my style I don´t have to lift every single detail to be happy with a page, now I simply look at other peoples projects to be inspired by an element, story, product or even just a feeling. I lifted 4 of my fellow team members and I will share each in different posts here. 

After being inspired by this one by Diane Payne, from Jenny Larson's Keep Warm Week back in January I made this:

I love the fun polaroid mats that Diane used on this page. They give such a summer feeling to the whole page. I didn´t use polaroid mats, but still went with a similar shaped on the photos. Since I scrap A4 (8.5x11") I usually end up using three photos. I also liked her title on the edge like that, so I did that too. I l also added a bit more journaling than Diane did, but I can totally see this layout as a title page for spring layouts in my album!

Go check out the other projects at WCS!

WCS | Jumpstart week | Story layout

For the last day Christine´s challenged us to use a story to jumpstart a layout. 

After my divorce last year I kept the house. It is pretty run down and needs some work but it is my safety and I love it! I first wrote the journaling and then used a photo I had taken a while ago in the bedroom. Sometimes I struggle a bit with longer journaling and how I'd fit it on a page.  Here I used the journaling as an element on the page and that is how I solve it most times. To tie with the story I used Wood veneer houses and hearts.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

WCS | Jumpstart week | Technique layout

Here is my third layout I did for Christine´s Jumpstart week on WCS. 

For this one I used a few strips of paper where I had punched out butterflies for another project. I used them to create a mat behind my photo. 

I often save the negatives when I punch out something. I usually use them when I create embellishment clusters or layers. 

To balance it out I used 3 of the butterflies just on top of the photo. 

I had so much fun making this and isn´t that photo the cutest :)

WCS | Jumpstart week | Design layout

This week Christine is hosting the WCS blog and her theme is jumpstarts or startingpoints really. Each day she has different things that can jumpstart your creativity. I made a few layouts for her week and today I´ll show you one from yesterday´s post where the startingpoint was design. 

I used a sketch for this layout which essentially was the design element of my page. The sketch was the WCS April sketch.

The photos are from my Garden board on Pinterest. The layout is about all the dreams that we have for our garden and the inspiration we get from Pinterest. It was so much fun!

It is so funny to me that I just started using sketches a year or so ago. Before that I found it difficult to use them. Now I use them as inspiration all the time! 

Go check out Christine´s posts, I am sure you will find inspiration to many projects!

Project Life 2014 | Week 16 with Collect app

Welcome to week 16! 

With the amazing inspiration of Annette Haring I tried the Collect App for this week´s spread. I found it really easy to use and to print. I thought I´d just use those prints for the whole spread, but then the paper crafter in me weighed in and I just had to add other cards to some of the pockets! 

I also added a few digital stamps and also wood veneer pieces to some of the photos to make them a bit more 3D.

I also included the monthly photo I have set out to take this year. I decided that a photo out my kitchen window catches the different seasons quite perfectly!

The currently journaling card is also one of my favorite things to include every other week or so. 

I see using the Collect App for spreads to be useful for weeks when I don´t have a lot of craft time or while traveling. And I liked it so much that I already have another project in the works using it! 

DIY "enamel" dots

When I shared my WCS May gallery layout I said that I would post a short DIY post on how I made those "enamel" dots. So, here it is!

There are a lot of companies making enamel dots these days and I do use them frequently in both pages and cards. They can be a little pricey and I haven´t found a good place to get them near me. So that (and the fact that I love DIY`s) made me search out how to make my own. 

As a crafter I have all sorts of materials at home. For this DIY I used different kinds of plastic beads. Both Hama beads and larger beads that my daughter made necklaces´ of when she was younger. As I was going to bake them in the oven, I laid them out on a sheet of baking paper and set the oven to 170 degrees Celcius (around 340 degrees Farenheit). 

After baking them for about 25 minutes, this is what I got. The different beads bake at different times I found. The Hama beads baked the fastest and shaped nicely. Yet, the more color they had the better they came out. You see the aqua one? That one just melted to a flat bead, but the black one was perfect. 

I decided to just put the ones not finished yet back in the oven until they melted enough for me. That would be anything from 10-20 minutes more. 

Here are the Hama beads to the right and larger plastic beads to the left. The left ones are so yummy since they are see through and has lucious colors and these are the ones I used on the layout above. 

I am no expert obviously, but I found it fun to experiment and I have already used several of these in different projects!

Have fun, don´t burn your fingers and open up a window!