New Year's Resolutions ( new giveaway and winner)

Good morning!

I just woke up and here in Japan it's New Year's Eve today!

I have to say that I really like the beginning of a new year. Even though 2011 will be a year when my dear husband will be gone for most of the year :( I'm ready for it to start.

"In with the new, out with the old".

Today is the last day for all those bad habits.

Here's a few of my resolutions;

• stop with the diet Coke and start drinking some WATER
• try to save more and spend less money
• get more organized (sort those photos, bills, kids art etc etc)
• start exercising... yadayadayada ( I quit the boot camp and I'm back to being a couch potato )
• read more books and spend less time HERE- in front of the computer

I could make this list endlessly long, but that would be way too boring....especially since I have the same resolutions every year and I can't keep them for more than a day or two. So why waste the time...let's talk about SCRAPPY New Year's Resolutions instead.

I'm so proud of myself. I have already made 8 layouts so far this week and the week is not even over yet. Here's two more that I just finished:

Since I don't work, study OR exercise and the kids are in school, I really should have PLENTY of time to focus on scrapping. I realize that 8 layouts in a week might be unrealistic, but there's no reason that I should not be able to complete at least TWO per week.

So that's my scrappy new year's resolution: To finish 2 layouts per week and one of them has to be made with just scraps (cut-up) papers.

If I manage to keep this up I will have 104 layouts by the end of the year; that's about 4 finished album. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Anyone ready to join me in this challenge?

Tell me about your SCRAPPY New years resolution!

Since it's the season of giving, I will give away an Addison paper pack from SEI to one random reader who leaves a comment to this post:)

I also want to announce the winner from the last giveaway. Someone will be very happy to get this in the mail:

And http://www.random.org/ gave me number 49 that turned out to be mustangkayla!  Congrats Kayla!
If you could please email me your address, I will send this off to you as soon as possible:)

Last but not least I want to thank you all for being the best blog readers ever!
Where ever you are in the world- I wish you all
a Happy New year!
Gott Nytt År!
Glückliches neues Jahr!
Heiress nouvelle année!
Feliz año nuevo!

"Bottle-bib" tutorial

I wanted to share a quick and easy tutorial for something that I have no idea what it's called, so I named it "bottle-bib".

 

It's a perfect way to dress up a (wine) bottle that you're bringing to that fancy dinner-party you're invited to;)

This is what you need:

cardstock or sturdy patterned paper

 1 1/2 inch hole punch

corner rounder punch

embellishments for decorations

Start by cutting out a 2 1/2" x 8" paper (or choose any size you want really) and round the corners

Fold one side over by 2" and round the corners where you folded (it will be double paper)

Make a hole with the punch on the folded side.

Left is just to decorate and there's no limit here: you can do it simple or go overboard with embellies.

Here, I chose to print out a recipe for White Sangria that I made up (click the photo to see the recipe up close)

The rest is just hand cut shapes from the K and Co paper that I used + Stickles and pop-up dots.

New Year's is coming up in a few days and these "bottle bibs" would be great for that Champagne bottle.

But remember that the best reason to give something away, is no reason at all:)

 

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions about the tutorial... or the Sangria for that matter;)

Layout parade

Something amazing happened yesterday: I actually got some scrapping done!
5 layouts in one day!? I can't even remember the last time I was that productive.

This is what I accomplished:

For this layout, I used all Prima Marketing:

 

and I believe this is mostly Prima papers too and then some old Daisy D rubons:

 

Here is a layout made with We Are Memory Keepers:

and I used this ( Prima?) butterfly I had forever.

 I'm not a huge bling fan, but I thought it worked here.

For this layout I used 3 Bugs in a Rug:

and this last one is made with Tinkering Ink:

I'm on a roll, so I better go back to scrapping before that mojo disappears:)

 

Weather-giveaway!

How are you all doing?

Are you snowed in or rained out?

Is there anywhere there's not crazy weather right now?

I just watched the news about the rainfall in California and the crazy snowstorms in Europe.

My hometown in Sweden is also covered in snow. My mom sent me this picture and I think it looks so cozy,but I know that it's not when buses and cars get stuck and you can't leave your house.

I don't want to rub in it, but we have a sunny and warm day(77 Fahrenheit/ 25 Celsius) here on Okinawa today.
Even though it's hard to get the right Christmas spirit, I'm so happy that I'm not in Sweden or California right now.


What's the weather like where you are?

Leave a comment to this post and you will be in the random drawing for this complete kit from Memory Works:

Filled with fun colors, it will cheer anyone up!

So just go ahead and leave a comment...

December sketch # 2- Guest designer Lynn Shokoples

Another two weeks has passed and it's time for me to introduce a new fabulous guest designer;

Her name is Lynn Shokoples and this is what she has to say:

Hi Fellow Scrappers!

Thanks so much Helen for the opportunity to work with sketch #39. It was so much fun to do. I couldn’t just stop at one!
My name is Lynn Shokoples aka scrappyhappymom and I live in Canada.
I have been scrapbooking in some form for as long as I can remember. I was always cutting and gluing something, then ,in 1992 when my son was born, a girlfriend from the U.S.A. came for a visit and brought me some scrapbook supplies. I was HOOKED! It was only some pens and stickers, but I was thrilled. When I look back at those first albums I can now see how far the industry has come as well as how my style has developed as a scrapbooker. When I look at my scraproom I not only see the pens and papers but inks, mists, glitters, punches and pearls. I love to scrapbook because everyone's style is so unique and it gives us a chance to be creative and express ourselves through our art. I love getting inspiration from other scrappers. My biggest joy is when my children who are 22 and 18 pull out the albums and reminisce over the memories our family created and that were documented through my love of scrapbooking.
Happy Scrappin everyone!

This is sketch # 39 that Lynn worked with:

 

And here are two gorgeous takes on the sketch:

Here are some more layouts from Lynn, based on my sketches:

Sketch #13

Sketch # 22

Sketch # 35

Sketch # 24

And here are two of Lynn's favorite layouts from her gallery;

Not only beautiful layouts, but photos too!

Thanks Lynn for all the inspiration!

To see more of Lynn's creations, be sure to visit her blog and her gallery.

Winner for latest giveaway!

I'm back from the retreat and just as last time we had a blast! But I have to admit, it was a lot of work too.

This time we had classes and I barely got any scrapping done for myself.

Here we are- the Scrapping Divas:

This is one of the few things I made during the weekend. My friend taught a class and I'm so proud of myself; I had never done a word album before.

With some pictures and embellishments it will look just fine.

I taught a class in how to make a paper bag album, which is funny since I had never done one before. But I just used Kristie's tutorial and it was soooo easy.

The only difference I made from Kristie, is that I used four bags instead of three and I covered the whole pages.

This is an album I made for my dad, from our recent beach getaway.

I just love how it turned out!

You can't even tell it's made out of paper bags.
 And I used Basic Grey's fabulous "Marrakesh collection".

 

If you haven't tried to make a paper bag album before-
you have to!

I'm totally hooked.
I have made four so far and I'm planning to do one for Christmas 2010.

They are so fun to make and they are the best gifts!

 

Thank you for all of you that signed up for my Scentsy newsletter!

 I drew a random winner- and it turned out to be Tiffanie Jackson. Congrats Tiffanie!

This is on it's way to you right now:)

I'll be back shortly with a new sketch and a new Guest Designer:)

December sketch- guest designer Ana Costa

It's time to introduce another fabulous guest designer-

 Ana Costa.

She says:

Hi all you scrappers out there!

I'm Ana and I'm a scrap addict since 2001! I'm also a proud member of the design team for SCRAPMANIA , the best LSS in Brussels, owned by my friend Nicolle. You can see my stuff over at my blog  . I hope you like what I've made with Helen's lovely sketch!

  Here's sketch # 38 that Ana worked with:

And here is her take on the sketch:

Ana also made a canvas based on the sketch:

 Isn't it gorgeous?

Here are three layouts Ana made using some of my older sketches:

Sketch # 11

 Sketch # 24

 Sketch # 34

And here's even more of Ana's lovely work.These three are her favorites from her gallery:

Enjoy!

Thanks Ana for showing us your beautiful work!