my new favorite quote

"Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon. A happiness weapon. A beauty bomb. And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one. It would explode high in the air - explode softly - and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air. Floating down to earth - boxes of Crayolas. And we wouldn't go cheap, either - not little boxes of eight. Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in. With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest. And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination." ~Robert Fulghum

A.M.E.N

creative blocks

i have been having kind of a creative block lately. i am itching to do something, but then i never get to it. then when i do get to it, i am not feeling very creative. i have done all sorts of things to try to unblock me, i even cleaned of everything from my desk. everything. my husband came into my room and just stopped! haha he was impressed.

so, one of the things was to do nothing. i had a whole week when i didn´t do anything crafty. it was like being on detox for me. i could gather my thoughts, make some lists and plan some mindful crafts i want to do. i had a feeling of uselessness when it came to my crafts lately. you know, i want to try so many things, but when i finished them they were all just laying around and not being used for anything. and as i am trying to get rid of things i really don´t need, it added to my dilemma.

i also organized. i sorted my bits and pieces. did a big donation to the local school with tons of craft supplies that i don´t use anymore. i decided what i wanted to have at hand and boxed the rest. it is always easier to get started with something when i am organized and can find everything.

then i went through my scrapbook albums. that took a while :) i love to do that. i do that to rarely. as i am a fast scrapper, i do my layouts in a bunch and just put them into the albums. i don´t really give myself the time to enjoy them. i am going to make that into a new habit, to flip through my books more often.

and after that i decided to scraplift myself. as i looked through the albums alot of pages stood out and for now i chose this page.

the page is personal to me. it is all about how my body looks after my c-section and pregnancy. i have had a lot of feelings around this and i love that i did a scrapbook layout about it and that it is right in there between the others. i also love the actual lay-out (design) so i challenged myself to lift it in some way.

i am not in love with my result, but it did kind of unplug me from my block.

i on the other hand love the story. the title is what love looks like around here. i listed things like doggie kisses, small notes and hugs, to amuze me when i ask for photos, many i love yous and massages. it was fun to think of small everyday things that we all do in our family to show that we love eachother.

what does love look like at your house?

what do you do when crafting doesn´t come easy?

what crafts are you itching to try?

please share!

maybe this is something for you too?

Creativity Boot Camp is a two week intensive e-course designed to take your creativity to the next level. The course will consist of daily creative conditioning exercises to shift your life patterns allowing for a full embracing of your creative selves leading to higher levels of creativity.

Who: You

When: June 6th - June 18th

Where: Right Here
How: You show up here everyday and I provide you with your daily creative insight, motivation, and assignment

Cost: FREE

{only your willingness to participate is required}

Are. You. Ready?

I have designed this e-course for people who wish to take the next step in their creative lives. Whether you need a creative boost, need the motivation to begin that large creative project, or simply wish to lead a more creative life, the exercises provided in this course will help to pave the way for maximum creativity in your life.

text from here.

when i saw this by accident the other day, my comment was just; i am so in!

a boost in my creativity is just what i need right now.
and that the e-course is held by the very lovely and talented miss Maegan just added a special bonus! i have been a fan of her photography for some time. have you seen it?

what do you say, wanna join in???

my faves right now!

once again i wanted to share with you my favorites from flickr! that place blow me away all the time! making these mosaics makes me happy and looking at them makes my belly tingle just a bit ;) i hope you enjoy these as much as i do and tomorrow, please come back and see what i have to show you for scrapbook sunday!

1. $1.00, 2. Everything But, 3. my first pysanka, 4. Four crayons, 5. i know this to be true, 6. Untitled, 7. Spring beauty!, 8. { gerbera } love, 9. DSC_6119, 10. Look!, 11. city blooms, 12. IMG_3620, 13. ~, 14. BMW in Texas, 15. march bed sneak, 16. peony, 17. Attention, 18. mac n cheese., 19. 3mars2010,5, 20. Untitled, 21. lemony bench, 22. 57/365..., 23. choose happiness, 24. bench monday - trolley., 25. sixty-four colors :: mac and cheese, 26. hilarious outtakes, 27. Hello my name is, 28. Bench Monday::I <3 Camera's! Edition., 29. Untitled, 30. chillax., 31. . b u t t e r f l y ., 32. 21 :: 365, 33. 10 tiny hearts, 34. “Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.”, 35. IMG_3448, 36. this is how it looks!

1. Snow fun!, 2. TILT--in love with these tones, 3. LOVE {A Haiku}, 4. just say it like it is..., 5. spaghetti scarf, 6. hearts for little hands, 7. our meal plan, 8. the finished products, 9. Note to self..., 10. Ode To Yogi Tea, 11. fuji*love, 12. 42/365, 13. {bench monday - this skirt won't zip up edition}, 14. Hope scarf, 15. ..., 16. *full heart* {2:52}, 17. bench monday ~ month of love ~ edition, 18. Bench Monday : : Valentine's Day Edition, 19. <3, 20. Week 21/52: How can I follow my heart if it refuses to move on?, 21. handmade chalk board, 22. 32/365, 23. 39/365, 24. No one will be good enough for her..NO ONE., 25. nifty fifty in the am, 26. Flare Friday Dance, 27. IMG_1866, 28. Thread, 29. Sillón naranja, 30. mr lovely, 31. Paris - Tips, 32. Untitled, 33. Untitled, 34. sunny heart, 35. Untitled, 36. Untitled

awesomeness

1. Untitled, 2. lemony bench, 3. 57/365..., 4. choose happiness, 5. bench monday - trolley., 6. sixty-four colors :: mac and cheese, 7. hilarious outtakes, 8. Hello my name is, 9. Bench Monday::I <3 Camera's! Edition., 10. Untitled, 11. chillax., 12. . b u t t e r f l y ., 13. 21 :: 365, 14. 10 tiny hearts, 15. “Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.”, 16. IMG_3448, 17. this is how it looks!, 18. Snow fun!, 19. TILT--in love with these tones, 20. LOVE {A Haiku}, 21. just say it like it is..., 22. spaghetti scarf, 23. hearts for little hands, 24. our meal plan, 25. the finished products, 26. Note to self..., 27. Ode To Yogi Tea, 28. fuji*love, 29. 42/365, 30. {bench monday - this skirt won't zip up edition}, 31. Hope scarf, 32. ..., 33. *full heart* {2:52}, 34. bench monday ~ month of love ~ edition, 35. Bench Monday : : Valentine's Day Edition, 36. <3

scrapbook with free digital stuff

when describing myself as a scrapbooker, i often say that i am very much a hybrid one. i love to take digital elements to my pages either by doing some of my scrapbooking in a photoediting program or by printing digital elements from a digital kit for example.

i have one favorite source of free digital goods is designer digitals if you sign up for their newsletter your inbox will be filled with 3 new freebies every sunday! and i must say that they have alot of good offers and good prices too!



sometimes i download a template that i use as is, just adding my photos.



or use a png. embellishment as a fun way to show a photo.





make elements for my blog.





i use digital elements on my photos that i print and use on a paper page.

oh, and 2peas has lots of free digital kits and templates! i often download them and even if i don´t like all the things in the kit there is always something you can use.

there you have it, another tip for you!

eta: to be able to use digital kits you will have to have a photo editingprogram of some sort installed on your computer. though, there are sometimes jpg. elements in the kits that can be used to print in a WORD document.

handmade gift # 2

i am a big fan of guerilla art and i seem to always want to leave stuff behind when i don´t have it at hand with me. So i made a litte guerilla art kit to go. as i post it here it can also be lovely as a gift!






it is basically a fabric pouch i made with 2 different fabrics and like 4 seems :) and a button to close it. i wrote a few short notes on paperstrips that i tucked in the pouch, i have chalk and a whiteboard pen and a made some smileyfaces and stuff on round stickers. i really don´t want to do something illegal so all my guerilla art is easily removed.

as a little gift for you i made a pdf. file with some small notes that you are welcome to use for your own guerilla art :) just go here to download it :)
____________________

i bought keri smiths book but now i am selling it here. so if you are interested i am taking an order for the book and postage for 10 us dollars to be payed to my paypal account. if you are interested please email me at: lisa.mrs@gmail.com

and here are a few other links to other guerilla art sites:

guerilla art pictures

bookcrossing

my favorite hulagirl did some guerilla art too

handmade gift # 1

ingredients:

a filefolder
cards made of plain white cardstock
stickers

makes a folder full of lettercards and letterpapers for my letter writing daughter.













____________________________

and here are some handmade letter writing stuff you can buy over the internet:

mini letter set

letter set

chirp letter set

blog hopping

this is just perfect :) don´t you think? it trigged me to do some serious blog hopping today and here are some of the amazing things i found:

shirt to dress refashion

tasty posies

make a hanging book display and oh my gosh i just was caught at this blog for like an hour!

a yummy life, what a wonderful name for a photography buisness!

speaking of yummy these looks very yummy!

cute and clever cards.

when i saw emilys post about collages i really wanted to make my own...so true to my faith that google has all the answers (!) i searched to get some beguinners tips...the result? well there were 39 000 000 results :) so i had to narrow my search a bit. i found dina wakelys blog and she makes lovely, lovely art pieces...



i love the layered look and i am dying to try this out...

the happy jansens have done it again! just look at this new project they have taken up! i know i loved to see their progress on the last mobile project, and i am keen to see how it all turns out! oh, this reminds me of a image i saw in an old issue of Family Living magazine...



i love this, don´t you? it is the interior of a circus vagon :)

and i know that i have shared this link before but i keep going back for more...:)

ok, i think i might have to jump start my day now :)

random inspiration post

♥ i love wandering around flickr land. i made a little mosaic of my current favorites.



1. inside birthday bunting, 2. Untitled, 3. Day 316 - Probably my favorite thing about summer!, 4. Interior bubble fun, 5. babyscape., 6. hot wheels, 7. Just lovely, 8. kindergarten, the first day 1, 9. I Saved You A Bite, 10. Fiesta!, 11. hbw! 5/27, 12. colors...., 13. lazy day: 49/365, 14. summertime*colors...., 15. A little lace, 16. Untitled, 17. long day 47/365, 18. hello sunshine, 19. Live_what_you_lovemaj2009, 20. polas, moleskine and coffee, 21. still pretty, 22. Untitled, 23. hbw! 5/13, 24. go go magic camera ring. | 2

♥ love this one...



i mean this photo just makes me want to jump in and see what´s there!




and watermelons means summer :)

♥ the blog chez larsson is one in my bloglines so that i can take part of all the good advise benita gives :) today she had a lovely, simple project.

♥ i am looking forward to what this group can evolve to.

♥ i am so inspired by photographer stephanie rausser front page...wait for it!



:)

here comes the sun!

i am so going to use this as inspiration! i found it through poppytalk.com

inspiration found on our wonderful internet

planting shed



changable art



easy hanging pots

images from do it yourself



Jen jockish lovely layout from the ac blog



spoolpeople featured on crafty crow

Cool ways to introduce your kids to photography.

a lovely layout by brooke starnes

we had a wonderful weekend with my parents-in-law. they had their birthdays coming up and we had some celebrations. speaking of birthdays, i have to share this photo of my rocking mother-in-law who turns 62 (!) this week! isn´t she cute!



my husband helped them with some yard work that included a 14 meter tall lift that he used when he sawed down a big tree. after the work was done he had us up there taking some photos :)




the scrapbooking bug caught me when i got home from their house. and this is what i have come up with so far.



the story: see above :)

the goods: as always super simple. i cut a page from a atlas as a scalloped tag and added a self-printed tag. the sticker letters are from K&company.



the story: my sister and her family came to visit the other weekend and suddenly the house was full of her children :) they are wonderfully messy :) we went to the kindergarden where i work so that they could play around for a bit and this photo is from there.

the goods: i made a fun minigarland at the top of the page out of some scrap paper pieces. the labels are self-printed from the containerstore.com the butterfly from my ever schrinking stash of butterflies from my mel :) i bought the foam letters (bus) from pandurohobby.se.

i am so ready for spring and even easter. my mom asked me if i could find a template for her on marthastewart.com and i came across some cuteness.
i think some of these easter crafts are really cute...what do you think?

ok, i am off to nurse a child with fever and a cold with some crafts...more to come.

a little list

magic:

oh, man i would give a leg to be able to get one of these beautiful and magical videos...wouldn´t you?!

scrapbooking:




the story: my husband and his dog relaxing. i don´t think i have ever met a dog that loves his daddy like dixon loves his!

the goods: appel paper is from october afternoon and i cut it in a scalloped shape. and i dragged out my old labelmaker and had some fun! i think it will make it´s apperence more often in the future :)



the story: i love it when the first spring flowers show up!

the goods: not much going on just a few brads in heart shapes and flower shapes. and the typewriter was used to do the journaling.




cute pets:

sally relaxed in our new chair yesterday and i snapped a few photos :)




and here is what was going on out of the frame :)



awesome site:

real simple did a revamp of their site and i love it so much! i especially love the "new usues for old things" feature! there are a hundred really good and simple ways to use things for new purposes. brilliant! just take rubber bands; they can be used as:

"1. Open jars with ease. When a small lid won’t budge, wrap a rubber band around it several times to give you a better grip.

2. Decorate Easter eggs. Arrange rubber bands in a pattern around hard-boiled eggs, then dip them into dye. Remove the bands when the eggs are dry.

3. Bring order to your dishwasher. Tether stemware and other delicate, wobbly items to the rack.

4. Wrap a gift. Use multiple colored rubber bands instead of ribbon to add modern flair to a small present. (Particularly handy when you can’t find the tape.) "

yep, brilliant!