December 12th - Of course it can snow in Bergen too!

Another Bergen picture, this one taken in the middle of the snow fall in this city known for its rain... I'm partial to these colours and this was one of my early LOs.
-A selection of buttons from my stash, that kept on moving around the page until they landed as centers for the circles and snow flakes on the pattern paper.

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And how gorgeous is this huge silver decoration I found in Panduro's jewelery section?! Be still my heart! So much fine detailing! There were two in the pack and I'm going to have such a hard time parting with the last one. ;)
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A triple bow kept together by a brad with a snow flake spacer - simple but effective.
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Papers: DCVW Doodlin' around the year stack, Heidi Grace Frost Boulevard Snow Blues, Penny Black embosssed vellum

Embellishments: Ribbons/spacers/buttons from stash, Panduro large metal ornament, QK Katie Classic, QK Frankie SkinniMini

Other: Glimmermist Pearl, EK Success border punch and corner punch, Making Memories circle cutter

December 11th - Reflection

I had made a LO using this picture before, but disliked it so much I tore it apart and started over. This one is much better!
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The first christmas with my new camera I took all sorts of pictures, just experimenting. This one is quite funny. ;) Unfortunately the picture didn't include the entire bauble, hence the ribbon bow at the right edge there. ;)
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- I had tried to use this decorative paper on several LOs without success - finally it found its place here. The sentiment is just lovely!
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Papers: Urban Lily Oh So Merry Collection: Blizzard, DCVW Doodlin' around the world stack, Fancy Pants Christmas Magic notebook page, Panduro embossed silver cardstock

Embellishments: Charm and ribbons from Kort og Godt, unknown sentiment sticker tape, Cuttlebug Hippie Chick alphabet

December 10th - Joy to the world

This is another layout that doesn't really have that very classic christmas feel. I love to bring in fresh flowers around the holidays and that is reflected in this LO I suppose. I used red and white flowers to cover those parts of the PP that had yellow colours, so that red and white were the dominant flower colours. Then there's the snowflake PP and the price tag that reads " Joy to the world". There are actually a few snow flake die cuts here as well, but they are in a pale turqoise-green colour and I have trouble seeing them myself even if I know they're there! ;)
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Stickles and Liquid Pearls details in the image, which is coloured with Prismacolor pencils.
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December 10th, get it? ;) I haven't been able to use this stamp as often as I'd like... I might add a little circle around the "Des" to bring more attention to it... Maybe. Notice that I've gone over the edge of my circles with black StazOn - it may seem like an insignificant detail, but it really made a difference in making them fit into the design of the PP.
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These flowers are so wonderful and rich in detail! I've sprayed them lightly with some Perfect Pearls Interference green mixed in water so they have a slight sheen.
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Papers: DCVW Doodlin' around the year stack
Embellishments: Flowers from Papirloftet/North Star Stamps/Bazzill/stash, tag from Bikuben, Sissix snow flake dies

Other: Black StazOn, Stickles Star Dust, Liquid Pearls White Opal

December 9th - Stairway to heaven?

Like many of the pictures in this advent calendar, these were taken in Bergen a couple of years ago. The city best known for its rainy weather had a sudden snow fall one day and I grabbed my old Canon A1 and a course-grained black&white film and shot the entire roll during the snow fall and the following day. Then, promptly forgot about the whole thing for a few months, until the finished roll popped up in a drawer when I moved back home for the summer. :) I had no idea what it was... Fortunately I decided to develop and copy the pictures from the whole roll and it was like experiencing the whole two days over again!
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I'm addicted to snow flakes and have so many varieties of them! Here is one of the first dies I bought - it needs something in the center though, to cover up all the layers. And when I saw the MS Stars border punch I had no choice but to have it. ;)
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Bergen is a city with lots of long and short narrow stairs, climbing the steep hills surrounding the city centre. They wind around trees and house corners and most of them are actually a part of the public street system although they often feel like little private structures. This is one of the longer ones - near the top it's so narrow you can stretch out your arms and almost touch the houses on both sides! As you can see, I experimented a lot with longer exposure times that day. I like the contrast of the whimsical blurry photos of this quirky staircase agaist the clean sharp layout...
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Papers: Kreativ Hobby Vinterdrøm Isdans, Papirdesign Snøvær, Bazzill bling

Embellishments: QK snow flake dies, QK Phoebe SkinniMini, QK Emily Classic, Martha Stewart Stars border punch

Other: Glimmermist Pearl

December 8th - Baubles

This is the oldest of all the layouts in my advent calendar. It was actually made over a year ago, when I first decided to make my calendar this way. I didn't really know what I was doing at the time... ;) But I'm leaving it as it is.
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I printed a huge number on regular paper, traced it onto the reverse side of some Bazzill cardstock and cut it out using scissors. The lovely swirl is a rub-on from Heidi Grace.
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Unknown papers, Prima and Bazzill flowers, Prima bling swirls, Heidi Grace rub-ons

December 7th - Ice Roses

Ah, the joys of an old rubbish car in the winter... These ice roses decorated the inside of my old Nissan Micra one morning. Fortunately I had the good sense to document them before I started the labourous task of scraping them off. ;)
This was one of my early attempts of doing an asymmetrical layout with a swirl/embellishment cluster in one corner, and I suppose it is somewhat successful although it lacks a real focal point...
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I just love the Eliza font for its elegance!
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And bling bling bling! Oh my, the glitter is gorgeous! I struggled to find a technique to cover the chipboard with something white or bright, quite tricky because of the dark brown colour. My solution now is spray glue and glitter! Quick, easy and I like the results. Glitter suits the snow flakes so well. :)

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Papers: Maja Design Vintertid Snöyra, Panduro Winter, Penny Black snow flake embossed cardstock, Panduro vellum, unknown snow flake PP

Embellishments: Prima Say it in pearls swirl, QK Eliza Mini, Scrap FX chipboard snow flakes, Papirloftet roses

Other: Stickles Star Dust

December 6th - Snowball

I won't attempt to translate the poem in this layout. Suffice it to say that is starts out all cute and pretty and poetic about falling snow flakes, and ends up with a humoristic line about throwing a snowball in someone's neck. ;) The picture of my friend making a snowball fits perfectly! :D I used my Making Memories circle cutter for the big white pieces to make them resemble snowballs.
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These amazing Heidi Grace papers are flocked and has a gorgeous feel to them. The main paper has glitter embedded in the white laquered falling stars. The poem was printed on ordinary Bazzill cardstock.
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More shine... Stickles and stars!
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Papers: Glittery Night, Heidi Grace Frost Boulevard: Snow Blues and Snow Veil

Embellishments: Misc. stars and snow flakes from stash, QK Katie Classic

Other: Stickles Star Dust

A really quick card

I had almost forgot that I promised to make a baby card for a colleague, and suddenly found myself franticly trying to trow something together before rushing to work. The basic layout of this card is lifted from one of my old cards, with just a slight difference in the center embellishments as I really didn't have time to colour an image. The bear charm is hiding a little, I see... ;) The edges of the card was carefully inked with a silver ink pad - and in my rush I managed to slip a little on the right side there, of course... No time to worry about that, I just snapped a picture and ran. ;)

New cabin!

Welcome to a new family member - our new cabin! Well, it's my parents' new cabin, although we all talk about it as "ours". ;) None the less, I wanted to give my parents a card celebrating the offcial handover of keys this Tuesday. My initial idea was to find a picture online of a castle (or maybe a sand castle?) overlooking the sea, but when I sat down at my desk I decided I couldn't bother turning on my computer and took the opportunity to use this cool tree house stamp instead (thanks Krissie).
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I usually don't bother photographing the inside of my cards, but I thought I'd show you today. It's the paper I guess, the DCVW Latte stack deserves a lot of attention. ;) I keeep them fairly simple, using scraps of the pattern paper and coordinating Bazzill. Usually my decor of choice is some paper flowers (because I have to spend some of my enormous stash), but this time I couldn't resist colouring up the "congrats" stamp and stick it on. And I always leave plenty of room for writing!
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The back of my cards are pretty standardized: either this variety with a paper scrap or two, or just my personal stamp in a couple of die-cut circles surrounded by a swirl stamp.

December 5th - Robin

So this one didn't really turn out as I had intended... Often that's just a good thing, but this LO is missing something. But oh well, what's done is done, and I haven't got time to make a new one.
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I've tried to make the bow feel luxurious by using not only some cute lace, but two white and silver ribbons and white Scrapper's Floss (some of it coloured red) to bring lots and lots of layers into it.
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The single digit looked a little awkward on its own, so I made it into a cluster of five fives.
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Papers: Maja Design Vintertid: Rimfrost and I Pulkabacken

Embellishment: Ribbons from Kort og Godt and HobbyHimmelen and one onknown, Inkodo snowflake stamp, unknown snowflake stamp, white Scrapper's Floss, QK Moxie SkinniMini

Other: Silver ink pad, red ink pad

December 4th - Low season

Bergen after a snow fall... All the tables and chairs were still outside this restaurant, but not exactly useful right then. ;) I couldn't resist throwing on some flowers here and I have to say I like how this layout turned out! To avoid too much of a summer feel I chose mainly white and black colours with a rich deep red for a dramatic splash of colour. That black velvet ric rac ribbon was a last minute addition and I'm so happy it's there. :)
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Elegant Eliza letters in shiny silver cardstock on a luxurious fabric paper letterpressed with a glossy rich red colour. The mix of glossy and matt material makes for an interesting visual impression.
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See, there is a number on it too? I kept moving it around as it didn't really fit where I had intended it to be, and now it's almost invisible. ;) The black leaves are from half a large Bazzill flower - I bought nearly all those flowers my local store had when I heard they were going out of production!
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I like how the flowers and black pearl swirls curve around the corner of the image. I'm training myself to do asymmetrical stuff! ;)

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Papers: Panduro flowery paper

Embellishments: Misc. flowers from Prima, Kort og Godt, Bazzill, Prima Say it in pearls swirl, QK Eliza Mini, ribbons from Kort og Godt

December 3rd - Frost

The morning frost had created these amazing ice crystal structures on some fallen trees one time I took a walk. They stretched over a centimeter out from the logs! You wouldn't know it just by looking at them, but colourwise these pictures were a challenge to match to papers. This worked out quite well in the end.
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The Prima Times Alphas again, this time "frosted" with a generous spray of Glimmermist Old Lace. You can just about see the outline of the large Glimmerscreen in the bottom right corner, where I sprayed it with Glimmermist Frost (of course). ;)
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The felt details have a subtle glisten from more Glimmermist and add some dimention to the layout.
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These "price tags" are so much fun - you'll see more of them later. ;) For this layout I chose one without print and added a run-on and the number three in QK Katie classic.
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I bought a rub-on pad from Art Warehouse last time at Kort og Godt and I love, love, love it! Great quality, lovely fonts and wonderful sentiments. It's been put to good use in this calendar, trust me. If I come across more varieties of these I'll buy them all! :D
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Papers: Kreativ Hobby Vinterdrøm Symfoni, KI Memories Alpine Fashion, Basic Grey Wassail Snow Dust

Embellishments: Prima Times Alphas chipboard letters, unknown felt shapes, price tags from Bikuben, QK Katie classic, Art Warehouse rub-ons

Other: Glimmermist Old Lace and Frost, Glimmmerscreens

December 2nd - The dark season

I love this picture so much that I couldn't resist scrapping a page with it even if there's no snow or christmas elements in it. The fog was so amazing that morning that I skipped sleeping after my night shift to photograph instead! Never regretted it one single second! :D I figured I could get away with this picture in the advent calendar by placing it among the very first LOs - after all, there's usually no snow at this time of year anyway. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;)
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I found a tutorial on Stampartic showing how to make these flowers with your Retro punches. I'm unable to link to it (make a title on your post ladies, so we can link to it!), but here is another tutorial. The biggest Retro punch is now on my wish list for Christmas - I would have loved to make these flowers even bigger.
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Whenever I have to use the Norwegian letters æ, ø, or å, I've only got three choices among my alphabets. Frankie is a favourite. :)
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Materials used:

Papers: DCWV Latte Stack, Creative Inspirations Indigo Crackle

Embellishments: Retro punch, Kort&Godt ribbon, Spellbinders tag die, QK Frankie SM

Other: MS Arched Lattice border punch, Cuttlebug corner punch

December 1st - Advent

Welcome to the first presentation of my advent calendar! This will be a daily event, one layout revealed each day until Christmas Day. It's been a labour of love, this thing. I'm glad it's over and extatic that I actually managed to get it done, and I've been longing to show it off... ;)
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This page has time as its main subject. Today is the start of the count-down, the waiting period before the great celebration. The clock hands were coloured using a silver ink pad and PearlEx Grey Lavender, sealed with a coat of Glossy Accents. I have to say I prefer the Perfect Pearls powder...

I knew I wanted this LO to be purple, as that is the colour associated with advent in the church. Fortunately for me, I found one single winter themed pattern paper in purple colours in my stash!
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The letters looked a bit boring, so I tilted the "e". I'm pretty sure I've lifted this trick from a logo or something... Twinklin' H2O's and Perfect Pearls powder gives the large Prima Times Alphas that colour and shine.
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This is the only LO where I wanted to write something more than a title. It's a common misconception (in Norway, at least) that advent means "waiting period". In fact, "Adventus Domini" means "The Lord's Arrival". I still like the thought of advent as a waiting time and wrote a short text, using both terms in their correct meaning. Obviously, advent started last Sunday and not actually today, but this calendar has to be usable year after year... ;)

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Materials used:

Papers: The Paper Company: Snowflake Medley, unknown purple PP, Panduro embossed silver paper, Hambly Frosty Snowflakes overlay, Bazzill, unknown purlpe sparkly paper

Embellishments: Scrap FX chipboard clock hands, Prima Times Alpha chipboard letters (large)

Other: Twinklin' H2O's Mulberry and Dutch Iris, silver ink pad, Perfect Pearls Interference Violet, PearlEx Grey Lavender, Glossy Accents

Advent calendar

Some time ago I gave you a little sneak peek into a huge project I had started, not really knowing whether or not I'd be able to finish it in time for December (this year). I'm extremely pleased to say that I am, in fact, done! :D

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So this big project is... *drum roll* ...my advent calendar! I've scrapped one 12"x12" layout for each day in December up to (and including) Christmas Day and glued them into a canvas-backed book. Similar to a December Daily except I've already made everything and is just showing it off now. ;) Today I'll show you the basic structure of the calendar. Starting Tuesday (December 1st) I'll show you one layout each day until Christmas Day. Today I'm just giving you a sneak peek at all the pages as I had them spread out on my table sorted into the desired order:

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I'm fairly pleased with the overall results! But please forgive the quality of some of these layouts as they come along through December - I've never scrapped anything in my life before this, although I suppose the card making has given me some relevant experience. Some layouts turned out great, some... not so great. It takes all my strength to not go back over some of these layouts and doing them all over again. ;) So, what you'll see are my very first attempts at paper crafting in this format. They won't be shown in the order they were made, as I first made them all and then sorted them in the order I wanted them to be in the calendar.

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I've learned a few things during this: Firstly, 25 scrapbooking pages takes up a lot of space. This is the finished calendar compared to the original base without decoration. Obviously the spine had to go, and I struggled to find something to replace it with. The solution (at the moment) is to use some relatively long strands of ribbon to hold it together when stored, and adding two jump rings to compress the spine when it's displayed to make it stand upright better.

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Secondly, glitter goes everywhere. It's in my face, on my clothes, on my bathroom floor. I'm supposed to be an adult and not a messy four-year-old, but I can't help it. But glitter makes any page pop, so glitter there must be. ;)

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Thirdly, I'm bitten by the bug. I want to make more. More. More! So I suspect that a similar calendar for the rest of the year is coming. Not one layout for each day just yet though, I want to live a little as well. ;) But perhaps one per week? I've already got several photos ready for the task!