scrappassion

Picking olives

Last Saturday was my first time ever picking olives. We love olive oil and we consume it by the gallons but I never realized it was such hard work to PICK them by hand.

The crisp autumn morning with some fog in the Ciocaria countryside ...

 

turned out to be a wonderful warm sunny day...

 

and absolutely a perfect day for picking olives. We picked from 9 in the morning until 4.30 in the afternoon with an abundant picnic lunch prepared by Daniele's mom. It was a beautiful day to spend together enjoying each others' company and doing some healthy physical exercise :)

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

Nov 16th challenge - The Studio

These were the requirements for this challenge at The Studio:

1. Dust off those eyelet setters! Yep, we want to see what you can do with those eyelets you all bought and never used! If you honestly don’t have any, then you can substitute them with brads.
2. Your title should include a number
3. Complete your journaling in a ‘list’ style

I cut canvas into squares, primed all but two of them (with the quotes) with gesso and painted with watered down acrylics. I also sewed the edges. On the pink ones I put a drop or two of Ranger's alcohol inks and on the green ones I stamped with Fancy Pants clear stamps and black archival ink. I set eyelets randomly on the pink ones and as the flower centers on the green canvas squares. And then I have a list of adjectives that describe Valentina @ 5.

The last 8 layouts

and if somebody's counting, there are not 25 layouts here. I don't like a few of them at all, so I won't post them:)

This was based on a sketch and had "water" as a theme.

The next one had "Rock" as a theme. This is as close to Rock I'll ever get:)

And then there was the challenge with only 6 words of journaling and no title.

And on we go. I loved this one about Travel A-Z where we had to include the ABC list of places we've been to. For some of my entries I used a fair amount of inventiveness.

 
This is for Cathy Zielske's challenge which required to scrap one day of our life.

On this challenge we used a sketch and the theme was "Blessings"

Here we had to use at least 3 different color stickers for the title.

And this is the last one and the last one I did. We has to do a layout with the items we had on our worktable/space at that moment. I had white paint from the previous LO with which I covered the travel sheet (pulled out for the Travel challenge and then discarded), I had various journaling tags laying around also from the previous layout. For the title I used some left over rub-ons and stickers.

I had a fabulous weekend!! I managed to use a lot of older papers and other elements that I had forgotten to have and best of all I ended up with 25 (+2 for the other crop) new layouts.

The next lot of layouts

Here they come. I finished today all the 25 layout challenges and I'm beat. But happy :)

This was for the challenge that required hidden journaling. Mine will go on the tag behind the photo.

This was for a challenge where we had to hand cut elements and do stitching. The flowers are all hand cut and the black swirls are hand stitched.

The next challenge was a scraplift of Shimelle Laine's layout. I scraplifted the sketch.

Here is another sketch challenge.

In this challenge we had to do a double page on kraft and use at least one die-cut.

 

On this one we had to scrap a special place of event of which we do NOT have photographs. I scrapped about when I met my hubby 32 years ago. I sure wish I had a photo of that day.

 

Here we had to scrap Halloween pictures but with no theme papers or embellies. I had this photo of our Carnival this year so I scrapped that.

Tomorrow the last ones.

The crops continue!

I'm happy but TIRED. I've scrapped 18  12" x 12" layouts (actually one was a double pager) this weekend and I start getting tired and the mojo is slipping :)

Without further ado here are the 2 layouts I've done so far for Cocoa Daisy. I will continue their challenges in the week to come. The first one was based on a sketch.

Kristina and Valentina packing before Kristina left for New Zealand. Kristina kept telling me that everything would fit in her bags and suitcase, hence the title.

This one was a one-hour challenge. The requirement was to include 10 different elements other than paper/cardstock. 2 different colors of paint counted as 1 and so on. I'm utterly pleased with this.

Then back to TheStudio.

This challenge was about creating a layout on kraft with splashes of vivid colors.

Then we had the challenge with 3 things "just in case" meaning 3 NON-scrapbooking items but we have saved because we might need them just in case.

Well, I have finally scrapped one of my wedding pictures (maybe I have scrapped one or two in the past). The "just in case" items were the pearls, the lace and various pearly buttons. Some time has passed since then...

This one is called "View" and it's about a place we love. The photo is of Finland where we have our summer cottage.

 

That's all folks for tonight. See you tomorrow morning with an update.

The Studio online crop : Charity Extravaganza

I better start uploading the layouts now, there are too many of them:)

For the first challenge we had to scrap Vintage which is not for me, but I did my best. The photo is of my mother when she was 7 yrs old.

The next challenge was all about scallops: the more the merrier. This is my take with a photo of Valentina and Daniele a few months ago.

In this one we had to use mists, a b/w photo and 3 patterned papers. My third patterned paper is pleated under the photo.

Then was the one with pink background, a 5x7 photo and the word "memories" in the title. This is Valentina a few years back. I stamped on the background with my new Studio490 stamps.

I'll be back tomorrow with more.

Pre-Challenge

We had a pre-challenge at TheStudio the other night. We were to use only black and white and one color pulled out of the photo/s.

I loved this challenge. I work well under pressure:) I cut the strips from Rusty Pickle Pop Star line which is fantastic! I sprayed some black acrylic (watered down and put in a Minimister) on the background, adhered the strips, the handmade paper flower, the turquoise bling and that's about it. Ah, and I matted the photo on Prima package which was just perfect both color and size wise. At the end I added a little bit of black chalk around the borders.

Now I'm off to prepare the supplies for the oncoming classes. I'll also prepare some lasagne and a meat dish for the family so they won't starve during the weekend while I'm locked in my scraproom :)

See you on Monday.

Solare

"Solare" which means sunny, is the adjective that best describes my daughter Kristina. She has a positive outlook, a positive attitude towards life. Sometimes she can be even a little too careless but I guess that's a prerogative of young people. Like the I can conquer the world attitude which also belongs to Kristina.

_{This is the last layout I will be posting until after the weekend when I'm going to participate in 2 online crops at the same time: at Cocoa Daisy and at TheStudio. There are going to be a lot of challenges, classes, games and chatting. Just right up my alley:}

An Award That Makes Me Smile

I received this award from my new friend Eileen Bellomo, met during the Artful Voyage to Mexico, with Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi. I'm very happy and truly honored that she gave it to me along with other 4 blogs. Now it's my job to award 5 blogs that make me smile. Without further ado here they are:

Elina -  she's one of the funniest girls I've ever met and her blog just describes her personality: always bubbling and full of things going on. She's very talented and very innovative in her scrapbooking. She's my best Greek friend!

Lisa - she's my scrapping friend from Australia. I just love reading her blog, and her photos are gorgeous! Her stories of her trips and journeys are fabulous.

Letizia - she creates fantastic ATCs. I just love to browse her blog and admire all her masterpieces. Because of her I started to do ATCs but they are not for me. I stopped after creating ONE series :)

Denise - I love to read Denise's blog. She is so funny and some of her stories just crack me up. She writes mainly in English on her blog but on Fridays her posts are in French and some other time she writes in Spanish. So good for me to practice my dormient French and even poorer Spanish! Other than that she's a very talented scrapbooking instructor and I have had the great pleasure of attending her classes and will do that in the near future again. Love her projects!

Ronda - last but not least is Ronda Palazzari's blog. I've gotten to know her through Cocoa Daisy forum where she is a Daisy Diva. She's truly talented and I love to read her blog. There's always something new and interesting going on there.

There are many other blogs that I like and that put a smile on my face, but I had to choose 5.

Now the second part of this award: I have to tell 5 things about me that you probably don't know about me:

1. When I sleep I have to have one foot out of the covers and sheets otherwise I feel like I'm suffocating.

2. I translate the soap opera Days of Our Lives for the Finnish TV.

3. I've worked at a cemetary (planting flowers and taking care of the lawns), in an icecream booth, at a concert hall (taking people's coats), delivering telegrams and as a phone operator.

4. I am a translator in French language but have not been using French for 30 years.

5. Next year I'll celebrate with my hubby our 28th wedding anniversary.

Enjoy - Nov 1st challenge

I've created this layout for TheStudio's Nov 1st Challenge.

We had to use a sketch, some glimmer and the journaling had to be about something we wish or hope for. I flipped the sketch, used two different glimmer mists and my journaling says: I hope that you will always have the desire to launch into new things without any fear.