Trent Scissorhands

The Big Show, another part!

2011-08-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

The Big Show and if I am correct this will be the third Big Show LO I have made, and there is another one coming since I keep running into this guy. Not that you can miss him because the man is huge! He might be the biggest person we have met but he is also one of the nicest and always takes time for us, and people in general, even thou he might be in a hurry. And considering the amount of people that walk up to him he probably has as much patience as size!

This one is a "rip off" since the bear that I have cut out is one og Big Shows logos. I simply looked at it, drew it, altered it a bit to make it fit in my LO, and then cut out templates. It´s most probably Basic Grey again and the colours are chosen to match Big Shows clothes. The letters also have a coat of Glossy Accents and some parts of my paper piecing, which I guess is the right term for this, are mounted on 3D cushions. The eyes are made of regular paper, Stickles Gun Metal and Glossy Accents to get that nice shine and lift. I quite enjoy paper piecing, it might be a bit tricky sometimes but the final result usually comes out nice.

The Big Show and the son

Keeping an eye on you!

Glossy Accents, a fantastic invention!

William Regal, part 2

2011-08-14T04:30:00.001-07:00

Yet another LO with the english wrestler William Regal and if I may say it myself, and of course I will, I have progressed a bit since Regal was on my paper the last time. Same theme, the Union Jack, but this time I cut it a bit irregular to get that feeling of the flag flying around in the wind. The four red stripes on the sides are mounted on 3D-cushions to give them that extra wave! I guess I used Basic Grey for this as well, but not sure, and the letters are from the Quickutz alphabet Washington and I have a coat of Glossy Accents on them. Quite happy with this one, but then again, it´s hard to fail using a flag as a theme.

Thumbs up for this one and thumbs up for William Regal, a very pleasent man who always takes time for a quick chat and a photo or two with his game face on.

A close up just for the sake of having one=)

Primo Colón

2011-08-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

It´s time, it´s Scissorhands time, and it´s about time! One could say that I have been sort of busy, or rather really really busy the last two years so my scrapbooking production has been, well, it´s exaggerating calling it production since my visits to the scrapbooking room have been scarce. A few LO´s have been made so here they are, without vivid explanations about techniques and choices of paper since I just cant recall what I have done and what I have used. One thing is sure thou, scissors have been used and most of the papers are probably Basic Grey. So here I am again with the "missing" LO´s and I can also gladly announce that I have started up again.

This one is of the wrestler Primo Colón, the brother of Carlito (who I will be making at least one LO of since we met him as well) and my son. Primo originates from Puerto Rico and that´s where I found my inspiration, stars and stripes but still not the USA. I liked the papers, nice colours that reminds one about old painted wood, a bit rugged from the wind and water that most certainly comes from living on an island! Oh well, I am making it up as I go along, it will get better in future LO´s!

The actual LO with the son and Primo

The stars have been mounted on black 3D-cushions (as well as the letters PRIMO) and then I also cut out shades. Letters are handcut, stars cut with a Cuttlebug.

John Cena Part 2

2009-12-31T06:51:00.000-08:00

My second John Cena LO and the first one featured me and John Cena, this one is of course my son and WWE´s number one star at the moment. I usually do not do the LO´s with me before I do the ones with my son but this time I did it on purpose. The LO below I had already planned and I knew it was going to take a lot of time to make so I delibaretly waited with it since I wanted my son to be on the spectacular LO. I dont think it came out as spectacular as I had imagined but still it is a bit different!

As you can see I have been trying to create something like the old game consols you could play on in game arcades before the time of Playstations and X-Boxes and whatever they are named now that you play at home. Everything you see on the LO is hand cut, except the letters at the buttons that were created in my wife´s Gazelle. All other letters, buttons and the 8-bit John Cena figure (which is altogether 29 small paper pieces) are drawn and hand cut by me. The big John Cena-text is mounted on black 3D-cushions, the buttons are also elevated by 3D-cushion and the rings around them are stuck to the background paper at the outer part of the rings and lifted up by glue-buttons at the inner part to give it a more realistic look. Two shiny cardstock, one for the background and one for the "TV-screen", lots of Glossy Accent and patience I never thought I had (especially putting the figure together) I finally succeeded in finishing this one that has been in the making for months. It was nearly ruined by my wife´s cats who were up chewing on it on the scrapbooking table but I managed to cover some of those parts up. I guess they could not read the cat-chphrase "You can´t see me". I dont like cats (but my wife does so they are still alive and well!)!

Game on, just insert a quarter and start playning!

The 8-bit figure consisting of 29 pieces, Glossy Accent, glue and a lot of patience (and some unprintable words).

A close up of the letter and the camo-paper that was perfect for Cenas character.

The buttons with the ingenious (if I may so) rings around them with a slight leaning that was really difficult to fix!

And last but not least, the joystick built in different levels.

Kelly Kelly

2009-12-31T06:11:00.000-08:00

Living in Sweden means that you have to go abroad if you want to see wrestling live and me and my son have done so for a quite a few years now. When we started doing this wrestling was top priority but has as the years have gone by transferred into a father and son trip where the wrestling has become more of an excuse for taking the trip than a must. Sure, we go see the wrestling event but it´s really the time we get to spend together that I really treasure and I am quite sure it´s the same for my son. Another thing we do during our trips is track down the wrestlers whereabouts, not that we are screaming hysterical fans, it´s just that the "chase" is fun and we get to play detectives. And we are quite good at it since we have not failed yet. This year in Finland we stayed at the hotel where the wrestlers had stayed previous years but not this one. Me and my son had to put our wise heads together and sure enough, a few clever guesses, gut feeling and a little luck later we stumbled upon the wrestlers again. I have a few stories from those meetings regarding scrapbooking since I had all my LO´s with me but I will get back to that in later posts. Anyway, when we do meet the wrestlers and the Divas we humbly ask for photographs with them and 99 % of them take time for a few snaps and some chatting. The last few years my son has had a camera as well so even I have featured with a bunch of wrestlers but never the Divas. My son on the other hand, he gets lucky everytime!

This LO features the lucky little thing I call my son, and he is not as little anymore since he has outgrown me, and the sweet little thing that is named Kelly Kelly. I really had no clue what to do with this one but with a name like Kelly Kelly I just had to use that. Her beeing a happy and sparkling lady I decided to do a LO just using glitter paper to match her smile on the photo. It took some time, since most of the things I do are handcut, to cut out all the letters and I had glitter everywhere, literally everywhere, over me and the scrapbooking room. I have decided to never, ever (to paraphrase the wrestler Chris Jericho) to use this kind of paper again! Kind of came out OK even though it was not as I had imagined it before I started.

Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly...

My son who should wipe that smile off his face and the lovely Kelly Kelly

A close up of some of the hand cut letter all mounted on 3D-cushions.

The Miz

2009-12-31T05:46:00.001-08:00

That´s me back again with yet another picture of my son and a wrestler, namely The Miz, or Mike Mizanin which is his real name. The photograph was taken in Helsinki this year (it´s still 2009 when I write this) and in the background you can see another WWE-wrestler passing by, Carlito (who will be scrapped later since I have a few other photos featuring him, me, my son and another person!).

It is getting harder coming up with new ideas so my LO´s do take longer to make now since I really have to think them through so I dont create exactly the same things I have done before. This one for instance is based on an actual storyline in the WWE where The Miz got "signed" to the RAW-brand (the WWE has three brands, RAW, ECW and Smackdown) from the ECW and he made a big fuzz about him going to the flagship of the WWE etcetera. He also has a catchphrase which is, "I am the Miz and I am awesome!". So what I did was kind of copy the RAW-logo and wrote "Miz" instead and just took the "awesome"-part and did something similar. A lot of punchinella, silver and red, to get that metal-feeling from the logo, a few extra photos (taken by me at a live event) to show off his cocky image and where one perfectly matches the A in awesome. A Basic Grey-paper in grey to continue the metal-theme and Bob´s your uncle! Quite happy with it even though I probably could have done a wee bit more. But knowing myself I stopped before I went overboard this time.

And by the way, yes, the Miz is awesome! A really nice guy even though he portrays a heel.

The Miz pointing at my son who is wearing a The Miz shirt!

Close up of the Miz-logo.

Close up of the Awesome-logo.

A closer close up just to show how I worked in different layers.

The Big Show 2009 part 1

2009-10-13T13:07:00.001-07:00

Yet again it´s been a long time since I produced something for my scrapbooking album, and the blog. However it´s not entirely true since I have been busy with a few projects which have taken more time than I thought from the beginning. Those will surface in the near future but in the meantime here is an in between project and it features me and the big "Big Show", a mountain of a man. As you can see in the picture the Big Show is enormous. I am quite a big lad (but considerable smaller now since I have been working on that with good results after a summer with lots of rain, and food) but I nearly disappear beside him. Big Show beeing big and strong, and playing a heel character on the WWE RAW show one could be frightened of him but he was the gentlest giant (and the only giant) we have ever met. A real cool guy who was both funny and kind. Kudos to him!

But the actual LO then! It´s easily explained because you can see where I was aiming. Big, american and a little show as well. Everything is of course drawn by me and then I cut templates with my trusty knife. The B-I-G letters are mounted on 2 mm 3D-cushions and the S-H-O-W are mounted on 4 mm 3D-cushions to get a different height and some life in the LO. It is of course the American flag, the star spangled banner that has been my inspiration and the letters just had to be big considering the Big Show himself. And him beeing from the US and the US itself beeing a large and strong country, a perfect match. Cant tell you what make the papers are since I had to clean up quickly so I would not mix everything with the 4 LO´s I have in the making. Those will hopefully show up soon.

The LO, me and the Big Show

A close up of the letters

And a closer close up!

John Cena, part 1

2009-09-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

Lately I have used this sentence quite a lot, "It´s been some time since I scrapbooked ..." and thats not an understatement! Since we moved to Karlstad from Falun there just has not been any time for that, even thou my last project has been in the making for a couple of months. Strangely enough, after beeing extremly satisfied with the finished result, I discovered I had made a very similar LO before! I had no idea that I had when I was creating this one and I had certainly no intention to make a similar one either. It kind of took away some of the joy! Still, I am happy with this one in it´s simplicity even thou it was not simple to make. The LO features the WWE wrestler and movie star John Cena and me. My son and I were fortunate again to stumble over the wrestlers on our last trip and since we both had our photos taken with most of them I have a bundle to scrap. Next up is John Cena and my son.

So the actual LO then. Four different papers from Basic Grey (oh yeah!), Cosmo Cricket, Crate and Prima Marketings Cavalier Collection. The idea was simply to mimic one of John Cenas logos and somehow get myself and him into the mix. It was hard getting the big round shapes round(!) and to get them to fit and that took some time and some patience. The patience was really tested when I cut out the letters that I made in a military style and tried to glue them onto the LO. QuicKutz QuickStik proved to be a life saver. The round yellow background I chose since Cena has the same shape on his yellow T-shirt and my letters are in the same colour as the ones on his shirt. I was going to fix a white shade as well but decided that it was to difficult to get it perfect so I glazed the letters instead. I like glaze=). Not much more done really except some chalking and a ... of a job trying to fit and glue everything together. I do think that everything is perfectly fitted, to the millimeter! The next one is even more complicated so we will just have to wait and see how long that takes. So, here it is,

John Cena and me, the Chain Gang!

A close up of my letters and glazing. Sometimes I do think that I am good, even great has crossed my mind!

Arn Anderson

2009-06-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

And here we go again and this time it is an LO with the former wrestler and member of the wrestlingstable The 4 Horsemen, Arn Anderson. For some time I have been quite proud of this photo and thats all because my son never had his photograph taken with this wrestling legend. For once it was an exclusive that only I was featured in but that is not the case anymore. Once again me and my son have been on a trip and this time he met Arn so I cant rub that in his nose anymore! Still it was worth the trip since I have a bunch of new photos with both me, my son and most of the wrestlers from the WWE RAW-brand so I have booked a seat in the scrapbooking room for this summer.

Back to the LO, after reading the above you can all count out why I have four horses on the LO. The template for the horse I drew some time ago when my wife was going to make a birthday-card for a friends daughter (or something like that). I cut out a nice brown horse for my wife and she was happy with it. I was also happy with the template but could not for the world find a place on my LO´s for a horse. Arn Anderson changed that. I also cut out a black shade in sort of velvet paper which is quite nice in reality but not so good on photos. So it was basically 8 horses that had to be cut out, by hand of course, and it did take some time and some patience as well. I might not be the most patient guy but this time I managed to keep the "#@*-words to a minimum. When finished I glued the horse plus shade together and then I mounted (haha, sometimes I am hilarious!) them on 3D-cushions. The background for the photo is a Basic Grey paper which I thought looked similar to the T-shirt I am wearing on the photo. Black and white flowers and other stuff (sometimes I do question my "maleness"). The swirls are from Quickutz and the fonts I just made myself after finding something similar on the computer. I also cut out shades for them in a dark shiny CS. A little stickles here and there and it was ready. I like the black/white theme with some sparkling shiny silver bits and I am quite proud of my horses but somehow I just did not like this one. It kind of looks nice but there is nothing special about it. Well well, you cant be happy with everything and I do have quite a few ideas for the next ones so I am not to sad over this.

Arn Anderson, the Enforcer, and me, the missing link!

A close up of one of my mounted horses.

Lilian Garcia

2009-05-24T02:45:00.000-07:00

This LO I can finally say finally to! It has been in the making for some time now and a constant headache with everything that had gone wrong. So, finally! As you can see it has a feminine touch and it was rather difficult getting there after all the dark and "male" LO´s I have been creating lately. It features Lilian Garcia, the announcer of the WWE RAW-show and the lucky little ... I call my son.

I immediately knew how I wanted this one to look since Lilian´s not only an announcer but also a singer. The letters I wanted to look like music notes and pink/red/girlie colours would not be in the way. Some flowers, bling and ribbon were also spot on. I started by drawing the LO just the way I wanted it but I soon discovered I could not get it exactly the way I wanted it. I had it all pictured in front of me but my drawing skills did not do my planned creation justice. Thats when my brilliant mind got to think of my wifes Bosskut Gazelle. It truly is a magnificient machine and it succeeded to cut out the letters my old shaky hands failed with. An absolute fantastic background paper from Imaginations, the above mentioned girlie-items, a little Stickles, 3D-cusions and it all fell in place. If I may say it myself, and I may, I just think this is one of the better ones I have created.

The happiest boy on earth and Lilian Garcia

A close up of the musical name and the arrangement of the LO

Flowers built out of three parts and a red stone to top it off.

Cody Rhodes

2009-05-24T01:59:00.000-07:00

And so I am back (from outer space!) with another LO and this one is pretty basic. It features Cody Rhodes, and the son of course, when they met in Barcelona last fall. This was a difficult one and that is much thanks to Cody´s personality. I mean, he is a really nice guy and all but there is nothing that really stands out in his character. I usually pick my motives for the LO´s from the characters but this one just had me puzzled. I started out with the letters and I am partuculary proud of them since I just sat down and cut them out by hand, without looking at anything else. I added the red stripes (shadows) to get a 3D-look and then put them on my original choice of background-paper which was red. It did not work at all. I eventually found this black paper that had Family, history, legacy and tradition printed on in a corner and I fell for it straight away. Cody is currently in a wrestling-stable called Legacy with Ted DiBiase and Randy Orton (two other second generation wrestlers), his father is The American Dream Dusty Rhodes and his brother is Goldust, Dustin Rhodes. Extremly fitting in other words. It still looked a bit empty so after a lot of thought and even more shapes and other stuff that I tried to spice up the LO with I settled for some bling and some Diamond Dots. It´s not to shabby, especially considering I was totally blank on ideas, but it could probably have been better if I would have given it some more time. But time is something I am very short of these days.

The somewhat empty LO, still, it´s colour coordinated!

A close up of the letters that are mounted on 3D-cushions.

Kofi Kingston

2009-05-10T02:27:00.000-07:00

Time for another one and this time the LO features the jamaican/ghanan wrestler Kofi Kingston and my son of course. I am in a bit of a hurry at the moment. The father, the son and the holy album with LO´s are planning another trip and I would like to have a few more ready by the time we are leaving. One never knows, we might run in to a few more wrestlers, which is never sure but if we do it would be nice to get some autographs on the album/LO´s. I currently have four LO´s in production and this is the first one I completed.

I have used two Basic Grey-papers, one Crate and six different CS. The whole idea was to lift Kofi Kingstons jamaican gimmick so I started out with the flag as a background. Looking for inspiration and ideas on Internet I found this picture of a rastafarian lion (yes, it must be the smoking thats hollowed it!) and I thought that it would fit in nicely. I drew the lion, as good as I could, cut out a template and then cut out two lions in a shiny black CS. It was a time consuming procedure with many non-printable words to spice it all up. The yellow/green/red-flags are of course "reggae-colours" and I also used the colours as a background for the photo but deliberately put them in a different order because it looked stupid with the yellow on the left hand side. I know, sometimes I am a bit strange. My wifes Bosskut Gazelle was kind enough to cut the name out for me, in blue to match Kofis shirt. It saved a lot of the time I "wasted" on the lions. A little Glossy Accent from Ranger made the letters look even better. I do like to cut most things by myself but I must admit that the Gazelle is a handy tool and that I will have to learn a little more about it when we finally move down here (and here would be Karlstad) for good.

And what about Kofi? Well, he was a very nice and pleasant person who signed the album, took time for a chat and also posed for a picture with the father. But that LO will have to wait till after the summer.

Kofi Kingston, the son and the LO I am quite happy with.

A close up of one of the lions I cut out. It took some time!

Nothing like a little Glossy Accent to shine up a LO.

CM Punk

2009-04-15T06:03:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting to do this one for some time, for numerous reasons! First of all I knew that I wanted to do the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. Why you might ask and the answer is quite simple. CM Punk has never revealed what the CM in his name stands for, a lot of people have guessed and Cookie Monster is one of of the guesses. Punk has never acknowledged that but he has shown that he appreciates the humour with that guess so I thought it would be fitting. Trying to find paper with the right colour and the "fluffyness" of the Cookie Monster proved to be quite difficult. I have bought quite a few different papers on the Internet but when they have arrived home they have either been the wrong colour or not fluffy enough. I tried to cut papers so they would look fluffy but that did not work out at all. Eventually it was my dear wife who found the paper and made my day (she actually always makes my day and I could not live without her). All the other papers are cardstock except the eyes (white) that are photo-papers. I wanted something really shiny white and that was the best choice.

Living apart from the scrapbooking room (and my wife) has proven to be quite difficult and I cant wait to move down to Karlstad in June/July. You never get to finish things since there is other stuff that has to be taken care of as well during my limited time in Karstad. I drew the templates for the letters and the Cookie Monster here in Falun and took them to Karlstad on one of our weekend trips. In Karlstad I cut them out but never had time to finish the LO. On our next trip I cut out the actual embellishments but never had time to glue it all together. The weekend after that I tried to glue it but chickened out when the monster started to fall apart. Comforting myself with cookies (what else?) during the week in Falun I persuaded my wife on the phone to help me with my little project and she did when me and the kids came down to keep her and the cat company the weekend after. If I ever have any problems with scrapbooking, or anything else to be honest, I can always turn to dear wifie and she solves it. Sometimes I should probably try a little harder myself first (I will work on that, I promise!)!

Anyways, I like the LO, it´s fun, just like the Cookie Monster! And it looks a lot better in real life, the "fluffyness" comes out more natural then.

The Cookie Monster with a mouthful of my son and CM Punk

A close up of the text and the hand that does not show so well on the photos but is much clearer in real.

Mickie James

2009-04-15T05:37:00.000-07:00

The choice of embellishments and the actual layout for this one was easy. It just had to be a kiss! When we met Mickie James she was overjoyed about our sign that read We flew in from Sweden just to see Mickie James. She kissed the sign and left an inprint of her lips on it so I just had to incorporate that somehow. Mickie was also a very loveable person and not afraid to cuddle her fans (well at least my son got close as you can see on one of the photos) so I really wanted to make something "sweet" out of this one.

The background paper with all the kisses is made in Sweden, the lips and the backgrounds for the photos are Basic Grey and the text is a regular red cardstock. The nice bling suits Mickies persona perfectly and the roses, that I bought at Annas Scrapbooking in Karlstad, are just to symbolize that little extra that Mickie gave us. And they do look good as well! Everything is of course handcut and designed by myself. I am fairly happy with this one, it´s not so complicated and was not to hard to do and it came out just about the way I had imagined it (which is not always the case). I tried to keep it simple and maybe I should try that more often.

Strangely enough my son never looks that happy when I try to cuddle him, in fact he usually runs away instead!

A close up of the roses bought at "Annas...". One of these days I will try to make my own, ha!

Ted DiBiase Jr

2009-03-01T11:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feel that my ideas for LO´s are a bit to complicated and that they take far to long to create. And since me and my family are in the midst of moving to another town I cant really have any projects laying about. But I really wanted to make one more LO before we moved so I started to think of something more traditional. A regular ordinary scrapbooking LO, thats what I call this. I made it just in time, there were but a few boxes left to be carried out from the scrapbooking room when the final touches were fixed to the LO. Had I continued for a few minutes more I might have traveled to Karlstad in a moving van instead of our car since the moving crew carried everything, without exception, out from our old house. It will take some time till I make my next LO since I am staying behind in Falun for a few months with our kids (so they can finish their respective class in school). My wife will hopefully keep the scrapbooking room warm until I move down and fill it up with lots of new stuff that I can try when the rest of the family sets sail for Karlstad (and I have no doubt that she wont!). Anyways, here it is, regular scrapbooking with a touch of Trent. Everything is of course handcut and I made all the templates myself. The idea for the lightning bolt and the letters above it I gladly stole from Elvis Presley´s TCB, Taking Care of Business. The letters for Ted DiBiase I cut out from cheap white cardboard and coloured myself plus added a little red stickles. Some bling, some tearing, chalking and the thought that three is a magic number made me think that ordinary scrapbooking aint half bad! I could have told you what brand of papers I used but the piece of paper I wrote everything down on magically disappeared in the process of moving. All I know is that its seven different designer papers plus the white cardboard.

Ted DiBiase, a really nice guy, and my son, a really nice son.

A close up of my handywork!

Shawn Michaels, HBK 2008

2009-02-15T06:17:00.001-08:00

I always find something wrong with my LO´s when I am finished with them. Something I would make different, change of colour etcetera. This one, featuring Shawn Michaels, HBK, The Heartbreak Kid, The Showstopper, Mr Wrestlemania and so on together with my son was different. I thought it was nearly perfect when I was finished with it! I admired it for some time, patted myself on the back and suddenly I decided that a little sparkle on the letters would make it even better. I wish that somebody would stop me on occasions like these. Anyways, I am still content with the idea. All the photos in the "star" are from the show we saw in Barcelona and then there is of course the on with my son and the man himself (I also had my picture taken with HBK at the same time but thats another story and another LO for later). I used three different Basic Grey papers, all grey/black but just a little difference in the colours. A black and a white cardstock for the letters. The actual shape I got the idea (or stole rather) from the logo for the upcoming Wrestlemania XXV in Texas and since HBK is from Texas the star-theme was just right. Everything on the LO is handcut, the small WWE-logo, the letters and the "star" are all drawn by me and then cut out as templates and eventually cut out in designer papers with my scissors and knifes. It did take quite a long time to get everything right but it was worth it even though I messed it up a bit with the stickles. One of my better LO´s if I may say so. HBK was a really nice person but I will save that story until I make the LO with him and me.

The actual LO and you can see that my son is really happy with meeting HBK.

A close up of the "Shawn Michaels"-letters that were extremly difficult to get in the right position when I glued the black part on the white.

And here you see it from a different angle.

JTG Cryme Tyme

2009-02-01T11:04:00.000-08:00

And thats another Cryme Tyme-LO finished and this time it features the other wrestler of the tagteam, JTG. And of course, my son. This one I tried to keep similar to the Shad-LO I made before so They would look good together in the album. Its 4 kinds of Basic Grey and some CS. I used green acrylic paint this time to create the frame, my wifes Bosskut Gazelle cut out the " Cryme Tyme Institute..." for me and that was easy. Separating the little buggers from the CS the machine cut in and glueing them to the LO was a different story! Everything else I have made templates for by drawing by hand and cutting out with my knifes and scissors. From having no plan att all for this one it avtually turned out quite well, if I may say so.

A close up of my "graffitti"-letters.

Cryme Tyme, Shad Gaspar

2008-12-31T07:36:00.000-08:00

Here is my last LO for 2008 and it features Shad Gaspar of the tagteam Cryme Tyme. Shad was a huge man but he was as kind as he was big! We met him twice, the first time we did not have a camera or anything with us, we were just standing looking stupid in the hotel-lobby (and we are really great at that!). We did not know that the wrestlers were staying at our hotel so we got quite a surprice when Shad came walking there. He saw us standing there in our wrestling T-shirts and stopped, stretched out his hand and shook ours and chatted a bit. Its really something special when the wrestlers come to us by free will (who in their right mind would want to do that ?). We also met him later during the day and then we were ready with the camera and the Cryme Tyme-sign.

The LO is made on a paper from My Minds Eye and I have sponged out some Black acrylic paint on the sides. The Cryme Tyme-text I have drawn myself (I found the fonts in our computer and copied them) and then cut them out in a Basic Grey paper. Then I cut out the black and white shades in CS. When my wife saw the text she said that she could have done that on her new machine, a Bosskut Gazelle. If I only had known! Her Gazelle got to work a bit for me after that and it cut out the bus (I chose to have a schoolbus since Cryme Tyme has one in their Internetshow Word up) which I customized in the Funtime software and then I also added a few bits and pieces afterwards. The text "Shad Gaspar" I printed out on a piece of yellow CS and attached to the bus which is made out of 4 kinds of CS. Some 3D-cushions, glue-dots and a lot of chalk later I was nearly ready. I just had to use my own private stamp which I have ordered from Norway so it left my brand in the corner of the LO. I dont know if it really fits there but I still giggled when I placed it there. Sometimes I am a bit childish.

The Cryme Tyme Shad Gaspar layout, I am quite happy with it.

A close up of the wheel, just for the fun of it!

And a close up of my stamp, now thats really fun!

Rey Mysterio

2008-11-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

Rey Mysterio is one of the smallest wrestlers, if not the smallest, in the WWE but he is also one of their biggest stars. We have met Rey on several occasions but for different reasons photographs have never been taken. This year when we met him it we nearly missed out again since I was not quick enough with the camera when my son got an autograph from Rey. Luckily enough we met Rey the day after as well and this time I was ready and finally I got a picture for a Rey Mysterio LO.

I have used a lot of paper for this one. First a Basic Grey for the background which I stamped (Rhona Farrer) up with 619, Reys finishing move, then a lightblue Crate for the mask. A white CS and a shiny black CS for the details on the mask and then a black CS for the title and a grey CS for the background for the letters. A Crate-paper for the skin which I drew a little on and the eyes are drawn on white CS (I tried to cut out eyes in paper but I never got it to look good). A piece of bling on the cross and some stickles gave the mask a nice lift. The letters I have drawn myself (as the mask), cut out templates with a knife and then drawn them again on CS and cut again. It really took some time and I did not succeed on the first time with a few of them. But this time I did not give up and in the end it was worth it. The grey background made the letters look nicer and a little Glossy Accent on the letters as well created a nice effect. And finally my Mysterio-LO was finished. I am happy with it even though I probably should have chosen another background colour. But still, I think Rey would like this one just as much as he liked the sign that my son is holding on the photo, that one drawn by me as well!

The LO I have been waiting to create!

Stickles and bling, always a winner!

Glossy Accent, an invention just as important as the wheel!

Santino Marella, part two

2008-11-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

Here is my second LO from our meeting with the WWE Intercontinental Champion, or in his case, Campione, Santino Marella. I did continue my Italy-theme, or at least I tried! After I was finished with it, I photographed it and left it on the table. Walking over to the other side of the table and seeing the LO upside down I discovered my blunder, I had put the red to the left and the green to the right. Completely wrong if you are trying to do the Italian flag! So another LO ruined by a stupid mistake. Apparently though I have grown as a person since I did not do what I usually do when I fail, curse, tear everything apart and throw a temper tantrum that would make any three year old so envious they would never scream again. I do confess that I did curse a little (in my world it was a little) and mope a bit but this time I solved the problem, or at least saved the LO a bit by adding four small Italian flags so it looks kind of color coordinated. Anyways, enough of the story and here is the important part, how I did:

First I chose my papers, red, "white" (not really white, more of a pale sand colour, but still) and green (in that order!) from the Crate collections Brunch and Crush. This was for the flag colours and I used Crate-paper to get some more life into the LO since CS is kind of stale. Then I also took another Crate-paper for the text. A light blue one to match the photo of Santino and me which has a blue tone. I then proceeded to draw Italy and cut it out by hand and that took some time. Many where the times that I wished Santino was from Colorado or any other square state in the US! But Italy it was and in the end it came out nicely. I used an overlay from Hambley as a photo mat under (makes total sence if you are me) the photos and Italy. The letters are Quickkutz Washington and I thought they matched the Italy-theme very well. I also glaced them (first time if you dont count baking) with Glossy accents from Tim Holtz Inkssentials. And you already know why I added the small Italian flags. All in all I think it was a good idea and it would have been real good if I could have remembered how the Italian flag looked before I put everything together.

The whole LO ...

and a close up of my first attempt at glacing.

Santino Marella, part one

2008-10-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

I still have quite a few photos with my kids and wrestlers to be scrapped (+quite a lot of old LO´s to be posted) but I have not really found any inspiration for the photos I have left. Mostly its wrestlers/Divas who have left the WWE, or even passed away! So what does one do? I either start up with other projects, or fix new wrestlingphotos. I decided on the latter, or at least that was the plan when me and my son once again went to a wrestling-event in Barcelona Spain. This time we saw two shows and luckily enough for my scrapbooking career we met a bunch of the Superstars and one Diva. Now I have quite a few hours with my scissors and knifes in front of me and thats quite a comforting feeling. Here is the first LO I made from this years wrestlers, Santino Marella!

For this one I have only used cardstock because I felt it was just the stuff for my LO-idea. I got the idea from one of Santinos T-shirts, I drew it, changed a bit here and there, cut out templates from my drawing, used the templates on CS and then cut out the different shapes. A little chalk, some 3d-cushions on the letters (that were a bit difficult to cut straight, both the Santino- and the Marella-parts) and the photograph and the LO was ready. I am more than happy with this one and currently working on my next Santino-LO, but this time, I will be on the photo as well!

Cowboy Bob Orton

2008-09-14T04:09:00.000-07:00

Its been some time since I made a layout and its not because my motives are running out (I do have a few wrestlers left to scrap) (they wont last forever of course) its just that I have been busy with other things. Me and my son are once again going to a wrestling event so all of the spare time in the scrapbooking-room has been commited to making new signs for us to bring along to the show.

But running out of ideas for the signs I paused and made this LO with Cowboy Bob Orton. I found this paper from Flair Designs (beeing a wrestling fan you cant resist that!) which was called Home on the range and that suited Cowboy Bob perfectly for his background. I then drew up a holster and a belt to fit Cowboy Bob and my kids in, just like a gun. I made a belt buckle from CS and put a photo of Bob and his son, Randy Orton, in, some bullets and some brads to make it look a bit more "real" made the difference. The text I printed on a piece of Basic Grey and then I chalked it to get that burned cowboy feeling (at my age one still remembers the Bonanza-intro). I must say, and of course, I am always full of myself, this one really turned out nice even though its a project between projects!

For this one I used three different CS, 2 x Basic Grey, Crate, Kaiser, Flair Designs, two kinds of brads, chalk and a Rhonna Farrer clear stamp.

Rowdy Roddy Piper

2008-09-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

When I first started watching the WWE (WWF at that time) is was full of charasmatic characters and persons. One that stood out was Rowdy Roddy Piper and he instantly became one of my favorites. Beeing from Scotland I just could not resist the bagpipes, the kilt and the outspokenness of the rowdy one. Needless to say I was chuffed to bits when we met him and so were my kids. My first thought was to do something in a similar tartan that Piper wears. That was totally impossible! I could not find any papers with a red based tartan, in fact, I could not find any tartans at all! I was just about to scrap the project, by that I mean give up, when my wife brought a paper home with her that nearly did the trick. I used that as a base and then concentrated on getting the inspiration and ideas from Pipers T-shirt instead. The photo mats got the red collar from Pipers T-shirt + the white and that looked rather nice when it was a double photo mat. The Roddy Piper text I drew myself and cut out + used Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber to simulate the text on the shirt. The "Rowdy"-part I used templates for and then cut out a yellow shadow to match the other text. The LO is so so, not good not bad, it will just do. Oh, the papers are from Prima Lucid Collection and Daisy D´s + some CS.

Shawn Michaels HBK

2008-08-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

I am not sure what I was thinking when I did this LO with Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid, The Showstopper, Mr Wrestlemania etc. In retrospect I probably wasn´t. It was the green from HBK´s jacket that I wanted as a base but somehow I chose something in a completely different tone (even thought its closer in real). Breaking hearts, yes, and the text from the bottom photo, yes, and also the ribbon and the name that reminded a bit of HBK´s tattoo. All good ideas really but when put together, no! I see now what I should have done. A different green paper and a much larger broken heart would have done it. Of course I would have to place the other stuff differently, and probably loose the top photo but I actually think that would work. Lots of ideas for one LO is fine but if you cant get the ideas to work together, well, then one should contenplate on doing something else and not as I just go bang on and hope for the best! Papers are nice though, Basic Grey, Crate and something I cant remember the name of. One of these days I will just have to make a new one.

A-Train

2008-08-25T04:46:00.000-07:00

There are two ways for me to find inspiration from the photographs I use in my layouts. The first is of course the normal, colours, shapes and the actual motif. The other way is what the persons in the photographs represent. Take this one for instance. The giant person who on the photo is squeezing the daylights out of my son goes under the name of A-Train, or at least he did when he was in the WWE. So instead of going with the white & black colours in the photograph I went more for the character and the name when deciding on how to decorate this one. The A represents his name of course but its also a tunnel where the speeding train comes rushing out. To create a feeling of speed I cut out my own letters and had them connected to the A/tunnel. The tracks are merely there as a decoration and to emphasize the "train"-theme and also to get a balance in the LO with the tracks laid out in a similar fashion as the A. I am not trying to sound like an artist or anything like that, God knows I have created some really useless LO`s, I am merely trying to explain how I think when I "create". Everything on this LO is also originally made and cut out by me and yes, its Basic Grey!

Below you see a close-up of the letters and the track. I used 3D-cushions for the letters to enhance the speed-effect and gluedots for the rails on the track to make them look more real.

And to finish things off, A-Train left my son unhurt even though I wished he had squeezed a bit more sense into him!

Stacey Keibler

2008-08-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

This LO is with Stacey Keibler, former WWE-Diva, Dancing with the stars-star and actress, and of course my darling daughter. This one I really enjoyed to do since the colours in the photo were so thankfull to work with. Its usually a lot of dark photos of big wrestlers wearing dark clothes so with this one I could go "all in" to our paper stock. I used papers from Basic Grey of course but also Bohemé and different CS. I really enjoy cutting out swirls and shapes, it takes time but its well worth it in the end. Also laying some of the swirls over the photo and the photo mat creates a very nice effect, or at least I think so. Some bling, some flowers and some stickles as well and one of my better LO´s was ready. The only thing I was not entirely happy with is the namestrap. The colours should have been the other way around to match the photo with Stacys strap and her blonde hair, but still, this is one of the few I am really happy with.

Gregory Helms

2008-08-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

Less is more is a saying and on this LO I quite agree. Notmuch has been done on this one which has a paper from My Minds Eye as a base. I then used a tool (you will have to excuse me, I can mention about a thousand wrestling moves like that but remembering what the scrapbooking-stuff is called, totally blank!) from Fiskars to dry emboss the corners of the paper and dabbed some goldcolour on it. The photo of Gregory Helms I cut out by hand and then took some CS to extend the cape and use it as a photo mat. The hardest part of this LO was to talk my wife into writing the name in calligraphy. It was well worth it though. She writes beautifully and after I heat-embossed the name it was more than enough with embellishments, less is more sometimes!

Randy Orton times two

2008-08-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

WWEs badboy number one is Randy Orton. There are many stories about him getting involved in troublein real life. We have met Randy twice and we can only say good things about him, he is truly a nice person who has really given us time and just because of that he is one of our favorite WWE Superstars, heel or not! I did want to do something special with the photos and I thought I had the perfect paper when I found this one from Creative Imaginations. The tribal pattern matched Randys tattoos perfectly and the colours where just right for the top photo. I just added some homemade letters to match the pattern and a Basic Grey paper as a photo mat that blended into the layout. I was more than happy but then I looked carefully at it. Not good at all! Its just not enough and that is a problem I do find quite often when working with this beautiful designer papers. They are so nice you dont want to change them and just adding photos on them does not feel creative at all. Anyways, I made up fo my lack of creativity on the next Orton LO.

This one I did not do much on either but I did do something original, and that is really what scrapbooking is about to me, trying new ways and trying things that you dont see a lot. Here I used a Basic Grey Dasher paper as background and it almost looks like sparks from the firework on the bottom photo and another Basic Grey paper that looked just like Randys shirt. I cut some strips out and had it run "through" Randy and added some drops for effect. The title I heatembossed on a title-mat that was similar to the Wrestlemania-sign on top. Its not really much more than the top LO but its something of my own and therefore something I am much more pleased with. And it does really look a lot better when seeing it for real.

Funaki

2008-08-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

My Funaki LO took some time to make since it was a lot of cutting involved but it was still an easy LO to make. Sometimes, and this does not happen very often, I do get bright ideas and using the colours and Funakis japanese heritage as inspiration for the LO was one of them. One of the cheaper LO´s I have made as well since I only used two sheets of cardstock and some scrap-parts for the letters that are "You are not the boss of me". One thing I did forget was to chalk but since this was in the beginning I have forgiven myself. However I will do something similar in the future with another wrestler of japanese heritage and when I do the chalk will be right there with me. Still, I quite like this one!

Nunzio

2008-08-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

Simplicity is often the word when I try to do something, and that also applies to my scrapbooking. The idea for this LO was easy since Nunzio is of italian heritage and with Basic Grey papers I did not really have to work so hard on this one. Some Crate paper for the photo mats and a couple of copper brads and I was ready. Probably one of the easiest and quickest LO´s I have ever made but still one of my favorites.

Ric Flair

2008-08-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

Trying to make Ric Flair justice on a LO is difficult, if not impossible, but I am still quite happy with this one. My trusty knife came in handy here when I cut out the silouette that I drew and I started getting the feel of using the elements in the photo. The spotlightbeam is definately one of my highlights. I also discovered that you dont always have to use Basic Grey, there is loads of other designer paper out there (My Minds Eye in this case), and that a catchy title sometimes can make up for for lack of experience when scrapbooking. A little dryembossing and some gold on that for some extra Flair, well, It could have been worse.

Triple H

2008-08-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

Learning new techniques for scrapbooking is fun and its even better when the result of ones efforts come out this good! I had never dry-embossed before but seeing what my wife could do I just had to try it. I had this picture from one of the WWE shows that me and my kids have attented of the then world champion HHH standing on the ropes and displaying the world heavyweightbelt and I thought that thats just what I wanted to create. Adding the photo of the champ with my kids and then using a gold CS that I dry-embossed plus putting on some red "stones" that you have on the original belt I was more than happy with the end result. I do have to use that technique more because you can make a lot from nothing. The red rope that I incorporated into the bottom picture might be a bit to much but it does look better in real. The title was also a new technique my wife taught me, heat-embossing, and thats also really fun and the result is often stunning. The title is written and then heat-embossed with a shiny black powder and once again, I have to do that more often.

Victoria

2008-08-11T14:14:00.000-07:00

If you get into the habit of making LO´s with pictures of wrestlers that weigh in at ridiculosly high weights, and all muscle, you dont really get to use the fantastic "girlie"-papers that are pink! Even though I consider myself a mans man (says the guy who scrapbooks and writes in his blog) the papers are just adorable, and there is a lot of them, so they just have to be used. Thankfully enough the WWE also provides female wrestlers, or divas as they like to call them, and my kids have also taken their pictures with quite a few of them so I get to shop a little pink without beeing ashamed. On this LO with the very charming and nice wrestler Victoria I started cutting out flowers and patterns and tried to incorporate them with the stunning background paper that goes so well with Victorias clothes (thank you for chosing them that day!). A little bling, some "real" flowers, Basic Grey of course and a lot of pink later I was more than happy with this one and it even looks better in real life!

Edge

2008-08-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Scrapbooking is so much more than I thought it was in the beginning. There are all the little things you can add and all the different techniques you can use. From not knowing anything I have at least taken a few fumbling steps forward and its mostly thanks to my wife who seems to master all the techniques. Seeing the paper that I chose for this LO with Edge and my kids she suggested that I should use sandpaper to make the photo look a bit more older and used. At firts I thought she was a bit crazy but since I know how good she is I trusted her and started sandpapering away. I like the result and it gives a bit more edge to this Edge-LO. I have since then used the sandpaper on other projects, with mixed results, but it is a very handy technique indeed and always useful with the Basic Grey collection that I do use a lot. At this point I still used a lot of alphabets for the cuttlebug and the Hippie Chick one is very nice. However I have come to the conclusion that its hard to be original using the alphabets so you have to either buy new ones all the time or cut out your own, and that is what I try to do mostly know even if you will see a lot of diecuts in the LO´s to come before I show my newer stuff.

Chuck Palumbo

2008-08-11T12:52:00.001-07:00

Here is an LO that I am quite happy with. I have used the colours from the photo, Palumbos shirt and the ceiling, the shapes in the photo (his sunglasses) and also what he is all about, motorcycles. Except beeing a WWE Superstar and wrestler Chuck also builds custom motorcycles has incorporated that into his wrestling gimmick. I incorporated it into the LO by making the title as a Harley Davidson logo. Shapes, colours, thoughts and designer papers (Crate, Basic Grey) working together for once! I felt extremly proud when it was done and one could say I found my style here even though I do things that are entirely different on some occasions.

Batista

2008-08-11T12:42:00.001-07:00

This one was also made in the beginning of my scrapbooking "career" and you can at least see that I have started with cutting out my own shapes. However my choice of colours are not that great, I was more fascinated with all the fantastic papers than thinking of coordinating them and making everything into an LO that holds together. Here its just a few nice looking papers and all randomly placed on the LO even though I had a thought with the stars and the Batista logo. Once again, you learn a lot. Basic Grey might be fabolous papers but you need a bit more than that to create something you are happy with.

Eugene

2008-08-11T12:34:00.001-07:00

One of my early creations and after my Kurt Angle LO this just sunk to the bottom quicker than the Titanic. The only thing I am happy with on this one is the photo and tag mat. The paper (Crate) is nearly identical with the shirt Eugene is wearing on the photo. In retrospect I cpould have done so much more with it but we all have to learn from our mistakes. On this one I just thought that everything would fit in and since I hardly did not use anything except the Carolees paper for background there was nothing to fit!

Kurt Angle

2008-08-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is the first scrapbooking layout I ever made and it's a picture of my son and the wrestler and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle. For this LO I only used cardstock, two different types of cuttlebug star diecuts and diecut letters. I had yet to discover that you actually could create your own embellishments even though the red "star stripes" are my own. I was however, quite proud of my very first layout.