Kofi Kingston

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!