This is me

I am Marianne Hope, 37 years of age, born and raised in Norway, but currently living in the Netherlands, just outside Amsterdam. In the years 1992 - 1997 I lived in Mannheim, Germany to study Economy and that's how I met my (German) husband. We have 3 children, Mats (8), Jonas (6) and Lotte (2 1/2), all raised to speak 3 languages (Dutch, German and Norwegian). I speak 4 languages fluently myself and my husband 6, which makes us all a bit special and pretty flexible as well. We love living in the Netherlands and enjoy every aspect of our life here.

Growing up with a mom working on 10 different craft projects at the same time, I don't really know what a life without some kind of creative activity is like. I spent most my time as a little girl drawing, painting, knitting, crocketing and sewing, always finding some kind of project to work on. I think I have been through most crafting hobbies out there. Still there are 3 that I am more passionate about than the others; photography, sewing and paper crafting.

My passion for photography is a huge part of me. I feel incomplete without a camera nearby. I bought my first SLR as quite a young girl and this opened my eyes to the photographic world and made me see the world through the lens. Now, with the digital world and all its possibilities there is nothing stopping me. Some family members make fun of me and call my children the most documented kids in the world. I call them lucky to have such a tresure when they grow up. In May 2009 I had my first official photo shoot and in June same year my new website went online. This was the beginning of my own little photo business, taking "real life" family pictures and portraits.

The day I saw my first scrapbooking magazine in the shelves at the supermarket back in 2003, I knew that this was a hobby I needed to try out. I realized that I had been scrapbooking all my life, I just didn't know it was a hobby with a name and awesome stuff to buy and use. And little did I know how perfect this hobby would be for me and that I would get to use all my "old" crafting skills and find use for all the stuff that I had been saving because "I might need it some day". Stuff like old lace, fabric, felt, buttons, paint, vintage books and wall paper finally came in handy.

I feel that I have developed my own style throughout the last year (2008/2009). A flexible and very variable style that I love and feel comfortable with. My style changes with my photos and themes and with the products I use. Sometimes it's minimalistic, sometimes freestyle, sometimes vintage, mostly clean & simple, combined with one of the other styles. I love it all. I do have a few principles that I try to follow in all my designs; I like to keep my photos the main focal point, I love to use colors, I'm a "less is more-er", I like to find new use for things, I am very perfectionistic about my titles (how they fit the rest of the layout - if I am not happy with the letters at hand, I make them myself), I love to use fabric, felt, sewing and buttons and my journaling is mostly handwritten and whimsical. And I love to use scraps, leftovers and non-traditional products, pretty much whatever is laying around on my desk.

Since I started blogging in February 2008 and participating in challenges and contests in April 2008, lots of positive things have happened to me scrapbooking-wise. I've had the privilege of being on 4 different design teams, published in 5 different magazines with more than 30 different layouts and projects, asked to guest design 3 times and chosen as one of 5 finalists in Scrap Awards. Looking back at the year that has passed, I can hardly believe my luck and I appreciate all the opportunities given to me very, very much. Throughout 2009 I will be teaching different classes in both scrapbooking and different art techniques. I love all this hobby has given me, all the new friends I have made, all the things I have learned and still am learning. I can only hope that 2009 will have just as much goodness in wait for me.... Thank you for your interest and taking the time to read this!

Publications in 2009

Creating Keepsakes
March - 1 layout
August - 1 layout
November - 1 layout

EntreARTistes magazine
Issue #5 (winter 2009) - 1 layout

Scrap-Art-Zine (German scrapbooking magazine)
Summer issue - 1 layout
Autumn issue - 1 project

Creatief met foto's (Dutch scrapbooking magazine)
Issue no. 37 (June/July) - 4 layouts and 2 cards using Basic Grey, Lime Rickey collection

Vi scrapper (Norwegian Magazine, discontinued after the Feb. issue)
Feb. - 3 layouts and a fabric minibook

Here's a slideshow of my published layouts so far this year (march 2009)

Publications in 2008

Creatief met foto's (biggest dutch scrapbooking magazine)
# 31 June/July - 2 layouts, reader spotlight
#34 Dec./Jan. - 2 3-page articles. 1with 7 layouts and 1 with 1 layout and 10 christmas cards

Vi scrapper (4 issues per year)
May - 2 layouts
August - 3 layouts and the front cover
November - 3 layouts

Scrap! (dutch scrapbooking magazine, discontinued per Jan. 2009)
September - 6 layouts

Scrapbook news and reviews
#6 Nov. - 14 layouts and reader spotlight

Here's a slideshow of my published layouts in 2008:

Samples of my work

These are some of the layouts I have produced since I started designing for ScrappeMania in January 2009.









These layouts and cards were published in Creatief med foto's #37 (June/July) and was an assignment for Kars, an article about Fathers using Basic Grey, Lime Rickey collection:






I was assigned to make 7 layouts for a wintery article in Creatief met foto's, Dec./Jan 09. issue, using the Basic Grey Grayola line of papers and embellishments. Here are my layouts:





Here's a list of my articles written for "Kreative Sider" at Papirgleder. The text is in Norwegian, but feel free to contact me for a translation.

This article about Scrapbooking with Crepe paper will be published on September 27th 2009.



Article about altering a book with mixed medias. Published September 13th. 2009



Article about clean and simple scrapbooking and the basic principles of design. Published February 2009