DIY Double-Sided Leather Traveler’s Notebook Cover

| cristina

Today I want to share a little DIY project I made last month – a double-sided leather traveler’s notebook.

I am not going to post a step-by-step tutorial because in fact I followed the instructions by the excellent Christine, with just a small change –  rather than a regular size traveler’s notebook, I decided to make a passport-sized one. This is my first traveler notebook and I made it with the purpose of carrying it in my bag when I go to work meetings, and I wanted something more compact. The bonus is that from 2 sheets of letter-sized leather I was able to make 2 notebooks, one for me and one for my mom. 🙂

Now… I’m not gonna lie – it took forever to put together (mainly because I didn’t have the right tools to thread the elastic!), but it was worth it – I love how it turned out!

The notebook is double sided, and even though when I bought the leather (these are pretty much the entire color option at Michaels) I thought I’d be using the aqua for the outside, I ended up falling in love with the texture of the brown leather and chose that instead. 🙂
I have two notebooks in my journal.

The notebook on the left was made by me, while the one on the right is a Midori passport – I bought it after the fact, and it turns out that the notebook I made is spot on!
I used yellow copy paper for the notebook made by me and I love the pop of color!


I chose not to bind the notebook and it’s really quite freeing to know I can just get rid of a page if I mess up.

Here’s a closeup of the stitching, which I did with my sewing machine but turning the wheel by hand (I didn’t trust my sewing skills for this project!):

The stitching holds the two pieces of leather together pretty well (in fact the only change I would make in Christine’s instructions is to skip the fabric interfacing step – I found it didn’t really stick properly in my case).
The pretty charm was given to me by my mom a few years ago and is by Thun.

This passport size has been working really well for me, and it made me take the plunge and purchase a full sized traveler’s notebook as well – I would love to try my hand at scrapbooking in that size, so stay tuned… 😉

Sketch Your World

| cristina

I am so excited for the new class at Studio Calico: Sketch Your World! It starts Feb. 1st.

Here’s the description:
Expand your creativity! Olya Schmidt takes you on a creative journey filled with practical tips and simple techniques that will help develop your drawing and watercolor skills. Olya will introduce you to the various tools and materials needed to start sketching different scenes and bringing them to life with watercolor paint. You’ll also learn plenty of basic exercises to get you more comfortable using pencils, pens, and brushes to capture the world as you see it!
A few years ago I took an online art class that I absolutely loved – it was my first attempt at drawing and watercoloring. At the time, I made a couple things I was really proud of, but didn’t do much at all after the class was over. Here they are:

I am really excited to get back to drawing and painting with the Sketch Your World class! This is just the push I need to play with colors again! And Olya is such a talented artist!

Over the years, I have amassed some favorite watercolor supplies, including Neocolors II, Peerless watercolors (currently sold out at Studio Calico but you can find them on Amazon too) and Kuretake Gansai Tambi. I don’t own this little travel-sized Koi set, but I just might have to try it out! 🙂

Neocolor II Kuretake Gansai Tambi Peerless Koi watercolors

I hope to see you in class!

Studio Calico January Kits

| cristina

Today is Reveal Day at Studio Calico for the January (Arendal) kits. I am not contributing this month, and while I have to wait (not-so-patiently) for my box to arrive, I decided to play with the digital products.

For my digital page, I used the scrapbook papers, the Documenter kit cards, and some printables.
I just love the colors this month! Later today I’ll be sharing my picks for this month of what is coming in my box along with my Documenter kit.
Come chat with us at 11 AM  EST for Subscriber Presale chat (kits+add ons are on sale at noon EST for subscribers) and again at 2 PM EST (3 PM EST is shopping time for everyone).

Happy New Year

| cristina

Happy New Year! May 2016 be a year of health and joy for you and your loved ones!

To start the year off right, I scrapped with the January BYOC (Build Your Own Collab) from The Lilypad.

It’s just amazing – I am so not a purple lover, but whenever there is purple in the collections for The Lilypad, somehow I fall in love with it! It happened this time too.

Credits:

Love, Winter Paperset and Love, Winter Elements by Nancie Rowe Janitz
Limitless Elements by Pink Reptile Designs

It’s so fun to mix and match the different pieces of the BYOC!


Credits:

Thrive Papers and Thrive Elements by One Little Bird

The fresh colors and the inspiring theme are just what I needed to make these pages as motivation to start 2016 with a positive attitude.

Credits:

First Light Papers by Lynn Grieverson Designs
Limitless Elements by Pink Reptile Designs
Love, Winter Elements by Nancie Rowe Janitz

Wishing you a fabulous year!
Love,
Cristina

2015 in Numbers

| cristina

As we wrap up this year, I like to look back and add up all the things I have done this year. 2015 has been a fabulous year for me; at the same time, I have stressed way too much about things beyond my control… so I hope i have also learned a lot this year, and I’m ready for an even better 2016.

This is the title page of my 2015 Project Life album. (2015 editable calendar by Designs by Lili at The Lilypad)

This year I have been doing LOTS of paper scrapping, and for the first time ever I’ve done more paper LOs than digi.

Scrapbooking:

  • 190 (86 digital layouts vs 104 paper)
  • 52 cards
  • 5 mini books
  • Project Life (hard to count because I had to catch up on 2014 on the first few months of the year, and now I am behind on 2015.. but let’s say 52 weeks’ worth – a 24″x12″ spread for each week, with numerous additional inserts)

Books read:
30

Miles flown:
approximately 50,936 miles

Cities visited (i.e., stayed at least 1 night):
15

Degrees earned:
1

Awards won:
2

Newspaper interviews:
2

Pounds gained:
7+ (yikes)

Photos taken:
7,500 circa (2,700 on my phone and 4,800 on my DSLR)

Yes, it’s been a good year indeed! Looking forward to a healthy and joyful 2016!

December Daily 2015 Recap

| cristina

One more December Daily post for the year.. a recap of my 2015 album. This is my 6th year completing a December Daily album, and the first time I’ve bought a DD kit.

I have to say that using the kit and a mini kit add on really made it easy to put the album together without losing too much time digging through my stash. The spine of the album I chose was pretty thick, yet I was surprised that I ended filling it all up!
Most of my spreads are dedicated to a single day, with just a few instances of 2 days combined in one spread.

I also loved the approach I took this year, inspired by Ali Edwards, to focus more on the stories rather than making sure to have one Christmas-related photo per day. This has been incredibly freeing!

I had a lot of content of the kit and mini kit leftover, especially papers, so after finishing up my 2015 album on the 26th, I powered through and got my 2014 album finished too.
Last year, my December Daily album got halted by a work emergency that occurred mid-month, and after December I just didn’t feel like going back to my album, which sat unfinished, with only days 1-7 completed.
But this year, after completing the 2015 album, I felt on a roll, and I was inspired to use the new supplies from this year on last year’s album.

And here’s a look at all six of my December Daily albums.

Thanks for following me on my December Daily journey this year!
______________________________________________
Catch up on my previous 2015 December Daily posts:
Title page
Dec. 1st
Dec. 2 and 3
Dec. 4th
Dec. 5th
Dec. 6th
Dec. 7th
Dec. 8th
Dec. 9 and 10
Dec. 11th
Dec. 12 and 13
Dec. 14th
Dec. 15th
Dec. 16th
Dec. 17th
Dec. 18th
Dec. 19th
Dec. 20th
Dec. 21st
Dec. 22nd
Dec. 23rd
Dec. 24th
Dec. 25th

Weekly Sale & New Website at The Lilypad

| cristina

Hello! It’s Wednesday and it’s time for the weekly 50% off sale off select products at The Lilypad. Also, did you check out their new website?? It’s really cool with lots of new features and easy to navigate!

I made two pages with the products on sale.

Credits:
Spirited kit by Etc. by Danyale
The Roots fonts by Heather Joyce
 

This fun kit was perfect to document our favorite cocktail of 2015: the Moscow Mule. 🙂

Credits:
 
The Golden Friends fonts by Heather Joyce

On this page I made a reflection on where we are at as a couple and what my hope is for the year to come. I love how it turned out!

December Daily 2015: Day 25

| cristina

And so we have gotten to the last day of my album! Christmas Day.

I did some minimal embellishing but really, it’s mainly about the photos for this day.

This first spread is about opening gifts.

I used a digital brush by Ali Edwards on top of my photo. Christmas breakfast is one of my favorite traditions! The journaling card is from the Jasmine Jones mini kit.

On the back of the journaling card I detailed the gifts I got. My husband totally surprised me with an Instax mini camera!

I embellished the card from the mini kit with some stamping using a set from Ali Edwards and color theory inks.
And after the gifts, it’s all about the food! 🙂

The card at the top is again from Jasmine Jones’s mini kit, while the one on the bottom was letterpressed by me using a plate by Studio Calico.
I even assembled my Raskog card on Christmas morning. 🙂 It’s my second one, and I love to house my Studio Calico stamps!

More cards from the mini kit here. The photos were assembled using these incredibly handy photo collage templates from The Lilypad.
I hand lettered our menu, which was incredibly festive this year, courtesy of Costco! 🙂 The alpha stickers are from Ali Edwards’s December Daily kit.

And that wraps up my 2015 album! I will post tomorrow a photo of the full album – it’s really quite full! I hope you’ve enjoyed my daily shares!
______________________________________________
Catch up on all my 2015 December Daily posts:
Title page
Dec. 1st
Dec. 2 and 3
Dec. 4th
Dec. 5th
Dec. 6th
Dec. 7th
Dec. 8th
Dec. 9 and 10
Dec. 11th
Dec. 12 and 13
Dec. 14th
Dec. 15th
Dec. 16th
Dec. 17th
Dec. 18th
Dec. 19th
Dec. 20th
Dec. 21st
Dec. 22nd
Dec. 23rd
Dec. 24th
Dec. 25th