GSO

January BYOC at The Lilypad!

| cristina

I am so excited for all the inspiration at The Lilypad! Not only is the January BYOC in the store, but January is the Month of Challenges: each day a new challenge is posted! I’m loving it and I’m super inspired! And this isn’t only a great motivation to start off the year well and get those memories scrapped – if you complete all 31 challenges by Feb 2nd, you could win a permanent Polly spot (best team ever!!)! Check it out:

I’ll be hosting the challenge for Jan. 16th, but I’m playing along in the challenges too – I want to see how many I can get done! 🙂

After several weeks of little to no scrapping, with the end of the semester and all the holiday activities, I am finally back on schedule and scrapping – and I love it! Here’s what I’ve done with the January BYOC so far.

First off, I was inspired by Valorie Wibbens’ new frames to make a compilation of all my favorite TLP pages from 2012:

2012 Favorites
Credits:
My Gallery by Valorie Wibbens
In Review elements by One Little Bird
Smudge Alpha by Gina Miller

ETA: this page was picked as a weekly highlight at the Club CK blog! 🙂
Fun!! This next page is for the Jan. 1st challenge – Clean and Simple – which is right up my alley.

Tomorrow
Credits:
Simple Things elements by Pink Reptile Designs
Yellow paper from In Review papers by One Little Bird
The Chickens font by Heather Joyce

And since I was loving the frames so much, I made another page with them. 🙂

Vacation Highlights

Not my usual style, but I love how it turned out! 🙂

Birthday Kit

| cristina

Ju Kneipp has a new birthday kit in the store today, and it was just what I needed to scrap my birthday!

I had fun making this page!

Make A Wish

Credits:
Party Over Here by Ju Kneipp

I also used the kit to make a birthday card for my grandmother, since her birthday is coming up soon. I have a confession to make.. as much as I love making cards, I have a complete aversion to making birthday cards. Not really sure why! But I love how this one turned out!

Credits:
Party Over Here by Ju Kneipp
Markerific alpha by CD Muckosky
Also a Very Small Alpha by Allison Pennington
Here’s a detail:

ETA 9/24: I got a gallery standout for this card! 😉

I am totally ready for the weekend… just one more day to go! 🙂

Awesome

| cristina

I rarely ever scrap for challenges nowadays, but whenever I do, somehow I end up with pages that I truly love. This one is no exception.

Awesome, Credits: [url=http://www.the-lilypad.com/store/product.php?productid=4978]Layered Templates - Neatnik Set #2[/url] by Gina Miller [url=http://www.the-lilypad.com/store/product.php?productid=4748]Stinkin Cute[/url] by Valorie Wibbens and Creations by TinaMarie [url=http://www.the-lilypad.com/store/product.php?productid=5339]Daydreamer alphas[/url] by The Tattered Pear [url=http://www.the-lilypad.com/store/product.php?productid=4647]The Typewriter font[/url] by Heather Hess

Credits:
Stinkin Cute by Valorie Wibbens and Creations by TinaMarie
Daydreamer alphas by The Tattered Pear
The Typewriter font by Heather Hess

I made this page for a challenge at Club Creating Keepsakes – it was my very first LO uploaded there, and I was picked for the weekly highlights! Pretty cool!!

A very good way to start the week. 🙂

Happy Birthday TLP!

| cristina

The Lilypad is turning 5, and there’s a whole weekend of fun planned to celebrate this birthday!

There are many games and challenges going on in the forum, with lots of chances to win prizes! I am hosting two challenges. The first one is the Kiss the Frog challenge, which is lots of fun and my personal favorite (I won a Kiss the Frog contest a few months back, became a Guest Polly… and the rest is history! ;)):

And then I’m also hosting the Polly Match Game, which is really fun too:

There are 12 baby pictures and you have to match them to the correct Pollys. I had DH try it last night and he only got 3 out of 12… (one was me)!!! 😀 But I’m sure you’ll do much better than that! 🙂

I also made a page for another challenge in which we have to scrap about what happened on our birth date (day or year). I scrapped about the date:

August 28

Credits:
Newspaper Print Papers by Jenna Desai
Newsies papers by Jacque Larsen
News to Me Alphabet by Rachel Young
Everything else from Wicked Smart collab by The Lilypad designers
Fonts: The Serif’s Sister by Heather Hess and The First Day of School by Heather Hess

ETA: Woot!! I got a GSO today for this page!!

Do check out the birthday forum for more fun games, including Make a Wish giveaways! And there are chats and speed scraps too! But that’s not all! There’s a FREE kit for you too!

Just like TLP on Facebook and you’ll be able to download this gorgeous collab! I hope to see you around this weekend at TLP!

The January BYOC Is Here

| cristina

Finally! The January BYOC is in the shop! I know many of us have been anxiously awaiting this new collection, and I know you won’t be disappointed! The products are all revolving around Project 365/Life/52 and they will really help you to stick to the project you choose throughout the year. This year, as I already mentioned, I will be doing a physical Project Life album. In 2011, I started and haven’t completed a digital P365 (but in fact it was more of a Project Life than P365 since my intention was to scrap the photos, not just take them). I have been doing 2-page spreads for each week, but have fallen behind. When I saw these templates by Emily Merritt, though, I have felt the urge to go back and try to finish my pages:

I started scrapping the latest page, Week 52 – the last week of 2011.

P365/2011 Week 52

Credits:
Fonts: Pea Pumpkin Peters, Traveling Typewriter

As you may notice, I am having way too much fun with my RadLab – and this from someone who openly disliked editing photos! I love the format of Emily’s template – having square blocks for pictures make it easy to fit most pictures, be they horizontal or vertical. I am now debating whether I should go back and finish my missing pages using this week in a page format or stick to the week in 2 pages that I had been doing. I do like to keep my photos kind of big, plus in 2011 I had modified the P365 concept to include multiple photos per day if necessary, because keeping just one was too limiting, so it would weird to have multiple photos for the first part of the year and just one for the rest. I am still undecided… But let’s move on to more BYOC goodies! If you’re doing a digital version of Project Life, these page protectors are a must have!!

and these little bits are really useful too:

Then there are these cards, that are essential for both digi and hybrid:

I have already printed out a bunch to keep handy for my Project Life album. 🙂 In the meantime, though, I’ve also scrapped with them! 🙂

Mom's Visit Day 15 - The Good Life

Credits:
Good Life by Lauren Reid
This and Thats by The Tattered Pear
Kraft paper from Highlight of the Week Templates by Emily Merritt
Fonts: Pea Pumpkin Peters, Traveling Typewriter

All the BYOC products work perfectly fine even if you aren’t doing P365/Life/52, and I especially loved these templates by Sara Gleason:

And this paper set by Amber Clegg:

Perfect to scrap a bunch of photos easily!

Mom's Visit Day 15: Lunch

Credits:
Pansy templates by Sara Gleason
This and Thats by The Tattered Pear
Wet Paint Alpha by CD Muckosky
Font: Pea Pumpkin Peters

Well, as you can see, I am still working on finishing up the album about my mom’s visit last spring – only 7 more pages to go! They will be a breeze to scrap with these new products! 🙂

ETA: I got a GSO for my P365 page today!! 😉

August Already?!

| cristina

August is here and the new monthly challenges at The Lilypad are posted! I made a page for the formula challenge, for which we have to make a page using only 1 paper, 1 element, 1 picture, 1 alpha, 1 font and 1 color.

A heart C

Credits:
Candyland alpha by CD Muckosky
Christmas Countdown by Valorie Wibbens
Gimme Space font by Lauren Reid and Darcy Baldwin

I cannot believe August is here already! It’s going to be a busy month for me so I’m afraid there won’t be much scrapping/crafting from me this month. But apart from work, work, work, DH and I are planning an impromptu trip too, so it’ll be fun! 🙂

ETA: I got a GSO (gallery standout) for this page! 🙂

ETA2: I also got a GSO at Me So Scrappy. 🙂

ETA3: I got LOTW (layout of the week) at Me So Scrappy! 🙂

Happy Chinese New Year!

| cristina

Last night DH and I celebrated Chinese New Year’s eve. I made him cook a nice Chinese dinner: I don’t know how authentic it was, but I can testify it was absolutely delicious! This is the year of the rabbit, and I’m very happy because I am very fond of bunnies. Here’s the card I made to celebrate the year of the rabbit:

Happy New Chinese Year card

Happy New Chinese Year card

Credits:
Sheng Xiao by ViVa Artistry

A very quick, print only card, but cute!

ETA: well, guess what?!! I got a GSO with this one!! Yipeeee! 🙂

Good to Be Home!

| cristina

Having spent most of December away from home, my creating habits have been thrown off a bit. It is so good to be home! This week I was able to sneak in a little time to be crafty and use my Silhouette. I had missed it during the holidays! 🙂
Jenn Barrette’s today’s new release at The LilyPad was just screaming ‘hybrid’ to me!

Isn’t this kit just adorable?? The patterns are so unique, and all the phone elements are too cute for words! And the best part is that it’s 30% off for the weekend!
So here’s what my Silhouette and I made:

And the fun part is that the dial spins for real! 😉

Phone Card 2

I just love the paper I used for the back of the card:

Phone Card 4

And here’s the inside:

Phone Card 2

ETA: I got a GSO for this card! (it’s my 1st hybrid GSO!)
Now check out what else Jenn has in her Sweet Shoppe store today, 20% off:

I have already cut some bits and pieces for a card, so look out for that soon.
I have lots of stuff to do this weekend: we bought some shelves and we need to set them up; I also really have to take pictures of my Dec. Daily album (it would be high time for that, huh??)! 🙂

December!

| cristina

Wow, I cannot believe that December is almost gone! I have done very little craft-wise this month, because of a two and a half week trip back home for Christmas. The only thing I did was scrap 4 pages with the new December kit by Gina Marie Huff. I scrapped the first in the airport waiting for our connection, then did 3 more pages one of the first days of my trip. 🙂 This collection was perfect to scrap some of my December pictures! Here’s the new goodies Gina put together:

For an alpha junkie like me, these alphas are heaven!!

And here are my pages:

Home for Christmas

Credits:
Sweet and Simple #12 papers, elements, ornaments and alphas by Gina Marie Huff
Font: CK Ali’s hand
Photo action by Paint the Moon Photography

All I Want for Christmas

Credits:
Sweet and Simple #12 papers, elements, alphas and wordart by Gina Marie Huff
Font: Traveling Typewriter
Photo actions by Paint the Moon Photography and Pioneer Woman

I got a GSO with this one!! 😀

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Credits:
Sweet and Simple #12 papers, elements, alphas and wordart by Gina Marie Huff
Font: CK Ali’s hand
Photo action by Paint the Moon Photography

Christmas Shopping

Credits:
Sweet and Simple #12 papers, elements, alphas and wordart by Gina Marie Huff
Font: CK Ali’s hand and Century Gothic
Photo action by Pioneer Woman

I had hoped to have more free time during my trip (I was planning to take detailed pictures of my December Daily album… but I haven’t been able to do that, so that will have to wait until I catch up with other things now that I’m back home!). But of course I’m not complaining, it was good to see friends and family! I love this last picture of my parents & me. 🙂

Yay Me!

| cristina

This week has been very rewarding for me scrapping-wise! It started off Monday when 2 (yes, two!) of my LOs were featured on the Daily Digi blog (this and this page): thanks to my friend Sunghee for letting me know!! ;). And then today I got a GSO on the GalleryStandouts blog for this page!

Credits:
Houses and tree from Get a Move on by the ScrapMatters Design Team
Paper from Background Essentials by Jennifer Barrette
Leaves from Midnight Crow by Chelle’s Creations
Snow from Feeling Frosty by Jennifer Barrette Designs
Grass from Totally Buggin’ by Britt-ish Designs and Mira Designs
Free Spirit alpha by CD Muckosky
Font: SS Whimsy

I am having another super crazy week at work (just sneaking in 10 minutes to write this post) and absolutely no free time. I had the idea for this page Sunday night and had been dying to scrap it since then! I’m off to a conference tomorrow and flying back next Sunday so I am doubly glad I squeezed in this page last night in half an hour between the laundry and dinner. 🙂
So I guess you want to hear more about the story? 😉 Well, our neighbor is a bit OCD about mowing his lawn. He mows it twice a week, which really is a bit too often. Of course, DH is quite the opposite: he mows it every 2 weeks, which is not quite often enough. ðŸ™‚ But our neighbor is so obsessive about his lawn that if my husband mows our lawn, than you can rest assured that the following day our neighbor will mow his, regardless of how tall his grass is. Anyway, Sunday we got home after Church and saw that our neighbor was mowing the lawn and had blown the leaves in our front lawn into a nice pile. He doesn’t have trees in the front, so all the leaves were coming from our trees. Since this was a pretty obvious hint, and since most of the work had been done already and all that was left to do was bag the leaves, I tried to convince DH to do it together. But he wouldn’t budge so I gave up – I wasn’t going to do it on my own. A couple hours later, said neighbor rang at the door: he said he had filled a couple bags with our leaves since he was already working in the garden and it didn’t take him long.
Now, seriously, this was embarassing. My husband even told him that he had been too busy to take care of it because he was leaving this week – but in fact he’s home all week! ðŸ™‚
But thinking back at it, this guy is really a bit weird for doing that! What do you think?
I have to add that their house is for sale so he obviously wants to make a good impression, but hey, it’s autumn, and leaves do fall. We already have a lot that have fallen since.
Anyway, that’s our story! 🙂