Month: January 2012

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!! 😉

December Daily 2011 – Completed!

| cristina

I am so excited to share my completed December Daily album! I made the cover from scratch and I love how it turned out. I started from some cardboard from some packaging that DH had put away for me. 😉 I cut it to size and punched the holes with my Cinch.

DD 2011 - 25

Then I just painted it with white acrylic paint, and decorated.

DD 2011

The Santa card is from Kitschy Christmas by Jenn Barrette and Sahlin Studio available at The Lilypad and at Sweet Shoppe Designs; the tree is from Jolly Golly by Cosmo Cricket; the charm is by Tim Holtz; the reindeer is by Recollections; the snowflake is from Snow Day by Crate Paper. I printed out “countown to Christmas 2011” on copy paper (I love how it curls up! I will definitely be doing this on my Project Life too!), with font Traveling Typewriter. I cut the numbers with my Silhouette, layered 3 copies and covered them with glitter and a coat of Glossy Accents. So pretty!! I originally planned to use them on my Dec. 25 page, but ended up not needing them, so they were perfect for the cover.

DD 2011

DD 2011

DD 2011

When I was working on the cover, I’d originally started out with design:

DD 2011

Kitschy Christmas by Jenn Barrette and Sahlin Studio available at The Lilypad and at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Then I came up with the other version, and had a hard time picking the one to go with. DH preferred this one with the bells, but I was loving the one with Santa so I went with it. The bells go in the inside back cover.

I put this pretty calendar from Big Ol’ Tags 3 by Lauren Reid in the inside front cover:

DD 2011 inside cover

I’m so happy with how my album turned out, and I’m really happy to have finished it so quickly! 🙂 I don’t know if I’ll be doing another DD album in 2012, but my process for 2011 was very smooth and fun so I very well might. 🙂

Project Life 2012

| cristina

This year I am doing Project Life, a concept started by Becky Higgins. It started out as a paper album, but there is a digital version too. You can use it for whatever you wish, but the common use is to document the everyday life. It consists of a binder with plastic page protectors with inserts of different size, in which you can slip a photo or a journaling card. For the past year or so, I’ve seen several examples of Project Life (one name for all: Ali Edwards) but I wasn’t in love. Then one of my favorite digi designers, Lili of Designs by Lili, was chosen to design one of the two new kits, and I started paying closer attention to the PL world. I soon realized that making a physical album had one great advantage over a digital P365: you can include memorabilia. So I decided to jump on the PL wagon this year. I bought a bunch of goodies: the Clementine kit and binder (designed by Lili), the big variety pack of plastic page protectors, a pack of G design, a pack of 6″x12″ protectors, a pack of big envelopes, and a pack of blank journaling cards. I plan to treat it pretty much as I did my digital P365 album – a day to day storytelling. When I first got my binder and the big protector pages, I was a bit a lot  scared at the size of the thing – I am so NOT used to 12″x12″! But then I decided that instead of being afraid to fill this album, I will treat it as the opportunity to stretch my creativity and try something new. Having the small inserts instead of a big 12×12 canvas is also going to help me a lot. There is so much inspiration out there (thank you, Pinterest!), and I am excited to embark on this journey!

I have done my title page. Since I do my weeks Monday through Sunday, and this year started on a Sunday, I decided to use my Jan. 1st picture as part of the title page. Other than that, I used cards from the Clementine kit, paper tape, and some letters cut out with the Silhouette. Very simple.

Project Life 2012 - Title page, Font: American Typewriter

Taking a picture of the spread was not an easy task – the reflections from the plastic were so annoying! I can see this as being a major nuisance throughout the year.

Oh, by the way, have you ever wondered what happens if you print on the wrong side of photo paper? This!

PL

This is what happens when you’re too lazy to check which side your photo tray wants up. 😉 I was scared when I pulled the top picture out of the printer, but then I realized what had happened and had a good laugh! 🙂

So far I have not done any planning ahead for the project, but I am eager to start. I am waiting to gather the first few days of pictures to plan my weekly spread. Since I bought a variety of protector designs, it will take a bit more planning to figure it out, but I think it’ll be fun to do. In the meantime, I have played a bit with my mists and the blank journaling cards:

PL journaling cards

I have also printed out some goodies that are coming out this Friday in the January BYOC at The Lilypad, so if you’re considering Project Life/P365/P52 this year – be it digi or hybrid – keep an eye out for the new releases!

I will come back and share my progress with my album as soon as I have something! 🙂

December Daily 2011 – Days 24-25

| cristina

My 2011 December Daily album is almost finished! Here are pages 24 and 25:

DD 2011 - 24

Credits:
Falala papers by Rachel Young Designs
Font: American Typewriter

I love this picture of DH and me in front of the Chrismtas tree!

DD 2011 - 25

Credits:
Downtown Christmas papers by The Tattered Pear
Font: CK Ali’s hand

I was clearly bored with the project by this point (I found it really hard to stay motivated once Christmas had passed), so instead of wasting time on journaling and selecting photos, I made a collage with all my favorites of the day. Works for me! I decided to end the album with the 25th, since this year my album has been focused on Christmas, and also because DH and I were out of town the week of the 26th.

Yesterday I finally tackled the task that was scaring me the most: the binding of my album. I bought a Cinch a few weeks ago but hadn’t used it in a project yet, and I was terrified of botching my pretty December Daily album!! Of course, everything went well. 🙂 This is what my album looks now:

DD 2011

All the pages are done, and I’ve started working on the cover. It will be wire bound. It’s less than an inch thick at this point, so it’s a lot more manageable than last year’s album. 🙂 I will try to work on my cover later today, so I should be able to share the finished album soon.

Happy 2012!

| cristina

This month’s featured kit by Sahlin Studio is New Year’s Eve, a collab with Valorie Wibbens. Check out Krista’s blog for a discount and a chance to win a gift card! Here’s a Happy New Year card I made with it and the coordinating add on:

Happy New Year 2012 card

I added Stickles on the glitter alpha, it’s so sparkly! 🙂

2011 in review

| cristina

As a new year begins, it’s time to review how the old year fared. I have to say, 2011 has been a very good year for me, on all aspects. Scrap-wise, here are some numbers for 2011:

  • 81 hybrid projects completed (including 52 cards for my Project 52 cards)
  • 2 December Daily albums completed (well, still missing the cover and binding of one, but it still counts 😉 )
  • 137 digital layouts completed (including 51 for my mom’s spring visit album – only 9 more pages to be scrapped for that!)
  • 1 calendar (12 months+cover) for 2012 completed, and one page done for the 2013 calendar
  • A half-done P365: Weeks 1-11, 17 and 52 are completed; Weeks 13-16, 18, 23-32 are partially done (they have photos and journaling); the rest are undone.
Not too bad, I’d say. I am sorry for not keeping up with the P365; I am hoping to finish it up a bit, because it would be just a waste to let it lie like this, but realistically I will not have time to do it. I am embarking in a new project this year, Project Life, so it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep up with printing photos for my album. I sure hope so! 🙂
The topic of the journaling challenge this month at The Lilypad is very inspiring – scrap 11 highlights of 2011. Here’s what I came up with:

Top 11 for '11,

Credits:
Messy Machine Grids by Emily Merritt
Fonts: Century Gothic and Pea Pumpkin Peters

A very good year indeed! Nothing major, but many good little things.

Happy 2012!

| cristina

Happy new year! I’ll have a ‘2011 in review’ post up later (I’m working on a LO), so for now let me just share the latest kit by Jenn Barrette (out today, and 20% off). It is adorable!!

As you might notice from the new kit preview, there has been a site redesign at the Sweet Shoppe – go check it out. I quite like it! 🙂
I was out of town this week (I followed DH on a business trip) so I couldn’t go hybrid with this kit, but I certainly could scrap, and scrap I did! 🙂

Snow Bunny

Credits:
Snow Bunny by Jenn Barrette
Font: Pea Pumpkin Peters

This kit is so much fun!