Author: cristina

Mixed Media Monthly – February

| cristina

Hello and happy Friday! Today is a very good day- not only is it Friday, but it’s time for the new Mixed Media Monthly (M3) release at The Lilypad. I loved the kit so much this month!!
I made three pages just with the kit.

Credits:

I used this adorable heart background to list all the things I am loving right now.

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Those clustered hearts are fantastic!

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I love the pink and all the painted bits!
I also made two pages using some of the M3 add ons.

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I used the M3 main kit in addition to some add ons here.

 

Credits:
Soul Food and Love Bursts by Lynne-Marie

I hope your end of the week is a good one too!

Sketch Your World – Week 3

| cristina

Hello! I have been busy busy busy lately learning new things. I am loving the the Sketch Your World class at Studio Calico (enrollment is now closed), and I am also learning how to do brush lettering. So I wanted to share what I sketched this week. These are all things around my house that I love.


My  sketchbook is not made of watercolor paper so it doesn’t hold up too well to water, and created a texture on the paper that I actually quite like – it was perfect for the bunny I sketched, based on a wooden bunny we have in our kitchen.


I bought a new watercolor set for this class, the Sakura Koi field set, and I love it! So I sketched that as well. 🙂


I also sketched this much loved date stamp – a staple for my Project Life. I used the silver watercolor from the Kuretake Gansai Tambi set for the metal part (too bad you can’t quite tell from the photo).

I was surprised at how quickly these sketches came together. Before starting the class, I was intimidated by the idea of sketching, but Olya’s lessons have given me confidence to just jump in and try, no overthinking allowed – and it works for me!

I am also really loving the new mini book class by April Foster that started yesterday. LOVE!! Also… if you want to pick up the same kit she used for the class (the Lollipop Guild Dec. ’15 scrapbook kit), it is on discount for a very low price – $10… make sure to check it out here before it sells out! Also, the stamp set designed by One Little Bird for the class is super versatile.


If you are looking for mini book inspiration, I  highly recommend signing up for the mini book library class bundle, it’s going to be a great year for mini album making!

Sketch Your World – Week 2

| cristina

Hello hello! It’s time to update you with what I have made this week in the Sketch Your World class at Studio Calico.

This week’s assignment was to draw some shapes and add watercolors. I used the Fude Ball 1.5 pen

 because it has a nice thick tip that gave me the look I was after.
I’m excited to move on to next week’s class – sketching indoors! If you want to join, you have time until February 15th to sign up. Hope to see you in class!

Ouch

| cristina

Yes, ouch! After doing better than I was expecting the first few weeks after my surgery, last week I hit a down point and have been feeling sore ever since. 🙁
I have been trying to take it easy after that.. I hope to get on the mend soon! In the meantime, I resorted to some scrap therapy – that’s the best therapy there is, isn’t it? I used some products that are 50% right now at The Lilypad. Go check them out!

Credits:

Press Play 05 templates by Lynne-Marie

Hope to be back soon with some better news!

February Kit Workshops at Studio Calico

| cristina

I’m very excited about this month’s teachers for the workshops at Studio Calico providing inspiration on how to stretch your Scrapbook and Documenter kits!

Pam Baldwin is teaching the scrapbook workshop, while Brandi Kincaid is teaching the Documenter workshop. They are both amazing and I can’t wait to see what they created!
Each workshop comes with 3 lessons, plus some digital content – this month it’s some super versatile printables. I can’t wait to receive my kit this week and start creating!

Mini Book Library 2016 at Studio Calico

| cristina

Do you love making mini books? I do, and I love this one I made last year from one of the Mini Book classes at Studio Calico:

(check out the full album here.. and a warming – it’s got a LOT of pages! :))

This week Studio Calico announced the lineup of new mini book classes for this year, and I cannot wait to start! The first class starts Feb. 15th and is taught by April Foster.

And after that there will be 5 more mini book classes this year!

April 2016 | Caylee Grey – Art journal mini book
June 2016 | Lisa Truesdell – Notebook mini
August 2016 | Tina Aszmus – Chipboard + journal cards
October 2016 | Karen Baker – binder album
November 2016 | Stephanie Bryan – Calendar album

I love how these classes will cover different styles of mini albums – I’m always up for trying something new!
The classes are also available as part of a bundle at a discount (you get 2 classes for free!)

You can only sign up for the bundle through February, so don’t wait too long.
See you in class!

Sketch Your World – Week 1

| cristina

I have been working entirely from home since my surgery, but this week I had two full days of meetings (yesterday and today) and went to the office. Ouch, it was definitely too much for me! I had been feeling great up to that point, but I overdid it for sure. I will be taking it easy until Monday now. So other than resting up, I haven’t done much this week.. but I did do my first homework in the Sketch Your World class that started this week at Studio Calico.

I took out all my pens, and started out my new sketchbook by testing them out. I also tried watercoloring in the book since it’s not a watercolor album and I wanted to see how it holds up – it warped some, but I think I can live with it for this class.

Here’s the list of pens I used:
Micron 03
Faber Castell Pitt
Precision Pen 01
Sharpie Fine
Uni-ball vision micro
Fude Ball 1.5

I have a love/hate relationship with Micron – I used to love it for journaling in my Project Life, until I found the Precision Pen and my favorite pen ever – the Uni-ball vision micro.  I struggle with finding the right angle to use the micron..
The Faber Castell Pitt is a nice set – it comes in a set of 4 that also includes a brush pen, which I really like.
The Sharpie Fine is another reliable pen I like a lot.
The Fude Ball is apparently great to write on paint / mixed media. I haven’t used it much yet but it does seem to write very smoothly. It is quite thick though, so I stick to my Uni-ball most of the time.

I’m excited to move on to next week’s class! If you want to join, you have time until February 15th to sign up. Hope to see you in class!

Hearts Galore

| cristina

Hello hello! Today is the day for the weekly 50% sale on select products at The Lilypad, and since it’s February, there’s a lot of hearts and pink to be had – and I am not one to complain, that’s for sure!!

Credits:

Hearts Galore Templates by Scrapping with Liz
Without a Doubt papers and Drama Queen Adore by Valorie Wibbens

On Monday I was able to bribe my husband in taking some long-awaited photographs of the two of us, so of course I scrapped them right away.


Credits:

Be Mine {Dressed Down} Templates by Fiddle-dee-dee Designs
License Plate Metal Alpha by Paula Kesserling

I clearly put all the new photos to good use! 🙂 These pages will likely also get repurposed in my 2017 calendar (each year I make a photo calendar as Christmas gift for our parents, and using some pages as calendar toppers).


Credits:

Fig Tree Elements and Petals no. 6 {love} by Sara Gleason
For the Love of 2016: Bundle 1 by Allison Pennington


These Petals by Sara Gleason are seriously awesome!! Perfect to build a page, or ten!

Credits:

Sprinkles v. 20 by Valorie Wibbens

I had started this page almost one month ago, but was in need of a recent photo – finally I was able to finish it up!

Studio Calico February Kits

| cristina

Hello and happy February! It’s Reveal Day at Studio Calico for the Savannah kits, and to get in the mood for these lovely new kits I have made a page with some of the digital printables.

The hard part was to get my husband to pose in the photo.. plus it’s been so dark here lately! In fact, this is an older photo, so I will swap it out as soon as we take new pictures. I’m hoping today is the day! 🙂

The 3″x3″ card printable set I used also is available as a physical product (starting at noon EST today if you are a subscriber, and at 3 PM EST for everyone). I resized the cards at 2.5″ for my page prior to printing them out. I cut out all the labels with my Silhouette so they are ready to go – super handy for Project Life with the Documenter kit! I love that they come with a blank version and a version with some pre-printed words on the labels – I chose to print the latter.

I also used some heart puffy stickers and an old stamp to finish this page.

For the cards that say “I love you”, I used my newly discovered foiling technique.

Happy Reveal Day!
If you want to start a new six- or 12-month subscription you can get a new Hello Forever planner ($54.99 value) for free in your choice of color. Just use GRAYSTONEFREE, MELONFREE or CLEARSKYFREE at checkout in the promo code box. 🙂 Offer valid this month only!