Author: cristina

Summer Memories

| cristina

Hello and happy Friday! I have a page to share with a lovely new kit by Mari Koegelenberg today, and I will have even more projects to share tomorrow. 🙂 This has been an excellent scrappy week indeed!
Here is my page.

Credits:
Summer Memories by Mari Koegelenberg and Kelleigh Ratzlaff
The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens

I love that “summer” stamp – it comes also as a journaling card, and I’ve already printed out to add it to my Project Life album!

Friday Is A Good Day..

| cristina

Whoa, what a fabulous release weekend at The Lilypad! I am blown away by all the gorgeous new products (20% off through the weekend).  First off, a fantastic kit by One Little Bird.

And you get a free set of journaling cards (I used one below) if you purchase the kit this weekend. The kit totally inspired the theme for my page.

Credits:
Who I Am and Who I Am journaling cards by One Little Bird
Font: gimme space

I am madly in love with that background paper!

Next up, an awesome collab by Valorie Wibbens and Lauren Reid.

Once again, the kit inspired the theme for my page, and I am in love with the background paper. I’m kind of predicable, ain’t I? 😉

Credits:
Never Ever Land and Never Ever Land journal cards by Valorie Wibbens and Lauren Reid
Font: gimme space

I will be back later this weekend to show off all the new M3 (Mixed Media Monthly) releases and share a hybrid project I made with them. I just need to be home in daytime hours to take decent pictures!

Letterpress and Scrapbooking

| cristina

Hello! I am sharing here the post I made yesterday for the write.click.scrapbook blog on letterpress. I just started letter pressing last week, and I am in love! A while back I showed you how to create a faux letterpress look using embossing folders, but today I want to show you how to do real letter pressing.
Here is what you will need:

  • Die cutting machine. I have a Big Shot.
  • Letterpress platform. I have seen people who say they can letterpress just by adding some cardstock shims and the regular cutting pads, but I didn’t want to have to guess every time so I bought the platform – and I have no regrets! Especially since letterpress paper is pretty expensive and I don’t want to waste it on trials.
  • Letterpress paper. The type of paper you use is critical to get a deep impression and get the most out of your letterpressing. I know some crafters have great results with watercolor paper, but that has not been the case with the watercolor paper I had on hand, so letterpress paper it is for me.
  • Letterpress plates. There are many designs available, I’m sure you’ll have fun picking your favorites!
  • Ink. To be honest, I have not tried letterpress ink just yet. I’ve heard horror stories about how hard it is to clean up, so I started going the easy way, and I have just used ink pads for now. 🙂 The examples on this page use distress ink pads (I love the bright colors). I also love doing blind impressions (no ink) as I think adding the ink detracts a bit from the deep impression. More recently, I tried pigment inks and also letterpress inks – the cleanup isn’t really that bad as long as you use the convenient wipes that come in the letterpress kit, and the coverage is the best!
With the idea of putting a page together, I made two letterpressed cards using plates from Studio Calico.
For the card on the left I used the picked raspberry color, and I added spiced marmalade for the card on the right to get an ombre effect.
I used the Poet Society kits by Studio Calico for my page. Using the letterpressed cards, it was very easy to build a design using my photo and some strips of patterned paper. I added some stamping with grey ink to tie to the background paper, and completed the page with some gold splatters and sewing.
Here are a couple detail shots.
I hope this has inspired you to give lettepress a try – I love how easy it is to put together a page starting from a couple of letterpressed cards. Share your creations in the comments! I’d love to hear your tips too, as I am just starting out myself.

In Love with an Owl

| cristina

I have two pages to share today, both made with products that are 50% off today for the SOSN sale at The Lilypad. It does not get any better than this!

Credits:
Drafty Alphas v3 by Amy Martin
The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens
 

I loved the bold colors of this kit, so I picked some equally bright, recent photos that I wanted to scrap.

Credits:
Hoot Home Decor and Hoot Washi Tape by Lynne-Marie
Drafty Alphas v3 by Amy Martin

I made two matching pages, something I don’t often do, but it was the perfect way to scrap all these photos and still keep that pretty owl front and center. 🙂

Scrappy Blog Tour

| cristina

I was nominated by Jennifer Larson to be part of a scrap blog tour. Thank you so much Jenny!

1. What am I working on right now?
I am working on getting as many pages out of the Studio Calico Poet Society kits as I can. I have a tendency to hoard rather than use, and I am challenging myself to make the most out of this kit before  it’s time to go shopping again. 🙂 Here’s what I’ve made so far with it.

2. How long does it take me to create a project?
Digital page – 30-45 minutes, or less (from when I download the kit to when I’ve uploaded my completed page online).
Paper page – ~2 hours.
Project Life spread – several hours. Printing photos seems to take forever! I do it over multiple days/evenings.

3. What are my favorite things to create with at the moment?
Die cutting machine and Letterpress

Screenprinting has been super fun lately too.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?
I usually start either from a new product I want to use, or a photo I want to scrap. I get easily distracted, so I don’t like to spend hours on end on a project. 🙂

5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired?
It’s usually from the photographs I take. I get excited and want to scrap them right away. 🙂 I love my DSLR camera – I have a Canon 6D and I love it. Along with my 28 mm, 50 mm, 24-105 mm zoom and 55-300 mm zoom lenses.

6. What is my signature style?
I would say my projects tend to be on the simple side, not over-embellished, but I definitely love COLOR and STAMPING.

I nominate Lisa Truesdell, Nirupama Kumar and Celine Navarro. To my knowledge these ladies have not been on the blog tour before so I hope they’ll take part in it now!
ETA: Here’s Celine’s post!

September BYOC at The Lilypad

| cristina

Happy Friday! It’s BYOC (Build Your Own Collab) time at The Lilypad!

I love the deep colors, and especially the navy! So far, I made a card:

Credits:
Free Spirit Alpha by CD Muckosky

and a page:

Credits:
Documentary papers by Sahlin Studio
Heirloom papers and Heirloom elements by Paislee Press
In the Orchard elements by Stolen Moments Design
Heimili elements by Pink Reptile Designs
Little Talks elements by One Little Bird
Mended Corners by Amy Martin
Sprinkles v27 by Valorie Wibbens
The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens

I love how this turned out!
Have a nice Friday!

Hello September

| cristina

New month, new gallery at write.click.scrapbook. This month’s theme is Back to School.

As I am getting ready to start the second and last year of my degree, it was fun to sit back and look at the pictures I have collected over the past year. I decided to take a picture of me for each week of class, and I love looking back and thinking about all that I have accomplished.

Credits:
Project Grids 3 template by Amy Martin
Daiy Brads no. 1 and Typeset Alphas No. 3 by Sahlin Studio
The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens

There were a lot of colors in these pictures, so I decided to convert most of them to black and white and only keep a few favorites in color.

It’s kind of daunting to think I have nine more exams to go.. but one at a time, I will tackle them all. Let’s go!

50% Off Products

| cristina

It’s time for the weekly 50% off sale at The Lilypad! Lots of products on sale. There is also still time to play along in the challenges of the We Are Storytellers event: the deadline is next Tuesday.
Here are two pages I made with some of the discounted items.

Credits:
Strength in Hope by Stolen Moments and Litabells Designs
Doodled Borders no. 1 by Pink Reptile Designs
A Bit Worn alpha by Valorie Wibbens
The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens

I clearly love that big worn alpha template set. 🙂

Credits:
Foxy bundle by Forever Joy
Doodled Borders no. 1 by Pink Reptile Designs
A Bit Worn alpha by Valorie Wibbens

Ready for fall?? Well, not really, but I sure am ready for a Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks.. so I may very well be ready for fall after all. 🙂

More Pages

| cristina

I have a few new pages to share with new releases from the last couple of days. First up, a lovely kit by creashens, with which I made this page.

Credits:
Splendid kit, Washed Papers and Splendid Brushes by creashens
The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens

The fun colors and the pineapples were perfect for these photos! 🙂

Next, I made a page with the new collection at Digital Design Essentials.
Credits:
About a Boy collection bundle and cork alpha from Because I’m Happy by Digital Design Essentials
The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens
I hope you’re having a good weekend. We had a “fun” weekend project – our garage door broke so we had to replace the springs.. took all the morning pretty much but at least it worked out well. I’m hoping tomorrow is more fun. 🙂