Falalalala

| cristina

So have you survived DSD? I didn’t spend much time online, because I wanted to spend time with DH who is finally back home after 2 weeks of traveling, and I also wanted to make progress on my December daily album. I have made progress (still not much – 5 pages only! – but it’s coming along) and I can confirm once again that the Silhouette machine is my best purchase E.V.E.R. I am totally in love!
Here’s a few sneak peeks of what I have accomplished this weekend:

Snow Much Fun by Mari Koegelenberg Creations
Line It Up: Templates v. 1 by Krisi’s Kreations

Retro Christmas by Michelle Coleman
Very Merry by Britt-ish Designs and DeCrow Designs

I also bought my first paper kit ever (you can see it in action in the top picture: the green paper)! Well, not a kit but some bits and pieces: a 6×6 paper pad and some adorable chipboard accents. From this collection. I’ve been drooling over it ever since the first projects with it were posted back in July.
So, from digi to paper? 😉 No, my album is still mainly hybrid, but it really is super convenient to be able to add in a few double sided pages without having to print out my own and glue them together. 🙂 Plus, it’s such a pretty, pretty collection! I’ve been craving something like this in digi ever since I saw it, but haven’t found it.

I’m seriously starting to wonder what I am going to do when this album will be completed. I mean, how in the world am I going to find the courage to cover up these pretty pages with photos and journaling bits?? They are so cute just as they are! 🙂 Seriously! I’m thinking I’m going to write in very tiny handwriting, and maybe add pictures on extra pages? Hmmm…
I’m still not 100% sure that I will be able to finish this project, because it’s taking me a lot of time and December is getting so close!, but I sure hope so because I’m loving it so far!

DSD Blog Train

| cristina

Happy DSD!! 🙂 And welcome to another stop of the ScrapMatters blog train.
ScrapMatters is having a great celebration for Digital Scrapbooking Day, including a fantastic sale, a gorgeous free with $20 purchase collab kit Many Thanks, games, chats, speed scraps… you name it, it’s happening this weekend at ScrapMatters! 😉

The designers have some fabulous new products in the store and I am really in love with this huge collab, it is just beautiful!

Since the theme of this blog train is Thankfulness, I wanted to share something I am grateful for today. I am grateful for having a loving husband who takes care of me and makes me laugh and puts up with all my scrapbooking time. 🙂 He also does special things for me, and I want to tell you about the most recent one. He has been traveling for work these past two weeks, but last week he hid a gift for me in the house. It’s a bracelet he made for me:

Credits:
Many Thanks collab by the ScrapMatters Design Team

Isn’t that sweet? So it looks like I’m no longer the only one in the family putting together handmade gifts. 😉

Anyway, here is the little something I created for you:

I hope you like it, so please leave me a comment if you do! 🙂
This freebie will be available only for one week, so grab it quick! [ETA: 11/13 this freebie is no longer available, thanks for your interest]

It’s time to keep riding the blog train. You should have come here from Liz’s blog and now you can head off to Tanya’s blog to pick up your next goodie! If you get lost, just head back to the ScrapMatters blog.

Make sure you check out the special DSD section in the forum so you don’t miss out on all the fun games and events that the team has organized! 😉 You will find a schedule there too.

Are You Ready?!?

| cristina

I don’t even know where to start to show you all the fabulous products Jenn has in the store today!! And the best news is that everything is 30% off!
She is also guesting at Zig Zag Scrap this month, so she has a few kits there too. I will start by showing you what she has at the Sweet Shoppe.

The colors and textures of this kit are unbelievably yummy! Here is my page with it:

Credits:
Cup of Joy by Jenn Barrette
Font: Traveling Typewriter

Next, a Christmas kit, finally! 🙂 I’m all ready to scrap and create Christmas-y stuff! 🙂

I love the patterns and colors of this kit!

Credits:
Christmas Cheer, frame from Fresh Start: Layered Templates and Say What!: vol. 1 by Jenn Barrette

In this page I also used two of the fab CU products Jenn has in her grab bag with Lauren Grier:

I loved this kit so much that I got another page done:

Credits:
Christmas Cheer by Jenn Barrette
Date Stamp Classic by Britt-ish Designs
Font: SS Whimsy

Look out for something hybrid coming with this kit soon too! 🙂 Hopefully I can work a bit on my Dec. Daily album this weekend.

Ready for more? 🙂 Here’s a new collab kit Jenn has with Kristin Cronin-Barrow:

And my page:

Journaling:
As my life has gotten busier and busier during the past year, I find myself assigning priorities to the stuff I need to do and to the stuff I want to do.
Sometimes giving up something frees time for other things I care more about. And I am less stressed out because I accept that I cannot get it all done.

Credits:
Take Note by Kristin Cronin-Barrow and Jenn Barrette
Fonts: Pea Summer Funkyness and Schoolhouse Cursive B

Jenn is also finally re-releasing some of my favorite products of hers. This collab with Captivated Visions:

Here’s a page I did with this for my calendar:

Credits:
Online by Jenn Barrette and Captivated Visions
Fancy Flourish stamps by Jenna Desai
The Alpha Files no. 5 by Krystal Hartley

Finally (at SSD), here’s her fabulous shadow styles, back in the store! These styles are fantastic and I highly recommend them!

And there’s more! 🙂 Here’s what Jenn has at her guest store at Zig Zag Scrap:

OK, this is the one kit I don’t have a page for… 😉
And finally:

Credits:
A Shabby Kinda Love by Jenn Barrette
Font: SS Whimsy

I absolutely love how this page turned out! 🙂

OK, that’s all folks. I told you Jenn has been busy creating!! 🙂 Happy DSD!

DSD is here!

| cristina

I’m so excited about DSD (digital scrapbooking day) because there are some incredible sales going on (40% off at ScrapMatters, the best deal all over digi-land!) and the designers have created an amazing number of gorgeous new products! I wish I had the time to use it all!
I only had time to scrap with one product this week, and I picked this beautiful kit by Erica Zane:

Here’s my page:

Credits:
All Fall Down by Erica Zane
Font: SS Whimsy

Make sure you check out the special DSD section in the forum so you don’t miss out on all the fun games and events that the team has organized! 😉 You will find a schedule there too.
Happy DSD!

Gearing Up for DSD!

| cristina

DSD (Digital Scrapbooking Day) is coming up next weekend, and the designers are busy preparing new products for this great shopping spree! DSD is really a fabulous time for digi scrappers, who can take advantage of great sales and fun events.

At ScrapMatters, we’re having a week-long 40% off sale (the best deal ever!), fun games, a blog train, a beautiful kit free with $20 purchase… So much fun!

And Jenn Barrette is busy putting together so many fabulous kits you won’t believe your eyes! She’s up to four kits right now, but who knows if she will come up with something else too! 🙂 I cannot wait to share what she has in store for Saturday!

Collab Kits Galore

| cristina

Jenn has two collabs in her store today! The first one is a great collab she did a while back with Meghan Mullens and I’m very happy to see it back in the store!

I made a pretty card with it:

Credits:
Press Play by Jenn Barrette and Meghan Mullens

Next, she has a brand new collab with Melissa Bennett:

I’ll be scrapping with this very soon! 🙂

Whoa!

| cristina

I cannot believe it! I was picked as one of the finalists of the Scrap Your Freakin’ Heart Out contest at the LilyPad.

I entered 2 LOs for this week, and what is most surprising to me is that I won with the one that received only very few comments in the gallery (the other one had literally 10x more comments!).

I know I don’t have a shot at the grand prize (sigh…) because the other two finalists in the Design category have made fabulous pages that really deserve to win, so I need to come to terms with the fact that I won’t get a guest spot at the store. 🙁 But winning that $30 gift card is pretty awesome, considering the incredible talent that I ‘competed’ against! Pinch me, I cannot believe it! 😉 And I’m super excited to be going shopping soon!! 😀

More CD Calendar Pages

| cristina

I put together a couple more CD calendar pages. I realize this isn’t exactly a priority right now, because I’ve decided to keep this pretty little calendar for myself, but I was eager to do some more hybrid with these lovely kits by Jenn Barrette since we’re in the right season, so I made the October and November pages. Here goes October:

Credits:
2011 Calendar Template by Mari Koegelenberg Creations
Nevermore by Jenn Barrette and Lauren Grier
Pumpkin from Pumpkin Spice by Jenn Barrette

I am completely obsessed with that owl paper. It is the best Halloween paper ever!
And a close up of the glossy and crackle accents I used:

And November:

Credits:
2011 Calendar Template by Mari Koegelenberg Creations
Pumpkin Spice by Jenn Barrette

Yum, I am craving chestnuts! I hope we find some at the store this weekend. 🙂

Gearing up for Halloween

| cristina

Halloween is less than a week away and Mari Koegelenberg is having a week-long sale (ETA: the sale hasn’t started yet, but will very soon!) on a kit that works great for both creating hybrid spooky projects and scrapping your Halloween pictures:

I had fun making a shaped little card with it:

And here’s a look at the back of the card too:

Too cute to spook! 🙂

Last Week

| cristina

I’ve been playing in the Scrap Your Freakin’ Heart Out contest at the LilyPad in the past 3 weeks. I’ve had a blast! I really loved my week 1 page; I was pretty happy with my week 2 page also.
For the final week, I did this:

Journaling:
Oct. 23 2010, just another gorgeous fall day….
We have been living in this house almost three years now. It feels like home. We are so lucky to have such a gorgeous backyard, with bunnies, squirrels, foxes, deer, groundhogs… When I think back to our life in the big city, there is nothing I long for now. That life is gone now; I enjoyed it while it lasted, but now that I have tasted what peace being in the nature gives me, I have no desire to go back. I like to sit here and marvel at the seasons that go by.


Credits:
Paper, house, tree, flower and heard from Cottage Garden by Kaye Winiecki
Paper branch, green paper and acrylic alpha from So Grateful by Sahlin Studio and Sugarplum Paperie
Fancy Flourish Stamps by Jenna Desai
Foam Stamp Alpha Black by Sahlin Studio
Unseamly Stitched Alpha by Jenn Barrette
Fonts: Revista, Traveling Typewriter, CK Noah

I loved the idea I had for this page (taking pictures in my backyard in a full 360 degree turn), but it’s a real pity that the pictures look so small in the 600 px web version! Plus, I botched the exposure in a couple of the shots, stupid me! Oh well. 🙂
It would be fun to do this again when the snow arrives, and then in spring when the leaves grow back, etc. Sounds like a nice plan! 😉

Since you can enter as many pages as you want in the contest, I also made this page, because I had been thinking for a while to document this, and this challenge convinced me it was just about time to do it. I’ll be printing this and putting it in my art journal.

Journaling:
There was a time, not too long ago, when I believed that the world was a good place. Good things happen to good people, bad things to bad, right? Well, not exactly. Not anymore.
The world is a scary, evil place. There are days I cannot even get myself to read the news because the knot in my stomach is too tight and I cannot bear to hear any more bad news. But there’s no running away. A dear friend of mine was
brutally attacked and I will bring with me forever the shock and dread I proved when I first heard about it. That was the day I finally understood, and there’s no going back.
Most of the bad news we read in the papers don’t happen to criminals who were bound to end up that way. They happen to nice, normal people like us too. And it is so scary.
When I was little, I loved to ride the bus in my city and look at all the people walking on the street, wondering who they were and regretting not being able to get to know them all. Now, I think I was such a fool back then. Now, I keep away from people as much as possible. Keep at a safe distance to feel safer, but is anybody ever safe?
I don’t know if this fear will ever leave me. I hope one day to gain back a brighter view of the world. I long for that naive attitude to come back. I am hoping it is just buried beneath all the horror and waiting to resurface.
I long to reconcile the sheer happiness and contentment I feel about my personal little world with the dread of the big world. I long to find that balance.
But I can no longer be deceived. The world is not a happy place. I really don’t buy that anymore.

Credits:
Background: black paper from Mod Me by Jacque Larsen blended with newspaper print paper from Capture the Moment by Kate Hadfield and Designs by Liii
Fonts: SS Whimsy, CK Cursive

So anyway, I didn’t win (so far… LOL… voting for this week hasn’t even started yet) but I am not really disappointed because there is some serious, amazing talent in the gallery and the people who have been chosen so far all really deserved it. But of course one can hope, right? 🙂
The prizes for this contest are just amazing. There are 3 weekly winners (one for Design, one for Photography and another for Journaling) and they each win $30 to the TLP store. The contest runs for 3 weeks, and after that one of weekly winners is chosen in each category to be the overall winner: and among other great prizes, the 3 overall winners get to be a guest CT for 1 month! So yeah, it’s not hard to see why I’d love to win. 😉

If you have some spare time, go check out the galleries for this contest. The pages there are just amazing!