Hybrid

Goodbye 2014

| cristina

As the year comes to a close, I thought it would be fun to look back at 2014. It has been a good crafty/memory keeping year for me.

I took close to 5,000 pictures on my dSLR and ~2,000 on my iPhone – indeed, I love my big camera!!
I made:

  • about 115 digital layouts,
  • 28 paper layouts,
  • ~36 cards,
  • 3 mini books (a fourth one – December Daily 2014 – is on its way),
  • a dozen tags,
  • and 42 weeks documented in my 2014 Project Life album (slowly but surely, I’m catching up on those remaining 10 weeks).

Here are just a few of my favorite pages from 2014..

 
  

I tried new things: die cutting, letterpressing. I attended my very first crop and met up with some online friends.

It has been a good year. And now, bring on 2015! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Preparations

| cristina

The new releases at The Lilypad have gotten my gears going and my December Daily preparation has begun! This month’s Memory Pockets Monthly made it so easy..

I know it’s only the second month, but this month’s kit is a big favorite of mine!! I made a few pages that will go in my 2014 album. I am planning to assemble the album from scratch. These pages are 4″x6″ or 4″x4″ in size.

Here’s a closer look at a couple of pages.

Hot pink, white and black?? I am digging this combination!

I wasn’t planning to make Christmas cards this year, but this card right here is making me reconsider!!

I also combined this gorgeous kit with a bunch of the add ons to scrap a few digi pages. I simply couldn’t stop using it.. I am in love with the colors SO much!!

Credits:
Arboretum {Joy} and Joy papers by Sara Gleason


Credits:

Templates: Polly Love by Amy Martin
Joyful Papers, Joyful Elements and Pocket Full of Joy by Stolen Moments Design

 


Credits:

Joy word art by Sara Gleason
Holiday Word Art by Designs by Lili

But that’s not all to get your Christmas crafting going. This month’s Mixed Media Monthly (M3) kit is super festive:

It includes papers, elements, cut files, alpha, and even a gorgeous template that I used in this page.


Credits:

And it gets even better.. the Mixed Media Monthly kit is a perfect match with all the Document Your December products! I didn’t have time to use them last week when they were released, but I definitely did use them now. 🙂 I love them!

Credits:

DYD Collection by Sara Gleason
Pocket Stuffers no. 4 by Valorie Wibbens
Journal Junkie: Shine by CD Muckosky
Woodbitsy Christmas by Pink Reptile Designs

I love the gold and pink bits! Finally, I made another page with the M3 with more traditional colors (and some pink thrown in for good measure :)).


Credits:

DYD Collection by Sara Gleason

My plan for today is to put up the tree. Feels about right, doesn’t it? 🙂

Finally, there are also some great new products in the store that don’t fall under the MPM or M3 umbrellas. Of course I had to scrap with a few of those too. 🙂


Credits:

Background paper from Joy papers by Sara Gleason

 


Credits:

Loving Life by CD Muckosky

 


Credits:

Don’t miss the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales at The Lilypad! Nothing beats online shopping as far as I’m concerned! 🙂

December Daily – Take 5

| cristina
This post was originally posted on the write.click.scrapbook blog.
The most wonderful time of the year is starting soon.. and I am starting to make plans on how I want to document December this year.
I have completed a December Daily album in each of the past four years, and I am at it again this year for the fifth album. This really is my favorite project. I love Christmas, and I love documenting it.
In these past four years, I have taken different approaches to putting my album together, and I want to share my impressions with you. Each of these four albums was put together using my stash.
 
My 2010-2013 albums
In 2010, I used a 2-ring album. The pages were all hybrid, and I used my Silhouette extensively. In 2011, which was once again all hybrid, I assembled the album using my Cinch. In 2012 and 2013 I used pocket scrapbooking. Here’s a look at the inside of the albums.
 
 
I love combining different shapes and textures in the album – you can see how I used bubble wrap at the front of my 2010 album and vellum at the front of the 2011 and 2013 albums.
 
What I liked & what I want to change
 
 And here is a peek at some random pages in my albums.
 
 
As you can see, in my 2010 album I combined a lot of different shapes of pages. I love this and want to do it again in 2014!
In 2011, I added lots of journaling to tell my Christmas stories. I used each 2-page spread per day, one story per day. I want to do this again in 2014!
In all my albums, the number of the day is featured prominently. I want to do this again in 2014!
The pocket-album approach I used in 2012 and 2013 made it very quick and easy to put together my album and I was able to use up a lot of journal cards from my stash, but I found myself writing less. I also dislike that the different textures get lost behind a plastic protector.  I will not do a pocket album in 2014.
 
My process
In 2010, my first December Daily, I pre-made all the pages because I was traveling for most of December. I ended up not being able to keep up with the album during my trip, and finished it a few months later. The other three years I worked on my album as we went. In 2013 I actually fell behind and I finished my album after the summer. I definitely lose inspiration if I don’t work on my album in December, so I will try to stay current as much as I can. But I know now not to worry if that fails, because I can catch up when things slow down. In any case, I find that waiting to have my pictures in front of me works best, rather than having all the foundation pages made first. I will make a list of Christmas topics to use for the days in which I don’t have any Christmas-related story to tell.
And now.. I’d love to hear from you! Are you looking forward to December? What are your plans for documenting this month? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Merry Fall

| cristina

The new Christmas brushes in Ali Edwards’s store are perfect for December Daily! I am not quite in Christmas mode yet (waiting for Thanksgiving to be over) but I found that they were perfect to scrap the crazy weather we’ve had this past week! 🙂

Credits:
Nutmeg papers and Cut It Out: Gather by Valorie Wibbens
Noel Brushes by Ali Edwards

Here are a couple of details of these lovely brushes:

I also stamped a cute little squirrel to match the one in my photo.

The snow’s all melted now, but I think it will be back soon. What a merry fall indeed! 🙂

I Am Thankful For…

| cristina

I love how Ali Edwards’s scrapbooking style is focused on telling stories. She is a huge inspiration for me, especially as I am tackling Week in the Life for my first time this year. A lot of her products are also perfect to tell the story. Like this brush set, for example..

 

I used Ali’s digital brushes to create my journaling prompts.

I had so much fun filling in the digital prompts with stickers!
In other news, this page was all about things I am thankful for in the fall, but it looks like our winter is coming early this year.. It snowed here today. Not enough to stick to the ground, but it stuck to trees all right. I ventured out this morning to take these pictures of my layout on the porch, but that won’t be happening for a while now. Sigh.. it’s so hard to take decent picture in winter!

More DSD sales

| cristina

Are you all DSDed out? I hope not, because I have some more enabling to do!! 🙂 Everything in Jenn Barrette’s store is 30% off, including this gorgeous new kit. I am so in love with that floral + bird print, that I made it the base of this card.

It is so easy to whip up a hybrid card when you have such pretty papers. Just add a sentiment for the focal point, and you’re all set.

Pumpkin Patch

| cristina

I have a hybrid/paper page to share today, made with a bunch of digital products by Ali Edwards. I love how by using the digital elements I can start my design in Photoshop, so all of the guesswork is taken out of the assembly part.

Credits:

I created the background using a combination of digital stamps, and printed it out on American Crafts 8.5″x11″ card stock. Then I added my photos, a couple pieces of paper cut to fit one of the diamonds in the background, and some embellishments.
I couldn’t resist painting that word bubble to make it look like a pumpkin! 🙂 I love how this page turned out.

September M3

| cristina

Yay! It’s mixed media monthly time! Or M3 for short. 🙂 This is only the second month of this new product offering from The Lilypad, and I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised both times by how much inspiration I get from these products. I am not a messy mixed media artist / art journaler, but I absolutely love all the projects I have made with the M3!

So how does this work? A new kit is released the 3rd Friday of the month. The subscription is only $7.99 per month, which includes the M3 kit, 50% off all add-ons and access to a private M3 subscribers forum with challenges and tutorials (including some tips from me!).

The designers are Just Jaimee, Little Butterfly Wings, Lynne-Marie and Quirky Heart. The M3 kit is a collaboration, and then each designer also has three individual add ons. I used these ones by Lynne-Marie:

Last month I made two hybrid layouts and 2 digi pages. This month, instead, I was inspired to make a hybrid mini album. This all came together very quickly Wednesday evening, in approximately 2 hours, and I am so thrilled with how it turned out!! The design part (done on the computer) took me 1.5 hours (this includes designing several cards for some pages of the mini album, while I also used ready made cards that are in the kit and add ons for other pages. I just love to give my own twist to things.), and another half hour to assemble the album.

I started by designing the card that became the cover, and that’s how I got the idea to make a little album. All the pages were printed out on Canon matte photo paper.

I placed a black/white photo on each spread, and then have room to add my journaling on the side.

I also printed out some digital elements to add on top of my pages.

This is probably my favorite spread in the album – the paper on the right is gorgeous!!

The theme of this album is this summer, so I picked a few of my favorite photos of my husband and me taken over the last few months.

The photos were printed on Canon glossy photo paper.

I bound the little book using blue masking tape and some sewing.
I hope you enjoyed this little project!

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!