The LilyPad CT

Happy Friday!

| cristina

Happy Friday! I do have a lot of pretty stuff to share today from the new releases at The Lilypad! 🙂 I worked from home this whole week, and allowed myself plenty of crafty time in the evenings, which was super nice! 🙂
First off, a gorgeous new kit by Sahlin Studio:

These colors are beautiful! As soon as I saw these papers, I knew they’d be perfect for my Project Life! (check back later for a sneak peek at how I used them in my Week 2! 😉 ) I also used them for a card:

Love Love Love card

Credits:
Vintage Poinsettia papers by Sahlin Studio and Vintage Poinsettia elements by Sahlin Studio and Precocious Papers
Sweet and Skinny Alpha by Sahlin Studio
Font: Pea Pumpkin Peters

They are all digital shadows except for the flower, which is cut out and glued on. I also used the kit to scrap two more pages about my mom’s visit last spring (only 3 pages to go to finish the album!!):

Mom's Visit Day 15 - Dinner

Credits:
Vintage Poinsettia papers by Sahlin Studio and Vintage Poinsettia elements by Sahlin Studio and Precocious Papers
Alpha from Xoxo by Emily Merritt and Laura Banasiak
Font: Pea Pumpkin Peters

I used a multi-photo template by Amy Martin, also new today, to scrap this page. I had way too many photos to fit and the template really helped me maintain my sanity! 🙂

Mom's Visit Day 15 - Lucky

Credits:
Vintage Poinsettia papers by Sahlin Studio and Vintage Poinsettia elements by Sahlin Studio and Precocious Papers
4×6 Photo Collages by Designs by Lili
Font: Pea Pumpkin Peters

I also could not resist this fun, bright, adorable kit:

In the past few days, as Valentine stuff started popping up on Pinterest, I was thinking how I am not in the mood for anything Valentine yet. But then I saw this kit… and I knew I had to use it right then and there! 🙂

You're the Keys to My Piano

Credits:
Xoxo by Emily Merritt and Laura Banasiak
The Typewriter font by Heather Hess

For one week, the kit comes with a free with purchase add on of valentines (the piano one I used is an example) and they are just adorable! This one I chose was just perfect for DH, since his great love is music. I do plan to print it out and give it to him too!

PS: I made a new blog header last night. What do you think?

PL Style

| cristina

I have been working hard on finishing up my mom’s spring visit album. Since I had a lot of pictures to scrap, I decided to use the Project Life-type page protectors. They make it so easy to scrap many photos! Here are the two latest pages I made, using all BYOC products plus a journal card pack that is 50% off today:

Mom's Visit Day 15: Exploring

Credits:
Good Life by Lauren Reid
Word strips from Customizable Journal Cards No.2 by Designs by Lili
Fonts: Pea Pumpkin Peters, Sugar Shock font bundle by Lauren Reid and Darcy Baldwin

Mom's Visit Day 15: Exploring (2)

Credits:
Word strips from Customizable Journal Cards No.2 by Designs by Lili

Only 4 pages left to go to finish this 60-page album!

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!! 😉

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.

Baby It’s Cold

| cristina

Leora Sanford and Valorie Wibbens have created a gorgeous new kit out today, Baby It’s Cold:

It’s available at Oscraps and at The Lilypad, and it’s 20% off this weekend. I love the colors of this kit! AND, there is a great free with purchase offer: if you buy the kit, you will get this quickpage+template set for free

Here’s what I made with it:

The Weather is Delightful

Credits:
Baby It’s Cold by Leora Sanford and Valorie Wibbens, available at Oscraps and The Lilypad
Font: My Own Topher

I only wish I had more snow pictures this year, but alas, the one depicted was the one and only snow we have seen so far this year.

I also made a page for my 2013 calendar (trying to plan ahead for once 😉 ):

December 2013 calendar topper

Credits:
Background paper from Baby It’s Cold by Leora Sanford and Valorie Wibbens
A Month to Be Merry by Lauren Grier

I was loving this picture we took on Christmas day but didn’t feel like scrapping it with a normal page, so I decided to get started on the calendar. 🙂

Christmas Season

| cristina

I am really enjoying this Christmas season. Too bad it’s coming to an end already – it’s such a magical time of the year! This year I’ve put quite some effort in making sure we did some Christmas activities – baking, going to see Christmas lights and gingerbread houses. In the process, I took many pictures that I really love. I have been using them in my December Daily album, but I also wanted to make a digital page to show them, so I made this:

Christmas Season 2011

Credits:
Cheerful by Tickled Pink Studio
Sugar Shock font bundle by Lauren Reid and Darcy Baldwin
Gimme Space font by Lauren Reid and Darcy Baldwin

This kit is so pretty!! I loved using it!

Digital Stamps

| cristina

Digital stamps are something I’ve started to use only recently, and they’re fun! I still feel that designers do a way better job than me picking color combinations, but it is fun to play with them. 🙂 Here’s the latest set I’ve used (20% off throughout the weekend):

I made a card combining a few of these tags (all colored digitally using a simplified version of this tutorial).

Tags card

Credits:
Colour In Christmas Tags by Kate Hadfield
Brown Paper Pack by Sahlin Studio