What's On TV?

Just a quick post to tell you about the weekly 50% off sale on select products at The Lilypad. I made a page with some of them.

Credits:

Soap Opera papers, Soap Opera elements and Soap Opera alpha by Pink Reptile Designs

Subtle Spray Alpha

The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens

This kit was perfect for me to document something that I rarely ever document: what we're watching on TV. :)

September M3

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 I 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!

Summer Memories

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..

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

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

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:

Hoot Papers, Hoot Washi Tape, Hoot Mixed Journal Cards and Hoot Home Decor by Lynne-Marie

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

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!

Summer Weekends

Ah, summer weekends.. I miss them already! The lovely new kit by Kate Hadfield was perfect to scrap a happy summer memory.

Here's my page:

Credits:

Weekend at Home by Kate Hadfield

The Dirty Dame font by Heather Joyce and Valorie Wibbens

One more day till the weekend.. cannot come too soon! :)

September BYOC at The Lilypad

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:

Documentary papers, Documentary elements and Documentary journal cards by Sahlin Studio

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

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!