January Layouts

Lots of scrapping this month! Along with my creative team layouts, I also completed all seven challenges at The Lilypad this month. Here's what I've created:

Wendy (WM[Squared] Designs) put out a Washington D.C. themed kit earlier this month. I was thrilled because I've been meaning to scrap these photos from 2006 forever! Finally done, and I love how it turned out.


{created with Great Escape: DC kit and Great Escape: DC - The Wordart Bits by WM[Squared] Designs; template by Scrapping with Liz}

Violet at nine months. I've been trying to scrap a layout of just her for each month during her first year. The colors in the photo matched the colors of this kit so well.


{created with Life Is Sweet kit by Jenna Desai; Jan 2012 freebie template by Amy Martin; Irish Spaghetti and Courier New fonts}

Another monthly layout, this time at ten months.


{created with Oh Snap kit by WM[Squared] Designs; Be Inspired - Whit - V.3 - Templates by WM[Squared] Designs; Cursif font}

A layout for Dunia's CT with cute photos:


{created with Just the Way You Are kit by Dunia Designs; template by Scrapping with Liz; Irish Spaghetti font}

Using an older Valentine kit by Jenna Desai, and an older photo:


{created with Smitten kit by Jenna Desai; Another Typewriter font}

This was on my list to get scrapped, I also did it for one of the Scrap Orchard challenges:


{created with Carefree Days by Ziggle Designs; Sherbet Spring by SuzyQ Scraps; Milkshake Mini by Laura Banasiak (no longer available); Fruity Fizz by Flergs; Just Realize font}

This was for the BYOC challenge at The Lilypad. One of my favorites this month:


{created with Jan BYOC products from The Lilypad: Duly Noted v.2 by Allison Pennington; Scrap Essentials no. 3 by Jenna Desai; Photo Frames no. 8 by Jenna Desai; These Are The Days wordart by Jacque Larsen; Another Typewriter font}

I love Wendy's templates! This is one of her new sets, with an older kit. She's also making handwriting fonts now, I used her wm_spacedout font on this page.


{created with Be Inspired - Fonetta - templates by WM[Squared] designs; Happy Anniversary kit by WM[Squared] Designs; Clementine Sketch and wm2_wendyspacedout fonts}

Another using the January BYOC (Bring Your Own Collab) stuff from the Lilypad:


{created with Scrap Essentials No. 3 (project 365) by Jenna Desai; Photo Frame No. 8 (project 365) by Jenna Desai; project life These Are The Days wordart by Jacque Larsen; background paper from Togetherness kit by Jenna Desai and Micheline Martin; green pilloww font}

I loved this template by Amy Martin! She offered it to her newsletter subscribers. It was actually a chance to get published... which I did not, but I like how the page turned out.


{created with He Said She Said kit by Lauren Reid and Sugarplum Paperie; template by Amy Martin; Elise, Nothing You Could Say, and Arsenale White fonts}

Also for a Lilypad challenge...


{created with Chirpy Solids freebie by Micheline Martin; Pockets No. 3: The Basics by Valorie Wibbens; These Are The Days wordart by Jacque Larsen; Flaglets by Lauren Reid; candle by Micheline Martin from Hoppy Birthyday collab by The Lilypad designers; hat from Lonestar kit by Jacque Larsen; eleven wordart from Everyday Project kit by Studio Basic and Dunia Designs; hearts from Fresh Pieces by Studio Basic; house from Happy Homemaker by Erica Zane; All Hail Julia and Rub This! fonts}

This one was made to use new journaling cards by Dunia:


{created with Write it Down - Vol. 2 by Dunia Designs; Some Kind of Monster kit by Dunia Designs; Pea Quinny font}

New Valentines stuff from Jenna. I love that doodly wordart!


{created with Valentine Wordart by Jenna Desai; Valentine Journal Cards by Jenna Desai; Stitched Hearts by Jenna Desai; background paper from Birthday Wishes kit by Jenna Desai; pink stripe paper from Best Friends kit by Jenna Desai; pink paper from Hoppy Birthday collab kit by The Lilypad designers; template by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs; Cicle font}

Another Lilypad challenge. This is also my OLW (one little word) for the year.


{paper, owl, typewriter, flowers, square alpha from Bookmarked kit by The Tattered Pear; scallop trim from He Said, She Said by Lauren Reid and Sugarplum Paperie; red trim and tag from Wicked Smart collab by The Lilypad designers; heart from Hope collab by The Lilypad designers; Markerific Alpha by CD Muckosky; Rough Typewriter font}

Love this new kit from Jenna!


{created with Best Friends kit by Jenna Desai; Simply*Glamorous font}

I try to create a layout like this for each of my kids every year. I start with their birthday month (in this case February) and put a picture of them each month. So this layout shows Zach each month when he was five years old. These are some of my favorite pages ever. Maybe when they're all grown up I'll put them all together in a book. For now they'll get printed and just go in our family album in the year they belong.


{created with Pure Love kit by Jenna Desai; Valentine Doodles by Jenna Desai; Aspen templates by Sara Gleason; Free Spirit alpha by CD Muckosky; Century Gothic, Bellerose, and All Hail Julia fonts}

And one more, using a fun new kit from Dunia.


{created with From Me To You kit by Dunia Designs; template by Alexis Aragona; Cinnamon Cake font}

xoxo,

Linky Love

I'm always on the lookout for great scrapbooking products. I'm not quite the freebie collector I once was, but I can't pass up something that's beautiful and free. There are a lot of digital freebies out there, but I've found you have to be rather picky to find the good quality stuff. Some of the best stuff I've found lately come as exclusive gifts for liking designers' facebook pages. (Once you like their page you can click on the exclusive tab to find the download.) For example:

A full (gorgeous!) kit from Sahlin Studio:


Another big & beautiful kit from Secret Stash:


These pretty papers from Micheline Martin:


I also found this template that would work great for Project Life pages, or others, on Amy Jaz's blog:


And I found these sweet little stickers from Vinnie Pearce on her website:



So if you haven't already, go grab yourself these digital treats! And remember to say thanks! :)

xoxo,

Birthday Bash at The Lilypad!

The Lilypad is turning 5! I just wanted to share some of the FUN stuff they have going on to celebrate.

First off, make sure you "like" them on facebook to receive this awesome Hoppy Birthday kit FREE. Yes, FREE.



And, the designers at The Lilypad are granting wishes all weekend! Just head over the the forum and post what product you wish for, and someone will get their wish! Each designer has their own thread so there are lots of chances to win. There are other fun games going on in the forum as well.

And of course, you can't beat a sale. Everything is 30% off!



I just wanted to share because I really, really love The Lilypad. I wasn't asked to post about this, or given anything in exchange for this post. I'm passing it along because think the designers and scrappers at The Lilypad are truly some of the most talented and nice people around digi land. So go get your party on!

xoxo,

Disneyland Album

I finally made an album of our trip to Disneyland! This is so exciting, because I really have a hard time creating full albums. I tend to get sidetracked along the way. In fact I have several albums I've started by doing a few pages and they sit lonely in folders on my hard drive. Christmas was just the motivation I needed to get this done, as I wanted to give a copy as a gift to my brother and his family who joined us on our vacation. Overall I like how it turned out. I used a lot of Cindy Schneider templates (she usually has at least one available free on her FB page). It's definitely not a clean look, but I like them because there's a lot of spots for the fun digital elements I love to collect. I used other templates as well, and few of the layouts I even designed myself. :) I'm not going to put credits for these pages because honestly I was pulling stuff from everywhere, but I did use the Just Plain Fun kit by Britt-ish Designs a TON. That red and white alpha and cloud paper I especially loved and used on nearly every page.

Here are a few of my favorites. The cover and the last page I designed to sort of match:











These two go together for a two page spread:





I had the books printed at Shutterfly. I've found (after trying a few different places) they have the best quality for the price, and I can usually find some kind of discount or coupon when I'm ready to print.









xoxo,

2011 Stats & 2012 Goals

2011 Stats

I was curious just how much scrapbooking I've done over that past year, so I started digging through my folders and counting things up. I'm pretty sure I've scrapped more this year than ever before. In 2011 I scrapped a grand total of 201 layouts or projects. (I'm including things like home decor projects or printable things I created in photoshop using my digital supplies as well.) Here's how it breaks down:

31 pages for Disneyland album (which I still need to share here on my blog)
51 pages for my Project: Love, Me album
20 hybrid/printable/decor things
99 "regular" layouts

Some of my favorites...


{created with Singin' in the Rain kit by Jenna Desai and Jacque Larsen; Pea Hayley Jo font}


{created with He Said, She Said collab by Lauren Reid and Sugarplum Paperie; 1942 Report font}


{created with "Dino-RAWR 2" kit and "Heart to Heart" kit by SuzyQ Scraps; "Quicksand" font}


{alpha from A Year in Review kit by Captivated Visions and SuzyQ Scraps; acrylic clouds from EarthWings by Julie Marie; journaling cloud from Sunshine 'n Showers kit by Happy Scrap Girl and Designs by Tater; everything else from Spring Field Trip by Clever Monkey Graphics; Pea Sarah's Skittles font}


{created with Bookmarked kit by The Tattered Pear; Franklin Gothic Book font}


{created with Come As You Are kit by Dunia Designs (no longer available); photo mask by Jenn Lindsay (no longer available); Pea Hayley Jo font}


{created with My Life, My Journey collab kit from The Daily Digi, with goodies from: JennCK, Jenn Barrette, Allison Pennington, Micheline Martin, Sabrina's Creations, Dianne Rigdon, Pamela Donnis, Katie the Scrapbook Lady, Connie Prince; PhoenixScript and Quicksand fonts}


{black & white papers from Halloween Papers by Jenna Desai; Candy Alpha by Jenna Desai; other paper & elements from 31 Wicked Way collab by Jenna Desai and Jacque Larsen; 1942 Report font}


{created with Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy kit by Dunia Designs; Stamp Act and Pea Sugar Noodles fonts}


{everything from Innocence kit by Wild Blueberry Ink; Perpetua and Callie Hand fonts}


{everything from Birds of a Feather kit by Dani Mogstad; Callie Hand font}


{duck from Bathtime Baby kit by GG Digital Desigsns; MTF Jotted, Smiley Monster, Rickels, and Pass the Chex fonts}


{heart shape by Michelle Coleman; DingMaps font}


{everything from iCreate kit by SuzyQ Scraps and Ziggle Designs; The Other Twin font}

2012 Goals

2011 was a great year! Going forward I want to keep the momentum I've had and simply keep creating. That is my main goal... and yes, a very broad one. I don't really want to give myself a lot of specific parameters because I feel like that might set me up for failure. I know a lot of people are doing project-based scrapbooking, such as Project Life (paper or digital), photo-a-day projects such as Project 365 or even Project 52, or something like Project: Love, Me. And while I really love the idea of them, I know that the time investment and rigidity of something like that isn't really what I want.

I have been casually taking pictures, usually one per day, on my phone. I'm toying with the idea of keeping that up and throwing them together into a layout each week or so. Which sounds exactly like Project 365, which I just said I wasn't doing, but maybe I am? I guess I just don't want to say I am because I don't want the commitment of keeping it up if I'm not feeling it. Sometimes what frustrates me about projects like this is that I miss a day (or week, or month...) and then I feel like I've failed. So I'm not giving myself any restrictions, whatever I end up doing is going to be fine and something is better than nothing. I also purchased these Paper Blocks 52 templates which I think will be really fun and helpful in scrapping these... if I do keep up with it ;)

As far as other scrapbooking goes, I have a few other specific things I'd like to do:

1. Finish Miles baby book (mostly just photos, with less journaling & embellisments)
2. Take more self-portraits and scrap them (I find myself missing a lot in our family scrapbooks)
3. Stay on top of my creative teams and produce quality layouts for them
4. Finish the December/Christmas 2011 album I started

And, overall, just keep scrapping! Which shouldn't be too hard as it's one of my favorite things to do. :) Here's to lots of layouts and happy scrapping in 2012!

xoxo,