My Sahin Designs Layouts_Cover Page 2016 and spread 01 and 02

Hey guys,
Hope you all doing fine there.
I have a great announcement today! I have been selected by Elif Sahin from Sahin Designs to work with her amazing designs! I am really thrilled and happy as I love them all!! YAY!!!
They are so inspiring... and today I wanted to show you some of the layouts I made with them. You may also go check them in her blog here as well!
I finished the Cover Page of my Project Life for this year 2016 with the gorgeous Midnight Collection so, the layout turned out to look like this:

As soon as I saw the black, lots of white space and touches of gold (always gold!) from the Midnight Collection I knew I had to use it for my Cover Page. I wanted that soft look as the main characters of my cover were going to be my two daughters. The soft toys lay around all the house so, the theme of the cover was settled. The cards really fell in their pockets like almost naturally. One picture of each detail of every daughter and the soft toys in the middle and the page was done. If you would like to know how I made every card I share the hybrid process of this layout up on Sahin Designs blog! Go check it out! :)
So the layout turned out like this:

 And I made some close up shots of my favourite corners:

 The embellishments were minimal as the way I like!

 The next layout is about the first spread of my January Project Life for this year. Not only the Midnight Collection had those great colours that made up a soft and elegant palette but a hot pink that drew my attention and did not let me think about any other card! I actually thought through the next two layouts based on this 6x4 pink stripped card. 
I am not much into bold colours or layouts but this one blew my imagination away!
So the first layout turned out like this:

I have two girls so everything around my house is pink, perfect match! As before I used some of the cards from the collection but also elements and to make up journaling and decorative cards. 
As it is the first month of the year, I wrote a bit of what is going on with my daughter, her achievement on using the pot to go the toilet :) and what she likes, how she is, etc at this stage of the year. 
The calendar I used as a card is from past collections. I though it would be quite appropriate to use it on the first spread of the year! 

On the left bottom corner, you can see the gorgeous stripped pink card which I fell in love with!!

An on the opposite corner I made up a card with papers from the same collection and a nice alpha 'hello' (white on white of courrrrse!!)

The next layout is basically dedicated to my second daughter as the entrance of the new year for both! I am not sure whether I will make more layouts for this month of Jan... I decided this year to go with the flow, just make as many layouts as time/pictures I have, so STRESS FREE PL!! yay

I love going minimalist and show lots of white space with soft tones...it just makes me happy!
I used here some of the elements from the same collection and a few embellishments to finish it up! 
Also wrote the same principles for my little Aleca :)

The closer looks just shows the minimalism I have chosen for this layout in particular.

And that is basically my contribution for this month having fun with Sahin Designs!!
Hope you guys like it and wishing you a crafty and productive beginning of the week!
Carolina

December Daily 2015_Days 01 - 04

Hi there,

I hope everyone is enjoying this festive season with family and beloved ones. This is also the time of recording and documenting those special moments that everyone will remember as sweet memories in years time.

This year is a very special one for us... well, all of them! but this one is the first year we have Aleca with us at home. The arrival of a new born is always such special moment and, on Christmas time, makes it even more enjoyable. It feels like we are now a 'complete' family (although I would not mind to try for the boy... ehem... story for another day!). 

The presence of a toddler and a baby make these days full of opportunities to capture that first approach for them to Christmas. It also makes me come back to the basis of it. What is really Christmas? How do we really enjoy the process of a festivity like this? what does it involve? All these questions make only sense when I right down the main ideas of Christmas and what I would like my family to experience. New family traditions in essence. The following prompts work for me.

My approach this year to the December Daily is mainly minimalistic. I would like to try to get a clean and simple look for the spreads as much as possible.

   

• DAY 01 - Unpacking decorations. Obviously my daughters are still too small to do it themselves but at least my oldest one can help me somehow or I can teach her how to start unpacking so she gets used to it.

TIP: There is no need to record all the process of decorating only the first day, there are 24 days before Christmas so, there are plenty of opportunities to capture. It is easy to feel overwhelmed with the idea of capturing one action in just one day so in the end there is plenty of photos trying to show the 'perfect moment'. Sometimes one photo which reveals a clue of the whole moment can be enough. There is no need to show all the time people, things and places inside the picture frame. One guideline for this prompt might be to split up the type of decorations in different days for example.

This is what I basically tried to record on my first spread. This is our new family tradition. The first of December becomes the perfect time to unpack and start with the decorations. 

My foundation page for this day is pretty simple. I tried to show what it will be reflected with photos later. The 'Oh Christmas tree' and no ONE enough to start with.

Starting from top left, I used a card from Paislee Press, with a simple brushed tree. Perfect for this first day, it captures the whole idea. The remaining space seemed adequate for some journaling although I always set up the whole spread with the pictures and cards I want and I decide in the end where to place the journaling. I only embellished this card lightly as the tree perfectly captured the idea of this day. One little star between the tree and the text seems the perfect touch. In the end, every tree must have a star, right? :)

Top right: Our tree is packed in a box as so are the decorations so, I thought of showing one detail of the box where you can clearly read 'Christmas tree' and three different Christmas ornaments.

TIP: I have chosen for this year's album a simple palette of colours, gold, white and black with touches of red and maybe mint... I try to always keep it in mind when taking the pictures.

Bottom left: One partial picture of my little one showing on her clothes one of the embellishments I will be using for the spreads of this album! cute! I hand wrote the word JOY on the picture as the gold embellishment I used was fading with it...

Bottom right: Again another card from Paislee Press showing the number ONE and a simple typed 'hello.' on a label. Like meaning 'hello December'

This image just shows a close up picture of the first card. It is the printed image from Paislee Press of the tree with the text 'Oh Christmas tree' below it, the star from one of the kits from Studio Calico (I do not remember which one :S) and the typed journal.

TIP: There are three ways to incorporate the typed journal in the card. 

    1. Using softwares like Adobe Photoshop where you can open the card with the program and type straight away with the chosen font. 

    2. Using a typewriter machine.

    3. Measuring the dimensions of the text you want to write and type it on programs like Microsoft Word, print it on a normal sheet of paper and glue it to the printed sheet with the Dotliner glue dots roller (not sure how to call it!) exactly where you want the text to be. Print it again using the same sheet of paper with the card glued to it. This is the system I used as I printed the Paislee Press card before I decided on anything for my foundation pages.

• DAY 02 - Finish up tree decorations with some help. This time is the best to have individual pictures of both of them helping or each of them separately or just details of the actions. This would make a cute moment to capture. The baby can also lay down showing the decorations too :)

TIP: There is no need to take equal number of photos from each of the moments/people... As there are minimum 25 spreads it is convenient not to fill up the album since the beginning.

Still, trying to keep it as simple as possible. The stitched heart with the two words 'merry.' and 'everything.' and the number TWO. Still making this day part of the first one about decor.

Top left: I decided to use equal number of pictures and cards on this 4 3x4 pocket spread. The photo shows my oldest daughter helping me putting the tree balls (or finding out how many balls and type we have rather!). I used Photoshop on this picture to type her name and a cute nickname for her.

Top right: As a simple approach, I hand stitched a black heart (to follow the palette I chose) and typed 'merry.' and 'everything'.

Bottom left: Again a card from Paislee Press and the review of the day after a wood veneer star as a separation.

Bottom right: So far I also wanted my baby to be part of this spread as a 'little helper no 02' so I put an ornament by her side and took a picture of that detail.

Just two close ups of the cards. Love stitching and wood veneer... guess it is obvious though :)

• DAY 03 - Family moments during these days. I do not usually have anything specific to document every day so I prefer capturing that special 'routine' on Christmas. 

Here I knew I wanted a family photo or something that reminded me that routine of my new family so, I stamped the word 'home' and surround it with a cork embellishment.

Top: The word 'home' highlighted by a cork embellishment seems to be the perfect definition of the picture below.

Bottom: A picture of my two babies taking a nap seems the perfect shot that makes us feel like home... there is no better happy place! I added a wood veneer no 3 and a hidden tag with the journaling for the day.

The close up just shows the cork embellishment around the word 'home' which I stamped a couple of times from a stamp by artist Kal Barteski for Studio Calico.

• DAY 04 - Special days within the 25 days of Christmas. It is my oldest daughter's birthday so, there is no doubt I was going to have a nice spread dedicated to her. This also will lead to the next day when we celebrated it and gave the presents!

Despite I was pretty happy with this foundation spread, I ended up changing it as I show below... In the end all depends on the photo and what way to embellish it makes you feel.

Top left: I wanted to start with a simple 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' which I printed on a label. The wood veneer heart on top for my beloved daughter. Underneath it I wanted to write down a bit of journaling congratulating her for her day.

Bottom left: This day becomes a new tradition for me. I get to spend the day with my daughter to do whatsoever she wants. In this case, we went together to choose the cake for the celebration the next day!. As I wrote the journaling already above, I filled up the remaining space with an embossed round frame from Paislee Press and a 'sweet' word stamped from Heidi Swapp. The little room below was perfect to indicate the day 04 with a stamp from One little bird and a typed text.

Right: I really wanted to highlight my gorgeous angel this day so I printed her best picture of the day in black and white on vellum and I dedicated some words for her on her day and what these 2 years with her have supposed for us.

As you flip the vellum photo, you find the same picture this time in colour alone on a full 6x8 pocket. I used photoshop again to incoporate that 'sparkle' hand writtejn word from Pailee Press. An extra enamel star shape matching the palette of the picture and the spread seems done.

These first four days of my December Daily complete this post. I will upload soon the next four ones. I hope I explained myself good enough and my post gave away some brainstorm ideas!

Enjoy!

Carolina

Babi's Project Life - Week 07

On this layout, I had lots of pictures but I did not want another insert again so, I filled in all the pockets with pictures and typed down the journaling on the upper ones right on top of the white t-shirt of my baby. I thought it was a very nice and convenient place to put it :)

The wooden heart filled with flower shapes made me put some more spread on different pictures to match the theme of it.
I felt like another red heart so, once the page flipped, it will overlap with the wooden one. Nice image in the end :)
C

Babi's Project Life - Week 06

I wanted to try something different on this layout. The right side was going to be printed in colour and with her mainly and the left side in black and white with some pictures of me and her.

I found little bunnies in my stash so, I decided to use it around some pictures to achieve some consistency on the layout.

The use of pink and green of the first pictures on the right side of the layout were my constant for the journaling.
As usual, hope you like it! C

Babi's Project Life - Week 05

This week's Project Life is about 3 colours. I am in love with the stripped baby grow of the pictures so, I based the rest of my layout on it. The insert follows this scheme as well.

 I also printed the rest of the pictures in black and white as to highlight the ones where she is wearing this cute baby grow.

Hope you like it. Enjoy! C

Babi's Project Life - Week 04

hey there. I would like to post today 2 things: another week of my baby's project life and one scrapbook layout based on the March Moodboard from Twopeasinabucket.
let's start from the Project Life's spread:

and a closer look to each page:

then, de details:

Luv my handmade thickers!

as a highlight, I used on this first one of the free cards Ania Maria Wolniak from Studio Calico posted on her blog. I stitched it around as if it was a pretty frame of flowers and I completed it with half a doillie and a embellishment.

as for the pretty pink bear I-love-how-it-turned-out, I traced the shape of one die cut I had on pink tissue paper and stitched it around. I tore off the spare tissue and embellished it with a little heart that pops up from the plain cute bear.

second spread now:

and its details:

i put here into practice the same method of stitching as for the bear with a heart on top instead. I thought the  shape of cut out tag and the stitching on white tissue paper as if it was fabric might look nice as it is by my mom's. 

one cut out I made with the initial of my baby's name on a frame: Gabriela.

this one is a funny one. one handmade die cut on an ombre water coloured painted cardstock. Kal Barteski font downloaded from her last post and  a funny sentence :)
Enjoy it!
C

.Babi's Project Life - Week 0

My first spread... the week 0 as it was the days I spent at the hospital before delivering. Just Baby Edition For Her from Becky Higgins.

Even though it was my first one before watching any video tutorials, I tried to match the colours from the pictures to balance the spread and make it as harmonic as possible.
C

.Babi's Project Life - Week 01

So, as I said on a previous post, here my week 01 from Babi is. This was my second project life spread ever so, you can see the amount of journaling cards without even embellishments. I was more concentrated on the pictures and writing :)

I added on the outside of the pockets, all the items that reminded me of the days I spent at the hospital with my sweet baby while in the ICU. I DIY'ed some journaling cards with some handmade stamps (that I will show on future posts and voila'.

One quick glance at one random PL spread from my muse Stephanie Bryan and fell in love with the idea of using the transparent plastic pocket as part of the spread. Just adding a cute wood veneer bear shape that I could use on both sides as part of 2 different spreads! You see? It looks as brilliant as it sounds.

Well, this shows I am still learning but by then, I was happy with my results ;)
C

.Babi's Project Life - Week 02

This week was more of a dominant colour, the soft pink. Some traces of orange and red cause of some of the pictures but, mostly pink.

I am using here the Becky Higgins Baby for Her Edition as you can see on some of the journaling cards. I tried on some others waterdolours effects and leave one wood veneer shape alone in one pocket to play around with transparencies on both sides of the same pocket page. Stephanie showed me that if you were wondering.

I do not remember exactly which challenge from the PL garden girls video was but she proposed volume on the spread, like the journaling she introduced into an envelope. Here, I made a replicate of a paper bag but 3x4 inches so I could slide in the flap my photo and my tab with journaling. I used the brown paper which came wrapping the Project Life box from Becky Higgins I purchased from Amazon to do the shape of the paper bag. I glued this thin brown paper onto a 3x4 cardstock to give it strenght and use it as a base for my photo and tag. I love the picture of my sweetie in her cow suit so I decided to highlight it using 2 3x4 pockets size in vertical.

A bit of the same I already explained plus stitches and rhinostones and stars here and there and voila', week 2 done.

Enjoy!

C

.Babi's Project Life - Week 03

I know, I know, it does not seem to be the best way to start a post about my baby's Project Life with the third week. It just happens to be the latest one I finished. I will post the previous ones everyday I do not have anything to upload. For now, I must say I have still lots to learn about scrapbooking since I started a couple of months ago. I am missing expertise on techniques, supplies, imagination I guess?, etc. So far, my favourite websites of scrapbooking have made me feel quite fulfilled about my learning process. Two Peas in a Bucket's videos are pretty much how I love learning... for now. 

So, on this layout I used the easy design A pocket pages from Becky Higgins. I have put into practice some of the challenges the garden girls from Two Peas in a Bucket propose on their own layouts. On this layout I wanted to use the repeated colours of some of the pictures as a constant for the rest of the spread. My palette then would be green, red and pink. 

I wanted to create contrast so, almost every picture would have the 3 colours counting the ones on the picture and the card frames or embellishments.I have fallen in love with the labels as a base of journalism for some of the pitures - Marcy Penner legacy from so many videos of her I watched in a 'marathon-of-two-peas-project-life-videos'. Not to mention how cool and neat and clear and nice my spread looks with a typing font straight on the tabs :-P-------

No words to explain how much Ania Maria Wolniak from Studio Calico inspires me as well. I decided to use here her 2 cards she gave away cause they matched perfectly my green theme on this spread.With all this, I tried to balance the amoutn and locatino of pictures with the coloured cards so, on each side you could find the 3 colours equally.The only kit I have used on this project life is the one from Becky Higgins Baby Edition for Her... and still enjoying it!Still, lots to learn to reach a little perfect detail from Stephanie Bryan but for now: Hope you like it!

C