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

Take on Art Journal

Hi guys,

I would like to post some of the pages of my first take on an art journal. I used the fauxdori size type of notebook and it works really good for me. It is not too big or small, just the right size of expression to try out.

I like the simplicity of the cover with that kraft look that matches the purpose of its content!

I had to use one stamp on a tag semi hidden as a note inside the studio calico vellum envelopes that I love hoarding!

Every of my notebooks for my fauxdori has one!

First approach, what 'I' want to express and how:

The other half of 'ME' with lots of stamps:

And the called art journaling itself: some gesso coats to avoid bleeding through the page, texture paste using some stencils, some net to add more texture, inks applied with droppers, watercolour crayons to reinforce the colours and the quote to finish it up:

Another spread but using gouache paints with my fingers, stencils, stamps, inked caps and gesso as a last touch. No quote this time but a simple descriptive word!:

And this is the beginning of a nice relationship with the art journaling. I wonder if you guys have ever tried art journaling and how it turned out!

Thanks for reading!

C

Planner obsession_Nov Monthly view

Hola chic@s!

My life is getting more organized! yuhu! The reason: my new obsession, a pretty and functional planner!

I must admit I have never ever used a planner to deal with my life before... I always relied on my memory to get to everything... but since I discover I can use scrapbooking to help my life be more organized... pfff man, I say HECK YES to that!

As it is the first time I am using one, I started with a Filofax from my hubby that he was not really using so, after a DIY touch and a load of embellishments, here is my November spread so far:

Studio Calico's embellishments are the best to fully enjoy my planner and I have not even yet subscribed to their planner kit, yay! can't wait. I used some scrapbooking and documenter kit's supplies instead. Awesome enough I say.

Some closer looks and eish, can't wait to get my Hello forever planner from them for next year. Although I'm not sure whether I would be able to wait until Jan once I receive it! It is undated so, I will see when the time comes yay!

Marcy Penner, please do not stop making us happy!

Enjoy!

C

Fold out mini album_October 2013

Hey there,

Just wanting to show today one of my first approach to scrapbooking... exactly when I started falling in love with it.

This is a fully fold-out-cascade handmade mini album (if that exists). Some pictures of the cutie as follows:

The covers are individual cardboard sheets attached by a ribbon.

"Didn't you notice how time flies?"

Fold up. Down. Left. Right. Done.

This is actually very much the approach to the monthly PL that Stephanie Bryan is making at the moment.

Thanks for visiting!

C

December Daily 2014_Cover and Day 01

Hi everyone, here again. 

I wanted to share today, (to make it completely disorganized), the cover and the first page of my December Daily.

December always meant to me something warm by the fireplace... and heater in case I did not have it haha so, the strips of yarn to make the cover page worked out perfect for this album!

The wire words I made up also gave it the touch of colour I was looking for...

White foam for the numbers, perfect match!

I wanted to keep simple the album. I prefer spending time thinking of subtle touches to embellish the album that making it over done. Plus I do not have lots of time to decorate it!

The fabric of the background made the picture perfect frame!

White over black... luv it!

 More to come soon!

Enjoy!

C