April Lilli Design Team: Two layouts with Flora No. 1

Yes, I actually made two layouts about boys with the florally, girly collection "Flora No. 1" by Carta Bella. And I really love how they turned out! They are both similar in the way I use the papers: rough edges, different layers and some kind of mixed media.

This is the first one I made: I used white cardstock as a background and stamped the botanical background stamp with three or four different shades of purple and green. Then I started creating a photo mat using patterned papers and and pieces of the ephemera pack.

I was very inspired by a layout by Zoe Guest where she took one of the photo mats and completely crinkled the paper up and then flattened it back out. I really wanted to try that and I love the awesome texture it created. I then took ephemera pieces from the ephemera pack: I just cut them so that they would fit in as layers. There were several flags in the pack as well, but none of the patterns and colors fit the layout, so I just cut my own flags using one as a template.

I had my layers, I knew what the title was going to be but I realized that my whole design was too far to the right and too far down. The latter was easily solved by moving the complete photo mat up a bit. To balance the lopsided design I added two strips of the main papers and a border sticker from the sticker sheet. After I had added the journaling I felt that I needed a bit more black so I stamped the heart from the Simply Stated stamp set in three places on the layout.

The second layout started with a gessoed square on the Peony Posy Bunch pattern paper, for iNSD Beth Soler challenged us to create a layout that used paint in bold strokes and that's what I wanted to try. After the gesso had dried, I applied green acrylic paint and then I did not like the way the green paint looked against the brown background. Now what?

I tried all kinds of different things, until I finally came to the conclusion that this wasn't going to work, so I cut the brown background off (yes, I wasted a piece where I could have fussy cut those beautiful peonies, sigh). It still didn't look right, then my friend Anna suggested ripping the edges instead of cutting and that did the trick. I assume (no, I know now) that the rough strokes of the acrylic paint just didn't go well with clear cut, straight edges. Then I went into my paper stash and found the striped background paper by Maggie Holmes (it is from her Open Book collection), I really liked the way both pieces looked together. But it needed more: rough edges call for layers, so I layered several papers behind the center mat.

To make the green photos pop from the green background, I added the bold black stripes as layers behind as well as some of the ephemera pieces. I used the alpha stickers from the sticker sheet to create my title and then journaled directly on the paint using a Sharpie permanent marker pen. I'm really happy how this layout turned out because I really struggled with it for quite a while.

April Lilli Design Team: Decorating a Traveler's Notebook insert

Yesterday Odessa showed her week in the life project on the April Lilli blog where she created a traveler's notebook insert using the Carta Bella collection Flora No. 1. If making a whole insert from scratch is intimidating to you, my idea might be just what you need.

I simply took a plain traveler's notebook insert and covered it with the Petunia Patch Garland paper, used a journaling card from the Rose Garden Journal Cards and some die cuts from the Ephemera Pack to decorate the cover. When I cover my inserts I usually cut two pieces of paper that are slightly smaller than the insert's width in order to leave a flexible spine. Then I glue the papers to the front and back and cover the gap at the spine with some washi tape. I have filmed a video where I show you my creative process:



I then went on to add some personality to the first page of my insert. It had the title "Bullet Journal" already printed inside and could definitely use a bit more decoration. So I used the Botanical A2 Background Stamp, inked it up partially and stamped it right underneath the title. It turned out exactly the way I had hoped for: no sharp edges, some parts darker and some parts lighter. I then added a little washi from my stash to layer one of the flower circles from the Ephemera Pack.

And voilà - I have my personalized insert that looks much more like me than the plain kraft cover and white title page.

April Lilli Design Team: Some good advice.

Last time I told you that I was choosing only those photos that tell a story. Turns out, this month I also seem to have chosen some pictures with a high cuteness factor. I started this layout by adding some white gesso to my background paper called TRANCE. Then I used the packaging technique to add color. I used my new watercolor set for the very first time here. Then I added some more texture to the background using the washi stickers. And I also backed my photo with a scrap of patterned paper and green cardstock. Unconsciously, I started to place the embellishments sorted by colors. And I really liked how that turned out.

But what do you do when you don't really have a story to tell? I went through the ephemera pack and found some affirmations that I liked and that I wanted my son to read one day. So I took them all out and placed them on the layout. Again sorting them by color and placing them near their corresponding background. That looked ok but did not yet convince.

It was still a very random layout with little meaning to it. And I also hadn't used the puffy alphabet stickers, again! With this in mind, I decided to form full sentences, grabbing my stash of alphabet stickers and transforming the random affirmations into personal I-messages. I went for a visually pleasing effect which makes the message a little harder to read: "I love when you are dreaming with eyes wide open, I hope you will reach for the sky, take one step at a time, never forget to live for the moment." I just thought that I could add an "&" right above the "never" - it might help find the start for the last part of my motherly advice better and also make the whole sentence more fluent. I really love how the layout turned out.

After I finished, I felt that I needed some kind of border at the bottom. So I went into my small colored cardstock stash and looked for the most dominant colors in the layout and staggered smaller strips to form a line. I then added the rubber chip house and stamped two dates: when the photo was taken and when I created the layout.

The dream on collection by pinkfresh studio is 20% off for the whole month of April 2017 in the April Lilli shop!

April Lilli Design Team: Mixed Media Bookmarks.

The Lovely Day "tag paper" called to me all month long. I wanted to make bookmarks but wondered what I would do with eight of them. Then I had the idea to make them and send them out to my friends, some new and some old friends. After knowing that they wouldn't go to waste I started and went all in: gesso, structure paste, stencils, stamps, neocolor crayons, washi tape, stickers, die cuts, everything I had in my stash was put to use. I have never done art journaling and mixed media and just wanted to try and play. These bookmarks seemed to be a great way to start without being overwhelming. I totally love how they turned out!

There are still two days left in March, so go ahead and get some or all of the Lovely Day collection in the April Lilli Shop where it is this month's featured collection and 20% off. There is a video on youtube where I show you what I made this month and also how much there is still left. Hope you go and check it out: Dear Lizzy: Lovely Day - projects and kill-a-kit!

April Lilli Design Team: Santa Cruz Selfies.

When I am done with my two projects for the month and I still have photos and material left from the featured collection, I love to experiment. This is exactly what I did here. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do: the pink ledger paper from the Dear Lizzy Lovely Day collection went so well with the pink jacket I wore in the pictures. Then I saw the numbers from the embellishment pack and started to play.

When I started out, the photos were still collaged on one 4x6 photo, I went ahead and cut them apart. Now I had four small ones to work with. Should I group them together? Layer papers behind them? If I placed them on four different spots on the paper, then I would need something to justify the place they would go. So I went with the trusty tickets and added one number. To ground them I added the washi tape behind the photos. I really liked how that looked so far.

Now: what about a title and where would the journaling go? I had this long sentence in my head: "The day we went to Santa Cruz and took so many selfies and not a single one turned out nice." What if I made that my title? That would spread out in between the photos, highlighting different words? That would actually fill the paper and give me a chance to balance the layout. I used the thickers from Crate Paper's Heart Day collection because I didn't want to add more color.

After adding the title there was some awkward space left that was ideal for some larger embellishments, so I fussy cut some of the flowers from the color me pretty paper. This way I was able to repeat the flowers from the washi tape and connect the different layers. After this base was done, I went a little crazy with the ephemera and puffy stickers. And there you have it - done.

Don't forget to grab your favorite pieces from the Dear Lizzy Lovely Day collection in the April Lilli shop, it is 20% off for the month of March 2017.

April Lilli Design Team: Poser

Here is my next layout that I made for April Lilli. I don't really know what made me go this direction with the layout but for me, the whimsical feel of the papers and embellishments made me think of Shimelle Laine and her style of scrapbooking. I love her Glitter Girl videos and watched them all in the beginning stages of my scrapbooking. She is such a great teacher of basic concepts and I definitely learned a lot from her. I had just watched Glitter Girl episode #146 when I pulled the papers and photos and maybe it was the red paper in both layouts that made me want to scraplift her design. So that is what I did.

I took a screenshot of the layout and then drew a rough sketch on paper marking where the patterned papers would go and where her embellishment clusters went. And then I started myself. I can't say much more about the layout except that her style doesn't come naturally to me. But having the sketch really helped a lot. I never thought I could make that fox paper as a background work so nicely. I love how this turned out!

There is a full process video on my youtube channel, where I tell you more about my thought process. Don't forget to get your share of the Dear Lizzy Lovely Day collection for 20% off in the April Lilli shop during March 2017.

April Lilli Design Team: Blindfisch

April has teamed up with Victoria Marie to bring sketches to her facebook group and blog. There will be two sketches each month; one of them offered on the first and one on the fifteenth. If you share your take on the sketch in the April Lilly Scrapbook Chat facebook group, you will be eligible to win a Dear Lizzy Lovely Day collection kit. Here is my take on the sketch.

As you can see - the sketch was my jumping off point but I tweaked it to suit my needs and my style. The first thing I did: I turned it upside down. Why? Because I wanted to use the black and white stripe and I wanted it to be the smaller wide stripe. But if I had placed it on top, it wouldn't have worked because it is such a bold and heavy patterned paper. This (in my opinion) is a paper that always needs to be on or near the ground when used in such large quantities.

I moved the title to the bottom of the photo because the word was too long for the top right and the photo needed some shelf to sit on due to the strange photo. I tried to use the same type of embellishment in each of the clusters. I had a strange gap between the small cluster on the left and the stripes behind the photo. So I tuck two more tags in there and it looked much better, so I actually had a great space for my journaling.

Don't forget to head over to the April Lilli shop where you can find this month's featured collection for 20% off.

April Lilli Design Team: You are braver than you believe.

I have put off writing about this layout until the very last minute because I really don't know where to start and what to tell. Maybe if I start this way:

For my April Lilli projects I have been going back to the very first photos that are on my computer (yes, all other digital photos have been lost). They are sorted by year and month and for my March projects I look through March of 2010 to 2013 and mark all photos as favorites that spark some kind of story or resonate with me. From these photos I then choose the ones that go with the color scheme of this month's collection and which stories feel most important to me. Most of the times I end up with 5 stories. This gives me a good start. I can play with five different options and showcase two of them as my monthly design team projects. If I have time, energy and motivation left, I can still work on the others, if I don't, I'll at least have two older stories more in the books. I chose the photo of this mirror selfie because then I took them almost daily.

I had planned to make a page about the many mirror selfies I took during that time to share my outfit of the day on instagram. But when I had the photo in my hand it was too big, there was too much background noise on the photo and having one photo as a representation of the many mirror selfies I took just didn't feel right as well. I would rather prefer having a collage of many for that story.

So I looked at the papers again and the die cuts that came in the kit and then these thoughts ran through my mind: "I really should challenge myself to use that paper as a background!" - "Yes, what is the point of saving things you love rather than using them?" - "I wonder if I can fussy cut these houses as a strip and use them at the bottom of a layout." - "But what story would you tell? And where would the photo go?" - "Ok, this really does look good, it needs grounding but other than that ..." - "What if I cut myself out of that photo and then tuck it behind the houses? Then nobody would notice that I don't have feet in that picture. Haha, this looks just like a giant in a tiny world."

"Ok, this is complete nonsense, what is the story here?" - "Do I always need a story?" - "Well, you usually do!" (Muffles the sound of this other inner voice. It's just so much fun!) "Let's look at the die cuts, maybe I can ... oh! Those circles have affirmations on them ... maybe I can add them to embellishment clusters close to the photo. And then look for a quote that reinforces these affirmations. That is it! It is an image of growing out of your black and white world, growing taller than you ever believed you could. Perfect!"

Then everything came together quite easily: I decided to stamp the quote to the background using an elle's studio alpha stamp set and add even more embellishments in a vertical strip to balance the horizontal strip of the houses and give the quote an nice frame. And there's that! I am absolutely in love with this layout!

The Lovely Day collection by Dear Lizzy is 20% off for the whole month of March 2017 in the April Lilli shop!

April Lilli Design Team: Geschwisterplüsch.

For my April Lilli Design Team projects, I have been digging deep into my stash of photos that are on my computer but have never been printed. This photo was taken by a preschool photographer and I loved it ever since I got it. The hurdle: it was only given to me in digital format and somehow I never ended up printing it. When I saw that photo with the flowers in the foreground I knew I had found the perfect match for the "Adore you" paper by Crate Paper.



I fussy cut the flowers but needed something for the background. I didn't want to go the same route, however, of using gesso and the packaging technique as I did with the XOXO Layout. I know now, I can do that kind of mixed media and I will definitely do more in the future but not this time. So I tried to enlarge one of the flowers on a scrap piece of paper and then used this as a template for piercing holes and embroidered the outline of the flower. I then dug out my oil pastels from Faber-Castell and lightly shaded the flower to easily distinguish the flower from the white background.



When it came to putting the layout together, I felt the boxed shape of the photo to be very disturbing, none of the other shapes were linear and so I bravely cut into the photo and cut their silhouettes. To further embellish I used the flowers that were cut from the paper, some pieces from the ephemera pack and the floral shape that was on the chipboard sheet. The title literally translates to "sibling plush" and perfectly nestles in between the flowers underneath the photo. I added in tile stickers from Studio Calico for the first part of the title.

Lastly, I added splatters. Well, I shouldn't have done that because they went all wrong, I wanted them to be big and they were only resembling tiny, misty drops. And worst of all, one of them landed on a strand of embroidery floss and dyed it black. After some mourning, I decided to add the heart embellishment clusters and I really like the way they finish off the layout. So the accident wasn't that bad after all.

If you read all the way up to here: thank you! Go check out the Crate Paper "Heart Day" collection in April Lilli's shop which is still 20% off until the end of February 2017.

April Lilli Design Team: XOXO.

Here is my second project with the Crate Paper Heart Day collection which is still 20% off in the April Lilli Shop. This layout is another mixed media layout. I really enjoy exploring all of these new options and simply play. I try not to go out and buy new products, but instead use what I already have and try to incorporate it into my scrapbooking. There is a process video on my youtube channel for this layout, so go and check it out!

I primed my background with gesso, then used Neocolor II and the heart stamps that are from the Heart Day stamp set to create the background for my photos. I used the chipboard XOXO for my title and added a couple of die cuts from the ephemera pack.

The enamel dots are just the interior parts of the wood buttons from the dimensional embellishments, I love this little trick. Because my title ended up being very close to the left edge I decided to add a patterned paper strip to the left so that the title would move more towards the center. The grey cardstock helped to distinguish between the two pattern papers, this way I was able to use them side by side.

If you want to know more about my decisions and why you shouldn't erase pencil on gesso, simply watch the whole Scrapbooking Process: XOXO Layout.

April Lilli Design Team: Easy Valentine Cards for Mass Production

Last year for our first Valentine's Day in the US, we knew little about the significance this day had in the school year and that children exchanged little gifts. So my sons were ill prepared and we ran to Target the day before the class party to get the last cards that were left on the shelf. I really hate buying those little plasticky toys that get thrown away immediately and was so annoyed about the crap my sons brought to school. I love to give things that can be used up, so this year I am better prepared. I reused an idea from a card that one of my sons received last year and made it work for us.

I searched the silhouette design store for cut files with fish and finally settled on this very basic shape. In the software I deleted the heart and resized and multiplied the shapes to fit on a 8.5x11 sheet of paper since I have a Silhouette Portrait. I ended up with eight fish on one paper.

If you do not have a printer like me, this might be interesting for you: it is "print and cut" vintage style. I then took white cardstock, traced one of the outlines where I punched out my fish and typed the sentence into the shapes of the eight fish using my old typewriter. Then I went to Staples and had them copy my text several times on cardstock, which I then also ran through my Silhouette Portrait.

I then glued one patterned fish and one white fish together, added wiggly eyes to both sides using my Glossy Accents and punched a hole into the fishtail to attach a snack size Goldfish package.

Now we are all set for Valentine's Day! If you still need an idea, this is a fun and quick project that you can create with your kids. Have fun! If you still need pretty paper for your cards, head on over to the April Lilli shop, where you can get this collection for 20% off the original price during February 2017. There is also a video on youtube where you can have a closer look at the Crate Paper "Heart Day" collection.

April Lilli Design Team: Crate Paper "Heart Day"

Can you believe it is already February?

For this month April chose the Valentine's line "Heart Day" by crate paper to be the featured collection in her shop. For the whole month of February 2017 it will be 20% off the original price. I have filmed an unboxing for you where I show you the papers and tell you my ideas and thoughts on the collection. I have already been working with the papers and embellishments and can't wait to show you my ideas. Since I am most active on instagram make sure you follow me there so you won't miss any sneaks and closeups of my projects. a talk about my ideas for this wintery collection.

April Lilli Design Team: Winter Wonderland.

This is my last and final layout that I made with the Winter Wonderland collection for the month of January. Even though I only needed two projects, I couldn't stop creating. This photo doesn't really have a story, I just liked the colors and the atmosphere it conveyed. But then I found the perfect journaling which simply reads: "Alright, sometimes even I can see the beauty of Winter."

I fussy cut the title from one of the cutapart sheets and felt that it needed something to sit on top. So I went with the last bits of my favorite paper and added a strip to the bottom of the layout. I nestled one of the die cuts right underneath the title. To frame the layout I added a thinner strip to the top.

For this layout I slapped some acrylic paint on an 8.5x11 piece of cardstock, simply because I didn't know how this would turn out and I didn't want to waste anything. I used a dry, wide flat brush and just put the colors straight onto the cardstock. I love that you can see the brush strokes so well. Then I put my photo on several layers of patterned paper. I used the red paper twice because I loved how the red helps to bring out the colors in the photo.

I added one of the embellishment clusters to the right of the photos and one on the top left corner. I used all of the snowflakes that were included in the collection's cardboard stickers as well as fussy cut some from various patterned papers. To ground the embellishment cluster at the top I used parts of two tags. As on most of the layouts I made with this collection, I added some enamel dots to finish out the layout.

And if you want to see all of these layouts up close and personal, I just posted a layout share on my youtube channel here: Winter Wonderland Layout Share.

April Lilli Design Team: Silvesterwanderung.

This is another layout where I found inspiration in another layout: Wish List by Audrey Yeager. As I said in this post before: there is usually one or two things about a layout that stick out to me and that inspire me. Here it was the stacked photos, the strips of patterned paper and the use of a notebook punch. With this in mind I ventured out on my own and came up with the layout above for the april lilli shop.

I knew I wanted to back my layout with the woodgrain paper and add stitching, emphasizing the corners happened by accident when I didn't pay attention and my stitching line went too far. So I made it a design element by stitching back and forth on all corners and I really love the detail it adds.

If you are wondering about the use of white and cream colored paper on one layout, I regard those as two different colors and have no problem using them together. In order for the notebook paper to pop from the background I used another piece of the dark brown paper. The notebook paper lend itself perfectly as a journaling spot.

The title was so long that I decided to emphasize the vertical lines created by the paper strips even more and placed it on top of the third paper strip. I then added stitching lines to all of the papers after I punched them all with my notebook punch.

I backed the photos with cards from the cutapart sheet and cut them down so that only a very small border was showing. I felt I need to break up the rigid lines of the layout and added some brown Distress Ink using a stencil by Tim Holtz. The only embellishment I added was that brown deer from the sticker sheet.

Here is the story that is on the layout which is titled "Silvesterwanderung" meaning "New Year's Eve hike". We have been going on these hikes since our college years when we went hiking with a group of friends, taking a picnic and bratwurst for a winter BBQ in the snow. We always had such a great time and kept this tradition even after we started a family on our own.

This particular year, we took our bikes and rode to a lake where we made a fire in a fire pit and grilled bratwurst. We underestimated the length of the tour and how cold it got in the evening and the ride back home was freezing. But we made it.

April Lilli Design Team: This View.

I am not going to talk much about this layout because I have a process video for it on my youtube channel. Go check it out here: This View and hear about the story and the design process. Please hop over and take a look! The Winter Wonderland collection by Simple Stories is still 20% off in the april lilli shop. Below you will find a few close ups.

April Lilli Design Team: Mein Held.

This layout was greatly inspired by a layout from Jen Schow who is a guest designer for Cocoa Daisy this month. I loved the idea of making a grid design from journaling cards and having a flair in the middle. It took me a while to finally come up with this 8.5x11 layout and I had to waste a whole sheet of 12x12 paper to finally come to this solution. When I scraplift a layout or take a layout as inspiration I often just take one (or in this case two) ideas from the original and don't go back looking at the inspiration while working on my own layout. I believe that this approach helps me develop my own style.

As I wrote above, I fiddled with this layout for a long time and then when I compared the end result to Jen's layout, I found that I didn't deviate too far from it after all. The story is about another hat - I chuckled when I noticed that two of the five stories were about hats. Especially, considering the fact, that I didn't start wearing hats until I had kids. The title of the layout is "Mein Held" which translates to "my hero" and it talks about the story that my mom started selling this special crochet yarn (myboshi) in her store and made hats for all of her grandchildren for Christmas one year. The response to my question: "And where is my hat?" was a small package for my birthday in February. But the best part about the hat was that not my mom had crochet the hat for me but my dad!

I used four 3x4 journaling cards from the cutapart sheet for the background and then only added the exclusive heart flair to the middle. On the top right I added a little embellishment cluster made from the die cut set and another cutapart from the 6x6 paper pad. Then I sprinkled some enamel dots in groups of three on three places on the layout. I felt the layout needed some kind of border, so I took a brown pen and drew a line all around the edge. I added some zigzag lines in two places to mimic zigzag stitching and I really like how they turned out. Head over to the April Lilli shop to get this collection for 20% off.