May Storyteller & a template freebie for you

I hope everyone is enjoying their iNSD! I sure am. Remember, you can always join me at the live GIS crop. Just register and follow the instructions to get into the meeting room.

I say every month that I this month's Storyteller Collection is my favorite, but I'm saying it again. This month is my favorite ever! Don't forget to checkout the idea magazine as well. It's gorgeous to look at and it has a ton of tips and tricks from Jaimee's Creative Team.

Here's the page I created with the kit:

For this page, I used:

• Elements
• Paper Pack
• Extra Papers
• Digital Stamps
• Layer Styles
• Flair
• Washi Tape
• Square Cards
• Word Art
• Tags

It has to be one of my favorite pages, ever. Not just because it's one of the perfect, happy day pages, but because the colors work together to create an amazing golden light. If you haven't noticed, I love ampersands at the moment. Combined with my love of black and white (or high contrast), the background paper makes my heart sing. That heart cutout comes 3 ways: pre-filled (used here), plain, and in template form so you can clip your own papers to the inside of the hearts and the cut out itself.

Because I LOVE this page, I've made it into a template... and I'm sharing.

Click on the image to download

Contents:

• .TFF 
• .PSD
• .PSP
• Individual .PNGs
• Shadows on separate layers for customization

Yipee!!

Did you see that Jaimee also has this sale going on? Hurry because it won't last long!!!

The Fine Print: Please do not select collabs, collaborations, collections + product bundles. You may choose kits, commercial use items, elements, paper packs etc.. You may also not combine with any other offers such as subscriber bundled deals!

Why are you still here? Go grab this kit now!

April Storyteller & Colds

It's almost April and there's still snow on the ground, my allergies are in full swing- I can literally feel the pollen coating my body- and we're all getting over a nasty cold. My hubby brought home germs from the hospital. He has bronchitis and I suspect my kid's lingering cough may be a mild case of it, too. I got off easy with non-chest cold. This is not the best way to start spring. It also might be my personal hell.

James the cat doesn't like any of this. Snow and muddy ground ruin walks. Sick moms nursing her family back to health while doing chores and creating pages don't have time for play. He pretty much hates me until I get out the cat treats. Yet, he does love my kid.



The Page: I made this page with the April Storyteller by Just Jaimee. This month departs a little from Jaimee's normal color story- it's warm, analogous color mixed with cork, black and whites. It's color expertly constrained with Jaimee's signature graphic, playful style. I played the color scheme by using a warm, golden processed photo.

I'd originally intended to use three photos on this page- a series. I decided it against it when I realized each photo made me think of a different story. This one is cozy and comforting... it's really about the bond these two share. I created a feeling of cozy warmth by using a bracket foundation, clustering, color, and a lot soft and smooth textures.

The Story: James was a godsend at the peak of my kiddo's cold. The last time my kid was sick, there was shrill, terrible, tear inducing screams of agony that made high tail it to ER at 11pm. (thanks, Autism)  Right before the screaming started (because we can see it coming from a mile away), this happened. James comforted him in a way that was acceptable to the kiddo's sensory system. James, who is not a lap cat at all, knew what his boy needed.

James is a special cat and he was rewarded.


Back to the kit... I love it. I've made a few more pages with it that I can't share yet. As much as PSE speed and limitations drive me crazy, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Jaimee's styles. This month includes a vellum style- YIPEE!! I adore the alphas and am happy that there is both a serif and sans serif. There's so much good stuff that you should probably just pick up the whole collection. If you subscribe to her newsletter (scroll the bottom of the main page), you can pick it up for a sweet price.

Jaimee created a FREE magazine full of inspiration, tips and tricks to go along with April Storyteller!

Smashing & Marching

It's been a very rough week, but there have definitely been highlights. One highlight was getting to play with the new March Storyteller, which I truly love. The other was the what I scrapped with it.



This is my kid working on his Smash Book. Being that he has a lot of fine motor skill issues, this sorta journal works well for him. He writes if he wants to, but he can also glue the heck out of anything, cut with wacky scallop scissors, use up all the washi tape, use stickers and whatever he feels like to his heart's content. It's more like an art therapy for him.

His life at the moment is so much about learning rules. Social rules. Grammar rules. Math rules. Science rules. Rules for his growing, changing body. At almost 13, there's so much that is new and foreign and so much to get wrong. But in his Smash Book? There's no wrong. There are no rules. It's a space where he can be him. It's blissful.

Being me, I decided to pick up my own Smash Book and some fun stuff for us to use. I also picked up some plain card stock for printing. Jaimee has great printables with her Storyteller Collections, so I'm excited to try it. I did some playing today because I needed a break from my guys:

I think this weekend I'll test out the printables in the March Storyteller for the live crop at Get It Scrapped all day Saturday (which you're welcome to join).

Month of Challenges wrap up

I am proud of myself for creating all 31 challenges at The (dash) Lilypad. It was definitely worth the effort. I will definitely miss checking in for the daily challenges and the camaraderie of my scrapping buddies that kept me full of can-do attitude. (thanks, everyone!)

Instead of a straight show and tell, I'd thought I'd do a little wrap up with what I've learned in the past month:

• I learned new techniques both in Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro: Watercolor Effect, a new method for realistic brushwork, learned more about overlays and a new method of tweaking shadows
• I learned to make faster choices when creating a page, which improved my scrapping speed. Pick it and stick it! (Is that Katie Scott who says that?)
• It's okay to shop your stash instead of buying the latest and greatest. Actually, it's probably BETTER to use what you have before getting new stuff. I love that I got to use neglected product.
• It's also okay to reuse kits you love. There's no rule that says you can't use the same paper 5,000 times if it makes you happy. 
• It's okay to use awful photos if they tell your story (more like a re-affirmation for me).
• Creating begets creating. I thought I'd be burnt out after making a layout a day, but it's not so. I am inspired to create even more! 
• It's okay to make mistakes, get it wrong and fail. Success comes from trying again. 
• Make it work for you. I used a web based collage maker for a couple of challenges. I tweaked technique challenges to work in my creative process. I have no regrets. 
• Scrapbooking is good therapy for the scrapbooker. Be authentic, be deep, be funny, be emotional. The pages are for you. If others glean insights into your life in the future, awesome! But if you create for someone else no one will get that artful authenticity, not even you. Hide your text if you don't want to share with the world, but get it out of your head onto the page. 

Now, for my last few pages. You can see my complete body of work for this challenge HERE. 

Clean and simple (but no one said not colorful):

Mix alphas... and I happen to love this girly page of our girly kitten, Katniss. I watched a Wilna Furstenburg video while creating this and I think the influence shows up on my page:

The final page: scrap an old photo. This is of my mom in the kitchen before I was born. I think she still has the pots and pans, or at least the big 2 quart one. I think I made chili in it for my dad the last time we visited.

The last two pages I created with Just Jaimee's new Storyteller Collection. I am in awe of how she captures the mood of every month with color. If you see me scrapping with it all month long, it's because I'm not afraid to use what I love over and over again.

November Storyteller and Your December Story just met

It's time for another Storyteller Collection! While I'm woefully behind on my month pages, November is pretty much done. It's going to be included in my December Story album, too. Two birds, one stone.

I haven't put journaling on these pages yet, but I plan to. If I don't, then the title really does say it all. This is a glimpse into our daily life before the holiday as prompted by YDS Lesson 1.

I used a template for this page, which I rarely do, but I know myself. If I didn't jump on the inspiration, I might not make the page. The template did the heavy lifting. Thank goodness for Crtl + G.




I used almost every part of the collection. I decided I'd make a title with the alphas to sum up our challenges this time of year. I wanted to be real, but not depressing, wanted to make sure it was our collective challenges, but not to general. Yet, I didn't want it to be depressing either. Here's what I came up with:



I'm really loving fonts and alphas lately. I have too many fonts, so I use Wordmark to sort through them when I'm creating something like this. You can type in the text you want to write, select the size and style, hit enter and Wordmark displays the fonts on your computer. It's a gem! You can also sort your fonts in lists, which Wordmark will save for you. For instance, I have a list of scripty fonts and typewriter fonts. It saves me a ton of time. Also, it's 100% free.

Overall, I'm happy with the pages and if I don't get to the journaling, I'm not stressing over it. Success!

♥ Carrie