BLOG CHALLENGE | AUGUST

Hello challenge friends! Welcome to the August Blog Challenge! How is this the last month of summer (or maybe it is winter where you are and you are longing for some warm air to flow your way)?! Anyway, before I share this new challenge with you all, we need to see who the lucky winner for July's template challenge is!!! You can take a peek at all the amazing entries HERE.

The lucky winner for this month is RJMJ!!!

Congratulations RJMJ!!! You have a notification on your TLP account.
All other participants will also receive their 25% discount coupons via their Lilypad accounts. Please make sure you check your messages everyone and if your coupon didn't come through send an e-mail to pinkreptiledesigns at gmail dot com!

Here's RJMJ's gorgeous page:

For this month's challenge we are using the latest Three Way | Pattern your Pages as our inspiration for this challenge. Your job, should you wish to play along, is to create a page using at least 3 patterned papers for 1 entry.

BONUS: if you follow one of the Three Way rules of using patterned papers on your page you will get 2 entries.

To recap the Three Way | Pattern your Pages post:

1) Use one type of pattern and really go all out with that pattern on your page. Use at least 3 patterned papers with one type of pattern (The Three Way example uses 3 different striped papers on a page - adding other patterns or solids are just fine, but have at least 3 papers with the same pattern used in a BOLD way!)

2) Take a bold pattern and really work it. Use the pattern's design in a unique way. (The Three Way example uses those big dots in multiple creative ways - cut outs, word art around the cut outs and bits of another pattern peeking through.)

3) Clip patterned papers to an element on your page and repeat it for impact. This lets you fill the page with lots of color and pattern but with fun shapes. Be creative and go beyond the usual circle, square or triangle. I know you can come up with something fabulous!

Please indicate if your page is being submitted for a bonus entry by sharing which one you used on your page when you share your link! And please ask if you have questions about the challenge!

Take a peek at these creative pages created by the Pink Ladies:

First is a page by Rikki demonstrating Three Way #3. Rikki clips PPs to petal shapes to form a big flower.

Stefanie demonstrates # 1 by using 3 different dot papers on her page.

Diane uses 3 checkered papers - also demonstrating # 1.

Karen demonstrates #2 by clipping lots of different PPs to speech bubble elements from her kits and repeats them across the top of her page.

Christa follows #1 and uses 3 different dot papers on her page.

Nini demonstrates #1 with her page using 3 different striped papers.

We cannot wait to see how you are inspired to play with patterns on your page!

Make sure you use at least 75% of Pink Reptile Design products on your page. Once completed, just upload your page to one or all of your galleries and post a link to your layout in the comments section of this post before the next challenge goes live on September 15th.

ONE favorite page will be chosen as the winner to receive a 10 dollar coupon to the PRD store, but really everyone is a winner, as all other participants receive a 25% discount coupon to the Pink Reptile Designs TLP store. So all the more reason to join in on the fun, right?!

Wishing you tons of fun and Happy Scrappin'!

THREE WAY | PATTERN YOUR PAGES

Hello friends! I have another edition of our Three Way series, where we show you ways to stretch or use your stash in creative ways, to share with you today. The topic is pattern papers. So many of us tend to use pattern papers sparingly or maybe we grab a template that uses them as layers of rectangles or squares behind our photos. But there are so many more ways to get creative and throw splashes of colorful patterns on our pages. Let's take a look at some ideas I have and then maybe you can generate some of your own.

ONE: The first idea for using more patterns on your pages is to pick one type of pattern and really go all out. For mine, I chose to work with stripes. I picked three different stripes with different colors and put them on my page. I love the impact this creates. Yet the page is not overwhelmingly busy because your eye is only comprehending the one pattern. I did sneak in a tiny polka dot in red too, but it's such a small pattern that it almost acts like a solid. To finish off my page I gave the whole thing a bit of a white border with a solid white paper. It allows the eye a bit of a rest. Here's my take on working with just one pattern all over my page:

TWO: The next idea I want to share with you is to take one bold pattern and really work it. I grabbed a huge dot paper and used those dots as a design element on my page. I cut some of the circles out and this allowed me to create interest and also layer another pattern (but on a small scale) underneath my huge dot paper. I love the little bit of text paper peeking through! It really matches the theme of my page. To further work the big dots on this paper, I grabbed some fun circle word arts bits that also fit the theme and placed them around each cut out. Here is how my page turned out when I really played up that huge dot patterned paper:

THREE: The last idea for playing with patterns is to use them as repeating elements on your pages. I grabbed a bunch of flowers (plastic, paper, realistic ... any flower with a nice shape will work) and simply clipped different patterned papers to each of the flowers. I added button centers too. I clustered them all near the top of my page and love the way all that color and pattern looks on the page. And because those flowers full of patterns are in one area, it is not overwhelming to the eye but evokes a feeling of whimsy and playfulness that is just perfect for that sweet moment of my kids sharing their flavors of ice pops with each other on a carefree summer afternoon. So peek through your stash and see what shapes besides flowers speak to you. Any element can work: from speech bubbles to clouds, paper tickets to word art ... as well as any other shape that fits your page theme. Here is my final page full of pattern:

So, are you ready to break out of the rectangle patterned paper layering box and work those patterns in a fun new way on your page? Every kit comes with so many beautiful patterns it is a shame not to use them to the fullest!

TUTORIAL | ALPHA TRANSFORMATION

Hello scrappers! This is Jenn, aka jk703, and today I'm going to show you two of the fun ways you can change up and use your alphas! Every part of a kit can be stretched and re-used differently, and that gives you more options when scrapping! For my post today, I'm using Mirjam's Cattitude.

Papers:  http://the-lilypad.com/store/Cattitude-Papers.html
Alphabet: http://the-lilypad.com/store/Cattitude-Alpha.html

we are going to start basic this tutorial - clipping and cutting.

The easiest way to change an alphabet is to clip a paper right to each of the letters. Very simple and can change a whole layout!
Here is the Layers Palette. A paper is above each letter. Just right click on the paper layer, and choose Create Clipping Mask. Then add the shadow to the letter, NOT the paper, and you're done!

The final result:

Another easy way to use your alphabet is to use the shape of the alphabet. Yes, the shape. For this version, you have two pattern background papers layered. On top of the patterned papers, you then have your letter layers. Like this:

Press the Control key and click on the letter. You will get marching ants. Find the top patterned paper layer in the Layers Palette, and then press delete. Do this for every letter you have in your word. Then, when you are done, turn off all the letters by clicking on the little eye on the left side. Next, you will add a shadow to the top layer of patterned paper. This will create a layered paper look and your alpha shape will be shown off nicely.

Not hard at all, and what a different alpha you get to use! Infinite possibilities!

Hope you give it a try! We'd love to see what you create!
Thanks for visiting!
Jenn | jk703

CHRISTMAS IN JULY SALE

Take advantage of TLP's annual Christmas in July sale. There's 3 categories on special: Christmas, Winter and Document Your December. Grab everything you need to finish up those languishing holiday albums or get a jumpstart on this year's pages. We also have great inspriation for you with Christmas challenges. We'll have several opportunities to scrap over the next 10 days, including a challenge prompt to get those pages finished. Join us on Friday, July 21st at 7 pm EDT for a kick off chat for a fun Index Card a Day holiday project too!

Here's just a selection of products included in the sale:

And with that I am wishing you a wonderful weekend and Happy Scrappin'!

HYBRID | HOMEMADE KITCHEN LABELS

A couple of months ago I decided to reduce my waste, particularly packagings. So I bought a maximum of products in a grocery store where they sell loose oils, flours, sugar, spices, coco nut, sweets etcetera.
Now I use glass jars to store them in my kitchen.

When I saw Mirjam's July BYOC Bakers Gonna Bake products I got a idea: create labels to decorate my jars and jam pots.

Let me show you how I made these.

I made the labels in Photoshop using Bakers Gonna Bake Elements and Labels & Tags by Pink Reptile Designs.

I not only printed the label clusters but also one main item. I need these to be able to add a bit of depth to my labels.

After printing every item needs to be cut.

Adding a little strip of 3D tape at the back of the main item and sticking that to the label creates that bit of depth I was looking for.

The finished labels are glued to the jars.

I wrote the names of the products in the jar on the labels. This is what my jars looked like before I made the embellished lables.

And this is what they look like now! It's better isn't it?

These labels are perfect for all kitchen pots and jars. Here I used them on a pot of apricot jam and on a pot of grated coconut:

Now it's time to cook! ;)

As always I hope you enjoyed my post and if I inspired you in any way, shape or form then by all means make a photo of your project and upload it to your gallery so you can leave a link in the comment section below! I'd love to see what you made!