BLOG CHALLENGE | MAY

Hello everyone, it's Rikki! Welcome to the May template challenge!

I hope you had fun with the April challenge. We are all in awe with the amazing pages that were entered. Kudos to you!

Before we head on to the next challenge let's first have a look at the winner of the "Around the edges" challenge from April. If you want to have a look at all the awesome entries, you can find them HERE.

The lucky winner for this month is Linda aka redplaid3!!!

Congratulations Linda!!! You have a notification on your TLP account.
All other participants also received 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 Linda's lovely page:

This month I have another slightly artsy template in a blocked look for you.

In my page I used the masks for photos to show the nice food we had during a long weekend in Italy, but you can also use the masks for a background and add your photos on top, like Nini did (see her example below). It is totally up to you.

Use both border strokes or none, flip everything, leave stuff out. Make it your own!

Just click on the preview below to download

Here's my page

And this is what the awesome Pink Ladies made with it:

by karen

by marijke

by marilyn

by nini

Now it's your turn to create! We can't wait to see your pages!

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 June 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'!

INSPIRATION | EXTENDING YOUR BRUSH WORK

Lately I have rediscovered brushes – so often neglected in my standard Go To useful items. How often have we gotten an alpha with a kit and neglected the little .abr file that comes with it? More than I care to name in my case...

So I used my handy dandy search engine in the Pink Reptile Designs file and discovered to my embarrassment more than half a dozen brush files I hadn’t loaded into PSE yet. And then to challenge myself by using them as more than just a little highlight or for a title. And then had a lot of fun making background papers, some successfully some not so much but worth experimenting with, hopefully leading to expanding your stash.

The chief thing to remember is that the New Layer Button is your friend, use a new layer for every stamp you use – that way it is easy to delete a layer that doesn’t work or move it around as well. It makes everything much more versatile.

Firstly, keeping it simple, I chose the ‘today’ from the Word Up brush set and repeated it until it filled the page. Then clipped a paper onto it, I choose a paper that would not overwhelm the page with too a bold colour but still be readable and a feature of the page.

Any alpha or number set that you have would work just as well as Word Art. I made a patterned paper for my stash using the Ink Pad Alpha.

Again, I chose to clip a paper onto it rather than using the straight colour palette.



Then I had a play with Stamp It no.3 – going for a distressed but cohesive background this time.

Placing each stamp on a new layer, I built up a very simple background – set the brush size to as large as you can for easy coverage and using black as your masking colour - note the layers on the right - all turned off except for one layer and the background -



and with all layers turned back on



The stamps making the wonderful Wild Child Papers more rustic and blended. I like leaving gaps for a little of the plain white to shine through as well, a bit like well worn paper. Love the effect this has on the wood paper and the very cool zebra stripes.



Lastly, one that I was initially unsure of the results but ended up liking the end page. This was stepping way out of my comfort zone with a bright and busy background. With the ScribbleDeeDo Brush set and using just the standard colour palette rather than clipping papers. Having the separate layers for a background was a necessity as I did a lot of rearranging and deleting. The subtle cross hatch brush’s opacity is dialed way back to soften the page and the photo is bedded on a neutral paint transfer to lend a calming factor to the page. Embellishments can be kept to a minimum on this sort of page as well.

So why don't you give it a go and extend your stash as well as pushing you creatively - it's a win- win situation!

iNSD | SPECIAL SATURDAY RELEASES

Apart from that colorful May BYOC there's more new stuff from Pink Reptile Designs this weekend.

I made another 3> new products that are 30% off though May 6 but I am also offering them at an INCREDIBLE 61% OFF BUNDLE PRICE of 4 DOLLAR!

Don't miss out because the offer is valid through May 6 ONLY!

Grab all 3 Wild Child products at a SPECIAL NSD ONLY bundle price! Offer is valid through May 6, 2019.

Includes:
•    Wild Child  | Elements [great set of 65 unique elements [70 in total] in all kind of shapes, sizes, textures and styles. Made to help you scrap your wild side!]
•    Wild Child | Papers [A great set of 12 wildly beautiful patterned papers PLUS 12 gorgeously textured matching solids. Which makes this a pack of 24 papers in total.]
•    Wild Child | Alpha [upper case, lower case, numbers and a bit of punctuation (68 characters per color all seperate .png's., 12 colors in total)]

The individual packs are 30% off through May 6

Have a fantastic weekend, Happy Scrappin' and Happy Shoppin'!

NEW: MAY BYOC & iNSD SALE

Holy schmoly do we have a jam packed weekend at the Lilypad: full of gorgeous new products, a fabulous sale, prizes to win and games to play!

•    As for new products we are kicking off with the May BYOC on Friday the 3rd. I made 4 packs and they are all 30% off through May 6. If you are a newsletter subscriber, you will not want to miss the special bundle price! [Click here to subscribe to the newsletter, if you are not already subscribed.]

We are kicking off the weekend with 4 new packs for the May BYOC. Especially made to help you preserve ALL your stories!

SO HERE'S THE STORY | ELEMENTS
A great set of 64 unique elements [80 in total] in all kind of shapes, sizes, textures and styles. Made to help you preserve all your stories.

SO HERE'S THE STORY | PAPERS
A great set of 10 beautiful, trendy patterned papers, 10 alternate color combinations PLUS 10 gorgeously textured matching solids. Which makes this a pack of 30 papers in total.

PATTERNS PLUS ALTERNATES

SO HERE'S THE STORY | ALPHA
This timeless, all purpose acrylic alpha includes upper case, lower case, numbers and punctuation. All seperate .png's 86 characters per color, 10 colors in total. Perfect for some eye catching titles or monograms.

SO HERE'S THE STORY | TEMPLATES
Rejoice in the little things, give in to whatever tugs at your heart...and off you go!
Let these 4 amazing 12 x 12 templates help you tell your stories in an eye catching way.

There's still time to pick your favorite Pink Reptile product and post it in the thread! You never know... this might be your lucky day! Just click on the image to go to the Pink Reptile thread! Good luck!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and Happy Shoppin'!