Calligraphy!

We have officially finished decorating for Christmas. We put garland on our fireplace for the first time! And it looks fabulous! I also think our tree looks pretty, even though it is small. But it is pretty festive in our house! Along with the manger scene! 🙂

Lately, I have really been wanting to try calligraphy. But I didn’t want to buy a really expensive pen set if I didn’t think I would be doing it a lot. But I wanted to try some different writing styles, since my handwriting isn’t really pretty or anything. So I did find a cheap calligraphy pen at Wal-Mart for like $2. I think it works well. Here is my first attempt at plain calligraphy:

The pen I got has a 2 mm marker and a 3.5 mm marker, so it’s double ended. I personally like the 3.5 mm better, just because it makes the edges stand out more. I then decided to look up some styles on Pinterest. I tend to be really good at copying other things, so naturally that is what I did. I found two different styles and just copied the alphabet.

I think they look better in the pictures! haha. But the one on the right was a more gothic style. I haven’t really gotten the hang of making things even yet, so some of my lines are a little weird. But for the most part, I think they turned out great! 🙂 For the one on the right also, the font I found in Pinterest didn’t have an ‘I’ or a ‘V’ so I improvised.  I want to get better at this because I think they writing is beautiful and I really need some better handwriting fonts for cards or my scrapbook. So Yeah.

I hope you enjoyed this. I hope that you were inspired to try calligraphy! For me at least, copying isn’t hard. Maybe you should try looking at a picture, and just going for it! It’s okay to mess up or fail! Don’t be afraid to do so. Just be afraid of not trying, because then you will never get better. 🙂

Until next time,

Laura Riffo

P.S. Follow me on Pinterest if you dare (I pin a LOT) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc

10 Days Until Christmas!

HEYYYY!!

I am so excited.  Break has been great so far.  I don’t have much planned for the rest of the week except for wrapping gifts and making Christmas cards and tags.  I have to make a lot of Christmas cards!  I’ll try and post some.  I may not get them all.  But anyway, I am excited to share with you this weeks spread in my Happy Planner!  I went with a Cozy Christmas theme!  I also used my new Project Life holiday stamps from Stampin Up.

So here it is:

The paper came from Michaels.  The washi tape came from Stampin Up along with the Christmas stamps.  The colors I used were: Mossy Meadow for the trees, Real Red for the bows and the ornament, Soft Sky for the tag around the Notes stamp, and Chocolate Chip for the hot chocolate mugs.

Again as I said I have like nothing going on this week, that’s why I don’t have anything filled in.  Monday was busy and today has been busy as well, but the rest of the week there is nothing.

I hope my spreads fill you with Christmas cheer!  I love it when I can Stamp in my planner.  If you have not tried it, you should.  I think it adds a touch of personal creativity that stickers can’t do.  Overall, I hope you have a great week and a very Merry Christmas!

Until Next Time,

Laura Riffo

P.S.  Follow me on Pinterest if you dare (because I pin a LOT) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc

This Past Week

Hey!!!

This past week has been kind of crazy with exams.  The exams were not hard, it was just lots of studying and me being busy.  I worked on Thursday running the clock for two middle school basketball games.  That was a new experience, but the referees were super awesome and helped me keep track of things! 🙂 We have the best refs ever! They are so sweet and are always friendly.

I do want to share my happy planner layout from this past week, since I have not had a chance to share it yet.  I am sticking with a Christmas theme for the whole month.  So here it is:

Basically everything I used came from Michaels.  The countdown came from Pinterest.  I cannot think of the lady’s name who posted them.  If you would like to know, I can find out for you.  Just ask me in the comments.  The Joy to the World sticker came from Hobby Lobby I believe.  I think that was the only thing that did not come from Michaels.

So it was more of a snowflake theme.  It also had some trees and mistletoe mixed in.  I enjoyed doing this spread.  I realize my stamping need to be a little better because everything was crooked.  Oh well.  I try my best. 😉

Well I hope you are getting ready for Christmas like I am.  Have a very Merry Christmas!  I will post again Tuesday so be on the lookout.  It will be my spread for this week and maybe some other things.  I have not decided yet.

Until Next Time,

Laura Riffo

P.S.  Follow me on Pinterest if you dare (because I pin a LOT) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc

 

Cards and Tags

So a few days ago I decided to make some more Christmas cards as well as making some tags for presents.  I had seen some great ideas from Pinterest that inspired me to make some for myself.  I do some shopping for my parents and my brother during Christmas, so I thought it would be nice to put a homemade tag on the gifts.  I found a tag punch at Michaels for $7 so that was a fabulous find!

I used washi tape and ribbons on the first two.  The stamp on the second one is from the Lovely as a Tree kit from Stampin up and the washi on the second is also from Stampin up.  Yes I do realize the stamps are crooked.  I tried my best to line it up, but I am really bad at eyeing it.  I had a snowflake punch which I used for two of the tags.  I think they turned out wonderful.  Hopefully I will get the chance to make more as my break is coming in 2 days! YEAH!!!

I also made some more Christmas cards.  We are getting our things ready to send out plenty of cards and this year we wanted to hand make them.  So I have to make a lot of cards!  Hopefully I don’t run out of ideas!  But that is kind of impossible since we have plenty of resources and people sharing their own creations to give us inspiration!  That is exactly what I hope to do for you as well.

Sorry about the glare.  I don’t have a good camera 😦

Anyway, We used the window punch for the first card along with the snowflake punch.  We made that one with lots of snowflakes.  The sticker at the bottom says Christmas Wishes.  It was kind of small.  It came from this years Christmas themed project life kit from Stampin Up.  The cardstock came from Michaels.

The second card was made using the Lovely as a Tree stamps with the Merry Christmas stamp from the Sassy Salutations stamp kit.  It was fairly simple but turned out really well.  The one thing I did not like was the white ink that I used.  I got it from Michaels and I do not think it is the best.  It takes forever to dry unlike Stampin Up’s ink.  It works, but it smears if you touch it or try to make it dry faster.

The third card, I used the holiday homes stamps and die cuts.  My mom decorated the houses.  I did the background.  It turned out okay, but I thought the Santa and his reindeer stamp would cover over any snowflakes that I stamped, but in reality it didn’t.  So you can see the snowflakes through Santa and his reindeer.  We may not send that one out.  😉

I hope you have been inspired today.  Maybe gotten some good advice about Michaels ink (hint hint).  Or to not hope Santa will show up over snowflakes.  Always be prepared is what I say.  Well I did use grey ink because I did not have black.  So maybe I was not fully prepared.  Oh well.

Until next time,

Laura Riffo

p.s. Follow me on Pinterest if you dare (because I pin a LOT) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc

 

Holiday Spirit

Hey guys, Sorry I did not post yesterday like I said I would.  I was sick all day.  But I will share today.  My layout for this week was very Christmasy! If that is even a word! haha. Well here is the layout:

Sorry the pictures are blurry, I couldn’t get the lighting right and the camera was not liking me.  But anyway, the cards I used were from a paper stack that I had from Hobby Lobby.  Everything had snowflakes and colors like purple, blue, white, and silver! I loved the paper a lot! I also found the Christmas countdown cards on Pinterest.  I used a reindeer paperclip to attach the cover on the left side.  It came from Stampin Up.  All the other stickers came from a Christmas sticker book that I bought from Michaels.  I did make a insert.  The card itself was from a Happy Planner insert kit from Michaels.  I added the borders along with the snowflakes to make it match the layout.  I found a snowflake punch in my basement.

The strip on the side is to cover up the list of presents I need to pick up for other people.  I had to put the strip up so those people would not see what I was planning.  (Since I do live with them 😉 )

I am happy to say that I have not really been busy this week.  I’ve only had a few things to do such as my last convocation for college and a few basketball games to go to.  Classes have been slow this week since exams are next week.  We just had reviews and class evaluations.  So NO HOMEWORK!  🙂

I hope my Christmasy spread inspires you to be festive this season.  I am planning to make Christmas cards soon and also some Christmas tags! I will share those when I am finished! Let me know what you think in the comments.  Like this is you were inspired or enjoyed the spread!

Thanks

Until Next Time,

Laura Riffo

p.s. Follow me on Pinterest if you dare (because I pin a LOT) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc

 

Christmas Countdown Begins Today

Thanksgiving is over and I am back in class for 2 more weeks.  Then Christmas break begins! I am ecstatic! Through all of the chaos of the past week, I have had time to be thankful for what I have.  It has been a good time.  I did do some black Friday shopping, but I did not go out on Thursday or even early Friday.  I officially went out at about 10 on Friday.  Lines were shorter and there were still deals going on! That made me happy.  We still have leftovers from Thanksgiving, so we will not go hungry for a while.

My week was care free and busy at the same time!  But anyway, here is the spread for my week:

The stamp set I used was from Michaels.  I am really loving the set.  The pilgrims were from Hobby Lobby.  The thanksgiving cutouts were from Michaels and the gratitude and grateful stickers came from a sticker pad from meandmybigideas.  The washi and cards were from stampin up.  I was really happy to get all my to do’s done for this week even before Thanksgiving began! 🙂

I also completed my monthly layout for December.  It’s not too fancy or anything.  Just has a few important dates and a countdown to Christmas.  Without further ado, here it is:

The countdown stickers I bought from Michaels along with the Christmas stickers on the 25th.  I also used Star Wars stickers to commemorate the 7th movie release.  The stickers were in a sticker pad from Michaels that has about 6 sheets of stickers.  The card on the left side is from a paper pad that I used from my mom.  I believe it came from Hobby Lobby.  That’s about all.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  Sorry it’s late, but I will post this weeks layout on Thursday hopefully.  Look forward to it because it is really festive I think! 🙂

Hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving and this inspires you this new week!

Until next time,

Laura Riffo

p.s. Follow me on Pinterest if you dare (because I pin a LOT) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc

New Week, New Cover

Hey peoples,

I was getting sort of tired of the cover of my happy planner so I decided to create a new one.  I did it in a word document.  Once I figured out how to make everything stay the way I wanted it to, it was pretty easy to just add in any photo I wanted.

Yes I did a Naruto theme. But it still turned out really well.  If you don’t know what Naruto is, it is a fabulous anime! One of the best! But anyway, the idea is the same for any cover you want to create. Super easy.  I laminated it twice just to make it more sturdy and also printed on white cardstock. The normal Happy Planner cover is 7.5″ in width and 8.5″ in height.  I created lines on word that were that length and made that the border for the cover.  Then I just added photos inside that border.  Also make sure everything is “tight”.  It’ll make things easier to position exactly where you want them.

Here is the document I used, if you’d like to use it as a guideline:

naruto cover

I would also like to share a few weekly designs from my planner.  One is from last week, completely finished.  The second is this weeks.  I add things as they come up, so the layout won’t change but scheduling things may change.  You get the basic idea though.  I found the design cards from Pinterest.  They were printable and free, so naturally I had to do that.  I still need to get more decorative paper, so for now I resort to printables. So here they are:

I really loved the key, and especially the colors for this week. Last week’s layout seems really beachy, I know, but the colors looked really good with the color for the month. Overall, I think both weeks turned out good.  So with that I leave you with new inspiration to do new things, such as creating a new cover, or doing beach theme in November. YES!

Until next time,

Laura Riffo

p.s. Follow me on Pinterest if you dare (because I pin a LOT) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc

Christmas Cards!

I’ve been super excited as there is a little over a month left till Christmas.  Because of that I have been making Christmas cards lately.  Gathering inspiration from Pinterest mainly.  It has been super fun! My mother has enjoyed doing the same as well.  Both of us are really into Stampin’ Up.  But here are some of our creations:

The first card was made using Mosaic Madness kit along with the coordinating punch.  The colors are cherry cobbler, wild wasabi, cucumber crush and mint macaroon.

The one to the right of it was made using a banner, Christmas washi from stampin’ up, circle framelits, and a stamp from Hobby Lobby.

Below, the left card was made using the Happy Scenes collection, festive fireplace collection, and the framelits (home and hearth for the window) that go with the those collections. The cardstock behind the window is from the Paper Studio.

The last card was made using the festive fireplace collection, home and hearth framelits, and the festive fireplace collection. The pumpkin was made from three circles put together. Wild wasabi was used for color.

All other colors came from colored pencils. The main cardstock colors came from Michaels.  I had a great time creating these and they didn’t take me that long at all!

If there is something particular you’d like to know, let me know in the comments! Thanks.  Hope they inspire you this Christmas season!

Until next time,

Laura Riffo

P.S. follow me on Pinterest if you dare (I pin a LOT) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc

Happy Planner update

All the things I have to do for school have been piling up this week, even though not all of it is included in my planner.  Last week didn’t have a whole lot going on except that it was Spanish Film Festival at college.  Anyway, here is my setup for last week:

Nov. 2-Nov.8

Sorry the lighting is bad, I’ll try better next time.  The cards are from FancyThat! cardstock.  The stickers are from Mambi.  I used post it notes as well as the gold and mint arrows that are from thePaperStudio.  That is everything that I used.

I think everything flowed really well for this week.  The colors worked well with the red that was the theme color of the month. Sometimes I can’t find matching colors so I have to make do with what I have. Haha.

Well that is all for today

Until next time,

Laura Riffo

Inspirational Quotes for the Happy Planner

I love quotes! Especially the ones that inspire me to be better! So I put together some inspirational quotes that I found on Pinterest.  They are sized for the Happy Planner, but could probably work for other things as well.  They are free and printable, hope the word document works for you.  If not let me know! I will share with you tomorrow my planner design for this week (hopefully).

Until next time,

~Laura Riffo

inspirational cards

p.s. Follow me on Pinterest (if you dare because I pin a LOT!) @ pinterest.com/priscilla4jc