Once upon a time, in a digital land far away to some and yet very much close in others hearts was a dream to open a store.  Not an everyday kinda store, but a type of magical and extraordinary store.  The shelves would be filled with items of wonder and love. Hand crafted and thought out goods that would stand above all the rest. The merchandise was well crafted and lovingly placed into the store. The place would be called The-Lily Pad. (the dash is for one of the heroines named Peppermint, but that is a whole different story)

Those that were personally and carefully picked to bring their handiwork to barter were artists and virtuosos of high abilities and skill. The artisans produced such dynamic items it was noticed by all.  They needed support to show others how this wonderful commodity could be used, so they would desire to have such amazing goods also.  This support birthed the group called The Pollys. 

The dream continued with a comfortable place to gather around, and laugh about how you used the things you found in the store.  The laughter was intermingled with support, prayers and sometimes tears for the others you met while gathered here.  The Pollys could be seen throughout the symposiums conversing and encouraging others to enjoy the benefits of this craft called Scrapbooking. Spectators grew, and as they increased a portico was opened to house the works of others arranging their elements and blending their papers.  A gallery of sorts for them to hang their canvases was needed, and the Pollys were there to encourage and spread the love of The-Lily Pad to each and every one.

The Pollys are a sweet and giving group of people, they also merrily make page after page for the designers at The-Lily Pad, and help to keep the wonderful dream alive.  Each month 7 challenges are set out to the public to help them to create pages for themselves, and the honor to be a guest Polly.  For of all those that finish the quest of every challenge, their names are entered into a random selector, and the lucky one enters the majestic gates to a world of splendor and amazement.

You enter with a private message, and it begins the adventures. The adventure is 4 weeks, start to finish.  You see the workings of The-Lily Pad and it is like no other.  You are amazed as the designs begin to unfold, sometimes slowly, sometimes so fast you are overwhelmed.  The designers bring new and fantastic things for you to play.  They ask not much, just to use what you take, and to show others what you made.  Join with the Pollys and help keep The-Lily Pad dream alive and healthy.  

This little tale is filled with blatant over-use of a thesaurus, but also with a giggle in my heart.  You see, I won that quest. I have been a Guest Polly now for almost 2 months.  It has been amazing. I have made so many pages in the last 6 weeks, that I love with all my heart, that will be printed in this years book. I have been stunned at the professionalism by each and every designer and the amazing Pollys.  This is a very organized machine, and I count it lucky to have been asked to be here a little bit longer.  I write this for fun, and to also encourage you to give the challenges a go, because you will have 7 pages done, you didn’t have before.  Then you have the chance to be a guest Polly, and this month, there are two guest spots being awarded! 

Go and become a part of the story of The-Lily Pad.

~never lose your joy

anneofalamo

The post The Story of the-Lily Pad and the Pollys appeared first on The Lilypad.

Templates are WONDERFUL b/c they are SUPER easy to use and they’re helpful to putting a quick page together when you can’t come up with something on your own.

Take for example Amy Martin’s Whip It Up Fast Mini-v1 Templates. 

Here are some pages using them…

by AmberR:

by AnneofAlamo:

I love how she switched the template up a bit and rotated it. Nice work Anne!

by karen perry:

by Dalis:

Here we have JustJaimee’s Storyteller May Templates

and some fun pages using them…

Here we have Lynn-Marie’s Press Play #5

and some layouts using them…

So, when you need a little extra push on scrapping that page, look no further… The Lily Pad has LOTS of templates to help you

Happy Monday!

Brandi

The post Template fun! appeared first on The Lilypad.

roasted haloumi, bacon and tomato salad

•  250g haloumi, sliced
•  4 rashers bacon, rind removed
•  200g sourdough bread, chopped
•  2 tablespoons olive oil
•  250g truss cherry tomatoes
•  80g baby spinach leaves

dressing

•  ½ cup (125ml) red wine vinegar
•  2 tablespoons olive oil
•  1 clove garlic, crushed

  Preheat oven to 220ºC (425ºF). To make the dressing, place the vinegar, oil and garlic in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.

Place the haloumi, bacon, bread and olive oil on a baking tray and toss to combine. Roast for 5–6 minutes. Turn the haloumi and add the tomatoes. Roast for a further 6–8 minutes or until the tomatoes are cooked and the croutons are golden. Place in a bowl with the baby spinach and dressing and toss to combine. Serves 4.

I usually use a bit more baby spinach and cut the cherry tomatoes in half because when my kids eat them whole, they spurt everywhere!

So have a great weekend and dont forget to check out all the new goodies in the store today!

The post My favorite salad recipe appeared first on The Lilypad.

I’ve been going through the gallery lately and all of these pages are absolutely inspiring. Today I’m going to share with you my top 5 favorites from the gallery. Won’t you sit down and enjoy with me? Maybe leave some love for these girls and their fun layouts?

This one is Addict by Natascha

I love how she has this big polka-dot paper with all of the word art and frames scattered around. Truly pops!

This page is (I Hate) Medical Mystery by naughtsncrosses

I love how she took what’s going on in her life and expressed it on this page. Plus, this layering is fantastic! 

Just a Bit Dramatic by Itarbox

The colors, the layering, the cute pictures, the title. Love it!

Vroom Vroom by pagefrocks

I love the doodley, white space, rustic look to this page. Gorgeous!

today’s_outfit by suefalstaff

I adore the clean fresh look to this, and how she’s documented her outfits for the week. Too cute!

Don’t forget, if you have a minute, go leave their pages some love!

Have a great Wednesday!

Brandi

The post Gallery Goodies! appeared first on The Lilypad.

Okay, so you won’t be going at the speed of infinity, but it is a pretty face paced scrap! Having some things in place prior to the actual scrap can make or break your time. 

1. Have some photos prepped.  

I like to have at least three groups of photos that I want to get scrapped. Speed scraps are a great way to finish off year books, or projects that need to be done.  I really pushed to get my 2012 book done, and speed scraps were a big part of it.

2. Buying kits BEFORE the actual chat starts!

This is mucho important. I have on occasion freaked and needed a kit for a speed scrap, and my nerves were about shot, trying to get them downloaded, unzipped and on to my page before the end time. Have a few kits bouncing around in your head. I like to browse thru the store that day, and pick up one, or two. (cough cough) or more.  We all know it is way more fun to scrap with NEW things! 

3. Check out the chat room, make sure your JAVA is compatible, updated and ready to roll.

Java is a fickle program.  Sometimes it works in Chrome, some times it doesn’t.  I like to go in early in the day and make sure I can get in, and if not run some updates.  Java oh Java why do you fight me?

4.  You are going to be incommunicado for 2 hours.

 Have pop tarts or some sort of snack to toss to young children.  Explain the importance of what you are doing to your friends and family. Block that time out! I know some of you are laughing right now, but I get frantic when one of my kids decides they want to explain exactly how the solar system works when I am in the middle of a speed scrap.  

5. Know your dates and what happened in the photo.

You get to the final step? Date it, and add some journaling, is a big favorite of most taskmasters, I mean hosts of the Speed Scraps.  So, write it down, get the facts in order.  Now that I have written this blog the final step is probably gonna be, now flip the page and dance a jig to Justin Beiber’s latest song.  

6. Get an easy way to save for web action. 

I can not stress this enough.  Having an action that you go click…and it moves at the speed of light and pops up a window to help you click the right size, and then saves all nice and tidy will be such a help.  I use this Resize for Web Action. It is free! I have used it for years now. Never once failed me.

7. Upload

This sounds all easy, but you have to upload it to the correct gallery; usually Speed Scrap.  Then copy the image.  Use the handy dandy links under the photo details, either Linked Thumbnail or Linked Image.  Copy that url and paste in the Speed Scrap thread in the forum.  If time is crazy, put a little disclaimer; I am freaking out about time, will come back and edit for credit! Then come back later and give props to those designers that helped make your page a reality.

8. Leave a little love.

This is one of my favorites, we just hung out for an hour laughing about the instructions and life.  Leave a few comments to your sister scrappers! Way to go! You will reap the happy, I promise. 

9. Mark your calendar

Yeah, now your are addicted and prepared.  The next speed scrap:

10. Apply, rinse, repeat!

 ~Never Lose Your Joy

Anne of Alamo

The post Speed Scrap Prep appeared first on The Lilypad.

Every Day by pagefrocks

loved by Ellie

today’s_outfit by suefalstaff

wagon ride by adejong

ACT by LivyBug

Tape Love by Sannn

You and Me by DoggiNo

Amazing right?!  The LilyPad gallery is bursting at the seams with even more inspiring layouts.  Be sure and hop on over to check  them out!  Have a great week!

The post Froggy Finds appeared first on The Lilypad.

Seven pages in the store for Special Saturday happiness at the Lily Pad for this past weekend!  I don’t know about you but I was blown away at the creativity of each  and every designer! I just stared at the new releases, and knew what they had been putting out for the last 4 months, cause I had been buying most of it! The creativity and mojo is overflowing here at the Lily Pad!

One of the perks of being a Polly(I am a mere Guest, but love every moment), is seeing the goodies roll into the back room to make pages prior to the release date.  I am not joking, (and not breaking back room secrecty here), but these ladies were almost hourly putting a new design in the shoot for this years iNSD! 

What to do on these crazy download times? I got to thinking, if I am overloaded, my friends and peers probably warmed up their PayPal accounts with new purchases also.  Now it is time to use those gorgeous goodies!  First you need to unzip those well bundled babies! Give them some air!!

I use a program called Extract Now. (I am not paid by them, and they have no idea who I am), but it is free and it does lots at the same time! It even has a cool siren sound when you are all done. You do have the option in the settings to turn that off, but it makes me feel happy when it shrills!  It is a drag and drop and hit the Extract button! Tada! 

I like to go in and then clean up my download folder, I click on each folder and cut it out of the folder go back to download and paste.  This is to make scrapping easier for me later. I keep the Elements as my main folder and then put the papers, alphas and any other fun journaling cards or paints in there also. It is all nice and neat.  

The Lily Pad is my home in Digiland.  I do all the challenges and really really make a lot of pages for our yearbook with the goodies from here.   Every month I make a BYOC folder, BYOC-0513. I like to keep it together for another month, then bring the folders back to momma! Here is a glimpse of my download folder this morning. 

This is where your dedication or obsessiveness kicks in. I have a motto, if I have not scrapped with it, it stays right here in download land.  (except for the BYOC, that lives here all month) I bought this kit for a reason, or downloaded as a Creative Team member,and by golly, it is gonna become useful to the scrapworld some how.  Useful is not sitting on my EHD! I have had kits for up to 6 months in my download folder, waiting for that inspiration to scrap a page or two.  This is not a dead set rule, as I will file my freebies almost immediately.  

You can see, I have the Lily Pad folder open.  The Puter files by number than alphabetically, so I place 00(zero, zero) in front of designers I create for, or a 0G for those I am able to guest.  This brings them to the top of the file, so I know I have more in those folders and draw from them for pages more often. 

This is just one way to unzip and keep the do dah happy in your scrapping! I hope it helps someone, to become organized and more importantly, get to scrapping those memories!!

~never lose your joy

Anne of Alamo

The post UnZippity Do Dah appeared first on The Lilypad.

Anne here, guesting for the Polly’s again this month and loving the excitement that is exploding all over the forums! Excitement of chances to win gift certificates left and right in so many different ways!!  There is something for everyone that scraps! I mean everyone!! 

Karen always has people clicking and searching with her Scavenger Hunts, and this one is beyond the beyond! Pop over to the iNSD Scavenger Hunt thread and learn how to play!  Be careful, once you find the designs, you may want to buy some of those lovelies!! The person with the most correct guesses wins a $5 coupon. If there is a tie, there will be a random drawing for the winner.

 Angie has a thread that is sure to be filled with LOLs and other explosions of laughter.  She is hosting the iNSD Get to Know You UNO! Now if you know Angie, this isn’t the normal “Hi I’m Anne”, it has that twist that makes you guffaw and snort and want to read more about those who scrap along side you around the world!

Once again, try your eye for color with the BYOC swatch inspiration challenge.  Heathergw is again hosting this challenge, and the best part??? You get the whole August 2013 BYOC that’s created by the awesome designers here with your awesome swatch if you are the lucky winner!

For those of ya’ll that are just overflowing with happy and love to cruise the gallery, the Gallery Game – iNSD edition is just perfect for you! Pop over and see what AmandaResende(our Brazilian Amanda) has for you to do for a chance to win $5 coupon! Keep that gift of gab going with AmandaC(our Australian Amanda) Posting Contest – iNSD edition.  Easy and fun ways to play!

Now Dalis is downright creative and crazy! Two of my favorite attributes, and she is hosting not one, not two but three challenges.  Froggy Favorite Scraplift – iNSD edition that is full of spins and moves that I think may count as aerobics! iNSD Pond Fishing. What? Oh you must go and read just how to fish here at The Lily Pad! I think you will get a real kick out of this challenge, and find yourself making a page that is completely different than what you usually do.  Then the thread on major doses of RockSTar and other energy drinks, iNSD Photo Train – TLP Express… hurry, quick go grab your spot!! 

It is May, and folks are Spring cleaning, how about a fresh new avatar? Join Kim and the Polly’s in the iNSD Avatar Challenge.

 Yep, you can win in this one too! I have a thread going also about challenges, needing your input to challenges you would like to see in the coming months, so Brainstorm and Win $$ during iNSD. Give your input and have a chance to be heard and to win! Fire up that printer and go HYBRID!! iNSD Hybrid Challenge, Mrspotts(aka Jewelle) has a challenge to get your scissor skills going!

A free template from our own Amy Martin has been provided for the iNSD template challenge. Milo82 (aka Petra) is hosting and excited about it! Find out the theme and play along please!!

Yes, yes, yes, Bart is here, and his lips are ready for your kisses! This is a huge hit and oh so fun to do!  I have to admit to staying up way too late during the birthday celebrations back in January.  I searched and searched for that cutie pie frog, only to be thwarted by more dedicated puckered up scrappers! Check out Cristina’s Kiss the Frog – iNSD edition and prepare to find Bartholomew!

There will be speed scraps and chats.  There is also the Pick Your Prize - Game! Each designer has a thread and you just put in what you would like to win. One lucky poster in each thread will be selected randomly! Don’t miss the Pin It 2 Win It – iNSD edition!! either!  This one is the big bang kapowee challenge! 

 One winner  will be selected by random drawing and will be awarded wish list items up to $150. Sharpen those pins! That is a big ol’ prize! 

So jump on over to the forums here at the Lily Pad and celebrate our day! Inter-National Scrapbooking Day!

~never lose your joy

anne

The post iNSD – The Festivities Have Begun appeared first on The Lilypad.

1.  Scraplift Challenge – This month Dana is doing a fun twist to our scraplift challenge, she wants you to play scraplift tag.  Go to the Scraplift Challenge thread and “tag” the person above you.  Then go to their gallery and pick a page of theirs to scraplift.  How fun!  Dana started us off by picking a page from her favorites by Valeria:

and here is Dana’s lifted version:

2.  One Word Challenge – Amanda (gracielou) has selected Carpe Diem for this month’s One Word Challenge (it’s one phrase, rather than one word cuz she can!)  So let’s see your pages about seizing the the day and living life in the moment.  

3.  Journaling Challenge – Heather (talktoheather) is hosting the journaling challenge this month.  She wants you to use this phase as a prompt:  ”This makes me so happy”.  Here is  a fun sample page by Heather:

4.  Product Challenge – The product to use this month is Date Elements.  Julie (mrs2a50) wants you to use some kind of date element on your page for this month’s product challenge.  Here is a sample created by Julie:

5.  Random Challenge – Renee (renee82) is hosting this month’s random challenge and she has created a fun one for you.  She wants you to create a page about your “dirty little secret”.  Here’s a fun page created by Renee:

6.  Template Challenge –  Amy Martin’s generosity never ends.  She’s created another fabulous free template to use for this month’s Template Challenge (hosted by Amanda/MandaKay).  Here’s a peek at the template:

…and here’s a sample created by Amanda using this template:

7.  BYOC Challenge – Last but not least is the BYOC challenge which will be posted tomorrow when the May BYOC collection is released in the Store.  You challenge is to use 90% of the products on your layout from this month’s BYOC collection and also to use products from at least 3 designers.  Here’s a little sneak peek at this month gorgeous BYOC collection:

Here is a list of all the Challenge Galleries for you to upload your pages to:

Scraplift Challenge Gallery
One Word  Challenge Gallery
Journaling  Challenge Gallery
Product Challenge Gallery
Random Challenge Gallery
Template Challenge Gallery
BYOC Challenge Gallery

Now you’ve seen all the challenges, so what are you waiting for?  Get scrapping and be sure to grab a spot in THIS THREAD.  Keep adding your Challenge LOs to the same spot so we can make sure you get the coupon you’ve earned!  If you have any questions about the challenges check out the Challenge Guidelines thread or the May Challenge Forum.  We can’t wait to see your pages!

The post May Monthly Challenges appeared first on The Lilypad.

Polly Brandi here. 

I thought I’d do a short and sweet post on some of my favorite fonts.

Now mind you, these aren’t ALL of them, but they are some of my top favs.

All but two are free.

ENJOY!

1. Bebas Neue   2. BSD Sugar Sweet   3. CK Ali’s Hand   4. CK Becky  

5. Communist   6. Contribute   7. Dingus   8. Headliner No.45  

9. Old Letterpress Type  10. Pottery Barn  11. Signerica Fat  12. Soymilk  

13. The Twig

Hope these fonts will be useful to you!

Happy Tuesday!

Brandi

The post Favorite Fonts appeared first on The Lilypad.