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- Jan 17, 2010
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Welcome to the first day of our 2026 Love Our Designers (LOD) event! This isn’t your typical challenge—no rules, no pressure. Just a fun way to scrap with a favorite designer’s products or discover a new-to-you designer. Most of all, it’s about having fun and celebrating the amazing variety and talent of our Lilypad Designers!
You can find Pixel Giraffe Designs here:
SHOP - FACEBOOK - INSTAGRAM
Pixel Giraffe Design has a massive sale today only!!!
Pixel Giraffe Design (aka Maaike) is a newer shop at The Lilypad, joining us in April of last year. I practically did cartwheels when I first saw her gorgeous products. Her designs are truly delightful—an embodiment of creativity. I’m absolutely thrilled to be able to feature her today.
Q & A
Now let’s get to know Maaike a bit better. She kindly answered the following questions for us.
I just love the name of your store. How did you arrive at it?
Thank you. It might seem weird, since I picked the name myself, but I don't really like it. I did briefly consider just using my own name, but for non-Dutch speakers it’s probably completely impossible to pronounce.
Once it became clear that I was going to work as a designer and actually sell my work, I obviously needed a name. I was opening within a month, so I had to pick something. There were two names I genuinely loved, that had a deeper meaning, were personal, and sounded good. I googled them, but these names were already taken, if I'm correct also for creative businesses. Now I really had to make up a name, but each time I came up with something I really liked, it turned out there was already a company with the same name. That also turned out to be the case for the dozens (!) of names I came up with after that. I decided to let it go for a while, since most of the time creative things happen when you let them rest in the back of your mind, but with the deadline approaching (had to make a logo, store front and previews for my packs!) there was not much time.
At some point I ended up with animals (I love nature and animals -there wasn’t a deeper concept behind it than that and I was already to frustrated to even care at that time). I came up with Pixel Panda: it alliterates so it did sound nice and refers to the digital side of my work. But of course, that name was taken too.
The name Pixel Giraffe Design came about simply because, after trying a few more animals, this one wasn’t taken yet. It feels very far-fetched for me and is personal anymore in any way. So, the name basically came out of frustration and a lack of time. What I am really happy with, though, is my logo. I designed it fairly quickly once I got the name. I even made it in Illustrator (I'm a severely challenged Illustrator user)
How long have you been designing?
It’s actually a not-so-typical story.
Around 2010, before I ever thought of myself as a designer, I was making photo books via online printing services. You probably know the kind -you could arrange your photos, add elements, use masks and backgrounds, and print your album. I enjoyed it, but it was never quite how I wanted it to look. Someone suggested photo editing software. I wasn’t thrilled (I’m not exactly a computer fan) but I tried it anyway, and was hooked. The possibilities! The creative process! The results!
Soon I was drawing and photographing my own elements (by hand, I still don't like drawing in Illustrator, it is so counterintuitive), scanning them, cutting them out digitally, and designing full pages that I then printed as photo books. At a point, I didn't make photo albums, but emotional driven art journals and diaries. It was perfect to work digitally, because around that time I became a mother and I could not leave my paint and scissors unattended.
At some point it occurred to me that maybe I didn’t have to make everything myself and find elements I could use online. Guess what? I stumbled upon a Dutch forum for 'digital scrapbooking' and an American site called Pixelscrapper and there seemed to be more people with this weird hobby! They actually sold the stuff for creating digitally! That’s when I discovered digital scrapbooking. I heard about “scrapbooking,” but only as something very pink and ribbon-heavy, which never felt like me, LOL.
Not long after, I entered a designer competition at the Dutch site and officially started designing in 2016. In 2020 I began selling for a U.S. store, and since 2025 I’ve been designing exclusively for The Lilypad. My own photo albums? Still stuck at 2016, although I did make some albums of our travels.
How would you describe your design style?
I usually say I have two design personalities.
One is more artsy and illustrative: lots of watercolor, mixed media, hand-drawn elements, and realistic details. Nature is often a starting point for that line, or it has some clear daily life theme, though most of the time my designs are also emotion-led.
The other one leans much more toward art journaling. That line is very emotion-driven and rooted in real-life struggles, and it’s not really meant for embellishing and creating "pretty" pages, but for expressing yourself. The items are looser, less polished, and raw. Lots of journal prompts, messy paint, stitches, markings, and mixed media items. Inspiration and themes are emotion-driven and rooted in real-life struggles.
I’m honestly not great at traditional scrapping. I can make those clean elements just fine. Actually, that is usually the starting point for my artsy packs: photographed items and illustrations are usually pretty clean, but don't stay that way for very long, LOL. I feel the need to make them a bit more artsy, add texture, layers, and paint. I need a little chaos, imperfection, and rawness.
Tell us about yourself/family.
I'm married to Patrick and we have 2 children: Amber (13) and Viggo (11). Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our fifth family member last year: our golden retriever Izzy. We live in the south of the Netherlands. I enjoy spending time with friends, and I also work as a licensed psychologist. I love to be around the house, drawing, painting, and drinking a cup of tea while reading. I also love to travel and see the world, meet other cultures, and see and enjoy nature. This year we go to Corsica, France and Costa Rica.
Show us a couple of your favorite products.
Oh... this feels a bit like picking your favorite child LOL.
I love A Caught Snowflake, especially the mixed media items.
The Seafoam collection, for its textures, colors.
A New Chapter basically made itself and I love how it turned out.
For Soft Horizon I struggled with the colors of the BYOC but also love the theme and how it turned out.
One more? Before the First Frost. Love how that one turned out, too.
How do you come up with your color palette or theme for your kits?
Inspiration comes from everything: nature, a photo I see somewhere, a gorgeous piece of texture or a little scrap of paper can spark an idea. A lot of what I create is nature inspired but is also rooted in emotions and life struggles.
I usually tend towards teal, green, blue, sage and neutrals with sometimes a contrasting color so it is good that I have to work with a certain palette (like for BYOC) otherwise my kits would look too much the same, LOL. I'm usually not very fond of pinks and pastels, or a palette with a lot of very bright and bold colors. It must be the raw edge I like in all my designs.
What are your go to snacks or music while designing?
I always listen to music while designing! I'm mostly a rock-oriented girl (the raw sound of a guitar... Love it!) but you can find me listening to pop, funk, or live concerts. And I love chocolate!
What is the favorite page that you have scrapped?
My creative time is mostly spend designing, and I make little time for scrapping just for fun -although designing is fun, too.
I enjoyed playing along with the MOC this year. It started as playing hooky, at least that is how it felt. I was struggling with the BYOC collection of February, and sometimes it helps me to do something completely different (go on a hike, take a shower, doodle...) but this time I made 2 layouts. What began as a small act of creative escape turned out to be genuinely fun. I also enjoyed working with collections of my talented co-workers here at TLP. When I scrap for fun or make my photo albums, I hardly ever use designs from other designers. I really enjoyed working with their versatile designs. It is hard to pick one of favorite (I can tell you in an instant which ones I don't really like, though --that is how my brain works, unfortunately).
Can I cheat and pick a few?
Describe your design space.
My design space is just as messy as my design work itself, LOL. My mind actually works best when I can associate freely and work with the flow, although I need a clear foundation (theme and the color palette), otherwise everything goes in far too many directions. But once that base is set, my process really does explode in all directions, and my workspace reflects that perfectly. Around my computer you’ll usually find all kinds of things waiting to be photographed, like paper scraps or pieces of textile, leaves, papers with drawings, paint, and stains, along with quick notes of ideas I didn’t have time to work out yet, chocolate, and a cup of coffee or tea.
I don’t have a separate design room or studio (I wish…!), and I feel that doesn’t help my creative process. Everything is stored away in boxes, so I have to pull it all out and bring it into the living room whenever I want to work; there is no space for it near my computer. By the time I’ve gathered everything, my creative flow has often faded a bit, not to mention having to clean it all up because I need the table for serving dinner. I truly dream of having a space where I can leave things as they are.
Here are a few layouts using her wonderful designs.
Now it's your turn...
Scrap a page using (mostly) Pixel Giraffe Designs.
Post in Pixel Giraffe Design’s gallery and share your page in this thread.
Please remember to tag Pixel Giraffe Design when posting.
And don't forget that the
Pixel Giraffe Design Store is 50% off today.
Enjoy your special day with Pixel Giraffe Designs
and happy scrapping!!
See you back here tomorrow with another great featured designer!
Pixel Giraffe Design Store is 50% off today.
Enjoy your special day with Pixel Giraffe Designs
and happy scrapping!!
See you back here tomorrow with another great featured designer!
Your designs are stunning!
all the creativity here. I’m in love with Maaike’s designs. Squeal, the gift card is an awesome incentive too!!!