getting into the swing of things

being dormant for practically half a year can get one rusty but really... once a scrapbooker, always a scrapbooker... i do have to give credit to attending the Scrapjam and recent mini-meets at Visual Creations to get me going again, plus, of course, the scrapbookers' perennial source of pleasure and inspiration -- retail therapy! If one gets more stash, one has to justify the purchase. So here is a product of the recent get together at Mitch's VC. Thanks to Mitch for thinking up challenges just to get the juice going. She made us do a layout using only dotted paper AND provided the paper and embellies for it. As part of the challenge, we also had to use stamping and make it prominent on the layout. Great excuse for putting my under-utilized (but well-loved) stamps to good use. of course i wasn't able to finish it at Mitch's so i completed it at home.

Journaling:
ME: Reine, give me a pose... I'm testing my new lens.
Reine: [thinks a while then pulls her bangs across her face]
Reine: here, Mama...
ME: what's that?
Reine: EMO, mama...
ME: huh? [clicks anyway]

where do 5-year-olds learn those anyway? in case you're wondering what "emo" means (like me) here's what Wiki says it is.

Materials used: assorted dotted paper, Prima flowers, Autumn Leaves letter stamps, Image Tree letter stamps, velvet rickrack, Quickutz swirly dies, Radiant Rain glimmer mists.

speaking of stamps, i recently acquired one, Hero Arts Kanji Poem, which was put to VERY good use. my first ever paid scrappy work! i've done this for friends before but this is the first time i'm getting money for it. i was commissioned to do 60 pcs. of debut invites in a Japanese-style theme. couldn't be timelier as i am in an oriental mood.



This is my prototype and currently completing 59 more. so... here's hoping these projects help me STAY in the scrapping swing.

scrapjam @ clarkfield

hey! finally a reason to post! been a bit busy with life and photography such that i lost my mojo for a while. i've been itching to get to my glue and cutter for a few weeks now so i decided that going on a scrapbooking slumber party is probably the best way to get the juice flowing. i think i'm more than a bit rusty because it took me a long while to get the engines going but i'm only too happy that i completed a layout. here's what i finished over at the scrapjam.


there were also some projects that we got to do, a couple of mini albums and 3 cards (i failed to complete the other card which is why there's only 2 on my picture. these were totally stress-free activities because all we had to do was follow instructions on how to construct them. just pure fun. i especially love the little project made from a single sheet of 12 by 12 that turns into 7 page minibook with little pockets.


fabulous PANiZZa

before we even got to Clarkfield, we already planned to eat at C' Italian. friends Nita and Lee highly recommend the place kasi masarap daw talaga... so delicious it haunts you, as Nita puts it. i was curious so as soon as we put down our things when we reached out destination, we headed out again. the actual fine dine restaurant was outside of Clarkfield's premises but there was a C'Italian deli inside. we opted to eat there. and goodness...they were right! their specialty, called a Panizza (i'm guessing it is called such because it is a cross between a panini and a pizza) is absolutely scrumptious!

it is served as a pizza on a plate but sliced in strips instead of the usual triangular shapes. it comes together with a bowl of alfalfa and arugula.

i followed Nita's instructions on how to eat it one takes a strip slice, puts the alfalfa and arugula on top and rolls the whole thing up so it looks like the pic below.

of course, when one wolfs down a lunch like that, one needs to wash it down with something so we had italian fruit sodas. mine is strawberry.

we also had a cheese platter which had 3 kinds of cheese which i could not identify except for the swiss cheese that had holes, some crispy grapes, walnuts and bread. there was also a couple of delectably exotic salads (at least to me). they were so yummy i forgot to take photos of them except for this one.


are you hungry yet? the only thing i don't like about all of the these is the price. the average price of a dish at C' Italian there would be around Php 450.00 but i guess something as good as that definitely has a premium.

scrapjammin' with friends

time inside the villa was spent on scrap shopping, project making and eating. i was so engrossed i forgot to take photos. as a matter of fact, once i was inside the villa after lunch, i didn't even venture outdoors till the next day.



that night too, we were the last people to go up to the rooms to retire-- around 1:30 am. i wasn't even sleepy yet so i took a couple or so beers (kasalanan ng kunsintidor na Yoyin! hehe...) up to the room to help me sleep. i don't usually fall asleep easily in a strange, new place so sakto yun. We chatted a while over the beer and Jack and Jill potato chips then it was beddy bye.

next day, after breakfast, we had a few minutes to spare before we started the mini album projects so we went out to take some photos. that was the first time i emerged from house and out of the scrapbooking mode.

the street fronting the villa we were staying at

lampost at a nearby park

feeble attempt at an HDR photo

i love the treelined walks. uy, may naglalakad!...

...si bespren pala!

after this, we had to turn back to make it to the lessons in time. we finished a couple of minis just before lunch and then it was time to take a group shot before we need to pack up and head home.

the jammers ...

...the jammers in their true from!

except for my bad tummy, the weekend retreat was totally fun. the ride home was pretty uneventful. a last hurrah was eating a Zapata's, a Mexican restaurant that reminded me of Tia Maria in Manila. It's another eating-spot-cum-watering-hole must-visit place this part of Pampanga. don't know if i forgot to take photos there due to the disturbed tummy or the yummy tacos i ate anyway inspite of it.

having seen the Clark villas and these 2 restaurants, i'm now looking forward to the next Hot Air Balloon Festival. i plan to do a sleepover with the family that time around so here's a loud shout-out to Yoyin: i'll be baaack! :-D and to Scrapbooks Hawaii, thanks for the cool scrappin' weekend!

dreams of Provence

what person who have even the slightest dreams of traveling the planet has not included in her list of places to visit the South of France? since i had my first taste of travel outside of this little group islands i call home, i couldn't stop thinking of which places to see next. a European vacation tops the list and if i were to choose where to go first, it would be on a lovely beach holiday in Provence.

so i went on the net to do some searching on this area. even if i cannot just hop on a plane soon does not mean i cannot start my research on my next dream vacation. after all, they say the first step to making dreams come true is to visualize it. since budget is always the first concern in planning trips, i have to find someplace that i could afford the soonest. and this is how i came across self catering holidays in Mallemort en Provence.

hotels are always an expensive alternative especially for family trips. hotel rooms usually have strict limits as to how many it can people it can sleep understandably because of a very limited space. therefore, house rentals are a better and cheaper alternative especially for a big family like mine. not only is there more space for my kids to play in, there's also more privacy because i don't have to worry about who goes into the hotel room to do housekeeping.

looking through the choices available on the net from the smaller 2-bedroom houses to large fairy tale villas in Mallemort, i couldn't help but be awed by the lovely French countryside photos. it's truly looks like one gets a sampling of decadent French living at luxurious Mallemort with proximity to the Pont Royale golf course and the French Riviera (Cote d'Azur) which is famed for being health vacation resorts for the British since the 18th century. it is also a favorite area for artists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Now that decides it for me! This definitely one spot that goes on my bucket list.

photo mosaic

i haven't been much of a scrapbooker lately. photography has overtaken what little extra time i have. you can probably say i'm more than a little obssessed with it these days. hence, i haven't been posting much here on my scrapbooking blog. hopefully, with the new year coming in, there'd be more of a balance of activities between the two hobbies i love most.

anyway, before the year ends, let me just share with you a mosaic of a project i just did a "test run" of. it's actually my Project 365 that got aborted. story on my other blog. i intend to relaunch at the start of the coming year so till then, i hope you enjoy what i have accomplished thus far. Mosaic was generated using one of BigHugeLabs.com's Flickr toys, Mosaic Maker.


1. progenitor - 1/365, 2. softly - 2/365, 3. nose in book - 3/365, 4. kagat - 4/365, 5. basils - 5/365, 6. fab fabrics - 6/365, 7. joyful - 7/365, 8. prickly - 8/365, 9. feelin high - 9/365, 10. smilin thru - 10/365, 11. the mothman: up close and personal - 11/365, 12. plaza sta cruz - 12/365, 13. cable sunset - 13/365, 14. leaves and sky - 14/365, 15. 168 sa divisoria - 15/365, 16. reine's row - 16/365


1. smiling moon - 21/365, 2. vintagey - 22/365, 3. 23-365 blown by a book, 4. 24-365 spectators at the mall, 5. 25-365 to the new sm city skyway, 6. 26-365 dirty dawg, 7. 27-365 friends, 8. 28-365 phan at dusk, 9. 1221 IR view from my balconahe, 10. 1220 first infrared, 11. 1218 paper butterflies on the ceiling, 12. 1218 light trails, 13. 1217 pinktone, 14. 1216 workshy at Trinoma, 15. 1215 fire flowers, 16. 1214 moon bokeh through bougainvilla

looking forward to a wonderful NEW YEAR for ALL of us!

shopping gets wiki-ed!

The first time i heard the term "wiki", it was attached to the word "-pedia". Everytime I google something, the results invariably include a weblink to a wikipedia page and these are the ones i often click on first. The results are comprehensive and often with referenced photos to make it more relevant. I'm not sure if I get how this works exactly but I do understand that a "wiki" is a very useful piece of software some web genius developed to make finding information on the web easier. Wiki software collects information from all over the net via some kind of webcrawler and compiles them for the researcher (or googler) to find in one simple and useful page.

Now imagine this technology working for the shopper. I think this part is the most interesting to readers here since scrapbookers (or almost any person with an XX pair of chromosome, for that matter) are such notorious shoppers. So I am happy to point the way to ShopWiki.com. This is definitely one place on the web you would appreciate having at your furiously typing fingertips. Go ahead and try it. Search for something to shop. Enter a brand, article or item you would like to find anywhere in the world and it turns up results plus matching photos to make your search experience even better. As a concrete example, here's one on a lamp search. Not only does it turn up a variety of lamp classification to help organize your search but clicking each segment educates you as well on the details of lighting fixtures! Talk about informed shopping. :-D

I think this is especially useful at this time when most people are crazy shopping for xmas gifts both for the officemate at the next cubicle or the loved one on another continent. It is great as an idea starter at the very least whether or not directly used for online shopping. Shopwiki.com is a definitive tool for the guerilla shopper's arsenal.

golden

being disorganized can really get me in a fix. i had the photos for this job months ago but had to do it in a rush when Lee reminded me she has to send it to its owner already. this layout was for the benefit auction for the Carmelite nuns held months ago. thanks Lizzie for entrusting this layout to me. i hope you like it.


i had attacks of misty nostalgia as i was doing this layout. we had a golden retriever the family called Mozart just a couple of years ago. he was 10 years old and very geriatric by the time we lost him. in his heyday, he was a very frisky big ole dog who was a friend to all the cats in the house. when Kara was 2 or 3, she would "horsie" ride him and he wouldn't mind. she would pull his hair and he wouldn't even blink. goldens are very patient dogs and the only way they might hurt you is if he inadvertently steps on you! the only setback with goldens is that they shed a lot. for years, we had dustbunnies all over the house in orangey fur. even the inside of my computer had orange fur when it gets an occasional cleaning.

Mozart's old Dogster page is here in case you want to take a peek. it's what i do when i miss him.

juju's back...

for now, at least... and i hope it doesn't leave soon. nothing like good ole pressure for the juju to come back to life. i was already getting worried because the scrapping juice has been dry for so long it was getting ridiculous! but with the Scrapfest coming up, i knew Tin needed some more layouts for the Studio Azul booth display. good thing also that the midweek holiday came up at an opportune time. below are couple of layouts i finally got around to complete with the kit Thisaway.

the idea to do this layout just hit me when Raj came up for his saturday morning snuggle. there are no early morning weekday snuggles since he started schooling and morning have since been filled with crying for more sleep or coaxing a sleepy boy to finish breakfast. anyway, the camera was right there sitting on the desk that morning. so i paused for a while from my furious typing on the computer to take out the camera's remote. i approximated our position and voila! and oh yeah, big thanks to Nita too for lending me her Embellish mag to get me going. the inspiration for this one came from a layout there. i'll check tomorrow for the appropriate credits.

Materials used: Studio Azul Thisaway kit, white cardstock, stamp from the kit with Colorbox ink and copper embossing powder, MM acrylic paints to color chipboard letters, buttons, eyelets, Cropadile II, MM dater

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i just love the vibrant colors of this particular Studio Azul kit. just perfect for my 2 young and perky boys: Raj and Tashi. you can click on the photos to enlarge and read the journaling.

Materials used: Studio Azul Thisaway kit, MM acrylic paint to color chipboard letters from the kit, MM metal tag ring, computer and Eras font for journaling.

been bad

in a sense, that is. for one thing, i'm still bad on the scrapbooking corner. still no layouts for the looooongest time. the scrapbooking juju just dried up! Nita says the best cure for it daw is for me to set down the camera first...hehehe... i think she could be right on that, too.

also, i just got me some bad-ass new tats. story here if you likey. warning to the delicate, though. it's not really gory, but it ain't pretty either. but hey, that does not even hold a candle to the truly bad-ass (and ultra COOL!) people i got shots of at this year's Dutdutan '08, the annual Philippine Tattoo Expo. check them out here.

and just because we're at it and this is a scrapbooking blog anyways, let me share with you a scrapbooking link to Inked Scrapbookers. Nina showed me this a few months ago and Cabbie reminded me of it when she heard of me getting new tats. glad to know i'm not so alone in being a tad... uhhhh... different. :-D

if you've extra time, please also visit my photo-a-day blog: http://aulim.vox.com

thanks and have a cool, scrappin' day!

sistah!

you have to forgive me my scrapbooking sisters... i've been soooo bad on the scrapbooking front. practically no output for weeks! my cutter and glue mojo went out the window but came in through the door. only, it went straight for my Nikon. i think it was because of my anticipation building up as the Photo Summit '08 approached. i was registered in this event maybe around 2 months before so you can imagine my excitement as the date neared. it was really every bit as fun and enlightening as i expected, too. my story on that here.

anyhoo, below is the last project i did scrapwise. i have to get back pronto on the scrapbooking scheme of things because the photos and the papers are piling up. perhaps the upcoming EB this weekend at Visual Creations is just what i need to get me in the scrapping mood.






when i saw the Studio Azul May kit, i immediately thought of this sisters mini album project because it was so girly! i have always wanted to do one just to remind my girls that sisterhood is one of the strongest bonds despite the fact that you want to strangle your female sibling occasionally. hehehe... even if i don't have a sister, it kinda reminds me of my relationship with bestfriend Nita. i'm sure she will agree :-D

Materials used: Studio Azul May kit, regular heavy chipboard as base for pages then coated with Mod Podge acidfree for acidity protection, Making Memories round tagmaker rims, assorted ribbons, Zutter Bind-it -All, varicolored thread and sewing machine for the small tag, Marvy gigapunch, Catslife press stamp, computer and various fonts, UTEE, QK letter dies.

Artful Blogging Challenge on www.bookoto.com

how can i not join when it presents a magnificent opportunity to win some of those cool Artful Blogging magazines? great idea for a challenge by the 2 beautiful ladies of www.bookoto.com , Julie and Sheryl! looking forward to more of these challenges and thanks for bringing in those wonderful books too. here's my entry:

1. What is your blog name and what's with the name?
My Simply Scrappy Life

Tagline: All My {S}crap: I'm so full of it!

I came up with the name because I see myself living a relatively simple and uncomplicated life albeit quite busy. Since I like not just scrapbooking but also quilting, I included the word "scrappy" in the title because the hobbies I love deal mostly with scraps of paper and fabric. It also pertains to the fact that showcasing my scrapbook pages here shows sneak peeks into the "scraps" of my life.

2. How was your banner/header created (include all credits)?
Since I am a sentimental person and this banner is the first one I ever created so I never changed it since my blog's original incarnation 2 years ago. I created the header for this blog at the time when headers weren't too common yet and I wasn't very familiar with how to do it. I wanted the blog to be personal so I took a photo of my messy scrapbooking desk, cropped and sized it to be the same as the header size from the Rounders template of blogspot.I used Adobe Photoshop for this and the typography. It features my blog's tagline (or secondary title). I'm actually poking fun at myself with it. Since I blab on my posts regarding my life and scrapbooking, I say I am truly full of (s)crap! :-D

3. What is your blog about? Why did you create it?
This blog was created about 2 years ago when I started to scrapbook seriously. Originally, this blog was created to document and share my progress in scrapbooking AND quilting. However, i rarely have the chance to do quilting these days so it is mostly scrapbooking. Secondly, it also aims to share whatever tips and techniques I pick-up while learning these crafts most especially to the scrapbooking friends I have made along the way.

popping in...

been a while friends!... i have to admit my absence has been mostly due to playing just as much as working these past few weeks. my little free time is now divided between the MM cutter+ UHU glue combo and my well-loved Nikon. yup, i'm still crazy infatuated with photography. as a matter of fact, i have gotten daring lately and tried my mettle at shooting nudes. my experience on that here at my other blog.

since the photos are piling up and scrapbooking was my initial motivation for winging it with photography anyways, i always go back to my scrappin' toys even if i occasionally get distracted with other things. sharing with you here are the few pages i have completed lately (thanks to Studio Azul) that i am so belatedly posting.

Again, this is one of the rare layouts for hubby. i was quite happy to find the chance to document their friendship. just like Nita and I, these guys have been good friends since high school and we saw each other through all those years, from the time we were all single, through marriage, and raising children. long time friendships are indeed good reasons to celebrate and document.

Materials used: Studio Azul April Kit Going Postal, Autumn Leaves stamps, Collage Press stamps, Versacolor inkpads, Quickutz dies.

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yup! Reine had hair so thin she didn't get her first haircut till she was 4!

Materials used: Studio Azul May Kit Spring Shower, Quickutz dies Beauty Queen, computer font Impact, sewing machine, buttons

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Nita's daughter Sam and my Reine romping around with our shih tzu, Tashi.

Materials used: Studio Azul May Kit Spring Shower, kraft cardstock, MM foam stamps, Distress Crackle paint, buttons

a mini for Kara

my elder daughters sometimes feign tampo, whenever i make layouts for their 2 younger siblings. "lagi na lang sila!", they would kid me. "well", i would retort, "mas cute sila e..." however, it was just time to make one for Kara especially since she just graduated from elementary. with great grades too--which totally inspires this proud mama for this project. below is the result:









Materials used: Studio Azul April Kit Going Postal, Simply Scrappy acrylic mini album (Visual Creations carry them) organza ribbons, Sizzix filmstrip and ticket dies, Stampin Up label and spiral punches, EK Corner punch, Fiskars border punch, ATB labelmaker and Dymo tape, Autumn Leaves stamps, Collage Press stamps, Catslife Press stamps, Ancient Page dye inks, Distress Inks, Pebble Inc. chalks

there's no getting away with it...

i can't believe how some people would think they can just lift something off somebody else's blog, put it up on their public site and think they can get away with it. what's worse in this case is that the photos lifted were used for commercial gain.

sample of some of the many misappropriated layouts posted on their site

yesterday, a good friend Pia posted on our scrapbookers' egroups Pinoyscrapbookers and Scrapbooks Exchange warning us to watermark our photos. this was because they had just discovered that the photos and album layouts her pro photographer husband Jeff took for clients' events coverage were lifted from their blog, shootandscrap.blogspot.com and was displayed without permission, in a Multiply account used for a similar events coverage business: idigitalprod.multiply.com

some comments praising the layouts...plus Jeff's displeased remark

upon confrontation with the issue, all the owner of the account did was block them off multiply and delete their messages. so Jeff phoned them and demanded that the photos be taken down. but it was not before Jeff had confirmed that they claim to their potential clients that the photos and layouts are idigitalprod's work. he found out because he ASKED the person he was talking to before he identified himself...and their answer was a brazen YES: yes, they took the photos and yes, they made the layouts!

the photos were subsquently taken off the idigitalfraud...er...prod multiply site but perhaps a public apology is in order in this case. bitter pill to swallow? yes, but probably the best cure for amnesia on what copyright infringement means.

hooked on minis

i love mini albums. well, at least i loved the thought of making one. i especially like those that my friend Cabbie churns out so effortlessly. i like the fact that they contain compact stories and that they are not just tactile--the act of turning pages makes them interactive too, with each turn of the page unveiling little creative surprises. i totally dig that. so i started buying blank ones, each time with a resolution to start it. however, the only thing i managed to start was accumulating them blank books. i realized--maybe after the 10th one or so--that the reason i haven't done one yet is because i am so daunted by the planning of it. it just seemed to take too long to collect the photos and decide what to put on each page before i could even start to cut a single sheet of paper...or maybe i was over analyzing it, i don't know.

it took a little challenge from friend Mitch of Visual Creations to break me out of my mini album disability. she invited us one night to bring several small photos for a mystery project. i had a feeling it was a mini album. since i didn't want pressure, printed out small photos that weren't too important and that i could just as easily use for a multiphoto, regular 12by12 layout. true enough, when Mitch unveiled the mystery project that Saturday night, it was a mini album. so ok, i thought, at least this would get my feet wet. and also, she had started it already by giving us several sheets of paper that were already cut-up into 6by6's...and then she introduced us to this cute little thing--the Zutter Bind-It-All.

i have heard about it and saw pics on the net but never gave it so much as a second glance. i thought it wasn't much different from the ones at National Bookstore. wrong! other than the fact that it was totally cute in teal, it was also well built even for it's compact size. the ones at NBS can only cut paper and light chipboard at most, but this little baby will punch holes through the heaviest chipboard and even old CD's and light acrylic, too. now that sold it to me!

now, couple that with the fact that i was able to complete my first ever mini album thanks to Mitch, what do you think happened next? yup, just gotta have it! was able to score it from Vi's Lasting Impression almost the moment it was announced to have landed. i think Vi had that baby in stock for a whole couple of days!...haha!

below are photos of my first mini. i think i'm hopelessly hooked now.

Goofy Cousins

[after swimming and dinner, init na ang ulo ng little boy]
Raj: "waaaahhh... antok na ko...wahhhh..."

Raj: "yoko sa yo!!!"
Jas: "may bubulong ako sa yo..."
Jas: "bibiyan kita ng candy..."

Jas: "basta smile ka muna..."

Raj: "candy?"
Jas: "kaya smile na...S M I L E!"

S M I L E - pinilit ang smile--asim!

a typical Raj and Jas interaction

going simple

i've always had an appreciation for the clean and crisp style such as that of my scrapbooking idol Cathy Zielski. locally, i also have quite an admiration for Studio Azul "blue lady" Christine V. and i've always wanted to emulate their streamlined scrapbooking style. even my magazine subscription is with Simple Scrapbooks rather than Creating Keepsakes. yet it's funny that even if i start out intending to do clean and simple, i usually end up with cluttered, colorful, highly embellished layouts. so i eventually traded my Zielski books for the collage ones because i have since embraced that i might always be the cluttered person i really am.

however, since life has been reaaaaally busy these past months and yet scrapping has to go on (of course scrapbooking HAS to go on!), it gives me more reason to go simple and graphic. perhaps it is also an expression of my gut reaction to simplify life. and why not, maybe eventually, i would finally win the battle with clutter.

layouts using Studio Azul's April Kit "Going Postal"