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"

na-TAG!

i often miss answering tags so while i still remember, i'm doing this na. both bjay and pam tagged me so here goes.

1. link back to the person who tagged you.

2. post these rules in your blog.

3. share six (6) unimportant things about yourself.

4. tag six (6) people at the end of your entry.

*** i love kilawin! especially talaba (oysters) and tuna

*** i'm a tv junkie

*** i can't swim but would love to learn sometime

*** i like spending some time alone with myself. it helps me rejuvenate.

*** in college, my sport was track and field

*** i tried to be vegetarian and failed...maybe i'll try again sometime.

now tagging dianne, tin, helga, sym, gaye, and dinah

SA scrap a master challenge

big, big congratulations to Lee and Me-Anne for winning the latest challenge by Studio Azul: the Scrap-A-Master challenge! the challenge was to scraplift this layout by Making Memories Master Iris Uy. their layouts are just as wonderful inspirations as the master's layouts herself.


here is my version of the my idol Iris's layout using SA's February kit.

this is a layout for daughter Gabey who just graduated high school and is moving on to bigger and better things in her life.