scrapbooking again!

it's been a loooong hiatus... but, once again, i am back. i've learned to appreciate the fact that there will always be times when life will get too hectic or i will get too lazy to blog. i almost always bounce back though, so here i am again.

My good friends, Tin and Mitch, organized a Scrap Laureat fairly recently and this has helped enormously to reboot my sleeping scrapbooking mojo. She also sent me a new Studio Azul kit to guest as part of the DT (design team) for one of her latest kits, along with Nita as a scrap-buddy. Will post those layouts/mini album when i'm done, hopefully soon. for now, i am posting some layouts i've finished these past couple of months but have not posted yet.

this layout was done to test run the Scrap Laureat table. the photo came off my iPhone and was printed impromptu because Tin also generously provided us with a printer (Tin does EVERYTHING generously!) for the testing day. i think it turned out pretty well for someone who hasn't touch glue and paper in a really long time :-)

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the two layouts above are all about my analog obsessions: collecting typewriters and vinyl records. they are supposed to be part of a series of 4, the others being vintage cameras and fountain pens. i also love old rotary telephones and--a recent offshoot of collecting typewriters-- vintage typewriter ribbon tins. but that's a recent "thing" for me and it's for another story.

i also tried doing, for the first time, some technique on this layout that i picked up from friends Ime Oranga and Cabbie Lopez. it's sort of a masking technique with molding paste. the effect is those 3D ornate borders you see on the layout. thanks Ime for lending me some Liquitex molding paste too! :-)

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i have a friend and fellow scrapbooker i admire a lot, Christine Villacarlos, we playfully dubbed CV. she scrapbooks very fast and and makes painless and refreshing, elegantly designed layouts. she is practically a complete opposite to me. i do fussy pages and usually with not a lot of white space. on this layout, it tried (very hard!) to do it her way. lo and behold, i did finish very quickly and i liked the result too!

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i've unearthed a project that i wanted to do just before i dropped scrapbooking for the nth time. it was these photo of my youngest daughter and son getting acquainted with a catterpillar from our small front yard. though i'd finally finish it up.

i've added a hidden journaling message for them. i like little surprises like these. hopefully, they will appreciate sometime in the future. it reads:

we found this catterpillar--among a few others--right on our front garden. you guys were a little apprehensive to touch it at first but after i handled it and showed you how, you became braver and even found it cute!

i hope you always keep that sense of wonder and curiosity of the things in your world, my babies. because, just like that little caterpillar you held in your hand, you are a future butterfly and will spread you wings, far and wide!

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found this picture among our lot of vacation photos when we went to Baguio. when i took the snapshot, i didn't plan to capture my little boy, Raj, as he was bickering at Reine about some little thing. but i thought his facial expression was so funny, i just had to get it printed and scrapbooked! the journaling reads:

it's really funny how you two silly kids carry on. you probably fight at least 10 times a day, saying all sorts of ridiculous things you likely picked up from Spongebob. yet, you always make up 5 mins. later, playing like nothing happened. i hope you keep this spirit of resilience and your good humor till you grow up because no matter what you do or say, you are irrevocably, undeniably and inevitably, FAMILY.

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used the Studio Azul Blue Mumushka kit for this layout. journaling reads:

two teeth fell out, almost one after the other, leaving you with a couple of gaps on your...well, not-so-pearly whites. But even with this gaps, you still gamely pose for me without a trace of self-consciousness. i love this about you. you were never overly vain anyway. besides, there's really no need to be. even with two front teeth missing, you are still so pretty.

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so there's a rundown of my scrapbooking goings-on these past few weeks. i am definitely back. hopefully, the mojo stays for a long, long time this cycle. i will be posting (hopefully soon) about the great weekend i just had with my scrappin' girlfriends at Tagaytay and the uber nice Studio Azul kit called Picture Perfect i'm scrapping with this past week! till next!

heirloom angel tree topper

i like making things to hang on our xmas tree and i've made several over the years. i combine them with commercial ones because i can't make them fast enough to fill up the tree and of course, there are busy years. one of those i've made, i think around '05 or '06, is an angel tree topper. i just like angels better than the usual star. or maybe i just like angels, period. this is why my kids have the names that they do now. i used to have a store-bought one but i ditched it after it got too old and dingy. i then found a pattern for a crocheted angel but i can't remember where. maybe it's in one of my books or on the internet. i'm sharing it here even if it's an old project because i just refurbished today. being several years old, it has also gotten dingy. fortunately, crocheted items can be washed so i took it apart to wash it, put it all back and gave it new wings.

here it is piece by piece.


i'm particularly proud of this because it is a pretty detailed thread crochet having a scallopped hem and collar. i used a creamy gold speckled thread for it combined with white thread for accents...


and it has this nice puffed, princess sleeves.


this is the doll form that goes inside the dress...


and this is the hairpiece done with popcorn stitching.


since the wings were not fabric and cannot be washed, i decided to just make a new one using some scrapbooking stuff. these are some Maya Road chipboard flourishes, Tim Holtz grungeboard wings and some white felt fabric.


i painted those with black acrylic paint, and then gold. then i glittered the top part of the wing with Ice Stickles. i attached those to the white felt and sew that on the back of the dress. i wasn't able to photograph the process because i got too engrossed. so i'm just showing the finished wings after i put the angel back together :-)


she also holds this bead-and-wire bouquet that actually holds a symbolism for me. notice that there are 3 big heart beads and 2 small ones that are in different elevations. they represent my 5 children. topmost is my eldest boy followed by the next 2 sisters. the 2 small hearts are my 2 youngest kids. i often refer to them as Batch1 and Batch 2 because of the big gap in age between the 2 "batches".


here she is in full view, still on the crafting table.


and here she is on the tree, watching over the family...

after all these years, i haven't even named her yet. hmmm, maybe i should. any suggestions?

my december daily+1st ever video blog = feelingera!

i've always wanted to try out video blogging. all my idols do it... Cathy Z, Ali E... etc. of course, they are cooler BY FAR but a bloggin' girl's gotta try this out sometime. besides, this is how i understood the instructions on doing the December Daily so i kinda figured that this is the best way to show it too.

you HAVE to forgive my nervous twitches and mannerisms, the repeated ok's and ahh's and the ugly hands. it's sort of protracted and disorganized but charge that to inexperience also. plus i do feel more than just a bit silly doing it. worse, i just did this by the seat of my pants with no plan whatsoever. perhaps i should have planned first what i was going to say. hopefully, it gets better next time. if you ever get yourself to finish it, virtual hugs to you! thanks for watching!

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P.S. Alby asked me kasi and i forgot to mention pala. i made the printed pages' template with Adobe Illustrator. Tin actually gave us a template for the Ali Edwards format but i wanted to print 4by6 photos on my printer since there are ready photo paper available from National that i could use. hence, i made my own instead :-D gotta thank Tin also for the rest of the other templates. mwahhhh! :-*

cousins and friends

since last saturday's scrap session, i still was in the mood for some more cutting and pasting considering i had photos printed out that i intended to scrap. unfortunately, work had to get done first so i had to put scrapping on hold. i finally had a few moments to myself last night and here was the output.

i vowed to make my scrapbooking more simple these days so i would get more pages done. unfortunately, i still couldn't just cut and paste. i have a compulsive need to turn paper and embellishments round and round my layout before i commit to glueing it down for an extended amount of time. weird, i know! is this indicative of something psychological/freudian/jungian?... indecisiveness, fear of commitment, fear of making mistakes, making mountains out of molehills. i don't know. at least i attempt to understand myself, even through something as inconsequential as scrapbooking. i do believe we will all benefit if we occasionally analyze ourselves and our hidden motivations and underlying emotions. i don't think we serve ourselves well if we think we are always right. a healthy dose of self-doubt is sometimes just what we need. ok, i'm rambling again. but who knows, this will probably make sense to someone out there.

back to the layout. this one still took maybe a couple or so hours. yup, fast scrapbooking is still an elusive goal for me. i just have to keep trying.

sisters

ok so i've missed a couple of S3's (or 4?) but i'm back and i've been up to some scrappiness even then! went to a mini book/techniques class the other Saturday with Cabbie and Ime teaching and discovered the wonders of molding paste. but since i have no photos for that one yet, i'll hold off on the story for another day.

yesterday was one fine day with regards to scrapbooking and, of course, eating! how can one keep sugar and calories away with friends like Tin and Mitch! because we were a bit "bitin" on scrapping the previous Saturday, we agreed to meet at Mitch's again yesterday, Friday. it seems our Mitchgirl is on a mojo roll not only with scrapbooking but with baking as well. she treated us to her yummy homemade tart apple pie and heavenly freshly baked cinnamon rolls which we smothered with here mix of sweet cream cheese and butter spread. talk about fat and sugar! just to make you envious, here are some pics i snapped with my phonecam. :-D




so, we had all that while i attempted to scrap between mouthfuls of pastry. luckily, i was able to do a couple of layouts. Lee did 2 also while Cabbie finished 3 albeit coming in late. Nita didn't scrap but cut us some pretty Tim Holts diecut birds. however all that does not hold a candle to Mitch's whopping 9 layouts! it's even more amazing considering she would occasionally stop and go out to check on her baking goodies. i don't know how she does it!

here are my output for yesterday's session.



Mitch has some really gorgeous, glittered MME papers and these are what i used here. because they are already so beautiful, it made it quicker to move along with a page. i didn't want to load them with much more. so there... hopefully, i shall be scrapping some more this weekend. till next!

i did it!

i was bloghopping quite a bit this past week hoping to find inspiration from one of my scrapbooking idols. therefore, i had to take a peek into my scrappin' diva/goddess/idol Cathy Zielske's blog. i always pick up something there and even if i don't, she is always a fun read. at that time, she had just started a new blog feature called "make a page Monday". i mulled about it for a while and thought yeah... that can work for me too. it was a Sunday then and i thought that since Sundays are usually a free day for me it would be a great time to scrap something. so i thought i can call it... wait for it...

brilliant eh?... ok, so i am heavily borrowing from the goddess of scrap but she will probably forgive me because she is 'the' CZ :-D however, unlike her, i don't have free templates to give away on Mondays, and unlike her--she intends to do the scrapbooking anyday of the week but post it on Mondays--i will have scrap on Sundays (or Saturdays if that happens to be more convenient). i just thought it was kinda fun to do something on certain days of the week... like... maybe i'll do an ATC Tuesday ... and a Film Friday as a photography activity... there's an existing Bokeh Wednesday on Flickr so maybe i'll do that too. that's the general inspiration idea. hey, it's a plan, right?

thus far, it has borne a modicum of result. yep, a full scrapbook page! to be honest, i really thought i didn't know how to do it anymore. but there's nothing like a sketch to get a girl-who's-lost-her-scrapbook-juju to get started again. i really, really hope it gets easier from here. we'll see.

here's a link to the sketch from the October edition of Pagemaps that gave me a little push. the resulting page is this.



i swiped these photos from the Facebook album of Othello because just wanted to test how big i can print the low res files with still acceptable quality. as you can see, it wasn't too big. but at least that gave me something to put on a scrapbook page.


this was the first time i ever went to Vigan and it was such fun! especially since it was with this motley group of photography classmates we now call Core, plus Art and Erwin. the only one missing here is Rowell. we actually spent just an afternoon there since we were in Ilocos Norte the entire 3 days we were up North of Luzon because we went there to see the Pamulinawen Festival. this trip actually merits an entire album so maybe i'll do that too sometime.

so... here's to more scrapbook pages ahead... i can feel it... it's the rekindling of an old relationship :-D i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

simplicity

i heard it was World Cardmaking Day last Saturday, Oct 2. don't exactly know if that was true but it was a great excuse to make some. i also really needed to use at least some of my newly acquired toys. yes, new. and that, after i swore NOT to buy any more because some of my "old" stuff hasn't even seen action yet. but then again, i needed motivation to start scrapping again. hence i needed to shop. just a teeny bit. i DID promise myself NOT to go overboard... to just pick up maybe one toy... so guess what? i went overboard. now i think i spent the money i was saving up to watch that Adam Lambert concert. arrrrghhh... i hope i can still go watch it. i have a feeling though that i might just have to miss it. maybe it's just as well. can't bring a camera to the venue anyway. maybe i'll just wait for it to come on TV. hey, do yah hear something? probably just my heart breaking... :-(

anyhoo, back to those cards. i was able to make just a couple because i was out with Nita the whole afternoon to evening of Saturday. boy did we have a grand time! too grand i forgot to take photos even with my cellphone. i think we really just enjoyed the moment. of course scrap shopping was first on the agenda, then we went to eat at this place called Ristras (thanks to Vivian for pointing out the place to us!) where we had a big (and i mean BIG!) "wet" burrito. next time, i have to remember to take a photo. we have to go back there anyway :-D then we went for a Swedish massage! yey! we were kinda hungry again after that so we ate at Cantonese Soup Kitchen. totally yummy CTK soup and hot shrimp salad. how's that for a great Saturday!

oh yeah... the cards.


the two cards on top i did a few months back but didn't post and the two below, i made Saturday night to early Sunday since i couldn't sleep yet. these cards are pretty simple. i like them that way because it's easier to fit them in an envelop if i want to send them by mail. i do love the way artsy but bulky cards look but even if i could make one, i might not get myself to give them away! hence, quick and simple is the way to go for me.

here's a closer look at each. i'll also share the key products i used on each in case some reader wants to find 'em.




here the stampin' lovelies i used for the two birthday cards above. i totally love these Design Block stamps from Hero Arts. i'd buy them all if only i can afford them. :-D these are from several seasons back but i really don't have anything much that are 'new'. unless new means 'unused'...


these two are called Birds And Branch and Birthday.

next one is the first card i did on the actual World Cardmaking Day. if you're not a crafter, you're probably laughing at that. but us crafters, we take that seriously. :-D


key products i used here are these: this EK Success Arrow Border edger punch (i love these punches, they're so sharp and crisp) and the winged heart from Autumn Leaves Gypsy Style clear stamp (it's so old, i can't find a link)


next card is this.


i actually made this card just so i can use my newly acquired Martha Stewart Around the Page punches called Woodland Branch edge and Bird & Branch. in case you're uninitiated and curious as to how to use them, here is the instruction sheet from the MS website. you can also search around in YouTube for vids on how to use 'em.

the other 2 products are stamps from a couple of sets. the bird is from Inkadinkado Birds Galore set and the words are from Tim Holtz SA set called Mini Muse.


since these cards are pretty simple with straightforward techniques most crafters are well acquainted with like stamping and embossing, there's only one more "oomph" factor i can share. it's just a simple sewing technique but i think it adds a lot of personality to any craft project.


hopefully you can have access to a sewing machine with special stitches. above is just a simple straight stitch but i change to zigzag midway and then change back again to straight. i repeated it several times as i completed the edges around the card.

above is also a sewing technique but i did 2 rows of stitching, one straight and the other is a feather stitch.

but what's really cool are these variegated threads i used here. this is quilting and sewing thread from YLI i got from Ebay. i can't find them anywhere here in Manila. i initially bought them for quilting but they're seeing more action in papercrafting. well, ain't that a surprise...

so there... hope you liked my little warm-up-to-scrapbooking project. hopefully the next project is a scrapbook page already.

it's time

just so i feel like i have a new beginning, i changed my blog's look. whatchatink? is it pretty enough for a new start? some people like starting with a new blog but i like history. i like things that have a past. the quirkier, the better.

however, i have no new scrapbooking projects yet. i have just come out of one WHOLE year of school-- photography school to be exact. i have just completed a Diploma Course in Professional Photography at the College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts. ain't that a mouthful. can't you see i'm trying to impress yah! :-D anyhoo, that's another story for another blog entry, perhaps on my other blog AuWasHere. i shall toot when i get to write that one. but please do visit that blog too.

since i needed a new post just to get my feet wet, i scrounged my HD for something to blab without having to first do a new project. i seem to remember i have a couple of layouts i haven't posted yet. well, i found it. so here:


funny thing, that hairstyle is not my 'do anymore. it's been THAT long. this one i did for that last (and only...hopefully there's one again soon!) trip to Tin's family vacation house at the Tagaytay Highlands. it was supposed to be a scrapbooking marathon, but i came up with only one layout, slow scrapbooker that i am. but i have since changed my hair :-D so maybe i'll scrap about that sometime. this is how i look now...

heheheh... so, like my new look?.... kidding! this was for a conceptual portrait school project where we had to put ourselves on a movie poster. story here. yep, kinda fun.

oh, there's one more unposted layout i found on the HD. this was used as sample LO for the Scrapbuffet event that was hosted by Studio Azul... so long ago... sigh... it's a 10-minuter, really. but i think i took an hour on it. i should do more of this quickie layouts. even with my now old and outdated stash. at least, that would get me to fill more of the waiting scrapbook albums i purchased 'on sale' quite some time ago. and more importantly, i'd be documenting life again. and THAT is what scrapbooking is all about anyway.

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!