know no boundaries

this layout was done as a March GDT task for Visual Creations. i so love Mitch for giving me the chance to play with those wildly gorgeous Marah Johnson papers. i have always wanted to do some layouts about my tats and piercings but i have always put it at the backburner. especially on the subject of the tongue piercing--i couldn't figure out a way to present it such that it will not look indecent (haha!)

so when this particular paper came along, i knew i wanted to give the piercing layout a shot. however, the other challenge was that this paper was actually in the Lovestruck line and originally looked like this. it had the word Love written across the top left! but i wanted to retain the feel of the paper so i didn't want to cut it up. so i took out some acrylic paints (3 shades) and a couple of Distress Inks to erase out the word and brighten up the entire paper. then i stamped out the word KNOW and added some aluminum window screen to complete my title: Know No Boundaries"...perfect for showcasing a wild tongue-out picture! haha!

i also wanted to brighten up the word Wild Side so i thought of embossing it with some bright red embossing powder. the trick was using an embossing pen to follow the shape of the letters so i can put the powder on it. i so love my Zig embossing marker now since i discovered this trick to emboss non-stamped spot images.

this is the effect

{click to enlarge}

i put my journaling on a pull-out behind the photo.

and it reads like this:

i say...“Boundaries are for sissies! Well, ok…although I am ACTUALLY a big sissy for pain, I don't let that stop me. Before I get a piercing or a tattoo, I circle the shop for quite a bit, trying to muster the courage to go ahead and do it. Why do I still do it? Mostly because, I love how the look rocks (and shocks!) and but also because I like the self-challenge of going ahead and doing something I am totally scared of doing.

Not pain, not fear, not age, and certainly not other people's opinions are boundaries for me…just as long as I don't hurt anybody else, I like rocking my world a bit. It keeps life interesting for me.”

BTW, i lost the tongue piercing a while back. i had a mouth sore so i took it out for maybe 5 days. the hole closed up on me despite that fact that it was over a year old. i intend to get another one though some time soon because making this layout made me miss it more.

That's it...thanks for viewing :-D

circle scallop punch

got this tool from Ella H. when she visited the Philippines a few weeks ago. Ella is a Stampin Up demonstrator and i wish i could've met her personally. unfortunately, (or fortunately, since that might have meant more damage to the wallet) i was not available on the day she met up with Nita. anyways, i was so happy with my purchase such that i immediately found use for it. since this thingy is not exactly cheap, i thought it would be great to use it for more than just scallop circles. a quick search of the net showed this. it's called tea bag folding. this is my resulting card with the technique.

i thought that was pretty cool technique and good use for the scallop punch. of course, a regular circle punch is also usable for the same project, too. as long as it is big enough to fold. i have two more toys i got from Ella: the embossing pad (which one uses so there are less stray embossing powder on the paper surface) and the color spritzer. took me a while to decide on buying that one but i finally gave in. i knew i'd be kicking myself if i didn't get it and wanted it later when Ella is not around anymore. so till next order, Ella. i hope you had as much fun in the Philippines as i had using my new toys from you. will post projects on them the soonest.

happily blue

those kits are soooo worth it! twice now, whenever Mia sends me their wonderful kits, i get all excited and kilig. you get papers for different manufacturers and they are all coordinated with matching embellishments (buttons, ribbons, rubons chipboard, even thingamajigs yeyeyey!) and there is also an acrylic stamp monthly...how cool is that! it's definitely not hard to make LOs look yummy because you get most of what you need all matching and if you get the add -on kits...that makes it even better. plus, it may even CURB your scrap spending...you don't need to buy a whole set of papers or embellishments to get to that one that makes the LO in your head complete. here are my takes on the November kit.

i dream of...

you know me, i just very occasionally do intricate cutwork, but this paper was just ASKING to be cut! just look at it, practically NO flower design overlaps! how can i resist...

also, this layout is special to me. i had these 3 photos since SM Idol finals because we were asked to prepare for 3 themes. this was my prepared photos for the My Dream theme. i have been meaning to scrap them but fail to do so for some reason or another. so when my first Studio Azul kit came and it was called Passage to India, i took it as a sign! even the rich oranges and greens of this kit match the photo. Nita even points out, hey, wasn't it the Dalai Lama who literally did to a passage to India!

the Dalai Lama's picture was taken from this book i had: Stages of Meditation: Training the Mind for Wisdom (it's a great read...and would probably be even better if practiced!). i scanned the book and edited with Photoshop CS to remove the letters. that was fussy photoshopping and took me all of a day! then i asked bestfriend Nita to take my picture with a white sheet as a background. again, with some ps manipulation, i took the background of the HHDL's pic, flipped it and made it my background so it would look like we were at the same place. lastly, i added the same color overcast to both pictures so it would look more realistic.

they say creative visualization sometimes works to make wishes come true, i consider this is my effort at it. :-D

of friendships and scrapbooks
these pictures were taken by Jeff Lopez and i just love it! it is the culmination of one of the most grueling challenges i have taken on thus far in my scrapbooking world. i love it because it show the end result: a bonding between people who were otherwise living in separate worlds but who came together just because of a hobby turned passion.

when i first saw the Prima Paintables paper, i thought to myself, THIS would be an interesting challenge. and, my oh my, it was! i have always wanted to learn to use watercolors but except for small card projects, i have really very little experience in it. this is a 12x12. i was so afraid i'd ruin it but once i got warmed up, i couldn't put it down! it was totally freewheelin' but i loved the end result. now, i want more of it!

oh, brother...
our scrapbooking is a way not only to preserve memories but to also leave messages or reminders to our children. this is layout contains my short yet important message for them. the title and the journaling on the arrow are actually lyrics from an old song...


...but the arrow with the hinge flips to reveal the message inside:


-------the--stitch--itch-------

you might have noticed by now that i love stitching my LO's . i even have a Simply Scrappy product called the Deckler and Stitching Guide for some manual stitching. however, i find that stitching via a sewing machine makes this activity faster. it also gives me a good excuse to play with my new toy. so for the above layout, i did some experimenting with the decorative stitches of my Janome and here is the result before i used it on the above LO:

even without fancy stitching, simply using different color threads makes a lot of impact. below is another example of some cool effects done with sewing. this LO is from one of the SMIdol challenges which i did with just regular, straight stitches. it's really easy and very forgiving. no need for perfectly aligned stitches.

try it sometime. it's a cool way to learn a new skill if you're not stitching yet or a fine way to use an old sewing machine for more than just making clothes or curtains.

long time...

i know...it's been a while since i've blogged! i'll be making entries very soon but in the meantime, i just wanna share with you slide.com 's cool new feature...well ok, it may have been there for quite a while but i discovered it just days ago. it now has songs from hot new artists and it even comes with a You Tube link so you can watch a little clip, if you like, as you are bloghopping. i also like the fact that now that it is linked, the song completes (as opposed to segments only) and that it does not loop (which gives me LSS-last song syndrome-you know, like when the song also loops in your head all day).

so i changed old my song to this one by Daughtry (whose songs i really like) and especially this one "Over You" because i am also a Smallville fan. not to mention that Tom Welling who plays Clark Kent is among my list of hot cuties! {insert kilig squeal here}. so i suggest you also click on the video link if you like either. enjoy!

______________________________________

and speaking of You Tube, i would also like to share this hot, HOT new product by another of my favorites in the scrapbooking world, Tim Holtz...GRUNGEBOARD!

i don't know about you but this one has me drooling. can't wait till it gets to here!

little tip on watching and listening: since you cannot watch the video and listen to the music at the same time, you need to either let the song finish first before playing the Tim Holtz youtube video or you can pause the song first by clicking at the slide's youtube section (bottom right) and hit the little PAUSE button that appears when the song's video enlarges. then you can click the Tim Holtz window to start it.
another tip on watching You Tube videos: if your connection is slow and makes the video irritatingly choppy, click on the PLAY button then as it starts, press the PAUSE button. this will make the video load first. notice the gray progress bar moving along. when that is fully loaded, restart the video. it would then play smoothly.

taking 'clear page' photos

i made this layout as an entry to the Visual Creations Hambly challenge. i thought it would be cool to join it since i've been hooked on making clear pages right after the SMIdol Scrapfest contest made me get over my fear of using them. after making this page though, i found it equally challenging to take pictures of them! i stuck the transparent LO on black fabric which i hung on our room divider. but being all glossy, it was hard to get a good angle that eliminates the glare. i almost always take LO photos near the window because the natural light makes the color come up better and the glitters or bling also show up better. however, where there are lots of light, there are also lots of glare. here was my first shot of it.

so i called my trusty assistant to stand on a chair and hold up a white sheet by the window. that did the trick! no more glare because it diffused the light and removed the reflection of the grills from the window. however, i was still not too happy with the result because i thought it just made the LO look like it was made with black graph printed PPS when i wanted to show the transparency as you can see on this photo here.

so i tried again. this time, i propped the flexible Hambly transparency background on a clear 12 by 12 acrylic sheet so it would be stiff enough to stand. i could have used a plate stand to prop the LO up but i didn't have one so i stacked throw pillows up and covered them all up with a white fabric sheet. the pillows weren't high enough so our blue sofa was peeking through but perhaps that added to the effect of showing the transparency better. the slight setback is that colors are a little less saturated because i had to move away from the better window light and had to make do with the florescent lighting. but i guess the overall effect is probably better.

although i have used Hambly Prints but twice yet, i actually like them a lot. i think they are also a natural complement to my clear acrylic sheet products, too. i have several sheets of Hamblys but have hardly used whole sheets of it yet on one layout. so when the challenge rule was to use 2 Hambly products, i found it totally difficult! well, ok... it was probably due to the fact that i did not want to use one all up on a single LO kasi sayang, e. after all, they are quite pricey... at least for kuripots like me. but i keep getting stuck so i finally gave in. i used 2 whole sheets here, one Hambly paper print (Big Vintage Circle) and a transparency print (Mini Graph) as the base. despite it, i kinda liked the way it turned out. it looks different from what i usually do and i got to try something new (this is the first time i tried printing the focal photo on transparency). i probably never would have thought to do it this way so i say hurray for difficult challenges :-D

tidbits

oooh yeah...before i forget...Scrapbytes July 2007 issue is up. i have an article there on how to make your own transparencies. be sure to catch it along with the many nice articles by scrapping friends in our community. everytime this online newsletter comes out, there is always a little tidbit in it that serves as an inspiration to me...this month, it is Ria's article where she says "there is no perfect LO... adopt an attitude where you will learn something new...you may not like what you end up with...learn from it and move on." i also like tips no 7 and no 8... just go over there now and read it.

and since i wasn't able to blog for some time, i have not posted yet about that little TV segment on Good Finds of the Lifestyle channel. Last Scrapfest there was a network crew who covered the event. they picked out vendors to interview and guess what...i was one of them! let me tell you i was so darn nervous but i couldn't say no to free advertising and a chance to appear on TV....hahahaha! if i only knew, i would've had my hair done and put some makeup on! Ria of Scrappin Moms put the segment on YouTube so watch below. This segment is so cool because it not only gives you a glimpse of the very lively scrapbooking community growing in the Philippines, it also has a short tutorial on the hobby. What are you waiting for...watch already! (if you are watching this from my blogspot site, you may want to turn off the music on my slideshow at the sidebar by clicking on the little speaker icon)

new stuff, a card and an LO...

for the past couple of weeks, there were too many things going on in my schedule i couldn't even start to scrap. since a boxload of goodies for sale arrived at my home store the last week of June, i was literally aching to do some scrapping. aside from the things i had for sale, of course there were also some personal goodies inside and i was reaaaally looking forward to their arrival. one was my Toteally Cool Tote 2 and the other thing was my new rubberstamps! the tote is soooo cool indeed because it holds in all of the stuff i usually reach out for when doing a project and because it swivels (on a detachable magnetic lazy susan) it practically invites me to put back in whatever i take out of it. a lot less clutter on my space while working. it has so many pockets, garter bands, even a drawer (improved version than in the first edition of this bag) that i feel so well organized now. i do not misplace things anymore...really! and it holds a lot. if i move things around some more, i think the kitchen sink will fit in.

as for the stamps, i dare not put a picture here for fear hubby might stumble upon it so just wait for the occasional project where i might use it. however, despite all these incentives to start some project and no matter how i tried, i was drained by the end of the day, there were no creative juices left. but yeah, i still did manage a small card project for that week just to try a stamp. here it is:

for this card, i got to use one of the new stamps (the girl on the piano), my old music paper stamp, Cuttlebug D'vine Swirl A2 embossing folder and this cool tool called, Making Memories Stamping Die Set. i think this tool has been around a while because i hardly see it advertised anymore. but i loooove the unique look it lends to my project! what i used here is just a sheet of very thin brass i got from the hardware. one would need a hammer (the one already in a scrappers' bag used for setting eyelets) or the Making Memories Instant Setter to use it properly. i think i shall be making some more projects with this one.

with our highschool batch reunion finally done last weekend (was so much fun seeing old friends!), a big load off my mind also passed and first thing i did before even answering emails was to scrap! since i had some paper waiting for me intended for a challenge, that was the first one i tackled. here's the finished product:

this is one of the few times i finished an LO in a single night, from start of concept to finish. either i am improving or the papers and embellies were just too good that the LO fell so easily in place.

materials used:
Scenic Route papers, stickers and diecuts, 7gypsies photo turns, Sizzix die cut letters, metal embellishments, Making Memories acrylic paints and Creative Imaginations foam stamps, Bazzill cardstock, Ranger Distress inkpads


hopefully, i can complete one more before this week is done.

well done LO

here's another one i did towards the end of May specially for Scrapbytes's June 2007 issue. i was tasked by Ria to do an article on Scrapbooking School Memorabilia. it's been a while since i've done an LO with a school theme so it was probably just the prompt i needed to do one.

last school closing, DD Kara received a Best in Math award (hindi nagmana ang ina! i'm so poor in math..hahaha). she has always been a consistently good student but Mama has not been a good and consistent scrapper so this is the first among her certificates that i have been able to scrap. here's the result.

click to enlarge

since i used BG papers and a BG sketch (from their May newsletter) for this project, i decided to try again and upload it to the BG gallery. it was also then that i found out my name has been dropped already from their gallery. fortunately they accepted this project to be featured there so i'm back in. yey!

i like interactive pages with hidden journaling pull-outs and page turns and this is one of those. the black and white picture opens to this:

click to enlarge

deconstruction:
Bazzill cardstock(*cs) in Pinecone (brown) as background, BG Scarlet's Letter papers, black and gold lace trim from Divisoria, Prima flowers in green and red attached with black and gold Making Memories brads from the Metallic value pack. B/W photo was matted with green Canson cs. Corner interest was added to it using EK Success Corner Adorner (slot wrought iron) and then matted again with the black cs to which Making Memories hinges were attached. Title is from the BG letter sticker sheet that was applied with Ranger Glossy Accents dimensional glue for shine and a more 3D look.

additional techniques done:

Be Constant slider: BG die cut tag from the page kit stamped with words BE CONSTANT using MM Magnetic stamps Providence letters and Brilliance inkpad in Moonlight White. it was then laminated with 3 layers of UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Powder) and mounted on black cardstock. the edges of this black cs had also been edge distressed via gold embossing powder to echo the gold on the lace.

Certificate: i couldn't find a way to attractively display the actual certificate so i decided to scan, reduce and print it instead. this was attached to the black hinged cs where i also placed a strip of scrap green vellum just to add visual interest.

Distressed scallop paper: this paper was crumpled, inked with Ranger's Distress ink, sprayed with water to spread the ink around and then ironed (as in plantsa) to dry and straighten it out again. I got this technique from a Tim Holtz tip here.

Hinges recolored: my hinges were beige but i wanted them in gold. I simply painted them with Making Memories Acrylic Paint in gold.

Items available at Simply Scrappy ScrapArts store used in this project are:
Bazzill cardstocks, Ranger Distress ink Frayed Burlap, Making Memories Magnetic stamps and letters (Providence), gold embossing powder, Prima flowers, MM Metallic brads, Ranger Glossy Accents, Ranger UTEE, vellum, EK Corner Adorner, Making Memories hinges.

nanay's card

last Pinoyscrapbookers' EB, i promised a make-and-take project. i had a P50 budget and i wanted to use the often overlooked DCWV's. mother's day is just around the corner so i thought a mother's day card was perfect for the project. even if it was a card project, i wanted to explore techniques that would be useful for scrapbooking as well. i had very little time that night, didn't get any sleep actually, because Raj was sleeping fitfully due to a high fever. i came up with only 10 kits. i would like to say i had fun doing it but lack of sleep dulled it.

i was pretty happy with the result though considering the limitations. makes me want to do more card projects. this is actually a combined cardmaps sketch. i used one sketch for the front and another for the inside. here are the results. oh, and if you want to see more of these very nice card sketches by Becky Fleck, click here. photos here were taken by mod Lee which i just swiped from the PS slideshow:

the kits made:

front of the card:

and inside of the card,

i especially like the inside because it is good practice in hidden journaling. i also enjoyed doing the no-fuss slider with the heart. it was done by merely rounding out the corners of a scrap piece of rectangular cardstock using corner rounders punch. then a slot punch office tool (a hand punch that look like pliers used for punching holes on IDs and tags) was used to punch holes on the two sides. this tool might be overlooked by scrappers but i think they'd be a great addition to the arsenal. this would make any ol' piece of cardstock or chipboard flower, heart, rectangle, oval, or circle die cut or hand cut into a slider for ribbons or fibers! cool di ba?! i'm already thinking of things i can do with some coluzzled or swivel-knife-template-cut bookplates. instead of just punching holes on them, i'd be punching slots, too! double duty for them templates. bookplates na, sliders pa!

the slot punch is readily available at the bookstore by the office supply area for just under PHP500.00. steep? maybe a bit, but i'd pay the price for it being able to punch through chipboard (which are eXcELleNt! for sliders).

deconstruction:
DCWV papers from the Floral Prints stack, bookstore cardstock was cut with file folders swivel-knife template from Simply-Scrappy, Canson cardstock (for the tag and pocket) which was cut with the library card swivel-knife template , Sizzix heart diecut, buttons and eyelets, decorative scissors and distressing with stamp ink for the cover (may also be sewn or hand-stitched instead!) and Ranger Distress ink for stamping the words "for you". fancy pants heart stamp and provo "love you" stamp used for the slider. tag was simply a rectangle piece of cardstock nipped at the corners with straight scissors. to make it look like a vintage tag, the hole reinforcement was made with a 1/2 in circle punch and then hole punched with 1/4" one-hole-punch (another office supply tool). it was then edge-distressed to get the old paper look. fibers on slider and tag added to finish. then the word nanay made with a Dymo labeller added on the side of the file folder.

i hope Nanay likes her Mother's Day gift tomorrow :-D

items available at Simply Scrappy ScrapArts store used in this project are:
Ranger Distressing inks, File Folder and Library Card swivel knife templates; DCWV papers, Coluzzle knife, fibers

scrapbytes march is up...

yey! it's up! scrapper pals, don't forget to visit the Scrappin Moms E-Zine SCRAPBYTES . again it's loaded with great scrapping tips and info. And of course, Part 2 of my article on acrylics "Clearly Beautiful" is included there too. it's a visual step-by-step on dressing up the latest Simply-Scrappy.com product, 3-inch acrylic monograms.

just in case you missed Part 1 of it, click here.

thanks for reading!

tools...tools...

feeling good today...the way i always do when i get a new toy. just got my BG Notch and Die tips courtesy of PSer Christine V. (who got a double on her order so she disposed of one) thanks for selling it CV!

to top it off, she even directed me to this CK video link which reaaaally got me hyped. http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/videos/index.ihtml?idx=74

certainly a great buy considering i have been holding off on getting the full set... i'm so glad i did now that i know all i need is my old hammer and these tips. just gotta luv online friendships...kisses to you Christine!

another tool that tickled my fancy last night was this thing called the Tidy Tray. i was set to put some bling on my LO with some ultrafine glitter (love how this looks but hate working with it because of all the glitter flying around), and i thought maybe it would be a good time to break out my new Tidy Tray, which i originally intended for embossing powder. it worked like a charm! no more paper which the fan (almost always!) blows away just when there is powder in it. less glitter all over me and more on the LO and back inside the jar! Love it! i laid a strip of glue on the item i needed to glitter, put it on the tray and poured glitter on it. after that, i removed the glittered item away to let it dry and just poured back the loose glitter into the jar. all one needs to get it working best is a soft brush so one can really get all those loose powder or glitter off the tray. so Nita, quit doing taktak to the tray pala. [saw you doing this the other night :-)]Use a 1/2in soft brush and i know you'll love how neat everything is.

this is the hole that comes with a plug for when you don't want stuff coming out of the tray yet. this tray may also be used for bead projects aside from embossing powder and glitters.