Bloom & Grow

My 3rd Tinkering Ink LO for Scrapbukan. A very simple page this time to put the focus on the photo. This photo was taken last year during our trip to Oz.

Title: Bloom & Grow

Materials: Tinkering Ink papers, DCWV cs, Making Memories metal frame, Queen & Co sequin swirl, Heidi Swapp chipboard alphas

October 2007 Scrapbytes

Super sorry for this very delayed upload -- we had to work out some kinks in the system. The system is now much improved so here it is finally - October 2007 Scrapbytes!
Thanks to all our contributors this month - Liza, April, Joanne, Addie, Sienna, Mia, Cabbie, Lee, Nita, Christine, Pearl, Em, Maybs, Candy, Bjay, Helga & Timi!

Alphabet & Mail Art Stamp Set

My 2nd set of stamps from Absolument Scrap arrived today -- this is the Alphabet and Mail Art set with a total of 61 stamp pieces!

I'm so excited to use it because one of the images is that of a time-piece. I don't know why but I've been obessessed with clocks and wings lately, even if I don't have an idea of which picture to use them for.

They also sent me a sheet of Kling-On foam to compare vs the other foam they sent last month. Now I'm off to cutting up my stamps...can't wait to play!

If anybody wants to try them out, just give me a buzz when you want to drop by my house to play!

Tagged by Helga!

This has to be one of the most difficult tags ever.

Instructions: Each player starts with 7 random habits/facts about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

Seven facts about me:
1 - I am so vain and am constantly on a diet
2 - I hate going to the gym
3 - I love to travel
4 - I love buying organization stuff
5 - I collect recipe books
6 - I'm the 2nd of 6 kids
7 - I'm so not into pets

A - Age: 38
B - Band Listening To Right Now: none
C - Career: Brand Management turned Household Management
D - Drink or Smoke: used to do both to gimik -- not anymore
E - Easiest Friends To Talk To: Pia, Joanne, Iris, April, Liza
G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms: Gummy Bears
H - Have a Boyfriend: hubby and bf in one
I - In love: always
J - Junk Food You Like: Chips and chocolates
K - Kids: Luis, Nadya, Bianca
L - Longest Ride Ever: Tokyo to MN flight -- about 13 hrs I think, or at least felt like it
N - Names For Your Future Kids: we're done
O - One Wish You Have Now: a bigger house with a bigger scraproom
P - Phobias: Horror movies/stories
Q - Favorite Quote: Love yourself. Ang martyr, pinapatay. (Martyrs get killed)
R - Reasons To Smile: mykids and my hubby
S - Sleeping Hours: 10pm-6am
T - Time You Woke Up: today only 7am, usually 6am
U - Unknown Fact About You: I'm not a snob, I just look it
V - Vegetable You Hate: okra
W - Worst Habit: Procrastination
X - X-rays You’ve Had: Chest; does a mammogram count?
Y - Yummy Foods: Chocolates
Z - Zodiac Sign: Libra

Anybody can just grab this tag since it's quite long. Thanks Helga!

Holidays Clock

I've been wanting to do an altered clock for the longest time and I'm glad I finally did one using the Travel Stamp set from Absolument Scrap.

It isn't as hard as I thought -- it was easy actually. The hardest part for me in this project was to alter the clock frame because it was plastic silver and didn't fit the papers that I used inside.

So I applied gesso to help the acrylic paint adhere better and to add texture to the frame. After letting the paint dry, I rubbed some gold metallic rub-on cream on it to give it an old, burnished look.

I then stamped the flourishes from the Absolument Scrap Travel Set with Staz-on before applying some Diamond Glaze to seal it in. It's weird though that the red Staz-on smeared when I applied the glaze but the brown didn't.

Materials Used: Autumn Leaves papers, Basic Grey number stickers, Prima flower, Absolument Scrap stamps, Ancient Page and Staz-On inks, misc lace and ricrack

Do You Know Where You're Going To?

This is my entry to the final round of the Bad Girls Top Designer Contest. I never expected to make it all the way to the final 10 and just did each class as best as I could.

This was a very unique learning experience for me as each week we were asked to focus on a design element -- and learned to look at my LOs in a different light. So even if I don't win this contest, I still come out on top because of all that I've learned here.

Title: Do You Know Where You're Going to?

Pull-Out Journaling: Dear Bianca, Though the road may not always be easy, know that we will always be behind you. Love, Mom and Dad; Photo Sep. 3, 2007

Journaling Card: "How does one become a butterfly?" she asked pensively. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."

Materials: Basic Grey and Autumn Leaves papers, Fancy Pants chipboard, Daisy Ds die-cut tags, Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, American Crafts rub-on letters, 7 Gypsies metal clip, Prima flower, Creative Imaginations spiral clip, Colorbox ink, Autumn Leaves stamp, misc. lace

Update: Woohoo! I made 3rd Runner-Up in the Top Designer Contest! This is way cool!

Birthday Pics

Had a good day yesterday. Went to mass at 6:30am with Bud and Bianca. Bud already gave me my birthday present when he arrived Monday night -- a new phone to replace the one that was stolen 2 months ago.

Chatted with my sister in NY and found out that she's sending a box in 2 weeks and it isn't full yet -- so I called Bud and told him I was going online shopping!

Which was a good thing because my Coloriser Heat Gun died on me as I was doing my Bad Girls LO so I couldn't do any heat embossing.

The kids decorated a cake for me but we forgot to sing Happy Birthday, so we did that this afternoon.

They put 36 instead of my real age, but that's ok. Haha.

Took the kids to McDonald's for an early dinner since Bud and I went out for dinner last night.

Kudos to my hubby for doing his research and found the city's best-kept secret -- Lemuria at The Winery in Horseshoe Village. To think I never even heard about it!

He had my flowers delivered to the resto and it was waiting for me when we got there.

The foie gras they served was so huge I don't think I'll be craving that for at least a year (unless I'm at Antonio's where they serve the best foie gras salad)! Had to switch entrees with Bud cos I couldn't stomach the thought of eating Angus beef after that huge piece of duck (or is it goose?) liver. I still barely ate half of the Dover sole that Bud had ordered.

For dessert, I had the Vahlrona Chocolate Souffle cake with Pistachio ice cream and Bud had an Orange Rum cake (of course it had a much fancier name that I can't remember).

We went straight home after dinner, took pics of my flowers and called it a night!

Scrapping Week-end

Had a super-duper fun week-end at my annual Pajama Scrap Party to celebrate my birthday. Looks like God really doesn't want us to go scrapping out of town because last year, we planned to go out of town but Typhoon Milenyo came the week-end before we had our Pajama Party so we had to hold it in my house.

This year 3 of us decided to host it together. We were supposed to go out of town too, but Mia (whose uncle's house we were borrowing) was too sick to come so we held it at my place again.

The best thing about scrapping buddies is that they don't really care where we are so long as we're able to scrap.

The party started last Saturday when everyone came to my house for lunch -- Arlene, Pia, Iris, Joanne, Liza, April, Bjay. Only an hour into our party and our voices were all hoarse from the shouting. No, we weren't fighting, It's just the way we talk among ourselves -- everyone fighting for air time, several conversations going on at the same time, yet somehow everyone undertands what everybody else is talking about and having a great time.

Someone came up with the bright idea of going to Vivian's to get some scrap supplies -- which was just as well, because I needed some new papers to work with. Au, Nita and Lee were there when we arrived so you can just imagine how many decibels the noise level went up to, with everyone shouting excitedly upon seeing each other there. Kitkat followed us at Vivian's place having arrived at my place after we had gone. Before we left, Maybs also arrived to do some shopping.

We got back to my house at 5pm and had to rush to do LOs for Arlene. Now, Arlene here is a smart lady. Knowing how excited we all were at the prospect of a raffle and free scrapbooking goodies, she decided to hold a LO challenge, with cash prizes for the winners. Since we all knew we didn't stand a chance against Iris, we agreed to just divvy up the cash (by buying goodies from Vivian) and do 2 LOs each. Arlene provided all the photos and materials and we got to work. Now who else can say she got 17 LOs (April made 3) done in 4 hours? Arlene now calls us her personal DT -- haha!

Arlene went home at 10pm with a finished album, and only then did we start working on our own LOs. I finished 2 LOs working upto 3am; woke up at 7am and scrapped until 3pm. Liza and Joanne caved in a little earlier, while April & Pia scrapped until 4:30am. Bjay went home to Cavite while Iris and Kitkat went home to sleep but were back the next day. Everyone was back to scrapping by 8am, making the most of the uninterrupted scrapping time.

Too bad Mia and Tin weren't able to join us. But Mia says we'll have to re-sked our out-of-town scrapping trip. I hope so because I can't wait to have this much fun again!

Thanks to Sahrie for generously providing scrapbooking goodie bags for everyone!

Here are 2 of the LOs I finished -- we never got to take pics of Arlene's LOs. The other LO will have to wait until Sahrie posts it on the Scrapbukan site, and I have another one that's almost, but not quite, done.

Only problem is, nobody remembered to take any pics of this event -- not a single one. Last year, Bud was in town so he took care of the pics, and then Jeff came to pick Pia up and took more pics.

Title: Sibling Love
Materials: Provo cs, Basic Grey Mellow papers and die-cuts, Daisy Ds die-cuts, Prima flower and chipboard center, misc lace, Autumn Leaves stamp, Ancient Page ink, Zig pen, 7 Gypsies clip & fabric label

Title: Whee!
Materials: Bazzill Bling cs, We R Precious Metals papers, Prima flower, misc, lace, Zig pen

Reminisce LOs

There was a DT search for Reminisce but I couldn't find their products locally. I had some of their super-duper old lines in my stash so I used them instead.

I wasn't chosen as one of the winners but the fact that I was able to finish these LOs in 2 days makes me feel like a winner already! Otherwise I don't know if I would have even looked at these papers because they were buried deep in my stash.


Title: Laughter in the Rain

Journaling: Nadya & Isabella at the Crocs shoot. June 2007

Materials: Reminisce papers and stickers, Fancy Pants & Lil Davis stamps, Ancient Page ink, Jo-ann chipboard and metal letters, Prima flower, Zig pens, Scrapworks rub-ons, Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, Making Memories paint, Lil Davis glitter glaze



Title: Let's Play Pretend

Journaling: Nadya had a lot of fun playing the role of waitress at Isabel's "Cafe Party". June 2007

Materials: Reminisce papers and stickers, Jo-ann chipboard & metal tag alpha; K & Co. chipboard letters, Making Memories metal letters, Autumn Leaves tag, Zig pen, Lil Davis glitter glaze, misc bling, lace and ribbon

Card Night

Made these cards tonight using the Travel Stamp set from Absolument Scrap. I'm so not a card person so I find myself reverting to my "simple scrapbooking" ways when I make cards.

Part of the reason is that at the back of my mind, I know cards are not a big deal here in the Philippines and receivers are unlikely to tuck them away in a keepsake box.

This was quite fun to do especially because I only used my scraps for all of them.

Title: Bon Voyage Card

Materials: Tinkering Ink pp, DCWV cs, Absolument Scrap stamps, Ancient Page ink

Used my new Fiskars Squeeze punch to punch out the circles - it's my new fave toy!

Title: Tis the Season

Materials: MME pps, Bazzil & DCWV cs, Absolument Scrap stamp, Ancient Page ink, misc rickrack

Title: Hello Flower

Materials: Basic Grey pp, DCWV cs, Absolument Scrap stamps, Ancient Page ink

Trigger Happy

I can't believe I'm still in the Bad Girls Top Designer Contest! We are in the 5th week and this week's Class is about Unity and I won't be surprised if this is my week to fall out.

But I love this LO I created, so "que sera, sera."

I took this photo of Bianca on the evening of her birthday. She was hanging out with Bud and I, as we waited for Luis and Nadya to fall asleep -- because if we left her there with them, nobody is going to get any sleep!

She started opening drawers and found our old cameras -- film and digital. We tried to give her Nadya's Fisher Price camera -- a kiddie digicam that actually works -- but she wouldn't have any of it. She wanted the "real thing".

Title: Trigger Happy

Journaling: Bianca discovers where the old cameras were kept and decided to take mommy's pics. Sep. 3, 2007

Materials: Prima and Basic Grey papers, Fancy Pants chipboard and stamps, Autumn Leaves stamps, Heidi Swapp flower, Making Memories paint, metal tabs and clip, 7 Gypsies fabric labels, American Crafts rub-on alphas, Ancient Page and Colorbox inks, misc lace

Our boxes finally arrived last week and all the stamps I ordered in the last 5 months are finally here -- that's the problem when it takes months for something to arrive, you only realize how many you got when they arrive at the same time -- it's almost a sin....almost.

Scrapfest 4

We are just beginning to absorb everything that happened at the 4th Scrapfest last Saturday.

I have always been involved with preparations for the past Scrapfests but always as a volunteer who had nothing at stake. This time I was in it as part of the Scrappin' Moms so there was more for me at stake -- mostly just pride though -- haha!

Never mind that we didn't expect to make any money (so what else is new?), we only wanted enough ticket sales to cover the cost without us having to dip into our own pockets!

The goal of Scrapfest always has been to bring together scrapbookers and suppliers under one roof for a day of fun, shopping and learning. With our fast-growing community of scrapbookers and learnings from the 3 previous Scrapfests, this was not an easy feat.

I have to give credit where credit is due and majority of the work was done by our prime-movers April and Joanne. Joanne used her gift of gab to source sponsors and April did practically everything else -- shopping for the kits, design and printing of tickets, venue arrangements, all the way down to the personalized bag tags that we didn't even know she was doing until we had to help her cut them up a mere 30 minutes before the event began!

My contribution to this event is limited to the following:

suggesting the venue -- ok, people from the South you can stone me now -- but you have to admit, except for the distance, it's a great venue that solves all issues of previous Scrapfests regarding the food, sound system, table arrangement, lighting, etc!

deciding on our outfit color -- you will not believe how many emails went back and forth on this topic alone until I stepped in and suggested fuschia pink as the Scrappin' Moms color, versus apple green or black which are the other colors in our logo. I wanted to take it back when we found out that fuschia is a summer color and we all had great difficulty looking for our tops -- but looking at these pictures, I think we can now also answer to the name Pink Ladies!

suggesting the menu -- April could have done this herself but she just wanted to have someone 2nd the motion

demo sample and instructions -- I wish I can say that this was so very hard to do but all of this was done within a day.

kit compilation - since this was held in my house, I put together the KI Memories papers that Scrapbukan donated before anybody else arrived for the meeting. I also brought the kits to the venue the night before -- 2 balikbayan boxes worth of kits.

venue set-up & streamers -- my claim to fame are those fuschia and apple green banners on the ceiling -- haha! I was measuring the suppliers' booths the night before and saw a kiddie party being set-up for the next day in the room next door. They had fuschia and apple green streamers which were exactly our colors so I went to the Reservations girl and asked if they had more for our room -- which they did.

demo instructor -- ok, this one we can consider real work but the people in my group all knew what to do, I was basically there just to clean up the stamps after they used them!

tabulator and host for the Scrapfest Challenge -- some real work again but this was nothing compared to the Idol Challenge that Pia handled.

Here's the demo sample that I made for the Scrapfest. The main objective here was to be able to finish a mini album during the Scrapfest with enough techniques that newbie and advanced scrappers can use.

Stamping on Transparency - Stamping on Fabric -
Stamping with Ordinary Items -
Wire and Bead Craft -
Doodling and Doodled Paper Flower -




Congratulations to all the challenge winners!
Cabbie - the 1st-ever Scrappin' Moms Idol
Bjay - 1st place in the advanced category
Candy - 1st place in the regular category
Jeannie - Del Monte challenge
Timi - MLA & Scrapbooks-Hawaii card challenge

Thank you again and we hope to see you all in May 2008 for Scrapfest 5!

Sept 07 ScrapStreet LOs

I can finally post these LOs since my Sept feature in Scrapstreet.com's Discovery Drive is over.

It's hard to believe that I only created these LOs 2 months ago, because it feels like my style has evolved since then...

Title: Dad's Girl

Supplies: Patterned Papers - Piggy Tales; Flowers - Prima; Twist Ties - Making Memories; Photo Turns - 7 Gypsies; Stickers - 7 Gypsies; Metal Alpha Tags - Jo-ann; Metal Word - Making Memories; Leather Frame - Making Memories; Transparency - 3M; Ink - Versamark; Others - Xyron; Misc - brads, ribbon

Journaling: This is Bianca's favorite book -- Daddy's Girl, which nobody else can read as well as Daddy, which is just as well because she really is Daddy's Girl! July 2007.

Excerpt from Daddy's Girl by Garrison Keillor: The prettiest legs that I ever did see, belong to a lady who belongs to me. Lift up her legs and take off the diaper, Get a damp cloth and carefully wipe her. Up with the ankles, swish with a rag. Throw away the diaper in the garbage bag. Lay down a clean one, tape it shut, Beautiful baby with a nice clean butt.

Title: Takin A Bite of Fun

Supplies: Patterned Papers - Urban Lily; Cardstock - Colormates & DCWV; Stamps - Technique Tuesday; Paint - Making Memories; Chipboard Letters - Jo-ann; Acrylic Word - Jo-ann; Pen - Zig; Stamping Ink - Ancient Page; Misc - Buttons

Journaling: Luis & Nadya, Seaworld, Gold Coast, Aust. Nov 2006
Title: My Simply Perfect Life

Supplies: Patterned papers - Jenny Bowlin, Basic Grey; Stamps - Technique Tuesday, Autumn Leaves, Chipboard - K & Co; Metal Letters - Jo-ann; Flowers - Prima, misc; Crystasl Brads - Making Memories; Watch-turn - 7 Gypsies; Cardstock - DCWV; Stamping Ink - Ancient Page Pen - Zig; Misc - bling, lace, felt flower, metal photo corner

Journaling: Many may doubt it, but my life really is quite perfect, there is nothing else I can ask for. I have a gorgeous loving husband & 3 wonderful kids -- I must have done something good. Photo Jul 2007.

Wife, mother, homemaker, scrapbooker, shopaholic, hoarder, foodie, cake decorator, photographer wanna-be, dreamer, doer.

Title: All Mine

Supplies: Patterned Papers & Fabric - Love, Elsie; Cardstock - DCWV; Pen - Sakura Aqaulip, Zig, Sharpie; Chipboard Letters - Heidi Swapp; Flower - Heidi Swapp; Floss - Karen Foster; Misc - Buttons

Journaling: Nothing makes me prouder than to call all of you mine! Your love for each other is obvious & your laughter, contagious. I wish you'd stay this way forever! Love always, mom! Photo - June 2007

So This Is Love

Class 4 of the Bad Girls Academy Top Designer Contest required us to create a LO using "white space". This is something I'm not accustomed to since I've been actively trying to use up my stash, because I have no more storage space.

I decided to use a 4R size pic, for a change, to ensure that there will be a significant amount of white space -- even with embellishments. But the picture had to be a really good one that already speaks volumes just by looking at it. And I found this gem of a photo, taken by Jeff Lopez for the MomWorks project.

Title: So This Is Love

Materials Used: Prima papers, We R Memory Keepers chipboard alpha, Lil Davis rub-on alpha, Making Memories paint, misc lace & label holder.

Papers are from the Studio Azul September kit.