Sunshine-y Birthday Card

The front and back of the card


A good friend was about to celebrate her birthday a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't really sure if she was turning 50, so I made this card for her, with lots of space for everybody to write their birthday greetings and messages on. But when I confirmed that she was indeed celebrating her golden birthday, we had to do something special for her. So this card is just waiting in my desk drawer at work for now. Btw, this card is (again) mostly made from scraps. :)

What's inside

Catching up again!

Yikes... that last post was five weeks ago. It's not that I haven't been doing anything, far from it. The Internet's been down a lot (having problems with our ISP for quite some time now) and I just never got into the habit of updating blogs and even social networking sites and the like. And on top of that, all the work associated with the end of the first quarter in school (grading papers, finishing grades, meetings, etc.) had me swamped. But since I was also doing crafts to unstress, I have lots to post.
Here's one - a ribbon organizer I made from an shoebox that I was looking to recycle. I love that it's just plain white except for the brand on the lid and the label (with the color, type and other shoe info) on the side of the box, which I thought was interesting so I left it on. I covered the lid with some pretty paisley black and white gift wrap. It's very simple, and I think just a tiny touch of pretty that still allows the ribbon to stand out. Got the idea from a lot of youtube videos of clear cosmetic/makeup bags punched out to make ribbon bags. Made my very own ribbon box.

Tribute to The Girlfriend's Club

Bruised and battered paper flower

Close up of what hopefully can be seen as a bit of glimmer

I have been quite enamored by this series of weekly video blogs on scrapbooking by Leah Fung, Johanna Peterson and Donna Salazar for the past couple of weeks now. How sad was I to discover that they have decided to end "Leah's Scrapbook Room" just very recently. :'( It was very informative and packed with a lot of useful tips. Most of all, it inspired me to try a lot of things that I've never even dreamed of trying. So this is my little homage to the three girlfriends - my very first attempt at Donna's paper flowers. I used the extra pages from my teacher's record book. And a vintage looking button from my mom's jar of old buttons. I also tried to make my own glimmer mist from pearlized puff paint and hairspray.

To help you to remember

Waiting for the glue to dry...

The finished product

I helped my sister with this cork board she wanted to put up at her home, for posting her family's schedules, lists, etc. It's the first time I've worked outside (in the lanai, that is) and it this was in November so it was nice out. Most of the time, it's too hot to work outside, that you'd have to turn on the electric fan and everything just gets blown away.

A promise kept

The notebook I pretty-fied for my sister.

And a tiny one for me, too.

Used the Slice Design Guide (that tiny brochure-like thingie on the left) as inspiration for embellishing a small notebook I intend to use as a journal. I used the scraps from a notebook I embellished for my sister, which I promised to do for her a long time ago (oops). Well, at least I didn't forget.

One more recycled notepad

I decided to decorate this pad in a landscape format with a rubber stamp. My mom got it on sale (for really cheap) because (I think) the rubber image was off center. I used brute force to remove it and then stick it back on at the center, so now it's easier to work with. Made a tiny bookmark from the practice I did on a scrap piece of kraft cardstock and used watercolor pencil to color in the flowers. But only for the bookmark, I don't think I feel like coloring in all the images for the entire notepad. :P

Summer of oh-six

I started this scrapbook a long long time... dunno... maybe two or three years ago. It still isn't finished :( Actually, when I got started, it was two or three days of working on it non-stop. It was mostly a chronological accounting of events in the Field Biology elective we (Nino, Lhen and I) taught in the summer of 2006. And when I got to the very end of the class, I still had a bunch of pictures I wanted to include. Like maybe a page about the students, the stuff we did outside the class, a class calendar/schedule, funny pages (like outtakes). But I just lost my momentum and I let the album sit untouched for a very long time. Then, I think it might have been some time last year, I took to making a couple more pages, which are the pictures I have on here. I sure would like to finish this project soon and have it stay in school where prospective students would like to see what goes on in the class. And the teachers could laugh about all the fun and silly things that happened that summer.

Recycled notepads

I have lots of scraps from the posters I had my students make. So I decided that instead of throwing away those odd-shaped pieces of craft paper, I cut them into little square and rectangular pieces that I can make into notepads. We still have a lit of padding glue, so I didn't even need to buy anything to make these. Pics here show the 3" x 3" pad that I decorated with stamps (clear ones that I haven't used in a long time). Still waiting for the glue on the other pad to dry. Maybe I'll work on that tomorrow... that is, if I'm done grading our last quiz! :P

More school stuff

BEFORE

AFTER

The sign outside our faculty room looked a little worse for wear. It was a bit dusty and dilapidated, and was actually already covered up. So I used my Slice cutter for the letters (I <3 -="-" a="a" after="after" ago.="ago." all="all" amazon="amazon" an="an" and="and" base="base" be="be" biology="biology" black="black" br="br" cardstock="cardstock" coordinated="coordinated" course="course" cut="cut" elective="elective" from="from" green="green" had="had" i="i" in="in" is="is" it="it" last="last" left="left" letters="letters" life="life" my="my" nbsp="nbsp" of="of" on="on" over="over" papers="papers" part="part" patterned="patterned" purchased="purchased" school="school" set="set" slice="slice" stash.="stash." study="study" taught="taught" the="the" to="to" were="were" which="which" while="while" year.="year.">

PS. Sorry for the cluttered desk. Had just finished making the sign when I took the pic.

School start up blues

Once the school year started, it was tough finding the time for this blog. It's been about two months and almost a week since the last post. Everything else takes a backseat to work, it seems. Although I did take some time to meet with a couple of friends whom I haven't seen in a long, long time. Ernest who just recently got engaged, since maybe two years ago, and Lani (my high school roommate) since nearly twenty years ago! It's been fun catching up and I'd like to think that I will go out of my way to meet up with friends despite the busy work sched. So back to work again. Here are some back to school stuff that I embellished (1) the front cover for the information cards I made for each class that I handle, and (2) my record book for this school year. I started doing these kinds of things a couple of years ago. It helps me de-stress. :)

Quilling is not as easy as it seems

Catching up on missed posts. I was supposed to post this on Monday, though I actually did it last Saturday. It was my first time to try out paper quilling. The instructions were fairly straightforward, but it sure took me longer to finish this sampler than I expected. It was quite a challenge shaping the paper and even hanging on to the tiny paper shapes. I got a terrible headache later that night. Though I don't know if it was from the heat or because of the quilling. ;)

Two days missed

No posts for Mon (May 17) and Tue (May 18). :(

Monday morning saw me packing for a week-long trip to Tagaytay. I actually finished packing my clothes and other stuff the night before, but since my sister, Sandra, and I planned to get some scrapping time during this break, I had to pack some craft stuff as well. We have very limited space in the car, so I just brought a handmade Christmas card kit I bought a while ago but never got around to working on (so far). I hope to get started on it today, eventhough my sister and her kids won't be arriving until later tonight. Might as well get settled in.


Tuesday has been problematic in terms of internet access. This is going to be why the pictures won't be added on to this post until later (most probably next week). Will have to see how this connection goes.


Hey, what do you know? Can upload pictures after all.

What I Am Grateful For

Front cover of "What I Am Grateful For" mini-album that's made primarily from tags. Patterned the basic album from one I bought from Craft World. Except for the album itself, all of the paper in this project is recycled from scraps.

A full view of the accordion-type mini-album.

Page 1: Title page - WHAT I AM GRATEFUL FOR Date created - May 01, 2010
Page 2: FAMILY - Celebrate together Picture - Christmas 2007

Page 3: FRIENDS - Forever. Laugh.
Page 4: MY HEART - My health. My mind. What makes me ME. Picture - taken in 2006

Page 5: SIMPLE THINGS - Puppies & kittens. Sunsets. Smiles. Playing in the rain. The smell of fresh-baked goodies. New school supplies. Old books. The beach. Ice. A baby's laugh. These are only a few of the simple things I love.
Page 6: MEMORIES - There are really lots and lots of faces, places, things & feelings I will remember always. Picture - Index print of pictures taken by my friend, Dan, in 2005.

Page 7: BEING ABLE TO IMAGINE, DREAM, CREATE - Having a sense of wonder.
Page 8: HOPE - Love is grand. Life is good.

Tools used: Martha Stewart Edger Punch, Making Memories Slice Die-Cut Machine

An attempt at glitter art

I must confess that I'm not a big fan of working with glitter. I find it messy and hard to make go/stay where you really want, plus it takes a while for the glue to dry, and the design to set. So I was quite surprised one day when an idea came to me: why not use double-sided tape? It can be cut or punched to the desired size or shape, and adhered exactly where you want it. Then you can just pour the glitter over it and even it all out. I was just so pleased with the results. Now, this is fairly easy and I'm sure other people have thought of it before I did. But it was just a moment of serendipity for me that I scanned my work for posterity.


Mind you, this dabbling in random techniques happens when I am lacking in inspiration or do not have the time to fully work on a scrapbook page... which is quite often, I'm afraid. But still, there is a sense of accomplishment in knowing what I can do after all.

My very own MAC book

A journal altered sometime ago... in July 2009 I think, right about when school just started. It was a plain notebook I got as a freebie from a seminar. Thought it would make a good place to jot down ideas for projects, etc. Decorated the cover and put in some tabs to divide the notebook into sections. Will probably be doing something like this soon as there are only three weeks left before the new school year starts. In case you were wondering, those are my initials :)


Close up of label on the altered journal. Didn't really have a template for the brackets and the letters, so I used a word processor to take the outline of the shapes and letters and cut them out by hand. To put some pop into the letters, I followed the borders with dot-dash lines with a gel pen.