Page Remake: Birthday Buddies

We're well into September by now and one of the things that stand out about this month is that a big bunch of people that I know celebrate their birthdays in Sept.  In my family alone, there's my eldest nephew, my sister, my paternal grandmother, my maternal grandfather, and of course, Vicenta.  Among my friends they are probably too many to count right now.  But here is a layout about a small subset of those, who I spent a lot of time with during grad school.  And though we don't get to celebrate birthdays together anymore (I miss these guys so much), here's to wishing they're always happy and memorable!

Supplies:  Cardstock (All About Scrapbooking), stickers (EK Success & Making Memories), rub-ons (All About Scrapbooking).  Others - ribbon (recycled from a gift), journaling block (shimmery paper scrap), letter rub-ons.

A teacher is like a tree.

I did this page for some of my most favorite people in the world.  I worked with this bunch for, give or take, a couple of years.  I have a lot of love and respect for these people.  Some of us have already moved on, and of the original eight people in this pic, only half of us are left.  But even with the group we have now, it seems we are just one big happy family where we just keep adding people and nobody really leaves (at least in my heart).  The journaling is heartfelt, though probably riddled with mistakes, since I just winged it (and I haven't written anything like this in a long while).

 Journaling:  A teacher is like a tree.  It gives nourishment to flowers, fruits, & seeds, and provides them with what they need to thrive one day on their own.  And though the thought of it hurts, it knows it has to someday let go.  Its branches are extensive - because in order to teach, one must not only grow in one direction... one must branch out and grow in so many different ways.  Though what you see above ground, majestic it may be, is not all that it is - its roots are deep as well.  One must be grounded in one's values & beliefs.  It's important to remember that one teaches not only by what is said or done within the confines of the classroom, but by the way that one lives his life.  A tree continues to grow - the process of learning is a lifelong endeavor... it never stops.  A tree is strong and tough - able to withstand whatever challenges the world around it may throw from time to time.  It gives of itself with the purpose of allowing others to grow.

This layout is based on the sketch for challenge #4 on the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog.  This is my second entry.

Materials:  Cardstock (Mint Fancy Papers), patterned paper (All About Scrapbooking), die-cut cardstock (K & Company), stamps (Martha Stewart Crafts), ink pad (Fiskars), black brown pen (Dong-A), letter stickers, metallic glitter pen, & trim (All About Scrapbooking), Glossy Accents, others - heart punch and lace.

Best Friends

Still working on making layouts with the pictures from my old scrapbook.  Though this one is different: instead of creating a layout based on the picture, I made the base of the page first and then selected the photo to go with it.  This is because I made this for a challenge on the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog. I stumbled upon the site and found myself wanting to participate in the first challenge.  I actually did post an entry and you can view it here.  And when I saw that there was a new challenge up on the blog site, I was inspired to try something right away.  Here is my take on challenge #2:

I wouldn't have thought that I'd be doing pages with considerable negative space, but since I've started on these challenges, I must admit that it is growing on me.  My older layouts usually contain multiple pictures and lots of embellishments.  It seemed like I'm trying to cover the entire page with whatever I could cram into it.  But now, I'm starting to appreciate keeping things simple and putting the focus on a few things only.  I guess that's the beauty of doing challenges - you get to try new things every now and then.  I'm so grateful to have found the blog...  it was serendipity!

Journaling:  Best Friends - Maricon, Donna, Me.  "I am pretty sure that I wouldn't have made it through grad school without them.  They kept me sane & grounded, and cheered me up when things got rough.  The kind of friends who will be there always!"  Summer 1999

 

Supplies:  Cardstock (Mint Fancy Papers), flowers (Prima), rub-ons (All About Scrapbooking & UBL), pen (Faber-Castell), distress ink (Ranger), patterned paper, brads, & buttons (All About Scrapbooking), others - lace, cardstock sticker, embroidery floss.

Page Remake: Celebrate!

Another remake of a page from my US scrapbook.  The original unfinished page had these five pictures cut in small circle shapes and arranged in a larger circle.  I had a celebration theme in mind since we were at a party celebrating Cesar successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation, Arlene's birthday (Oct. 27) and my own birthday (Nov. 17).  I kept the original theme and put each picture on individual tags which are actually recycled.  They're real tags from purchased items... mostly clothes, and I still do have a lot of tags to recycle.  I covered them with patterned paper scraps and embellished them ribbons, twine, eyelets, and tags.  Hand cut letters for the title and used an assortment of stamps to fill in the space between the tags and the title.  Inked all the edges with the same white ink I stamped with.

PS.  After I took this picture of what I thought was the finished page at the time, I decided to write journaling around each picture in black ink (Stabilo).

Supplies:  Kraft (So Fun), ink (Craft Smart & Fancy Ink Box), eyelets and charms (All About Scrapbooking), rubber stamps (All Night Media, Hampton Art, Scrappy Cat), clear stamps (All About Scrapbooking, American Crafts, Creative Imaginations, Hampton Art, Imaginisce, Inkadinkado, Making Memories, Megilo, Pink Paislee, Studio G).  Others - recycled tags, patterned paper scraps, ribbons, twine.