Mother's Day Card: MOM

 

Still working on backlog, as you can see.  This past summer has been quite busy, with back-to-back deadlines for projects.  And here is the last of the Mother's Day projects, a card for Memory Lane Store's Mother's Day card challenge. We were given this sketch by Kathleen Llanura (of KATSpaperfinds)  as inspiration for our cards, and I thought the sample card is just adorable.

So this time, I was leaning towards a shabby chic-style card.  I must confess, I am still trying to find my personal style (though I think I'm more of the clean and simple type), and it's so much fun trying a lot of different things out.  My card actually didn't take too long to make since I already had a design and color scheme in mind.  So after I set aside the flowers, lace, and ribbon that I wanted to use, I cut out all the shapes (bird, frame, leaves, and flourishes) with my Slice and then sprayed them with glimmer mist.  But before I glued all the elements down, I dry embossed the cream colored cardstock that went on top of the card base.  The finishing touches were the letter stickers that spelled out "MOM" (I love this vintage-type font) and a little bit of bling on the oval frame.

I'm actually very happy with the finished product given the amount of time I had to make it.  But I was sure that I wasn't going to win this challenge given the caliber and experience of the other ladies who joined (click here to see all the entries).  And on top of that, aside from a winner that is decided on by a panel of judges (Top Choice), a second winner (People's Choice) is determined as the entry that had the most number of likes, which I'm not so excited about.  I'm just not the kind of person who solicits for likes... any kind of challenge on Facebook that involves likes, I'm very weary of.  But I just joined this one for the sheer joy of creating something.  And for that, I got a bunch of freebies from Memory Lane Store. I was so happy when the package came in the mail. :)

Materials: Cardstock, glimmer mist (Tattered Angels), ribbon & lace (Carolina's), gem stickers, letter stickers, fabric flowers (All About Scrapbooking), mini paper roses (Kraft Yard); tools: Sizzix Texture Boutique (with Textile Texture embossing folder by Cuttlebug), and Making Memories Slice die cutting machine (with Vintage design card).

Mr. & Mrs.

I recently finished a long overdue mini album for my brother and sister-in-law.  It's all about their wedding and I used a chipboard mini album that spells out "LOVE", which I've had in my stash for a long time now (will post an entry about it soon).  In any case, when I was done with the album, I still had plenty of pictures left.  So I thought to use the leftover pics and how fortunate that part of my prize as randomly drawn winner at the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog last July, was a wedding themed patterned paper stack from Hot Off the Press (btw, many thanks to Memory Lane Store for the prize). 

I've had the idea for this layout for about a week now but didn't really get to work on it 'til today.  The wedding themed papers were great and I thought it would be nice to do a very simple monochromatic page for this one.  The wedding pictures already looked great that I really didn't want to embellish the page too much and mainly did a literal translation of the sketch by Melissa Bonifacio for Challenge #6 at the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog.

I actually finished three different projects today, so I'm a bit drained.  But quite grateful that I did get to finish this one.  I hope I have time tomorrow to do some more.

Materials:  Patterned paper (Hot Off the Press Paper Pizazz Sheets), flowers (Craft World & Yellow Violet House), gem/pearl stickers (All About Scrapbooking), glitter die cuts (Making Memories), stamps (Making Memories & Crafty Secrets), ink (Versafine & Tim Holtz Distress Ink), pen (Dong-A), others - metal charm, lace.

My Shining Star

This is cutting it real close.  I had planned to make this layout about my sister and her baby girl a while ago.  With such as sweet picture, how can I go wrong?  But since I've been so terribly busy with work since September started, the few times I had a moment to spare, I wasn't feeling inspired enough.  So here's to beating deadlines... my entry for Challenge #5 at the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog.

Sentiment:  "All the dreams I prayed you'd be are all the things you are.  You were once my little girl and now my shining star."

Materials:  Patterned paper (Colorbok), ribbons (All About Scrapbooking), flowers (Craft World, Yellow Violet House, All About Scrapbooking), others - vellum sentiment.

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.

Flower Power

At last, I finally found a bit of time to work on a couple of pages for challenge #4 on the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog.  I woke up with a migraine yesterday morning, so I spent most of the day sleeping it off,  and it wasn't until yesterday evening that the headache was gone.  With the weekend just about to  start (we had Saturday classes this week), I thought it would be nice to take a craft break, since I haven't really done anything since last Sunday.

So here is the first entry - a page about my niece, Jillian.  The pictures were taken during her younger sister's birthday party last year.  They had a "Tangled"-themed party, so all the girls had flowers in their hair.  These pictures made me really happy just by looking at them.  It took a while to come up with a title, but once I decided on "Flower Power", I just had to pile on the blooms.

Materials:  cardstock (All About Scrapbooking), patterned paper (K & Company), flowers (Prima, Yellow Violet House), sentiment (Hallmark), pen (Faber-Castell), leaves, flower trim, brads, and gem stickers (All About Scrapbooking), others - lace, charm, safety pin, transparency.

Horses are fun!

It was a long weekend we had been waiting for so we could go to Tagaytay for a bit of a break.  We planned on taking  the boys swimming, horseback riding, and maybe go to the zoo.  When that weekend came, the forecast wasn't all that good - it was supposed to rain.  So on the first bit of sunshine we did get (it was actually cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining), we headed outside and took advantage of the weather. 

I'm not one to follow trends or experiment much, but I must say, I did step out of my comfort zone a bit in this layout.  I found a super cute mini album in Echo Park's youtube channel that had some hexagons in them.  I thought that would be a fun element on this page.  After cutting out and placing all the little hexagons on a diagonal and positioning the pictures and journaling block (which I made again from scratch just like in Girly Girl), the top right part seemed to need something else.  I started considering adding paint to make it look less structured and more carefree.  Although I didn't like the idea of dripping all over the pics, so I used post-it notes and some scratch paper to mask the area I wanted to keep clean.  Next time, I probably should do the paint first before putting other things down (lesson learned). :)

This is most likely my last entry to the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog challenge #3.  Next week is our exam week so the next couple of weeks are sure to be busy.  Although I do hope I get some time to work on the next challenge.  I didn't expect to make as many pages as I did this week, but with school out the whole time because of the horrible weather, I had plenty of time to work on those pages. 

Materials:  Kraft cardstock (Sofun), white craft paint (Plaid), black brown gel pen (Dong-A), patterned paper and foam letter stickers (All About Scrapbooking), others - brads.

Girly Girl

Here I have another entry for challenge #3 on the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog.  On this very wet and gloomy week, I wanted to do something cheery.  And I've been thinking of making a layout about the youngest member of our family - my niece, Danielle Sophia.  When I was planning this page, I was thinking to include a lot of flower embellishments, though I couldn't use anything too bright or bulky, lest they take away from the pictures.  I made the journaling block from a large circle and a bunch of smaller punched circle shapes from patterned paper.  I glued the little circles around the larger circle to create the scalloped border, a trick I've learned from Kristina Werner that she uses when she creates her cards.  I also used the same patterned paper to cover the tiny tags used to spell out "girl".  The last thing I did was some handwritten journaling to finish off this hopefully pretty layout for a pretty little baby.

Materials:  Patterned paper (K & Company), die-cut chipboard shapes (Yellow Violet House), felt flower sticker (Making Memories), ink (black brown Dong-A gel pen), eyelets, letter stickers, felt & glitter stickers, and die-cut flower stickers (All About Scrapbooking).

XOXO Baby Boy

Last Sunday, for the first time ever, my nephew and I joined an All About Scrapbooking event that was held in Sta. Lucia East.  I think I will post a separate entry just for that, but all I wanted to say about it for now was that it was "Ready, Set, Scrap - Baby Edition", and that I spent most of last Saturday getting ready for it.  And that involved having pictures printed out at a nearby photo lab.  So I have a lot of baby pictures left over and I thought that it would be nice to take a break from re-doing pages from an old scrapbook.

So this is a brand new page that I made with the intention of joining challenge #3 at the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog.  Here is the layout that I'm building this page from:

I made this layout about my nephew (who is now a teenager and already in high school) when he was still a baby.  We were all so enamored by him, being the first apo and pamangkin in our family, on top of being such an adorable little baby. 

It took me a while to figure out what I would use as a large diagonal strip.  Then just this morning, I was inspired by this patterned paper I saw in a video on Kristina Werner's youtube channel.  It had a zigzag/chevron pattern that looked like a quilt.  And then in another video, she makes a card using strips of patterned paper to make a chevron pattern.  So I thought it would be fun to try, and the best part was that I had a bunch of scraps that was perfect for it.  I took me a while to finish the page... with the chevron pattern taking the longest to do.

And just when I thought I was done, I added one last embellishment - the paper flower that I had embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and attached with a pretty brad.  Still looks simple despite the busy looking patterned paper chevron strip. :)

Materials:  Patterned paper (DCWV), cardstock, paper flower, foam letters, die-cut bookplate (All About Scrapbooking), brad (Making Memories), black blue gel pen (Dong-A), white couache pen (Chaue).  Others - clear stickers.

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: MAC

Another remake of a page from my US scrapbook.  I actually split one page - of some pictures taken in the summer of 2000 - into two layouts.  This is the first of the two, which is all about the son of another grad student (who is also a close friend), and about how they came to name him Mac.  The pictures were taken at his older sister's birthday in May and at his first birthday in July.  I love making the little banners and how they give the layout a summery feel - to remind us of all the picnics and barbecues we had back then.  I also wrote the journaling by hand and incorporated it into the layout as the string from which the banners were hanging, leaving the page looking clean and simple.

Journaling:  "Mac is such a sweet little boy, the second child and only son of Cesar and Arlene.  Cesar has this neat little story of how they came up with the name: in Gaelic, it literally means "son of"... and since he is the one and only son, it's so him."

Supplies:  Cardstock (All About Scrapbooking and Star Paper Corporation), patterned paper (DCWV), paper flowers (Prima), fabric tape (Shallow Grass), felt letter stickers, flower trim, & acrylic flowers (All About Scrapbooking), black pigment ink pen (Uni), others - lace.