Last Post for 2008

Where did this year go? In less than 5 more hours and we will be saying goodbye to 2008. It seems the year flew by so fast. A lot has happened throughout the year. Marcie celebrated her 1st birthday and will soon be turning 2 on January 4. She's learned to walk, talk and now even run so fast that sometimes it gets so tiring to chase her.

It was also this year that I reunited with scrapbooking. It's been a few years since I stopped but thanks to the mini scrap jam that was held here courtesy of Ate Marisa, I fell in love with the craft again and have been hooked to it ever since. I felt like a newbie again because I was so overwhelmed with all the new tools, supplies and techniques that has been introduced. But thanks to the world wide web, I was able to somehow cope up with the new trends. I still have a lot to learn though but I'm really glad I found my way back.

Since I started scrapping, I've also gained a lot of new friends and learned a lot of new stuff. I also managed to win a couple of contests and random draws here and there and I'm very thankful for all of these.

Before the year comes to an end, I would like to say "Thank You" to everyone who's been kind enough to drop by my blog and drop me some words of encouragement & appreciation. Especially to my frequent visitors... thank you thank you thank you!

Gotta go for now. Hope everyone will have a safe & a prosperous New Year! See you next year! (Oh that's already a few hours from now. lol)

Christmas projects

Christmas season was quite busy but I did manage to make a few projects. Actually I made a lot. But most of them were Christmas gift bags which I sold at our store. I think I made about 50 bags and only 4 were left unsold. =) I make those gift bags every year because I discovered that when people are in a hurry for their last minute Christmas shopping, most of them don't have time to wrap their gifts anymore. So that started the idea of selling my gift bags. They're just plain kraft gift bags which I decorated with wrapping paper, ribbons and other embellishments. Well I didn't have time to take their pictures since the moment I finished them, they were brought to the store already. Hehe. Sorry. Maybe next year.

Well I did have other projects which I was able to take pictures of. First is this hanging photo decor which is now hanging on our room's door:

Here's a closer look:

I used a piece of cardboard which I found around the house and peeled off the upper portion to reveal the corrugated look inside it. I then sprayed some gold Maya Road metallic mist and inked the edges of the board with brown ink and dabbed some green ink to give it a bit of distressed look. I used my left over Polar Bear Press patterned paper to mat the photo & embellished it with some Prima flowers, a butterfly, a brad, lace & some bling. I used AC Thickers for our family name & the Chatterbox Chipboard stickers for the word "family". I then punched a hole on each upper corner of the board and tied a string of abacca so I could hang it on our door.

My final set of project were these photo gift tags:

For NJ

For Lhance
For Alex
For Joax

Instead of the usual gift tags with just the" To: & From:" labels, I used photos of my inaanaks (god sons & god daughters) instead. =) Oh they are all a bunch of cuties! As usual I had to do some last minute Christmas shopping to buy their gifts. lol. When will I ever learn to shop early?

TFL!

Card Sketch A Day

If you like making hand made cards like I do, I think you should go check out this cool blog called Card Sketch A Day. Susan Costanza shares a card sketch every day for free! I was fortunate enough to be given the chance to share one of my cards using one of her sketches. I made this card a few months ago but I didn't want to post it here until it was posted on Susan's blog. This was my first time to be a Guest Designer for a Card Sketch blog and here it is:
You can view the sketch here.


I hope everyone had a fun Christmas. Mine was filled with reunions both with family and high school friends. And lots of eating. But sadly I caught a cold and am now suffering a fever. Sniff sniff! I also kinda lost my voice since Christmas eve so too bad for me. :(

I wish everyone good health & a safe new year to come. To all those residing in the Philippines... enjoy the very long holiday!

TFL!

Merry Christmas!

I'd like t wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Hope you will all have fun & enjoy the Holiday Season.

Hugs,
Gracie

Pic of the Week

Time for another pic of the week. Can you believe we only have 4 days to go before Christmas? Well I've been digging through some Christmas pics from last year and found these:

This was Marcie's first time to meet Santa and she was terrified! And I thought Santa was suppose to make kids happy. Hehe. She met with Santa again a few days ago and her reaction still hasn't changed. :( I guess I still won't get that perfect pic of Marcie with Santa this year. Fingers crossed for next year.

Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! Enjoy!

Good Times with Mom

I made this LO last week with a picture of me and Marcie when she was just about 6 months old. We were at the Shangrila Hotel in Makati where we stayed overnight when my aunt from the U.S. came home for a vacation. It was Marcie's first time to stay in a hotel and she enjoyed it. We were there with my other relatives. Thanks to my ever generous aunt for sponsoring our hotel accomodations. Hehe.

Supply list: Bazill Basics white & Kraft Cardstock, Chemise Stripe Patterned paper by Luxe Designs, Scenic Route Patterned Paper, Prima flowers, Simply Stated Stamps by Fancy Pants Design, Melissa Frances Designer Sticker, Sonnets Stickers by Creative Imaginations, Making Memories Brads, Craft Express Rub-On, Barn Brown & Black Whispers Archival Dye Inks, Water Color Pencils by Derwent, Misc.- Bling & Lace

Journaling: Good times turn into best times when I'm with you.

Pic of the Week

11 days to go before Christmas! We're all busy and excited for this day. I received an e-mail from my sister who is in Venice, California and she sent us pictures of her daughter, Sydney. Oh this little girl is soooo cute! Look she even dressed as Santa's Little helper:
I wish Marcie could meet her cousin soon. We haven't really seen Sydney in person and we're all excited to see her someday.
TFL!

My First Christmas LO

I just wanted to share my first ever Christmas LO. Yup it's really the first Christmas themed LO I ever made since I started scrapping. At first I really couldn't find my Mojo. I sort of lost it for a couple of days. I browsed a couple of blogs until I found Rough Draft from Michelle's blog. I found this sketch:
Right there and then I got inspired and finally got my Mojo back. Here's my take on their sketch:

Title: Don't Be a Grinch

Journaling: This photo reminds me of the Grinch. I just hope you won't be like him.

Materials used: PPs- KI Memories, Cardstock- Bazill Basics Fancy Edges, American Crafts Jewelry Box Thickers, See D's stamp, Whispers Ink, Sakura white pen, Misc.: star brads & paper flowers
Hope this LO gives justice to the beautiful sketch. Happy Holidays everyone! And don't be a Grinch this Christmas! lol

I'm back!

Well I've been busy for the past week which explains my week long absence here. I was in Manila last Saturday to deliver goods to our clients there. Sadly, on our way to our final delivery, our car was side swiped by another car! The driver of the other car was on the wrong lane ( the lane where we were in was a lane to turn right) as he was supposed to go straight. I guess he realized that so he was in a hurry to overtake us and then I heard that loud bang and our car was hit. Sorry for him though coz his car is brand new while ours is about 5 years old already. Ours only got a few scratches but still I'm thankful no one was hurt. I was with my little girl too so Thank God we're all okay. Well we had to wait there on the road for about an hour since there were no police men at the area. Sheesh! Where are they when you need them???
Finally, a police car passed by and Mark had to call their attention so we could finally get a police report and settle things. But I thought that was it. Boy was I wrong! We were asked to go to the police station because the cops who passed by us said that area wasn't included in the area they handle. So we did go to the police station only to find out that we had to go to another station! Grrr... this really ruined our schedule. We were supposed to go back to Angeles that afternoon to attend a friend's wedding but no thanks to the accident we didn't make it. :( It took a few hours for them to get the police report done. It was past 2pm and we didn't even have lunch yet. We arrived at Tutuban Mall where we delivered our goods at around 3:30pm and finally had lunch at 4pm. I was soooo hungry! Plus the mall was super crowded because it was a weekend and it's Christmas Season so what do I expect. Hehe.

Oooh what a day! I was really tired and quite disappointed because we didn't make it to my friend's wedding. Plus the fact that I decided not to attend the PS/SE Christmas party to go to the wedding (which we never saw) made it a bit sadder. Anyway like I said, we're still lucky nothing bad happened to us. That's the most important thing.

Moving on... Despite of my busy week I managed to squeeze in a few LOs. One of them was actually a project we made from the My Little Attic Scrap Jam 2 weeks ago but I thought of adding more to it. It's my first time to work on an acrylic sheet. We were supposed to use alcohol inks or glimmer mist but I only got to use the latter because I didn't have alcohol inks and I don't really know how to use it. Hehe.

Here's my first attempt on using an acrylic sheet:

Title: Sweet Dreams Little Star

I sprayed pearl glimmer mist on the acrylic sheet and on the painted chipboard stars. I also added some bling to make them look like sparkling stars. Hmm.. looks like the photo has glimmer mist too but it really doesn't. It just turned out that way when I took the shot. I'll be sharing the other LOs later. :)

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Pic of the Week

I just realized that I missed to post last week's Pic of the week. I was out of town to attend a mini scrap jam with friends. I had so much fun so I guess I forgot all about it. But anyway, I'd like to share this week's pic. Only less than a month from now and my little girl will be turning two! I can't believe it's that fast. It seems like yesterday when we were all busy preparing for her 1st birthday. This year we'd like to keep it simple. Probably just a small get together with immediate family and some close friends. Here she is with daddy & her birthday cake almost a year ago:
TFL!

Random Thoughts & LOs to share

This week was quite busy for me. I guess it's because of the Christmas season and everyone's busy preparing. Believe it or not I haven't done a single Christmas shopping til now! I must admit that I am not a very good Christmas shopper. I always tell myself every year to do my shopping early but I still end up doing it a week before Christmas (one time, I rushed and shopped a day before Christmas eve!) Bad bad bad! But I did get to send out some Christmas cards already so that's progress for me. Lol.

I get really busy once November hits the calendar. That's the month when our perfume business is at it's peak. My back is already aching badly because even if I work at home, I have to prepare wholesale orders and carry a lot of boxes around. But I'm still thankful for this because it means our business is picking up. I still have to work so we could take care of all the bills & expenses. We're currently paying for a house (we haven't moved in it yet since it's still under construction) so Mark's salary won't be enough if he's the only working. But I must say, I am really thankful because I only have to work at home and have more time with little Marcie.

I also haven't done a single LO since December started. But I'm hoping I'll find time. I forgot I had two more LOs made last week & still not posted. So I'll share those for now: (Click on the image for a closer view)

Title: Spaghetti

Title: In the Tub with your Titas

TFL & Happy Weekend!

Wait there's more???

As if yesterday's good news wasn't enough, another good news was announced today! One of the cards I submitted for Scrap-Inspire-Create was chosen as a favorite by their DT member Adeline. Wow! When it rains, it really pours! Thanks SIC!

I also received the news that one of my close friends from High School is now 2 months pregnant! There are 7 of us in our High School barkada (group of friends) and Jill is the only one who doesn't have a baby. And now all of us will have our little "unicorn". Unicorns was our group name back then. Hehe. It was based from the pocket book series (I think this was related to Sweet Valley High). Congrats Jill! We're all excited!

Toot-sie Roll!

Toot! Toot! Toot! and another Toot!
*Yesterday I woke up to check my blog & other people's blog and found out that I won in Marix's blog candy treat #2.

Then this morning I checked my daily blog visits again and found out I had more reasons to be thankful for:
*From SAR (Some Assembly Required) blog where I was chosen as their winner for the altered Thankful notebook challenge.

*Another one was from TDX (The Design Experiment) for their monthly random drawing. I was only able to submit one LO out of their 4 challenges and still I was lucky enough to be picked. See the post here.

*Last but not the least is from KI Memories! I just left a comment last week on their blog for the things I'm thankful for. This was actually posted last Friday but I only got to read it today.


Wow! I'm speechless & jumping for joy. Lol. It's really beginning to look like Christmas! I must have been a really good girl this year to deserve all these "toot-fullness!" LOL.

December already?

My oh my! Did this year just fly by so fast or what!? I can't believe it's December already & 2008 will soon come to an end. I just received an early Christmas news this morning. I saw this post from Marix's blog and it sure made my day! Thanks Marix!

Another LO share...
I just finished the last challenge for Kaya 19. This time it was a double pager! 2 page LOs are sort of challenging for me. I have only done one of them way back in July during the mini scrap jam ate Marisa organized here in Angeles. This final challenge for Kaya 19 helped me create another one. I do have a hard time scrapping multiple photos and double pages so it took me a while to come up with something for this challenge. But it was very timely because I just had Marcie's Halloween photos printed last week so I used them for this LO. Thank you for extending the deadline and thank you Marj for all the inspiring challenges. I had fun during the whole stretch of the Kaya 19 challenges and there goes 4 new pages added to my album! 2 more and my album will be filled up. =)


Journaling:
October 26, 2008
It's your second time to join in the Nepo Mall's trick-or-Treat & costume party. Mommy had to improvise a quick costume this time. Using the clothes lola bought you, a few silver paper plates, aluminum foil, styro balls, tape and an old head band... the little martian kid was formed! I also used your floatie for your own space ship. You were quite in a bad mood that afternoon but you were still the cutest little martian kid the crowd ever saw. =)
xoxo, Mommy

Materials:
American Crafts Black Cardstock & Thickers, Basic Grey & DCWV PPs, White Sakura pen,
Stickopotamus, Karen Foster & Pixie Press stickers, UHU glue, Ribbon slot punch

TFL! Happy December!

Thankful

As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, I thought of making an altered notebook where I can write all the things I'm thankful for everyday. I painted the notebook with white & then blue craft paint. I used some left over scrap papers which I cut into 1 inch squares for the patched look. The flowers were dry embossed with Fiskars scrapboss & then cut to their shape. I added buttons for the centers. For the letters "thankful" I used KI Memories alpha stickers. Below each letter is a word which is something I'm thankful for. I aslo added other words on the sides. The pink rik rak were added for the finishing touch.

T-talents
H-home
A-art
N-nice things
K-kindness
F-family
U-understanding
L-love
Other things I'm thankful for: friends, scrapping, food, time, knowledge, health, music, education, fun times, lessons learned

Altered Frame

I got a wooden frame from Artzdescrap for their altered frame challenge last week & I also saw Iris Babao-Uy's Days To Remember frame tutorial which inspired me to make my own version of it. It sort of took me a while to get this done but finally after a few trial & errors, (I probably had to re-do this frame for about 3 times!) it's finished! I traced a Maya Road Calendar turn to create my own smaller version, since the original one was quite big for the frame. Instead of placing it inside the frame, I placed it on the lower right side of the outer frame. The quote I used was inspired from Jennifer McGuire's room. She has this wall decor which says, "Do something creative everyday". Oh you shoud see her scraproom. Seriously, I could probably be locked up there the whole day & I won't mind.

Here goes my altered frame: Here's a close up of the calendar turn:And I just love the look of the Clear Crackle from Ranger which I used on the leaves & this monogram:

(G for Gracie)

Love the cute little scissors too! And did you notice my blog's logo too? I thought I'd add it there. :)

TFL!

Sharing LOs

I realized I still have 2 LOs which I made last week that were not yet posted. One is for the Kaya 19-3 Challenge which was about distressing. I had fun with this LO. I had this Basic Grey PP with paisley designs on it & I thought of cutting them up & use them as "water splashes. Here's the LO:

Title: Water Fun

Journaling:
You love to swim, that I know for sure! Ever since you were just a little baby you had this love for water. Once you're in your tub or pool, it's quite difficult to pull you out.

Materials Used:
PPs- Crate Paper & Basic Gray, Whispers Ink, Pink Paislee Fashion Script Alpha Stickers, American crafts cardstock, Crate Barell paint, Making Memories brads, Staple wires

Technique Used:
Paper tearing & cutting, inking, painting

Here's another LO for Journaling Junkie:

Title: Beary Cute

Journaling:
Pink dresses & flowers,
little bears & cute dolls,
I guess it's a part of a little girl's life.
You looked so cute with that dress
& even cuter with the cuddly little bear
beside you.

TFL!

Ad This Challenge 3-Capturing the Moment

This is the 3rd ad for the Ad This Challenge. I missed last week's ad due to my sort of busy schedule. Haha.


Here's my take on Ad This Challenge #3:

Title: Capturing the Moment

The Twist is that we must use some kind of liquid medium on your project. Rather it be glimmer mist, paint, ink etc. As long as it was once wet. I used Whispers archival dye inks to stamp the scroll designs on the upper right hand corner of my page & to color the white flower's edges with yellow. (sorry for the photo quality, I promise to replace this with a better photo once the digi cam is back). Big THANK YOU to Michelle of Jiroken for the prize pack I got from her sketch challenge back in August. It was really worth waiting for. The overlay frame, the Rub-0ns & the flower that I used in this LO were from her.
TFL!

Pic of the Week-"Sisibas"

Meet Marcie & her friends "Sisibas"...
Lol! It's actually Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse but Marcie calls them "Sisibas".

My sister loves Mickey & Minnie and Marcie has been starting to love them too. At first I didn't understand what Sisibas meant but when she took these dolls and showed them to me that's when I understood. She has weird names for her toys. She calls Strawberry Shortcake, "Fabeya" & Jollibee, "Ja".

Kids really have lots of cute terms for things. Look how happy she is in this picture. Gotta love her smile!

Hope everyone will have a Happy Weekend!
TFL!

KI Memories Tin Kit Program

All Occassion Kit:

Birthday Kit:

Christmas Kit:


Floral Kit:


Holiday Kit:

Winter Kit:

Hi everyone! I just saw these new KI Memories Tin Kit Program & WOW is this a great deal! This program has 6 themed kits which include $100 worth of products including a 12x12 album. The designs are all brand new and come packaged in a decorative tin, complete with special magnets. Each kit will cost Php1,400.00. I am accepting Pre-Orders Until November 22, 2008 only. Stocks are limited so I have to get my orders in quickly. These will arrive late January to early February 2009.
Included in the Kit are:
1 Decorative Tin
40 Designer Papers
10 Page Protectors
3 rubber magnets
1 Inspiration Sheet
694 Stylish Stickers
26 Epoxy Stickers
40 Glitter Rub-Ons
60 Chipboard Stickers
1 designer Album
Wow! Isn't that a great deal?! So hurry and order now! :)
TFL!

Blog Candy from Marix

Marix has some yummy goodies up for grabs. Hop on over to her blog to see what I'm talking about.
She also wants us to help for their project at SCKC. Just click here to know more about the details on how you can help.

To be eligible to this RAK please post the link of your blog post (direct link of the post please) at the comment section of her blog and you're in for the random drawing!

She has 3 goodies up for grabs so go on... hop on over to Marix's blog. =)

Mini Crop session projects

I had my 1st super mini crop session last Sunday & though there were only 4 of us, I had fun. Thanks to Rome, Rot & Thelma for coming. :) I prepared a small kit for them & cooked some Tuna-garlic pasta & chicken quesedilla for them. We had 3 projects, a sheer LO, a card & an altered gift bag. I wanted to teach them how they can use 1 patterned paper for all 3 projects. Here are my samples:

Sheer LO:

Journaling: "Baby Doll"... that's how lola calls you. I guess it's because you're as cute as a doll & you always love to dress up.

Card:

Altered gift bag:

Materials used: KI Memories Sheer Delights Daffodil 2, KI Memories Pin Dot PP, See D's stamps, Making Memories Brads, American Craft Thickers, Rik Rak, Foam Shapes, safety pin

TFL!

Pic of the Week-All Girl

Just before my parents left for their vacation last Saturday, we went to the club house blessing of Marquee Place (a new subdivision developed by the Ayalas) here in Angeles City. We heard mass then had lunch after wards. There were also games for kids & a photo booth. Of course, we didn't let the day finish without taking photos! The one above was my chosen pic for this week. All girl pic with my mom, me, my sisters Jaymie & Lily & Marcie. I wish we had our eldest sister with us here & her daughter so we'd be complete.

I love the Marquee clubhouse! It was Marcie's first time to play at the park & she really enoyed it. The park that we have in the current subdivision we live in isn't too nice. I hope we could move to the new subdivision when it's finished. Hehe.

Here's another pic of Marcie while writing on the graffiti wall:
This little girl loves to write though she really doesn't know how to yet. She has her own notebook where she does her scribbles. :)