My First Baby Shoot

My good friend, Blessie, gave birth last November 2007 to a beautiful baby boy, her last(!) in a brood of 4. I came over to her place to take pictures of her son at 2 weeks old. I absolutely love the sight, smell & touch of a newborn baby! As a gift, I've decided to do a mini-album for Baby Cedric.

The White Out Line is WeRMemoryKeepers' newest line of papers which are perfect for mini-albums. One side has a regular 12x12 design while the back side has 4 6x6 designs. With this great option, I decided to use these papers for Baby Cedric's mini.

I used Canson sheets (available at National Bookstore) as base for this Baby mini. They are about the size of a cartolina sheet & comes in different colors. You'll need 1 or more sheets, depending on the number of pages you need. Measure 6 inches height & cut across the sheet. Fold them as in an accordion.

I then cut the WeRMemoryKeepers sheets at a 6x12 size then adhered each on the "face" of the Canson base. It's really so easy since the paper is designed with four 6x6 blocks. This way, I won't have to worry about the base peeking in through the middle fold.

I hope my friend, Blessie, likes this as much as I enjoyed making it.

Thanks for looking! Please check out Lasting Impression's gallery for the credits.

Layouts from the Studio Azul November Kit

Here are some layouts I completed using Studio Azul's November Kit. I absolutely love the gorgeous colors of this kit. Congratulations, Mia & Tin!

For my 3rd LO, I wanted the brads to match my color scheme so I got a couple of Biggie brads, sanded them (I just used an extra nail file), painted with acrylic paint, UTEED ... and voila!

I'd like to try my hand at cardmaking with the rest of the paper. I still have to muster enough courage to paint on the Prima Paintables though...

Other materials: Heidi Grace rub-ons (thanks, Iris!), Prima, Scenic Route, 7gypsies clip, UTEE, MM acrylic paint, DCWV cardstock, Craft Express Alphabet Stickers, Sizzix, Cuttlebug.

Orton Effect

Joining a camera club has a lot of perks and one of them is meeting great & talented people and learning from them. Che is one of my camera buddies who shoots fantastically! Her macro shots are so awesome and inspiring. Peppered with smart annotations, her pictures are a joy to see. One of her inspiring sets used the Orton effect. With no inkling what this was, I promptly googled it and found this:

The Orton Effect is a fast way to give your photos a dreamy look. Michael Orton uses this technique with multiple images taken on slide film.

Here's my attempt at it.... This was taken in San Pablo, Laguna.

And here's the photo using the Orton Effect.
Remember the rose bouquet I got from a wedding last Christmas? Here it is now after a little tweaking.

A Pre-Valentine Story

The Christmas dust hasn't even settled and what do I see popping up here and there? Hearts!!! Valentines Day is near so I'd like to share a very simple layout I made last August. It really is so simple I was able to finish everything, including the journaling in 30 minutes! I will cherish this though forever because it will always remind me of my sweet little boy.

One of my DS' favorite projects in preschool is making cards. Once, his teacher cut out hearts for the students to paint & draw on. Maybe he enjoyed this a lot so he asked his yaya to cut out hearts for him using old calendars which I always keep for his "canvass".

He came up to me and said that they were all mine. Of course, I quickly scrapped them and here it is. My DS painted the hearts with his own stash of acrylic paint. If you actually look at the back part of the hearts, you'll see the photo displayed on the old calendar. I hope this keeps!

Isn't he so sweet!

More Xmas Layouts

No way will I pass up Autumn Leaves' A Rhonna Christmas line. As always, AL lives up to its reputation of having beautifully designed papers. Rhonna Farrer's designs are simple yet so elegant. Her trademark swirls coupled with her bright, funky colors make these papers a real standout.

Here's a layout with my youngest DS, Gabriel, using AL papers. The picture was taken by my eldest DS, David, on Christmas day.

Thank you all for looking! Please check out Lasting Impression gallery for the materials used for this layout.

A Xmas 2007 Mini-album

I still had a lot of leftover scraps from my 7gypsies layout so I decided to make a Xmas 2007 mini-album. I do love the non-traditional colors of the Pretoria line! Luckily the vibrant colors matched perfectly with my pictures.

The nice thing about doing mini-albums is that I can use my scraps!!!! Not just paper scraps, but any leftover rub-on & embellishment. I was even able to use the beads I got from the last Scrapfest & Studio Azul's mini leaf sequins. Hopefully, all this mixing & matching does not make my work appear chopsuey.

As base, I used 4x4 chipboard sheets given to me by my good friend, Liza G. (Thanks so much, Liz!!!) I cut the pp into the same size and adhered them on both sides of the chipboard using double-sided tape (my best friend when doing a mini!---fast & not messy). After finishing the pages, I used my new crop-a-dile to punch 2 holes on the left side of the chipboard. The crop-a-dile is one mean machine --- it punches holes effortlessly! To put it all together, I just inserted a key ring and further embellished this with ribbons.

I've learned several lessons while doing this mini so next time I do another mini I'd keep these tips in mind:

1. Punch out the holes first before designing the page. This way, no picture, rub-on, or embellisment gets punched out.
2. Tip for the ribbons: Fold ribbons it into half & then insert a brad to keep in place. Makes for a neater look.
3. Use double-sided tape to adhere pages to the chipboard. Wet adhesive will produce a wrinkly effect on the pages when dried. Meanwhile, dry adhesive like the glue stick may not be as long-lasting.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this mini. I hope to make another one soon!

Materials Used:

1. 7gypsies - Pretoria line: Bokburg, Olifants, Benoni, Numbi, Edenvale

2. 7 gypsies Pretoria collection Frames & Tags Stickers

3. Scenic Route Christmas Rub-on Words

4. Swatchbook Impress-ons Narratives by Karen Russell

5. Versafine - Sepia Green

6. Black Staz-on

7. Fancy Pants 12x12 Clear Stamps - From the Garden

8. Maya Road Clear Stamps - Scrolls

9. Heidi Grace rub-ons - Words & Borders

10.Buttons, beads, mini-sequin leaves

11. Prima flowers

12. Lace & ribbons

Christmas Layouts

Talk about delinquent! I still have a few of Christmas 2006 pictures that I need to scrap. So before I get buried under Xmas 2007's new set of pictures, I decided to scrap my backlog pictures using new papers!

For this layout, I used Lasting Impression's new line of Websters Pages papers. The company is a relatively new one which offers beautiful papers. For those into cardmaking, this paper is THE choice for it's thick cardstock quality and double-sided design.

And now maybe I can start scrapping our Christmas 2007 pictures. As an experiment, I tried to veer away from the traditional red & green Xmas colors. Quite happy that I experimented with non-Christmas colors! Love the teals and oranges of 7gypsies' Pretoria line!!

Please check out Lasting Impression's gallery for the credits here and here. Thanks for looking. Cheers to the New Year!

It's a New Year!!!

Happy New Year to all!!! Here's to a another fruitful year ahead of us!
Cheers!

Wedding Month

Weddings seem to be celebrated differently nowadays.

Last night at Hubby's relative's wedding, I was pleasantly surprised at the extensive preparations made for the guests by the bride & groom (B&G). It was a welcome change from the usual ho-hum ceremonies. And because of this, all the guests were all awake and quite participative!

For instance, there was no traditional bouquet and garter toss. Instead, there was a bingo game where guests were asked to answer questions pertaining to the B&G, eg. age, birthdays, etc. And the prizes were amazing! They gave away 2 mp3 players and 2 Nokia cellaphones as the grand prizes.

A touching part of the evening was when guests were asked to volunteer the number of years they've been married. The award went to a couple married for 42 years! As a gift, the B&G presented them with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Of course, the lucky (!) winners had to kiss each other while everyone gamely clinked their glasses. On the side, a lady sitted next to our table claimed that she's been married for 45 years. However, the husband refused to be acknowledged. Oh well!

What a lovely, lovely evening for a lovely, lovely couple!

In a Frenzy

December is the most hectic month of all. So many occasions to celebrate, so much food to eat but also too much stress in trying to fit in all the things that need to be done. Not that I'm complaining though. This is the time of year for reflection, for giving thanks and for planning for the coming year.

Today, my DS had his 4th birthday party in school. His real birthday is actually on the 22nd but we had to fastforward it just a bit to beat the Xmas break which starts on the 15th. I made it a point to involve my DS in all aspects of preparation. We had so much fun preparing for his party: from planning the menu, ordering the cake and preparing the loot bags.

It was really all worth it when I saw my DS' happy shining face! He was actually "shining" with happiness all throughout his party. I felt my heart melting as I watched how happy he was. Absolutely worth it.

Oh, and we were so busy that I didn't even bother to take a look at what arrived at 8:30 in the morning. Eeeekkk!!! Have to go a party first.

Doodle Frame from Lilly Pie Designs by Carrie Bombria