Take a Bow

Thanks, Mia & Phylline for thinking I deserve this award!!! You are dear to me!

Here are the rules that go along with the awards:

1. Post the award logos on your blog. Done

2. Link back to the person who awarded them to you. Done

3. Nominate at least 7 people whose blogs you admire and add links back to their blogs.

4. Leave a message for the nominees on their blogs.

As to Nos. 3 & 4, please consider yourself an awardee and be my guest!!!

Photo for the Day: A "Cat" & his Side-kicks

I don't know what possessed me but I was crazy enough to agree to sit as Asst. Class Reps in ALL my 3 kids' classes! It's ok with the 2 older ones but activities for my Nursery Boy is taking a big chunk away from my ME time. Been so busy lately that I haven't had the chance to take pictures. I've also put aside regular badminton & haven't even scrapped a single page in 2 weeks!

As part of our regular routine, I have blocked off Saturday mornings for study time with my youngest DS who is in nursery. Exams are coming soon so we have to study double-time. Gee, I remember when my eldest DS was in nursery some ten years back just dancing, singing & playing the whole time. Nursery nowadays is really tough. My youngest has to study so many things!!!

After study time, we are both pretty much proud of ourselves. Me for keeping my patience & my DS for knowing his lessons well. Oh, I'm one proud happy Mama! Oh but we do have to practice our penmanship.....

After study time of course is play time! Here's a photo I took yesterday of my DS trying out one of his school projects & another one of his side-kicks (if you know what I mean)....

Teresa Collins Mini Album

Wanna do a mini with no fuss? Try Teresa Collin's Die-cuts Collection available at Lasting Impression. These are so cool. Just pop out the cards, put in your photos, embellish and voila! An instant mini album for any occasion! I used my Bind-It-All to put everything together and I absolutely love the effect.

I call this mini "Favorite Photos & Memories of 2008". In one go, I can glean over the "best" of the past year. I left out some blank pages so I can sneak in more pictures to complete the remaining 6 months. Once I get the photos, it's just paste & glue for me.

Keep it simple! was my mantra while putting this mini together so I stuck to a simple color plan. Since the die-cuts are mostly black & white/beige, I introduced only one primary color: RED! I then looked for embellishments in the same color family. (Hooray for Making Memories' 5th Avenue Elizabeth line!) The rub-ons and other stickers I used came from my stash. As I say, a mini is one great way of using up your leftover stash.

Meanwhile the mostly wallet sized photos were printed from my EPSON computer at home . You may use excess photos from your backlog too. Talk about keeping it within budget which I definitely like!

Please check out Lasting Impression's gallery for the materials used for this mini.

The More Photos, The Better (For Me, That Is....)

Helps cut through my huge backlog. I have so many pictures in my photo box. And that doesn't even include those in my hard disk! I'm glad though that I'm slowly regaining my scrapping mojo. Here are a few layouts that I've completed this week.

This is a carry over of my "green" layout fix. I love green!

This next layout captures all the activities we did on March 2, 2008. We went to Manila Ocean Park, had lunch and a great dessert. It was a great family day!

Here's another one showing my goofy DS having fun with my DD at the village park. Unfortunately, my DD hardly goes there anymore. She says she's no longer a kid! Sigh! And finally, this is the latest layout I made for Lasting Impression using Daisy Bucket Designs. It's a layout of my DD feeding the lovable & gentle elephants in Bangkok. We even saw an absolutely cute baby elephant which DD wanted to bring home. They were soooo cute....just don't mind the smell.... Please check out Lasting Impression's gallery for materials used in the layout.

The Great Online Paper Sale at Lasting Impression

Hurry! Lasting Impression has a treat for all ye scrappers! The Great Online Paper Sale is on! From July 1-6, 2008, all patterned papers are at 50% off! This is applicable to online purchases only. Plain cardstocks and new arrivals are not included.

Meanwhile, on July 6, 2008, Lasting Impression will be be at "Ready Set Scrap" at the Glorietta Activity Center. You may pick up your "Great Online Paper sale orders there. For pick-up, please indicate during checkout, otherwise orders will be shipped to you.

See you there!

Of Owls and Multi-photo Green Layouts

One of Sassafras' latest lines, Pocketfull of Rosies, just begs to be cut, cut, cut.... I thought that adding embellishments would be over-the-top so I kept it to a bare minimum. I absolutely adore the owls!!! Don't they look wise and kooky at the same time?

Here's another LO using Sassafras papers. The ink on my printer failed to come out when I printed the photo for the first time. I flipped the photo paper & on the second try, it finally came out good. I then decided not to cut out the first prints to put emphasis on the title. Isn't it neat?
Know one way sure way to lessen your backlogs? Try multi-photo layouts. Guaranteed to cut through the pile. And by coincidence, my latest LOs are green. Hey, as in the color. lol! I had no idea that I've been leaning toward green LOs until I took pictures of them this morning.

1) Remember our Baguio trip? My DS was walking around with a P&S camera and I wanted to show him the shots that he took. A lot of his shots are blurry but from where I sit, I'd say that his compositions are not bad for a four-year old. Please indulge the proud Mama. LOL!!2) The pictures of DS feeding fish in Tarlac were practically begging to be scrapped but I just had to have the right paper. Good thing I found it the Scenic Route Grafton line of pp at Lasting Impression. Just love the fish pattern.

3) And finally, a layout of my DS during his first day in Big School! Sniff... How time flies!!!
Please check out Lasting Impression's gallery for the materials used in the above layouts.

Bangkok Pictures

As promised, here are some photos I took during my trip to Bangkok. It was a such a pleasure catching such wonderful images! I have a lot more others but I didn't want to bore you guys to tears. I just wish I can get to scrap all of them!

Daisyds Layout

Ask me what scrapping style I have and without batting an eyelash I'd quickly answer: Clean and (very) simple!!! So if you give me a romantic, vintagey line of paper with a hint of shabby chic & distressed look, I'd be absolutely stumped! Just for a few minutes, that is.

It's a great exercise though to stretch a bit of whatever artistic vein (if ever there is!) I have residing in me to come out with something that is totally different from my usual scrapping style yet something that I would very well still call my own. I do draw a lot of inspiration from my scrapping idols, who's names I dare not use in vain lest I incur the scrapping goddesses' ire. he-he-he... Tip? They're all very talented, very down-to-earth artists & are absolutely homegrown!!! Thanks for the inspiration!!!

Materials courtesy of Lasting Impression. If you'd like to check the materials used in the above layout, do check out the Gallery.

Sawadee Ka

...means "Welcome" in Thai. It is a greeting given by Thais in the gentlest singsong voice to all they meet. This is the first layout among the many I hope to make to document our wonderful trip to Bangkok.

Karen Foster papers used here are available at Lasting Impression. Please check out their site for details on the ongoing Karen Foster challenge.

I'm Back!!!

Just got back from a 5 day trip in Thailand!!! We stayed at the Grand Diamond Suites Hotel, located in the Pratunam district which is the heart of their shopping paradise. We had a great time there: shopping, site seeing & most especially food tripping. Don't you just love Thai Cuisine???!! (just hold the chili a little bit for me)....

I love the Thais! I find them so respectful, friendly & gentle. And I specially found their custom of bowing with a gentle "Sawadee Ka" greeting absolutely charming. This is my 2nd time in Bangkok & I'm looking forward to going back there. Hmmm, maybe in my next life, I won't mind being born a Thai.

Oh but I would never exchange our very own country, the Philippines! As they say, there is no place like HOME! This is the view I saw as our plane landed at the NAIA 2 terminal.

I took tons of photos from our Bangkok trip. Just hope I have the time to post process. Golly, I miss scrapping! Good thing though because my scrapping buddies & I are having a crop tonight at Lasting Impression.