Saturday, August 30, 2008

Twinkle In Your Eyes

My sister, Lee bought a stack of DCWV Blooms and Butterflies, which I totally LOVE!!! The colors are pretty and the designs are awesome! I commented that they are so deliciously beautiful I just want to cut out the flowers and butterflies! She said I can have half of the stack [meaning, one of each unique page]. Wow! I didn't give her enough time to change her mind. I tore out one of each duplicate page and started cutting out the flowers, butterflies, and diamond designs. I even brought out my Cricut to cut out some alpha and swirls.

I placed some of the cutouts on top of my work table, it just happened there was a black cardstock there and the bright colors looked to beautiful on the black background!

Here's what I came up with.

Journaling: I love how your eyes twinkle when you smile. They're full of happiness and contentment, of love and admiration. We wish you all the reasons that will keep you smiling like this.


Thanks for sharing, Lee. I did find a stack of DCWV's Blooms and Butterflies at Jo-Ann's and replaced this with your stack. You might want to have 2 sheets of each design after you see how beautiful they are!

Supplies used: Foam dots, assorted bling, Cricut to cut out the swirls and the embellishment on the left; Doodlebug border swirls, Prima flowers, pink pen to add the doodles to the diamond borders.


Thanks for looking.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Cookie's PS Challenge

I wanted to make an altered clock to join Cookie's August challenge. My plan was to make a square one - out of a 12x12 layout... with the clock in one corner - a smaller clock. I have this small mantel clock that hasn't ticked for months now because the battery size is so odd I keep forgetting to buy one as it is not one of the sizes that's on display at the check-out lines. I just thought the clock doesn't have to be round and of the same size as the other contestants'. I wanted mine to be different so I can put it up on the wall. I can perhaps ask DH to frame it for me.

The layout I would use is something about remembering me and the love I have for my family throughout time. Perhaps, that altered wall clock will stay on someone's wall to remind them of me long after I'm gone. But I am not going to make my intention that obvious.

The tiny clock didn't work as its casing was glued to its crystal frame. So the next plan was to go to Michael's and buy a new one - just the clock parts. My sister, Lee, however, reminded me it has to be a complete, working clock in order for it to be altered.

I looked around the room. There on the shelf is a round clock with green, brown, black, reddish-colored patterned frame. It has a matching 12x11 photo frame. I didn't want to separate the pair. I stared at the clock for hours...for days...[not continuously, of course, only when I am in my Kalat Room]. I have to revise the planned layout. How on earth can I make a clock with a patterned frame look good with a patterned face???! It won't go!

I really don't want to miss another PS challenge. OK...this is really getting to be a challenge... finding the perfect clock with a perfectly matching layout!

I took the clock down turned it over and I couldn't find screws or any openings in the back! I found out after several hours I have to pry open the plastic face cover! I hope I don't break it.

After several hours [again] of being careful to take out the plastic face, I succeeded [OK...by this time I still don't have a planned LO in mind!] I took out the battery, then carefully lifted up the round thing that held the hands together. It won't budge! It felt springy. After several tries, it seems this is not the kind that I can take apart so I gave up for fear of ruining a perfectly operating wall clock with a matching photo frame!

I ran out of time.... for the challenge..... [sigh....]

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Best Friends

I took out a lot of pictures from old magnetic photo albums and stashed them in a shoebox...until I have time to post them on scrapbook pages. Since most of the pictures I have of my DD were taken before I even heard of a digital camera, most of the pictures were dark, not too clear, size 4R, not to mention, fading because of the acid from the glue used in the photo albums.

These brought back memories, the instant I saw them. It was just like yesterday... Christina had her baby-check-up, the pediatrician suggested to start shopping around for a dentist, and in the mean time, brush her teeth.

Hmmm... that wasn't a bad idea, why not let the baby play with the toothbrush and perhaps in the process her teeth will get cleaned somehow. So one hot August day I opened a brand-new toothbrush package for Christina and gave it to her. She didn't know what to make of it at first, so we "demonstrated". Soon she caught on, she liked it, and enjoyed it.

I was taking pictures of her first toothbrush encounter when Stephanie and her mom came by for a surprise visit. Christina usually would forget anything and everything she's doing when she sees Stephanie but on this particular moment, she was engrossed in brushing her teeth.

Stephanie sat by her, eyeing the toothbrush, tried to take it away but didn't succeed, but she was intent and it seemed in the pictures that she effortlessly picked the toothbrush out of Christina's hands and as soon as she got her hands on that toothbrush, straight to her mouth it went! Christina cried bloody murder! We tried to bribe her with a toy, which she in turn used to bribe Stephanie, but it wasn't successful. In the end, Stephanie lost interest on the toothbrush so Christina got it back. This was their first fight, at less than a year-old! I do not recall them having another "fight" about anything else. They were always kissing and hugging whenever they saw each other.

Supplies used in the traditional LO: Nana's Nursery, K-Ology Berry Sweet paper, orange cardstock, foam used to give the cut-out flowers and title some dimension, Cricut Expression to cut the title.

Credits for the digital LO: jewel flowers by Mrs. Schmuck [Younique Photos], I don't remember where I got the papers from.