Best Friends, Like Diamonds, Are Forever

Best friends since the 7th grade, they hug and squeal every time they see each other, like it's been a thousand years since they last did...when in fact it was just a few hours ago!

Distance did not make their hearts forget. Every opportunity they got (holidays, school breaks, etc.), they have to meet, go to the movies, have a party, sleep over at someone's house and catch up with what ever BFFs talk about. Truth be told, whenever they meet here at home, I don't hear any conversations, just bursts of laughter...like laughter is their own language, and they have mastered it so.

Each is a unique diamond, giving another meaning to they saying "diamond is a girl's best friend". Theirs is a friendship unbreakable and sparkling. Theirs is a bond more precious than anything on this earth.... and may it remain that way.

The kit I used is called Ice Diamond and it's from Cay's Designs. It is so sparklingly delicious! It makes even the simplest layout look elegant and complicated! Of course, I love bling so, from out of the many elements that came with this kit [I think there were more than 70 of them!] I opted to use the diamonds over and over again!

TFL!

Another Spring LO

Another Spring LO. I have to take advantage making and posting them while it's still Spring. In another 4 weeks it will be Summer. Don't the days go by too fast for you? It seems to me that the do.

There's really nothing new about the digital elements I used here. I just love colorful flowers and I tend to use them over and over again. That's just the beauty of digital supplies - you never run out of them!

This was taken in the backyard of our first home. It was our first Spring. DH and I looked around the yard figuring out what kind of plants and critters lived around us. A pear tree, a yellow apple tree, a red apple tree, a green apple tree, a 2 big maple trees, lots.... I mean 7 cypress trees, 3 really big pine trees, a crab apple tree with pretty flowers, plenty of orange spotted lilies, lilies of the valley [very sweet smelling], green plants with white star-shaped flowers - also fragrant, though the leaves smelled like onions when you break them off; lots of rose bushes... and other shrubs we can't identify. According to one of the friendly neighbors, the previous owner planted everything everywhere!


Supplies used: MyMind'sEye background paper; SF Ava & Lilly's Mommy: Spring is in the Air kit; Fonts: Arial & Alba Matter

TFL!

A House for Babycakes

I started to make an album about Christina's playhouse that DH and DS built from scratch.  This page started out as a traditional LO. When I took a picture of it I thought I have to add more embellishments which I didn't have. So while it was there on the monitor staring at me, I opened up my digital kit supplies and started putting this page together.

The fonts I used for the title are from a font template.  I traced and cut each alphabet on a pink cardstock and pasted them on a brown one, which again, I cut around leaving a little of the brown show up to give it some shadow.

I believe the other embelishments I used, like the wild flowers, Scrapbook Flair's Ava & Lilly's Mommy: Spring is in the Air kit.  The house, I "built" myself.  Doesn't she look so proud standing in front of her house?

TFL.

My [Little] Prince

These are my layouts using Cay's "My Little Prince Kit".

The first one is of my sister-in-law, Maria Theresa Ibarra, she now bears my maiden name. I still can't get over this... that someone has my name! But I am glad she's the one and not anyone else.

This picture was taken during her son's baptism. I made this layout for her in time for Mother's Day. I used one of Cay's round mat template freebie. I had to cut it in half and separate the two because if I had to change the shape from round to oval, the decorative flower-edge will become distorted. A blue button came with the kit. I extracted the face of the baby and a crown and pasted these on the buttons. I did the same thing with the word art - instead of using it as one single embellishment, I made it look like it's on the button.

If you take a closer look to the bow, I added dimension to the knot so it will look like the safety pin was really hooked through it.

Journaling on the teddy bear reads: Dear Jan Rafael, we don't know you yet. But we love you. You are new beginnings, new life; you are family. The gift of tomorrow belongs to you [quoted from Judy Janish].

The next layout is again, that of Jan. I had to borrow baby boy pictures from my brother as my son's baby pictures are of poor quality. We didn't have digi-cams during the time he was born. Even the negatives were no longer good.

To subdue the white pattern on the background paper I re-colored it green and added red for a splash of color.

And last but not least.... is a layout of my Prince. This is my son, all grown up... 6' tall and still single and available [he'll probably hate me for announcing that he is, hihihi]. His pictures as a young boy are now faded because I stored them in those !!! magnetic albums. Although I've been able to salvage a lot of them through Photoshop, the quality is not as good as digi-cams.

I made it look like I threaded the ribbon through the chains of the heart charms and recolored a few other things. The boy icon and crown is from Photoshop. The template used for the mat is put together by CraftFairy.

Journaling reads: If you can't be a highway, be a trail. If you can't be the sun, be a star. It's not by size that you win or lose, be the best of what you are.

TFL!

The Man on the Moon

These images were taken by DH using the Nikon D80 connected to his Celestron C5 telescope. The first image was taken on May 5, 2009 at 8:28 pm CST, the second, two nights later at 7:38 pm. DH was not able to take another picture last night as it was cloudy and drizzling.


When I zoomed in these pictures using Photoshop, it's so awesome to see the details we can't see with the naked eye. It's just so amazing that this chunk of cold rock somehow plays a very important role in our survival. It is Earth's faithful companion, pulling and tugging, as if keeping Earth to stay in it's orbit. Thus this gravitational pull between Earth and Moon causes atmospheric and oceanic high and low tides, which in turn, have an effect on climate and weather on Earth. Think of the chain of effects on plant and animal life that depend on cold or hot weather to survive.


Anyway, this is not about a science lesson but to share these pictures. DH sharpened the pictures a little bit. No other revisions were made. As I examined each detail, I found the man on the moon; well... at least, the face of the man on the moon.


It seems there are two different faces. Can you spot them, one on each picture. ....and no, these were not "photoshopped"!

TFL.

You Are So Loved

I'm still playing with the digital kits Marj gave me. There are 3 CDs with hundreds of supplies to choose from! I can't wait to use them all! I've been making lots of pages with no pictures yet. I usually pick out my picture/s then the supplies. But this time, it's the other way around. I find I scrap faster this way. What slows me down is choosing supplies for my picture and I just can't make up my mind which ones. It seems that, like traditional scrapbooking, I should bring out a few supplies to use and stick to them!

This is DD...again...! It seems like she has been my favorite subject lately. Being a teen and having her own digicam, she produces so many pictures of herself and her friends. It is sometimes so difficult to choose which ones to put on layouts.

For this LO I used supplies from Digital Scrapbooking Memories' In the Mood CD: Funky & Fun kits; Calm alpha from Collection 2; Font: Minstral.

Girl icon template from CS3, modified by CraftFairy; Yes, I've been playing around making my own templates. I'm trying to give my digital layouts a kind of a traditional look. I need more embellishments to do this. I know I've got great ones from digi supplies I've purchased and gotten as freebies somewhere in my vast collection. So vast I can't find what I need right away! Oh, yes, I admit, just like traditional supplies I also hoard digital supplies..shame, shame... but I don't have any other hoarding habits anymore. You should have been present when my family started complaining that our house started to look like a department store! They confined me to one room and one room only, but I am now slowly creeping out into the loft. Complaints start pouring in about my kalat when they expect guests and I couldn't clean my mess as fast as I spread them out!

TFL!

Supermom Layouts

The digi supplies used here are from Cay's SuperMom Kit. I first made an LO for my sister, Lee, for Mother's Day. She is one of the supermoms I know. Just reading her blog and viewing her pictures make me stare in awe! All the activities her kids do, places they have to go, her stories about being with her husband on business trips...! Then she comes up with beautiful traditional layouts that take more time to make than digital layouts! Where does she find the time to do all that? Has she found a way to "keep time in a bottle"? I need some of that time!

With her LO I erased parts of the blue paper that came with the kit to give it a torn/tattered look. To say the least, I was satisfied with what I did. The design of the paper made it easy. I folded a corner using another piece of paper in the kit. Sadly, I forgot how to do a fold that looks real - you know, one with the shadows and dimensions. I have to bring out my photoshop tutorial book sometime to review techniques I haven't done in a long time.

A few days after, I decided to make an LO of Super Mommy. She is really a supermom. She took care of 8 kids of her own, took care of my siblings' kids also, and I'm sure the grandchildren are being looked after as well.

This picture was taken when she and Dad spent a few years with us in the U.S. Looking at this picture tears me up. It was taken a few days before they left for the Philippines and I have not hugged her since. It also reminds me of what she said.

She was on the sofa crocheting baby blankies [it's her therapy because she had a stroke sometime ago and lost full use of her right arm]. I told her how my kids are growing old and pretty soon we'll be empty nesters; and I blurted out wondering if any of the two kids will take me in and take care of me when I am really, really old. She stopped crocheting, looked me in the eye and said, "if only I would still be alive when you grow old, I will take care of you." I will be hearing echoes of those words for the rest of my life! I love you, Mommy! I miss you!!!



And who says that this kit is just for super mumsies?! Here's a playful one I made for my Babycakes. This is DD when she was 6 years old. I still call her Babycakes. In fact, when I call her on the phone [or when she calls me], as soon as I hear her voice, I have to sing Babycakes [to the tune of Baby Face]. She patiently waits until I'm done. Patiently, I say because I am soooo out of tune!

I discovered some blings in Cay's kit. Yeah... discovered. The kit is huge I can't get to see everything in detail right away! I re-sized and re-colored the bling to fit my purpose. And have you noticed the ribbon I used? that's the very same heart ribbon that came with the kit, except that I replaced the hearts with blings [I hope Cay doesn't mind. I just love to play around with digital supplies!].

Now, I have to post Cay's blinkie so you can find your way to her blog. It goes right here!
where is it? It doesn't seem to work. I will have to try again this PM. Hubby needs help killing the weeds! TFL!

You Keep My Heart Beating

This picture was taken long ago. Just like the first First of May when I carried your heart in my heart. On this our anniversary, let me say it again, "I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad,in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life."

Supplies: Kit: Digital Scrapbook Memories Collection 2: Heartbeat Kit and Digital Scrapbook Memories In the Mood: Love kit