So Grown Up

They are so grown up now.  Especially DD, what with her attire; so very professional-looking. 

These pictures were taken during Jessica's confirmation on March 29, 2009.  Cardinal Francis George officiated the confirmation.  Jessica chose Christina to be her sponsor.

Credits: bg pp - from DCWV luxury pack; circle lace template -CraftFairy1; Fonts: Pristina, Tunga, Ravie; all other embellishments - Scrapbook Flair's Nayan-Dream of Spring Collection; layout scraplifted from Sarah de Guzman

TFL.

Easter Eggs-citement

After painting the eggs, Diego and Sarah went hunting for them. Hunting??! they're all spread out in the front and back yards... for lack of shrubbery at Xavier's new house.

Just like I said... the paper I used for the mat is one of my favorites, so I'm used it again....and oh, what fun to use the round frame for a basket. It was like an Easter egg hunt for me too, gathering the different eggs in this kit and putting them in the basket.

The other kids in this picture are Xavier's sisters and cousins. Xavier and family moved to California. Sarah and Diego went back to the Philippines. All the other kids live in the western suburbs... too far to go celebrate with them the following Easters after these pictures were taken. Ahhh... sweet memories...!

Supplies from Cay Creations

Take It from the Eggs-Perts

It's going to be Easter again. This year, there won't be any egg-hunting with kids. All the kids have grown up and are no longer really interested in coloring eggs and hunting for them. This year, I will just reminisce on Easters long gone.

As I was scanning negatives, I found these pictures in the computer. These were taken in 2005 when my sister, Lee, her kids, Diego and Sarah came to visit. It was fun to paint eggs once again!

This layout was put together using It's Easter Kit 1 by Cay Risholm. The yellow borders at the bottom and the journaling tag were made using two of the papers in the kit and two templates I made. The background paper is one of my favorites from this kit. I love the gridlines and the swirls. Fonts used: Chick, Quigley Wiggly, Bradley Hand ITC, and Vivaldi script.

Purple Is Your Pink

Christina's favorite color is purple, not pink! never pink!

Ever since she was a able to reach out for a toy, she always grabbed something purple. When we went to the mall, she'd zoom in to something purple. When out shopping for clothes, she'd pick out something purple.

Her clothes in these pictures look blue but they are really purple!


Cay Risholm's Pretty In Pink is really packed with fun! I enjoyed making the second LO so much, I want more! The stamped flowers with the green swirls made it so colorful! I cut a portion of the swirls and positioned them at different angles to give the LO more splash of green. I used one of the papers for my scalloped border. As for the fonts used for the title, I used the same alpha fonts that came with the kit, only I recolored them purple (from the purple bow) and pink (from the pink flower). I threaded the pink dotted ring through the brown ribbon. Perhaps I should have threaded 2 more..hmmm.... bright ideas just keep popping up! TFL!!!

Texting

Wherever they are... in the car, at home, during a party, you'll see them holding and fiddling with their phones. What is it with kids these days? They'd rather be texting than talking! Even my DD wants me to text her instead of phoning her. Thank goodness I have one of those phones with a keypad! I would have gone crazy if I didn't.

This is my first layout as one of the DT's for Cays Creation. This LO is made using Pretty in Pink kit. It was the easiest LO I've ever made.

St. Patty's

I was cleaning my Kalat Room, putting things I don't need in boxes, when I found these pictures in one of those photo boxes. These were posted in a magnetic album. I was able to rescue them in time before the fading process began. After scanning the pictures I cut and pasted them on scrapbook layouts.


These pictures were taken years ago in an apartment in Chicago. Christina was 5 months old. It was her first St. Patrick's Day celebration. We're not Irish, but hey, who says we can't celebrate the feast of St. Patrick? We went to the mall, walked around, and had lunch there. That's how we celebrated the day...uneventful!


I made Christina's outfit: her headband and her pretty green & white dress. I gave away most of Christina's clothes that didn't fit her anymore, but this is one I kept. One of her brown teddy bears is now the proud owner of this dress!





This is the first time I used the sewing machine to make stitches. It didn't go very well because the sheet was not flat. Next time I will glue the sheets together before stitching them; or the easiest thing to do perhaps is to just stitch one piece at a time and then glue them in place.

I used one of Becky Fleck's sketches to do this LO. I saw this in the March 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes. Wow! using one of Becky's sketches really saved a lot of time!

Supplies used: white Thickers; background paper & journaling tag, DCWV Nana's Kids; flowers from Prima; bling from Darice; pink Ofray ribbon; Fiskars' sunburst punch; scrap papers from My Mind's Eye, Colorbox fluid chalks (green and brown).

Stitch Me A Song

I get to be the February challenger for the Kaya! All Filipino scrapbookers...wherever on this wonderful planet you are... are invited to join this challenge.

February is love month [I just made that up, just 'cuz Valentine's Day is embedded somewhere in those 28 days]. So the challenge is all about making a loving layout about the thing, or people you love using a love song or two [3 is maximum]. Use any scrapbooking style you have but for this challenge, you have to use stitches! Real ones - hand- or machine- made. Because of this requirement, only traditional scrapbookers can join the challenge. But then, Lee suggested to have the digital scrapbookers join, too. I am also a digital scrapbooker so I don't want to disregard my fellow digi-scrappers. So, OK, digital scrapbookers, you, too can join the challenge!

The stitching technique might be a little intimidating, perhaps because they look so complex and too time consuming. Those were my thoughts when I saw super beautiful layouts using real stitches! So I challenged myself to make one and I love it! The technique I used is very simple. Perhaps using the sewing machine would have been simpler but I was too lazy to pull that out.

Here's how I did my stitches:

I used supplies that are pre-holed - like the journaling tags which I "unscrewed" from the wire that bound them together, and the canary yellow border with the tiny little holes in them.

I arranged my layout on black cardstock and took pictures so that I will know how to put them back together again. I glued just the tips of the first layers in place so that when I make the holes on the black cardstock, they won't be moving out of place. I found a 12" cube styrofoam cooler and used that as my table [I did my work on the floor while watching NCIS]. I punched the holes with a big safety pin, going through each hole of the journaling tags and through the black cardstock. Then I stitched away! It is really so easy and not so time-consuming. I finished this LO in one night. The longest part was planning the layout - it took me days and several headaches!

As for the picture, I placed one of the journaling tags on one edge and punched holes through the picture, through the journaling tag behind it, and through the black cardstock. Of course I glued two corners of the picture first so it won't move out of place.

The hardest one to do was the swirl with the string of pearls along its side. I have previously glued this swirl on 2 layers of white cardstock to give it some dimension. It wasn't my plan, during that time to sew the beads along side it, so boring holes through it was really, really painstakingly-slow. But it's all worth it!

My original title was Cherish by Kool and the Gang. But since I only chose a few lines from the song and I love the lyrics of It’s Easy for Me to Say sang by Clint Black and Linda Hartman Black, I wrote the entire lyrics on another journal tag. I opted to use "I Love You" for the title instead of "Easy for Me To Say". The real title probably would have been a better choice but I ran out of space and didn't have smaller fonts to use. TFS!