Art de Scrap Journal Challenge

I made my own journal for the Artz de Scrap Challenge. I decided to recycle stuff I had plenty of. For the inside, I used tons of brown paper bags which I cut in half. I gave the other half a hand-torn look. I just punched holes on one side using my blue Zutter and walaah! I have a journal! My idea is that with each page, I can actually store ephemera as keepsakes, say when travelling. I also decided to keep the embellies to a minimum because of possible wear and tear in travelling. Also, it makes a great gift to anyone, male or female alike! I actually left the journal on top of my pile of stuff on my desk and I saw one of my co-teachers admiring it. (Mmmm. Her birthday is coming up. Maybe I should give it to her.)

Chipboard, the one that comes with the papers and kits I buy, was used for the cover. I painted it white, then misted it with Glimmer Mist Dewdrop for a glittery effect, then stamped the journal text of Tim Holtz. I adhered Sugar-coated Doodlebug alphas in black, and added a big J grungeboard which I painted black and sugar-coated as well. Bright red ribbons give a final dramatic touch.

Scrappin' Moms Idol 3- Challenge 1 Pick of the Week

I was lucky enough to be chosen as Pick of the Week for Challenge # 1 Paper Piecing!!! Woohooh!!! This is a first time for me! I never thought I'd get chosen. Last year, I never got chosen once, so I must have done something really good this time. I'm on cloud nine, feeling so lucky to have been chosen. Even if I don't make it to the finals, this is enough for me. Besides, I don't know if I can keep churning out LOs that will meet the requirements with the challenges getting more difficult as the weeks pass.

To see the announcement and the LO entitled My Small World, please check it out here. Thank you very much, Idol Cabbie!

June Kit of Studio Azul, Scrap Buffet LOs

Where the Heart Is shows our family photo. We are currently building a house, and the truth is, whether we live here or there, only having the whole family is enough to make a home. The house doesn't really matter.
Carry Me features my son in the airport asking to be carried. We've tried to avoid carrying him since he turned five, but with the length of the airport terminal to trudge, it was just too much for his little feet. Journal reads, "You're too big to carry, but when you ask me, how can I refuse?"

Both LOs use cardstock and Webster's Pages. This lovely kit was so full, I still have quite a number of papers and embellies left for another project and some!
Bombs of the Past featured 2 empty bomb metal canisters that used to litter the streets of Manila during the Liberation Period. US air raid bombers dropped hundreds of thousands of these, hoping to drive the Japanese away, but in the process, killed millions of Filipinos trapped in the city. My grandparents were able to save these 2, both of which are used for housing umbrellas and other objects. The gold splotches were made using gold UTEE and Studio Azul's Blot Stamp in one of their previous kits.

Altered Book Bag

Here's a thought. How can you use a book as a bag? Simple. Glue the sides, put straps and decorate.

I originally thought, "No way am I going to destroy a book!" It so happened that Artz de Scrap posed their July Challenge which is to alter a story book. I knew Galo is very territorial when it comes to his books so there's no way I can filch one out of his book shelf. I was contemplating on buying a second-hand book because I wanted to make it into a bag. Fortunately, I saw one book I took out from Galo's reading materials because I wasn't happy with the storyline nor with the moral of the story. It was "Eloise Makes Breakfast."

I covered the outer corners of the book with a Webster's Pages Magical Wishes Sticker, carefully cutting it so it only covered the areas I needed. Next, I painted the middle with Pebbles Olive Green, then embellished the rest of the cover with more stickers and pp flowers from Magical Wishes Line. I finished it off with Prima Hydrangea flowers, Tinkering Ink felt stickers for a latch, Maya Road metal flower hinges and a length of Carolina's metal chain, cut in half, for the handles.

At this time, I still couldn't make myself completely destroy the book so I decided that when I'm ready, I'll just stick the edges of the book to make pockets. As it is, it can only house a hankie at best. Still, once stuck together, one can also stuff a few papers, maybe even paper money inside it. Chances are, it will be a little girl who'll like to carry the book as a bag, just like mommy!

Do check out the new Artz de Scrap Team's takes on this project here.

Busy but productive

I've been too busy to post, but still am very productive these past few weeks. Here are some LOs I've done:

This one was made for the Elimination Round of Scrapping Idol 3. You can check out the link here. I didn't intend to join a 2nd time since I thought I'd be too busy to do weekly LOs as a challenge. My good friend, Lee, convinced me that this will force me to make at least 1 LO a week. It's also true that as per experience, I learned quite a lot of new techniques, helping me to stretch myself creatively. For this LO, I used ordinary kasta cloth (canvas cloth used for painting before it is primed). The challenge was to use an ad as a sketch to make our own interpretation. I promised myself that I will only make LOs true to my style. Hence, even if what was required was a wave design of a red-black-white color scheme, mine came out differently. The series of photos showed Galo around 1 year 3 mos. playing around with the tape measure.

Materials: plain katsa cloth cut into 12x12; Glimmer Mist Merlot & Olive Vine; Colorbox Mini Peacock, Moss Green and Peony; blue measuring tape from Studio Azul Kit; Cosmo Cricket Blackboard Fleuriste chipboard; 7 Gypsies Gaffer tape black definitions; Fancy Pants Lace Wraps Powder; Carolina's white cotton lace; K&Co Alphabets Stickers To Go; Inkssentials Opaque White Pen. Stamp Used: Fancy Pants Bella Brush.

The 2nd LO was made for the Scrapping Idol 3's Challenge #1. Check it out in the Idol 3 Gallery here. This time, we were asked to do "Paper Piecing," a technique using small pieces of paper to come up with a bigger piece as part of the embellishment. I decided to go do a mosaic. I thought it would be easy since the concept seemed easy enough. What I didn't expect was how brutal it was to do. I even went further by cutting each paper piece by handtearing! How sado-masochistic was I! Nevertheless, it came out pretty well. Photo showed Galo and me admiring "It's a Small World" in Disneyland, HK.

Materials List:
Bazzill cardstock puce; Basic Grey Wassail French hens; misc. Basic Grey pp; Anna Griffin AG136; Webster's Pages A Sweet Life; MME Bohemia Cherish Botanical; AC Thickers Sprinkles; Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Dewdrop & Suede; Pebeo Touch Deco Pearl Olive Green, Parma, Pink, Azure & Mist; Perfect Pearls Aged Patina Blue & Green; Sailor Pen Warm Cream.

Whew! What else will they come up with next?! Also, do wait for my other projects and LOs to be posted soon.

Artz de Scrap's DT for July -Dec

I am very honored to be chosen as Artz de Scrap's Design Team again for the months of July-Dec.! This time, we have another Filipina scrapper in the team, Catherine Bautista. That makes three Filipinas with Nathalie "Cabbie" Jane Lopez, a Resident Designer in the group. Other team members are: Emily Zhang and Kim Faucher. You can check out the announcement here.

Watch out for the exciting projects and tutorials to come!

Studio Azul's June GDT!

I'm so honored to be asked by Tin Yao of Studio Azul to be the June GDT! I got this June Kit package that was soooo YUMMY, I had to start on it as soon as I had time.

Please check out the GDT feature here and the LOs here. Watch out for the project. It'll be out soon.

Something's a-brewing!

I've been busy working on several LOs and a project. I'm done with the 2 LOs, and finally finished the basics of the project. It just needs embellishment. Watch out for this last one because I'm extremely proud of the work I was able to do.

Oh, and I'm in the middle of several things too. Will update with recent news soon.

My ADS Tutorial is out!

I just found out that my tutorial is finally out. I made a tutorial for the mailboxes shown above. If you'd like to see how it's done, please head on to this site.

I'm so glad that the DTs did get to make their own version since everyone came up with such overwhelmingly GORGEOUS takes! Do check out their versions by scrolling down here. I swear, their takes really show the abundance of talent in the group. I'm hoping that others, esp. fellow Filipino scrappers, do take the chance and apply for DTs. Actually, I'm toying with reapplying but I'm just not sure if I have the time yet. I still have the next few days to think about it and to come up with a project to submit.

Sneak Peek: My Artz de Scrap June Tutorial

Yup, I've been given the task of making the June Tutorial for Artz de Scrap. It's quite an honor, considering that this is the last month I'll be DT for the site. I was told to make a tutorial of anything that would be easy enough to follow. If it is too difficult, not too many people would attempt to make their own version. I'm hoping Artz de Scrap afficionados will try it out.

Here's a sneak peek of the project.
I purposedly made sure that the tutorial, to be revealed soon in the Artz de Scrap site, is easy to follow. I had made photos of every step and had to cut down on it so that it wouldn't be overwhelming. I ended up doing 2 of the same project, since Galo, my son, wanted one himself!

Artz de Scrap Altered Envelopes

This time, we were challenged to alter envelopes. I used 2 different sized envelopes which I altered using stamps, stamp inks and different colored UTEE.

After opening the envelope at the seams and hand-tearing its edges, I rubbed ink all over, with tattered rose in the middle and black at the edges. Then I used 2 stamps, a Fancy Pants From the Garden flower vine stamp and a Prima Dreamer ledger stamp. By repeating the pattern, it started to look more and more like a hankie. I embossed the flower stamp in black and rose quartz. Then I rubbed Versamark, then sprinkled black and silver UTEE and embossed them in place. This gave the envelope-wrapper lots of texture.

The smaller envelope was made into a picture frame using similar techniques but different colors. I wrapped the picture frame with the bigger peach envelope and tied it with a ribbon. I loved playing with embossing powder and UTEE so much, I can hardly believe myself that the envelopes are not made of cloth! Really fun to do. This really means that I should get more UTEE to play with!

Do check out the Artz de Scrap blog here for more inspiration from the talented DTs and RDs.

Materials: 2 different sized white envelopes (smaller one should fit inside the bigger one), Versamark, StazOn black, Color Box mini peacock, Distress Ink weathered wood, tattered rose and black soot, PA Embossing Powder black, Ranger Antiquities Embossing Powder Rose Quartz, Whispers Embossing Powder blue, UTEE black, clear and platinum, Simple Joys mocha ribbon.

Techniques: stamping, hand-tearing, smudging stamp ink, embossing.

Artz de Scrap Sneak Peak

Here's a sneak peak of one of the projects in Artz de Scrap. I played with different colors of UTEE, stamps and ink to make this. I am now a certified UTEE addict!

Mother's Day Card

I know, I know. I forgot to upload my Mother's Day Card. I am not a card maker really. Hence, when we recently had a scrapping session with friends here, a friend of ours, Alby, challenged us to make one. It gave me an excuse to make a card for my mom for the first time in what, 20-30 years?!!! Of course, the effort was well worth it because my mom was very surprised to find out that it was handmade by me.

I decided to use a number of stamps for both the card and the envelope. I wanted to use one of my "virgin" stamps, a BG Grow-a-Garden clear stamps of branches. By combining it with the leaves of the Stampin' Up Wild Rose, plus the En Francaise script, I was able to make a scene that turned out very feminine especially with the colors I used.

Materials: misc. card + envelope, miscellaneous paper flowers & leaves, Ancient Page Plum Wine, Color Box Moss Green, StazOn Olive Green, StazOn Brown. Stamps used: BG Grow-a-Garden, Stampin' Up Wild Rose, Stampin' Up En Francaise.

Techniques Used: Stamping, blending, dry embossing.

Artz de Scrap Altered Birdhouse

These are the photos of my Artz de Scrap Birdhouse, inspired by Bree Tetz's tutorial. Hope you'd all try making one because it really is fun!

Sneak Peak Artz de Scrap Altered Birdhouse

I've always wanted to alter this birdhouse decor someone gave me last Christmas. It's not that the wooden birdhouse is ugly. It's just too brightly colored in yellow and green so I decided to make it look more vintage. Co-DT Bree's tutorial for Artz de Scrap gave me the perfect opportunity to finally get it done.

Since I'm currently into making eggs, I decided to make empty quail egg shells as part of the decor, with a chipboard bird in front of the birdhouse. To make the egg shells sparkle, I glued clear glitter all over the egg. A chipboard bird and branch, plus real branches complete the look.

Do check out Bree's tutorial in the Artz de Scrap blog here, as well as the other DT's take, including mine. I hope many will get challenged to make their own birdhouse as a decorative accent in the home.

Later, I'll reveal all the close-up photos of the birdhouse.

Materials: Basis Grey Aged&Confused Phresh&Phunky Phlordilee, Basic Grey Wassail French Hens, Daisy d's Moda, Maya Road chipboards, sunflower, branch and bird, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Deep Plum, Carolina's flowers and leaves, Carolina's lace, mm Scrapbook Colors chocolate, Gelly Gems, Leeho clear glitter, miscellaneous bleached branches, quail egg shells, black felt for bottom of base.

Techniques: Painting; masking bird and branch chipboard on the birdhouse walls; adhering sunflower chipboard around the hole as a frame; punching holes on the sunflower chipboard petals; using glitter on quail eggs; using bleached branches to make a nest for the eggs.