Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Mini-tin can Time Line: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...


My little boy is growing up, fast. Today, he turned 4. To celebrate, we had a party last Sunday with just the immediate family on both sides. On our way to the venue, Galo insisted on having games. Since there were only 5 kids with an average age of 3, I didn't think of preparing any. I suppose I felt quite guilty because I suddenly had to make a detour to Dom's Balloons in Kamuning, just to get "games" stuff. Hence, we ended up with a modified hunt-easter-egg style, the palabunutan and the pabitin. Since the kids couldn't read nos. and it was such a hassle opening each no. ticket, we just let them line up, pick a prize, then line up again. For the pabitin, each kid got to get 1 hanging toy each time the "balag" went down. My brother-in-law said that this was the first time that he attended a party where the guest went home with a big bag of goodies!

Since today is his birthday, Galo is also celebrating the day with his classmates. He chose his choco mouse cake which we'll serve together with BTIC choco walnut frozen yogurt. As if that wasn't enough, I modified some store-bought invitations, then made 37 lootbags, and to top it all, made Galo's Time Line.

His school requires parents to prepare pictures of the celebrant for every year since birth on a long strip of paper. This helps children visually see the passage of time. I made a time line last year on kraft paper, which of course eventually got misplaced and destroyed. This year, I decided to make a mini-tin can time line, one where I can just add a yearly mini-LO to until he reaches 12.

Arn had this LEVI's wallet packaging made of tin can which I saw would work beautifully for the project. I used alcohol inks on the outside, embellished it with All About Scrapbooking Chipboard, Bella Journee scroll, American Crafts ribbon, Karen Foster Metal Alpha Slides and UBL Crystal Dome Stickers (from Japan Homes). Inside, I used Old World Stack of various mottled prints to make the pages and embellished it with scrolls, hidden journals, various scrap papers from Rusty Pickle, Scenic Route, Creative Imaginations, Bazzill cardstock and Crateboard alpha chipboard.

Truth is, this was finished as of Saturday evening. On Sunday however, I felt that using the foam stickers and ready-made embellishments just wasn't what I had in mind. Sure, it was pretty, but it just didn't seem right. So, despite all the work previously done, I reworked each page last night. What resulted was better, I think. This time, I was able to plan each page so that it always had some handwritten journal, most of the time either hidden or partially-hidden. This, I feel, would keep for the next 8 years. Hopefully, for life.

How do I love thee, Galo? A thousand and one ways... and counting.

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