Cross-Stitched Bookmark

I have been working on my WIP for a long time now, and it's still not finished.  However, I am pretty sure that it's 90% done.  A few more episodes of Heroes, America's Next Top Model, CSI, Law & Order SVU, Stylista, Lipstick Jungle, Survivor, Law & Order, Fringe, Extreme Race and The Unit, it will be done in no time ;)

But I told a fellow PIFer that I will make her a cross-stitched bookmark of her name.  It's been years since I made this project.  I made a bunch of them as Christmas presents to my Japanese students a long time ago.  So, I was pretty excited to do this one.  What I like most about it is that it doesn't take long to finish, and it's personalized.  I knew I could finish it in one sitting.

So last week, I started browsing my library of cross-stich alpha patterns.  After picking the one I like, I started cross-stitching a couple of nights ago.  I was half-way done when I realized that there wasn't enough cloth for the remaining letters.  I was fuming mad!!!

So I had to do it all over again.  I hate repeating a cross-stich project, especially when I already stitched most of it.  But I didn't want to keep Amber waiting, so I made sure I finish it tonight so I can mail it to her tomorrow.  And this is the final product. 

The size is bigger than the usual-sized bookmark, but it will work.  And Amber has an option to frame it if she wants.  I hope she likes it :)

And I really hope I finish my current WIP soon.... so I can start a new one!

All In A Day

I decided to stay home this weekend because of the weather forecast.  Because of that, I set my mind to do my halloween goodie bags for Friday.  I'm actually looking forward to this year's Halloween and I hope we get to have more trick-or-treaters. 

This project made me love my Cricut machine more.  It was easy for me to make the goodie bags because I have the Bags, Tags & More Cartridge.  I Sure wish that I have the Cricut Expressions so I could make bigger bags, but right now, I'm still very happy and contented with my original "Bug".  To decorate my goodie bags, I embossed with the Cuttlebug Spider Web and swiped Tsukineko Brilliance Ink Pad in Lightning Black over it.  I also stamped images with the bunch of halloween stamps that was PIFed/RAKed to me by Amber of SplitCoastStampers.  For embellishments, I just used all my leftover ones from the past years.  To see more photos of the goodie bags, click here.

Since I still had lots of candies, I decided to just make halloween tags for plastic goodie bags, also leftover from back when we were still in Japan.  I just punched cirlces from the leftover cardstock I used for the goodie bags, then adhered left over stickers.  I'm actually proud of myself because I only spent about $12 for this project - and that's only for the candies!

I was still in my ol' creative mood, and I thought I still had time to make cards for another card swap I joined in SplitcoastStampers.  There is no specific rule really.  All we had to do is make festive Christmas cards.  The inspiration started from the background paper from the DCWV Christmas Stack.  In this card, I used 2 corner punches:  slit corner punch by EK Success, and corner punch by All Night Media.  I love the "Happy Holidays" image by Inkadinkado, embossed with Kodomo No Kao embossing powder.  The over-all design is simple, and I like it.

That's it for now, fellow crafters!  Till next blog :)

A Creative Week

Hello friends and fellow crafters!  This week has been quite slow for me at work, but craft wise, a productive one! 

I was able to finish a scrapbook album about my family called the Family Moments Album.  I've been wanting to finish this for quite a while, but I waited until after my most recent trip in the Philippines in April/May.  Here, I did a lot of stitching using guides from Bazzil In-Stitchz.  Making a family album is not that easy because it requires effort, especially with picking the right photos.  I had to ask my Mommy and sister to send me our old family pictures back from when we were kids.  And I had to search for a lot of photos based on each theme of my pages.  I would say that my favorite page is this one.  Everytime I see these photos, they make me smile and laugh, and they bring back all those happy and fun times.

As you can see in the album, there are a lot of journaling inserts, but I didn't do my journaling yet for the sake of uploading the pages here.  I will definitely start my journaling soon.

This album is actually the last of a series of album kits I bought from QVC back when we were still in Japan.  It's actually a product by Lisa Bearnson, and she demoed them on QVC.  The first one is an album about myself (All About Me), next is an album about my DH (Celebrating You), followed by a year-in-review album (Year-O-Graphy), and finally this one about my family called the Family Moments Album.  Each album comes in it's own "case", and all four cases come in a special box.  The entire package is perfect for display in the living room to share with family and friends.  I would say that this kit is the best I've ever bought.  And now that I finished all four, I won't mind buying more of Lisa Bearnson's album kits because the instructions are very simple and easy to follow.  Not only that, if you're an experienced scrapbooker, there's always room for your own ideas on each page.

For more photos of all four albums, click here.

What else???  I was able to make 2 cards too!  These are for 2 swaps I joined, again in Splitcoaststampers.  The first swap is called "Non Traditional Colors of Christmas" where we were not allowed to use the traditional Christmas colors.  That was pretty hard.  But I always like challenges, and I ended up creating this card.  I was inspired from a color combo used in a commercial I've been seeing on TV.  In this card, I used the Fleur Di Lies stamp I received as RAK/PIF from SCS.  The center embossed image is a stamp from Club Scrap.  The punched the corners with Fiskars Heritage.  The silver CS is from DCWV, while the glitter CS is by Best Occasions (Walmart co.).  The "tis the season" image is from one of the many Studio G dollar stamp sets.  The center ribbon is Martha Stewart and the fiber is Bernat.  I attached that star sequin to give it that christmas feel, being that I used non-traditional Christmas colors.

 The next card is for the "Christmas Unusual and Creative Folds" swap. 

I was brain dead while thinking on what to do for this swap, but thanks to Susan's Paper Engineering Secrets Book, I was able to jumpstart on something.  The first thing that came to mind was "snowflakes."   With my Cricut, I started cutting snowflakes from the Doodletype Cartridge.  Then I punched more snowflakes with Emagination Crafts punches.  I stacked all my snowflakes together using a white snowflake brad.  I also got to use one of my latest purchases, the Fiskars Threading Water border punch.  The embossing is by Cuttlebug, and the bg paper is by DCWV Christmas pack. 

This card has three folds.  The photo on the right shows you how it looks like with the first flap opened.

 

And on the left you can see how it looks like when opened all the way.

I got a bunch of cards this week too from 2 card swaps.  You can check them out here.

'Till next blog!

International Card Swap: POSTAL!!!

Hello swappers!  It's 2:30 am right now, and I just finished packing all 6 packages - ready to be mailed first thing tomorrow morning.  I am very happy with all the cards, and I hope you'll enjoy them as well when they reach you.  All of these packages have the same contents, except for the winner.  Can you guess which one it is???

First, I would like to thank all seven of you who signed up for this swap.    If you missed my post in the previous blog, Lisa couldn't mail her cards on time due to personal reasons.  However, she still played an important part in this swap.  Thank you ladies for the extra time and effort you spent and I appreciate all your hardwork.  I really had fun! 

Also, I would like to thank Claire (Korea) of Multiply and Anita (Canada) of Splitcoaststampers for donating goodies for this swap.  I would also like to thank those who helped me pick the top card.  I have to admit that it was hard to choose, and I had to seek aid from my fellow crafters and friends.  Hugs to Claire, Lisa and family, Alice Koh of TDS, MaryKaye, art teacher Mrs. Tenbusch, Tracey, one of the students from work and DH Duane. 

This swap made me realize how we are all different when it comes to styles and approaches when it comes to our dear hobby.  Even the judges themselves have different preferences.

Before I go to bed, let me share with you the card I made for you ladies.  I love the outcome of this one.  It's my first time to try Martha Stewart Glitter and Tsukineko Glue Pad.  The background stamp is Withered by Stampin Up, and the sentiment is by Cloud 9 Designs.  The smaller background is CTMH and the bird image is by Inkadinkado.  I used black Prima flowers, and black brads by The Paper Studio.

For another glance at all the cards submitted for this swap, click here.

Ok, time for me to go to bed.  It's really late!  I have to wake up before the post office closes.

Goodnight!

A LO, Card and Digital Freebies

It's been a while since my last scrapbook LO.  If I'm not mistaken, the last one was a page for my 2008 calendar.  My latest LO, is again for this calendar, for the month of October. 

This page is extra special because it's about me and my grandmother.  We have the same birthday, and we usually celebrate our special day together.  It only ended when I moved to Japan, and now here in the US.  This is the 7th year of us not being together on our birthday.  And I'd like to celebrate that day through this page.  The photo you see is our latest picture during my recent visit to the Philippines.  I sure miss my Inang.

You can see more of the pages from my 2008 Calendar by clicking here.

Guess what?  I discovered more digital freebies from the scrapbooking magazine websites.  Download them while available:

• Doodle Grunge Mini Kit from Scrap N' Art
• Digital Kits from Memory Makers
• Digital Freebies from Scrapbooks Etc.
• Freebies from NBK
• Spontaneous Delight from Shabby Princess
• Kiara from The Daily Scrapper

I hope you enjoy these freebies as much as I did :)

And finally, I was able to make another batch of cards for another swap.  This time, the rule is to use BROWN + any color in our cards.  I found it very interesting and this is what I ended up creating.

I used the following materials:

• Brown Cardstock by the Paper Company
• Polka-dot BG paper by Paper Pizzaz
• White Vellum Paper by Provo Craft
• Ribbon:  American Crafts & Big Lots
• Brads:  s.e.i.
• Ink:  Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip
• Stamp:  Cloud 9 Designs
• Adhesive:  Scotch ATG and Duck
• Miscellaneous:  scrap paper, flowers

My goal this week is to create more.  Let me type that again...  CREATE MORE ;)

Wednesday

This week started our really hectic!  I had to work more hours at work, but that's ok.  It made me miss my planet more, and it made me crave to create more.

Let me start this blog with a big Thank You to ScrapScene for featuring my work.  This time it's my altered TicTac container.  Actually, I made this altered item specifically for one of my SCS PIF friends, Amber.  She wished for anything altered, and I granted her this.  Click here for more pictures, and click here for more details about this project. 

Despite my "busy" work schedule, I was able to make cards for another card swap.  The rule of the swap is to make any size card except for A2 or 3x3.  And the twist is, we have to make matching envelopes for our cards.  What I did first is choose a template from my Kreate-A-Lope Envelope Maker, and from there, I was able to decide on what shape/size of card I was supposed to make.  In other words, I made the envelopes first.  Because of little time, I decided to use my Cricut machine to make my card base.  The Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge has a "card feature."  With that, I was able to cut a flower card base using black cardstock.  Then, I cut a smaller size of the same flower, disabling the "card feature", using black & white bg paper.  The bigger flower you see is an image from Close To My Heart's (CTMH) Rustic Flowers Set.  I inked it with Stampin' Up More Mustard.  After that, I punched circles using Creative Memories circles puncher in  1.5 and 1.25 inches using white cardstock and white vellum respectively.  Then on the white circle, I stamped "One & Only" from CTMH My One & Only stamp set.  For the final touch, I adhered an orange flower sequin.

I was able to finish all 6 cards in one night, so I was happy. 

All I needed to do was just stack each element, and then they are done! 

Speaking of custom-made envelopes, I was also able to make A2 size envelopes with liners for another SCS PIF pal from Canada.  Again, using Kreate-A-Lope.  This is my first time to make envelopes with liners, and I'm glad I was able to do it.  Now I'm more confident in making my own envelopes.

Guess what?  I received cards from the "Twinkling H20" Card Swap on Monday, and I am very happy with each one.  The swap host let me use Shimmerz because I didn't have Twinkling H20s.  Now I know how this product looks like and how they work.  I am considering in buying some.  To see more of the cards, click here.

That's it for now.... tomorrow I can sleep in! :)

It's WORLD CARD MAKING DAY!

This is a day for us fellow scrapbookers, stampers and especially card makers.  I don't know who started it and who made it official, but it's World Card Making Day today.  A perfect excuse for us to make cards - maybe make use of our leftover materials and create as many cards as we can.  At least for today.

For starters, I was able to create 2 cards.  They are actually for a card swap I joined weeks ago, and the deadline is next week.  The rule for this swap is to use only Studio G dollar stamps.  Studio G is one popular brand of dollar stamps, along with Imaginisce, Inkadinkado and Autumn Leaves.  I signed up for the Birthday Cards and Thank You Cards.

In this Thank You Card, I stamped the background with Studio G flowers using Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel.  The flower die cuts are Cuttlebug and Martha Stewart.  I love how these die cuts go together, even though they are from different brands.  Then I stamped "thanks" on the brown ribbon using Color Box white pigment ink (my favorite white ink).  As usual, I inked the edges of my layers for more dimension.

For this birthday card, I used leftover bg paper for my background.  Then I dry embossed black cardstock with Diamonds pattern by Ellison Designs.  I also cut scalloped rectangle (red paper behind the black cardstock) and scalloped oval (red metallic paper) by Wizard.  I also used some black glitter paper by DCWV (behind the "birthday wishes").  I added eyelets using my Crop-A-Dile (another tool I love!).  I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Black Soot for the black distressing you see on the edges.

A few blogs ago, I mentioned about my first Inchie.  I joined an Inchie swap, and for the first batch, I got Halloween inchies.  They are all pretty!  I can't wait to see the next batches in the following months.  I know I still have to upload a video I made while creating my halloween inchie.  No promises this time.  You'll just see it here soon :)

Also, I want to share with you my creations from last month.  You can see them by clicking here.  They are not as many as I used to, but it's better than nothing.  I hope to create more scrapbook layouts for the month of October.

Again, I would like to thank my friends from the crafting world for RAKing me goodies this week.  You always make me smile and brighten up my day.  My tiredness from work goes away everytime I see packages waiting to be opened.  It always feels good to be like a kid sometimes.