Destination: Relaxation

Happy Monday to all! Hope everybody had a fun and happy V-day yesterday. Not so happy to be going back to work after a 3-day weekend but gotta do what you gotta do right? Well, I finished one layout today and I used more of my old Sassafras Lass pps. Gotta consume all of it. :)

This is based on this week's sketch over at Scrapbook Challenges. We're now on Sketch 186 this week and I hope you check out the other fun challenge over there. Here's the finished LO and I loved how the color combo turned out. This was a photo of the two us about 4 years ago. It's just refreshing how younger we looked back then and not to mention thinner! LOL!

All pps are Sassafras, including the embellishments.

 

On here I just layered flowers cut out from the paper, stickers and gems. The folded flower I did, nothing new there lots of video tutorials on that and it was fun but was also tedious. I liked cutting more than folding. :) Then I added the gems from the MM tray I got from my nook kit.

  

Here's the close up of the pin which I created from my beads collection. I just realized the other night that I have tons of beads that I can actually use to make pins that are for scrapbooking and so I did. I loved how it turned out. :) And I made more just waiting to be put on LO's. :)

 

May we all have a great week ahead of us!!!

Cheers!

Cathy

Honeymoon

Valentine's almost here so over at SC, Pamela designed this sketch that has a heart on it. I had fun with it and tried out new stuff too!

I still have left overs from my January nook kit so I used them here. Fits the theme anyway. These were our pictures from our honeymoon last year. Never really took the time to scrap any of it yet so here it is finally. I drew a heart first on the paper and then cut and distressed it. After that I placed the pink paislee paper underneatch, then placed the photos. But after dong this, I felt something was missing like the heart did not pop as I expect it to be so I looked for a trim that would fit and found one with the ruffles and it was perfect.

I stamped this bird and the embossed it with white poder. I then added the small postage stamp from one of the pink paislee papers.

Close up of the journaling. The scroll is a stamp from Autumn Leaves which was a 2-step stamp so you can actually paint the base color and the outline differently. Love those stamps! I then added some Kaiser pearls on it and liquid pearls around the journaling block.

These are cutouts from the die cut pink paislee papers I've left. I also added Judikins glaze on some of the flowers on the die cuts. Not so visible on this picture but it looks better in person.

The chipboard parenthesis is bare, I painted it brown and then stamped Hero Arts using white Staz On.

Hope you can join us over at SC for more challenges!

Cheers!

Cathy

2 Cards for TSCS

Here are two cards I've made for The Sassy Craft Studio.

This first card is from my Jan Nook Kit also. This is actually the card I gave to DH last weekend for our 1st wedding anniversary. I used scraps left from the LO's I've made. The center paper is embossed using a cuttlebug folder. I used a brayer to spread distress inks onto the folder before I run the paper through the embossing. I liked the effect so much and will do this again soon. :)

This is just one of the postcards in the PP which I cut in shape then I run it through the cuttlebug too but this time, I applied distress ink after it was embossed. I just lightly brushed it on top. Then I applied liquid pearls on the borders.



This was a scrap canvas I have which I have gesso'd in the past. I just tore the sides and inked it and then stamped the greeting. The ribbon was spread with stickles.



The second card is one I finished around the first week of Jan. I simply stamped a background stamp from hero arts and layered the pp from Scenic Route. The theme was Christmas without you so I used the thinking of you clear stamp from Inkadinkado I then heat embossed it with white powder. Attached the pleated ribbon and button. I also cut out the Merry Christmas greeting from websters paper.

Side view...


Now, off to create some more new LO's today. I hope to make two because I have the whole evening by myself today.

Cheers!
Cathy

New Year Luv for TSCS

A layout for The Sassy Craft Studio which I finished earlier this year. It's based on the blog sketch and the theme is new year. So I used the color red and it matched the red shirt of DH. These were some of our pictures this New Year. We had so much fun over at Ate ten's place. :)

Close up...

I applied stickles on the corner near the photo. Also sticked blings onto the sparkle design of the paper.

On the opt left corner, I layered a few ribbons, added half a flower and some rubons.

Materials used: PP - Fancy Pants, MME; CS - BG; Prima flowers, BG buttons, Prima rubons, Stickles, Miscellaneous ribbons, Jillibean Soup and DCWV alpha, Fiskars border punch

Cheers!

Cathy

New Year Blog Hop!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Thanks for hopping by my stop. Heard about the blog hop over at Scrapbook Challenges? What a BIG event to start the year off huh? If you haven't heard of SC, then go ahead and check it out! It is a place to find weekly challenges and sketches that will get your mojo working. And if you join us at the hop you can win awesome prizes. Hop starts at Pamela's blog - she's awesome lots of inspirations there. But If you're already in the hop, you must be coming from Annie's blog.

Well to start it off, I'm one of the proud and new Design Team Member of Scrapbook Challenges! Yipeee! I'm so honored to be a part of this great team. I was surprised when Pamela emailed me because I'm sure there were a lot of applicants and being in the Philippines, I thought that would be a disadvantage but fortunately she picked me ~ CHOSEN me! Yipeee!

So who is me? heehee... I'm Catherine Bautista, I'm currently working as a Performance Management Manager at a BPO company and a part-time Strategic Consultant outside that. I basically do a lot of reports and being a consultant involves planning, executing and measuring performance through Scorecards for small organizations. Sounds boring huh? Well, that's why scrapbooking was invented and that's why I'm so hooked to it! LOL. I'm newly married to my childhood sweetheart Gio. We got married almost a year ago and life had been really good to us so far. We don't have kids yet so most of our time are spent traveling and that means lots of photos to scrap about for me. Lucky me! :)

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved collecting papers and stationaries. You can always find me in a bookstore looking at notebooks criticizing the smoothness of the papers inside and opening stationary sets to check out the printed designs. How I wish I took a picture of my collection, they're a lot and most of my allowance is saved for those! Unfortunately I had to let them go when we transferred from one house to another. It was a hard decision but they're occupying too much space in the house so had to say bye bye to them. That was me in High School through College.

When I started working, I started collecting again. Yes again! I guess it's a sickness LOL. This time I discovered paper punches! It was such an amazing tool for me when my friend and I first saw it. That was about 8 years ago and that started it all. I've been hooked on all scrapbook stuff since then. But I have mostly "hoarded" stuff, asking a friend or two from the US to bring the stuff I bought online. And you can imagine my shock when I found out a year and a half ago that there were actually stores now here in the Philippines who sell 'em and there's actually a yahoo group of Filipina women here! You can imagine my excitement so I immediately joined and got hooked especially when my husband and I moved in together, one whole room is spared for my scrapbooking goodies :). So that's when I actually started "creating" out of all the stuff I've hoarded over the years.

I have to admit I've been obsessed with this hobby especially at the latter half of 2009. I've spent gazillion hours in front of the computer researching for tips and techniques, blog hopping and shopping of course. It was intense so I quickly learned a lot and met friends who helped me love this hobby more. I don't have a signature style as of yet, I don't want to stick to one or two because I love trying out new things. I've bought tons of tools that supports this thirst for new techniques so I tend to challenge my self to use them. My fave would be Tim Holtz and Rangers tools and goods. I just love shabby chic and vintage looking projects. I'm also currently hooked into paper cutting and incorporating fabrics to LOs.

Hope you can join us at Scrapbook Challenges because the team is now bigger and we're offering a lot more activities for all of you this year which means a lot more opportunities to win!

The theme for this blog hop is of course New Years! Time to reflect on what you did on 2009 and also a time to look forward for new possibilities. Here's sketch 179 and the layout I did. I have to admit the sketch is a bit off of my normal layouts but I really enjoyed it.

I used mostly Graphic 45 papers. The scalloped circle is a bare chipboard from boutique which I painted and crackled.

Journaling reads: Of the many adventures I've had for 30 years, this year marks the most significant. I married my childhood love and we traveled a lot to our hearts content! Now I'm ready for the new adventures 2010 brings!

Close up of the crackled chipboard. The butterfly is cut out from GCD paper. I rounded the corners of the paper through folding and also applied crackle paint on the CS.
More close ups...

To highlight the two pictures, I elevated it a bit and rolled the top and bottom section.

Here's the bottom section and the big brown flower is made out of a lace ribbon which I stitched and squeezed into a circle.


So what's in it for you??!?! PRIZES! PRIZES! PRIZES!

For simply leaving comments on all the blog hop participants, you can win this amazing My Little Shoebox goodies!

And this goes to one person who leaves a comment on the blogs in the Hop On section.

Don't you just love Prima goodies! Well we've got two for you. You must join the group this weekend and invite your friends this weekend through the invite link on the group.


LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, if you do the sketch and post your take on the Hop on section of the forum you could win this amazing BG collection! Which includes:

* Origins Collection Pack of 12 x 12 papers
* Origins Stitched Brads
* Origins White Tracery Doilies Paper
* Origins Brown Tracery Doilies Paper
* Origins Chip Sticker Shapes
* Origins Chip Sticker Abcs
* Origins Canvas Tags
* Origins Bloomers
* Origins Buttons


Aren't these just yummy? This is it for my stop now head on over to Deb's blog for another inspiration!

Cheers everyone!

Cathy

Artz de Scrap Sept Desk Calendar Take

The tutorial for this month at Artz de Scrap is a Desk Calendar. I created mine a bit differently from the tutorial because I was in the mood to make ATC cards. The idea began when I thought of the unused playing cards I have left. I used that as the ATC base (I know it's not actually an ATC because of the size but I just want to call it ATC anyway).

The calendar stand was made of an ordinary illustration board which I just scored in to the size I want. I then painted the bottom and the sides with pink Kaiser paint then covered the front and back with patterned papers. I only used one line of PS by the way - Rhonna Farrer AL papers. I think I cut up about 10 patterns. I adhered them to the playing cards and then I played with it.

I did a lot of stamping, masking, resist, crackle, distressing and more! I totally had fun although I had a hard time removing all the inks from my hands after. My non-stick craft sheet is proving to be so worth the cost! Just love it.
I made a total of 14 ATCs. 0-3 for the numbers on the left and 1-0 for the numbers on the right.

The left side of the calendar where the months would be written is actually made of acetate. The box on top is a love notes acetate from MLYB. Since these are acetates, you can actually write on it and erase it later on. I did write 2010 January on the second picture and wrote to do's underneath the month. So you can actually customize this calendar and use and re-use it because the months and year can be written and erased how every many times you wish.


All the numbers used were actually done through masking using Tim Holtz Alpha Masks. Just love 'em all!
Head on over at Artz de Scrap and check out what the other designers have come up with to get your mojo's fired up! :)

Artz de Scrap September Challenge

I cannot believe it's the start of the "ber" months! Time flies so fast when you're busy and having fun I guess. And for the September Challenge at Artz de Scrap, we are altering lanterns!

Here's my take and do check out the rest of the DT's beautiful creations!

I stamped on the vellum and embossed it with black ranger embossing powrders, added 3 sets of flowers around the circle and once the candle is lit, you can still kind of see the big beads at the back.


Please join us and crate your own unique lanterns too! :)

Altered toilet paper tube for Artz de Scrap

For this project I was contemplating on creating something different. I researched online and saw a lot of altered project for this which made it more difficult but when I saw the pearl bracelet on my desk I immediately thought of a jewelry box or holder of some sort which will also be a great gift box. So I went ahead and got started.
I cut about 1/3 of the tube from both ends and wrapped paper on it. I cut the other tube in half and cut about ¼” to they can sit on top of each ot her. I adhered them to a square chipboard which I painted black (that was the hardest part by the way – I used UHU glue and was trying very hard for the glue not to show on the painted surface and to make sure that it holds really well). I also stamped and embossed an image at the bottom of the painted chipboard so even if the box has no content, you’d still see a sort of bling (it’s embossed in silver) at the bottom.

For the design on top, I happen to find this gorgeous flower in my stack and when I added stickles to it, it looked amazing (or so I thought J). Added ribbon at the bottom and voila! (sorry but for some reason the pictures doesn't want to rotate).

I also added bling and ribbon on the outer portion of the box.

Go ahead and visit http://artzdescrap.blogspot.com/ to check out the fantastic creation of our DT! :)

Artz de Scrap August Tutorial Challenge

Just finished my take on the Artz de Scrap august challenge. The challenge is to make something out of a tissue roll. Here's a sneak peak...

Do visit Artz de Scrap on the 15th for the takes of the DT's and get your hands workin'! :)

ADS August Challenge

The challenge for this month is to alter playing cards with the theme childhood in mind.
After contemplating for more than 2 weeks, I finally decided to create a toy. I was initially thinking of just creating ATC's but decided that's not so childhoody :).

So, I created this toy drum. It's the same as the drum used in the Karate Kid movie which his instructor plays when he is losing. :)
Had fun doing this although it was a bit hard because I had several trials that didn't go well because of my inaccurate measurements hehe...

Here are the pics!




Check them out at http://artzdescrap.blogspot.com/ and join the fun to get a RAK from our sponsors!