Excited!!!

DH and I just got home. My work ended at 1pm and his seminar (Discovery Suites - Ortigas) was until 6pm so I've got lots of time to kill. I went to Glitz - it's this new spa in our office building. I had a foot spa - didn't enjoy it as much as Gloss (which was just nearby too). Oh well... but I had a quick power nap during the service so it gave me enough strength to last until tonight.

I went to Megamall after and guess where I spent more than an hour? Carolina's (it's this fabric and craft storey with lots and lots of trims and ribbons)! Yes so you can imagine the # of ribbons I bought. Guilty as charged. The thing is, I seldom get a chance to go Megamall so when I get there, I always end up buying a lot of ribbons. Well, I had fun and I can't wait to organize and pack those ribbons. I think I bought around 50 kinds. Yeah I know that's a lot but I couldn't resist.
So I lost track of time so I went to The Podium and ate crepe at Cafe Breton which was right in front of Discovery Suites. I just rested there and waited 'til DH arrived, then we just had dinner at Rack's.

And by the way, this Sunday is our first wedding anniversary so we're going out of town. So happy, couldn't believe it's been a year! We're heading to Talisay Batangas to a place called Club Balai Isabel which is beside or very near the Taal Lake. When we saw the pictures, we just couldn't resist! We're booked for Sunday through Monday. And we're also having lunch at this famous Fire Lake Grill on Monday before we head home. We're both so excited!!!



Goodnight & Cheers!
Cathy

New Traditions

Like I said, been SO productive this week hence here's another layout I finished the other day. The sketch is from Scrap the Girls. And this is my first ever layout using purple! I have a few purple papers but have never really tried them until now and I think I like it. :) The touch of yello and aqua I think made it look good. This year's lucky color according to my sis in law is yellow so most of them were wearing yellow that night and that complimented the purple perfectly!

I had fun doing this page, kinda went freestyle. Whatever comes to mind kinda thing. After I finished sticking everything, that's when I thought of splattering paint on the page so I had to cover the area that was already done heehee... I also just drew the corners of the biggest rectangle and created a flower from patterned paper. So all in all, I just let go and played with what my hands could get on. Loved the results - wish I could do this all the time and not be afraid of making mistakes. :)

These pictures were taken last new year's eve. We started a new tradition we'd like to keep this year and that's doing exchange gifts and playing Bingo while waiting for the clock to hit midnight! We had an awesome time and these girls are - Camille (Niece) and Catherine (Sis in law).

Close up of the flower and the purple flower bling (Basic Grey)...

Close up of the rub-on and flower...

Close up of the flower I cut out and layered from patterned paper...

Materials:

CS: American Crafts; PP: K&Co embossed paper, Little yellow bycicle, Creative Imagination; Prima flowers and rubon, AC Thickers, BG Bling it, Kaiser and HS gems, Kaiser paint, opaque pen, distress ink, trim.

So Happy!

Cheers!

Cathy

Sick Silly Face

I've been very productive lately, my mojo's in full swing. So here's a layout I managed to finish the other day. This is based on the sketch created by Pamela over at Scrapbook Challenges. The pictures were taken last January 1 at Tagaytay. DH was really sick that day and the cold weather over there made it worse. That's why he's wearing a scarf over a jacket! I brought the scraf coz I know how cold it can be up there. I say better safe than sorry! I misted the sides of the white CS to give it a a bit of distress look.

It has been one of our family tradition to drive up there evey new year for dinner and since we don't want to miss the tradition, DH insisted we go though he wasn't feeling well already. And despite his sore muscles and bad cough, he managed to pose and be silly. I highlighted it using a round chipboard which I crackled.

This is a bare chipboard which I misted with Maya Road Metallic Cherry and applied stickles around it. The circle at the center is also a chipboard which I crackled and stamped.

CS: American Crafts; PP: Sassafrass, Little Yellow Bycicle, Provocraft border strip, Inque board, Maya road mist, Stickles, Ranger Crackle paint, Fiskars border punch, MM journaling paper, Pink Paislee Alpha

Hope you're having a great day!

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

Enjoy the Journey

Here's a layout I've made for a challenge I'm hosting over at Scrapbooking Challenges. This is inspired by the work of one of my idols - Iris Babao Uy. I've cut designs from different webster's pages and combined them. I've also cut out the butteflies from a GCD paper that's full of butterflies and lots of ribbons. I had so much fun doing this LO.

Journaling reads: This year I became your wife, nearly a mom, we've travelled here and there. We were off to a not so great start this year but I'm so glad it ended really well. I love our life...

Papers: Websters Postcards from Paris and Natures' Storybook, GCD Artsy Urban CS: Basic Grey, Prima Ribbon and flower, Tim Holtz ticket, Martha Stewart border punch, MYLB circle transparency, Judikins diamond glaze, Stickles, MM glitter alpha, MM travel rubon, TH distress inks and miscellaneous ribbons, flower centers and tiny brads.


Here's a close up of the ribbon work on top...

Cut out from the Nature's storybook paper. I've also added diamond glaze on some of the petals of the flowers and leaves.

More cutouts... The bird and the flower at the bottom of the picture is part of the background paper and I cut it with an x acto knife and tucked the picture there.

These small blue flowers were from another paper also and I used foam tape to attach it to the page for a 3D look.

Close up of the bird and the leaves...

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!

Cathy

Bella Blvd Lines

Whew! What a blog hop that was last weekend. We totally had fun over at SC. The forums are so alive, lots of chattin' and so many great page layouts were uploaded just this weekend! Thanks to everyone who participated! My blog had never reached that many hits and comments since its conception! hehehe....

Okay, on to a recent layout I finished. I was looking for a paper that would match the pictures I want to scrap and I was looking through my new arrivals when I found the Bella Blvd Camped Out journaling die cuts which was perfect for our camping trip pictures! And since that's Bella, I decided to look at my old stash and found that I still have some Swing Springs left which perfectly coordinated with the color of my dress in the picture. So I decided to use them.

Then I went ahead and looked for a sketch that would fit and found this nice sketch from Inspired Blueprints (Sketch 39).


So here's my finished LO.

I used AC Cardstock, Bella PPS and die cuts, Fiskars border punch, butterfly punch, MR mist, bling and distress inks.

Close up of the die cuts cluster. I made the flower by fringing 3/4 of a 2" paper about 8 inches in length. I then rolled it after fringing and flattened the center and I topped the jewel brad and inked the edges.


Close up of one of the camped out die cuts that I intricately cut. It's too small so I was super careful in cutting.

More die cuts and the butterfly punch which I misted using MR Cherry Metallic and topped with bling.


Finished this yesterday, DH was sick monday and tuesday so I had to take care of him but he's feeling better now.

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