Two For The Night

It's October Afternoon time again. Made two layouts for the night. Just sharing...




I'm really trying to get most of my DT commitments done so I can enjoy the holidays. It's almost Christmas!! Yippeee!! Hope everyone has a Merry Merry Christmas!!

Scraplovers December Sponsor: Cosmo Cricket Be Good

I managed to finish three layouts for Scraplovers tonight. The sponsor for this month is Cosmo Cricket featuring "Be Good". Here is a picture I took of Nicole during our recent trip to Disneyland. Here she was telling Mr. Snowman to "SMILE"! :)


This one is of me and Nicole also at Disney... she is sleepy here...


Here is another one of Nicole and her dad at Ocean Park

Fun Fun Fun!!

It's been a while since I have posted here. And I have not been able to visit other blogs too. That's because we just got home from a family vacation and I had to double up on work before leaving for our vacation. Now that I'm back, I have over 800 unopened emails in my inbox, about 14 layouts to finish before the year ends, projects to post, and 2 more events to finish. Yikes.

I probably won't be able to get back to normal till the end of the year so I really appologize for my absence in the forums, egroups, and blogs.

Anyway, just want to share with you a picture from our trip to Hongkong Disneyland.


Iris

Natural Beauty

I made this layout for a friend I found through this wonderful hobby. I made it using the December kit of Badgirls.



Journaling hidden under photo:
It is amazing how this craft and the internet can bring together two people who live in different corners of the world.


It is amazing to know that true friendship can be found in places you would never think of.

It is amazing how one simple act of kindness from a person could bring courage and inspiration to another.

Alicia you have been an amazing miracle in my life. You gave me a gift of an "angel charm" and at the same time have given me the gift of courage and acceptance. You have been a friend even though we have not yet touched each other's hand. You have lifted me up and encouraged me at times of doubt even though I have not proven myself to you yet. For all these things I am grateful... grateful to have known you ... grateful to have the privelege to call you my friend.

You are a natural beauty... an angel on earth.

A New Challenge at Scrappinkids

I am honored to be the guest designer at Scrappinkids for December. The challenge this month is to do a layout of your little one with their name as a title.

I have posted this earlier but this is actually the layout I made for the challenge.


Please do try their challenges. It is a great site! Check it out here:
SCRAPPINKIDS

Cover Girls... Finally!!

It has been my mother's life long dream to see my face in a magazine. Well that never happened during my youth, but it has now that I'm in my 30's!! LOL! I can now finally share this layout of me and Nicole which landed on the cover of Memory Makers Magazine January Issue.

The reason for this post is to share with you guys that an "unknown" can actually get on the cover of a major scrapbooking magazine. I started sending layouts to MMM last year and it took several months for me to get their attention. After a few pages in the reader's gallery, they wrote me to try and submit a layout for consideration for the cover. They wrote to several scrappers and I really thought I had no chance. But I still made a couple of layouts. The second one was for the same call but they needed a simple layout. All of these happened even before I sent in my entries for the Master's Contest. So what I'm saying is, to those who want to get published, just keep sending your layouts. Your call-back may take just a few days to several months but just keep sending them. MMM is always looking for new artists and they will definitely look at your submissions.

Here is the other layout that did not get picked...

To give or not to give...

Here is a layout I made of Nicole from the trick or treat last October. She loved the activity so much! I was tired and ready to quit from the long walk but I never heard her complain not even once. The candies you see here are only a fraction of what she got. I would regularly transfer her loot from her basket to an extra one I carried so that the load would not be too heavy for her.

Loving The Slant

I am loving the slanted placement of pictures and no matter how I tried to straighten the placement of these pics, I keep slanting them again! So I just decided to go along with it. I guess that's because I did this page immediately after doing the boy page I posted below. Here are some more October Afternoon goodies.

A Boy Page!!

Yes!!! I made a boy page!! This is my second one and I had a really tough time staying away from flowers. It's so hard when you are used to doing girly pages and you are used to grabbing embellishments for girly pages. But I liked how this one turned out mainly because this is a layout for my nephew who my daughter adores so much.

Now I know that even if I do boy pages I will still use cut-outs and fabric or fiber of some sort. I made this layout using October Afternoon Products with the exception of the buttons and the felt which is Fancy Pants.

Another Scrapper Friendly Photographer ...

I made this layout using Luxe Designs for the November upload at Scraplovers. This photo was taken by .... LUMENG LIM!!! Yup, we have another photographer for our scrapbook community in Manila. This guy really has talent. His wife April who is also a talented scrapbook designer made pages using photos taken by Meng from a cellphone camera! And those layouts won awards! So you can just imagine the quality of her work now that she has pictures taken from a DSLR.

I'm so happy to have friends who are kind enough to take pictures of me with my family and Nicole. Cause if not, I would not have pictures with myself in them! Thanks guys!



Materials: Luxe Designs Paper, Luxe Rub-ons (Circle rub-ons used to create the circle patterns, Luxe Swirly Overlay, Hambly Overlay (brick), Fancy Pants Felt, Love Elsie chipboard buttons, Urban Lily rub-ons (flowers), American Crafts Thickers, Stickles

October Beauty

October has been a fun month for me. I just got my 1st box of goodies from October Afternoon last October 30! :) What a coincidence huh. Here is a picture but this does not do the product justice. I love the stamps (there were about 10 clear acrylic stamps) and the papers and rub-ons are so beautiful and bountiful!

Ok I have a treat for one member from my scrapbook community in Manila. Sorry guys, international shipping costs a lot! I will email the group who the winner is. I won't post the rules. I'll just tell you later on how I picked the lucky winner. Watch out for it :)

La Voliere

La Voliere... I don't know what that means so please don't ask me! LOL! But that is the kit's name for the November kit in Badgirls and I thought it really sounded fancy so I used that as the title of my post :)

Anyway, here are a couple of my favorite layouts. This was the best kit I ever worked on so far. It is just loaded with so many goodies. I just want to share these with you.

"Reluctant Model" - Photo by Jeff Lopez
"A Girl's Best Friend" - a dog? well a balloon shaped like a dog actually :)

Please visit the site to view the layouts created by the design team. And take a look at the kits too! If you have not signed up yet, you may want to do so now. It's all sold out but you can sign up. Wendy will be adding subs soon.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

A few pics and sneak peeks

My three year old went trick or treating today. She was dressed as a princess and she had so much fun collecting candies.


Nicole loves to sit in this swing which is just right beside our house. But today, she just can't get the courage to sit there with our neighbor. Poor baby...


And here are some sneak peeks from the November kit of Badgirls. This is the best kit I have worked on so far. I finished three layouts and one project and I still have so much goodies left!

An Honor...

Some time early August, I received an email from Suz Doyle asking if she could include a few of my BG layouts in their blog. I said yes immediately. I knew then that the site featured some really inspiring layouts and it was an honor to be included there. The post is now up and I am just so honored at what they wrote about my layouts. I can hardly believe my layouts are featured in the same space as Nic Howard, Jaimie Emerton, and all the other designers in the site.

Here is a link to their site.
Ausie Scrap Source

WHOA!!

I woke up early this morning to get some work done. Then I took a quick nap. After thirty minutes I went to my scrap area and saw another box from Fiskars sitting there waiting for me! It was even bigger than the first one they sent! It was loaded with Heidi Grace and Cloud 9 papers and embelishments. There were several chipboard albums in boxes perfect as presents. There were also Fiskars tools. I was so happy to see the squeeze punch cause that was on my list of things to buy. I was actually saving up for it. There was also this cute craft knife that fits into your finger perfectly. So when you cut, it's like your finger is tracing the lines and you are actually cutting the patterns already. Cool invention!! Fiskars has the best cutting tools for me. Thank you so much Fiskars!

Dude Designs at Scraplovers

Hey Dude! Dude Designs are pretty cool. Well this particular line is not actually the kind I would pick cause it was a school line. I'm usually drawn to papers that have a shabby chic look. This one had bold modern patterns so I was just staring at the papers for about half an hour. Another half hour was devoted to having the papers cut and shaped and turned around in the page. LOL! Finally I knew I had to start adhering the pps otherwise I would have nothing by the end of three hours. So here they are - Dude Designs for the Scraplovers October upload. Do check the site for the layouts of my co-designers.


I love this layout of Nicole. I'm still into my "scrapping not so perfect pictures" mode. This shows Nicole playing with the scrap stuff. Yup, the blocks at the lower corner are my stamps, and that thing on top of her head is my tape! She placed it on her head as if it were a crown, then she nodded her head to make it drop. A lesson in gravity for my little one.


This one is not my usual style. I don't do graphic layouts cause I'm so poor with straight lines (cause they almost always end up crooked). But this seemed to work well with the papers. It's nice to work with different papers cause I'm forced to adapt to the style of the paper and I end up with LOs that are different from my usual ones.

A few photos

I'm using a different computer tonight to upload some photos from the scrapfest. Something is seriously wrong with my new desktop and the fact that it is new and not working properly is what's so irritating. I miss blog hopping already. I hope to visit some blogs tonight.

Anyway here are some pictures from the previous scrapfest.

Scrapfest 4 was a BLAST!!

I am still overwhelmed whenever I take a look at the pictures from the previous scrapfest. I am amazed at how our community of scrappers have grown, and I am so impressed at the skill and creativity of the Filipina Scrapper. April, Liza, Joanne, Sienna, Ria, Pia did a great job in organizing the event. Our friends Kitkat, Mia, Maybs, Phylline, and Cabbie also helped with the preparations. The scrapfest would not have been as organized without their help. A scrapbook event that successful would not have been possible if it was put together for a purpose other than to promote the craft and the Filipino scrapper. I salute these ladies for their love of the craft and for their dreams for our community.

On a sad note, this will be the last scrapfest where we will have our friend Joanne Yap with us. She will be leaving for Australia soon. She has been very instrumental in the growth of our community and has been a constant source of strength for many scrappers. She will be missed.

Lastly, to all the winners in the challenge and our 1st ever Scrapfest Idol, Cabbie Lopez - congratulations!!! A well deserved win to everyone!

My blog has not been working the way it used to. I can't seem to post pictures now and I have a hard time visiting other blogs too. Hope to get this fixed soon. I will post pictures soon.

Scrapping Not So Perfect Photos

Sometimes, in our desire to create a layout with a really good design, we focus on scrapping our best photos. You know, the ones that has good lighting, a beautiful setting, no distractions in the background etc etc. But then, we became scrappers because we wanted to preserve memories right? So even our not so perfect photos are part of our memories. Over the past few months, I have been making pages for design teams, manufacturers, magazine submissions, and I have noticed that my LOs were not of my everyday moments which I want to remember for life. So with this in mind, I decided to scrap my "not so perfect" pictures. This LO has a lot of pictures of my daughter Nicole playing with her bike in a small area outside our house. But when I shot this, I forgot to change my lens. I was stuck with a fixed lens that was good for close-ups. I could not move far enough away from her to get all of her in the frame because that part of our house was small. So to get more of her in the frame, I had to tilt my camera to an angle. And to add to that, Nicole also tilted her head too far off to the side resulting in pictures that would make the viewer tilt too!! LOL! Then there was the distracting background. But when I look at these photos, I am warmed by that sweet smile of hers. And that way she tilted her head really made me smile. So even if my photos are far from perfect - they deserve to be scrapped.

Materials: Papers: Cherry Arte, Deja Views, Junkitz, Autumn Leaves, Bazzil & DCWV Cardstock; Bling, flower, & Photo corners: Prima; Chipboard Letters and Words: MAMBI; Puffy Paint: Duncan; Glitter Dimensional Liquid: Stickles; Pen: American Crafts

Have a great weekend!!

Iris

Birthday Bash at Scraplovers!!

Come on over at the Scraplovers Birthday Bash Crop and join the challenges for some fun and cool prizes!!!

I Dream of PRIMA!

I am so honored to be a guest designer for October at Prima. I have always loved their products and I have always dreamed to be on their design team - unfortunately, the DT post is not open to international residents so this is as far as I can get. But it is such an honor and I am so thankful for this opportunity. Just wanted to share with you one of the layouts I created for them. I love this picture of Nicole and I found the perfect match for it in the felt flowers.

SCRAPFEST 4!

It's almost time for Scrapfest 4! I'm so excited about this event. And for the first time, I don't have an event on that day!! So I can really enjoy myself this time. I'm into events, so most of the time, my work is scheduled at the same dates as that of scrapbooking events. The Scrapfest will be this coming Saturday already. You can find the details of the event here.

http://www.scrappinmoms.net/scrapfest4/

The October Kit at Badgirls

I loved working with the October kit of Badgirls. I received my kit pretty early this time but I still scrapped night after night working on the LOs and the project cause the kit was so gorgeous!

We just uploaded our LOs, so I'm replacing the sneak peaks with my favorite layout from the kit.

Prima Goodness

I just received a box full of goodies from Prima Marketing! It was loaded with flowers, Say it With Jewels, Rub-ons, a gorgeous journaling notebook, lots of papers, and even the Prima Paintables! I'm excited to play with these beauties. Thank you so much to Tammi and the whole team of Prima Marketing for their generosity.

American Crafts at Scraplovers

We worked on the Metropolitan Line of American Crafts for the Scraplovers upload. Here is one of the layouts I made for the reveal. I love this photo of Nicole. She loves dogs but her grandma won't have any in the house because of Nicole's allegries. So now, Nicole has to content herself with toy dogs:)

Scrapbukan is Turning 3!

This is going to be one FUN event!! We hope to see you all there. There will be a minimal entrance fee of P150. Kindly email Sahrie Wenceslao to sign up: sahrie@scrapbukan.com

See you on the 22nd!!!

Concept and Design by Jeff Lopez

Looking forward to sweet OCTOBER AFTERNOONS...

October Afternoon is a new company that just debuted at CHA. They have gorgeous stamps, rub-ons, and paper. They have stuff which I would love to use in my pages. Plus the extremely talented Michelle Guray is designing for them. So when I saw that there was a DT call, I really made it a point to apply and I have been lurking in the pub forum of Two Peas to check if there was any news. Call day came and I got no call. Toots have been posted - and still no call. And then I opened my email September 6 in the afternoon not expecting anything (cause I usually receive international emails in the early morning due to the time difference) and saw this...

Hi Iris,

I am writing to welcome you to the October Afternoon Design Team! :D

We are contacting our international members last (only because I had
to figure out the time zone differences and arrange a time to place
the calls). But then, I don't seem to have your phone number. :)

We absolutely *love* your work! I am so happy to have you on our
team! We will post the entire DT list on our website once we hear
back from you and one other international member. In the meantime,
you do *not* have to keep this a secret! Please feel free to tell
anyone that you like!

Welcome to October Afternoon!

Kim :D

WOW!! I was shrieking all over again. My family has gotten used to that by now. I'm so excited!! This is my first manufacturer DT. I have been having a lot of "firsts" in the scrapping industry lately and I am just so thankful to the Lord for blessing me this way. I just love this craft so much and this really means a lot to me.

I can't wait to get to know the other designers who are all so talented and accomplished. Wow, still can't believe it.

Collage Press at Scrapbukan

I love Collage Press. If you have not tried playing with the Seeds line, I think you should. The colors are rich and the patterns so beautiful. Here is one of the LOs I created for Scrapbukan. Please visit the site to see the creations of my co-designers Ria and Pia.

Oh by the way, our picture was taken by my good friend and co-designer Pia Lopez!

Badgirlskits Reveal

This assignment was probably the toughest I have had in a long time. I love the kit of badgirls and the products are soooo beautiful. However, our post office seems to be having some issues in delivering parcels. My kit was sent air priority and was supposed to have been delivered to me in 10 days max. But what happened was, I got the kit in 18 days!!! Too late already for the upload in the Badgirls gallery. Just to finish all three LOs and the project at the soonest possible time, I scrapped straight for SIX HOURS! No rest, and just a light snack. After that I did not want to look at my supplies.:) But that lasted only for a couple of hours. I'm back to dreaming about the next products I'm gonna play with :)

Here is one of the LOs I made. Please visit the Badgirls site to view all the layouts created by the design team.

HAPPINESS TIMES 5!!

I came home today to FIVE BIG BOXES filled with scrapbook goodies from the sponsors of the Memory Makers Master 2008 Contest. I was so happy! I could hardly believe all the stuff that was coming out of the box. Our dining room table was not even enough to hold the prizes. The rest were placed in the sofa.

There is obviosly more than I can use here so I will sort through the stuff, separate the duplicate items and those which I have already and I'll raffle it off as a RAK. Just give me some time to organize it. :)

I'm happy and so is Nicole!! She had a grand time pretending that the box was a boat. :)
Here is a list of the sponsors who gave the products: ACDSee, AlphaAddict, American Crafts, Around The Block, Chartpak, CherryArte, C-Line Products, Classy Coordinates, ClubScrap, Corel, Creative Imaginations, C-Thru Ruler/Deja Views, DCWV, Distincly Me, EK success, Ellison, FJ Wescott, Fuji, Grafix, Helmar Australia, HOTP, Ilford, KS Innovations, Laser Studio Werx, Little Red Scrapbook, Magic Mesh, Making Memories, MAMBI, Memory Maker Photo Jewelry & Accessories, Meri Meri, My Little Shoe Box, Pageframes Designs, Pebbles, Per Annum, Pioneer Photo Albums, PreserveIt Frames, Prima, Prism Papers, Queen & Co, Ranger Industries, Sandylion, ScrapGoods, ScrapJammies, Spanish Memories, Stemma, Three Bugs in a Rug, Thumbprintz, Urban Lily, USArtQuest, VoiceQuilt, Xyron and Zsiage.

Thank you soooo much to all the sponsors and to Memory Makers.

TOP DESIGNER CONTEST AT BADGIRLSKITS

Here is an invitation from Wendy Rago for you to join "TOP DESIGNER"!

WEll...here it is...the moment we have been waiting for....Badgirlskits is launching a HUGE contest at and we want you to be a part of it!!!! Get ready to have lots of fun and compete for this prize package valued at over $800.00!!!!!!!!!!!! I tell ya...this package is LOADED!!!! I wish the picture did it justice, but it was just SO MUCH STUFF that I could hardly get all of it in the photo...so much of it is buried!!!! One lucky person will have a HUGE BOX delivered to their doorstep and I ummm.....think this stash will keep you busy for quite a while!

Please visit the BAD GIRL SITE, and register on the MESSAGE BOARD....there will be an intoduction to the "TOP DESIGNER" contest along with the CLASS RULES! I can't wait to see you there!

I would like to take a few moments to thanks our wonderful Sponsors!!!! They are just FAB and have some of the best scrappy goodies in the industry!!! Please visit their sites and see all of the new and gorgeous products that they have to offer!!! Give it up for 7 GYPSIES, DAISY D'S, MAYA ROAD, HAMBLY SCREEN PRINTS, and MY MINDS EYE!!!!!!

Wendy

I Got My "CALL"!

I have been waiting and waiting, dreaming, hoping, praying, loosing hope, hoping again... checking the boards, checking my email...This was during the looongest weekend of my life! I entered the Memory Maker's Masters for the first time not really hoping to win but to at least be able to tell myself that I tried. But as the day of the scheduled announcement camer nearer, I realized that I really wanted this so much!

The Memory Maker's Magazine was my first source of inspiration when I was starting scrapbooking and it was my dream to bear the title of MM "Master" one day.

On the night I got the call I was actually away from home. I called my Dad (yet again) to check if I got any calls and my Dad said - yes there was an overseas call for you!! So you can just imagine how frantic I was and I wanted to rush home at that time. I checked my mail, and there it was - a message from Patty!! In her email she was asking "are you there? I know there is a big time difference". So I emailed her back (and my internet connection was going crazy at this time) asking her : "Patty is this what I have been hoping and praying for? If you can,please call me at ...." And.. after a few minutes I received my "CALL" from none other than Patty Craft. She asked me if I was the one on the line and proceeded to tell me " I am calling to tell you that you have been selected as one of the 2008 Memory Makers Masters"! Wow!! I could not believe it! I was shaking! She was soooo nice! And then she told me, ok now I have to ask you this question "Do you accept the position of being one of the 2008 Memory Makers Masters?" I tell you, this was even more exciting than my husband's marriage proposal (shhh!) LOL! And I said: "YES! A thousand times YES".

Right now I am still in cloud nine. I am just so happy, thankful, and honored to have been given this opportunity. I still can't believe that I am deserving of this title - I really am not! I'm not a master of scrapbooking. But I do love this craft so much and it is a part of my life. I will just enjoy the year ahead and try my best to be worthy of the title. The previous masters said it was gonna be a wild and fun ride! I can't wait to begin the journey.

Basic Grey Infuse at Scrapbukan

I love how this layout turned out. This is the new line of Basic Grey - Infuse. Please visit the site to see the other layouts created by my co-designers Ria and Pia.

Piggy Tales Reveal at Scraplovers

The sponsor for the August 20 reveal is Piggy Tales. This was the first time for me to work on Piggy Tales and is was difficult for me not being able to find patterns to cut up! LOL! But the colors were so pretty and I really liked how this one turned out.

Tagged Again! Times Two!

Hi! Christine and Mia tagged me. Thanks Gals. Now I know this will be going around for some time, so I'm tagging: Joanne, Mia Castrillo, Donna, Cabbie, and Lee. With BOTH tags girls :)

BAD GIRL PATROL

Hey, we have one more reason to love FRIDAY! Starting this month, every Friday will be known as BAD GIRL PATROL. If you get caught with your Blinkie on you will be sent a RAK!!! You never know where the BAD GIRLS will be on PATROL! If one of the BAD GIRL DESIGNERS catches you, you will be notified and sent a special RAK!

Each one of us will be assigned a Friday where we will search for a girl with a blinkie in her siggy (two peas etc. and other sites that allow it) or on her blog. The girl found with the blinkie will be sent a special RAK.

My patrol starts soon so go grab your blinkes now.

Have FUN!