new toys to play with...

I swear I'm starting to run out of room in my scraproom...
Got 2 new toys this week first a Bind It All! Can't wait to use it on my first mini book! It looks pretty daunting, but hopefully I'll have time to play with it soon!


And you're looking at my Mother's Day present from Carl... Finally! I can't wait to use it! It's still sitting in the box! :)

25

Tagged by Laurie so here goes...

1. If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be? Venice, Italy or somewhere in Hawaii, preferably Maui. :)
2.What's your favorite article of clothing? shoes - no matter how much you gain weight, shoes will always look cute!
3.Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex? smile
4.What's the last CD that you bought? wow, I can't remember... I think it was Michael Buble's latest album
5.Where's your favorite place to be? Hawaii
6. Where is your least favorite place to be? doctor's office...particularly ob/gyn
7.What's your favorite place to be massaged? feet
8.Strong in mind or strong in body? mind
9.What time do you wake up in the morning? lately between 7 and 8am
10. What is your favorite kitchen appliance? toaster oven
11.What makes you really angry? know-it-alls
12.If you could play any instrument, what would it be? drums
13. Favorite color? red
14.Which do you prefer...sports car or SUV? SUV
15. Do you believe in an afterlife? Yup. Heaven.
16.Favorite children's book? Guess How Much I Love You
17. What is your favorite season? Summer
18. Your least favorite household chore? Cleaning the bathroom
19.If you could have one super power, what would it be? flying.
20.If you have a tattoo, what is it? no tattoos
21.Can you juggle? Nope
22. The one person from your past that you wish you could go back and talk to? hmmm... grandparents? I never knew any of them.
23. What's your favorite day? FRIDAY!!!
24. What's in the trunk of your car? usually a flat of bottled waters, Jonah's stroller
25. Which do you prefer, sushi or hamburger? tough one... burgers I guess but I'm craving sushi right now!

Ok, I've already tortured some of you with my tag from last week... So I won't do it again... I'll tag EVERYONE who reads this - take THAT! :)

E is for Extreme. :)

I'm super behind with my Journal Me This class... I think they're on Prompt 8 (H) but I only got up to letter D... To get our butts moving they're going to have a drawing amongst those who have finished the first 5 prompts. So of course, this gets me motivated again...

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill, DCWV; patterned paper: Heidi Grace; cardstock stickers: American Crafts; journaling stamp: Autumn Leaves; pen: Sharpie; stamping ink: ColorBox; epoxy circles (KI Memories), other: ric rac ribbon (unknown), staples (office supply), circle punch (EK Success)

And here's a card:

awesome little book...

Yesterday my SIL and I were supposed to take a class at Suzy's. A cute little mini book class taught by the fabulous Michelle Tornay. :)

Unfortunately, my hubby had to work mandatory overtime on Friday night, so he ended up working 16 hours and came home around 1pm. The class was at 3pm and although he insisted that we go and he would watch the baby, he did look awfully sad and pathetic when I tried waking him up.

So instead Claire and I packed up Jonah and we went for a drive to pick up the kits instead and worked on them last night.

SO MUCH FUN! It was Claire's first time doing anything scrappy and she was really impressed with herself. I think I've created a monster! *lol*

7 things about me...

I was tagged by Tera so here goes:

7 random facts/habits about me...

1. Sidewalk grates give me the creeps. I find myself jumping over them, walking around them, and avoiding them completely. There's just something scary about being able to see further than where you feet and body are. Ugh. Scary.






2. When I was 4 my parents enrolled me in a gymnastics class. I remember liking the tumbling part... But I also remember them making me hang from the parallel bars and swing. I said no way and quit soon after.

Needless to say, I quit tap and ballet the same week. I was a shy kid.

I do regret it though!


3. I'm Filipina but I was born and raised her in the U.S. I don't speak Tagalog, but I understand most of it. BUT for some reason I have a harder time understanding my in laws than I do my own parents. It's really weird...



4. I hate when my cereal gets soggy so I eat it really fast - that means no talking or anything.

My favorite has always been Cheerios - plain...

And I don't like cereals that make my milk taste weird. Gross.





5. I can't swim. I wish I could but I can't. I went to private school growing up and swimming wasn't part of the curriculum...

Such a shame too because my hubby loves to scuba and snorkel and I'm afraid to do both.




6. I'm a pretty good navigator. I love looking at maps. Give me a map and I can get you anywhere. :)






7. I met my husband in high school... This is our first picture together at our Senior Prom in 1995. We started dating shortly afterward and have been together ever since. :)

We celebrate our 12 year dating anniversary in June.

We've been married since 2004. :)






Whew that was tiring! *lol*

So now I have to tag 7 people... Here goes:

Rinne
Laurie
Emine
Cynthia
J Lizzie
Bonnie
Suzy

The rules:
Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things,
as well as these rules.

brought to you by the letters C and D...

Here are a couple more layouts for my Journal Me This class...

I'm finding that I'm really motivated to get pages done when I have deadlines. And since the prompts get sent out every other day, I don't want to fall too far behind or I'll NEVER catch up. :)

Can you believe I haven't scrapbooked my wedding pictures? Furthermore, can you believe it's been almost 3 years since we've been married and we haven't ordered our album from the photographer yet? Eek. I know. I'm crazy. But with over 1200 pictures to choose from and I only get to pick 100 pictures it gets overwhelming. Anyway, here's a layout of one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day...

supplies: cardstock, patterned paper: Crate Paper; rub-on: Making Memories; die cut letters: Cricut ("Base Camp" font cartridge); silk flowers: Heidi Swapp (large), Bazzill (small); brads: American Crafts; white pen: Sharpie; stamping ink: ColorBox; other: phototurns (source unknown)

One of my recent favorite layouts...

supplies: patterned paper: Creative Imaginations, Cosmo Cricket; chipboard stickers: Heidi Swapp for Advantus ("joy of"), American Crafts ("discovery"); pen: American Crafts; corner punch: EK Success

journaling reads: "It wasn't until you were about 3 months old when you discovered your thumb. We weren't even sure it was going to happen - you were already content sucking your closed fists! Imagine our suprise when we first witnessed you sucking away at your thumb! We had tried to distract you with "binkies," thinking that those would be easier to take away from you when the time comes... But you were still smart enough to discover your thumb... pure JOY..."

Hope everyone is having a great week! Jonah is asleep for his nap in his crib (THE FIRST TIME!) so I'm pretty giddy today. :)

go big...

For the second prompt for my Journal Me This class... letter B... I chose "Big"... And also for the challenge at One Little Word... :) Kill two birds with one stone, right?

I LOVE Ali Edwards... And I love how she sometimes uses big photos on her layouts. I ordered a bunch from ScrapbookPictures.com and I love how they give my layouts variety. No longer the ho hum of 4x6s or 5x7s... I'm goin' BIG baby! :)

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill, Prism; paper frill: Doodlebug Designs; patterned paper: Scenic Route Paper Co.; die cut letters: Cricut "Base Camp; brad: American Crafts; circle cutter: Coluzzle; silk flower: Bazzill; rub-on: 7gypsies; computer font: P22 Garamouche, downloaded from the internet

journaling reads: "We love to travel. So when Carl's parents gave us such an AWESOME gift of a honeymoon in Italy, how could we not enjoy ourselves? When it comes to a well deserved vacation, no matter what...we go BIG. - San Gimignano, Italy October 16, 2004"

homage to Trader Joe's...

1. Shopping in Carson City, 2. Sign Trader Joe's, 3. Trader Joe's, 4. Nine Am at TJ's, 5. look at what julie got me! ::squeals::, 6. Crepes with lemon curd, 7. My new friends, 8. Steaming a tuna steak, 9. Trader Joes find. This is good., 10. Don't Cry, 11. Another TJ's sign with a cute robot, 12. Mmmm....Trader Joe's, 13. Christian enjoys dinner, 14. Oh...and wine too., 15. $1.99, 16. Griiffith Park - Cat Cookies, 17. Lunch - 051207, 18. The Last Stand, 19. Not Residential Anymore, 20. You must try this wine!, 21. Crazy Painted Lady, 22. costa rican coffee, 23. trader joes beans, 24. scoop!, 25. Lunch 5/9/07, 26. Untitled, 27. Dinner 5/8/07, 28. Dinner 5/8/07, 29. Summer., 30. Untitled, 31. Cook?, 32. Untitled, 33. Tuesday Lunch, 34. Orange Passion, 35. Josephs Brau (Trader Joe's) Hopfest Pilsner, 36. BeBack.jpg

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

I love Trader Joe's. If I could shop for all of our groceries, I would. Their Joe Joe's are so yummy, they kick Oreo cookies' butts! :) And our go-to meal is the Mandarin Chicken in the freezer section... We always have that in our freezer... Love their refrigerated section too. Love the Wine Country Chicken Salad. So good in a sandwich! And the Oriental Chicken Salad and Chicken Ceasars are yummy too...

I could go on and on. :)

My homage to Trader Joe's... Oh how I love you... And you're less than a mile away. :)

For more, check out: Trader Joe's Fan. :)

journal me this...

I've never taken an online scrapbooking class before, and since I'm home most of the time until my maternity leave is up in July, I thought I'd sign up for one.

And also since DH left me feeling miserable and depressed over Mother's Day, I felt like I needed to do some comfort shopping. :)

So I signed up for the A to Z class over at Journal Me This... and here's my first LO:

supplies: cardstock: Prism; patterned paper: Scenic Route Co., Creative Imaginations; silk flower: Heidi Swapp; felt flower, brads: American Crafts; foam stamp, acrylic paint: Making Memories; tab punch: McGill; computer font: Susie's Hand; ribbon: Scrapworks

It's pretty fun so far... The 2nd prompt just came out today so hopefully I'll have time to work on it. :)

And here's a card I made...

Just a random card I made for a friend who's also out on maternity leave. :)

2 cards and a layout. :)

So despite the fact that I had a crappy Mother's Day (guess what? my DH KNOWS he did wrong. Has he tried to make up for it? Nope. And what day is it now? WEDNESDAY?! Ugh. men frustrate me sometimes...) I made up for it by working on a couple of cards and finally finished scanning a layout I did over the weekend. :)

Love pink and green together. I was actually considering making it my bridal party colors when I got married in 2004.

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Making Memories; Cuttlebug swirls embossing folder; Base Camp Cricut Cartridge; other: ribbon, mini brads

I'm hosing a challenge at Scrap Supply and we're using a bunch of graphic design pictures from Flickr for inspriation... One of the pictures was a coffee mug and some coffee... The way it inspired me was to use an old stamp that I got in a Club Scrap kit a LONG time ago! So I made this card... And plan to give it to someone who really enjoys coffee and I'll stick a Peet's gift card or Starbucks gift card in there when the time comes...

supplies: cardstock: unknown; patterned paper: We R Memory Keepers; journaling tag: Heidi Swapp; pen: American Crafts; stamping ink: Vivid!; metal arrow: 7gypsies; rubber stamp: Club Scrap

This is a pic of Jonah and his 3rd cousin Ehren when his family visited us a while ago... Jonah's about 6 weeks in this picture, Ehren's about 3 months... Boy do they CRY! *lol*

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: We R Memory Keepers; acrylic stamp: Autumn Leaves; die cut letters: All Mixed Up by Cricut; tag: 7 gypsies; pens: American Crafts, Sharpie; brads: American Crafts; paper frill: Doodlebug Designs.

my first mother's day weekend...

Nothing special happened.

And I really mean that - nothing happened.

Went to church.
Had breakfast with the family.
Got a gift certificate to take Jonah to the Picture People from my sister.
Nothing from Carl.
No card.
No present.
Nothing.

Don't be surprised.
He's like that when it comes to special days - my birthday, anniversary, Christmas, and now Mother's Day...

And he made me cry.
Because it made me sad.

I told him I can't even scrap about Mother's Day.

He asked why not.

I said, What do I have to scrap about?

It pretty much sucked.

*sigh*

Here's a layout...


supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; cardstock swirl, ribbon: Cosmo Cricket; photo corners, chipboard heart: Heidi Swapp; die cut letters ("big"): Basic Grey; mini-brads: American Crafts

Hope all of you other mothers had a better mother's day than I did.

awww...

If you visit my lonely corner of the blogging world, make sure you visit my BFF Rinne's blog too (and comment while you're at it!).

Why?

She scrapbooked pictures of my wedding. And well, she just rocks my world. :) (Love you, Rinne!)

lucky me!!!

So, remember when I blogged about becoming a Memory Works consultant? I'm not really doing it for the profit or work, I just do it for the great discounts. :)

Anyway, over National Scrapbook Day weekend, they were hosting a random drawing on Saturday amongst those who made purchases that day... If you made a purchase on Saturday, you were automatically entered to win a prize of scrapbooking goodies worth over $50.

I got an email a couple days ago and I was one of the winners! :) 1 out of 11 winners I think. So very cool.

I haven't had a chance to go through everything and separate what I bought from what I won, but geez, it's pretty SWEET!

Go me! :)

happy friday!

I had been working on this layout for the past few days, trying to steal time when Jonah naps.

I think it's super cute. And I'm really starting to love my Cricut. :) Now I want every single cartridge out there... *lol*

For Cricut owners out there - which cartridge is your favorite? I'm curious. I'm looking to invest in one or 2 more - maybe I can convince the hubby to get me a few for Mother's Day!

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: American Crafts, Scenic Route Paper Co.; chipboard "thickers", pen: American Crafts; other: Coluzzle, Cricut (for the die cut lettering "shades").

Have a wonderful friday! :)

fun meme...

From J Lizzie's blog:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

yay! goals met for the month!

It's not even mid-month yet and I've already met my 5/5 goal... I might consider upping the goal number, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Who knows? When I go back to work in July, I might have a hard time keeping up with 5/5... So I'll leave it the way it is.

I did pretty good using some of my tools... I used my Cricut (finally!) and I even used my Sizzix to emboss with my new Cuttlebug embossing folder... Guess I don't need a Cuttlebug after all! :)

This is actually a 6x6 layout and I gave doodling a try. Eek. I don't like it. I'm just not good at it. You probably won't see any future LOs with my doodling anytime in the near future. *lol*

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: KI Memories (I think); stamp: 7gypsies; letter stickers, foam corner, pen, brads: American Crafts; other: stamping ink.

I made these 2 cards for my mom and MIL for Mother's Day... Feels so good to use tools that I rarely ever use! *lol*

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: KI Memories, American Crafts, Scenic Route Paper Co., Creative Imaginations; silk flowers: Bazzill; die cut letters: Cricut; other: mini brads

And this is a card for my good friend at work. Her birthday is this Saturday... I have to figure out if I'm going to her party or not!

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper, rub-on: Making Memories; silk flower: Bazzill, chipboard letter, brad: American Crafts

Yay!

product review: Scotch ATG 700

Ok, so I'm a sucker for the "latest and greatest"... a sucker for what is "hot"... a sucker for cool scrapbooking tools...

Somehow during my frequent visits to the Two Peas messageboards, I kept coming across posts about "ATGs"... So I read up on them... researched them... told myself not to give in to the hype...

As with all the big scrapbooking purchases I've made - I knew...

Must...not...give...in...to...the...hype...

Yeah. Riiiight.

I was weak. I caved in. And I ordered it from here - which was the cheapest place I could find it (including eBay.)I've had it for about a week and I'm finally able to give a review...

The pros:
- It's sturdy and big. It doesn't get lost on my desk during one of my scrapbooking tornadoes... Although I HAVE been known to still pat down the desk to look for it.
- If I were to take it to crops - I'd know it's mine since it's so big. *lol*
- The adhesive is super strong.
- Adhesive refills are cheaper (if you compare foot for foot with the other adhesives out there.
- One roll of adhesive lasts a while. I got myself a 60 yd roll - that is going to take a while to go through.
- Adhering a 12x12 piece of paper to another is super easy.

The cons:
- It has a distinct smell of adhesive.
- It wasn't cheap.
- It's pretty big. You can't use it for small embellishments.
- If you're not careful, you can gum up the rollers with the adhesive if you go too fast or release pressure on the trigger at a weird time.
- The instructions to load it are crappy - my hubby had to load it for me and I can see him refilling the ATG every time I need more adhesive!

Bottomline:
So far, so good. I really like it. Sure it was a big purchase, but I think it's worth it when I actually do the breakdown of yardage of adhesive... It'll pay off itself in a few months. Like I've said before, I've gone through TONS of different types of adhesive... This is now one of my favorites...

One word of advice if you're thinking about purchasing...
Think about what size width of adhesive you'll want to use... I chose the Scotch ATG 700 with the 1/2inch adhesive... I figured I could interchange with the 1/4inch rolls if I bought the adaptor (which I did)... BUT I wasn't thinking about how it wouldn't be possible to interchange sizes once you have one size loaded... If I had to do it all over again, I probably would go for the 1/4inch ATG - the 714. Alternating whole rolls just seems like a waste to me now. Oh well...

Oh and if you do choose to get an ATG, go with the "gold" rolls... Those are the ones that are guaranteed to be acid free. :)

Have a great week!

yay!

I eeked out one more for the weekend... Kind of had a busy weekend with Jonah not taking his naps when he's supposed to and us going to church today - it wore us all out waking up so early in the morning!

Excuse the funkiness of the flower of the scan... Too lazy to fix it! *lol*

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Scenic Route Co.; letter stickers, pen: American Crafts; silk flower, circle bling: Heidi Swapp; ink: ColorBox; other: Making Memories tag maker (yes, I used it! :)

more!

one layout... 2 cards...

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill, American Crafts; patterned paper: American Crafts, Scenic Route Paper Co. (graph paper); plastic flower, brad, letter stickers, pen: American Crafts; rub ons: Making Memories; ric rac: Doodlebug Designs; other: ribbon, Coluzzle circle template

card is 6x6. supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: My Mind's Eye; rub ons: Making Memories; plastic flower, chipboard corner, pen: American Crafts; other: mini brad
card is 6x6. supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: My Mind's Eye; acrylic stamp, bling: Heidi Swapp; stamping ink: ColorBox

Not bad so far! Hopefully I can keep the momentum going tonight when the little one is asleep!

Happy NSD y Cinco de Mayo! :)

So, does everyone have big plans for National Scrapbooking Day? Not me... Keeping it low key. Would have loved to go to a crop to hang out with people, but it's hard for me to get work done since all of my stuff is at home and lugging all of my crap up and down the 3 flights of stairs of our condo isn't my cup of tea (nor is it my husband's. *lol*)

I got this page done last night after Jonah went to bed... I'm working on another page today, but the little stinker didn't take as long of a nap as he had for the past 2 days. Oh well...

No plans for Cinco de Mayo... Making tacos for dinner tonight and that's about it.

Arriba! :)

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: My Mind's Eye, Creative Imaginations; button: MOD; felt flower, pen, letter stickers, ribbon: American Crafts; acrylic stamp: Autumn Leaves; stamping ink: Color Box; embroidery floss: Making Memories (remember their "stitches" line of products? *lol*)

digital getdown.

*lol* that was the title of an old 'NSYNC song I loved. Ahh... the good old days when I was young and a teenybopper. :)

I had the urge to work on something digital today so here's what I came up with. Again, I'm still learning so the concept is pretty simple. I'm almost starting to get the hang of it though!

While I still love paper scrapping, digital is pretty cool because 1) less mess, 2) all of my supplies are in one place (the computer!), 3) it looks cleaner to me for some reason.

Maybe I'll add to my scrapping challenge 1 digital layout a month... It kind of pushes me beyond my limits - which I really like. :)

supplies: software program: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0; all digital elements dowloaded from the "Echoes of Asia" digital kit from Creating Keepsakes (designed by Jessica Sprague); font: Susie's Hand (downloaded from www.momscorner4kids.com)

scrapping faux pas...

Have you ever made a HUGE boo boo while scrapping?

*lol* I did. Last night.

I was SO happy that I got Jonah to bed early... Carl and I were in the office - me on my side with my scrap stuff, him on his side with the computer... I worked on 2 layouts (see previous posts) and I even got my MIL's mother's day present done.

So I was chugging along, making my MIL's present, using my mom's present as a reference... I made a similar one to my mom's present - didn't want to make it complicated for myself.

Anyway, I'm cutting ribbon for the tags, and the binding and blah blah blah and I'm done. Finished. And I'm super happy I got it done. Yay.

So I put it away and reach for my mom's present to close it up (with the ribbon.) Lo and behold, the ribbon I used for my mom's present was short on one side - OMG, I cut some of the ribbon!!!

I must have had it lying next to my ribbon stash and just reached for whatever was closest. Grr... Now the ribbon to tie it closed is uneven and it can barely be used to close it.

So typical of me. Hopefully, my mom won't notice.

Poo.

sanrio love...

I'll always have love for Sanrio...


1. Dance Kitty, Dance!, 2. April 29th, 2007 040, 3. Hello Kitty Reading Shirt, 4. Hello Kitty Tank, 5. Hello Kitty Reading Shirt, 6. Hello Kitty cookie., 7. Charmmy Kitty, 8. Pandapple, 9. Hello Kitty Scarf, 10. Fantastic Deery Lou x, 11. OMG My Deery Lou jewelry x, 12. Beaded Hello Kitty Charm, 13. hellokitty., 14. Sparky's store display, 15. Patacchini, 16. Orsetto, 17. Calzetti di Hello Kitty, 18. XD, 19. Cinnamoroll <3, 20. Keroppi <3, 21. cinnamoroll coinbank, 22. Monokuroboo, 23. Pandapple, 24. Novala, 25. Hello Kitty Kiosk, 26. Spa Day, 27. Tea Time, 28. One fish...two fish..., 29. Kitty Contacts, 30. For Kawaii D.I.Y Swapbot Swap, 31. Anime Boston 2007 - Loot, 32. Hello Kitty Chocolate Ice Cream, 33. Hello Kitty Inflight Meal, 34. USAHANA Lunch Box, 35. USAHANA Lunch Box Divided, 36. USAHANA Lunch Box Fork

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Goodnight! :)

ok, i don't know what's wrong with our scanner...

The other day, I tried to scan a layout only to be disappointed when it scanned it as an "illustration" - mind you, I didn't change any settings, clicked on any buttons or tabs, or even looked at the darn thing funny... For some reason, the scanner was acting screwy...

So my hubby tried to fix it - the only thing we could think was wrong was that we needed to scan in a higher resolution and in "professional mode."

But that took FOREVER and the file sizes were HUGE.

And I was getting impatient...

So I tried to revert back to the old way I did it and now my scans are turning funky again. Grrr...


But on a positive note, I got 2 layouts done. :)

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper, sentiments: My Mind's Eye; silk flower: Bazzill, button: MOD; rubber stamps: Heidi Swapp (You can't see the stamps on the bottom right - they say "perfect" and "little one"); stamping ink: ColorBox, VersaMagic; phototurn, typewriter key: 7gypsies; mini brads: Making Memories; other: ribbon

supplies: cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Scenic Route Co.; journaling block, stickers: 7gypsies; cardstock sticker, pen: American Crafts; photo corner punch: EK Success

Wha-? Britney Spears scraps??

Read all about it here...

Hmmm...