DigiScraps
Save The Date – The Final One
March 30, 2010
7/365 days of blogging.
So we’ve finally decided on what save-the-date photo to use. I like having her photo in black and white against all the subtle colors around it. This was taken from She’s Full of Scrap‘s kits. (It pays to have sisters in the business. 
My friend decided to have this printed thru Office Depot. She wants it printed on magnetic paper so that the recipients of the cards can just post them on their fridges. I didn’t even know that Office Depot does that now. They would even cut it to specs so that’s one less thing that my friend and I have to do if we did this ourselves.
So what’s new with the preparations? My friend’s mom and dad are going home to the Philippines this month so my friend and I thought that it might be a better idea to get a lot of our materials from the famous Divisoria and Tutuban markets and ask her parents to bring them back to the US. We’ve decided to have her daughter’s gown done by my friend’s former seamstress. We’ve also asked the seamstress to do the table linens and the backdrop for the stage. Nothing really beats the Philippines when it comes to materials for parties. Even the venues back home are actually much better than here. I guess, it stems from the perpetual “fiesta atmosphere” back home.
I’m missing the Philippines again…
Save The Date
March 10, 2010
6/365 days of blogging.
So my friend’s daughter is turning 18 this September. She and her husband decided to give her a traditional Filipino 18th birthday called a cotillon or a debut. She’s asked me to help her because these parties have a tendency to be big.
We’ve been planning it for about a year now. Since we’re trying to minimize the expenses without sacrificing on the quality of the event, we needed a long time to prepare for it. Picking out the venue is the biggest thing. There’s a lot of venues out here in the Baltimore and metros. But to pick out the one that won’t be a drain on the budget but would still work takes a lot of research and leg work.
Finally, we’ve picked out a venue and have made an arrangement already for our date. Since it’s not a flashy place, it would take a little bit of imagination to make it the perfect venue. A couple of weekends ago, we were able to create a prototype of the centerpiece we are planning to do. We already have some ideas on how to decorate the drabby wood panels of the wall and the “stage” without using up too much set up time.
The color of her daughter’s gown is finalized and a sample of it the clothe was already sent to the Philippines where the dressmaker is. We’re ordering stuff for the souvenirs to be sent here from Divisoria.
I’ll be chronicling the details of the party here so that you guys can also have an idea of what needs to be done to prepare for this kind of event far away from the Philippines.
So just as a teaser, and I will write up a whole entry about the save-the-dates later, here are 2 samples that I made and showed my friend (altho none of these came up to be the final one).
RAKs For A Friend
April 13, 2009
I made a few RAKs (Random Act of Kindness) for a friend. She’s got four (4) wonderful kids who I simply all adore! They’re very sweet and well-mannered. (Kudos to the mom and dad, of course!)
Truth is, I adore all my friends’ kids – no exceptions. As far as I could remember, I cannot imagine not loving any of my friends’ children. The minute you show me your kids I will like them right from the get-go. No matter how hyper they might be, I would still find myself liking them – they’re kids. They’re supposed to be hyper – such are kids. Period.
We’ve been having a lot of happy kits at our digital scrapbook store, She’s Full of Scrap at Gotta Pixel lately that I got so excited and made layouts of my friend’s kids. So here they are…
Charlon. From the Sunny Spring Kit
Czarina, from the Spring Free Kit
Chester, from the Cute As A Bug Kit
Colleen, from the Mirabella Kit
Another one for Colleen, from the Mirabella Kit also
Czarina and Colleen from the April Sisters Kit (my sister's Gretch's Tribute for me, sweet, huh?)
And here are the wonderful, cute kits they all came from! Wouldn’t your photos look good with them, too?? Grab them all now at Gotta Pixel!
Pourin’ So Much Love On Your Scraps
February 22, 2009
G and J
I love scrapbooking.
When I got into this vice addiction hobby, I never knew that I’d be putting in so much time, effort, money and emotion into it. Before the dawn of digital scrapbooking, I had already amassed a HUUUGE collection of stickers, papers, albums, scissors, and all sorts of embellishments one can put on a layout. I’ve done my share of printing every picture thru Walmart and Target and even Snapfish. To-date I have categorized my paper into colors, my stickers into small, medium, large and extra-large, my embellishments in neat little tiny boxes and my rolls of ribbons in roll boxes. If not for my husband jokingly warning me that he’d be donating all my stuff to Goodwill (which is his way of saying “ENOUGH!”), I would have filled the green room from top to bottom with no place left to go to.
My Brother, the Actor
I know you’d think that I’ve already spent a fortune on my materials. On the contrary, if you know where to shop, it shouldn’t be too much. I go to stores like Ollie’s, Big Lots, Gabrielle Brothers, dollar stores, and Joann’s. Even Walmart is just an option I use when I couldn’t find what I like at those stores, and Michael’s I go to when I get desperate (which doesn’t happen often). I’ve tried online stores also, but sometimes, they get too pricey once you factor the shipping and handling costs in. So yes, I’ve invested a lot (only due to sheer volume of what I already have), but not as much as others had, still. (At least, that’s my defense, and I’m sticking to it!)
A Happy Marriage
Then digital scrapbooking came along. This is a different ballgame. you don’t have the physical materials anymore. Just JPEG and PNG files that you’d store on your PC’s hard drive. And just as much as I deeply enjoyed the traditional scrapbooking method, I also got addicted to doing DSB. But this time around, instead of spending a fortune on digital scrapbook stores, my sisters and I decided we were going to get into the business and create materials we could sell to other scrapbookers. That’s how I’m getting my materials for free
My Sisters, My Bestfriends
If only I had more time, I would’ve earned as much as what my sisters are earning (did you hear me say it’s a good business?) but with all the other things happening in my life and with the long commute to and from work, I just don’t have the energy anymore to do some. I do collaborate with my sisters once in a while but I’ve never made a single kit all by myself. The digital scrapbooking business is highly competitive and to really stand out, your kits require a lot of attention to details and clean and careful editing aside from being very innovative. Something that would need a lot of time… something I don’t have the luxury right now. *sigh*
Cousins
Digital scrapbooking really comes in handy when most of people now take pictures using their digital cameras. Unlike before when if you want to have a digital copy of your photos, you’d need a scanner and be able to tweak and adjust colors in a photo editor to get the right hues. A lot of people still do that but only for photos dated BD (before digital). Also, with digitals, you don’t need a whole room to store all your materials. All you need is a good-sized hard drive, and they’re getting cheaper and cheaper as we go into the age of infinity and beyond. Gosh, I got my half a terabye of external hard drive for $85. (1 Terabyte = 1 Million Gigabytes – that’s 200,000 high resolution digital photos!) And photo editor softwares are getting easier to learn. And even if they look like rocket science to you, google would help you look for a tutorial fit for your mental capacity.
But see, that’s just the techie side of it all. Scrapbooking, whether digital or traditional is more than that. It doesn’t matter if your layouts turn out so striking or just simple, whether you used the most expensive materials or just grab what you have lying at home (or free from the digital stores). ‘Bottom line is, you’re doing this for someone you love, about someone you love. That’s where the time, effort and emotion come in play. For every photo, for every embellishment or element turned this way or that, for every word of endearment you put in, you’re putting it in for the people in the photo, the people you care about. That’s what makes scrapbooking such a personal and intimate activity.
And this is one addiction I will gladly subject myself to
Blogger Template 3 – Psychedelic Party
December 11, 2008
I’ve been doing a lot of templates lately… I’m publishing them one by one and this is the first of the series.
You can view the live demo here.
Highlight the XML Code in the text box and copy and replace your current blogger code.
/* Variable definitions
====================
default="normal normal 78% 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,Sans-serif" value="normal bold 78% Verdana, sans-serif">
default="normal normal 300% Gigi" value="normal bold 359% Trebuchet, Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif">
default="normal normal 90% 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, Sans-serif" value="normal bold 99% Trebuchet, Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif">
default="normal normal 78% 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, Sans-serif" value="normal normal 86% 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, Sans-serif">
*/
body {
background:$bgcolor;
margin:0;
color:$textcolor;
font:x-small Georgia Serif;
font-size/* */:/**/small;
font-size: /**/small;
text-align: center;
}
a:link {
color:$linkcolor;
text-decoration:none;
}
a:visited {
color:$visitedlinkcolor;
text-decoration:none;
}
a:hover {
color:$titlecolor;
text-decoration:underline;
}
a img {
border-width:0;
}
/* Header
———————————————–
*/
#header-wrapper {
width:745px;
height:300px;
margin:0 auto 10px;
border:3px solid $bordercolor;
background-image: url(http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/209/psychedelic1je8.jpg);
}
#header-inner {
background-position: center;
margin-$startSide: auto;
margin-$endSide: auto;
}
#header {
margin: 5px;
border: 0px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: left;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
}
#header h1 {
margin:5px 5px 0;
padding:15px 20px .25em;
line-height:1.2em;
text-transform:normal;
letter-spacing:.2em;
font: $pagetitlefont;
}
#header a {
color:$pagetitlecolor;
text-decoration:none;
}
#header a:hover {
color:$pagetitlecolor;
}
#header .description {
margin-right: 300px;
padding:0 20px 15px;
max-width:600px;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.2em;
line-height: 1.4em;
font: $descriptionfont;
color: $descriptioncolor;
}
#header img {
margin-$startSide: auto;
margin-$endSide: auto;
}
/* Outer-Wrapper
———————————————– */
#outer-wrapper {
width: 750px;
margin:0 auto;
padding:10px;
text-align:$startSide;
font: $bodyfont;
}
#main-wrapper {
width: 500px;
border:3px solid $bordercolor;
background-image:url(http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/9153/psychedelicside1dg8.jpg);
float: left;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 225px;
margin-right: 0px;
border:3px solid $bordercolor;
background-image:url(http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/9153/psychedelicside1dg8.jpg);
float: right;
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
}
#footer-wrapper {
width: 725px;
margin:0 auto;
text-align:center;
font: $descriptionfont;
}
/* Headings
———————————————– */
h2 {
margin:1.5em 0 .75em;
font:$headerfont;
line-height: 1.4em;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.2em;
color:$sidebarcolor;
}
/* Posts
———————————————–
*/
h2.date-header {
margin:1.5em 0 .5em;
margin-left: 10px;
margin-right: 10px;
}
.post {
margin:.5em 0 1.5em;
margin-left: 10px;
margin-right: 10px;
border-bottom:1px dotted $bordercolor;
padding-bottom:1.5em;
}
.post h3 {
margin:.25em 0 0;
margin-left: 10px;
margin-right: 10px;
padding:0 0 4px;
font-size:140%;
font-weight:normal;
line-height:1.4em;
color:$titlecolor;
}
.post h3 a, .post h3 a:visited, .post h3 strong {
display:block;
text-decoration:none;
color:$titlecolor;
font-weight:normal;
}
.post h3 strong, .post h3 a:hover {
color:$textcolor;
}
.post-body {
margin:0 .75em;
line-height:1.6em;
}
.post-body blockquote {
line-height:1.3em;
}
.post-footer {
margin: .75em 0;
color:$sidebarcolor;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.1em;
font: $postfooterfont;
line-height: 1.4em;
}
.comment-link {
margin-$startSide:.6em;
}
.post img {
padding:4px;
border:1px solid $bordercolor;
}
.post blockquote {
margin:1em 20px;
}
.post blockquote p {
margin:.75em 0;
}
/* Comments
———————————————– */
#comments h4 {
margin:1em 0;
font-weight: bold;
line-height: 1.4em;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.2em;
color: $sidebarcolor;
}
#comments-block {
margin:1em 0 1.5em;
line-height:1.6em;
}
#comments-block .comment-author {
margin:.5em 0;
}
#comments-block .comment-body {
margin:.25em 0 0;
}
#comments-block .comment-footer {
margin:-.25em 0 2em;
line-height: 1.4em;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.1em;
}
#comments-block .comment-body p {
margin:0 0 .75em;
}
.deleted-comment {
font-style:italic;
color:gray;
}
.feed-links {
clear: both;
margin-left: 10px;
margin-right: 10px;
line-height: 2.5em;
}
#blog-pager-newer-link {
float: $startSide;
}
#blog-pager-older-link {
float: $endSide;
}
#blog-pager {
text-align: center;
}
/* Sidebar Content
———————————————– */
.sidebar {
color: $sidebartextcolor;
margin-left: 10px;
margin-right: 10px;
line-height: 1.5em;
}
.sidebar ul {
list-style:none;
margin:0 0 0;
padding:0 0 0;
}
.sidebar li {
margin:0;
padding-top:0;
padding-$endSide:0;
padding-bottom:.25em;
padding-$startSide:15px;
text-indent:-25px;
line-height:1.5em;
}
.sidebar .widget, .main .widget {
border-bottom:1px dotted $bordercolor;
margin:0 0 1.5em;
padding:0 0 1.5em;
}
.main .Blog {
border-bottom-width: 0;
}
/* Profile
———————————————– */
.profile-img {
float: $startSide;
margin-top: 0;
margin-$endSide: 5px;
margin-bottom: 5px;
margin-$startSide: 0;
padding: 4px;
border: 1px solid $bordercolor;
}
.profile-data {
margin:0;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.1em;
font: $postfooterfont;
color: $sidebarcolor;
font-weight: bold;
line-height: 1.6em;
}
.profile-datablock {
margin:.5em 0 .5em;
}
.profile-textblock {
margin: 0.5em 0;
line-height: 1.6em;
}
.profile-link {
font: $postfooterfont;
text-transform: uppercase;
letter-spacing: .1em;
}
/* Footer
———————————————– */
#footer {
width:660px;
clear:both;
margin:0 auto;
line-height: 1.6em;
text-transform:uppercase;
letter-spacing:.1em;
text-align: center;
}
]]>
Posted in DigiScraps, Website Design - Green, Website Design - Two-Column, Website Designs | 
Tags: Blogger Template | 
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Happy Christmas
March 29, 2008
I know. It’s already March. But if you’re like me, you’ve probably procrastinated this long (almost) to get your christmas pictures done. (Much less share them with the relatives, ha ha ha).
I’ve been so busy putting up all my websites and getting them going that my digiscrapping had to take a back seat. Since January, I’ve only digiscrapped once and I haven’t even created any give-aways yet. (Altho I’m really aiming on giving you some freebies this weekend, hopefully But when I was browsing thru my sisters’ kits at Gotta Pixel, I kinda took a fancy to this beautiful Christmas kit. I know I have just the right Christmas photos to go with it.
The pictures I used were all taken last December 24 during our Christmas Eve midnight dinner with the family. We were all gathered at my MIL’s house opening our gifts before we partook of the food. The first LO is about our DD, Madonna, and our dear niece, Pearl. Pearl was wearing her nice red dress we bought for her and she wore when she attended her dad’s Marriott staff Christmas party. Madonna was donned and was going to meet up with her friends that night. This was a cute picture that I really had to create an LO for it.
The second LO is of our nephew, Gabe, while he was busy opening one of his gifts. This little guy is such a riot! He enjoyed his first gift-giving Christmas when he can open his gifts himself. He’s shown here unwrapping one of the gifts Judy gave him.
So if you want some cute and cool Christmas Kits, run along to GottaPixel and choose anyone of these other page kits for your Christmas photos that are just waiting for you to create a layout for. It’s never too late for Christmas digiscrapping
Scrapping Again…
March 3, 2008
I had a chance to digiscrap again last night (Sunday). I haven’t visited my sisters’ online digital scrapbook store lately and I was pleasantly surprised to see that my youngest sister, Pia (or Minicake), has been creating a lot of cute elements. My younger sister, Gretch, has also created some new and beautiful page kits. And so I was so inspired to try them out!
I try not to download more than I could use. So I just downloaded Gretch’s newest kit, Great Day, for now and these are what I came up with. I gotta admit that my layouts are not as “intricate” and detailed as my sisters. Theirs are more modern than mine. Maybe it’s because I started with traditional scrapbooking that my LOs still seem to be “clean”. I have to learn to do more “freestyling” technique, like they do.
But I enjoy digiscrapping. Altho unlike before, I don’t want to be dictated anymore by what a designer or a shop wants so I’m sticking with my sister’s designs and just display my LOs wherever I want to. I am seriously thinking of revamping our SFOS site so that my sisters and I can put in more LOs in there.
So I hope you all like these. The first LO is of our mom and dad. I’m really looking forward to seeing them come April. They’ll be coming from Calgary and will be visiting for about a week. I really miss them.
The next LO is my one and only (for now) neice from my sister, Pia. I really miss her so much. I saw her on Pia’s webcam last night while we were chatting. *sigh* I wish the Philippines isn’t that far from here… I really miss my family back home.
Laugh a Little
December 21, 2007
One of my hobbies, and hopefully I would be able to show you a lot of them in the days to come, is scrapbooking. I do both traditional (which is the use of real, tangible materials) and digital (all computerized). It’s one of my outlets. I have a HUUUUGE stash of traditional scrapbooking materials that I’ve been acquiring for the last 5 years – from paper, to buttons, to stickers, to ribbons, tools and so much more. My husband asked me once how much, do I think, have I spent all these years on all those materials. I decided to take the fifth or he’d go nuts. Plus honestly, I really don’t know how much I’ve spent already. And keep in mind, being the cheapskate that I am, I never bought materials that weren’t dirt cheap and on a super-duper sale price. But I still have quite a lot.
About a year ago, I’ve discovered, thru my sisters, digital scrapbooking. Oh, I’ve heard of it before but I didn’t think I’d enjoy it. I always said that I favored the traditional kind because I like using my hands and having the feel of the materials. But with a lot of prodding from them plus seeing all their finished layouts, I got curious and decided to try it. And of course, I didn’t want to spend on something that I might end up not liking, I just downloaded the freebies that were out there. And there’s a ton of digital scrapbook website owners who give out a few kits for free. And so it was like a day locked in a candy store for this girl.
One advantage I have is that I’m not a newbie on Photoshop. I’ve been using this software for like 10 years already and so putting up my first layout was a no-brainer for me. I picked out which photos I wanted to use and after an hour or so, my first layout was born! Admittedly tho, it wasn’t bad but it was no match to the avante-garde layouts my sisters did. They were experts! But that first layout got me hooked!
I downloaded some other freebies and bought a few. I was getting the hang of it, with a lot of help and tutoring from my sisters. I also applied to be a part of a few designers’ creative teams – you do layouts using their created kits, for free. Until one time, we talked about putting up our own stuff and selling it. We thought of the name “She’s Full of Scrap” and set up our own website. And now we’re selling our own creations in an online digital scrap store.
It’s not really easy. In fact, I had to beg off for a while due to my work schedules and some other things. But my sister remains to work on the store. I guess, among the three of us, she’s the one with the knack in designing and she’s just selling her stuff like hotcakes.
So if you’re into digital scrapbooking, I hope you visit us one of these days and check out our designs.
I haven’t digiscrap for awhile and I really miss doing it. So when my husband said “I noticed you haven’t been scrapbooking for awhile,” I decided maybe this is a good day to scrap. I’ve always wanted to use this picture of hubbie’s 5-year-old niece in one of my layouts. I took this picture about a month or two ago when she was staying for the weekend at my MIL’s house. This one, I created using a kit a did for our store.
Hmmm… maybe I should now go back to creating kits.
