I have succumbed!!!

In the real world, weekdays are spent coordinating advertising materials for our shoes stores and designing for our slippers. In the real world, I spent more time with my laptop than sleeping. Adobe Photoshop CS2 and InDesign, along with Photos.Com, DeviantArt, Clipart.com, Computer Arts.com are my virtual barkada to name a few.



So when I return home, I can't wait to spend time getting my hands "dirty." Sticky glue, pulling rough twine, twisting wires and cutting up paper is my element. I sprinkle my digital skills on enhancing photos and printing out titles or journaling but often I stop there . . . after all, how much virtual-ity do i need (if there ever is such a word!).

I had spent the weekend in Tagaytay, it was cool and raining. I wanted to get some tennis in or any physical activity while we were out of town, but the weather was just enough to keep me in bed or stuck to my seat in the coffee shop. My digital camera was at the ready to capture at a moments notice and my little notepad along with scrap mags for instant inspiration for later scrapping. But in the end, as much as I was in a very relaxing atmosphere, I wanted to scrap! I didn't bring any of my scrap materials with me, and so I found myself staring at the ceiling . . . and deduced that I am dang bored! What to do, what to do . . .

Hmmmm, I haven't "cleaned" up my laptop in ages so I started arranging and re-arranging my folders when I happened upon a folder aptly named "DigiScraps." After clicking, I realized I had downloaded a couple of free digital scrap kits which I totally forgot about. Heeeey, now I CAN scrap! Oh, I didn't stop there. Luckily the country club had free wifi, so in true scrapaholic fashion, I whipped out my trusty (and squeaky clean) credit card and bought a couple of digital elements to add to my free ones.



Now if I can just keep myself from making digital scrap pages at work :-)

-----
LO: Sis
DIGITAL ELEMENTS: (Digitaldesigners.com) Kim Pertiet, Curled Photo Frame / Ecuts, Romantic Rose Frame, Tags and Notepad / Notepad, twine, blanket stitch and tag, Kim Hill, Juicy Fruit Elements / Bacnground paper Seasonal Sampler, Buttons, Smarshmallows & Amore, Shabby Princess (shabbyprincess.com) / Polka Dot Scallops, Rhona Fahrer, Spring
FONTS: Ballpark and Enchanted Prairie

JOURNALING:
Growing up apart was quite difficult, I remember how we used to trade handprints and even cut locks of hair before we parted. We never failed to keep in touch and despite the growin pains and gaps we've had in the past we've proven --- that being sisters is thicker than water.

Another day . . . another Hoard (sort of)

I've done my research, gone online to the Myscrapworks site and checked out the scrap stores they suggested for both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur; I also googled just to be safe. Upon arriving in Singapore, i couldn't help but get antsy about taking half a day to go scrap shopping. We were to stay in Singapore for 5 days before moving on to KL, day 1 passed, then 2, then 3 . . . omg! I was getting really nervous! I told my family that over my dead body am I leaving Singapore without going to at least ONE store! Thank goodness we had a "free" day, we all pretty much went our own ways to shop.

First stop was MADE WITH LOVE, http://www.madewithlove.com.sg Address: 68 Orchard Road Plaza Singapura Unit 03-21 Singapore 238839

According to an email from one of the MWL staff directions follow: "take the underground trains, you could always pop over to the Orchard Mass Rapid Transit(MRT) station which is just opposite the Marriot and stop at Dhoby Gaut MRT station which is just 2 stops away. Alternatively, you could walk over to the bus-stop in front off the Marriot Hotel and hop onto any bus that you find there that matches the ones that we've stated arrive at our door-step. It's just one straight road down to where we are from the bus stop at Marriot"

As long as you're on Orchard Rd. you can't miss it, or if you do get lost just ask a local and you'll easily find your way.

MWL was most impressive, the selling area was well utilized to store as much supplies as they could. And take note, MWL has new stuff arriving every week! So far, this is the sweetest store i've been in. The black walls are actually storage for paper! I was thinking, the paper choices were so few for such a big store. Then this lady (a customer) just slid the cabinet door and voila! more paper goodness. Not to mention the rows of embellys and stickers! I was going gaga! But I had to hold back as well, since I knew that the exchange rate in Singapore is much higher.

There also was the MWL Cafe, according to one of their friendly staff the wives usually have their husbands or kids stay in the cafe while they shop. How cool is that? After all, how can we shop seriously when we're constantly rushed. But then again, Plaza Singapura is a good sized mall so I told the fam to just leave me in MWL and text me when it was time to leave :-)

Next stop was LAINE'S PAPETERIE
http://www.laines.com.sg
510 Orchard Road Wheelock Place #03-13A

The great thing about Laine's is that it is on the upper floor of Borders! Another favorite haunt of mine. Laine's is much smaller than MWL but they did have items which the previous store did not carry, and that's where I saw a demo of the Quickutz Revolution. . . I had to stop myself from drooling.

Laine's had a nice selection of one of kind emebellys and punches which I really liked.

And so, I ended my day in Singapore by carefully storing all my paper in a Cropper Hopper and my embellys safely tucked in a shoe box. On to Kuala Lumpur . . .

KL was most impressive, the architecture and historical landmarks were remarkable. But as always, I was getting fidgety since we were going to be in Kl for a week. Day 1, day 2 . . . Day5!!! horrors! Finally, by day 6 we had another "free" day so I gathered the gang up and headed to One Utama shopping mall.

One Utama was HUGE! We weren't able to cover the whole mall but I was able to make a stop over at one scrap store.

Last Stop, CRAFT HAVEN
2nd Floor, One Utama
Kuala Lumpur

Craft Haven reminded me of SMILE here in Manila, although with slightly more craft related items along with the scrapbook supplies. I really didn't get a butt-load of stuff, just a couple of stickers and embellys. At least enough to make me satisfy my curiosity as to what KL can offer a scrapaholic.

And so, another summer has passed as I had ventured to my scrappy cravings. I know I lack the prices, soon as I find some of my receipts i'll post them. I guess they were too expensive for me to look at, more so remember haha! Hope you enjoyed my "tra-vails" :-)

BackSCRAPping Exposed!!!

A seasoned traveller will always lay out his or her clothes upon arriving at the hotel . . . a seasoned scrapper will always fish out her (or his) scrap box amid the tumbled toiletries and shoes. . . to my experience anyway :-)

Like clockwork during our vaca i find myself dragging aching, albeit *throbbing*, feet back to our hotel room after a day of sight seeing and other touristy stuff . . . after i've donned my PJ's i quietly settle myself on the hotel desk and commit to my adventure full of BS (that's Backpack Scrapping to you :-)

Sure I was tired, and the humidity of both Singapore and Malaysia didn't help either. But once I was in the scrapping zone (all scrappers know the "zone"), aches and pains were gone! I never knew scrapping could be so therapeutic . . . forget Bengay and Salonpas!

But i have to be honest, I snuck in a couple more supplies at the last minute. Additional rub-ons, a couple more papers and extra glue tape (for the Tombo) which i'm so thankful for since I ran out during the process. One of the hitches you may encounter is delayed scrapping. As much as I had wanted to make my pages real time there were just days I missed out and had to catch up but it wasn't as difficult as I thought. Not having to follow any "rules" it was quite fun and liberating.

The best part was that my family was so supportive, they contributed to my collection of ephemera and photos. It really helped having a Selphy around but even if you didn't have a compact photo printer the brochures, postcards, etc. were enough to convey your latest adventures.

So here are some tips to those who are willing to delve into BackScrapping :-)

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare. But then again, don't bring your entire scrap room either. Bring the essentials like your camera (forget everything else just not your cam!), scissors, glue, ruler, stapler, pens, mini puncher, embellys (brads, strips of ribbon), rub ons, stickers, scraps of paper, and your mini scrapbook ofcourse! I also brought a magazine along for instant inspiration, the only problem was chosing which one! If i missed out on anything, please refer to my previous article. It really helped I had a sturdy plastic box to store it all, i highly suggest it.

** A side tip, if you have a trip in a nearby place like Tagaytay, La Union, or even if you're spending overnight at a hotel or a friends place, I suggest you "practise" when you can. Luckily I had an overnight stay in Tagaytay prior to my flight, this helped me warm up somewhat. And that's when I knew i lacked some other essentials for my backscrapping.

2. Upon arriving at the airport of your destination, head on to the nearest tourist display where they hold maps, brochures, etc. The best part is, they're all free! Same goes for the hotels too.

3. Keep in mind wherever you are, try to take a couple of ephemera with you. Wrappers of candy, coasters, table napkins, matchbook covers, I even took the stickers they place around the luggage.


4. Be trigger happy! Other than the touristy stuff, I made a mental note to take shots of our luggage, signages, our feet dangling in the bus, I even took shots of the texture of this exquisite wall in our hotel. All those little things which we soon forget once we return home are just as essential as the landmarks.

5. Enjoy! I wouldn't want you to pay so much attention to your scrapping you forget to enjoy your whole trip. Both should be symbiotic, after all, that's why we scrap isn't it.

*** For more photos of my travel journal, please click on ONLINE ALBUMS (BackScrapping)

Summer Titles

Inspired by MLA's Summer LO Challenge, I happened upon a couple of sites with Summer Title suggestions:

BY ANDREA STEED, Scrapjazz.Com
Summer's Here
Summertime
Summer afternoon
Summer Sisters
Firefly Summer
A Summer Place
Dog Days of Summer
Endless Summer
Happy Summer Days
Here Comes Summer
Hot Fun in the Summertime
I know what you did last summer...
Oh, Those Summer Nights
Sizzlin' Summer
Summer at the Shore
The Long, Hot Summer
Heat Wave!
Fun in the Sun
Good Day Sunshine
A Slice of Summer
Hot, Hot, Hot
It’s a sunshiny day!
Let the Sun Shine In
Makin a Big Splash
Lil Swimmer
Splish, Splash
Summertime Blues
Beach Bum
Water Babies
Sail Away
Slip-n-Slide
Wet-n-Wild
At the Pool
Sprinkler Adventure
By the Shore
Seaside
Ocean of Love
Havin' a Blast
A Day in the Sun
Lickin' the Heat (popsicle pages anyone?)
Natural Beauty
Sun Dried
Beach Babes
Beach Boys
Waterbugs
Some Like it Hot
Cool in the Pool
What are you Wading for?
POOL (take a picture of kids holding 2 innertubes for the O's on POOL)
Friends by the Sea
Down By the Sea
Under the Sea
Shore is Fun
Popsicle Paradise
Relaxin
Water you doin?
Good Clean Fun

AND A COUPLE OF RANDOM Song Lists with summer, relaxing, and sun in mind, a mix of then and now :-) These make greeat Titles or the lyrics can work well with your LO's :-) Enjoy!

Summer of Love - B52's
Those Lazy Hazy Das of Summer - Nat King Cole
Summer Girls - LFO
Summer Breeze - Seals & Crofts
In the Summertime - Shaggy feat. Rayvon
The sunny side of the Street - Frank Sinatra
Sunlight - Kevyn Lettau
Good Morning Starshine - Oliver
All Summer Long - Beach Boys
Sh-Boom - The Crew Cuts
Vacation - Gogo's
Put your records on - Corrine Bailey Ray
Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson
Summer Wind - Michael Buble
Summer Sunshine - The Corrs
Feels like summer again - Wallflowers
Sunshine after the rain - Natasha Thomas
Hey Look at the sun - Sitti
Sunday driving - Rivermaya
Sunrise - Norah Jones
Sunshine - Jojo
Music of the Son - Rihanna
Perfect Day - Paulo Santos
Perfect Day - Hoku
Sunshine - Gabrielle Rise

I have yet to participate in an EB or crop . . . . I have not attempted to bring my supplies to Tagaytay when we’re away for the weekend. . . so what makes me think that I can try and scrap during my summer vaca in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur?!

Blame it on a couple of magazine articles, one if which was Legacy by Somerset . The homemade mini album held brochures, tickets, even pictures printed at a local printing store and other sorts of ephemera. And it was totally wonderful! It captures those moments that you somehow forget when you get back home.

I will attempt to scrap and crop overseas, how I will do that I will never know. I know what you're thinking, why do I have to give myself a hard time when I can just jot things down in a journal and complete my pages when I get back to Manila? I always liked spur of the moment things and capturing the moment at its freshest, so backpack scrapping was the best solution!

I did my homework, I read through my usual scrap mags and Googled "Travel Scrapbooking" and all the other search words I can think of! Some links I found online, i'm sure you will be able to find more :

http://honeymoons.about.com/sitesearch.htm?terms=vacation%20travel%20scrapbook&SUName=honeymoons&TopNode=3398&type=1
http://www.takegreatpictures.com/HOME/Columns/Scrapbooking_-_Pictures/Details/travel_scrapbooking.fci

To top it off, I have my supplies up and ready a week before my flight. My clothes? Oh, I can pack that a day before. Yes, apparently I have my priorities straight (?).

Opting to bring and “baptize” my Mimi Travel Tote, I figured it would take too much space and I definitely could not bring it with me on board considering I had scissors in there! I can see it now, “Woman held by authorities, claims scissors is for scrapping!” No thanks! And so I found a plastic container lying around, it had a lid and lock with a tray and compartments, that will do just fine.

So here are the contents:

JOURNAL → I chose a journal that wasn’t too big or too small, my fault I threw away the paper it came with. But the size is just right for clippings, coasters and brochures as well as 4x6 pictures. Ofcourse, it’s archival safe, acid and lignin free. But I’m well aware that the brochures and other ephemera are not as “safe”.

CAMERA & PRINTER → any camera will do, it just so happens my daughter and I are photo hobbyists so we don’t mind lugging our Canon EOS 400D and Powershot A710. And my aunt so happens to have an old Canon Selphy 500 (compact photo printer that can print straight from the camera) so that’s just an added plus! But I believe if you don’t have a printer on hand you can always leave a space for pics later on.

PAPER → just to add some texture, I chose my papers based on my destination. Considering we’re going to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, I chose ornamental designs, bright and neutral papers. I really liked the DCWV paper packs with stickers and vellum with pre-printed words. Need I mention my handy dandy Zip lock for catching all those loose papers i'm sure I wil acquire!
Papers --- Basic Grey/K&Co. Scrapbook Designer Papers Motifica and Sublime, Time Coffey/K&Co. Travel/Vacation, DCWV Scrapbook Kit in a Stack Value Pack Travel


STICKERS → for dimension and contrast, it was quite difficult to find the right ones I really had to hold back and just choose the basics.
Stickers --- Marcela by Kay Embroidered Tags, Sticko Travel and Jolee’s Plane Trip

RUB ONS → I always include graphic elements and some additional sentiments in my layouts, so rub-ons would do the trick. I also brough alone my Li’l Davis rub-on tool, which works far more effectively than the popscicle sticks.
Rub-Ons --- Making Memories Remember and Journey, Sticko Bookworms and Fancy Pants


ADHESIVES → Admittedly I’m an adhesives (and sticker) junkie, hence my blog name StickyTins. . . but among all my “sticky” collections my Tombo supplies tops the list. I needed glue that can adhere to pictures, brochures and other thick materials like coasters and labels.
Adhesives --- Tombo Multi and Tombo Mono Adhesives

TOOLS and OTHERS → I have a supply of various shipping tags from Staples in the US of various sizes and they seemed like the perfect journaling tags as well as my handy post-its for notes. And ofcourse my essential pens and pencils.
Tools & Others → shipping tags, post-its, Fiskars trimmer, Art Gum eraser, Aqualip pens, Micron 01, Li’l Davis Rub-on Tool and pencil (no preference on the latter, whatever was the sharpest and easiest to bring; usually either a mechanical pencil or pencils with replaceable pointed lead so I could do without the bulky sharpener)


And so, the adventure begins! I should be back around the first week of May, I hope by then I can claim that I’m “full of BS” haha ☺ . . . a Backpack Scrapper that is . . . and hopefully I have something to show for it!

First Page

I began scrapbooking back in 2000 for the birth of my son, he's six years old now and his baby scrapbook is still stuck at 5 months old!
Back then I had a small 8 x 8 scrapbook, just last year I decided to relive my hobby and purchases some 12 x 12 scrap supplies. This page was my attempt at working with what I had, by this time I had a handful of scrap magazines to get inspiration from. But what I really wanted was a die cut machine, a QuickKutz, Sizzix, anything! When I found these pictures of my son sleeping, i was so happy that it would be a cinch to cut out a Z with my trusty precision Fiskars :-)
Josh ate alot and slept alot, just like any baby. However, if he ever started to doze off while he was being fed, any parent would naturally giving food since he was already asleep. But not Josh, whenever he felt we discontinued food service, he just bawled! And hence, eating and sleeping always went hand in hand.

Car Wash Boy

Summer of 2006 called for some ingenius way to pre occupy a hyperactive 5 year old boy. That said, a dirty car and some soapy water was all that we needed.