First Smash Book

My relationship with smash book started in February 2012.  We have a love and hate kind of relationship because looking at the pages, it seemed easy, but when I am about to start to make my page or spread, I always end up pulling out all the embellishments I have, my room seemed like a bomb just blew off.  Then I remember, it should be messy and beautiful, stick to the plan - just smash everything in there, no rules.

And so I started to use one of my folios.  First stop - Simple Orange.  I liked it coz its.... SIMPLE.  My first folio was About Me coz it was easier and so i thought.  I embellished the outside cover with thickers, few papers and flowers. Good start huh.

Then I started printing photos of everything I see, browsed thru magazines and did some cutting.  But I just couldn't make myself use the clippings. Ughhhh.. another dilemma, I had to have a plan B - print more photos and use it. So my next pages where about my dream wedding, my favorite summer clothes (that I wish I could have the courage to wear), about me as a photographer and my favorite stores to shop.

Wedding spread

 Summer clothes spread

 Me as a photographer

 Favorite shops

After my first few pages, I stopped.  I wonder, why can't I finish this book, its about me for heaven's sake.  I guess I really don't know me either. Haha.  But I didn't give up on this book, if it weren't for the cover page that says "ABOUT ME", I would've finished this months ago.  So here are some of the other spreads I have made in this book and hopfully I can finish this and get to start a new, and this time, NO THEMES! 

  Me as a Smash*aholic and a Shopaholic

 My 2012 birthday spread

 Me and my favorite pastime - swimming and the beach

Til next time!

Handmade Daybook

As some of you may know, I and Cathy of Inside the Crafters Studio enrolled in Amy Tangerine's self-paced class on BPC (Big Picture Classes).  She showed there some tutorials and tricks she has in making her daybooks and how to keep the creative juices flowing.  Before I joined her class, I have already been making myself some daybooks and was able to use it for the trip I had with my siblings to Palawan Philippines last February of 2012.  Mind you ladies, ones you get to start making and get a hang of it, you'll end up making tons and dont know when, where and how to use it.

I have 2 Original AT Daybooks, the first one is the Noteworthy Daybook I purchased, and another one is the Montage Spiral Daybook sent by my good friend Cathy.  I have a handmade daybook sent by one of the Smash*aholics Patti Martin during one of our challenges/swap sessions in the group.  I have already made about 8 daybooks using the paper collections that I have and have used only 2 so far and RAKed 3 to other girls, and 1 for my swap with Patti.

Daybook is a great way to document shorts trips, daily or monthly lives, favorite activities, children's school activities or programs they're in.  Its nice to keep this little daybooks or others may call it journals so you have something to look back at after a few years.  You get to appreciate life more. 

So here's the daybook that I made using 6x6 paper pads.  The size of the daybook is about 6 1/4 x 4 1/2.  I used this daybook to document the instagram photos I have for the month of September.  Im doing this now because I am preparing myself to commit to making my first ever December Daily - yup, save it for another post :)

Here's the look of my daybook, half filled, still a work in progress as it is still September, and as soon as I'm done, i'll post the rest of it.

The front cover of the daybook.  Using paper doilies, thickers, mini alpha stickers, and some washi tapes.  The camera die-cut was sent to me by Cathy.

 First page - Sept. 1.  Facetime session with the boyfriend surprising me with a bunch of giant gerberas.

Sept. 2 - Lunch with family at TGIFridays then a little shopping.  Was able to save the tag of the bag.

And here's a tutorial video I made on how I hand stitch my handmade books.

And this is a video of the very first daybook I have made before I joined BPC class to document my vacation.

Hope I have inspired you to make your own daybooks and share it with me on how you used yours.

Crafting Tools

Before I start with this post, I'd like to thank you all for visiting my blog and for giving great comments.  This means a lot, and will keep me going with my blog.

Anyways, today's post is about the tools and the things I use when I'm creating something, may it be a card, a smash page, a full daybook.  These stuff I have accumulated over the years, some from friends and family and some I got from my mom, who's a crafter herself, and I'm lucky to have gotten that part of her genes. LOL.

First stop, Cutting tools.  There's nothing special with the scissors that I have, some of this I just got from our local office supply store.  But I dedicate my scissors to a certain work, the black one i use to cut my double sided tape, the blue one is for cutting ribbons and other fabric material, the red one i use for paper.  But like any crafter, sometimes you just have to break the rule you made specially when one is out of reach. haha.  The blade or cutter (yellow) is the one I use with trimming of intricate details or when Im cutting tons of photos printed.  I dont use my trimmer for cutting my photos 'coz it does make that rough edges.  If you are not comfortable using this huge cutters - which I love using, you can also opt using X-acto knives.  I also have the Cricut Paper Trimmer (actually it's my mom's but she doesn't use it, so i asked for it).  One trick though, after cutting a few papers, always clean the groove where the blade slides 'coz a few bits of paper left may rip of the ones you are trying to cut and think your blade sucks.  

Also included in the photo below are the T-square ruler I use to mark my papers and also helps in creating straight lines and the 12" Metal ruler I use with my cutter.

 My scissors and cutter

 Cricut Paper Trimmer, 12" T-Square Ruler and 12" Metal Ruler

The next must-haves if I may say so, are bonefolders and paper piercer.  The bonefolder makes crisp folds with making cards and also use when scoring paper.  My mom has the MS Scoreboard but I'm just to lazy using it.  So I use my bonefolder and my paper trimmer when scoring.  The paper piercer I use when making my own handmade daybooks.  It comes handy I tell you specially when you try to transfer tiny alpha stickers on your projects.

 

 Martha Stewart Bonefolder and my Paper Piercer

Third on my list are adhesives.  I have the Scotch ATG Applicator which I use only when I'm doing my card making projects for the simple reason that refills are hard to find where I am. When I am working on other projects, I use double sided tapes to secure my photos and other embellishments.  The washi tapes I use to add accent to my pages and even at 51 rolls, I still feel like I need more and still afraid to use it as I might ran out of it haha. Is that obsession or what!?  Not included in the photo, I have the Scotch Quick Dry Liquid adhesive to attach other embellishments like buttons, flowers, etc  Another must have would be pop dots to add dimension to your pages, and I also have glue dots that I seldom use. I use the 3M Double sided foam tape in place of pop dots - its cheaper.

Washi tapes, 3M foam tape, glue dots, double sided tape and Scotch ATG applicator

Other things that I have on my stash:

 Ink Pads, Distress Inks, Acrylic Blocks

 Stamps sets

 

Assorted Pens - Regular Ballpoint pen, Smash pen, White Gel pen, Mechanical Pencil (or any pencil will do), Sharpies and other Colored marker pens

Some of my 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock and 6x6 pads

 Edge punch

 Some of my crazy messy embellishments - alpha stickers, word stickers and more stickers, buttons, blings, flowers, tags, etc.

So there goes my stuff for you to see and I hope I get to help you decide what things you need to start you paper crafting projects.

Thanks!

First Entry - Smashbook

Hi everyone!  This will be my first blog ever, so please bear with me and I hope I can keep it up.  I have been a crafter since I was in highschool, roughly about 15 years ago.  I started with jewelry making, and when I'm on vacation, I make sure to drop by Michaels and Joanns to grab some stuff for me to make.  After the craze of handmade jewelries, my creativity subsided and felt blah.

In 2009, I started my paper crafting journey.  Watching Youtube videos, reading blogs, browsing thru hundreds and thousands of the photos on Google and trying to make things I see. Little did I know, my passion for scrapbooking/journaling would be unveiled.

One day, I was again on my laptop looking for something interesting, and like everyone else I know, I came across K&Company's Smashbook and got curious about it.  I further searched about it, and then I saw the Youtube video, then BAM! I know I needed to have it. 

I also came across the Facebook group called Smash*aholic where I met very talented women who shared my passion, and I guess obsession with the folios (as what the company calls it).  Thru that group, I got a website that offered a great discount for the folios.  My 1st two folios were the Orange (Simple) and Green (Eco) which I asked my Aunt residing in the US to buy me online.  My next one was the Red (Doodle) one which was sent by my boyfriend from Canada.  My next folios are the Blue (Retro) and Pink (Pretty) which were gifted to me by my mom's friend also based in the US and the Black (Modern) which was bought for me by my mom when she went on a vacation.  Wonder why all were sent and gifted to me? Coz I'm from the Philippines and no one sells it here!!! Oh what a shame.  Anyways, the last on my collection is the Mini Smashbook which was sent to me by a good friend who I became friends with thru the Smashaholic group - Wendi.

Before i forget, I also got 1 more of the Orange folio when i entered into one of Kellie Winnell's giveaway raffles and I was lucky to win it.  

Currently, I am working on 3 folios, 2 Orange folios - About me and a secret project, and the green one for my penpals from the same Facebook group.

Here's my collection  of the smashbooks, oh and 2 Amy Tangerine's daybooks, which I am also obsessed with. But save that for another post.

What's in your collection?