Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back again.



Thursday, September 11, 2008

My heart is full.....

I'm really in awe at how far and wide this great craft of scrapbooking reaches to. It blows me away that I make friends in Malaysia, Europe and even in my home country- Philippines. I feel so blessed that even though these ladies are oceans away from me, that I can inspire them in their creative journeys.
One such instance was this sweet mention of Timi from the Philippines in her blog......
Grace - a fellow Filipina who's shown the world that the FILIPINA CAN DO IT! I love her mini album projects so drop by her blog to see her work.
She sweetly added me to her list of people she awards this to....


Now I'm not too fast in replying to people and she's posted this a while back but I'm still very touched. Thank you so much for being a sweet friend.

I think I'm supposed to pass this along and so here's a few blogs that I get really inspired by when I stop by there.....
Kathy Thompson- love her photography and classic and clean style of scrapbooking
Kelly Purkey- her style just evokes fun!
Jennifer McGuire- the technique guru, what else can I say?!
Anne Hafermann- I wanna be like her when I grow up! Besides being a great scrapper, she runs marathons too. How cool is that?!

Have a great day,
Grace

Today

I've been MIA for a while and I don't have the energy to recap things so today I'm focusing on what's going on TODAY!

- it's a little somber today since we're remembering the horrible events of 9-11 seven years ago. Where were you when that happened? For me, I was getting ready for work when I saw our kitchen TV on and my mom (I wasn't married at that time yet) was telling me what just went on in New York.

- Marcus is doing phenomenal at school. No crying, not getting into trouble (I hope) and finishing his packed lunch everyday. I was very worried that he'd get jealous with the kids that are purchasing cafeteria food cause I know sometimes they would sell his favorite food of all time- PIZZA, but so far so good. I really want to be able to control what he eats so he stays healthy.


-Went to Mommy and me preschool with Maddie. She doesn't seem to wanna sit and behave lately. I don't really know what's causing this. Is it because there's no big brother to emulate?Is is because it's been a while since she's been in the class that she needs retraining with all the expected behaviors? I dunno. I hope she gets over her little phase though cause it's kinda embarrassing that my little girl is the only one that doesn't wanna sit and sing her heart out.

-I'm trying to do a little bit of scrapping when we're in the car waiting for either our preschool class to start or when we're waiting for Marcus' class to let out. I now have a little scrapbook bag in my car where I tow kits, pictures, my little notebook and some other stuff I wanna play with. So far I've done some sketches and planned out stuff but haven't had the time to execute them all. Hay!


-Maddie is so obsessed with Cinderella lately. We borrowed the Disney movie from my inlaws and she watches it everyday, sometimes more than once. I'm in awe at her fascination with that princess. She wears her costume all the time. Now her costume if from Sleeping Beauty but she's into pink as well so it doesn't bother her that she's not wearing "cinderella's blue gown". Oh and for my family, her bday is coming up and we stopped by the disney store yesterday and they had the cutest "glass slipper" there. Maddie was all over it! Just a hint, you know how our little Maddie has a shoe festish. *wink*

-I'm a little sad that Marcus is moving along with this school thing a bit too fast for me. Every time I drop him off, it's like he couldn't wait to get out of my grip. He can't wait till I leave him there. My baby's all grown up, I feel sad!

-I'm soooo broke! I've spent two days shopping like crazy. Can't help but use my discounts at Aeropostale and then I stopped by my old store Charlotte Russe and they were having some great deals. Fashion tops for $4.99! Can't pass that up! Oy!

-And finally a couple of card shares for all my scrappy friends.




So what did you do today?

When you have time, let me know. I enjoy reading posts/comments left on my blog.

Have a great day,
Grace

Friday, September 5, 2008

Upsy daisy share

I stumbled upon this great manufacturer a few months ago when I tried for their DT call. I liked their designs so I ordered a few papers through their online store. Little did I know that I would be so inspired by the papers. Seriously, I love the variation of whimsical, bold colors to soft, feminine designs. Here's some that I made recently with the papers I had....

The Great Cake Meltdown


Good Old Days


On the road again! card


and here's some that I made when I got my papers a few months back. This was done AFTER the call was already done.

Nyet!


We're going on a bus ride


To my "tweet" heart card


thank you for looking and wish me luck. They're having another DT call and I put my name on the hat again. *wink*

Grace

week in review

Is it really true? We're in September already? Wow I still can't believe it!
Our first week of September started off with lots of events so here's a breakdown and some "scrappy" share.....
Monday- Mitch and kids went to G'ma and G'pa Tolman's home for some swimming and playing while I stayed home to do some laundry and then in the afternoon went to work. I really didn't want to work but when I found out it I was being paid time and a half, I stopped complaining in my head. *laugh*

Tuesday- Finished off chores, grocery shopping and trying to help some sick kiddos get better. Marcus and Maddie have started coughing really bad. They've been so exhausted with all our weekend events plus the change in the temp have caused them to get the bug. *yuck*

Wednesday- Went to the library and got Marcus ready for his first day of school tomorrow. Got his hair trimmed, prepped his lunch sack and busted out his Transformers backpack. Somebody is definitely getting excited for Kindergarten. Mitch went to court today to serve jury duty. He was not happy that he couldn't get excused from it.

Thursday- Today was the big day! Maddie hanged out with Uncle George in the morning while Marcus and I attend his first day of Kindergarten.

Everything went well except for the coughing. He sounded really bad. One of the moms' in there even showed her disdain that I brought my sick child to school. Every time the kids had to fall in line, she made sure that her kid was as far away as possible from Marcus. *frown* But other than that, Marcus seemed to fit right into the program. No crying, whining or fear in him. He enjoyed the rug/reading time, playing and I even saw a little twinkle in his eyes when he found out that there's a computer lab in their school and that kindergarten kids get to have some lab time. Yup, you can tell that somebody likes to play online games. *wink*
Mitch had a great ending to his day as well. He finally got excused from Jury duty. The defending lawyers didn't feel he would be a fair judge. *woohoo*
Played with digital scrapbooking today and made this....

I was inspired by Scrapwords' contest for this week about scrapbooking a lifelong dream. I've always wanted to be a published writer so I had a great excuse to journal my feelings about that. Check the contest here. The winner will get $15 GC from the SW store.

Friday- Today we stayed home. I'm on a mission to get Marcus better by Monday so he can go back to school without any more moms raising their eyebrows at me. Got to finish a few projects. Can't share them all yet but got this page done for a challenge over at SoCalScrap.us. We as DT's have to make a sample for the Product challenge and here's what I did....

I used the Cosmo Cricket tag alphas. Check out the challenge here. Hope you can join us cause there's a great prize for the winner. *smile*
Tomorrow is another packed day for me. I'm going to a bridal shower in the morning, attend a baptism in the afternoon then work at night.
Speaking of bridal showers, I finally have the excuse of making another towel cake. Loved how it turned out.


And made a simple card to go along with it.


So there, Whew! Just recapping everything is tiring me! LOL.

Have a great weekend,
Grace

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Scrappin on a budget

I've been thinking a lot lately on how I can minimize my spending without cutting on the "fun" stuff that comes with my favorite hobby. I mean the fact that this is a 2 billion industry in 07 says a lot, don't you think? But with high gas prices and an unstable housing market, this hobby has taken a big hit for some crafters.
Plus some of my friends and family who I'm slowly trying to convert into scrapbooking had been turned off by all the STUFF that they THINK they have to purchase to preserve their memories. That's just so sad if somebody thinks they have to have the latest gadget in order for them to start building their scrapbooks.
So I came up with my own little way to scrapbook on a budget. I figured out some ways to continue doing what we all love to do without hurting our pockets.
So here's my tips on how you can save and still scrap! the Grace Tolman way. *smile*

PHOTOS
Try to crop your photos before printing them out. You can fit 2 3x4" pictures in a 4x6 photo paper which right now is just 19 cents at Walmart. This method you are actually hitting two birds with one stone. (a) you eliminate the cropping you usually do with pictures that will go on a multiphoto layout and (b) you save half the price you would normally spend on photo printing. Instead of paying .38 on two, you only pay .19 on two. Sounds good doesn't it? Now you're probably thinking "Well that's sounds good but where do I crop them?" I'm sure you have a photo editing software in your computer (adobe photoshop, picassa, paintpro) Utilize those softwares, some of them you can even try out for free if you check them trial versions on the company websites.


ALPHABET LETTERS
Buy a lot of alphabet letters in WHITE. You can always color them in to fit your theme. I do this ALL the time especially with stickers. If you wanna play with chipboard, buy the naked/raw ones. That's the same concept.


ORGANIZATION

Use those USPS priority boxed as vertical paper storage. Alter them to fit your space. I got this idea from Robin Redd. She brought one to a crop and after seeing how creatively she altered them, I was hooked.

You can also recycle glass jars to store embellishments. Basically think twice before throwing anything into trash can, you can never know what a little soap and water plus some fun papers can turn something unusable to the cutest storage ever!

COMPUTER
another item that we tend to overlook is our dear computer and our word documents. There's lot of fonts and dingbats (images) that we can play with in there of which we can incorporate in our layouts/projects. Let your inner designer come out by combining these things on your next page. I'm sure your page will rock plus since you made your own designs, you layout will stand out from the rest.

DOUBLE SIDED PATTERN PAPERS
I love purchasing these cause I feel like I'm getting more bang for my buck. But I'm sure you're wondering how I can incorporate big parts of each design on a layout without having to purchase two of each design. Well meet my best friend when it comes to this------

I just cut them out, flip on of the pieces and put them back together with the tape. Of course I cut them in a part where it will be covered with pictures and other elements so I can hide my little trick!

So there, just a few of my ideas on how you can maintain a small scrapbook budget without hurting the "fun" of the process.

If you have any other ideas, feel free to post it on the comments box. I would love to hear what other's are doing to stay within a budget.

Have a great day,
Grace

Saturday, August 30, 2008

a new hobby and some card share.....

Mitch has been, should I dare say, a little envious that I have a hobby that I'm so passionate about. He wanted to be like me, spending all my time and every little dime I have on my paper obsession. I told him to go out there and find something that he would enjoy and after months of saving up he finally got his very own Bow. He wants to get into archery bec. of this one guy in our ward (church) that goes hunting for boar (sp?) with his bow. He thinks he needs this kind of challenge next. I was all for it since I figured how much more dangerous is this hobby compared to his motorcycle, hunting and strenous hikes? right?!

But kidding aside, I'm glad he did take this up cause now he won't have to bug me when I'm scrapping. I can just tell him to go out there and target shoot. (just kidding). Seriously though he looks like he's really happy doing this and I'm happy for him. :) Nice comeback don't you think. *wink*




ok so now for some card share. I've been so uninspired this whole week. I felt like nothing was coming together right with my projects but like my mantra this year..... progress not perfection.... so I'm chugging along and sharing what little I've done....I'm cringing while I upload these cards so be nice when you comment on these ok.





have a great weekend everyone,
Grace

cheap jewelry organizer

ok so one of the things that's been on my mind lately is trying to figure out an inexpensive way to organize my jewelry. Working for Charlotte Russe has quadrupled my collection and it has gotten out of hand. I went to Claire's and Icing accessory store only to see organizers going for 20 bucks or more and I knew they won't hold up ALL of my stuff. So after being so disappointed I went for a little therapy in one of my fave stores in the world- Michael's Craft store. I was looking around and gathering up some inspirations when I stumbled upon the floral section and saw this circle wire wreath thing. I loved the way the wires where put together and a light bulb hit me..... I can totally use this for my jewelry. So I bought it for a mere $3, went home, grabbed some paper clips and my accessories and started filling this baby up





and here's the result....


Ok now before you gasp that I have a lot of fashion jewelry, may I remind you that I got 40% discount on all my purchases so it was not hard for me to accumulate this much. *wink*
So back to the organizer, I turned the paper clips to make it an S shape hook and started hooking one end onto the wreath and hanging my necklaces on the other end.



I placed the necklaces on top cause they're the longest and then my bracelets on the bottom.



Some of my really chunky bracelets are still hanging onto my old organizer cause the hooks just couldn't hold them and I'm still trying to figure out how I can add my stud earrings into this system but other than that I'm pretty happy with how this little experiment turned out. So if you have as much jewelry as I do and looking for an inexpensive way to organize them, go to your craft store and spend 3 dollars. It would be your most valuable investment!

Have a great day,
Grace

Friday, August 29, 2008

September kit sneek peek

Coconut Scrapshop is on a roll with some fantabalous kits. September kit was designed by dt member Tabitha and includes these fabulous papers from Mollie and Mac







classic designs and interesting patterns, won't you agree?

Here's the other "goodies" in the kit...
Heidi Swapp Journaling Spots
Cat eye blue ink
bazzill
Adorn it Sticky note pad paper
Brown Gems
Adorn it Tan Alphabet stickers
maya road damask sheer ribbon
maya road sheer scroll frame book
brads or eyelets

Did you read that, new Maya Road stuff, fresh from CHA summer is in the kit as well. This is really a must buy!!!

Kits will be available on Sept 1st. Sign up early and don't miss out on a great combination of products.

Have a great day,
Grace

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

CD Case Mini album tutorial

Hi all. I taught an online class about two weeks ago at the SocalScrap birthday crop. Some have mentioned that they missed the class but are still interested in the project. So I decided to post the class here. I started with a welcome video. Note that the video is my first time to do something of this nature hence the dorkiness, kids talking in the back and bad lighting.

If you wanna play along here's the supplies needed....

1- 12x12 cardstock
5- different coordinating pattern papers (sizes can be about 6" squares each). If using double sided paper, you can use less sheets.
1- whole sheet of word sticker
2-3 tags, journaling blocks and small square or circle embellishments. They must be FLAT elements though.
CD clear case (the part where the CD is stored should be taken out).
Adhesive of choice

Optional:
Bone folder
Ink pad



What my final project looked like


So onto the steps....
Step 1. Cut the papers!

Here are the dimensions:

For the cardstock:

2- 12 x 4 2/3”

1- 4 2/3” x ¾”

For the Pattern papers:

1- 6 x 4.6”

1- 5 x 4.6” (if using double sided paper)

7- 4.6 x 3.5”

Step 2. Create the back page

Grab your pattern paper with the size of 6 x 4.6”. Lay the paper on top of the back of the CD case (inside). Use a bone folder/popsicle stick or your finger to make the crease/fold on both sides of the case.

Place the glue dots on the corners of the pattern paper which will be facing the back of the case. Put it closest to the edge so the adhesive is not too obvious.

Adhere the strip of cardstock on the left side of the page paper, inside the case.

Step 3. Creating the inner pages…

Fold each 4 2/3x12” cardstock into three folds. Two of them would be equal (4 2/3 x 5) and one would be 4 2/3x 2”.

Connect the two to make a longer piece of cardstock. Adhere the 2” fold behind one 5”x 4 2/3” fold to connect them.



Check your folds to make sure they’re like an accordion when fanned out

Step 4. Build your inner pages.

Gather your seven pattern papers cut into 4.6 x 3.5”. Adhere a pattern paper on one side/flap of the accordion folded cardstock. Have the papers lay in different sides of the page to create a flowing design throughout the book. For example, one page would have the pattern paper on the left hand side, the next would have the pattern paper on the bottom, and then the next would have it to the right, and so on. *make sure you leave one part black (without design). This will be the part glued to the back of the cd case.

Make sure you cover the 2” cardstock (connecting both cardstocks together) with pattern paper.


Adhere the side where there’s no design onto the back of the CD case, placing it to the right edge of the case.


Step 5. Decorate the inner pages…

Start with the 2” flap. I adhered a scroll die cut on both sides of this piece.

And with the rest of the pages, I layered the pattern paper with mesh and a word sticker. *Remember choose embellishments that are FLAT! Your case won’t close if it’s too bulky!


Step 6. Create the front page.

Grab your pattern paper with the measurements of 5 x 4.6”. *If not using double sides pattern paper, make sure you cover the back with another pattern paper. Decorate as you like it. With mine, I used the mesh and word sticker plus the die cut shape for embellishments. Make sure you decorate both sides of the paper(s).

front

Back

Step 7. The final touches.

Add the final touches to your book at this time. I rounded the corners of my 2” flap. If you want toyou’re your edges, you can do that now too.

AND YOU ARE DONE!!!

Here’s what the final project looks like again…

Front

Inside pages

Back

Hope you guys had fun with this class and can’t wait to see your finished versions….

If you have any questions about the project and the process please don’t hesitate to ask me.

Have a great day,
Grace