IBSIC Challenge #44

Hi there friends. Today's the reveal for the new challenge over at the Inspired by Stamping Inspiration Challenge and here's your prompt for this week....

pretty huh? I love the colors and the accent chosen. Here's my take on this week's challenge...

Missing You card

I used the Dear Lizzy's Neapolitan papers and vellum. They had that perfect soft pink hue in the papers. I wanted to incorporate the roses in the prompt so I went through all of my floral stamps and luckily found this rose one which I stamped on white cardstock with red ink and then cut them out. They were the perfect handmade accent to my soft card. 

I hope you join us this week. To learn more about this and other IBSIC challenges click here. 

Till next time,

Grace

January Recap

Hi there. So I was going through my photos this month and I've realized that I have not posted certain pictures. Then a thought came that maybe I should do a monthly recap this year since I'm taking a break from the 365 photo project.

 

So for the month of January this is what we did...

 

We started the month with a visit from my step daugther and her husband. I still can't believe I have a son in law now. A and J (at the time of this post, I haven't told them that I'm sharing this on the blog hence the initials) came in on New Year's Eve. We had a lovely dinner and then the following day we took them on a tour of our area. The first stop was Garden of the Gods.

We also took them to Manitou Springs then we had lunch at our favorite BBQ place...Rudy's. We were having such a great time and then on our way to our car we discovered that someone broke the back window of our SUV. We were one of two cars that were broken into. :( Definitely not the way we wanted to start the year!

 

Hubby's facial expression was exactly what we were all feeling. We had to drive home with a broken window in the back in the cold weather.

 

 The following day Mitch found a pick-a-part place where he got a replacement window and was able to put it on by himself. The incident happened during the middle of the day and the restaurant had a camera facing their parking lot but unfortunately up to this day, we have not found the perpetrators and we probably would never will.

 

A couple of days later we took the family to Denver. Mitch and I have always wanted to try the train and this time seemed to be the perfect time to experience it. We drove up to the outskirts of Denver and took the train all the way to downtown.

 The kids enjoyed the ride. They liked being able to sit and look outside the window to see the view. I have to say though that this train ride was pricier than I had initially thought it would be. For our group, it would've been cheaper to just drive to downtown and pay the parking fee, but at least now we know and we got to say that we've experienced it.

 

 

We also took them to Pioneers museum (no pictures there {insert sad face here}) and then the day after we took them to the Olympic Center....

 

look at my strong little man...

A and J didn't really get to experience a lot of the outdoor sceneries because it was very cold that week but we told them that if they came in the summer time we would be able to do a lot more hiking and outdoor activities.

 

 You've already read about our ice skating/walking on lake experience in this blog post.

 

We also worked on Marcus' science fair project this month. We were trying to recreate this.

 

This month Maddie decided to be more like mommy in the form of list making. I love that she's realizing how effective and valuable list making is. That's my girl!

 

Because it's winter time, we've been spending a lot of time indoors and one of the things that we are doing lots of is watching movies. We got this popcorn bowl set (one big bowl +4 little ones) as a Christmas present and we've been using them during our "at home" movie watching. It's been great cause there's been no issue with one person hogging the popcorn bowl.

 

 So that's what our January looked like. How about you?

 

Till next time,

Grace 

latest layouts and card

Happy Monday everyone! So glad you came by today and I hope you leave here feeling like you've gained some new inspirations.

 

So for today's share, I'd like to showcase some new layouts I've made recently. Part of my "simplifying" goal is to go back to basics. That means to go back to what I have loved most about papercrafting and that is challenges. I crave for them. They make me push out of my comfort zone and try something new.

 

Lately I've been finding myself enjoying the challenges  at 2Peas. I especially love watching the videos of the garden girls and how they put their challenge examples together. I don't know about you, but I love seeing other artists' process. It gives me an insight on how and why they create plus it usually gives me a new trick or tip that I've never thought of before.

 

So anyways, without any more babble from me here are two pages that I've made through participating with the challenges...

 

Birthday Shopping

The challenge that was given was to use our wood veneer stash. Now I don't have a lot of those but I did remember the Studio Calico banners that I had received through a design team work about a year ago. In this page, I painted them hot pink so they can stand out against all my neautral and light colored paper. I used four of them as a banner, adding a stamped flower in the center for added design. And then I used two as a little ribbon notch behind my flower.

 

this page was about the things that my daugther bought from her birthday money. Can you believe these photos are from 2011? This just shows you that the phrase "caught up" doesn't exist in my scrapbooking life. I'm always a year or two behind.....and that doesn't bother me. :)

 

To create a visual triangle in this page, I painted a chipboard tab the same hot pink color and added that to the page.

 

So-Cal Food

The challenge that was issued for us in this one was to create a layout and a card using the same products and incorporating the same design on both projects. This layout is a sampling of the yummy food that I always crave for when I think about southern California food. There's just certain dishes that tastes better there.

 

I love creating collages of products in my layouts. With this one, I incorporated a sticker, stamp (missing you), flower, cut out papers and twine. All of my favorite things right now.

 

Thank you card

and this is the accompanying card. I used the same block design that I used in the background of my layout. I used a circle accent and some rhinestones and flowers as well. One of the things I'm inlove with right now is the flag/pennant trend. I just love sticking these fun embellishments in my project as it evokes happy, celebratory feeling to any project. I love making my own by using the same papers that I've used in the background. This makes everything coordinated.

 

So that's my share today. What is/are your scrapbook goals this year? Get caught up? Join challenges? Learn new techniques? I'm curious to know.

 

Till next time,

Grace

 

 

 

 

 

First excursion of the year

Hi there. So last Saturday, we finally got some much needed sun around here. It had been cold for over a week now (lows usually in the teen's or single digit) and so the family and I decided that it was a perfect day to go out and do some exploring. 

We first drove to Monument Lake. We've heard about it but have never really seen it. Monument is just north of Colorado Springs and it only takes us about 15 minutes to drive there. We packed some lunch so we can eat with this lake as our view. Little did we know that our "quiet picnic by the lake" would not be so quiet. Once we got there, we found out that there was an ice fishing tournament going on. The crowd was exciting to watch, especially since none of us has ever experience ice fishing before. 

Being that I was born and raised in a tropical country, I was apprehensive seeing men and women walk on a frozen lake. I was afraid that any minute the ice underneath me would collapse and I will sink into a deep cold pool of water. But after a close look and knocking on the ice (yeah I think everyone was looking at me and laughing at how crazy I was) I realized how thick the ice over the lake was and then I was fine. 

We weren't sure if being a spectator was allowed but we parked and watched anyways. I admired those people sitting in cold temperatures patiently waiting for a fish. We really didn't see anyone grab a prize (fish) but I found it fascinating how the whole "sport" is done. I saw this one guy drilling a hole through the thick ice so he can reach the water. Later I found another guy drilling but using a motorized drill instead. Now that's smart!

Here's a look at a drilled hole. I would say that the ice over the water was about 6" thick. 

So we ate our lunch on the back our truck while watching all the fisherman with their very patient faces. I don't think I can ever be a fisherman. I would scream at the fish cause they're taking so long to grab my bait!

After lunch, Mitch wanted to walk across the lake. He wanted to add "walked on an icy lake" in his "done that" list. When he got back to our spot, him and the kids noticed a sleek icy part of the lake and decided to explore it. They realized that because the ice was so sleek, they can actually try to skate through it. 

Being the scared mom that I was, I was praying the whole time that the ice won't break underneath the kiddos. They were all safe and was having a blast slipping and sliding over the ice. 

Hubby even got into the action. Sometimes I feel like I have three kids instead of two. 

After Monument lake, we drove west to Cripple Creek. It's a small mining town about an hour away from Colorado Springs.They had a Heritage center by the entrance to the city and we stopped by there to learn more about the history of the area and admire the different artifacts inside the museum. 

I always find it humbling how things are a lot easier now in my time that it was for people 100 years ago. Through reading the different displays in the museum, I learned that the average daily pay for a miner back in 1928 was $3. Their average yearly income was $1000. Now the cost of living back then balanced out what they were making since the price of bacon, for example, was only 18 cents per pound versus the average $6 per pound today. But the amount of actual labor people had to do back then makes me feel grateful that I don't have to travel in a wagon, wash my clothes by hand or milk my own cow!

After touring the museum/Heritage center, we drove down to Cripple Creek's "downtown". It was a short main road filled with old buildings that has now been converted into casinos. I guess since this area was a mining community for gold, they figured that it was the perfect little place for you to "loose" all your gold. Here's a picture of the town down the valley. This photo was taken inside the museum. It was cold and I didn't want to go outside to get a better shot. Lazy I know!

On the way home, we stopped by Donut Mill in Woodland Park. Since we packed our own lunch, we figured that we could splurge on dollar donuts that are humongous! 

So that was our first excursion of the year. Hopefully it won't be the last. 

Till next time,

Grace

Inspired by Stamping #43 Challenge

Hello friends. Sorry this post is coming in a bit late. I'm still getting a hang of the schedule for challenge reveals for Inspired by Stamping. Bear with the newbie here. 

Anyways, if you are coming from the Inspired by Stamping Inspiration Challenge blog you've probably seen all the gorgeous takes on this inspiration board...

I love, love, love the soft color combo! Here's my take on it...

You Make Me Smile card

I took the color scheme from the board as my main inspiration for my card. I love the flower accents and incorporated that through my embossed background as well as my three large pink flowers. I wanted my sentiment to "pop" on the card so I used black ink on the sentiment. After running my floral embossing folder through my die cut machine, I smeared some yellow ink on it to reveal the design better. When inking your embossed image, start lightly and try to color just the raised part of the image. 

I'm inlove with the pennant/flag trend right now. I made my own with some pattern paper and toothpick. I added some rhinestone to give the flag some "shine". 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you play along with us this week. For more info on this challenge, please click here. 

Till next time,

Grace

Inspired by Stamping January Releases + Challenge

 

Hello friends. Today I would like to share with you the January stamp releases from Inspired by Stamping. I hope you scroll all the way down so you can see all of these goodness that is now available for purchase in the store here. I personally am inlove with all of the word stamps. That's my favorite type to hoard. A card could never be complete without that perfect sentiment, won't you agree?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and if you are ready to take these inspirations to the next level, participate in this week's challenge with this prompt...

 

I love, love, love the color combo in this inspiration board plus the soft feel of the white flowers.

 

Here's my take on the challenge..

 

 

 

Again to learn more about the challenge and stamps, please stop by Inspired by Stamping site here.

 

Till next time,

Grace

 

 

 

 

Cards with the Notebook Collection *My Little Shoebox*

Hi there. Did you know that besides this day being Martin Luther King day, it's also "give a hug day"? It is! According to Family Fun magazine anyways. So make sure you give someone a big hug today. Let's 'embrace' this special day. Get it? hahahaha, that's my attempt at trying to be humorous. *Wink*

 

So, today I'm showing off my January projects for My Little Shoebox. I was assigned to create five cards using the Notebook line. I love the vintage and sweet feel of this collection. 

Hello

I Miss U

Make a Wish

Time To Celebrate

You are the best

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you've enjoyed my card share today. You can learn more about these cards in the My Little Shoebox blog in this post. 

Till next time,

Grace

California trip top 10

Hi there friends. You know that idea I had in the beginning of the year of "simplifying my life"? That doesn't seem to be happening for me lately. There's too many things going on. Between going back to school, church calling, helping my kids with their school projects and keeping the home clean and stocked up with food....it's hard to stay sane. Goodness! (breath Grace, just take deep breaths!)

 

Ok so now that's off my chest, let's get this post going shall we?

 

I know I've promised to share some highlights and photos of our trip to California for the Holiday break. I have to admit that I didn't take as much photos as I had planned to but I guess that's ok because that meant that I was "experiencing" my vacation instead of just being a bystander to it.

 

Before I start the photo roll, I just want to say that although I'm inspired by the views in Colorado and I've made some great friends here....California would still be my home and I couldn't help but be sad when we had to leave. Not only is the family there but the memories that I've built there in the 10+ years that I've lived there cannot be easily replaced by Colorado memories.

 

Ok so here's a look back at our trip...

1. The picture above is showing us driving away from Colorado and all it's beautiful mountains to arrive in a mountain less but full of wide freeway Southern California. Oh how I've missed driving at 70mph on the freeway. :) Another thing I've enjoyed their was the weather. Colorado had a white Christmas but to be honest, I was happier with wet California than snow cold Colorado.



2. One of the priorities of the trip was to visit our favorite SoCal eateries. Oh how I've missed In N Out, Korean BBQ and authentic Mexican and Chinese food. Ooohh, I'm longing for them already!

 



3. I got to visit one of my favorite stores...Fabric Barn. They are a wholesale place chock full of party supplies, fabric and my favorite.....ribbon! I didn't get much as my budget wasn't big but just being in there makes this crafty girl oh so happy!!!

 

4. We got to visit our "old stomping ground". We met some friends at Heritage Park and the kids and I stopped by the Cerritos Library. It's interesting how just two years ago, we go to these places at least once a week. Mitch and I also drove by our old home and visited with some neighbors.

 

5. We got to stop by a local neighborhood who lights up their front yards with beautiful Christmas decorations and lights. I had forgotten the specific address for this so I'm glad that I got to talk to a good friend that shared with me the driving directions to it.

 

6. It's so nice to go back home and be reminded of our childhood memories through our mother's cooking. My parents made some delicious authentic Filipino food and my mother in law made some of her own specialties like the Belgian Waffles pictured above which she made on Christmas day.

 

7. Nothing says "family sticking together" than having the same brand of camera. Here's me and my brothers (yes they are both younger than me and yet have passed me on the height area) with our Nikon cameras. Fun times!

 

8. We attended my niece's baptism while in town. Mitch even gave one of the talks. It's great to be with family during celebrations like these. This year Maddie will be baptized and I'm crossing my fingers that we can have some family members present for that one too.

 

 

9. Although I had all intentions to visit each and every friend I hold close to my heart during this trip, it was just not feasible BUT I'm glad that I got to see some and visiting with them was the "icing on the cake".  These ladies are more than friends...they are my sisters. :)

 

10. and of course...the main reason why I keep coming back to California....FAMILY! They are the reason why part of me wants to stay there. We had a great time with them. Mitch's family is three times bigger than mine and we did take a photo of them too but because of my fear of exposing my beautiful nieces and nephews without their consent, I've chosen to just email their parents' those images.

 

With all the changes happening with my little family, I'm not sure when we can come back to visit again which made this trip even more special and memorable. Till  next time Cali!

 

Thank you for stopping by.

 

Till next time,

Grace