Daily Bread Mini Album | Sizzix

I  always love reading inspirational books. Well guess what I have made one myself using

the Sizzix Sliced Bread die by Where Women Cook. It's just like a book full of inspirations. But this book is pretty. And it's a bread. Not. Haha!

Would you like to take a look at the inside pages?

You can change or add more inspirations, quotes and Bible verses. Just write it down on a pretty tag. Add clip it down to the album with clips, tapes or a stapler. 

Wanna know how I made it? Head over to Sizzix now for the complete tutorial. Don't forget to leave mesome love! :) 

*BONUS POST*

Who is this monkey???

When I took the photos of my above project, he volunteered to be my assistant then became my model.

I DID NOT ask him to pose for me. He asked me to take his photo. LOL. 

He does look like he's having such a good time modelling haha! Fine with me, as long as he doesn't step on my precious book! LOL.

Okey, gotta go now. Don't forget the tutorial! See yah!

Thoughtful Crafts Tuesday!

Here's two family layouts I made for a client using no particular collection. In order for the photos to stand out, I chose off-white, brown and white color palette and a little bit of pink and orange accents ... mostly from different old collections and brands. The new supplies I used are the Mr. Huey mist for that white splatters and the wood veneers. 

Also included in this week's new uploads are these final batch of iphone casings.. I altered these with washi tapes. 100% sales will be given to help a friend who fights breast cancer.

Please visit my Thoughtful Crafts page for more handmade goodies, inspirations and gift ideas. Thank you! :)

note to self: stay you

This week at Made With Love, we are assigned to work on a "then and now" theme. So here's a layout about me... the baby me and the mommy me :) I want this layout to remind me of my roots... of how I used to be.... of how I should be no matter how much the world and the people around me have changed. 

As a child, according to my mother, I was really nice and polite. And growing up, I remember myself to be sweet, thoughtful, friendly, caring... optimistic, hopeful, always inspired, thankful and happy! Or at least I thought I was like that. I always wanted to please my loved ones. I can't stand it if someone is feeling bad or sad. I would do everything to make everyone around me smile. Because I am like that. I smile even when I'm hurt. Hoping in my heart that tomorrow will be better. I decide to be happy in my sorrows, believing that I have a God who takes care of everything. Smile. Laugh. Even in bad days, I can blog about it and end my posts with happy thoughts. 

But then... 

Failed attempts to please others, fake friendships, life's disappointments, hurts ... led me to brace myself and be someone I don't like. Tough.  Dry. Indifferent. Unconcerned. Selfish. Self-absorbed. Hypocrite.  Because the world seems to find this cool as opposed to the "corny" personality I used to have. Oh how wrong I was. I was not always happy being like that...

Why should I let these negative events dictate me to be a monster. Call me corny, call me weird, call me uncool. Alright. But I don't want to be a bitchy monster... but to be honest I  think I already am :(  I miss the old me. 

So this 12x12 layout will be displayed on my desk to remind me in my journey back to uncool nice-ness. God I'm gonna need help haha! 

Used a mix of papers from Lilly Bee and My Mind's Eye, embellishments from my stash,  and a "stay you" cutout with the help of my Eclips. You may wonder why I kind of covered my (baby) face with the title. There is actually an explanation to that. See this photo?...

... look at the pen mark on my nose ( I believe one of my siblings did that. When we were small, we would ruin each other's photos when we had fights! LOL! ). I don't know how to photoshop (it's an item on my bucket list so maybe soon ok) so I couldn't think of any way to cover that up so, cover-with-the-title it is! :) 

(By the way, I noticed how much I like to make side comments on my sentences using open and close parenthesis. Have you noticed too?! lol!) 

Close-ups... 

... the longer I scrap, the more I realise that I am not a medium-type scrapper. But I am still in denial. I still want to believe I can play with mediums (hahaha !) So there, I sprayed the title with Mr. Huey's clear shiny mist. hmmmn. Looks ok to me :) 

Hope you enjoyed (and was not bored to death by) my very honest post :) Till next time! 

Love, Gen :)

mahal mahal kita

I love you too, Miguel! What better way to preserve this precious letter from you than to make a scrapbook layout and blog about it ... 

I remember that day when my PMS was at it's highest I think.  I secretly cried at work because Mae,  kept on posting photos of Miguel's letters for her and photos of the boys playing at home. What? I used to be the  one doing that? That's my job! I got so jealous and hated the fact that I'm a working mom. I missed those stay-at-home days, but more than that, I feared that my kids will adore Mae more than me! Poor insecure mom... 

Then, when I got home, he gave me this! I cried again... LOL! I realised, I will always be his mommy, and no matter how many letters he makes for Tita Mae, I shouldn't feel sad, in fact, I should be happy that while I was away,  he and Kuya are with someone they love and trust... Thank God for Mae :) 

Okay, enough of the drama! LOL! Here are some close ups: 

... have you seen this scissors from Martha Stewart? Used it to make this paper fringe. Super cool!

... at the top right portion of my page, is a little envelope holding my reply to Migs :) 

... these photobooth shots are perfect for the page, they are small enough, so they never steal the limelight from my son's cute hand writing which is the star of the whole layout! 

1 patterned paper = 1 layout

This week at Made With Love, I challenged myself to use only 1 piece of patterned paper to make a layout. So I used only this!  No store-bought embellishments (except for the tags, twines and buttons which are already in my stash).  Talk about cheap page =) 

This layout, showing my kids and their cousins, is about TEAMWORK. Cousin teamwork.  I grew up loving my cousins, enjoying their company, always looking forward to holidays and reunions so we could all get together and try to outdo each other's laughs (I think I win that all the time. I laugh the loudest, fyi!). So I want my kids to grow up loving their cousins too. 

Some close-ups... 

... this sizzix envelope die is my all-time favorite :) 

... simple tricks: washi tape, this chevron stamp, and white paint on white paper! 

Supplies used: 

papers: Jillibean Soup 

cardstocks: American Crafts

stamps: Fancy Pants and Paper Smooches

ink: Ranger Archival 

washi tape: MT

twine: Maya Road

paint: Claudine Hellmuth

others: sharpie pen, buttons, manila tags, sequins

Sizzix dies used: 

Simple Stories - Awesome

A double page for my double happiness.

I have to admit, it's my first time to use Simple Stories because although I like their lines, I thought that the colors were not just me. I am usually more into very bright cutesy stuff. Until Aida assigned me to host a challenge for MWL and gave me these to work on.... then it's love at first try!

I bet the person who designed this collection is a mom. Of boys! She knows exactly what words, sentiments and images to use! Making a layout for my sons was a no brainer... I enjoyed it so much  that I made not just one layout but two... 

These would look perfect in their own rooms... someday =) 

... how about some close up of how I did the hidden journaling: 

Thanks for looking! =) 

Supplies: 

papers: Simple Stories Awesome, AC cardstock

dies: Sizzix

others: MT tapes, buttons, pegs, sharpie pen, stamps

grateful

Dear Lizzy's latest Neapolitan line spells F-U-N! Creating a page and some cards with it is so easy and stress free... It's water color themed designs are so refreshing! And have you seen the stamps? Love!

See more cards and crafts HERE.

The layout tells of how grateful I am to God for this life I have. Far from perfect. Lots of struggles and difficulties but with no doubt a very meaningful and happy life.... A loving and supportive husband, 2 adorable kids, one quirky and silent the other one so bubbly and talks and does his things nonstop. I also want to make mention my cousin, my helper who's been with us since my oldest son was 4 months old. So thankful for a great and trustworthy help wo loves my kids. Makes me feel at peace when I'm away for work =) 

Work! It's also something I am grateful for. A regular 4 hour/day work is just perfect for me. Doing the things I love while still having an ample time to be with my kids in the morning. I always look forward to my busy mornings preparing them for school, doing my crafts, exercise and I get to dress up everyday. Train rides allow me to think deeper, pray more and tinker with my phone guilt-free haha! 

I believe if I had to tell you all, I may never want to stop. I just feel SO BLESSED and my prayer today is that God will always give me the grace to REMEMBER this feeling, this TRUTH. That I am blessed, that He LOVES me.  Eventhough many times I hurt him with how I easily judge others, how terribly selfish I am in my decisions, priorities and actions... how I miserably fail to be consistent in my prayertime... still He loves me. Where can you find a God as loving as that? 

May we all have a spirit-filled Lenten Season! 

Supplies: 

papers, stamps (American Crafts, Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Collection)

dew drops (Robin's Nest)

others: buttons, twine, thread for stitching

bullets and a layout

• hundreds of vacation pictures
• son turned 6 and we had the coolest party ever
• coolest party ever costs less than $100 (well, not counting the precious patterned papers I used!)
• regular, everyday work in addition to teaching at Made With Love (so far I'm enjoying it. Lord please let this feeling stay, Amen.)
• valentines day is almost happening! 
• no date on valentines day because hubby is going to Korea for a week.
• then I realized I will have these 2 cuties as my date...

Sorry sorry for giving you bullets of thoughts.. Have been a very lazy blogger lately... but I know it's just a phase we all go through... in time, I know I will be back. For sure :) Missing this blog so much...

Supplies: 

papers: Echo Park

die: Sizzix #655459

paint: Claudine Hellmuth

glossy accents: Ranger

scallop border stamp: American Crafts

others: mt tapes, metal accents, dew drops

hello and goodbye again :)

Hi! Currently having a time of my life at Bacolod, my hometown.  We will be spending Christmas eve with family here :):):) One more week ( i want some more!!!) then we will fly to Cebu where we will celebrate new year's eve with my in-laws. Truly grateful to God for blessing us with this vacation (lots of stories to share when I get back!) I definitely won't trade this for anything! :)

Here's for Made With Love, a layout I made before vacation started. A keepsake for my Miguel and his Filipina teacher at Gymboree. This old paper from Nikki Sivils is perfect for the photo... and how do you like that camera die from Sizzix? *wink* looooving it so much!

Goodbye for now... happy happy Christmas and a prosperous new year to all! :)

good times

Using Crate Paper's Neighborhood collection, I made this mini accordion album for a dear friend... will be sending this to Japan as my "thank you" gift for her.. she's not blogging and I don't think she checks my blog so I guess it's fine that I'm posting it now haha! Hope she likes it :)

... that green handmade envelope contains more photos we took while they were still here :) 

Thanks for looking! :)